(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 11 things you need to know this Tuesday – February 22, 2022

There is also a full, ad-free video podcast of this broadcast available to Paine.TV members HERE.

Learn more about joining our community HERE.

Biden Extends US National Emergency Over COVID-19 – President Joe Biden said the U.S. national emergency that was declared in early 2020 due to COVID-19 will be extended beyond March 1, citing what he called a “risk to the public health and safety.”

In a letter released on the White House website, Biden told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that “there remains a need to continue this national emergency.” – READ MORE

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson To Remove All Remaining Coronavirus Restrictions In England – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reportedly remove all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England as the country shifts toward planning on how to live with the coronavirus long-term.

“We will remove all remaining domestic restrictions in law. From this Thursday, the 24th of February, we will end the legal requirement to self isolate following a positive test,” Johnson told parliament. “We will end routine contact tracing, and no longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those under 18 to test daily for seven days. And we will remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate.” – READ MORE

‘Not Over’: Trudeau Won’t Relinquish Emergency Powers Despite Disbanded Convoy –Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not quite ready to loosen his grip on the emergency powers his government invoked to shut down the recent trucker protests that brought Ottawa to a standstill.

Trudeau said in a public statement that even though the protests had been disbanded and the truckers had been either arrested and detained or sent home — some with their financial accounts frozen as well — the state of emergency was not yet over. – READ MORE

Ottawa Police Chief: Protesters To Get ‘Financial Sanctions,’ ‘Criminal Charges’ Even After Event Ends – Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said during a press conference over the weekend that Canadian law enforcement officials would continue cracking down on those who participated in the trucker protests well after the protests have ended.

The revelation came in response to a reporter asking if there were going to be “repercussions down the road” for the protesters, even if they had retreated and gone home. – READ MORE

Washington Post hammered for painting Freedom Convoy as ‘explicitly racist,’ arguing ‘freedom is a key component of white supremacy’ – The Washington Post was skewered for an opinion piece painting members of the Freedom Convoy as “explicitly racist,” and arguing that expecting individual freedom is a “key component of white supremacy.”

The article titled “The Ottawa trucker convoy is rooted in Canada’s settler colonial history” is written by Taylor Dysart – a Ph.D. candidate in the department of history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania. – READ MORE

The CDC Isn’t Publishing All The COVID Data It Collects, Report Says – U.S. states rely heavily on COVID-19 data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the agency isn’t publishing large amounts of the data it collects.

The New York Times reported that the CDC has been leaving out important data about the effectiveness of boosters in adults under 65 years of age, and that it had only recently provided wastewater data that could help localities predict a surge in coronavirus cases. – READ MORE

Salon: Right-Wing Refusal to Vaccinate Is ‘Child Abuse’ – One’s decision not to vaccinate is “child abuse” according to a recent Salon piece that accused conservatives of using children as “pawns in their gross political games,” viewing them as property, and damaging their “mental and emotional health” while “tearing families apart,” largely in order to undermine President Biden.

Penned by senior politics writer Amanda Marcotte and titled “Vaccine refusal is child abuse,” the Friday Salon essay begins by accusing Republicans of opposing vaccination against the coronavirus in order to “sabotage” the Biden presidency. – READ MORE

‘Second Pandemic’ – 10 Million Britons Need Mental Health Care After Lockdowns –Health officials in England have warned there is an impending “second pandemic” of millions of children and adults suffering from mental health issues exacerbated by the imposition of lockdowns during the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

Nearly ten million people in England, including 1.5 million children, are projected to need care for mental health issues such as psychosis, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders are experiencing long waiting times in the nation’s socialised healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS). – READ MORE

Soaring Rents Eat Americans’ Wage Increases… And Then Some – US headline inflation exceeded 7% in 2021. But rent increases put the Consumer Price Index to shame, soaring an average of 13.5%. And within that already-brutally-high average, there were some absolutely astounding outliers. Phoenix rents soared 25.3%, followed by Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Austin, all of which exceeded 20%.

That means an Austin barista could receive a 10% salary bump and have most of it wiped out just by an increase in their rent. Add in the soaring costs of food and gasoline, and our hypothetical worker is actually losing ground despite their double-digit pay raise. – READ MORE

Teens Struggle To Score First Car As Used Car Prices Remain Absurd – American teenagers have gotten the short end of the stick for more than two years – being forced to attend school either in a mask or via Zoom, while missing out on countless rites of passage despite their virtually nonexistent chance of falling seriously ill from Covid-19.

And now – as the far more mild Omicron strain enters the rear-view mirror and things begin to return to normal – used cars have become so expensive that many teens can’t afford them, according to the Wall Street Journal. – READ MORE

West warned its green agenda would create ‘Third World’ power interruptions – When was the last time you were stuck in an elevator due to a power blackout? Or patients at your local hospital were put at risk for the same reason?

These are very common occurrences in the energy impoverished Third World. And they could become a reality for many in the West if deluded leaders there continue down the path of “green-energy” decarbonization. – READ MORE