There are moments in politics that make you stop, blink twice, and wonder if satire has finally lost the ability to keep up. This is one of those moments. When a progressive radio host literally kissed Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s feet -- yes, actually bent down and pressed lips...

A.F. Branco Cartoon – I.C.E. is under attack due to the left-wing media, such as MSNBC, fanning the flames with anti-I.C.E. rhetoric. Trump’s Night Before Christmas – Illustrated by A.F. Branco –  At Amazon BRANCO TOON STORE – 2026 Calendar, and other great gift ideas Criminal Illegal Alien From Mexico Arrested For Opening Fire on ICE Agents in Chicago By Cristina Laila – The Gateway Pundit – Nov 10, 2025 A suspect is in custody in connection with the targeted shooting in Chicago over the weekend. Border Patrol Agents this weekend conducted immigration enforcement operations in Chicago. The federal agents were shot at by an gunman driving a black Jeep in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday. Other anti-ICE agitators threw bricks and a paint can at federal agents. “Today, U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, when an unknown male driving a black Jeep fired shots at agents and fled the scene,” the DHS said on Saturday. “An unknown number of agitators also threw a paint can and bricks at Border Patrol’s vehicles. Chicago Police Department was called for assistance and cleared the scene,” the DHS said… READ MORE DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also, Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU! A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, Elon Musk, and President Trump.

The recent attempted shooting of Border Patrol agents in Chicago and the public warning to ICE by New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani are not isolated events. They signal something far more dangerous: the erosion of operational legitimacy for federal immigration enforcement inside the very cities where the rule of law should be most secure. As an Army veteran and former Border Patrol agent, I have seen the indicators of insurgency and state destabilization around the world. I never expected to see them unfold here, in our own communities, under our own flag. What’s happening now is not a series of policy disagreements. It is a systemic breakdown of enforcement authority, political clarity, and institutional courage. And at its core lies the question every Republic must eventually answer: are we still a sovereign people — capable not only of defending our borders, but of defending the meaning of citizenship itself? The Question Every Veteran Is Asking This Veterans Day, many of us are reflecting on what we fought for, and increasingly, we are asking the question: What was it all for? Across the West, veterans from Normandy to Fallujah are feeling the same pain. One British WWII veteran, Alec Penstone, broke down on camera when asked what Remembrance Sunday meant to him. I can see in my mind’s eye rows and rows of white stones — hundreds of my friends and everybody else who gave their lives. For what? A country of today? No, I’m sorry. Their sacrifice wasn’t worth the result of what it is now. What we fought for was our freedom, and it’s a darn-sight worse now than when I fought for it. That grief is not confined to Britain. It’s the recognition of a veteran’s intuition that something deeper is unraveling, not just the loss of order, but a whole-of-society assault aimed at eroding the very freedoms we fought for: life, liberty, and property.  Because at the heart of every service member is one thing above all: home. Even when deployed abroad, our thoughts drift back to the people and principles we left behind. When we hang up the uniform, we hope the fight was worth it. We hope the home we return to still resembles the one we fought for. Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images The War Has Come Home Today, we see familiar signs of foreign wars on our own streets: the normalization of political violence, the collapse of enforcement authority, the ideological capture of civil institutions, and the strategic demoralization of those still willing to stand post. These are no longer foreign indicators, but domestic realities.  What we are seeing in the streets of Chicago and New York is not random violence; it is the very thing we swore an oath to protect against. It is insurgent in nature, symbolic in purpose, and deeply strategic in effect.  When Border Patrol agents are ambushed in an American city, it is not merely a crime; it is an assault on the institution charged with upholding the boundary of American citizenship. Citizenship is more than paperwork. It is the covenant that binds a people; the shared rights, duties, and the consent to govern ourselves together. Without it, sovereignty is an empty word.  