'No Kings' wasn't no thing                  

During one episode of AMC's Mad Men, advertising savant Don Draper reassured a client worried about anti-construction protests and press naysayers. The client's project had proceeded on schedule despite loud critics, Don pointed out. Fret not. Because as annoying as the clatter seemed, it had zero practical consequence.

That TV moment was brought to thought by nationwide No Kings protests. They, too, were ear and eye abrasive, but ultimately impotent. All the corporate-churned placards, robotic call-and-response chantings, and subversive spectacles were as nothing.

President Trump remains in the White House; America is (and will always be) the world's leading superpower; domestic and international policies will still be determined by wise heads, rather than noisome brats of all ages and silly descriptions; law enforcement officers (including ICE) continue to enforce duly-passed statutes and safeguard the citizenry; and common sense yet prevails.

Most importantly, God's authority remains America's North Star.

No Kings lackwits would have observers believe our nation's founders were wicked, our culture and legal system irredeemably stained by long-passed and eternally dead injustices, and that President Trump is deceitful and ruinous to American interests.

(Ronald Reagan was a noble chief executive, but he did err in deinstitutionalizing the mad.)

A March 14 Economist report noted "GDP grew at 0.7% in the fourth quarter." Inflation was 3.0%, unemployment just 4.4%. The S&P 500 has risen to 9.6%. And a February CAPS/Harris poll reported 51% of respondents were confident our economy is strong.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently cited new IRS and Treasury Department data, that showed the average refund for 2026 tax-filers will be higher than in 2025. Newsweek cited "3, 700.00."

In February, the White House stated "President Donald J. Trump is delivering real, immediate relief to American families struggling with high housing costs as the national median rent falls to its lowest level since 2022."

Also: "This welcome news for renters comes as President Trump's agenda delivers falling mortgage rates (NBC News), record-breaking tax refunds (USA Today, CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, and CNBC), wage increases, and more - with much more relief on the way to make sure all Americans benefit."

Vehicle costs have also declined, giving auto manufacturers their best sales year since 2019 (Bloomberg).

Again, the White House: "Overall, goods-producing workers - the backbone of American industry - are on track to see their real annual earnings rise by $1,300 in President Trump's first full year in office. Mining and logging workers are on track for an increase of $2,000, construction workers are on track for an extra $1,400, and manufacturing workers are on track to gain $1,300."

The Redfin real estate brokerage firm reported mortgage rates dropped down to 6% in February and early March, the lowest rate in three and a half years.

Last December, the Trump administration announced agreements with nine major pharmaceutical companies. Drug companies will now charge U.S. purchasers the same low prices they have charged in foreign nations.

Iranian efforts to cultivate nuclear arms, with which to destroy entire lands of innocents, begged for scorched-earth demolishment. Commander Trump had the sand. And then some.

Of course, the new, grand bloom of patriotism in men's hearts cannot be mechanically gauged. The American mood, though, is now one of bristling pride in our Constitution, ideals, traditions, culture, and global preeminence.

Indications included the roaring throngs that packed candidate Trump's stadium rallies way past overflow, as well as his overwhelming victories in both electoral and popular votes.

Too, our commander in chief maintains impressive support, as verified by CNN and others' polling.

CAPS/Harris turned up 58% of respondents who endorse the principle of requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Other polling companies that registered support for voter ID include The Center Square (71%), Rasmussen (75%), McLaughlin and Associates (77%), Napolitan News Service (81%), Pew (83%), and Gallup (84%).

And reflect upon the return to sanity of President Trump's slamming tight the border and launching long-needed mass-deportations. Benefiting greatly are national security, safe neighborhoods, and efforts to crush drug and sex trafficking into America.

Cultural cohesivness, crucial for the survival of all nations, is again prized in our epic land.

So, ignore the circusy oddballs that milled through boulevards. Organizers claimed 8 million participants - a figure that might impress, except that some 77 million patriots made Trump's victory possible. 

The world still turns, and America will be just fine. Take it from Don Draper.

Springsteen 2026: Burn Down the USA                    

Anyone who's heard Bruce Springsteen in recent years knows the corporate cash-box-in-denims no longer has the grit evident in 1984 hit "Born In the USA."

Once bannered a working class hero, he now postures as subversive squawkbox, one whose loyalties seem located anywhere but between Canada and Mexico.

