Indomitable Willpower

Rogue Stone Age Thugs, Election Legitimacy, ICE bandits, and Guanyin Bodhisattva

Petra Franklin

Jan 10, 2026

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Engage the Threat

Minnesota - Winter 2026

I had been asking myself how crime and punishment are handled in well-governed countries. How a nation’s healthcare, education, and arts, are protected, or degraded, by policy. When, suddenly, like nearly everyone else, my attention was yanked violently into the present by the senseless loss of Renee Good.

She was a mother of three, returning home after dropping her youngest son off at school, when she was shot and killed by an ICE agent. We have seen the videos.

“Once again, the president and his lackeys are asking Americans not to believe what they see with their own eyes,” said Dan Rather.

Watching this administration spin propaganda in real time, Noem, Levitt, and Vance flooding social media around the clock with unsubstantiated claims. Their objective is escalation. They want us angry, reactive, off balance. They want us to take the bait. They want an excuse to bring in their troops.

Last month, Kristi Noem issued a directive to her ICE workforce known internally as the “Total Authorization-Self Defense Clause.” It read:

“Effective immediately, all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel are granted total authorization to utilize aggressive defensive measures when encountering resistance. The era of retreat is over. You are hereby instructed to defend your position, your team, and your mission aggressively. If you are obstructed, threatened, or surrounded, you are not to withdraw. You are to stand your ground, engage the threat, and neutralize any impediment to the faithful execution of federal law. If you are attacked, you have the full backing of this department to do what is necessary to protect the public and yourselves.”

One day later, ICE fired into a car in Portland, Oregon, injuring two people. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson noted yesterday how closely these incidents echo the discredited narrative from an ICE agent in his city who shot Marimar Martinez five times. “A woman in a car, agents claiming they were surrounded or pinned, and the vehicle itself recast as a weapon to justify lethal force.”

We need to keep taking videos.

Lit Up the Skies

Caracas, Venezuela - Winter 2026

Just days before the shooting, we witnessed our government go rogue, and watched as the rest of the world struggled to comprehend the lawlessness of the Trump regime.

Explosions lit up the skies above Caracas, tearing through parts of the city, while Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were snatched from their bed, cuffed and shackled, and shipped to a Brooklyn Detention Center.

Within hours, President Donald Trump appeared across news channels, boasting that his administration will now “run Venezuela” indefinitely, including its vast oil reserves. He framed the assault as reclaiming “stolen U.S. oil.”

Over the past few months, we watched covert violence at sea, boats incinerating, and at least 115 men no longer with us. And now, official figures out of Venezuela report more than one hundred people were killed in the strikes that accompanied the capture.

Before we can grapple with what this moment demands of us, before we confront the reality that together, we may need to halt this administration well ahead the midterm elections, I need to take you to back in time to Panama City in 1989.

Maximum Leader was Noreiga’s Preferred Title

Panama City, Panama - 1989

For decades, General Manuel Noriega was the architect behind a succession of puppet presidents, but he was also a valuable CIA informant, a drug kingpin, and the head of Panama’s military.

Worried about what Noriega’s military might do, the former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, along with other international figures, flew in to be observers during the 1989 Panama election. They confirmed that Guillermo Endara had won by a wide margin. And then they and the world watched, as, once again, Noriega annulled the results and publicly had Endara beaten in the streets.

Eleven Months In

Washington DC / Panama City - 1989

We had already attempted a coup or two to take out this infamous Noriega and they were costly failures. Then, out of the blue, Noriega’s thuggish soldiers, shot and killed Lt Robert Paz, an unarmed U.S. marine. The Panama military denied that it was unprovoked. But another marine and his wife witnessed the whole thing. They, too, were attacked. He was beaten while his wife was fondled, slammed against a wall, and threatened with rape. When the American public learned of these details, they were furious. President Bush would likely have had overwhelming congressional support to move against Noriega. But, like Trump decades later, he did not ask for permission. Instead, Congress was informed only hours before the operation began.

We deployed 26,000 troops to Panama on Dec 20, 1989. As with the earlier invasion attempts, “Operation Just Cause” resulted in devastating casualties. Six hundred Panamanians and Twenty-three U.S. soldiers were killed and hundreds on both sides were wounded. Historian Mark Hertsgaard, made the comparison that the United States had killed as many people in Panama, “as did the Chinese government in its notorious attack on student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing just six months earlier.”

When Songs and Stories Became a Weapon

Vatican Embassy, Panama City — Christmas 1989

One, particularly surreal, bordering on farce, military episode from the Panama invasion, stayed with me.

General Noriega had eluded capture for four days. Then, on Christmas Eve, he was discovered to be hiding in the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican’s Embassy.

