Month: December 2016

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Frank Murtaugh’s Top 10 Memphis Sports Moments of 2016: Part 1

A countdown of the 10 most memorable sporting events I attended this year.

10) Redbirds 4, Iowa 3 (June 19) — It’s easy to sulk when you’ve been demoted. After a season-and-a-half as the St. Louis Cardinals’ primary centerfielder, Randal Grichuk found himself in the starting lineup at AutoZone Park on Father’s Day. That’s what a .206 batting average in mid-June will do to you. Instead of pouting, though, Grichuk began his climb back to The Show. He drilled a three-run homer onto the leftfield bluff in the third inning, then made a diving catch to end an Iowa threat in the eighth and preserve the Redbirds’ one-run lead. Grichuk soon returned to St. Louis and finished the season with 24 homers and 68 RBIs for the Cardinals.

9) USF 49, Tigers 42 (November 12) — The result wasn’t pleasant, particularly an overlooked pass-interference call in the end zone that would have set up the tying score for Memphis in the final minute. But what a show. The Tigers chewed up 608 yards of offense, 153 of them through the air to junior wideout Anthony Miller, who broke Isaac Bruce’s 23-year-old record for receiving yards in a season (he finished the regular season with 1,283). But this was a night for college-football greatness as displayed by USF quarterback Quinton Flowers: 263 yards passing with two touchdowns and 210 yards rushing (and three more scores). The Tigers fought back from an early 14-point deficit and there were four lead changes in the third quarter alone. Great football game, sadly off the radar of the “Power Five” chatter hounds.

8) Tigers 67, Temple 65 (January 13) — “Blood and guts” are reliable metaphors for sportswriters. On this night at FedExForum, though, they were all too vivid in the person of Tiger point guard Ricky Tarrant Jr. In the frantic final seconds of a tie game, Tarrant took an inbounds pass from Shaq Goodwin and collided with Temple’s Daniel Dingle, absorbing a blow to his mouth with 1.5 seconds left on the clock. Dingle was charged with a foul, but there was some question about whether or not a bloodied Tarrant — an 88-percent shooter from the foul line — could attempt the decisive shots. In the words of Memphis coach Josh Pastner, “Ricky took a big gulp, drank all of his blood, licked his lips. And he shot the free throws.” Tarrant made both. Blood. Guts.

7) Grizzlies 108, Bulls 92 (April 5) — With old friends Pau Gasol and Derrick Rose in villain garb — and Marc Gasol watching from a luxury suite, crutches in hand — the Griz ended a six-game losing streak and clinched a sixth straight winning season, all the while clinging to a spot in the NBA playoffs. Vince Carter shaved 10 years and scored 17 points in 24 minutes to help the cause while Mike Conley’s replacement at point guard, Jordan Farmar, added 15 points and four assists. But it was an old warhorse who carried Memphis this night. Zach Randolph scored 27 points (one shy of his season high) and pulled down 10 rebounds. Bryce Cotton made his FedExForum debut, the 28th player to take the floor for the Grizzlies in a season that will be remembered more for myriad injuries than any wins or losses on the court.

6) Redbirds 8, Fresno 1 (May 22) — Prospects were hard to come by last season at AutoZone Park, but on this bright, sunny Sunday afternoon, a future Cardinal star was born. Alex Reyes, 21, took the hill for Memphis, having just completed a 50-game suspension for marijuana use. He wobbled at times over four innings (85 pitches, three walks), but struck out eight and didn’t allow a run while teasing 100 mph on the radar gun. (Reyes joined the Cardinals in August and put up a 1.57 ERA over his first 46 big-league innings.) First-baseman Jonathan Rodriguez starred at the plate for the Redbirds, drilling a home run and driving in four.

Check back next week for the Top Five.

Categories
Book Features Books

The nearly home-grown press Sartoris Literary Group

Here in the Book Review Department of the Literary Arts Wing of The Memphis Flyer, I’m sure to carefully inspect the return address of every package that comes across our loading dock; each package is meticulously filed according to publishing house. It’s a greased chute from New York to our little shelf in the literary world, and they’re all here — Penguin, Harcourt, Knopf, HarperCollins. Increasingly, though, one pile has grown far bigger than the others, and it’s from a little (nearly) homegrown press.

