The Shield of the Americas and the Battle
for the Hemisphere
Posted By: Mercedes44, 3/18/2026 7:55:36 PM
History does not always announce its turning points with ceremony. Sometimes it reveals them through the clarity of a single decision. President Donald J. Trump’s choice to place Kristi Noem at the center of the Shield of the Americas is one of those decisions. It is not a gesture. It is not a public-relations exercise. It is not a symbolic appointment designed to satisfy a news cycle. It is a recognition that the greatest threat now confronting the Western Hemisphere is not confined to borders, nor to narcotics, nor to migration in isolation.
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Mercedes44"
Venezuelan-born PragerU commentator Franklin Camargo shot back at Democrats during a Wednesday hearing on the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, calling him an “evil narcoterrorist who committed crimes against Americans.” The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, chaired by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NY), gathered witnesses for a hearing dubbed “The Legal Basis for Action Against Venezuelan Drug Traffickers.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) were loud with their opposition to the Trump administration’s January arrest of Maduro and his wife in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
Estonia says it’s “ready to talk” with the U.S. about providing naval escorts for merchant ships traveling through the hotly contested Strait of Hormuz. When the president is saying something like that, then we need to be open … to understand what we can do together to solve that problem,” Pevkur said, adding there would have to be a ceasefire in the conflict before Estonia would take concrete action.
With a total population of just 1.4 million, Estonia’s role would be limited.
Earlier, Estonia’s neighbor, Finland, said it could “see a potential deal” for European forces to play a role in the strait, though larger European Union member states including —
History does not always announce its turning points with ceremony. Sometimes it reveals them through the clarity of a single decision. President Donald J. Trump’s choice to place Kristi Noem at the center of the Shield of the Americas is one of those decisions. It is not a gesture. It is not a public-relations exercise. It is not a symbolic appointment designed to satisfy a news cycle. It is a recognition that the greatest threat now confronting the Western Hemisphere is not confined to borders, nor to narcotics, nor to migration in isolation.
When “ICE-Out” protests spread across Arizona in recent months, one restaurant found itself at the center of the ICE storm. At Sammy’s Mexican Grill, owners Jorge and Betty Rivas—immigrants who have lived the American dream—chose to stay open and continue their five-year tradition of serving free meals to all law-enforcement officers.
The Rivas’s story reached The Daily Signal through Mark Hurley, senior advisor to the president for donor relations at The Heritage Foundation. Hurley stopped for lunch at Sammy’s Mexican Grill during a trip to Arizona, and was struck by the family’s resilience, calling their story “impressive” and inspiring to see people “standing up for what they believe in.”
The US military dropped 5,000-pound bunker buster bombs on underground Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday, according to authorities.
The massive attack announced by US Central Command came as the war with Iran had staunched the flow of shipping through the vital Persian Gulf waterway.
“Hours ago, US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” the regional command said on X around 7 p.m. EST.
Iran’s rulers have unleashed a brutal crackdown of arrests and death threats against would-be protestors in a desperate bid to curb an uprising, according to reports.
Despite the weakening of Iranian police, the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Basij militia by US and Israeli strikes — including Israel’s killing of the head of the Basij, Gholamreza Soleimani — security forces are still suppressing domestic dissent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Armed plainclothes men with covered faces have been riding around on motorcycles, wielding their weapons to intimidate Iranians, and have set up a network of security checkpoints in Tehran to search cars, the outlet reported.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he has asked China to delay his official trip to the country by a month amid an ongoing conflict in the Middle East that he feels requires him to stay in the United States.
Israel and the United States waged a conflict against Iran last month in an effort to stop the country from developing a nuclear weapon. Approximately 200 American servicemembers have been wounded in the conflict and 13 have died.
Trump reiterated during a White House event that he would "love to" go to China, "but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here, I feel."
Exclusive: Video shows Arizona center
processing ballots in manner that alarmed
Congress’ monitors 6 replies
processing ballots in manner that alarmed
Congress’ monitors 6 replies
Video footage captured by congressional observers shows a third-party election vendor in Arizona’s largest county processing live ballots and performing signature verification in 2024 far away from the official Maricopa County election center where bipartisan monitors witness such activities, a discovery that prompted the observers to file a formal report alleging “alarming” concerns.
The video obtained by Just the News depicts a visit by one Republican and one Democratic congressional staffer to a third-party printing company responsible for conducting signature verification on ballots during the 2024 election.
This may be the first time a country won Women’s hockey gold, Men’s hockey gold, and paralympic sled hockey! It’s been a rough losing streak for the Canucks! The most brutal loss the US men’s team defeating Canada in overtime at the Olympics in February.
The US men’s hockey team won its first gold medal in in 46 years!
President Donald Trump spoke from the White House to the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team Sunday after their thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over Canada to win the gold medal in Milan, Italy.
The waiver allows that oil to move into global markets for a short period while energy prices face pressure from the conflict in the Middle East.
The decision came as oil markets tightened following the confrontation with Iran and disruptions in regional shipping lanes. Energy traders have warned that sudden supply shocks can push gasoline and heating costs sharply higher. The oil already sitting on tankers represents existing production instead of new drilling, and allowing those barrels to move simply puts supply into circulation that otherwise would remain stranded.
Trump warns of ‘very bad’ future if
NATO allies refuse to help open critical
Strait of Hormuz 5 replies
NATO allies refuse to help open critical
Strait of Hormuz 5 replies
President Trump on Sunday warned NATO faces a “very bad” future if the US allies fail to help reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz, as oil prices soar during the Iran war.
Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times that European nations and other global powers that rely on Gulf oil should join a US-led effort to secure the waterway — where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally flows.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the British outlet,
In just the first five months of the new fiscal year, the federal government has already spent more than $3 trillion – more than it spent in all of 2009 – $1 trillion of which it had to borrow.
And what is all this money going toward? The federal government was told 15 years ago to take a full, annual inventory of everything it does. It’s never been able to get that done.
“Each year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on federal programs that support the American people and address policy goals,” notes the Government Accountability Office in a report released earlier this month. “However,
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Arkansas governor says she was asked to
leave a restaurant because employees felt 'threatened' 32 replies
leave a restaurant because employees felt 'threatened' 32 replies
Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that she was asked to leave a restaurant in Little Rock last week because her presence made employees and customers feel "threatened."
Sanders previously served as White House press secretary during President Donald Trump's first term and has since been a supporter of the president's immigration policies.
The governor said she was dining with two other moms at the restaurant, which has been identified as The Croissanterie, when the owner allegedly told members of her security detail that Sanders must leave because her "presence made their employees feel threatened."
"Arkansans are known for their warm hospitality, and while that restaurant didn’t meet
Later this month, protesters will gather across the U.S. for the third “No Kings” rally since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the Minnesota Capitol is set to host the largest rally. The national flagship rally at the Capitol in St. Paul is among more than 3,000 events planned on Saturday, March 28 as part of the national “No Kings” movement protesting Trump and his administration. Celebrity activists including Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers are slated to join Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Attorney General Keith Ellison and other Minnesota officials for the big event. Dozens of other
Given Iran’s half century of cruel barbarism in the Middle East, it’s hard to understand why the Democrats seem to be rooting for them in the current war. I have two theories.
One is the obvious one. The Dems are not so much rooting for Iran, as rooting against Iran’s enemy. Bad as Iran is, its enemy is even worse in the eyes of the Dems.
Iran’s enemy, you see – or at least the Dems see – has a history of its own cruel barbarism going back to at least 1619. Iran’s enemy has engaged in genocide against native people. Iran’s enemy has wrongly oppressed workers of the world
California lawmakers said Thursday they planned to change the name of “César Chavez Day” to “Farmworkers Day” after sexual abuse allegations against the late civil rights leader arose earlier this week.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Chavez had groomed and sexually abused young girls within the labor rights movement while he served as leader of the United Farm Workers Union. One of those women was Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the union with Chavez in 1962.
Huerta came forward this week with allegations that she was victimized by Chavez in her 30s.
What’s So Great About Diversity?
16 replies
Diversity is our strength.’ One hears this, or myriad variants of the same idea, unrelentingly. Certainly I work in an Australian university where the extent of higher-ups pushing this notion does indeed qualify as unrelenting, even matching totalitarian state levels of propaganda. But even outside the hallowed halls of impartial, politically balanced academia (did I write that with a straight face?) the mantra or cliché that diversity somehow delivers a stronger balance sheet or a more cohesive society or just better outcomes is pervasive in today’s democracies that have committed themselves to multiculturalism and to the various neo-Marxist versions of feminism. Sure,
In 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California.
At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick.
Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project — which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments — would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.
The FBI is investigating former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent in connection with alleged leaks of classified information, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell CBS News.
The probe began before Kent resigned this week over the Trump administration's handling of the war with Iran, the sources said. The FBI's Criminal Division is handling the probe, which has been underway for some time, one source said.
The FBI declined to comment. Kent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JB Pritzker Promises to Weaponize Government
13 replies
There are few things worse than someone who has had everything handed to them who acts like they’ve somehow earned all of it. We say these people “were born on 3rd base and act like they hit a triple.” I don’t have a problem with inherited wealth, but that, coupled with a sense of entitlement, is too much form. I call it the “Lucky Sperm Syndrome” – the people whose greatest, and often only, accomplishment in life is that they were the sperm that cracked the egg. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker comes to mind.
For years, Americans turned off by Hollywood haughtiness, partisan taunting, and general wokeness have tuned out of celebrity awards shows. The 98th Academy Awards proved to be no exception. Sunday night’s Oscars only racked up 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu combined.[snip] the first All-American Halftime Show, featuring artists such as Kid Rock and Lee Brice, garnered 25 million views across YouTube and Rumble. TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet noted shortly after the rival Super Bowl show wrapped that there were “a lot of large groups watching together, so the number of viewers is likely far higher.”
Useful idiots in California want to bend the knee to Islam, removing all doubt that this state can be saved.
KTXL reported on Sunday that Democratic State Assemblyman Matt Haney has introduced a bill that would officially recognize two Muslim holidays — Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha — as state holidays.
Eid al-Fitr, as the BBC noted, means “festival of the breaking of the fast,” marking the end of Ramadan. Muslim community leaders commended the bill as a “historic step” in efforts to combat Islamophobia, per KTXL.
Roughly 200,000 immigrant truck drivers in the United States are set to lose their commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) this week under a new Trump administration rule that went into effect Monday to keep illegal immigrants off the road. Under the rule, non-citizens, including asylum seekers, refugees, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), will no longer be eligible to obtain CDLs, even if they are legally authorized to work in the United States. Those who already hold licenses will not be able to renew them when they expire.
Now for something completely different ... a video! I've started a video podcast using my old "Smart Girl Politics" brand, and I am thrilled to be able to share it with RedState's wonderful readers. In this first episode, I go in-depth on a story currently rocking Northern Virginia – a 19-year-old illegal from El Salvador has been arrested for groping at least nine teen girls at a local high school. He's in custody .. for now. Democrats, of course, want him back on the streets and in the school hallways to assault more victims.
Let's chat about it. To walk through the facts, I bounced off the reporting