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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Mondoweiss really is hilarious sometimes

Only a week ago, Mondoweiss, along with many others, was crowing over the Sodastream stock price going down 3%, finding an analyst that said it was based on fears of the company being boycotted.

At that time, SODA's stock price was $35.34.

Since then, Wall Street must have forgotten all about that "analysis," because SODA opened today at around $44.00, an astonishing 24% gain in six days.

For some reason, the Mondoweiss drones have stopped cheering.

I found something even funnier there, from 2012:
Almost a year ago, this site ran a brief post titled “We need to find Americans an alternative to West-Bank-based Sodastream.” As it happened, I’d been doing research on that very problem, as part of the Economic Activism for Palestine project at Global Exchange in San Francisco, under the leadership of Dalit Baum of WhoProfits.org. So I responded to that post with a comment listing a slew of settlement-free home soda makers.

..On the negative side, a product I and several other commenters recommended last September, iSi’s Twist’n’Sparkle, has been recalled. It turned out that the plastic bottle included in the kit had a tendency to explode. If you have one, stop using it and call the recall hotline at (800) 645-3595 to arrange a refund. (When I called, the rep told me she knew of no plans for a new, safer version of the product.)

...On the upside, there’s now a better alternative – if you don’t mind an indirect connection to Israel: Primo Water Corp. of Winston-Salem, NC, has entered the market with not one but two Sodastream-like countertop machines, the Flavorstation 100 ($69.99) and the Flavorstation 120 ($79.99, in either black or white).

...[T]hat Israel connection? In 2011 Primo announced a “strategic alliance” with SDS-IC (“Sparkling Drink Systems – Innovation Center”), a small Israeli company that’s also taking on Sodastream. It was founded in 2009 by a couple of former Sodastream executives. Under the agreement, Primo and SDS-IC will distribute some of each other’s products and collaborate in R&D, marketing, and manufacturing. SDS-IC’s factory, however, is in China, not the West Bank.
And Mondoweiss has no moral qualms about buying products from China! But things built by well-paid, happy Palestinian Arabs when Israeli Jews might profit? No, that's immoral.
If you can’t stomach any connection to Israel, or if you don’t expect to drink soda water often, the “soda siphons” or other products listed on the Global Exchange page will probably meet your needs.

Or you could just drink plain water. 
See? There is an alternative! Thanks for enlightening us!