The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold

Cross-Examination

• Bipartisan push to demonetize TikTok: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are putting forth legislation to prevent the Chinese-run social media company TikTok from being a platform used by Americans to make money. It’s no secret that TikTok is subservient to the Chinese Communist Party, which uses it to suck up reams of data on its users. While TikTok claims that its user data is stored outside of China, there’s nothing to suggest that Beijing doesn’t have access to it. In light of this, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) have introduced legislation that would ban “all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern.” The bill is titled the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP (Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party) Act. This move follows several Republican-led states that have banned TikTok from state government use over security and privacy concerns, including stopping intentionally damaging influence from CCP agents. By demonetizing TikTok, users will not be able to make money on the platform, encouraging them to invest their time in other non-CCP-controlled social media platforms.

• Ben Carson’s name removed from Detroit school: Leftist wokescolds are the narrow-minded iconoclasts of the current era whose self-righteousness precludes them from tolerating any idea or individual who doesn’t conform to their own ideological sensitivities. Thus, it comes as little surprise that the woke school board in Detroit, Michigan, decided to remove the name of Dr. Benjamin Carson from a high school named in his honor. Carson’s hometown is eschewing one its own most successful and inspiring local heroes — a black man, no less — solely due to the fact that Carson is a member of the “wrong” political party. “Cancel culture is alive and well,” Carson said in response to the school board’s decision. “Political correctness, wokeness, cancel culture, this is going to destroy us as a nation if we don’t get a grip on it.” Former staff members of Carson’s when he served as the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development penned a letter challenging the decision. Carson “has impeccable morals, impeccable character,” they said, adding: “[For] the students who are at that school, certainly he is somebody they can look up to, that they can try to emulate. He’s a great example of our country.” The same cannot be said for the wokescolds who run most public schools.

• Richmond digs up General A.P. Hill’s remains: Speaking of iconoclasts, the city of Richmond, Virginia, continued its crusade to expunge any vestiges of Confederate history from public view, even digging up the buried remains of famed Confederate General A.P. Hill on Tuesday. Hill’s casket had been buried under a monument featuring a statue of his likeness. Hill, who was killed in the waning days of the War Between the States, had been buried at that spot in Richmond for over 130 years. The grave site and statue were on public land and the city has been in a two-year-long legal battle with the descendants of Hill over the statue’s removal and subsequent ownership. Richmond’s Democrat Mayor Levar Stoney celebrated Hill’s removal by stating: “Over two years ago, Richmond was home to more Confederate statues than any city in the United States. Collectively, we have closed that chapter.” Stoney then obtusely added, “We now continue the work of being a more inclusive and welcoming place where ALL belong.” We’re not sure how “all” belong when leftists are toppling statues and literally digging up bones to get rid of them. Furthermore, the record shows that Hill, who was never a slaver owner, despised slavery and spoke against the injustice of lynchings. But of course, inconvenient facts like those are irrelevant to people who wish to remove and rewrite history to suit their own current twisted ideological agenda.

Headlines

• Biden signs radical Respect for Marriage Act into law surrounded by LGBTQ lawmakers and drag queens (Daily Signal)

• Biden calls to challenge “cynical” laws “targeting transgender children” (National Review)

• Criminal charges against Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried unsealed, faces life in prison (Daily Wire)

• Government corrects email to nine million people about “approved” student loan forgiveness (ABC News)

• Fed likely to slow interest rate hikes at final meeting of the year (Fox Business)

• Congressional negotiators reach agreement on framework for funding deal (NBC News)

• Kevin McCarthy tells members he is a “hell no” on omnibus spending bill (Washington Examiner)

• Biden reportedly lashed out about media fixating on his age: “You think I don’t know how f—ing old I am?” (Fox News)

• Joe Manchin’s eye-opening answer to “party switch” question suggests he knows what’s coming (RedState)

• Georgia could be the next state to try ranked choice voting (Reason)

• Blacklisted Russian propagandists thrive on right-wing apps Gab and Truth Social, study finds. (You mean like Russian trolls thrived on left-wing apps like Facebook and Twitter?) (NBC News)

• American Academy of Pediatrics suggests parental rights advocates want to roll back child abuse protections (PM)

• Ex-CNN producer John Griffin pleads guilty to child sex charge (NY Post)

• Sexual abuse rampant in federal prisons, bipartisan investigation finds (The Hill)

• Democrat governor commutes all of Oregon’s death sentences (Blaze Media)

• AOC climate doc redefines “box office bomb,” averages $81 per theater in dismal opening weekend (Daily Wire)

• Humor: Elon Musk buys Santa’s Workshop, releases emails showing how naughty and nice lists were created (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.