After three years of the New York Post and Fox News reporting on it, and the NYT and CNN (et al.) debunking it, the truth is out. On Mar. 17, the Times quietly acknowledged that it has been wrong. The story of Hunter Biden’s laptop – with all its incriminating evidence – was not a “conspiracy theory.”

The contents of the laptop show that, during the time his father was vice president, Hunter and his uncle James were receiving millions of dollars from foreign countries. For example:

* The Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy paid Hunter $6 million for “consulting” and “legal” fees, and another $1 million for finding a US lawyer to defend Patrick Ho, a Chinese spy.

* The Bidens also received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the widow of Russian oligarch Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow.

Other deals were done in Qatar, Russia, and Ukraine.

The story originally broke on Oct. 14, 2020, when the Post ran a front-page story, detailing how emails from the laptop tied Hunter and his father to Ukrainian business partners.

It was dismissed as fake news by the mainstream media, social media, and even some US intelligence officials. You may remember the big ad placed in the NYT by 50 former intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan and James Clapper, calling the laptop story “Russian disinformation.” You may also remember that Twitter deplatformed the Post for two weeks.

Throughout the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden repeatedly denied any knowledge of or connection to Hunter’s overseas business. During the second presidential debate, he claimed that stories about his son’s laptop were “a Russian plant.”

After the NYT admitted that there was indeed a real story here, The Washington Post followed suit. And since then, facts have been gradually coming to light.

Click here.

Voter Fraud Charged in Michigan 

A Michigan county elections official and former township clerk was charged with ballot tampering related to the Aug. 2020 primary election, according to State Attorney General Dana Nessel. Nessel alleged that Kathy Funk purposely broke a seal on a container for ballots so that the votes couldn’t be totaled during an anticipated recount. She narrowly won reelection in the unofficial count, the AG’s office said. Ballot tampering is a felony in Michigan, carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison upon conviction. Click here.

COVID Outbreak in China 

Tens of millions of residents across China are under lockdown as the country grapples with its worst reported COVID-19 outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic. Officials recorded almost 3,400 new cases Sunday, double the previous day, with the virus spreading in 18 provinces. Some have argued the country’s zero-tolerance approach and reliance on viral vector vaccines has left it vulnerable to the more transmissible omicron variant.

Meanwhile, cases in the US have fallen to around 36,000 per day – still 10 times higher than the spike in China. And researchers are saying that the omicron BA.2 subvariant is unlikely to spur a new surge in infections.

About Race-Based College Admissions 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University are being sued for their race-based admissions policies, which hold Asian and White students to higher standards because of their skin color.

The lawsuits were filed by a group of interested parties, including two unnamed students who were rejected from Harvard and UNC. One had a perfect ACT score, two 800s on SAT II subject exams, and was valedictorian of his high school.

According to the InsideHigherEd website:

“What Harvard calls a holistic approach to admissions (in which applicants are reviewed individually, with a range of criteria considered) is actually a disguise for racial balancing in a system where Asian Americans are held to higher standards for admission, according to the lawsuit. As evidence, the lawsuit says that the racial demographics of Harvard’s admitted class, first-year enrollment, and total student body have remained stable over the last several years.”

Problems With NFTs 

NFTs are hot, especially in the art world. But it’s highly unlikely they will get to the next level, so long as there are reports of them being stolen.

Such as this one. Click here.

And this one. Click here.

What’s Wrong With the Thinking Behind Intersectionality Theories? 

One thing you can’t deny about Critical Race Theory and other intersectionality theories is that they share a seductively simple logic. You begin with a premise that sounds sort of correct. You are asked: Do you accept that? If you say, no, you are disqualified from any further conversation. If you say yes, you are logically bound to accept every absurd claim that derives from it.

For example, here is the logic of Critical Race Theory as expressed by Ibram Kendi in his bestseller How to Be an Anti-Racist:

* Blacks and Whites are created equal. One race is not better than the other.

* And yet, when it comes to wealth, income, education, and other measures of social prestige, Blacks rank considerably lower than Whites.

* Since, as we agreed, Blacks and Whites are equal, the only possible explanation for these disproportionalities (differences measured in terms of percentage of population) is intrinsic/institutional racism.

That was the logic behind a change in the law in Seattle recently, when a study showed that Black bike riders were disproportionally cited for not wearing helmets.

The study did not ask, “Do Blacks ride bicycles without helmets more often than Whites?” Because – given the fact that we are equal and should expect equal outcomes in all metrics – such a question would be racist.

Seattle’s solution? Rescind the law.

As a sort-of Libertarian (to borrow a phrase from P.J. O’Rourke), I wholeheartedly approve of the rescission. But not the logic.

Update on “Sh*thole” Cities 

Homeless man says this liberal city practically pays him to be homeless. Click here.

Update on Pandemic Mandates 

On Feb. 9, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said it would not reinstate President Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal employees, declining to overrule a lower court that had put the order on hold. The appeals court declined to stay the lower-court injunction against the mandate by a 2-1 vote, and asked both parties to file arguments in March.

Meanwhile. On Feb. 18, Biden extended the “national pandemic emergency,” started by Trump, that allows the government to keep in force all sorts of mandates and requirements that would otherwise be unconstitutional.

 How the CDC Peddles Misleading “Science” 

During the height of the pandemic, the CDC published a poster claiming that wearing a mask in indoor public settings lowered the odds of testing positive for COVID.

However, the study cited in the poster says it doesn’t. In fact, while the poster states that cloth masks reduced the risk of testing positive for COVID by 56%, the study itself says that wearing a mask may make you 17% more likely to test positive than wearing no mask at all. (You might notice that an asterisk in the fine print at the bottom of the poster explains that the claim is “Not statistically significant.”) Click here.

Stocks Are Down: What to Do? 

The stock market took a drop on Tuesday after the Ukraine story got scary. On Wednesday and Thursday, the financial media was full of advice on what to do. Sell? Hold? Buy?

The answer depends.

If you are a trader, you should have already followed your sell signals.

If you are an investor, it depends on what sort of companies you own and what sort of time perspective you have.

If, like me, you own strong companies that will be here in 10 years, you might want to do what I’m doing: holding with an eye out to buying more.

Otherwise, you should look at each stock in your portfolio individually and ask the following questions:

* Will the company be here in 10 years?

* Has anything about it changed fundamentally?

* Will its customers stop buying its products?

* Will its sales collapse?

* Will its profits disappear?

The answers will tell you what to do.

Another thought: In times like these, I think of Warren Buffett’s famous quote: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”