Special Snow Storm Edition!

We managed to post John Oliver, Phil Ochs, Kashing out, and the usual cartoons.

Feb 23, 2026

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As you may have heard, massive snowstorm/wind here on East Coast and still going on. Power still on here but cable/internet off and on. So just a few things below.

John Oliver last night eviscerates Musk and Twitter.

New Wash Post poll found Trump with 39% approval. Ron Brownstein analyzed and pulled this out:

On surface, best news for Trump in @washingtonpost poll is that Whites w/out a 4-yr college degree still give him robust 56-43% positive job ratings, by far his best #s. But that’s actually down from his 61-38% w/them in ‘18 exits. Cracking that base key to widening D map in ‘26.

Breaking, from NY Times:

The only passenger in the car when an American citizen was shot and killed by a federal officer in South Texas last year had planned to speak up and contradict the government’s account of the shooting. However, the passenger, Joshua Orta, died in an unrelated car crash over the weekend.
Mr. Orta, 25, was in the passenger seat on March 15, 2025, when his childhood friend, Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot multiple times in South Padre Island by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after the authorities said he failed to comply with commands to exit his vehicle.

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You’ve probably seen the Kash Patel hockey scandal—his behavior and cost to taxpayers for trip, and their lies about it, but the key photo below. Trump today 1) posted an AI video of himself scoring a goal after punching a Canadian player 2) invited USA men’s team to State of the Union address then added “I suppose we’ll have to invite the women’s team” too. Note: the women won the same gold.

“Congratulations, Team USA!” Mr. Patel shouted while wearing a white jersey and craning his head to get into the frame of a cellphone video with Mr. Larkin, who flashed his gold medal at the camera. Another video clip showed Mr. Patel chugging most of a beer and splashing the remnants into the air as the hockey players around him cheered. Then one of players, the video showed, draped a gold medal around his neck and he raised his arms in triumph.

Phil Ochs’ Sharp, Satirical Protest Songs Still Resonate Today

Major Current Affairs piece on old pal Phil Ochs.

Some of Ochs’ critics make the mistaken assumption that his art is simply that of a singing journalist—a chronicler of, and commentator on, the major political events of his time—whose works are therefore to be evaluated by journalistic standards. (Bob Dylan, in a moment of anger toward his friend, famously sneered, “You’re not a folksinger, you’re a journalist!”) But such an approach overlooks the other major distinctive feature of Ochs’ music: its astonishing intensity of emotional expression. Ochs cared passionately about politics, empathized with the victims of injustice, was enraged by the actions of the victimizers, and found humor in the absurdity of the justifications they offered in defense of their cruelly selfish policies. Thus, his songs, including even those that are most explicitly addressed to specific political events or issues, also stand as eloquent artistic expressions of basic human emotions—especially anger, humor, and sadness.

“Santo Domingo” live.