Sartoris Literary Group was founded five years ago by James L. Dickerson, a prolific writer with substantial ties to Memphis as a reporter with The Commercial Appeal for six years back in the 1980s. He then went on to found Nine-O-One Network in 1986, a music magazine that, at the time, was third in national circulation behind Rolling Stone and Spin.

Meanwhile, he published books — about 20 by the time he decided he’d seen enough of what New York could do and start up his own enterprise. “With five out of the seven major New York houses foreign-owned, we’re one of the few American-owned publishing houses left besides university presses,” he says.

Astute readers will recognize the title of Faulkner’s first Yoknapatawpha County novel, but Dickerson went a step back for the name of his business. “[Sartoris is] a Chickasaw word that means ‘water flowing over flat land,'” he says. “I’m from the Delta, so it seemed like a good name.”

With Sartoris, one will find a focus on the South. Despite his move to the Jackson area in Mississippi, Dickerson lived in Memphis for 13 years and has an intense affection for our city. He seeks out local writers and has an affinity for its music, publishing Memphis Man: Living High, Laying Low, the memoir of musician/songwriter/producer Don Nix; and The Rock Trenches: Journal of a Music Industry Executive by Phillip Rauls, a Memphis-born music promoter for Stax Records, EMI, Atlantic, and 20th Century Fox, who worked with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Eagles, Robert Palmer, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“I get a steady stream from Memphis, and I hope that continues because I want more,” he says. He calls on his past life as a music writer, word of mouth, and referrals to find those like Nix and Rauls.

Dickerson himself has written both fiction and nonfiction, and he is the official biographer of Elvis’ guitarist Scotty Moore. Next year he’ll release his biography of record producer Chips Moman. But his ear for fiction is sharp as well, and Sartoris last week dropped Cold Eye, a new collection of short stories by Margaret Skinner, a former English instructor with the University of Memphis and author of the novels Old Jim Canaan and Molly Flanagan and the Holy Ghost. The mystery novel Memphis Hoodoo Murders by Kathryn Rogers came out last year.

Dickerson’s love of music resonates in Mojo Triangle by Mardi Allen. This travel guide takes the tourist from New Orleans to Memphis to Nashville, soaking up each area’s contribution to music with brief bios of local artists along with practical information regarding food and lodging, and music venues and historical points of interest.

Dickerson averages about 15 books published each year, and he’s hoping to up that number to at least 50, so I’ll be making more space on the shelves here in the Book Review Department of the Literary Arts Wing of The Memphis Flyer.

In addition to increasing the number of books, Dickerson plans an anthology of short fiction by Southern writers in the near future. For that, he says, he’ll be calling for more Memphis scribes.

“Memphis is important to me,” he says. “I love the city. I loved living there and had a lot of adventures there.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

A Toast to 2017, and a Pledge to Drink More Creatively

With just two weeks to go in what has been a not-so-great year, I’ve already got my eyes on 2017. All in all, though, I can’t complain. Yes, we lost David Bowie, Prince, Sharon Jones, and John Glenn — and here at home, we’re still mourning eccentric small business owner Jerry Gibson and musician Clay Otis. We’re saying goodbye to Obama’s White House and, it seems, credibility, responsibility, and peace on earth. But 2016 had its high points: new coaches for the Grizzlies and the Tigers, wine in grocery stores, the arrival of Ikea, and the promise of Trader Joe’s and Nordstrom Rack to come.

So, as I contemplate what to toast the end of the year with, I’m also thinking about the resolutions for the next year. Specifically, drinking resolutions. Very specifically, not quitting drinking, but drinking better in the new year. Here goes:

I pledge to drink more purple, in honor of Prince. South American wines, French Syrah, and California Merlot are all on my short list. On my iPhone, I’ve saved a link to a recent Forbes article listing the best 20 reds under $20. Thanks to wine writer Nick Passmore, I’ve got a shopping list that now includes the $18 Birillo Costa Toscana 2013, the $14 Domaine de L’Obrieu Cuvee Les Antonins 2010, and an intoxicating Greek wine, the 2013 Ktima Kir-Yianni from Yianakohori Hills. I can’t wait to savor these selections while Controversy, 1999, and Purple Rain play on repeat.

