US captures Venezuela's president, then unveils deal to refill reserves with his nation's oil.

As it ran on the front

Here's the sequence, laid out in the order the wire moved it, because order is the only thing that matters here. Venezuela's president gets photographed in a New York prison. He tells the camera he is 'standing firm.' From the same building, he flashes a peace sign for a second set of photos — confirmed as the first prison photos taken since the reported US capture in Caracas. Nobody at the briefing calls it a hostage situation. Nobody has to. Then, on a separate news cycle, the President of the United States announces that Venezuelan oil will replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A second outlet confirms it, calling it a 'deal' that will 'boost oil reserves.' A third outlet, further left on the dial, reads the same two facts back to back and calls it 'mobster language.' I am not going to improve on that phrase. I could not improve on that phrase if I had a month and a research staff.

Think about the order for a second, because the order is the entire argument. You do not announce the extraction plan before you have the asset. You get the asset, you get the mugshot, and then — only then — do you get the press release about supply. That is not a coincidence of timing. That is the timing. Two wire services ran the reserve story the same week the prison photos ran, and neither one connected the dots for you, because connecting the dots is not the job description over there. It is the job description over here.…