And yet, in Chicago, ICE and Border Patrol, the frontline forces tasked with enforcing the lawful boundaries of citizenship, came under literal fire. When those who defend the meaning of citizenship are attacked, political independence itself lies wounded. Sovereignty survives only if citizenship is defined and defended. That is the first duty of a free government. Every threat the Republic faces today — cartel proxies like the Latin Kings, lawfare against enforcement, the erosion of border integrity, and the politicization of compassion — tests whether we still understand what it means to be a self-governing people. When the institutions meant to uphold the rule of law are politically dismantled or physically overwhelmed, the promise of citizenship becomes a dead letter, and the Republic begins to die from within. Federal Immigration Enforcement Now Operates in Contested Space Border Patrol agents were once primarily deployed to defined border zones with clear mission parameters. But over the last few months, enforcement responsibilities have expanded into the urban interior. In these environments, agents no longer operate under presumed legitimacy or unified command. Instead, they enter contested space where local political actors, extreme left advocacy networks, and even elements of civil governance view their presence as unlawful or illegitimate. The Chicago shooting confirmed what many of us already knew: federal agents are being sent into environments that are not only tactically exposed but politically opposed to their mission. This is no longer conventional law enforcement. It increasingly mirrors the asymmetry we once confronted abroad: constrained by policy, vulnerable to political interference, and dependent on interagency cooperation that may no longer exist. Scott Olson/Getty Images Narrative Inversion Is Undermining Enforcement Legitimacy We’ve reached a point where the narrative surrounding immigration enforcement has been fully inverted. Those upholding the law are portrayed as tyrants, aggressors, and racists, while those obstructing it are framed as defenders of freedom and justice. This inversion did not happen by accident. It is the product of deliberate political messaging, selective prosecution, legal interference, and media framing that blurred the line between lawful enforcement and oppression. The operational consequence is uncertainty and paralysis. In cities like New York and Chicago, agents now operate under the assumption that any use of force, no matter how lawful or proportionate, may trigger political condemnation or legal retaliation. That has a chilling effect on enforcement and a corrosive effect on morale. Meanwhile, the message to the Mexican cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and domestic terrorists is clear: the political environment is ripe for disruption. They don’t need to defeat enforcement with bullets; they can do it with narrative manipulation and lawfare. The front line has shifted from the Rio Grande to the American metropolis. Chicago is a warning. If our leaders allow political clarity to erode or fail to defend the institutional legitimacy of immigration enforcement, then these same dynamics will spread, just as cartel and trafficking patterns have migrated elsewhere in response to enforcement pressure. We must restore political clarity, invest in interoperable command and legal infrastructure, and defend the moral legitimacy of enforcement itself. Immigration enforcement is not cruel, and it is not optional. It is a sovereign function of a free state. If the federal government cannot enforce its own laws or protect those who do, then the border is no longer the boundary. The boundary becomes wherever authority collapses. Veterans Know What This Is — And We Know What Must Be Done This Veterans Day, we must say the quiet part out loud: the war we fought abroad has come home. The difference is that we no longer call it war. We call it politics. We call it protest. We call it compassion. But we know the truth. We were trained to recognize insurgency, subversion, and the collapse of legitimate authority. We were trained to defend boundaries, not just lines on a map, but the moral and legal foundations of a free nation. That fight is now ours again. The most important function of government is to secure the rights, responsibilities, and freedoms of its citizens. Because if we cannot define who a citizen is, then we are no longer a Republic. We are something else: fragile, and far more dangerous. This Veterans Day, we do not mourn what we lost. We rally to defend what remains. * * * Ammon Blair is a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He is a 22-year U.S. Army veteran and former U.S. Border Patrol Agent. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rosé is one of those rare artists whose voice can pierce straight through the noise of modern pop music and leave you breathless. Born Roseanne Park on February 11, 1997, in Auckland, New Zealand, she grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where her love for music began at a young age. She played piano and guitar and sang in her church choir long before she ever dreamed of becoming an international superstar. In 2012, when YG Entertainment held global auditions in Sydney, her father encouraged her to try out. Out of seven hundred contestants, Rosé placed first. Within two months, she The post Complete List Of Rosé Songs From A to Z appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Tremonti was founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Tremonti, best known for his work with Creed and Alter Bridge. The project began in 2011 when Tremonti decided to explore a heavier, more aggressive sound that differed from his previous bands. Based in Orlando, Florida, Tremonti formed the group with drummer Garrett Whitlock and bassist Brian Marshall, both of whom had worked with him in Alter Bridge. Guitarist Eric Friedman, who had previously toured with Creed, joined shortly thereafter, completing the original lineup. From the start, Tremonti’s goal was to create music that combined technical precision with emotional intensity, allowing him The post Complete List Of Tremonti Songs From A to Z appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