Speaking of iPhones, I also pledge to take more photographs while I’m drinking. Of wine labels, people. I’m not a fan of the drunk selfie. I’m also horribly embarrassed every time I stand in a liquor store and say, “It’s got a bicycle/chicken/building/tree/face on the label” and expect the helpful clerk to point me to a particular bottle. Maybe I should use the last two weeks of December to download an app that will make remembering what I drink even easier.

I vow to spend more time drinking in bars rather than at home. Yes, I’ll still make a kitchen gin-and-tonic after a long workday, but I also want to be more social. So many of my favorite “special occasions” restaurants — Bari, Acre, and Second Line among them — have beautiful bars. Likewise, Folk’s Folly and Erling Jensen aren’t on my monthly rotation, but they both have bars with limited menus and fabulous bartenders who make you feel like a regular even when, frankly, you aren’t. Enjoying one specialty cocktail, and maybe an appetizer, takes less of a hit on my wallet, and I still feel like I’ve gotten a special treat.

I also vow to drink more local products: I’ve done well this year upping my intake of Memphis beer, but I need to shop more locally sourced liquor and wine. And I’m still kicking myself for spending the better part of a week in New Orleans in November and not picking up a bottle of Orleans rum. Learn from my mistake and remember to shop local when you’re on vacation, too!

I want to promise that I’ll take more vacations to visit “the source.” Southern Kentucky and east Tennessee are close enough for a weekend of bourbon tastings. I need to take advantage of the weather this spring and get in my car and go! I’ve bookmarked the Kentucky Bourbon Trail website for inspiration. With a map, a trip planner app, bourbon history, and even a passport, they’ve gotten all of the hard work out of the way.

I would like to learn how to master some of my favorite cocktails, so that I can dazzle guests with a perfectly curled orange peel perched on a glass rim. I’d like to properly utilize my bottle of Angostura bitters, rather than add a dash or two to a glass of champagne and call it a cocktail.

Finally, I vow to drink smarter. So far, I’ve escaped 2016 without a major hangover, a trend that I hope carries over to 2017. I’ve been relieved to be able to rely on Lyft and Uber when I’ve known I was going out to drink.

Bottoms up! Let’s make 2017 a good year.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 99, Oklahoma 94 (OT)

Memphis earned what could be called its most impressive victory in three years this afternoon in Norman, Oklahoma. A team not known for its prowess at the free-throw line hit 28 of 32 from the stripe, most importantly six of six in the final minute of regulation and four of four in the final minute of overtime to earn its eighth win of the season. Sophomore forward Dedric Lawson introduced himself to a national-TV audience by scoring 26 points and pulling down 12 rebounds in 43 minutes of action, his ninth double-double of the season (and 26th of his career).

The win will certainly be dedicated to senior center Chad Rykhoek, who went down late in the first half with what appeared to be a serious injury to his left ankle. (Rykhoek left the floor on a rolling cart.) The Tigers’ bench scored only eight points, all of them by Rykhoek’s replacement, junior Jimario Rivers.

The Sooners almost shot the Tigers out of the building in the first half, hitting 17 of their first 21 field-goal attempts, including 13 in a row over an eight-minute stretch to take a 13-point lead. But the Tigers rolled with the punches, closing the gap to nine (47-38) at halftime.

Memphis stayed within 10 points throughout the second half, finally closing to a single-possession deficit inside the game’s final seven minutes. Sophomore point guard Jeremiah Martin stole a Sooner pass and drew a foul in transition with just under a minute to play and Memphis down 77-76. He hit both free throws to give the Tigers their first lead of the game. (Martin entered the game shooting 50 percent from the foul line this season.) Martin hit two more free throws and Markel Crawford connected on four of four down the stretch as Oklahoma intentionally fouled to stop the clock. But Sooner guard Jordan Woodard slung in a three-pointer off the glass from the left wing with less than a second to play to force overtime.

Martin opened scoring in the extra session by converting a three-point play. Rivers followed with a dunk, but Oklahoma tied things at 89 on two baskets (one of them a trey) by Woodard. Memphis took the lead for good when Dedric Lawson hit a jumper from the left elbow with 2:30 to play. He and his brother, K.J. Lawson, each hit two free throws in the final minute to secure the win.

