The Oasis for
Rational Conservatives
Thursday, February 19, 2026
POTUS explained what happened at his rally in Des Moines on Wednesday evening:
Ninth Installment: Chapter Nine of Part I: Envy. Forum comments welcome!
THE BROTHERHOOD OF MARX, HITLER, AND THE AMERICAN LEFT TODAY
In October of 1965, Ronald Reagan came to speak at UCLA, where I was a graduating senior. The UCLA Student Union was packed, SRO. There was a buzz that Reagan was considering running for governor against the entrenched Democrat, Pat Brown. My buddy Bill Anthony and I sat expectantly in the audience.
As Reagan began to speak, he filled the room with an energy that was both exciting and soothing, and the thousand-plus students were entranced. Then he caught us by surprise. He said the conventional political spectrum of Left vs. Right made no sense and he rejected it. He explained:
"Rather than Communists and Marxists on the extreme ‘Left' and Nazis and Fascists on the extreme ‘Right,' I think the political spectrum should be ‘Up' and ‘Down' – Up towards individual freedom and Down towards control of the individual by the State.I turned to Bill and whispered, "That settles that." "Settles what?" he whispered back. "That's my man," I answered. "I've always dreamed of someone publicly saying just that."
"The extreme Up would be Anarchy, no government at all, while the extreme Down, at the bottom of the spectrum, would be all forms of totalitarianism: both Fascism and Communism, Nazism and Marxism, which together in common advocate the abolishment of individual freedom.
On this spectrum, I place myself on the Up side, far from the extremism of anarchism, but as an advocate of individual liberty in accordance with a constitutional democracy and rule of law."
In all the years since, I’ve remained puzzled why our political, media, and academic elites have maintained a perverse insistence on denying the obviousness of Reagan’s Up/Down spectrum, constantly repeating the robotic mantra of Left/Right instead.
The only explanation must be that, as advocates of ever more government control over people’s lives, they can’t handle the bald truth that Hitler – the apotheosis of evil – is one of theirs.
This is the NY Post’s cover this morning (10/14). An explosion of media headlines followed. Here’s a delicious quartet:
Joe Biden's links to Burisma 'as damaging as can be,' Giuliani says
Senate Panel Investigating Hunter Biden Emails Showing Introduction Between Joe Biden, Burisma
‘Smoking Gun Email’ Shows Joe Biden Did Meet with Son Hunter’s Ukraine Partners
Joe Biden's corrupt, debauched, coke-addled son Hunter has been found to have sold access to his dad's office for tens of thousands of dollars. And Vice President Joe Biden, who's now running for president? He's been caught red handed, lying to us about not knowing a thing.
At a campaign stop in Toldeo, Ohio, he actually forgot he was running for president, saying what you just saw: “I’m running as a proud Democrat for the Senate.”
When Biden was confronted with a poll that said 56 percent of registered voters believe they are better off than they were four years ago (when he was vice president), Biden said they shouldn’t vote for him. And this was Joe just warming up – there’s lots more!
They came, they questioned and they got nothing. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Democrats. Almost.
With a history of vicious misbehavior and the political calendar limiting their ability to smear Amy Coney Barrett, Dems on the Senate Judiciary Committee were reduced to being annoying nags and finger-wagging scolds. They fumed and sputtered about the possibility that the court might be called on to make key ballot rulings after the election and hoped she would not participate. No luck. They all struck out.
Their basic problem is that Barrett came across as an appealing Superwoman. Flanked by her husband, six of their seven children and her six siblings, she was flawless in answering those questions she could and in politely sidestepping the traps.
Now, on day two of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dems are telling reporters are impressed with what they see.
While Barrett was still being grilled Tuesday (10/13), even liberal reporters on CNN and NBC had to admit that she was doing a good job answering the Senators’ questions.
As if 2020 were not insane enough already, we now have Democrats and their ruling class masters openly talking about staging a coup.
You might have missed it, what with the riots, lockdowns and other daily mayhem we’re forced to endure in this, the most wretched year of modern times. But it’s happening. We know it’s happening because the Dems have told us.
In his famously exhaustive discussion of conspiracies, Machiavelli goes out of his way to emphasize the indispensability of “operational security”—i.e., silence—to success. The first rule of conspiracy is, you do not talk about the conspiracy. The second rule of conspiracy is, you do not talk about the conspiracy.
So why are the Democrats—publicly—talking about the conspiracy? Here’s why.
Art of the Deal:
Rubino: Well Played, Mr. President. Sorry To Have Doubted You
Instant Karma – I LOVE this!