On Veterans Day, Americans celebrate the valor of members of the United States armed services, but did you know that 31 of the 45 men who have served as president of the United States served in the military beforehand? Here are five presidents who served on the battlefield before the White House. Harry Truman Before President Harry Truman presided over the Allied victory in World War II, he fought in the World War I as an artillery captain. Truman saw extensive combat against the German military in France. I “fired 500 rounds at the Germans at my command, been shelled, didn’t run away thank the Lord and never lost a man,” Truman wrote his future wife Bess Wallace in September 1918 of a run-in with German forces in France.  “My greatest satisfaction is that my legs didn’t succeed in carrying me away although they were very anxious to do it … please don’t worry about me because no German shell is made that can hit me. One exploded in 15 feet of me and I didn’t get a scratch so you can see I have them beat there,” Truman’s letter continued. The Missourian was almost 33 years old when he joined the Army in 1917. George H.W. Bush President George H.W. Bush is the last president to have served in World War II, where he also saw extensive combat in the skies above the Pacific Ocean. A blue-blooded New Englander, Bush served as Navy pilot in the Pacific theater, where he bombed Japanese forces. In 1944, he was one of nine American airmen to escape their planes after being shot down during an attack on the island of Chichi Jima. Bush, stranded on a life raft for hours, was the only survivor of the group. He was rescued by a United States submarine. The moment was caught on film and became an iconic symbol of his political career.  Theodore Roosevelt From April 1897 to May 1898, Theodore Roosevelt helped prepare the Navy for war with Spain as assistant secretary of the Navy. But he resigned that post to become a colonel in the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, known as the “Rough Riders.” “Easterners and Westerners, Northerners and Southerners, officers and men, cow-boys and college graduates, wherever they came from, and whatever their social position—possessed in common the traits of hardihood and a thirst for adventure,” Roosevelt later wrote of the Rough Riders.  Theodore Roosevelt on horseback with the Rough Riders. (Bettman/Getty Images) Roosevelt played an active role in Cuba, fighting on horseback at the Battle of San Juan Hill. “I sent messenger after messenger to try to find General Sumner or General Wood and get permission to advance, and was just about making up my mind that in the absence of orders I had better ‘march toward the guns,’ when Lieutenant Colonel Dorst came riding up through the storm of bullets with the welcome command ‘to move forward and support the regulars in the assault on the hills in front,” Roosevelt wrote of his charge on San Juan Hill. “I feel that I have done something which enables me to leave a name to [the] children of which they can be rightly proud,” Roosevelt later said of his service.  His military service was part of a storied career in which he served as a New York state assemblyman, New York City police commissioner, governor of New York, vice president, and president. Zachary Taylor Before becoming president, Zachary Taylor, a member of an aristocratic Virginian family that moved to Kentucky, had a multidecade military career in which he fought in multiple conflicts. Over Taylor’s decades in the military, the belligerents he faced varied from the British to Black Hawk’s warriors. As a captain in the War of 1812, he defended Fort Harrison in modern-day Terre Haute, Indiana, from a siege from Tecumseh, a Shawnee chieftain allied with the British. He later fought against Chief Black Hawk as a colonel in the Black Hawk War. In 1837, he battled hundreds of Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee in Florida. In the Mexican-American War, he commanded the Army of Occupation, leading his troops to victories in multiple battles. William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison died after just 31 days as president, making his presidency the shortest in American history, but his military career was long. During Tecumseh’s War, Harrison, as governor of the Indiana territory, took on the Tecumseh Confederacy, an alliance of tribes led by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother “the prophet” Tenskwatawa. He defeated the Indian forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe in November 1811 after they launched a surprise attack, and then he proceeded to destroy Prophetstown, the Confederacy’s base of operations. Harrison would soon thereafter fight in the War of 1812, defeating the British and Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario, Canada, in October 1813, where Tecumseh was killed, bringing an end to the Tecumseh Confederacy. The post 5 Veteran Presidents Who Fought on the Battlefield appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Spotted lanternflies lose their superpower without the tree of heaven.