For the game, the Tigers hit 57 percent of their field-goal attempts. After its red-hot start, Oklahoma finished at merely 48 percent from the field. The Sooners fall to 6-4 for the season.

Martin finished with a career-high 25 points, Crawford added 20, and K.J. Lawson 19. Woodard led the Sooners with 22 points.

The win is the Tigers’ first true road victory of the season and improves the U of M record to 8-3. Memphis returns home to play Incarnate Word at FedExForum next Wednesday. It will be the Tigers’ final test before conference play opens with a home tilt against SMU on December 27th.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies 92, Kings 96: Joerger and Conley Return, But So Does Losing

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

Mike Conley returned to action for the Grizzlies last night.

The Grizzlies lost to the Sacramento Kings last night, 96-92. They trailed more than that for most of the game, really, and they were this close to making it another of their now-habitual comeback wins, but poor shot selection on the final play and a general lack of pick and roll defense doomed them to the fate for which they’d been setting themselves up since the first quarter. Afterwards, coach David Fizdale was displeased with the team’s effort, and mostly everyone agreed with that assessment. It was an anticlimactic night that saw two returns that should’ve at least made the game interesting.

Larry Kuzniewski

In Which Dave Joerger Returns To Memphis And Mike Conley Returns to Action

Former Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger wasn’t just the head coach for three seasons, he was also an assistant for several before that—so he was a part of the landscape of the franchise for quite a while. It was strange to see him coaching on the opposite sideline, and hanging out in the media/team dining room in Sacramento Kings gear. The reaction from the crowd when Joerger was pretty lukewarm—some applause, the occasional boo—but overall it didn’t feel like as big of a deal as when Lionel Hollins returned to town coaching the Nets in his first season back.

Joerger’s return to the Forum was mostly overshadowed by a different return: Mike Conley returned to the floor after only missing nine games on what was supposed to be a four-to-six-week transverse process back fracture. Conley’s insane toughness has been discussed here before, at length, and it was always my impression that Conley was going to do everything in his power to come back before that six week mark, but… wow. Once it became a matter of pain tolerance and nothing else, there was nothing holding him back. As we know from the way he played in the 2015 Warriors series with a broken face, his pain tolerance alone is probably worth a max contract.

In Which The Grizzlies Get Out-Worked By A Team They Should Beat

None of that theoretical emotional energy made its way to the basketball court. The Grizzlies got out-hustled, plain and simple. The Kings came up with every loose ball, the Griz defense—which has been #1 in the league since Conley went down—couldn’t keep track of the Kings’ shooters, Conley looked rusty and he and Gasol struggled to know who should be the primary option in the offense, and nothing anybody did seemed to make any of it better. It didn’t help that the refs called 56 fouls in the game, breaking up any rhythm either team was able to get into and fouling out players on both teams, but a focused Griz team should have been able to play through that.

In the final minutes, the Griz attempted to mount one of their patented comebacks, but with the ball and a chance to tie the game, Conley tried to take a shot and draw a foul instead of passing it off to someone who might have been more open, a lapse in judgement that ended in the Kings getting the ball back to shoot free throws. Hoping for a foul call in the last seconds of a game is never a smart strategic decision. It’s clear that Conley’s reintegration into the offense is going to be a bit of a struggle, which is probably foreshadowing of what’s to come when James Ennis and Chandler Parsons come back… but last night still seemed to be about effort. Some nights in the NBA a team just comes out flat and can’t get it going; last night was one of those for the Grizzlies.

In Which Everyone Is Mad After The Game

Which isn’t to say that the mood after the game was one of acceptance of that fact. Fizdale was clearly frustrated in the postgame presser, saying the Kings beat the Grizzlies to all of the 50/50 balls, and that the effort level just wasn’t there against a team that was playing harder. Asked whether the Grizzlies’ poor shooting night (they were 37.7% from the floor) had anything to do with it, Fizdale’s response was “We shoot bad every night, so that’s not what it was.”

Asked about the coach’s comments, Marc Gasol was cryptic and evasive, as though he disagreed, but then, Gasol has never been one to enjoy having his effort level questioned, even when perhaps it’s well deserved. Tony Allen and Mike Conley both echoed what Fizdale said–that the focus wasn’t there, and the Grizzlies let the Kings have too many little advantages. Conley even said that with his return and playing against Joerger for the first time that maybe the Grizzlies were too emotional and excited and once it was clear that it was going to be a rough shooting night, they let that turn into discouragement.