Springsteen now trudges in the ranks of yesteryear's celebrities, who've thrown arms about evil in desperate hopes of rekindling flames from expiring embers.

(Of course, it is possible that Springsteen's present B. Arnold stance is as counterfeit as the earlier blue-collar one, and contrived from cold, dollar sign obsession. For all we regular folks know, Springsteen may change from a hoity toity Italian three-piece into proletariat drag of t-shirt, jeans, and work boots, before treading stage boards. You know - character costume.) 

Per Gateway Pundit, Springsteen told one recent audience:  "If you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens…If you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president — and as the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”

Further emphasizing look-at-me positioning, he released the overly-long "Streets of Minneapolis," a call to graffitied riot barricades. Again, one is confronted by the ebbing of the man's creative abilities.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump concerns himself with establishing political cooperation to rid America of illegals, "not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information.”

Erstwhile Jerseyite Springsteen grew massively wealthy by posturing as patriotic; now that his bank vault is jam-packed, he effectively blows snot on Old Glory. (A stomach-turning spectacle not seen by Hollywood's Tom Hanks, who is busy on his South-of-France yacht entertaining Barack Hussein Obama.)

The catalog of for-profit play-actors who hiss at America's Constitution while singing songs of Karl is unfortunately lengthy. It includes not only Springsteen and Forrest Gump, but a treason-hearted horde, whose Walk of Hollywood stars are daily trod over by actual, working taxpayers that truly love this Land of Lincoln.

Iowan DC Larson is the author of That a Man Can Again Stand Up and Ideas Afoot.  He counts among freelance credits Daily Caller, The Iowa Standard, and American Thinker.  His political blog is American Scene Magazine.

Democrats reveal true colors

The hush that followed President Kennedy's 1963 Dallas murder was a matter of universally shared basic decency. But today, if a conservative figure fell to a lunatic's bullets, progressive Democrats would freestyle on the coffin lid.

Recall that following the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump, ghoulish miscreants in political, entertainment, and media spheres immediately sprang, grinning maws a-drip.

Rather than accepting ballot-box defeats and cultivating better messages and candidates, many Democrats reflect Marxist Che Guevara's odious rantings, as recalled by historians:

"This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate!"

Online video coverage of anti-Trump/Musk events sometimes portrays participants expressly desirous of their opponents' deaths. It's terrible but true that Guevara's wretched spirit lives, in morally squalid pockets of 2025 America.

Open-borders and sanctuary state and city Democrat officials actively obstruct ICE efforts to safeguard citizens by deporting illegals, including ones guilty of violent crimes against children. The welfare of American citizens is without significance to Democrats whose only lodestar is sick ideology.

California news discloses a health care ballot measure there named for assassin Luigi Mangioni. Months ago, Mangioni stalked United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and shot him from behind, killing the husband and father of two. The dastardly killer is frequently celebrated by leftists - not despite, but because of his depravity.

In recent months, America has seen a tsunami of politically prompted malicious acts that targeted Tesla owners and dealerships. Among these are vandalism, physical assaults, and large-scale arson. They are terroristic crimes that have as their implicit targets Elon Musk, President Trump, and the over 70 million Americans who buoyed Trump to his proper station at the Resolute Desk.

Upon hearing during a March 11 broadcast that President Trump rightly condemned demolishment and arson of Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism, MSNBC host Alicia Menendez grabbed up the propagandist's bullhorn: "So, just to be clear, you protest a private company, you are labeled by this administration a domestic terrorist."

Only mentally disheveled subversives and press charlatans would rank purposeful violence and destructiveness as legitimate protest actions. They are not speech manifestations that enjoy constitutional protection. You can express disagreement with others, but you cannot firebomb their businesses from within nightime's cloak.

(Yes, the Boston Tea Party included property destruction. But it challenged oppression by an unelected foreign sovereign; that pivotal circumstance does not exist in contemporary America. Throwing over the checkerboard and traducing laws are not civilized reactions to electoral thumping.)

During the often-savage George Floyd street riots of 2020, police were assaulted, cars were overturned and destroyed by fire, and innocent passersby fell victim to screamed epithets and physical attacks. Some 163 structures, including at least one law enforcement precinct, were destroyed by Molotov Cocktail-hurling thugs. 

