Society's ChildS


Beer

Seattle: Residents making a run across the city line to avoid Sugar Tax

Danny Westneat
The Seattle Times
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:32 UTC
Sign for tax free soda
© Danny Westneat/The Seattle TimesThe Bartell Drugs store, in White Center just steps outside Seattle city limits, tries to lure in customers turned off by Seattle’s pricey new soda tax.
White Center finds itself a city divided - literally, down Roxbury Street - by the price of pop.

Ahmed Mohamed's shop in the farthest reaches of West Seattle is so small you can easily miss it. But he's nevertheless Ground Zero for Seattle's latest economic experiment.

Mohamed runs West Seattle Halal Market, a two-aisle store specializing in meats and poultry butchered according to Islamic rules. A few shelves in the middle of the store, though, are given over to a popular side product that now has his neighborhood, White Center, literally divided.

"Here is the precious fluid," Mohamed laughs, showing me around the store.

He holds up a two-liter plastic bottle of Coke.

Comment: Trying to change behaviour through taxation is a devious nanny-state tactic for enforcing "right-think". It rarely actually changes the "deviant" behaviour, only serving to fatten the pockets of the governments collecting the taxes and, in the current case, hurts businesses.

See also:

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Clipboard

Surprise poll: DACA amnesty a deal killer for Trump's strongest supporters

Jeremy Segal
The Gateway Pundit
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 03:56 UTC
Trump supporters at Toyota car dealership
A new poll released Tuesday, shows a whopping 71% of President Trump's strongest supporters staunchly oppose any border security deal that includes DACA amnesty, and could cost the president tremendous support from his base.

Ear to the Ground Listening Project, a collaboration of academics, market researchers and policy experts conducted the panel survey of 6,883 Trump supporters between January 12, 2018, and January 25, 2018. The survey reveals numerous insights about how President Trump's strongest supporters feel right now.

The survey indicates President Trump has tremendous support and confidence from his base, but congressional Republicans are in the doghouse with a pathetic 16% approval from the president's supporters.
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Pistol

Vegas shooting: Investigators question 'person of interest' who sold ammunition to shooter


The Guardian
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 22:40 UTC
paddock suite guns
Scene inside Stephen Paddock's Mandalay Bay suite
An Arizona man named in court documents as a "person of interest" during the investigation of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history said he had met the gunman one time and sold ammunition to him.

Douglas Haig told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he had been contacted earlier by investigators in the case.

Speaking at his suburban home in Mesa, Nevada, Haig said he planned to hold a news conference later this week to answer questions about his name surfacing in the investigation.

"I am the guy who sold ammunition to Stephen Paddock," Haig said without disclosing any details. Police say Paddock was the gunman and killed himself as officers converged on him.

A law enforcement official told the AP in October that Paddock bought 1,000 rounds of tracer ammunition from a private seller he met at a Phoenix gun show. The official spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose case information. It was not immediately clear if that person was Haig.
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Magnify

BBC investigation finds Taliban militants are active on 70% of Afghan territory


Sputnik
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 22:05 UTC
The militants of the Taliban radical movement are active on 70 percent of the Afghan territory, fully controlling 4 percent of the nation and demonstrating presence in another 66 percent, a BBC study has found.

The Taliban are in full control of 14 districts of the crisis-torn state and have "an active and open physical" presence in a further 263, the results of the study published on Tuesday showed.

About 15 million of the Afghan citizens live in the areas either controlled by the radical movement or in the districts that are often targeted by Taliban's attacks, according to the broadcaster's research.

The BBC investigation has revealed that the number of districts with Taliban's presence has increased since the mission carried out by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan ended in 2014 and the foreign troops were formally withdrawn from the country.

Comment: The first question is whether this data can be trusted since it comes from the Fake News BBC. But if true, the presence of the US military in Afghanistan for over a decade to "eradicate the Taliban" has clearly been an unmitigated failure. The Americans should take all their soldiers home and leave the country to be taken care of by the Afghani people.

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Sherlock

US gov investigating Apple over intentionally slowing down older model phones


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 21:07 UTC
iphone
© Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
The US government has reportedly opened up an investigation into tech giant Apple amid a torrent of lawsuits alleging the company used an iPhone update to intentionally slow down older models.