Regardless of who was right and what the issue was, after the game it was clear that everyone involved wasn’t thrilled with the way it had gone down, and knew they’d left a win on the table. One hopes that frustration just moves them to be sharper against the Jazz on Sunday instead of settling in like a fog the way malaise has set in on Grizzlies teams of the past. With most of the injured players returning, they’ve got their work cut out for them re-integrating important rotation pieces.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men

Boyz II Men play Tunica tomorrow night.

Good evening and welcome to the 91st edition of my Weekend Roundup. Show opportunities are a bit few and far between this weekend, but you should definitely make plans to go see Boyz II Men on Saturday, especially if you were born in the late ’80s and were getting your first taste of RnB thanks to the Philly super group.

Friday, December 16th.
Alexis Grace Trio, 6 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men (2)

Don Lifted, 8 p.m. at Crosstown Arts, $10.

Heels album release, Batmobile, 8 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $10.

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men

Saturday, December 17th.
Boyz II Men, En Vogue, 7 p.m. at the Horsehoe Casino, prices vary.

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men (3)

Lucero Family Christmas with Nikki Hill, 8 p.m. at Minglewood Hall, $21.

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men (4)

Southern Avenue, 8 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Ex-Cult, Hartle Road, Bluff City Vice, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $6.

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men (5)

Sunday, December 18th.
John Paul Keith, 8:30 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Weekend Roundup 91: Heels, Lucero, Boyz II Men (6)

Ben Ricketts, Glorious Abhor, Wild Holiday, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $7.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Strickland Pondering City Action on Aquifier Dispute

CREDIT: JB

JB

The Sierra Club ‘s Banbury and Mayor Strickland (seated) at recent Water Board hearing

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is researching local water-permit procedures with an eye toward giving the city some power of approval over future permits — and simultaneously to ascertain the city’s wherewithal under existing rules.

Strickland, an opponent of TVA’s plan to use water from the Memphis sand aquifer, source of the Memphis area’s drinking water, to cool a new power plant, had prepared to speak at the Shelby County Water Quality Control Board’s meeting two weeks ago in which the Sierra Club’s appeal of well-drilling permits for TVA was unanimously rejected. But he was informed the night before that the Board meeting, chaired by special presiding officer Bob McLean, was “not a public hearing” but a judicial one with strictly formalistic rules.

The Mayor was allowed to attend the hearing but only as a spectator, along with other members of the audience.

The outcome of that hearing has not sat well with Strickland or with other local public officials, including state Senators Lee Harris, a Democrat, and Brian Kelsey, a Republican, who oppose the drilling and have announced plans for bipartisan action to hash out the matter publicly.

And a freshly incorporated Protect Our Aquifer organization, including the Sierra Club, whose members regard the TVA drilling as potentially contaminating to the Aquifier water supply and whose appeal had prompted the Water Board hearing, plans to challenge the board’s decision in Chancery Court.

Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club in Tennessee, plans also to suggest to the Shelby County Commission new and stricter rules for granting well permits, including more advance public notice regarding applications.

Categories
News News Blog

Conviction Overturned on Racial Bias

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

A Memphis man will get a new trial after a federal appeals court ruled this week that the jury selection for his trial was racially biased.

Geremy Atkins was convicted in April and given 37 months in prison for possessing a firearm, though he was a felon. In 2014. Atkins was arrested after he pointed an assault rifle at Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers who had knocked on his door and identified themselves during an investigation into drug sales.

Atkins appealed the decision because the court seated all white jury members, while striking five prospective black jurors from the hearing. For this, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday to vacate Atkins’ conviction and sentence, and to give him a new trial.

The ruling looked specifically at the instance of one juror who was struck. Antonio Dandridge, a black man, told the court during the jury selection process that he was married, had eight children, and that he had been working as a custodian for ServiceMaster for four months prior to the jury selection process.

However, Doug Carriker, working at the time as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, decided to strike Dandridge from the jury, saying he was “just one of those people that I didn’t get a good feeling about.”

