Cross-Examination

• Sam Bankman-Fried reveals the truth about ESG: When mega Democrat donor and crypto currency king Sam Bankman-Fried lost a fortune in recent days, it was big news. His company, FTX, was one big virtue signal for celebrity lefties everywhere. His focus was what he called “Effective Altruism.” But he’s also now given the game away regarding the Left’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy. “In the future, I’m going to care less about the dumb, contentless, ‘good actor’ framework,” he announced. “What matters is what you do — is actually doing good or bad, not just talking about doing good or using ESG language.” As for the other folks who lost money in his venture, he feels “bad” that they were suckered into “this dumb game we woke westerners play.” Too little, too late.

• House GOP wants audit of Ukraine money: A number of House Republicans have introduced legislation to audit the funding Congress has appropriated for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion. There are important reasons to counter Russian aggression, but Ukraine is famously corrupt — ask Joe and Hunter Biden. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia led a handful of other Republicans in pushing for the audit because “the American people deserve [to know] where their hard earned tax dollars are going to a foreign country who is not a member of NATO and President Biden himself said he would not defend.” The White House just requested another $37.7 billion for Ukraine.

• Federal court creates Section 230 conflict: In a little-noticed ruling earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit Court may have altered the course of free speech on the Internet. “Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not immunize ‘all’ online publication decisions,” explains Jason Fyk, founder of the Social Media Freedom Foundation. “The Fourth Circuit Court just determined Section 230(c)(1) no longer protects a service provider when it acts upon third-party content (i.e., as a secondary publisher or content provider), especially if those substantive contributions are unlawful.” It’s the fundamental publisher vs. platform argument. The ruling creates a conflict with an earlier ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court, and it increases the likelihood that the Supreme Court will weigh in.

Headlines

• Nancy Pelosi will not seek reelection as leader of the House Democrats (Fox News)

• Hakeem Jeffries believed to be in the driver’s seat to succeed Pelosi as Democrat leader (Fox News)

• Waukesha Christmas parade killer sentenced to life in prison without parole (Daily Wire)

• Suspect accused of mowing down 25 LA sheriff’s recruits on morning run released from jail (NY Post)

• Target reports $400 million in looting losses (Breitbart)

• New FTX boss condemns Bankman-Fried for “complete failure of corporate controls” (Fox Business)

• Pentagon audit: Afghanistan war a $145 billion “Vietnam” failure (Washington Examiner)

• Kari Lake announces formation of legal team, vows to contest election results (PJ Media)

• Karen Bass elected mayor of Los Angeles (LA Times)

• Harvard and Yale law schools ditch U.S. News & World Report’s rankings (Money Watch) | Before pulling out of rankings, Yale Law School took a hit on key metric (Free Beacon)

• Former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson dies at 58 (The Hill)

• Humor: Ilhan Omar asks if she can quickly add one more kind of marriage to Respect for Marriage Act (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.