While paratroopers from the 82^nd Airborne dropped from helicopters to secure the airport and the 7^th Infantry noisily surrounded the city on foot, a small team of twenty soldiers surrounded the embassy with four Humvees. They were the Psychological Group from North Carolina, and they were carrying out Operation Nifty Package.

Their assignment was a real head banger, as it involved blasting popular music at deafening levels, because, and I kid you not, they knew Noriega hated rock music.

As cranked-up Van Halen ricocheted off the asphalt and embassy walls, the general descended into what witnesses described as “caged tiger” madness. Wearing only a white undershirt and shorts, he stared at a broken television, a dusty Bible, and paced relentlessly, terrified that American soldiers would storm the building and kill him.

Inside, Monsignor José Sebastián Laboa, the shrewd Vatican ambassador, took his diplomatic role seriously. He invited Noriega to attend Mass where he could use his religious homilies as a cover to quietly manipulate him.

Amid sermons about the “good thief,” Laboa wove in a fabricated story: the Vatican had called, he said, and ordered him to de-sanctify the building and relocate the entire embassy staff down the street to an old church.

The implication was devastating. Noriega would no longer be on diplomatic soil, clearing the way for U.S. troops to storm the building and seize him.

Already isolated, Noriega unraveled further when four of his aides relayed to him that his wife and children had fled to the Cuban embassy, and the United States had agreed to let them fly into exile in the Dominican Republic. Would he ever see them again?

Outside, DJ-ing from a tank on Avenida Balboa, the Psy Ops team paused after blasting “I Fought the Law” by The Clash, to escalate the psychological pressure with fake news announcements: Noriega’s troops had surrendered; The U.S. military had seized his funds. Inside, Monsignor Laboa continued his quiet mind games.

After eleven days of deception and sonic assault, the dictator finally capitulated. He put on his tan uniform with its four stars, clutched the Bible from his room, and requested that Laboa walk out with him.

They both probably had their hands over their ears as they walked out into the sweltering sun.

Noriega was quickly cuffed and shackled and the hustled to a black hawk helicopter, where it is said, he broke into sobs. He was flown to Miami where he was convicted of eight felony counts (drug trafficking, racketeering, money laundering) and sentenced to 40 years.

Counting Felonies Without Consequence

United States – 2016 - 2026

Our President, Donald Trump, has been found guilty by juries of his peers not of eight felonies, but of thirty-four. In addition, he has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse. Beyond those convictions, he has thus far escaped impeachment or criminal accountability for a cascade of alleged illegal conduct over the past year: blatant conflicts of interest tied to cryptocurrency ventures; egregious acts of bribery; the destruction of historic public property; the unlawful withholding of congressionally appropriated funds; ordering the seizure of people from U.S. streets without due process and their placement in inhumane detention facilities; and, most recently, the refusal to consult Congress “in every possible instance” before introducing U.S. combatants into hostilities, as required by the Constitution. Did I forget anything?

If he were to stand trial for the 44 felony indictments brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, relating to the death and destruction on Jan 6^th and the unlawful retention of highly classified materials related to nuclear programs, military attack plans, and U.S. intelligence assets, how many felonies would that total?

By contrast, General Manuel Noriega served time in three countries before dying at age eighty-three in a Panama prison hospital during a brain tumor surgery.

How the Exception Became the Rule

Washington, D.C. – 2026

I bring up Bush’s Panama invasion because legal scholars now point to it as the moment there was a major shift in congressional power. It was the event that normalized the idea that a United States President could launch a full-scale invasion of a foreign country, pursue regime change, and do so without a congressional declaration of war.

Illegal Justice

Brooklyn, New York - 2026

Still in handcuffs, leg shackles, and wearing orange flipflops, President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, walked into their arraignment. They donned headphones to hear the interpreter. Flores had visible bandages on her head and her attorney said that she may have suffered broken ribs during her capture. Both pleaded not guilty to charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapons offenses. Maduro declared that he is “innocent,” a “prisoner of war,” and that he is president of Venezuela. With that, the gallery erupted because, over the thirteen years Maduro has ruled, he has never legitimately won an election. Someone shouted out, “You will pay in the name of Venezuela.”

What this Administration Did is Not Unusual

Washington, D.C. - 2026

Under the Constitution, only Congress can take the nation to war. The president commands the military, but Alexander Hamilton made it clear in 1788 that the executive does not decide when the country enters hostilities. The War Powers Resolution codifies this principle, requiring the president to consult Congress “in every possible instance” before U.S. forces are introduced into hostilities. Even the Gang of Eight, the bipartisan leadership of Congress and the intelligence committees, was not consulted. The administration claims “operational security” made that impossible, but as you can see, there is no exemption in the law.

The Constitution intends real consultation and a vote, not a notification after the fact.

