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Today: 56 articles and 157 comments as of 19:58.
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A list of 300 influential figures from Epstein's files has been published
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
6 16:18 DarthVader [1797] 
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Page 4: Opinion
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1 07:40 Procopius2k [1759]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Massachusetts auditor takes transparency fight to high court after alleged $12M fraud uncovered
[FoxNews] Diana DiZoglio says she seeks to enforce voter-approved audit law that passed with 72% support

A Democratic state auditor is taking Massachusetts legislative leaders, including members of her own party, to court after uncovering nearly $12 million in alleged fraud in public assistance programs, seeking to enforce a voter-approved audit law.

"What are they hiding? If there's nothing to hide, open up the doors, let the sun shine in. Let's do this audit," Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio said on "Saturday in America."

DiZoglio, a Democrat and former member of both the Massachusetts House and Senate, is filing a complaint with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to enforce a 2024 ballot measure that authorized her office to audit the legislature. The measure passed with 72% support.

The legal action follows a report from the Massachusetts State Auditor's Office identifying nearly $12 million in alleged fraud in fiscal year 2025 alone across several public assistance programs.

DiZoglio notified legislative leaders earlier this year of her intent to conduct a performance audit but said House and Senate leaders refused to provide the necessary documents. She added that the state attorney general declined to intervene.

"This is something that 72% of voters came out to support, crossing party lines," she said.

"You had progressive Democrats joining together with conservative Republicans. And essentially saying that they want this audit to get done."

According to the auditor, Massachusetts is the only state in the nation where the legislature, governor’s office and court system exempt themselves from the state’s public records law.

She argues the newly approved audit authority would bring long-sought transparency to taxpayer-funded records, including financial receipts and state contracts.

"This is about transparency and accountability," DiZoglio added.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/16/2026 01:25 || Comments || Link || [1797 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do I predict a Repeal of the Law is in the works?
Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/16/2026 5:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I bet that the fraudsters are trying to find trying very hard to find some dirt on Diana - yes I remember the Michael Jackson song.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/16/2026 6:02 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 || 02/16/2026 6:12 Comments || Top||

#4  $12M? Rounding error in Minnesota or California.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2026 7:41 Comments || Top||

#5  A honest Democrat in Massachusetts? Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?
Posted by: Chantry || 02/16/2026 9:15 Comments || Top||

#6  An honest demoncrat anywhere is the end of the world time. However I would fully check her reasons for doing this. I doubt they are pure.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/16/2026 16:18 Comments || Top||


-Great Cultural Revolution
DataRepublican applies OpenClaw AI to philanthropists’ financial filings, found 30 root funders incl. Reid Hoffman, lowers boom
The lady is at the top end of the practical genius range. Given that Mr. Hoffman has claimed he can’t keep track of all his charitable giving, this is a service to the donors as well as the feds…
… not for lack of effort, but because I’ve been hard at work automating myself using OpenClaw. Not for the boring (and socially risky) use cases of social media or email monitoring. No, I set to build a full-fledged research assistant that has access to FEC records, 990s, and has a strict entity resolution pipeline. Every question I ask it, it gets smarter because it automatically rolls in its own discoveries to the various graph databases it has.

One of the problems in tracking money flows is that the same funders have multiple pass-through sources. Which means that any given nonprofit will often have an intractable money flow graph with thousands of nodes.

So naturally… one of the first things I did with OpenClaw was to identify root funder philanthropies and group them. This was a completely unsupervised process. That grouping alone eliminated 80%+ of edge/node traversals because the big families love obscuring their own trails. Just look at how many foundations Pierre Omidyar owns.

And wouldn’t you know it? OpenClaw identifies YOU among one of the 30-ish root funding mega-rich families ruining this country.

