February 28, 2026- U.S./Israel attacks on Iranian targets and Pakistan declares war on Afghanistan

This is an NBC News report on the U.S. and Israeli military strikes that began overnight on multiple targets in Iran.  This news report includes the statement by U.S. President Donald Trump released early this morning.  According to the reports, Israel and the U.S. are beginning an extended military campaign against Iran, and they are seeking regime change.  

I'm documenting this news here on my blog, because these strikes are obviously the beginning of a set of actions that will have many intended effects, and undoubtedly, a lot of unintended effects.  These effects could very likely affect much of the world, in a variety of ways.  In addition to the human consequences of all the places being hit by the initial strikes, and Iran's counter strikes, a major rise in oil prices worldwide seems inevitable, affecting millions or billions more people to some degree.  The United States Congress has not declared war on Iran at this point, and their response remains to be seen.  

At this point, about 12:30 pm Pacific time here in California, we don't know how long these military strikes are intended to last.  No one knows how long the unintended effects will last, and ripple through the rest of the world in many ways.  This is a major action, and not a whole lot is known about where these military strikes will lead in the weeks, months, and years to come.  

In addition to the strikes in Iran, Pakistan has declared "open war" on Afghanistan, over the past day or two.  Pakistan is one of the nine known nuclear armed nations, which makes this conflict even more potentially dangerous.  

As of today, we have three conjoined countries involved in two different wars in the region us Americans refer to as "the Middle East."  See the map (Google Maps still shot) below for reference.  Again, no one knows now all of the many effects these actions will have in the future.  

Here's a You Tube video from geo-political analyst Peter Zeihan with more information on what we know so far about the current military actions.   "... A lot going on... more to come..."- Peter Zeihan

Today, February 28, 2026, is one of those days which will have major historical consequences, however these two wars, and the coming actions by all parties, play out in the future.  I'm posting this to mark this day in time, and it may become something to look back at, months or years from now, as the many consequences play out and continue over time. 

The Big Push- Ren- and Chinchilla- Great young musicians from the U.K.

The Big Push covering Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," last summer in Bristol.  This video just dropped last week on YouTube.  The Big Push formed in 2017, in the U.K., and is made up of Ren Gill, Romain Axisa, Gorran Kendall, and Glenn Chambers.  Ren, Romain, and Gorran switch off on lead vocals and backing vocals, depending on the song.  Most of the time, Romain plays lead guitar.  Ren plays lead guitar on occasion, as well as rhythm guitar and bass.  Gorran plays acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, and bass.  These guys are best known for a whole bunch of great street performing videos playing a really wide variety of cover songs, with many millions of views among them.  Simply put, they rock.  This post will link a few of my favorite videos from The Big Push, as well as some of Ren's solo and duet work, mind blowing videos, and raps, and Chinchilla's work.  If you like any of these, there are many more videos on YouTube, and probably elsewhere, to check these amazing musicians out.  

And to all the salty, crusty, old geezers like me, The Big Push, Ren, and Chinchilla are proof that not all new music sucks.  

The Big Push- "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"- Bob Dylan cover

The Big Push- "I Shot the Sheriff/Road to Zion/Hip Hop" - Bob Marley & The Wailers cover

The Big Push- "Sympathy for the Devil"- Rolling Stones cover- Live at the Brighton Dome

The Big Push- "Passenger" - Souxsie & The Banshees cover

The Big Push- "Paint it Black"- Rolling Stones cover

The Big Push- "War Pigs"- Black Sabbath cover

The Big Push- "Heroes"- David Bowie cover

The Big Push- "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"- Cyndi Lauper cover

Ren

Ren- "Hi Ren" 

This mind blowing original song and video changed my life.  An old BMX freestyle friend in England, Alex Leech, shared this video on Facebook, shortly after it came out on YouTube.  I think it had less than 3 million views when I first watched it, about three years ago, this video has over 65 million views now.  After watching this video, and several other of Ren's videos that night, I started writing poetry again.  I had only written 3 or 4 poems between 2008 and 2022.  I managed to lose all copies of ten years worth of poetry, 165 of the best poems I've ever written, in 2008, when I got pushed out of California and wound up in living in North Carolina for ten years.  After losing that much work (and all my video master tapes and raw footage), the poetry in me just left.  I had no urge to write poems.  

The utter brilliance of "Hi Ren" motivated me to try and start writing poems again.  I haven't written that many, but most of the new poems I've written since (like this one) have been pretty decent, long epic poems.  I also took a break from the kind of Sharpie drawings I had been doing for years, those based on classic photos of musicians, and I drew a couple of big Sharpie Scribble Style drawings straight out of my head.  I did that just to get out of my personal rut, and challenge myself a bit creatively.  Seriously, this song and video had an incredible creative effect on me.  Thanks Ren.  I still watch this video sometimes to get into a deep, creative vibe.  

Ren- "The Tale of Jenny of Screech"

Ren- "Money Game Part 2"- rap/song

Ren- "Bittersweet Symphony" - Original roaming video- original rap/The Verve cover

Ren- "Bittersweet Symphony" - rap/The Verve cover- second version video with live strings

Ren- "Vincent's Tale- Starry Night"- rap

Ren X Chinchilla  (Ren duets with Chinchilla- about 2021-22)

Ren X Chinchilla- "Chalk Outlines" 

Ren X Chinchilla- "How to be me" live  This is a fucking incredible song and performance. 