Estimates of the cost of those nationwide left-wing rampages ranged from one to two billion tax-payer dollars. Regardless, official Democrat sanction of that lawlessness was illustrated by then-Vice President/presidential candidate Kamala Harris's organization of a donation page for vicious arrestees.

Harris is not the only elected Democrat guilty of countenancing evil. This writer is not aware of any prominent Democrat office-holder who has publicly condemned left-wing violence. As goes the axiom: Silence is complicity.

And that wicked body is again swelled obscenely, when one factors in partisans who do not perpetrate crimes themselves, but are cheered by news of others' violent rioting.

Left-wing agitators, many surely goaded by garbage-hearted professors enamored of Guevara's filth, feel that perpetrating destruction is a justifiable means for ideological promotion.

Hopefully, respect for law and order will return in this Trump era. A good start would be understanding that violence is not legitimate protest.

Truths finally told                                                                  

Set for May 20 issuance, Original Sin, by CNN's Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios, reportedly discloses how the Biden White House and legacy media quislings strove to conceal the 46th president's fast-ebbing intellectual capacity.

Readers will recall Biden was customarily shielded from inquisitors. Rare contemporaneous remarks he did publicly offer frequently required "clean-up" statements penned by aides.

Footage of Biden's characteristic tumbles, shuffling, wandering, and inexplicable attempts to shake hands with bare air were dismissed as "cheap fakes" by protective newsroom allies.

As commentator Gent Goldstein recently wrote, Tapper himself has soiled hands. He had "spent years downplaying concerns, dismissing critics, and shielding Biden from scrutiny." Tapper repeatedly attributed the debilitated chief executive's verbal stumbles to a supposed "stutter," rather than admitting obvious descent into irrevocable bewilderment.

"The timing of Tapper’s book...suggests an opportunistic cash grab rather than real journalism," Goldstein wrote.

Ron Klain was Biden White House chief of staff, and helped the 46th president prepare for his debate with Trump. In Uncharted: How Trump beat Biden, Harris, and the odds in the wildest campaign in history, author Chris Whipple wrote : "Klain was startled. He'd never seen Biden so exhausted and out of it. Biden was unaware of what was happening in his own campaign. Halfway through the session, Biden excused himself and went off to sit by the pool."

And only some 25 minutes had passed in one debate rehearsal, when Biden announced he was tired and turned in.

But in an Aug. 14 CNN appearance that followed Biden's howlingly execrable debate performance against Trump, Klain dutifully dissimulated to Anderson Cooper: "He's clearly up to the job. He's doing it everyday. He's doing it successfully."

At this writing, Americans still don't know who was operating the White House autopen and signing Biden's name on numerous critical documents.

Though I've never been behind the Washington curtain, I feel safe speculating that Biden's deterioration was for years an open secret, at least among sympathetic politicians and Tapper's fake media comrades.

No disrespect for those suffering mental diminishment is intended here. I do not broach this without personal familiarity.

Like millions of American families, mine was sadly touched by a parent's similar plight. My mother, Jean Russell Larson, authored numerous childrens' books as well as poetic and other writings for adult readers. She taught creative writing at various Iowa colleges.

And I owe her for what authorial skills I can summon.

My mother's eventual dire medical situation made this issue real for me in a torturous way. Because of that tragedy, I regard sufferers with compassion and understanding.

(And being 65, I am not unmindful that such beleaguerment might loom on my own doorstep, one day.) 

But the American presidency is the most powerful institution in the world. Those in that office wield tremendous authority. They conduct international affairs, enter into trade and other treaties, head our country's military, attend to the general welfare, request congressional authorization for warfare, and even have access to nuclear codes.

Such awesome responsibilty requires intellectual lucidity. It is a crime against the American people to entrust authority of that magnitude to a man clearly meandering in the mist of compromised capacity.

Immediately following the debate during which Biden performed so miserably against Trump, an event that illustrated the fact of Biden's lamentable, irreversible dilapidation, I prayed for him. Because, ideological differences aside, he was a fellow human being who was suffering. 

And I asked God to help him.

But not all were compassionate. Primary blame must be accorded Biden's own family members for permitting the abusive spectacle (and profiting from it), as well as Democrat Party operatives that manipulated the inarguably invalid wretch for contemptible purposes. 

Too, Biden supporters who were aware of his obvious handicap (or who at least had sound suspicions) share moral culpability for resultant devastation of America.

