(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 11 things you need to know this Thursday – February 17, 2022

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Here comes $7 gas prices, warns oil strategist in dire outlook – Drivers best start bracing for another surge in gas prices amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and years of under-investment by the oil industry, warns one veteran energy strategist.

“My guess is that you are going to see $5 a gallon at any triple-digit [oil prices] … as soon as you get to $100. And you might get to $6.50 or $7. Forget about $150 a gallon, I don’t know where we will be bv then,” Energy Word founder Dan Dicker said on Yahoo Finance Live. – READ MORE

Joe Biden Promises to ‘Work Like the Devil’ to Bring Down Gas Prices After Strategic Oil Reserve Release Fails – President Joe Biden promised Monday to continue working to bring down the price of gasoline, less than three months after his historic release of oil from the strategic oil reserves.

“I’m going to work like the devil to get gas prices down,” Biden told attendees at the National Association of Counties 2022 Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. – READ MORE

Biden Warns a Russian Invasion of Ukraine Could Have Impact on Energy Prices –President Joe Biden is warning that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could have an impact on Americans’ wallets when they head to the gas pump.

During remarks at the White House on Tuesday, Biden said, “I will not pretend this will be painless. There could be an impact on our energy prices. So we are taking active steps to alleviate pressure on our own energy markets and offset raising prices.” – READ MORE

Coming to America: Truckers protesting COVID mandates set to hit U.S. roads – The truckers’ convoy protesting COVID mandates across Canada has proven to be at least partly successful, as provinces are starting to relinquish their mandatory mask and vaccine demands, even as the action has enraged politicians and triggered a national emergency declaration.

Now the same movement is coming to the United States. – READ MORE

Report: CDC to Change Mask Guidance Despite Unchanging Science of Transmission –Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the coming week will reportedly announce another change to its masking guidance.

Despite the unchanging science of coronavirus transmission, the CDC is expected to create a new standard on masking guidance, “basing it on the level of severe disease and hospitalizations in a given community,” NBC News reported. – READ MORE

Poll: 65 Percent of Democrat Voters Still Crave Mask Mandates – Sixty-five percent of Democrat voters still desire mask mandates for fellow citizens, a Wednesday Politico/Morning Consult revealed.

Overall, only 43 percent of voters believe mask mandates should remain in place over those who are unafraid to remove their face coverings. – READ MORE

Coroner’s Report: Masks Contributed to Death of Hospital Patient in Overdose Mix Up –Face coverings contributed to a patient’s death in 2020 after they “aggravated” communication problems between doctors resulting in the administration of a fatal overdose, a coroner’s report has ruled.

The use of face coverings in one of Britain’s socialised National Health Service’s hospitals contributed to the death of a patient after a junior doctor administered 50 kg/mg instead of a 15 mg/kg dose measurement of phenytoin — an anti-epileptic drug — after he misheard a senior doctor’s orders which, it was determined, were muffled by a mask. – READ MORE

California’s Coachella returns following 2-year COVID-19 hiatus, will have no mask or vaccine requirements to attend massive festival – Coachella, the outdoor music and arts festival held in Indio, California, will return in April after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus — and without mask and vaccine requirements.

Organizers on Tuesday also said that festivalgoers will also not have to test for COVID-19 ahead of the big event. – READ MORE

TikTok Can Sidestep Apple And Google Privacy Protections, Giving China-Based Parent Company Full Access To User Data: Report – According to an exclusive report from TheWrap, the Chinese-based app TikTok is side-stepping Apple and Google privacy protections to provide the company’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, full access to user data.

“The studies, conducted by ‘white hat’ cybersecurity experts that hack for the public good, were completed in November 2020 and January 2021,” TheWrap reported, noting that the outlet had “verified the studies and confirmed their conclusions with five independent experts.” – READ MORE

5 New Numbers That Prove That America’s Horrifying Inflation Crisis Is Getting Even Worse – If you are less than 40 years old, you have never seen inflation like this in the United States. Despite all the warnings, our politicians in Washington just kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have. And despite all the warnings, the Federal Reserve just kept pumping trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system. Now we have a giant mess on our hands, and anyone that believes that this is going to be easily fixed is simply being delusional. – READ MORE