Ren X Chinchilla- "Sexual Healing" live- Marvin Gaye cover

Chinchilla- 

Chinchilla- "I put a spell on you"- Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover- The Voice UK- blind auditions 2023

Chinchilla- "Little Girl Gone" video

Chinchilla- "Cut You Off" video

Chinchilla- "Fingers"- live for Hunger TV

Chinchilla- "OK As I Am"- video

These five young people from the U.K. are all incredible musicians.  If any of these tracks piqued your interest, dig into their work on YouTube and anywhere else you find music, there's a lot more out there.  

I do most of my writing on Substack now, a platform created specifically for writers, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear Substack

Keith Treanor podcast on The Union Tapes

Keith Treanor, born and raised in New Jersey, came out to Huntington Beach and rode and rode and rode and wound up riding for S&M Bikes for years.  In this podcast, #43 for The Union Tapes podcast out of the U.K., Keith goes through his life in BMX, from early days on the East Coast, the days coming up as an unknown amateur in the Huntington Beach/Orange County, California scene, and all through his years as a pro riding for S&M Bikes.  

I remember meeting Keith at the Oceanview Jump, a freestyler fly out jump at Oceanview High School in Huntington Beach.  That jump was an amazing set-up, a long, concrete sidewalk runway to a 6 1/2 foot high jump up to flat.  Keith flat out RULED on that jump, no one even came close to getting as high out of the Oceanview Jump as Keith did.  In my 1990 video, The Ultimate Weekend, Oceanview made for a cool jumping segment (for that time) at 23:22* in the video.  In one shot, Keith is a good 10 feet out, in a full tuck, landing to flat.  That was insane for that era, where you could easily snap a frame or forks coming down from that high up.  I've personally seen Keith go a good 1 1/2 to 2 feet higher than that, 12 feet up to flat, but didn't get it on video.  

Keith Treanor with a one handed 360 at the Oceanview fly out jump, which they mention in the interview.  He's about 4 feet up, going from right to left, in this still shot.  

I was already shooting video footage on the weekends, to make my own video, which became The Ultimate Weekend, when I remember meeting Keith and John Povah at Oceanview.  I used to ride there, as well.  When I started making that video, GT rider Jess Dyrenforth was supposed to be the star of the video.  But every time I wanted to go shoot video, Jess was busy.  He was riding for GT Bikes, and was deep into the inline skating world, as well.  After I met Keith and John, I'd call them up, and Keith was always down to ride, and John was too, when not busy with his auto painting job.  Keith was young, hungry, and would just go off anywhere we went, so he ended up being the star of the video.  

Here's another still shot from The Ultimate Weekend, with Keith doing the first 360 over a spine ever to appear in a BMX video.  Gary Laurent did a 360 over the spine a few minutes later.  In 1990, peg grinds, mini-ramps, handrails, and a lot of things were just starting to happen at the time, so every video of that era had lots of "world firsts" or "firsts on video" in it.   

This mini-ramp set up above was amazing for its day, this was the backyard of freestyle skaters Primo and Diane Desiderio, who were working in the City Streets show at Sea World at the time.  Gary Laurent also rode in the show, I believe, and he got the OK to take us to this ramp, even though Primo and Diane weren't home.  Gary had those ramps wired, but he had never tried a 360 over the spine.  Keith, still really new to mini-ramps, because only a couple of them existed then, stepped it up to 3 over the spine.  Then Gary had to do it. Because riding was evolving so fast then, every video that came out in that era had a bunch of world firsts, or firsts on video.  So this was only the second or third mini-ramp ever in a BMX video, and Keith did the first 360 over a spine on video.  These are just a few of my memories of those early days (1990-1994ish) hanging out and riding with Keith and John Povah.  

There's a whole lot more in the podcast above, Keith talks us through his whole BMX career.  If you're a rider from the 1990's era, check it out.  

The Ultimate Weekend- 1990 - Beginning with 7 shots in the intro, Keith Treanor appears throughout the video.  

Keith Treanor- S&M Bikes- Feel My Leg Muscles... I'm a Racer- 1991

Keith Treanor- S&M Bikes- 44 Something- 1993

Keith Treanor- Dirty Deeds- 1994 (?)

Keith Treanor- S&M Bikes- BMX Inferno- 1995

I do most of my writing on Substack these days, a platform designed specifically for writers, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

* Right before the Oceanview segment, there's a shot of me doing a double peg grind on a little ledge in Huntington Beach in early August of 1990.  That year, 1990, the year I was working on shooting and producing the video, The Ultimate Weekend, was the year that BMX freestylers took double peg grinds, the BMX version of a 50/50 grind on a skateboard, onto the streets.  In this ridiculously self-serving Substack post, I dug into the various people who did the first double peg street grinds on video, and approximately when they did them.  If you are interested in the very beginning of the double peg grinds that led to all of handrail, hubba, and ledge grinds in the last 35 years, check this post out.