THANKS, FELLAS: India seizes three Iran-linked US-sanctioned tankers, source says.

India has seized three US-sanctioned oil tankers linked to Iran this month and stepped up surveillance in its maritime zone to curb illicit trade, a source tells Reuters, confirming a post on X by Indian authorities earlier in February that had been deleted.

India aims to prevent its waters from being used for ship-to-ship transfers that obscure the origin of oil cargoes, the source with direct knowledge of the matter tells Reuters.

The seizures and heightened surveillance follow an improvement in US-India relations. Washington earlier this month announced it will cut import tariffs on Indian goods to 18% from 50%, after New Delhi agreed to stop Russian oil imports.

The three sanctioned vessels – Stellar Ruby, Asphalt Star and Al Jafzia – frequently changed their identities to evade law enforcement by coastal states, the source said, adding that their owners were based overseas.

Iranian state media cited the National Iranian Oil Company as saying that the three tankers seized by India had no connection to the company. It said that neither the cargoes nor the vessels were linked to the company.

Well, that’s what you’d expect Iranian state media to say.

ANOTHER NARRATIVE BUSTED: Police killed fewer Americans in 2025 under Trump than in Biden era 2023 or 2024.

ew data shows that as Trump’s unprecedented surge of federal agents poured into neighborhoods across the country, 2025 saw fewer police killings nationwide than either of the last two years of Joe Biden’s term — exactly the opposite of what many feared. Progressive police reform group Campaign Zero publishes daily data at mappingpoliceviolence.org, including figures on killings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. In 2025, their data shows 1,314 police killings compared to 1,382 in 2024 and 1,362 in 2023. Indeed, in the month in which Pretti and Good were killed in 2026, police killings were down again compared to 2025. These facts complicate the political narrative that Trump has unleashed “violent and sometimes deadly tactics … by federal immigration officers in communities across the country.” If they are so violent, why did police kill 68 fewer people in 2025 than 2024? Certainly, that’s not what I expected to happen. I don’t think anyone did.

Oh, I think Trump probably did.

Plus: “We’ll see if anyone notices that police violence went down under Trump. I doubt it.”

Even if they notice, I doubt they’ll tell.

GOODER AND HARDER:

NYC public school teachers voted overwhelmingly for Mamdani.

The United Federation of Teachers, representing NYC public school teachers, endorsed Mamdani, with 64% of delegates voting for him.

He’s now raiding their pension fund.

— Bad Hombre (@Badhombre) February 18, 2026

You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.

GOOD LORD:

The proximate source of NYC’s budget woes is we have the most expensive public schools in the country

$42k+ per student, as enrollment has dropped post pandemic, while spending keeps growing https://t.co/aXYw4PrO8Q

— Arpit Gupta (@arpitrage) February 18, 2026

NYC has about 8.4 million people, and Florida has more than 23 million.

And, of course, the state government in Albany spends on NYC residents, too.

So whatever problems NYC has, they certainly don’t stem from a lack of money.

Exit question: How much of that $42,000 per student actually reaches the classroom, and how much goes to administrators?

OLD AND BUSTED: I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It.

–Paraphrase of Voltaire’s philosophy by historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall.

The New Frenchness? French President Emmanuel Macron Says Free Speech Is ‘Pure Bulls**t’ Unless Regulated.

Translation from doublespeak to English: “I just want to be able to arrest people and seize their assets for thoughtcrimes.”

— Jason Wilkins (@TheJasonWilkins) February 18, 2026

Meanwhile in Germany, Freidrich Merz is partying like it’s 1939:

Germany’s most famous figures of civilian resistance, the Scholl siblings, for whom secrecy was a matter of survival, were captured by Nazi operatives on this day in 1943 and executed four days later. For Germany’s current leader to choose the 83rd anniversary of their capture to… https://t.co/Tag0oD6QIq

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) February 18, 2026

Tweet continues, “For Germany’s current leader to choose the 83rd anniversary of their capture to demand the unmasking of critical voices online is a grotesque display of a country that has learned nothing from its own history.”

