@benfranklinsaid.bsky.social

The Founders are appalled. Loves checks and balances, functional markets, boring banks, anticorruption and Lina Khan. Alex Pretti was a true American patriot 🇺🇸

After WIRED contacted Meta about the ads, they were removed for violating policies on child sexual exploitation. However, the researchers kept finding more of the ads—including duplicates of those reported. Hours before we published, they found another 30, including multiple that were 'live' ads

Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.

wired.com

This is the second time in as many months when Meta's ads have been linked to child sexual abuse material—a BBC investigation last month looked at Instagram ads www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Reports *today* suggest Zuckerberg apologized to officials about this www.scmp.com/news/asia/so...

Zuckerberg apologises to India over child sexual abuse content on Meta platforms

The Meta Platforms ⁠CEO also apologised for deepfake content and operational ‌lapses on the company’s platforms, according to a report.

scmp.com

NEW: Over the last few months, Meta has run dozens of paid ads that included AI-generated CSAM. The ads, some of which were linking out to “nudify” apps, targeted men in the US, UK, and a dozen European countries. Some were running in the last few days

Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.

wired.com

As of last night, there are now *7* pastors, former pastors and seminarians who've become Democratic nominees running for Congress. Some have already won safe Dem seats, and several are in hotly contested races. In multiple cases, the GOP has attacked their faith. religionnews.com/2026/08/04/p...

'They're not real pastors': As clergy run as Democrats, Republicans question their faith

(RNS) — 'It's a sign that they are really scared they're gonna lose this seat,' the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor running for Congress in Iowa, said. She is part of a wave of religious ...

religionnews.com

Yep. Earlier this year I was interviewed by Sharyn Alfonsi of 60 Minutes about my Epstein investigation. Subsequently, CBS pulled the segment and fired the reporter. The MAGA buyout of media is aiding the Trump administration’s Epstein cover up.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · yesterday

Banks permitted millions in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein—and former 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the story months ago. But the report would never air. trib.al/ZShZlIS

As his confirmation to lead the Justice Department hung by a thread last week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told faith leaders on a private call that he was preparing to take action to roll back abortion access nationwide. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

Blanche assures anti-abortion supporters that Dobbs will be ‘permanent in every single state’

The acting attorney general made the remarks during a private call with faith leaders.

politico.com

They're probably hoping you won't hear about this. But tomorrow in TX, Tarrant County officials meet to vote on a GOP plan to cut almost HALF of Election Day voting locations, plus 8 early voting locations, some of them on campuses. Not hard to guess why. fortworthreport.org/2026/07/30/t...

Tarrant County considers cutting 140 Election Day polling sites for November

County commissioners vote Aug. 4 on proposed reductions to the number of early voting and day-of sites for the midterms.

fortworthreport.org

Imagine if Obama took every opportunity to publicly insult Republican cities and states, to selectively cut their funding, refuse them emergency aid, meddle in their elections, send troops into their streets… Disgusted by Republicans who still back this goon and his active dismantling of the US.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d ago

Trump: "Look at the blue cities. What do they have in common? They're all dirty. They're filthy dirty. Their streets are dirty. Their streets smell. Their storefronts are broken. Their trees are all gross. Everything about the place is dirty. It's really all of them."

The effective federal corporate income tax rate: 1950: 50% 1990: 25% 2020: 13% Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate. That is how we will pay for it.

Wall Street traders can now pay for early access to Trump's Truth Social posts. The President regularly uses his platform to announce policy decisions that impact the market. A corporate CEO would get jail time for this. Trump's getting a pay bump.

Not at all clear that the narrowing of the IRS claims waiver in the Trump settlement is "binding." That's simply Blanche's interpretation at this point. Nothing to stop other Trump family members, affiliates, trusts, etc., from claiming they can rely on the original wording

Bild

NEW: Two government watchdog groups have demanded an investigation into whether FCC officials violated ethics requirements by accepting luxury gala tickets from Paramount as it sought federal approval for its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.

FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount

Citing a ProPublica report on Paramount providing luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets to FCC officials, the complaints note that commissioners accepted the gifts while the FCC was reviewing or about to...

propublica.org

The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.

The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor

The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.

futurism.com