Okay – people are now asking – if its not about the drugs – and its not about the oil – why the hell did we go into Venezuela?And Im going to give you a very niche, conceptual reason – thats just something Ive been thinking about all day.
Its very abstract – so buckle in. I know Im gonna lose most of you on understanding this – but thats okay – this essay is just for me.
Have you seen the series Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix?Its literally my favorite tv show of all time. Ive watched it at least 5 times and gotten something different from it every single time. It came out in 2021 and flew completely under the radar. Its a neon-soaked revenge horror story that starts with a very ordinary abuse of power.
Rosa Salazars character, Lisa Nova, is a young filmmaker in early-90s Hollywood trying to get her movie made. During a meeting, the producer who holds her future casually puts his hand on her thigh. She moves it away. Thats it. No speech. No scene. Just a woman asserting a basic boundary.
And that tiny act makes him feel small. He later confesses this.
What follows is a familiar pattern, turned feral. He steals her film, freezes her out of the industry, and rewrites history so he looks like the genius and she looks unstable. With no legal or professional recourse that actually works, Lisa turns to something older and darker: a witch, a curse, and a long, grotesque campaign of revenge.
The shows whole escalating body-horror saga grows out of that moment of her rejecting him. Not desire. Not seduction. Not sex. Ego injury. A man with power being told no, briefly, and deciding to burn everything down rather than accept it.
Thats the point. Strip away the magic realism, the kittens, the blood, and the hallucinations, and the engine of the story is painfully mundane. A boundary was set. A man couldnt tolerate it. So he retaliated, and the cost metastasized from professional sabotage into total annihilation.
If you watch it – youll see just how crazy things get. I promise you – its literally hilarious and jaw-dropping at the same time.
Back to Trump.
It is being reported that Maduros constant dancing reportedly pushed Trump to storm Caracas. Per the NYT:Trumps team reportedly grew so annoyed by Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduros public dancing that they took it as mockery and decided to act. After Maduro ignored a U.S. ultimatum and kept brushing off threats & literally dancing on state TV. The White House officials reportedly pushed ahead with military action, ultimately leading to Maduros capture. So yeah – Ive been thinking about that moment in Brand New Cherry Flavor when Lisa pushes a mans hand away, and then he decides to get revenge, and then she decides to get revenge back, and then everyone suffers because of it.
There was no rhyme or reason, really, just the need to not feel small.