According to Bloomberg News, citing sources with knowledge of the matter, the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have requested information from Apple as part of a probe into whether or not the company's not-so-helpful update violated securities laws. The inquiry is still in its early stages, according to the sources.

While consumers and even foreign governments - French authorities launched an investigation of their own in early January - have cried foul over the company's "planned obsolescence," the US government probe will focus on whether Apple misled investors about the performance of older phones.
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Red Flag

Creepy landlord caught on film offering to waive rent for women that had sex with him


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 21:02 UTC
grabbing woman's arm
© Global Look Press
A sleazy Welsh landlord has been caught offering women free rent in exchange for regular sex. The man was covertly filmed saying he would waive the £650 ($920) per month rent in exchange for sex once a week.

An undercover reporter caught up with the landlord in Cardiff. He had advertised an annex on Craigslist for £650 ($920) per month, but said "a reduced deposit/rent" was available for "alternative payments."

"I don't want to suggest anything that makes you run a mile but I want to help you out," the landlord was recorded saying on an ITV hidden camera. "I don't know if you have heard of a sort of a friends-with-benefits sort of arrangement."
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Fire

Eating their own: Perpetual liberal victims just accused the New York Times of being a white supremacist, Nazi paper


Townhall
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:58 UTC
new york times
On Saturday, Ross Douthat published a column for the New York Times arguing that White House Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller should be included in negotiations about immigration policy because he represents the opinions of tens of millions of Americans. Somewhat predictably, the Times's liberal readership was none too pleased by the idea that proponents of increased restrictions on legal immigration would be given a seat at the table alongside proponents of amnesty, and many took to Twitter to express their displeasure. Some more unhinged commenters labeled the Times a "white supremacist paper," while others were content with simply suggesting that Douthat is a racist.

Because Saturday was Holocaust Memorial Day, some Twitter leftists apparently thought that Douthat's piece was promoting Nazism or attacking Jews. Canadian film producer and actress Nadine Van der Velde was especially perturbed:


Comment: The end result of this victim-based ideology is to burn everything to the ground, including the very structures that support the ideology.

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Rocket

Hawaiian officials resign, wrong button-pushing employee fired over false missile alert


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 01:21 UTC
Sign Palms
© Instagram/@sighpoutshrug / ReutersOahu, Hawaii
Two senior Hawaii emergency agency officials have resigned after the employee responsible for January's false missile alert was fired. The staffer apparently has a history of failing to distinguish between drills and real threats.

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) administrator Vern Miyagi stepped down Monday. "Gen. Miyagi, a respected military leader and honorable man, has taken full responsibility and submitted letter of resignation today," state Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, the Agency's military chief, said at a media conference.

He added that the employee who erroneously set off the missile alarm was sacked Friday. Retired Brig. Gen Bruce Oliveira, who is leading the probe, revealed that the employee who sent the island state into a frenzy of anxiety and panic has a history of mixing up trials and actual threats.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Ultra-nationals swear in vigilante brigade to 'enforce Ukrainian order' in streets of Kiev


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:59 UTC
Kiev vigilante unti
© ndrugua / Facebook
Some 600 members of the so-called National Brigades - a vigilante unit drafted from the ultra-nationalist Azov Battalion have marched through Ukraine's capital, Kiev, saying they're ready to use force to impose "Ukrainian order."

During a "swearing-in" ceremony in the center of the Ukrainian capital over the weekend, hundreds of new members swore allegiance to National Brigades and their agenda, which includes "patrolling", "protecting" and "cleansing our streets of the rot like alcoholics and drug addicts", as police looked on. The entire ceremony was captured on video and promoted on the Brigades' Facebook page.

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Sheeple

Hypocrite: Dem Senator Gillibrand outraged at Trump's alleged 'sexism' - but changes tune over Bill Clinton scandals

Carlos Garcia
The Blaze
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 02:00 UTC
Kirsten Gillibrand
© YouTubeDemocrat Kirsten Gillibrand appeared to tone down her outrage when she was challenged about allegations of sexual assault against former President Bill Clinton, and recent revelations against Hillary Clinton.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) appeared to change her tone completely Monday when challenged by Meghan McCain to express the same outrage against former President Bill Clinton as she had been displaying against President Trump.

Here's the video of the interaction:

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