Exact report:

• Aphorism Foundation (EIN 46-4347021) — $68M across 51 grants (2022-2023). His and Michelle Yee's main charitable vehicle. Top recipients: Stanford ($10M), New America Foundation ($4.2M), Chan Zuckerberg Biohub ($4M), MIT ($1.8M), Harvard ($1.5M)

• Apercen Partners LLC (EIN 83-1589303 / 83-3181719) — Two c4 entities, $1.85M out. President/Chair. Recipients:

• Rapid Resist Action ($755K) — anti-Trump rapid response

• IPI Action Fund ($500K)• VoteAmerica ($250K)

• VoteAmerica ($250K)

• Catalist ($200K) — Democratic voter data firm

• Grab Your Wallet ($100K) — Trump boycott org

• More Perfect Union Action ($45K)BOARD SEATS:

• Lever for Change (EIN 83-3044655) — MacArthur Foundation affiliate, $20M budget. Director 2020-2023• Kiva — microfinance platform (board member)

• Endeavor Global — entrepreneur network

• B Lab — B Corp certifier (also gets $1M from Aphorism)

KEY GRANTEES WORTH NOTING:

• New America Foundation — $4.2M. Major think tank, Google-linked

• Center of Complex Interventions — $3.2M. Behavioral research

• UBI Charitable — $1M. Universal basic income advocacy• Cortico — $1M. "Constructive dialogue" / media narrative tech•

Mercatus Center — $360K. Libertarian-leaning (George Mason)

• Players Philanthropy Fund — $1M. Fiscal sponsor (like Tides)

• Aspen Institute UK — $307K

Sooooo…. If all this is right… then..:

You’re adjacent to the powers that be which have been in control of the entire Western world for a century, and thus are responsible for its failure.

You don’t get to squirm your≠ way out of this.


Posted by: trailing wife || 02/16/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1807 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DataRepublican is wrecking corrupt people like Lawrence Taylor wrecked defenses.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/16/2026 5:04 Comments || Top||


#3  How come Rantburg never gets one of these grants?
Posted by: Matt || 02/16/2026 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  "The FBI has cleared me".

Was that prissy Wray or "pay me the Epstein Kash" Patel. Not a hill I would brag over.
Posted by: Woodrow || 02/16/2026 12:58 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Former President Obama declares aliens are REAL as he gives inside track on Area 51
[MAIL] Barack Obama declared that aliens are 'real' before firmly dismissing long-running conspiracy theories that extraterrestrials are being hidden at Area 51.

The candid exchange offered a rare glimpse into what presidents may know when it comes to one of America's most enduring mysteries.

The former president made the remarks when interviewer Brian Tyler Cohen asked him directly: 'Are aliens real?'

Obama's answer was direct: 'Uh, they're real, but I haven't seen them,' he said, before immediately addressing speculation surrounding Area 51, the secretive US military facility in Nevada that has long been at the center of extraterrestrial conspiracy theories.
Then he doesn’t know, he merely trusts and believes.
'And they're not being kept in uh what is it? Area 51!' Obama continued. 'There's no underground facility unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.'
You mean like Deep State bureaucrats running interference on behalf of the previous president to keep the new guy from accomplishing goals contrary to his predecessor’s objectives? Nah, such a thing is unpossible.
His comments — delivered with a mix of humor and authority — amounted to a clear rejection of claims that the U.S. government is secretly housing alien life forms at the classified base.

Area 51 has fueled decades of speculation, particularly since the Cold War, when its remote desert location and classified operations made it a natural target for rumors about UFOs and extraterrestrial cover-ups.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1791 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Former President Obama declares aliens are REAL

And he's one of them?
Posted by: Grom the Affective || 02/16/2026 1:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Did anybody else have “ Obama declares aliens are real “ on their bingo card?
Posted by: Knuckles Grundy1702 || 02/16/2026 2:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Mybe Obama should have inhaled!