The Age of Quiet Surveillance It used to take a badge and a warrant to track someone. Today it only takes a smartphone, a database, or a “smart” gadget on your kitchen counter. Step outside, and cameras record you. Drive through town, and license plate scanners log your route. Sit at home, and your TV, […]

I have been church-hopping since the summer of 2020. This means that a lot of “concerned evangelicals” have felt justified in asking, “What are you searching for?”That first summer, I claimed to be searching for holy ground. However, I already knew that this was wherever a saint steps — wherever God speaks to us and we listen in prayer.We had spent a wonderful evening with an elderly Latter-day Saints couple who found us hitchhiking, then brought us home to 'show us some literature.'I have never been searching for anything as much as I have been interested to see what it is that others claim to have found. It thrills me to see that it is all pretty much the same, in minor degrees. Some pastors are more boring than others. Everyone makes claims about the “other” churches in town. Everyone has their rituals, their deeds, the words that are not works. And very few are curious about the others.“Seek and ye shall find,” they murmur among themselves in the territory of their home church, patting one another on the back because they somehow found truth without seeking it. Why aren’t the others seeking it? They’d be here among them if they sought — if they loved the truth as they loved the Bible.Not all. Only the majority. Maybe not even that many — only a few loud ones.I, too, among them, also vocal, a little charismatic, a little opinionated, forgetting what it means to seek before you find.The world is not our homeNow I have dragged my husband in on the game of flirting with the appearance of universalism. And yet we are no more universalist than Paul or St. Francis of Assisi or C.S. Lewis. We are curious, alive, and nonplussed by the promissory comforts of the world. This world is not our home, and neither is a single building.And yet, if you seek, ye shall find. It matters not that my intentions were no different from those of an atheist — to attend, to observe, to write. I am relating to the woman at the front of the church who is not Catholic but is hired to sign the sermon and songs for the deaf attendees, thus hearing every word of the priest and chorus more thoroughly than any of the parishioners and finding that her job has morphed into a spiritual awakening.I am finding community, kindred spirits, truth outside my understanding of it, and a narrow path. I am becoming less curious as a larger passion consumes my heart and soul.We intended to attend Mass while on our honeymoon — something difficult to do when you have no agency over where you will be day to day, as hitchhikers reliant upon the goodwill of strangers and public transit. We joked about putting up a cardboard sign, our thumbs in the air, “TAKE US TO CHURCH.” Maybe someday.Instead we went where we could.RELATED: The USA Rail Pass: Across America by train A.M. HickmanA church for widowsThe first place was an Anglican church in Newfoundland that seemed to be run by little old ladies — 30 of them, to be precise, scattered in the pews, in the choir, and at the altar. There were only five men, all of them seated. This did not bode well, we thought.But it was truly a church for widows, a church that was doing its very best to remain active, putting on plays and picnics even though there were no young people or children. The Spirit was there with those little old ladies. It was comforting them, pushing them forward even though they had lost much. It was reminding them of all that awaited them in paradise. And they were ready.They gave us cookies and greeted us with forgetful, motherly smiles, as if we were not mere strangers but apparitions of heavenly promises. We were their reminder to keep hoping, and they were our nudge toward charity. We sat, we witnessed, and we listened.Seventh-day supperAfter that we found different Catholic churches to pray in, which somehow always seemed to be far away when Sunday came around. There was a large one — a shrine — on the border of Quebec, Labrador, and Newfoundland, then another a little farther into Quebec, in an Inuit village. This one hearkened to the traditions of these people, too. How beautiful, I remember thinking, the way the Church uses each people's specific culture and history to express the truth.Then we walked by a window that sported “Seventh-day Adventist” in a French-Canadian Maine town. It was a Thursday, and we had already determined to stay in town for a French-Acadian Mass on Sunday.“Let’s go there,” I told my husband. “It might be a little frustrating, but it’ll be a good experience for you.”He agreed, and so we brought ourselves and our backpacks there Saturday morning. The church was new — it looked more like a Main Street business because of its location and the large windows. There were only six or so people inside.“Can we join you all?” I asked. “No, I am not Seventh-day Adventist, but I’ve attended many services because my family keeps Sabbath on Saturday.”We put our bags in front of a pile of unopened boxes of "The Great Controversy," and they handed us a booklet on Romans and two pens. The room was ugly, like a warehouse, except for the lace curtains in the windows.For the next two hours, we “studied the Bible,” mostly discussing how wonderful Jesus is and what it means to pray — how often we should pray and what makes prayer sincere — and how all Protestant churches are basically Catholic because they acknowledge the authority of Rome and the pope to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.The church service was bland, hard to follow. I tatted a lace bookmark to try to keep awake. The speaker was likeable, but he droned on about a Bible story, not really recounting it accurately. I don’t think that was the point of his speaking, though — they were simply allowing him a moment to speak, because he was a man and the church had few members and needed participation from everyone in order to keep the spirit alive.They did not give us cookies, but something better — a meal of various bean and rice dishes. There was fresh homemade hummus, too.Nine out of TenAs we ate, everyone continued to ramble on about how awful it was that other churches didn’t care to follow all of the Ten Commandments.