NY GOP Foils TikTok Pranksters with Fee, Reaps $16K from Trump Haters
Distrust in upcoming election accuracy is at a record high:
Poll: Confidence in Accuracy of Upcoming Election Matches Record Low
The 'Crats are crazed:
Another Coup? Trump Slams "Crazy Nancy" After Speaker Unveils 25th Amendment Panel
Pelosi invests big bucks in CrowdStrike, a key mover in the Russia Russia Russia conspiracy against Trump:
Pelosis Take Big Stake In CrowdStrike, Democrat-Connected Linchpin Of Russia Probe
There’s more – here we go!
August, 1971. The gentle Mbuti people live in the Ituri rainforest, one of the world’s densest jungles, in northeastern DR Congo. They are among the most ancient of all human populations, with their ancestors having hunted in these forests for over 60,000 years. The tallest among them is under five feet.
It was on my first visit to Africa that I was able to spend time with them. They live in scattered bands of a few dozen each, always on the move in search of game, sleeping in small makeshift huts of branches and leaves, and far away from villages of Bantus who always try to enslave them.
Their music is hypnotic. To the beat of drums of hollowed-out logs, they sing with a polyphonic complexity that is extraordinary. I’ll never forget the performance they gave for me. Alas, no tape recorder – much less videocam back then! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #65 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
When he was 10 years old, I took my son Brandon to Indian Tibet for one of the great whitewater experiences on the planet, running the Zanskar River through the crest of the Himalayas. That was 27 years ago and he’s never forgotten it to this day.
Taking your kids on a great adventure not only bonds you with them in a deep and unique way, it opens the world to them as a place of magic, excitement, and wonder that stays with them for the rest of their lives. And for the rest of your life too.
In the summer of 2021, we’ll explore Indian Tibet again – the remote Himalayan regions of Lahaul, Spiti, Ladakh, and Zanskar – where traditional Tibetan culture still flourishes as it no longer does across the border in Chinese Tibet. I am proud to say that Brandon will be leading the expedition. I’ll just be along for the ride. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #64 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
This is St. Paul’s Natural Pool on Pitcairn Island, where in 1790 Fletcher Christian and his mutineers of the Mutiny on the Bounty settled, and where their descendants live to this day. They were awed by the uninhabited island’s lush beauty, with huge banyan trees rising above them like giant cathedrals, and thought it a Garden of Eden where anything grew, coconuts, bananas, taro, breadfruit, mangoes, guavas, passion fruit, yams and sweet potatoes in the rich volcanic soil.
Pitcairn has no beaches, though, so this was their swimming hole – and still is for Pitcairners today. They are happy to take you here, and to the island’s colorfully named spots, like Where Dick Fall, Oh Dear, Break Im Hip, Down the Hole – and to Fletcher Christian’s Cave, his lookout for British warships hunting them (they failed for 25 years) .
It’s not easy to get here – fly to Tahiti, then remote Mangareva from where you sail for two days on a supply ship. But you’ll be so welcome upon arrival. You stay in one of their homes in Adamstown and be treated like family. It’s a travel experience like none other. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #63 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
The Antarctic island of South Georgia is one of the most extraordinary places on earth. Square miles of king penguin rookeries, thousands of fur seals, hundreds of gigantic elephant seals amidst a backdrop of massive glaciers and snow-capped mountains.
All of the animals here have no fear of you whatever and ignore your presence – except if you make the mistake of getting too close to a bull elephant seal for his comfort. It’s a mistake I made as you can see. Luckily, with several tons of blubber to carry, this fellow can’t move as fast as me, so I hightailed it quickly. That satisfied him, and all was soon back to placidly normal again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #62 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
On display in the National Museum of Congo in Brazzaville: “Ancient Money.” I took the picture because this is the money that made us human 90,000 years ago. They are tiny Nassarius gibbosulus estuarine snail shells too small for food, perforated with small holes to string on a necklace, used as money “before the establishment of the CFA” as the sign says, the Central Africa Franc in 1945.
These are the same species of shell that was the first jewelry in history unearthed at seashore sites in Morocco and hundreds of miles inland in Algeria some 90kya (thousand years ago) – meaning they were traded. For the first time in history, a species began to exchange things between unrelated unmarried individuals to share, swap, barter and trade, and over great distances.
Other animals do not barter. This, maintains science author Matt Ridley, is what made us distinctly human, enabling us to cooperate with other groups or tribes, to innovate, to evolve ever more complex cultures. This little shell, used as money, is the founding of human culture. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #61 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
The giant billboard atop the Whiskey a Go Go nightclub on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, used to advertise the DC Comics television show Swamp Thing, was altered by a conservative group of street artists known as "The Faction" before dawn Thursday morning (10/15). They put Biden’s face on top of the monster, and the words “Joe Biden is” above, and “Hide your kids, hide your wife,” below DC Swamp Thing. Classic!!
