A Carolina bellwether? Yeah, that’s what it’s looking like for the 2018 midterms. Up is down, down is up. Dogs and cats are living together, etc. etc. But in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, that’s where we are. A Trump-friendly incumbent was ousted in the GOP primary by an even Trumpier preacher, who, untested, is facing a serious challenge. In such an odd election year, will Democrats be able to steal a few red-state seats? NC-9 is a good bellwether.
The new soda jerk? With all the attention paid to Starbucks these days, Atlas Obscura looks back on the now practically extinct position of “soda jerk” and the slang that was unique to the half-million or so people who held the job in the 1930s and 1940s. Obviously, the economy has changed since then, but Starbucks baristas, no doubt, are the new soda jerks. Just remember, venti means 20.
Arm the teachers? That’s what the NRA and Second Amendment proponents have pushed for in the wake of the most recent string of school shootings. Schooling is mostly a state and local issue, but as Doug Mataconis writes at Outside the Beltway, it actually may be insurance companies that end up having the biggest say.
The Instaglam candidate strikes again. Regular readers will remember Courtland Sykes, a fringe Senate candidate in Missouri. This time, in a fundraising email, Sykes is peddling an unproven five-year old conspiracy (with one source) that former CIA director John Brennan is … a Muslim.
Here’s Sykes:
“It is well known amongst my former colleagues in the intelligence community that John Brennan is a practicing muslim.
Not only is John attempting to overthrow our Constitutional Republic with an illegal Deep State, but he has personally converted to a violent religion hell-bent on controlling the world through its caliphate.
It is up to us. We can lose this country if we don’t fight. Liberty is given by God. Pray for God’s wrath. Pray for God’s justice. Support candidates who will fight, alongside President Trump, against John Brennan’s deep state.”
Sykes is the quintessential crazy 2018 candidate for our times (though there are many others.) Republicans should demand better of our party. If you know anyone who is a big fan of Sykes, ask them to back up this assertion, because it’s bonkers.
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