“Evangelicals want the Ten Commandments in schools, and yet they do not want them in their churches.”“If children came home from school and refused to do their homework on Saturday, most Christian parents would not be happy.”“There’s a church in town that has the Ten Commandments hanging on the outside of their building,” the pastor began.So I talked to them about it and asked them why they don’t care about the fourth commandment. Oh, boy! The pastor said he’d get back to me, and let me tell you, oh boy, oh boy, that he finally decided that he could piecemeal a bunch of verses today and how he thinks he can prove that Jesus wants us to keep all the commandments now except that one.That night the pastor let us stay in his house, and as he showed us all his proof for Saturday Sabbath and how the Catholic Church has duped nearly all mainstream churches, Andy finally confessed, “I am a Roman Catholic, and I believe the Church had the authority to change the Sabbath to distinguish us from the Jewish faith.”The man started. Then he said, “Well, I think Jesus will save Catholics, too, even though they are only keeping nine of 10 of God’s commandments. But they will be judged for disregarding the Sabbath Day.”We were friends now.Answered prayersIn the middle of Maine, we attended one other church. All the days leading up to it were edifying. We had spent a wonderful evening with an elderly Latter-day Saints couple who found us hitchhiking, then brought us home to “show us some literature.” It was not the "Book of Mormon." They handed us a glass of orange juice and a box of raisins and played old 1960s and 1970s love songs for us, then told us their love story — of how they had a temple wedding in Switzerland; of their 14 children, 88 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren.After we played a game of cards, they brought us to our destination, where we stayed with a Quaker-esque hippie Christian family. This family brought us to their church the next day.It was as if God was answering our longing for Mass. Although the church was small and non-denominational, it felt how an early church might feel or how a Catholic service might feel if it were in someone’s home. They prayed and sang some of the songs you’d hear in a Catholic church, along with songs from an Assemblies of God or Baptist-type non-denominational church. They said the Apostles’ Creed together and took communion as a Catholic church does, with everyone coming up front and receiving it in long lines from the pastor.The sermon was sound — like a homily — and did not feel as scattered with pieces of scripture as many non-denominational church services are. We were spellbound. If it weren’t for how modern everyone seemed to be dressed, I would have thought we had been transported to an era before the Reformation.Shared rootsAfter it was over, I asked the pastor if their church had any Catholic influence.He laughed and said no, that if there were ex-Catholic members, they would probably oppose these traditional Orthodox inclusions. No, these were things he had included because from his studies and experiences, he had come to believe that there was a lot that Protestantism lost when it spurned tradition and ritualism, and he was slowly trying to incorporate it back into church. “It’s in our roots, too.”I talked to his wife and told her about my Living Room Academy (she had heard of it) and how it was partially inspired by my travels in woke circles when I realized that many lesbians and liberal women were doing a better job of being women and passing on beauty and skills than Christian women. Her eyes opened wide. “You’re right.” I’ve heard that since we left, she has decided to open her own iteration of the Living Room Academy for the girls in their church.What I loved about their church was that they didn’t seem to be stuck in their bubble. Their church wasn’t really their “home” as much as it was them trying to find out what home means by looking to the past and looking to paradise. They seem to be doing a very good job at making it work — their church was filled with children, happy-looking teenagers, and a diversity of fashion from very beautiful dresses to jeans with frilly purses. There seemed to be room for expression of faith.Coming homeAfter that we finally made it to a Mass in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. And I must admit, it kind of felt like coming home.I hadn’t realized how much I had come to love attending Catholic churches with my husband. There are still many questions I have had to sort through about the Church and whether or not I can in good conscience submit myself to its authority. However, being there, surrounded by the beauty of the type that God requested when He detailed the temple He wanted from the Jews, feels like being at home … in paradise.Everything else feels so earth-like, so business-minded and corporate and mechanical. Even though the “music” of mainstream churches claims to have more life in the show, there’s nothing quite like the chorus in a cathedral. And while you might get a good sermon in a Protestant church, you’re not going to hear near as much scripture read as is read at Mass. Most Protestants would complain if they had to sit through half of what is read — they want a Bible verse that corroborates a sermon. Meanwhile, you might get about 15 minutes of rich preaching at a Mass — the rest is pure scripture.It’s almost a hobby now — I will certainly never stop church-hopping, comparing and pondering. I want our children to have these experiences. So many wonderful conversations have sprung up between my husband and me because of these visits, and we are finding ourselves growing more spiritually aligned because of it.And so I will continue to exhort anyone of any faith: Visit the churches around you, no matter their denomination. Every church has something to offer you and will give you an opportunity to practice humility and charity.Editor's note: A version of this essay earlier appeared on the Polite Company Substack.