In blue cities across America — Portland, Oregon, especially — often violent protesters now seek to surround ICE facilities to stop federal officers from fulfilling their assigned and legal duties of arresting illegal aliens.

Some 10 million or more illegal aliens were allowed to enter the U.S. during the Joe Biden years — illegally and thus without criminal or health checks.

Neither Antifa nor liberal urban America objected to such a flagrant disregard for the law. But both are now as intent on obstructing the legal enforcement of the law as they were earlier in favor of its illegal non-enforcement.

Much less did they care about the consequences of sending millions of foreign nationals into cities and counties where they swamped social services, spiked crime, and flooded emergency rooms and schools.

ICE has repeatedly presented data that show in its first rounds of deportations, it is concentrating on removing either criminal illegal aliens or those who have already been processed with deportation orders, somewhere between 70 and 90% of all current apprehensions.

No matter.

Left-wing protesters are swarming ICE headquarters in Portland to violently oppose all deportations, even those of known criminals and those who have already exhausted efforts to remain here illegally.

President Donald Trump loves a Sharpie pen, and now he has all the more reason to love the company that makes them.

The president signed the flurry of executive orders he issued the day he returned to office with a Sharpie.

He's used them for years, finding them more reliable than fancier pens.

Now we know they have another merit, too: They're almost entirely made in America.

Only the felt tip of a Sharpie comes from abroad -- it's made in Japan, according to the Wall Street Journal's Natasha Khan, who published an eye-opening article on the penmaker last week.

What makes Newell Brands, the corporation behind the Sharpie, so newsworthy is its success saving money -- and holding down consumer prices -- by making the pens in America.

Newell was once as dazzled as other manufacturers by the prospect of making its products more cheaply in Asia.

But in 2018, CFO Chris Peterson looked into producing the latest Sharpie, a gel version, at the company's factory in Maryville, Tennessee.

The new pen required updating the plant and training workers to operate and maintain the new machines.

Yet that's what made the project a triumph: investment, in an American factory and the Americans working there.

At the beginning of September, I told you how French President Emmanuel Macron was on the hunt for Prime Minister Number Four after yet another French government went le poof like a deflated soufflé.

It's always entertaining to watch the turgid burps of the excitable Gallic political process as they go about trying to form and reform governments, with cranky citizens (and others) taking to the streets in rowdy, car-b-quing mobs expressing either their delight or disgust.

Public unions often join the fray in generally making things even more difficult by striking various aspects of the national service industries.

Macron settled on a fellow named Lecornu as his Prime Minister, and things seemed to settle down, which made those watching more than merely the political upheaval breathe a small sigh of relief.

Stability in France has many in Brussels and beyond very concerned right now, as the French are in quite possibly one of the worst financial pickles they have been in decades - some say since the founding of this latest iteration of government in the early 1950s. Without a settled government, they are paralyzed as far as taking any action to correct it.

Hopes of breaking the impasse and moving on to restoring some fiscal sanity were dashed when No.4, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, resigned twenty-seven days after accepting the office and about fourteen hours after Macron finally named his new cabinet.

YOU ALL ARE CRAZY AND I'M OUT OF HERE

[On Sept. 30, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered an address at Marine Corps Base Quantico to an unprecedented gathering of hundreds of admirals, generals, and senior military leaders. This is the transcript in full. This is a turning point in America’s modern military history. TTP feels strongly that TTPers should consider reading it entire. The video of SecWar Hegseth’s 6,000 word/45 minute speech is here.]

Mr. Chairman, the Joint Chiefs, generals, admirals, commanders, officers, senior enlisted, NCOs, enlisted and every member of our American military, good morning. Good morning, and welcome to the War Department, because the era of the Department of Defense is over.

You see, the motto of my first platoon was, “Those who long for peace must prepare for war.” This is, of course, not a new idea. This crowd knows that. The origin dates to the fourth century Rome and has been repeated ever since, including by our first commander-in-chief, George Washington, the first leader of the War Department. It captures a simple yet profound truth; to ensure peace, we must prepare for war.

From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit. Not because we want war. No one here wants war. But it’s because we love peace. We love peace for our fellow citizens. They deserve peace, and they rightfully expect us to deliver it.

Our number one job, of course, is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place. The President talks about it all the time. It’s called “peace through strength,” and as history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it.

That’s why pacifism is so naïve and dangerous. It ignores human nature and it ignores human history. Either you protect your people and your sovereignty, or you will be subservient to something or someone. It’s a truth as old as time. And since waging war is so costly in blood and treasure, we owe our republic a military that will win any war we choose, or any war that is thrust upon us. Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department.

In other words, to our enemies, FAFO. If necessary, our troops can translate that for you.

[Note: 20-point Trump Gaza Plan appended in full below]

The Trump plan represents the best hope so far for ending the war in Gaza, giving some prospect of normality and prosperity for the people of Gaza and of developing a sustainable peace in the wider Middle East.

It has also completely turned the tables on Hamas. With Israel and Arab countries on board, the ball is now entirely in Hamas’s court and their response will show the world what many of us have long known: it is not Israel that has kept this war going but Hamas. War or peace is in their hands as it has been from the start.

We will have to see which path they take. But if anything, now is the time not just for Arab countries but for Western nations to step up to the mark. Those that are in a position to do so need to pile the pressure on to Hamas and give them no quarter. We need to hear no more encouragement of Hamas, no more rewarding them by recognizing a Palestinian state and no more unjust lashing out against Israel.

Instead Hamas need to be forced to understand they are isolated and no longer have any friends. If that kind of action had been taken from the beginning we might have been where we are long before now with many lives saved.