The erosion of this norm is bipartisan. President George H.W. Bush, did not obtain congressional authorization before invading Panama, though he did, after the fact, cite Article II powers and the need to protect American lives (the killed Marine). Bush also ordered troops into Somalia without a vote. President Clinton bypassed Congress in Haiti in 1994 and Kosovo in 1999. In 2011, Obama toppled Gaddafi in Libya without authorization. And Trump, in his first term, ordered missile strikes against Assad in Syria in 2017 & 2018 without congressional approval.

There is one narrow exception: a national emergency created by an attack on the United States. Venezuela did not attack us. We were the aggressor. The military buildup unfolded over months. Administration officials repeatedly testified to Congress that there was no intention to invade, testimony that turned out to be knowingly false.

Rebranding explosions at sea as “law enforcement actions” rather than “military actions” does not save this constitutionally. It traps it. If this is law enforcement, then the use of lethal force without due process is murder. If it is military action, it was unconstitutional. Either way, it cannot be justified.

The price tag alone exposes the fiction. This so-called “police action” involved 150 aircraft, hundreds of personnel, aerial tankers, aircraft carriers, and millions of dollars in munitions expended in a single night.

The World is Grappling with Us

Global - 2026

Chile’s Gabriel Boric called the invasion a violation of an “essential pillar of international law,” while Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned the raid set “an extremely dangerous precedent.” Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum said it “jeopardizes regional stability,” and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro called for “international action,” describing the capture as “an assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America.

President Trump has previously punished and threatened all four of these leaders. Meanwhile, he has pardoned former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, a man sentenced to 45 years in U.S. federal prison for trafficking more than four hundred tons of cocaine into the United States. This pardon makes it blatantly clear that Trump is not waging a war on drugs; he is waging a war on those he perceives to be his enemies. He also propped up Argentina’s Javier Milei with $20 billion dollars of taxpayer money for his cronies.

Elsewhere on the globe, the invasion created strange bedfellows. Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran found themselves in agreement with France, Spain, the EU, Sweden, and South Africa. Across ideological lines, they condemned the action as a violation of international law, insisting that a foreign leader’s internal crimes do not justify external invasion. To that, Trump recently responded that he doesn’t need international permission, and that there is only one thing that could hold him back: “My own morality. My own mind.” He explained to team from the New York Times in the Oval Office, “It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

Taken together, these reactions point to something even more alarming: this administration is not hiding its international threats and violations. It is daring someone, anyone, to hold it accountable.

So who isn’t speaking up? Us. Congress has the dial barely above mute. And even if they do call out the crime, they lack the tools to hold anyone accountable.

“Liberating A Country,” “Restoring Order,” And “Spreading Democracy”

Unted States – 1989 to Present

I grew up with the Nixon cover-up and the Iran-Contra scandal, and this past week summoned those chapters of our government back into view. What defined those years was not only the covert operations, but the doublespeak surrounding them. If the administration was secretly enriching cronies, they were publicly “liberating” nations or “restoring” democracy. Even the invasion of Iraq was framed as a moral obligation, never a material one.

In his address to the nation after the Panama invasion, President Bush said, “My fellow citizens, last night I ordered U.S. military forces to Panama. No President takes such action lightly.” He then meticulously checked the boxes of democratic justification: safeguarding American lives, defending democracy, combating drug trafficking, and protecting the Canal treaties. He framed the operation as a last resort after “many diplomatic efforts had failed.”

Trump has abandoned this pretense entirely. “We’re going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time we’re going to keep the oil,” he declared. There is no euphemism, no doctrine, no democratic fig leaf. The greed has no clothes.

Threats are issued casually, by Trump himself and by his White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She spins yarns, often contradicting herself, but she rarely bothers to couch anything in democratic doublespeak. Regarding the administration’s sudden interest in purchasing a Danish territory, she said, “Greenland is a national security priority of the United States… The President and his team are discussing a range of options... and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option.”

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, amplifies this rhetoric into something more sinister. On CNN, he stated bluntly: “Nobody is going to fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland.” He continued, “We live in a world… that is governed by force, that is governed by power… These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

Iron Laws

United States – 2026

Miller is resurrecting the bone-chilling chapters of 1930s Social Darwinism. He mirrors a phrase used by Adolf Hitler, the “Iron Laws of Nature,” to argue that mercy is a delusion and domination is the natural order. He is also pulling directly from the “Blood and Iron” doctrine of Otto von Bismarck, the belief that history is not determined by votes or speeches, but by raw military force.

While Miller preaches the primacy of coercion, the people of Venezuela show us the indomitable power of the human will.

We know what it looks like when a leader claims an election was “stolen” without a shred of evidence. Trump lost sixty-three court cases in 2020 because his fraud claims were a fantasy. But in Venezuela, the script was flipped. The dictator we now have in a Brooklyn Prison, claimed victory, but the people, with mathematical precision, found a way to prove to the world that he was lying.

