This morning’s essay is different.

There’s no roundup, no compartmentalizing the chaos into neat sections, no pretending this was just another foreign policy headline. What happened in Venezuela wasn’t an isolated strike, it was a line crossed, justified by a lie, and followed by an open declaration of occupation.

I start where Trump doesn’t want you to look: the Maduro indictment itself—and what it doesn’t contain. No fentanyl. No imminent threat. Just a false narrative used to normalize killing people at sea and escalate to bombing a capital city.

From there, we unpack the oil fantasy (spoiler: Venezuelan crude is a refining nightmare), the total absence of a plan for the chaos unleashed, and why this moment fits uncomfortably well with warnings about the Putinization of U.S. power. Along the way, I explain, briefly and humbly, why I never expected to be learning this much about crude oil in the first place, especially as a recent EV owner.

This isn’t expert posturing. It’s about tracing the lies, naming the risks, and being honest about what just broke, abroad and at home. And as a mother who has already sent a child to war, it’s about saying clearly: not again, and not for this.