We won't know until the May release of Original Sin whether CNN Democrat shill Tapper concedes complicity in the cover-up. Smart money says he won't.

Tom Hanks hates you          

It bears remembering that many show-business monkeys earn their status by catering to callow customers. Given that, braying whatever titillates that wet-eared market is probably judicious business reckoning, crucial to currying buyer favor. As goes the saw: The customer is always right.

Some publicly subversive limelighters may seize different levers in the voting-booth's cover.

But the above does not explain Tom Hanks. He hosts Barack Hussein Obama on his yacht in the south of France, and likely is sincere in his foulness.

In early 2016, Hanks said of then-candidate Donald Trump: "I think that man will become president of the United States right around the time that spaceships come down filled with dinosaurs in red capes."

President Trump is now in his second term.

Today's headlines tell of Hanks, on last week's Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary broadcast, mocking the tens of millions of Americans who buoyed Donald Trump to the Resolute Desk. 

Tiresomely, SNL writers and Hanks dragged out the threadbare stereotype of Trump supporters as drawling, white racist hayseeds of minimal intellect.

(An earlier iteration of this false and demeaning depiction was Obama's 2008 dismissal of working-class voters: "[T]hey cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them..." the then-president trumpeted.)

Unfortunately common are entertainment luminaries who evince tremendous talents at their crafts but who, regarding political and cultural matters, seem to have skulls jam-packed with yellowish diarrhea.

Addle-pated though they be, they have no less right to opine on substantive topics than does the present writer. Free speech is a crucial factor in individual liberty, nevermind that most outspoken celebrities tend toward imbecility.

As Vice-President Vance recently declared in Europe: "In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town, and under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree."

No one disputes Hollywood subversives' right to spew inanities. Still, one wishes they would heed Laura I.'s admonition: Shut up and sing.

As for Tom Hanks, he should have stayed on that island.

Trump resistance redux                                                                   

An unintended and negative consequence of President Trump's landslide victory is the emergence of a subversive element, one which seeks to defy American immigration laws. Perhaps they wrongly believe their illicit misdoings are justified by fantasized moral superiority.

One national example is New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who implied to a recent interviewer that he and his wife were considering harboring an illegal in their home: "Let's have her live at our house above our garage, and good luck to the feds coming in to try and get her."

Sadly, this canker has also been exemplified here in Iowa.

In January, Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Jared Smith issued an official advisory (in numerous foreign languages) to illegal students. He advised them how to impede American legal authorities. 

Dr. Jared Smith

Can a more anti-American attitude be displayed than one evincing contempt for our nation's legal champions, and for statutes enacted by democratically-elected legislative representatives?

After he'd shoehorned into the letter boilerplate language with which he professed respect for law, Smith boasted: "We will not share student information or grant law enforcement building access unless legally required to do so."

(Last February, accompanied by a Christian pastor friend, this writer braved Waterloo's dangerously frigid temperatures to support Trump in the Iowa caucus; Iowa did favor the Republican candidate. The event was convened in a school. At each desk was a fresh copy of far-left radical Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," which is fine. Students should consider ideas across the political spectrum. But I wondered whether opposing philosophies enjoyed equal schoolroom visibility.)

"Lastly, get the history books out," counseled former U.S. Representative Dave Nagle (D-IA), in a February 1 essay printed by the Waterloo Courier. (Full disclosure: The Courier has also published numerous pieces by this writer.)

Former U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle (D-IA)

"Study the Underground Railroad," Nagle continued. "For all those who, if given the time, could produce proper papers, pack them in your basement, give them the garage, hide them in your churches so we can organize a proper presentation of their right to be here...That will be your call when the federal government shows up."

Like Murphy, Nagle blatantly advocates challenging law enforcement. He skirts borderline criminality, broadly winking his scofflaw intent.

And that the former U.S. Representative would liken present-day, reprehensible Democrat anarchy to historic moral opposition to slavery is a howling offense deserving of the description 'surfboarding to status atop others' suffering.'

Most recently, Winneshiek County, Iowa Sheriff Dan Marx boasted in a February 4 Facebook post of his intention to do all he could to "block, interfere, and interrupt" ICE agents in the performance of their lawful duties regarding illegal immigration. 