Uploading Warm Tallys with Maria Corina Machado

Venezuela - July 28^th, 2024

Motorcycle couriers revved their engines outside polling stations across Venezuela on election day. It was July 28, 2024, and they were the distribution nodes of a civic plan to legitimize the vote.

At one polling station, an enormous crowd blocked the exit and refused to budge, trapping the soldiers inside. Night fell. Hours passed. Finally, a soldier relented. He printed the official tally, complete with its verifiable QR code, and passed it through a window into the mob. It was photographed, then passed hand to hand, and finally delivered to a motorizado courier, who photographed it again. Just in case. Then he sped off, waving the still-warm tally paper above his head.

This was happening all over the country.

The Guardian reported that at one urban polling station, a lone volunteer observer requested a copy of the tally, as was his legal right. The soldier refused, dragged him into a bathroom, and locked the door. Hours later, in the dark, after the station had emptied, the soldier unbolted the door and allowed him to walk free. Moments later on the street, an unknown election official sidled up to him and pressed something into his hand whispering, “Take this. Don’t tell.”

It was an official copy of that polls votes. He photographed it and immediately uploaded it to Resultados VZLA where the world began to watch as the results poured in. Screens glowed in back rooms as tallies arrived one by one. A human relay network, distributed, redundant, and unstoppable, assembled a shadow archive of the election in real time.

They were called the Comanditos: small, local opposition cells, 600,000 volunteers strong.

When 83.5% of the tallies were compiled, it was announced globally that 67% of the vote had gone to Edmundo González Urrutia. 7.4 million to 3.3 million votes. The Associated Press, The Washington Post, and The Carter Center, the only groups Maduro allowed to observe, and they verified that the margin of victory was so large that even if every single remaining vote (the missing 16.5%) had gone to Maduro, he still would have lost.

Nobel prize recipient, María Corina Machado, barred by the regime from running herself, devoted what would have been her campaign, to education and empowerment. She organized election law trainings, and observation techniques to ensure mutual protection. In America, we will likely need to do the same this November. Like Maria, we will not only teach people how to vote, but we will need to explain why they must vote, and then we will need to help them safeguard one another while doing so.

Tragically, in Venezuela, the “Iron Laws” struck back. Maduro refused to leave. He launched a campaign of terror, arresting over 1,200 of the brave volunteers who had secured and uploaded the tallies. Locals described the night raids as “akin to kidnappings.”

Today, Edmundo González, the man who won the election, lives in exile in Spain. But this week, his name has been resurfacing in the international press as the only figure with a legitimate, democratic claim to the Venezuelan presidency.

Stone Age

Seattle, WA - 2026

In confronting the cruelty of these men, I have an image in my head of an opera stage. The giant red velvet curtains, are closed, except for a narrow slit through which a parade of primitive, brutal figures with an infantile hunger for fealty, step forward. They march out of the Stone Age and into our time: Putin, Chávez, Noriega, Maduro, Netanyahu, Trump. These are strongmen who rule through fear, patronage, and force. They do not so much govern as occupy.

Watching them, one has to wonder: do they share a pathology? And why does history keep offering us the same lesson, only to require us to relearn it again and again at such an extraordinary cost to humanity?

Yesterday, I visited the stellar exhibit at the Asian Art Museum with my eldest daughter. In the first room stands a Guanyin Bodhisattva from China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907). The placard under the bronze figure explains that Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who choose to forgo nirvana, the release from the cycle of death and rebirth, until all sentient beings have attained it.

Guanyin is the embodiment of mercy and compassion. One who pauses their own salvation to answer prayers for protection against calamity and suffering.

Standing there, I had this thought. We can follow men who step through the curtain to seize and dominate. Or we can look for, and be like, those who listen and help, until no one is left behind.

This article is dedicated to all the ICE detainees and victims.

Three out of four people held in ICE detention have no criminal convictions, they are far from the “worst of the worst.”

We must remind ourselves to respond carefully. We know that ICE and their very large $28 billion annual budget, has been ordered to play the role of provocateur. Kristi Noem’s December directive is an escalation. They are hiring thugs for a reason. Their mission is to get us to give them an excuse to aims their guns at us. It is not easy, but please stay calm, stay alive, and as Dan Rather says, “Stay steady.”

Thank you for reading. And thank you for coming back.

ENDNOTES

Panama / Noriega (1989)

https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-States-invasion-of-Panama

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/panama-invasion-venezuela/

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/invasion-of-panama/

https://history.army.mil/Research/Reference-Topics/Army-Campaigns/Brief-Summaries/Armed-Forces-Expeditions/Panama/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/808/791/1478382/

Operation Nifty Package - The Noriega Playlist

Trump: Criminal Exposure & Legal Challenges

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/trumps-91-criminal-charges-and-where-they-stand/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/09/trump-charges-classified-documents/