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January 2018

The progressive city of Seattle has enacted a new tax on sugary drinks. This is normally called a soda tax, but in Seattle it also applies to beverages like Gatorade. The tax is so severe, that it almost doubles the cost of products.

In the wake of Representative John Lewis (D-GA) announcing he would not attend President Trump's inauguration, more than 50 Democrats refused to attend.  Now three Democrats, so far, are refusing to attend the president's State of the Union (SOTU) address on January 30th. The first to announce his intention of skipping the President's first SOTU was Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).  His announcement was made early this month.

We’re now on day 36 without a 4th Circuit decision on Trump's third travel order. Unveiled as a presidential proclamation on September 24, 2017, the third travel order (we'll call it EO-3) restricts entry by most nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, as well as some nationals of North Korea and Venezuela.

President Donald Trump may receive some competition for most tweet-happy politician! Apparently emoji-filled tweets aren't enough for Chelsea Manning because she has filed papers to run for the Senate in Maryland. From The Washington Post:
Chelsea Manning, the transgender former Army private who was convicted of passing sensitive government documents to Wikileaks, has filed to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, according to federal election filings.

The Trump Administration continues its #CounterResistance to California's illegal immigration promoting polices with a move targeting the state's "birth tourism" industry.
Federal Homeland Security agents raided 20 alleged “maternity hotels” in Southern California where pregnant Chinese women pay tens of thousands of dollars to live to ensure a “made in America” baby, reports said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to arrive in New Delhi on Sunday on a week-long visit, making him the second Israeli head of the government to visit India since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 2003 visit. He will be leading a large business delegation and sign a series of bilateral agreements ranging from agriculture to cyber security. The visiting Israeli leader will spend a day in Prime Minister Modi's home state of Gujarat. This is being regarded as a rare distinction. So far, Prime Minister Modi accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to his state, where he served as the Chief Minister between 2001 and 2014. Prime Minister Netanyahu is "going to get a grand welcome," Gujarat state's present Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said.

The latest furor is over certain remarks that Trump is alleged to have uttered during a meeting about immigration with Dick Durbin, Lindsay Graham, and "other government officials." His alleged remarks (some of which he has disputed) were criticized variously for both form and content: that the words were vulgar, and that they were bigoted. The most salient thing on which accounts seem to agree is that Trump referred to some countries—perhaps in Africa, perhaps also Haiti—as "shitholes" or "shithole countries." Let's go with that, anyway, as a good possibility.