Sheriff Dan Marx

Marx characterized U.S. citizenship laws as "unconstitutional." (Isn't that for the Supreme Court to determine -- and not the lowly "Sanctuary Sheriff" of Winneshiek County?)

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds directed the accessory-to-crime county official to acquaint himself with a relevant 2018-adopted state law. 

"Specifically, Iowa law provides a sheriff shall not adopt or enforce a policy or take any other action under which the sheriff prohibits or discourages the enforcement of immigration laws," she wrote.

"Iowa law further requires that a sheriff shall not prohibit or discourage a law enforcement officer from assisting or cooperating with a federal immigration officer as reasonable or necessary," the governor continued. "Including providing enforcement assistance."

Gov. Reynolds also spoke of pulling state funding from Winneshiek County. And Iowa Attorney General Brenna Byrd opened an investigation.

Each above-cited wrong recalls former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democrat, 'standing in the schoolhouse door' to prevent federal authorities from entering to racially integrate public schools. 

Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, Democrat

The fabrication called Kamala

Joe Biden received some 14 million 2024 primary votes, but that mattered not to Democrat elites. They shoved the warhorse party loyalist into oncoming traffic and installed identity box-checker Kamala Harris. 

If party bosses reasoned grassroots donkeys would acquiesce, they were proven correct. 'Vote blue, no matter who' sorts immediately hefted Harris and her radical running-mate "Tampon Tim" atop shoulders.

As the adage holds: If you want loyalty, buy a dog.

Kamala Harris is the most laboratory concocted presidential aspirant that has ever clambered onto a stump. A maniken, albeit an ever-giggling one.

Not that she doesn't have beliefs and ideals. She does. Those include abolishing private heath-insurance in favor of government-run care, defunding police, abolishing ICE, granting citizenship to millions of illegal aliens (whose votes would dilute those of legitimate citizens), letting males invade females' sports-teams and privacy, limiting Americans' red-meat consumption, legislating chemical and surgical "gender-affirming care" for children, and mandating that every American driver must operate an electric vehicle.

Should Harris ascend to White House occupancy, the real subversive would leap into the spotlight. But for now, those orchestrating her effort hide her extremist ideology, calculating that a false image is more viable. 

1 - As noted above, she was not chosen in a democratic primary where participants had the opportunity to consider her against competitors and their ideas. Harris was installed by Washington powerbrokers who underscore irrelevant characteristics. 

2 - Her campaign coordinators had her scripted and staged phone-calls to the Obamas and Walz filmed for public release. Of course Harris giggled throughout. Some people do laugh at their own jokes.

3 - The cynical game-players manipulating Harris apparently insist that the candidate avoid press conferences, only read contrived remarks (written by others) from teleprompters, and allow her name to be put on calculated, staff-drafted statements.

4 - She has flip-flopped on numerous issues, claiming more palatable positions than she is on record as having previously enunciated. (But to her handlers' certain dismay, damning video evidence abounds online.) As of this writing, she has stolen two Trump proposals: No tax on tips and a child tax credit. Additional thefts and flip-flops by her will surely follow, should those choreographing her effort deem them situationally advantageous

5 - Just days ago, the Harris/Walz campaign mounted an event at Primanti Bros sandwich shop in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. Prior to filming, actual patrons were reportedly  booted from the premises and replaced with actors who pretended to be sandwich shop customers and who hailed artificial Harris.

(One recalls that the vice-president once sat for filming while telling several 'schoolchildren' about space. The kids were subsequently revealed to be actors hired for the stunt.)

6 - To date, zero policy proposals appear on Harris's website. No issues are even mentioned. That amorphousness allows her to evade definition. Sympathetic media voices urge her to avoid specifics that might prove damaging.

She is a woke action-figure that can be postured however best advances the interests of the left-wing machine that puts her forward and that would calculate policies, should she prevail.

Some contrary commentators opine that small Harris campaign-event crowds mean equally few will vote for her in November. But while liberal voters may find her uninspirational and so stay away, their irrational hatred of Trump will likely engender large election turnout. Remember, Biden's 2020 events also drew smatterings, but his eventual poll endorsements were far greater in amount. 

In November, people will vote for Harris despite being unimpressed with her. They despise Trump and MAGA Americans with so strong and irrational a passion that they would sooner endorse America's continued ruination than see our country improved by Trump.

And if that means devoting precious ballots to a fabrication, so be it.