The lack of O2 is affecting his brain!
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 02/16/2026 4:01 Comments || Top||

#5 

The problem with this is...I have to believe Obama.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/16/2026 5:29 Comments || Top||

#6  I don’t dispute everything Obama says because he does it for me. He contradicts himself in his lies so much that I just move on. He’s not irrelevant; he’s still pulling strings and controlling minions, but I ignore what he says. Obama’s words are a siren luring America towards destruction.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/16/2026 5:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I called it!
I didn't think Obama would be the messenger but it makes sense. Michelle Obama's private jet is associated with Epstein after all those girls went missing in Africa. They need a big story to knock the awful truth off the airwaves.
Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 || 02/16/2026 6:10 Comments || Top||

#8  ^ Little early to start day-drinking, isn't it?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2026 6:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Proverbs 6:16-19 lists six things that the Lord hates, with a seventh being an abomination: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and one who stirs up conflict in the community.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/16/2026 6:38 Comments || Top||

#10  It is haram to blasphemy the Light Bringer.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2026 7:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Proc, it sounds like he has all his bases covered.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/16/2026 8:23 Comments || Top||

#12  #11

Except Base 51 it would seem :)
Posted by: Warthog || 02/16/2026 8:35 Comments || Top||

#13  ^ Little early to start day-drinking, isn't it?

Five myths about loneliness
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/16/2026 9:59 Comments || Top||

#14  Considering I think he is just throwing smoke and a false trail... he isn't the president anymore and has ZERO authority to release classified information.

Keep talking and if true, the handcuffs could be waiting. And no, not the sexy fun ones.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/16/2026 10:26 Comments || Top||

#15  The first honest thing Barry has uttered.
Posted by: Woodrow || 02/16/2026 12:56 Comments || Top||

#16  but I haven't seen them,' he said

I think he's seen Michelle.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/16/2026 15:15 Comments || Top||

#17  Just joking, ha ha! Fomr the Israel Times today:

Shutting down buzz, Obama says no evidence aliens have made contact
Former US president clarifies he wasn’t saying he knows aliens exist during jocular interview, only that they likely do, but probably have not visited Earth


Posted by: trailing wife || 02/16/2026 15:17 Comments || Top||

#18  #8 That sounds like an amateur statement!
Posted by: chris || 02/16/2026 15:28 Comments || Top||

#19  ^ I was posing more of a qualitative assessment of #7
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2026 17:55 Comments || Top||

#20  As a Finnish buddy often says, "You can't drink all day if you don't start early."
Posted by: SteveS || 02/16/2026 18:38 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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1Palestinian Authority
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1[untagged]
1Antifa/BLM
1Commies
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Syria/HTS
1Human Trafficking

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
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trailing wife
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Glenmore
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2026-02-16
  A list of 300 influential figures from Epstein's files has been published
Sun 2026-02-15
  IDF strikes gunmen who approached troops in north Gaza after emerging from tunnel
Sat 2026-02-14
  Men jailed in UK for Islamic State-inspired plot to kill hundreds of Jews
Fri 2026-02-13
  US, Colombian forces intercept narco-sub with 10 tons of cocaine worth $441M, arresting 4 traffickers
Thu 2026-02-12
  US prepping to send 2nd carrier strike group to Mideast — Wall Street Journal
Wed 2026-02-11
  IDF forces located and destroyed a weapons depot belonging to the military-terrorist wing al-Jama’a al-Islamiya
Tue 2026-02-10
  IDF says it killed four Hamas gunmen who emerged from Rafah tunnel, fired on troops
Mon 2026-02-09
  At Least 112 USAF C-17 Aircraft Headed To Middle East: 'Desert Storm Levels'
Sun 2026-02-08
  Nioro du Sahel in Mali under siege
Sat 2026-02-07
  The death toll from the suicide bombing at a mosque in Islamabad’s Tarlai area has risen to 31; ISIS claims responsibility
Fri 2026-02-06
  Mastermind behind Benghazi attack arrested and in US custody as Bondi takes dig at Hillary Clinton
Thu 2026-02-05
  FBI arrests 55 in massive drug ring with alleged China supplier flooding US streets with fentanyl
Wed 2026-02-04
  Military airstrike neutralizes 27 Bad Guys in Katsina dawn operation
Tue 2026-02-03
  Over 100 mortar shells found in UNRWA bags in Gaza
Mon 2026-02-02
  In Minneapolis Antifa set up checkpoints to check IDs against their data base for ICE agents


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