IT NEVER IS: Gavin Newsom Wants You to Know It’s Not His Fault That He Doesn’t Know What He’s Doing.

I’LL TAKE MY STEAK RARE, WITH A SIDE OF BACON. Think chicken is healthier than beef? New study says not so fast.

FROM HOLLY CHISM:  Street Snacks (Liquid Diet Chronicles Book 5).

Don’t leave your empties lying in the streets, guys, jeez…

 

Meg Turner had a quiet six months (after the end of the monster incursion). That was because her borders were closed, but her six months of peace were up when her borders came down. While, yes, bringing her borders down allowed for a lot of postponed good things, it also allowed for an ill-considered challenge for her territory and a couple of murderers to waltz across her borders.

 

Oh, and an abandoned fledgling that had awakened to the night, buried in a dumpster. One that the Justices would have seen culled with most of the fledglings in the Kansas City nest. Thank goodness she’d sent Radu to rescue the ones that could recover from being brought over by cannibalistic monsters, and nobody official had paid attention to how many they’d rescued.

 

Between hiding an extra fledgling from the new Justice, Richmond recovering from a nasty case of PTSD, a vampire hiding his feeding on the homeless as animal attacks, and another feeding on her young vampires, Meg has her hands full.

 

And she’d really like to close her borders again, to avoid having to deal with all of this nonsense, please and thank you.

THIS IS A GLOBAL FIGHT:  RIP Quentin Deranque, 23: In the Streets of Lyon, a Young Rightist Is Beaten to Death (Video).

WELL, OF COURSE THEY ARE:  Democrats And Media AWOL On Raw Sewage Spill In Potomac River.

THE DEMOCRATS WON’T:  End the Epstein Madness.

HELPING MR. DU TOIT DO THE NEEDFUL:  Doing My Bit.

LIBERAL WOMEN, I TELL YA:  She did what?

ONCE MORE I WISH TO SUGGEST WE GIVE THE DEMS A BINKY AND SEND THEM TO BED IN THE NURSERY:  Democrats to Defy Leadership With Protests for Trump’s State of the Union.

WELL, IT IS NEEDED:  Trump Directs FEMA to Play ‘Key Role’ in Responding to Potomac Sewage Spill Disaster.

A DESPERATE CRY FOR ATTENTION:  Crybully Tucker Carlson Claims Detained At Ben Gurion Airport – US Embassy and Israelis Deny.

HE’S RIGHT, YOU KNOW:  We have been at war with Iran for the last forty years, a fact which only idiots do not grasp and only useful idiots such as yourself refuse to acknowledge. We are about to end that war, which you and your ilk refused to do no matter how much blood and treasure it cost us.

And for the Cancelled of X.

OVERMASCULINIZED CULTURES — SEE ISLAM — AIN’T BETTER. A PARTNERSHIP, NOT A FIGHT:  The consequences of an over-feminized culture.

THE FUTURE WE HOPED WE’D HAVE:  The future of American nuclear energy just touched down in Utah.

THE YOUNGER DAUGHTER IN LAW’S AD FOR HER BUSINESS WAS TAKEN DOWN BY AMAZON BECAUSE KNIVES ARE WEAPONS:  Honestly! She was showing pocket knives. not even swords. in my day we got our first pocket knife at eight. And yet most of us left childhood with all our fingers and both eyes. This nerfed world is annoying. Anyway, she has new stuff out, and is very upset at the loss of the ad.  Shiny, Sharp, and Stylish… Welcome! To Morrigan’s Mercantile!

ABOUT TIME:  Education Department scraps Biden-era race-based rules for doctoral degree grants.

DATA IS MORE ELUSIVE THAN YOU THINK:  Echo Chambers.

OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.

EVERYBODY’S WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND: U.S. military prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend, but Trump has yet to make a final call, sources say.

I REALLY ENJOY THE LACK OF RESPECT FOR PUFFED-UP ESTABLISHMENT FIGURES:

Hi dickweed, remember when your boss launched a year long unilateral war in Libya? https://t.co/xPAVxUwizq

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) February 18, 2026