(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 10 things you need to know this Wednesday – February 16, 2022

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Gasoline Prices Rise Across US Again, Experts Warn More Pain At Pump Coming – The price of gasoline has risen across the United States again as experts warn that more pain could lie ahead at the pumps for Americans.

The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline currently stands at $3.488, an increase of more than 30 percent since the same time last year, when it was $2.505 a gallon, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA). – READ MORE

Gas at $7.70 a Gallon? UK Pump Prices Hit New Highs – A combination of high taxes and constrained supply continues to push fuel prices ever upwards, with average prices at the pump reaching a dizzying new high in the United Kingdom, with petroleum selling on average for £1.48 a litre — $7.60 a U.S. gallon — for the first time.

Britain’s Automobile Association (AA) has revealed that average vehicle fuel prices over the weekend had hit new highs, with petrol (gas) on sale at 148.02 pence a litre ($7.60 a U.S. gallon) and diesel at 151.57 pence ($7.76 a U.S. gallon). These are new historic highs, nudging out the previous high at the end of last year. – READ MORE

Walmart Has Started Putting Steaks Inside “Locked Metal Cages” To Keep Shoplifters From Taking Them – Has it really come to this? We all knew that shoplifting was getting really bad all over the nation, but does Walmart really need to start locking up the steaks? I was stunned when I first learned that pharmacies in our core urban areas were locking up toothpaste and deodorant, but I didn’t think that we were already at a point where supermarkets would start locking up the food. I don’t know about you, but to me this is an extremely chilling omen…  – READ MORE

Seattle’s Soda Tax Goes Horribly Wrong – Once again Seattle lawmakers have shown their pre-existing vulnerability to social contagion with predictably embarrassing results. Like nearly every cockamamie scheme cooked up by their fellow travelers on the West Coast, Messed Coast, almost all have backfired spectacularly. And each promulgator has a deadly comorbidity – Leftism.

Plastic bag bans. Replacing those plastic bags with their thicker plastic bags. Gun “control.” Ammo “control.” Nuclear-free zones. Global warming. Global cooling. Climate change. Net-zero. Preschool teachers sacrifice children to Satan. Boys have babies. Let’s tax weed. Let’s bail out weed shops. Seattle’s CHAZ CHOP was a Summer of Love – with a body count. Riots are mostly peaceful. Give needles and crack pipes to addicts. Allow people to walk the Seattle streets with a “bump” or two of heroin and fentanyl for “harm reduction.” Police are horrible people. Criminals are not horrible people. – READ MORE

Boston-area Marine veteran, blinded by his mask during a gym workout, suffers bruising fall – Eugene “Ed” Norton, a Korean War veteran from Reading, Massachusetts, suffered several bruising injuries to his face and head inside his local gym after the mask he had to wear due to COVID mitigation measures rode up on his face and obscured his vision — causing him to fall.

The accident happened on Feb. 3, nearly two weeks ago. He’s still recovering from bruises on his face and head. – READ MORE

Military Spent Five Million Man-Hours On ‘Stand Downs’ To Counter Service Member Extremism: Report – The military reportedly spent over five million man-hours on “stand downs” to counter “extremism” among service members and another 500,000 hours on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training sessions.

According to Fox News, the details about the trainings and how much money was spent on them was revealed in a letter from Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mark Milley to Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe after an inquiry by several senators. Milley’s letter was sent in early January but was just obtained by Fox News. – READ MORE

‘Freedom is a slippery concept’: Prof says ‘freedom’ is a tool of the ‘far-right’ – George Washington University associate professor Elisabeth Anker criticized the concept of freedom Sunday in comments to CBC Radio regarding the Canadian “Freedom Convoy” protest.

She said freedom was a “slippery concept,” claiming that “on the far right, [individual freedom] is often translated into somebody who refuses to be bound by norms of equality, treating all people equally or norms to remedy inequality, whether that’s trying to remedy racial discrimination or gender discrimination,” according to CBC. – READ MORE

Of Course: Giuffre Settles With Prince Andrew, Epstein-Related Case Will Not Go to Court – Virginia Giuffre has reached an out-of-court settlement with Prince Andrew in her pending abuse case. Giuffre filed suit against the British royal last August, accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was 17 years old and traveling with the late Jeffrey Epstein. She claims Epstein’s companion, convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, introduced her to the prince, who went on to abuse her thrice: in London, New York City, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Giuffre’s attorney, David Boies, has a lengthy professional history of representing establishment causes and personnel, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised he’s guided his client away from a public legal spectacle involving Epstein’s associates. Nonetheless, it’s still disappointing that yet another opportunity for names to be named has been taken off the table. – READ MORE

The Dystopian Rebirth Of Moviepass As An App That “Tracks Users Eyes” To Make Sure They Watch Advertisements – Moviepass, the now-defunct service that was supposed to allow users to watch movies inexpensively, has pivoted ever-so-slightly into the business of being an Orwellian advertisement machine.

The service is “returning as an app that will track users’ eyes when they watch adverts”, according to an alarming new report from The Independent. In exchange for your computer-verified undivided attention, the app will let users have access to movies. – READ MORE