(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 11 things you need to know this Thursday – February 24, 2022

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Trudeau Revokes Emergency Powers Act – Two days after Canadian lawmakers voted to extend emergency powers allowing police to quell potential unrest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now set to revoke them now that the Ottawa protest is over, according to the Canadian Press, citing two senior government sources.

Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time last week, saying police required additional support to end blockades. – READ MORE

Former Canadian chief justice pens op-ed denouncing ‘ugly side’ of freedom in trucker protests – After Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cracked down on the “Freedom Convoy” protesters last week by invoking the Emergencies Act, freezing bank accounts and making violent arrests, one of the country’s former Supreme Court justices justified the extreme actions taken by the government in an op-ed published Tuesday.

Former Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in Canada’s “The Globe and Mail” newspaper Tuesday, that the peaceful Ottawa truck convoy had revealed the “ugly side of freedom.”  – READ MORE

Flight Attendants’ Union Wants Biden Admin To Extend Airline Mask Mandate Beyond March 18 – The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), the nation’s largest flight attendants’ union, says it expects the Biden administration will continue to extend its mask mandate for air travel beyond the current March 18 deadline.

The association, representing 50,000 workers, shared the news in a statement with Bloomberg. – READ MORE

No More Forced Masks: Ireland to Dump Almost All Remaining COVID Rules – A return to normality is on the cards for Ireland, as the authorities announce that almost all lockdown rules will be eased on Monday.

Mask mandates, mandatory testing and close contact isolation requirements are all set to be scrapped in Ireland from Monday according to an announcement from the country’s government. – READ MORE

Thousands of Britons Face Lockdown Violations Appearing on Criminal Background Checks for Next Decade – Thousands of Britons face the prospect of having coronavirus lockdown violations remaining on criminal background checks for the next decade.

While the British government’s Criminal Records Office classifies fixed penalty notices — such as those issued for lockdown violations — as “non-recordable”, people who failed or refused to pay their fines or attend court could have the violations remain on their criminal record for up to eleven years. – READ MORE

CBS News ripped for blaming inflation, other economic issues on Ukraine crisis: ‘New scapegoat has dropped’ – CBS News is being ripped by critics for blaming increased gas prices, inflation and supply-chain issues on Russia and the crisis in Ukraine rather than the Biden administration’s handling of the economy.

“The U.S. economy has been hit with increased gas prices, inflation, and supply-chain issues due to the Ukraine crisis,” the liberal network wrote in a Tuesday tweet, linking to an article that described what “could” happen as a result of Russian action in Ukraine rather than the economic challenges already impacting Americans. – READ MORE

A New Dem Bill Would Make ‘Tent Cities’ Permanent Fixture – Some of the nation’s most liberal cities are cracking down on their homeless populations. But Maryland may soon ban police from removing homeless people from public property.

A Democratic-backed bill in the Maryland statehouse would prevent police from enforcing Failure to Obey Lawful Orders laws, which critics say would permit homeless camps, known as “tent cities,” on public property. The sponsor of the bill, Democratic delegate Sheila Ruth, said in a committee hearing that these tent cities are not harmful or dangerous to communities. – READ MORE

Colorado Drug Overdoses Spike After Democrats Decriminalize Fentanyl – Drug overdoses in Colorado are seemingly spiking just a few years after the state’s elected Democrats decriminalized the possession of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and meth.

This week, five Americans — three women and two men — were found dead inside a Commerce City, Colorado, apartment after having overdosed on fentanyl. A sixth adult and a crying baby were also found in the apartment and taken to a nearby hospital. – READ MORE

‘Alarming’: Donors to Buttigieg’s campaigns ‘got $33 million in contracts’ – An investigation by the Daily Mail, a publication in the United Kingdom, reveals that Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden’s transportation chief, took $250,000 in campaign donations from people and companies that later got $33 million in city contracts while he was mayor in South Bend, Indiana.

For example, the Troyer Group donated $9,000, then got contracts worth more than $1.7 million. Donations totaling $8,100 from Walsh & Kelly were followed by more than $7.6 million in city contracts. Selge Construction wrote checks for $4,250 and saw contracts worth more than $4 million arrive on its doorstep. – READ MORE

Biden Touts Chinese-Backed Company at Made in America Event – The White House on Tuesday featured a mining company partially owned by a Chinese mining conglomerate at an event dedicated to strengthening the domestic supply chain.

President Joe Biden announced at the event that the Pentagon would award $35 million to the Las Vegas-based MP Materials in an effort to boost U.S. rare mineral production. But MP Materials has arguably allowed China to tighten its grip on the world’s rare earth minerals supply chain. Shenghe Resources Holding, which is partially owned by the Chinese government, owns 8 percent of the company. Shenge spearheaded the deal in 2017 to help MP Materials purchase a mine at Mountain Pass, Calif., out of bankruptcy. The Chinese company is also MP Materials’s largest customer, accounting for nearly all of its $100 million annual revenue. – READ MORE

“Economic Injustice”: 72% Of PPP Money Went To The Top 20% Of Earners In America –The idea of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was criticized early on by many in the Austrian school, like Peter Schiff, who immediately pointed out that everybody – whether they needed it or not – would be applying for the funding, that the government had no way to track where all of it was going, and that waste, fraud and abuse within the program would be rampant.

Specifically, there was outcry among FinTwit and the financial world about asset managers (fancy words for ‘people who invest your money’) taking out PPP loans, since (1) many of them are already wealthy, (2) most “asset management” can be done remotely with near-zero interruption, (3) income for asset managers, derived from fees from managing money, likely wasn’t affected by lockdowns and (4) there was no indication equity markets, or other capital markets, would be shut down. – READ MORE