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

DID THEY SPRAY ENOUGH OF THAT FLEX-SEAL STUFF ON IT? NASA will fuel up its Artemis 2 moon rocket for the 2nd time on Feb. 19. Will it leak again?

No joke, in our old house we had a leaky skylight. Roofing guys couldn’t fix it. Finally I got on the roof and sprayed two cans of that flex-seal stuff that’s advertised on late-night TV all around it. No more leaks. Granted, there were no cryogenics involved, but still. If there are more problems tomorrow, maybe it’s worth a try. I mean, it can turn a screen door into a boat . . . .

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): School secretary, 31, accused of having sex with two students after husband catches her with one of them. “Hughes was transported to Randolph County Jail, where she is being held on a $25,000 cash-only bond.”