“He didn’t have a very long employment history, which I don’t usually like,” Carriker said, according to circuit court documents. “I prefer people that have a stable background. He has eight children which kind of also bugged me a little bit. I’m afraid he might have problems with thinking about his child care or children while he was [in court].”

However, Carriker did not block “white jurors Jimmy Stewart, who had six children, Sarah Williams, who had four children, and Jennifer Absher, who had been laid off form her job approximately one month before [jury selection] began,” according to the ruling.

“…the government did not express concerns about the ability of similarly-situated white jurors to focus throughout the trial despite their large number of children and inconsistent work history,” reads the ruling.

Further, the ruling says Carriker did not further probe Dandridge’s ability to focus during the trial, showing that hthe prosecutor was not actually concerned with the man’s ability to focus at trial.

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Resolution Could Abate Energy Costs for City’s Poorest

CREDIT: Joshua Cannon

Joshua Cannon

In an effort to curb high energy costs burdensome on Memphis’ poorest citizens, Memphians may see their utility bills rounded up to the nearest dollar next year.

If implemented, the resolution, proposed by Memphis City Council member Patrice Robinson, will automatically donate a portion of customers’ bills to the city’s Share The Pennies Program given they don’t check a box opting out. Robinson will propose the resolution Tuesday at a committee hearing with commissioners from the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division.

“For people who are economically disadvantaged or living at the poverty level, they spend 13 to 25 percent of their income just on utilities,” Robinson said. “We have energy bills in Memphis that are higher than anywhere else in the United States.”
Joshua Cannon

Under the current program, only 270 people have been served over the past few years, Robinson said. If passed, there will be a six-month period for citizens to decide if they want to opt out of the program. While they will still be able to opt out after that period, customers will automatically be included should they not opt-out before it begins.

MLGW will continue limiting donations to an annual $11.88, as they currently do. Committee Member Worth Morgan, who co-sponsored the resolution, said it will help people — low-income citizens and the elderly — who can’t help themselves.

“If anybody has any doubts about the need for this or the lives that will be affected, I encourage them to go around some these neighborhoods and take a look at what we’re actually talking about.”

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Donald Trump: The Manchurian Candidate

The outcome of the 2016 presidential campaign was already regarded as nightmarish by various blocs of Americans — and not just those who call themselves Democrats. But the persistence of President-elect Donald Trump’s bizarre affinity to and connection with Russia has become unnerving to increasing numbers of his constituents-to-be, including members of Trump’s adopted Republican Party.

As evidence continues to emerge indicating that Trump’s relationship with Russia, America’s longstanding national adversary, might be something more ominous than an unseemly flirtation of the mutual-admiration sort with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, the GOP’s congressional leadership itself is being forced to take notice. That includes no less a figure than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose adamantine resistance to incontrovertible facts uncovered by the CIA prevented a pre-election joint congressional statement affirming Russian responsibility for acts of espionage and sabotage against Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Yes, we said “espionage” and “sabotage.” What other words are appropriate to describe the organized invasion of private email correspondence and the carefully directed leaks that clearly achieved the obvious goal of casting doubts on candidate Clinton’s bona fides and crippling her prospects? If there was communication or, worse, complicity between some members of Trump’s campaign entourage and the Russians, the question becomes whether treasonous activity took place.

Trump’s behavior bears undeniable echoes to the general circumstances depicted in the classic novel/film The Manchurian Candidate, which concerns an unfriendly foreign power’s Trojan-horse plot to implant its own man in the White House. Let us count the ways: Candidate Trump calls for a rethinking, perhaps even a scuttling, of NATO’s traditional function as a multi-national security buffer; he lets no opportunity pass to make fawning public statements about Putin or to suggest that a profitable strategy for the future is to make common cause with the Russians. (That word “profitable” is on purpose, too — especially for someone like Trump who imagines all international questions to revolve around “deals.”)

Trump not only went out of his way to douse suspicions that the Kremlin was the source of the unending Wikileaks revelations plaguing his opponent, he actually made (however facetious) a public plea that the Russians turn up missing emails from Clinton’s private server!

Now, he stands victorious, happily making fox-in-the-henhouse appointments to head every important cabinet post — none more eyebrow-raising than Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, an oil-and-gas tycoon whose background in foreign affairs consists mainly of his long-term friendship with Putin. 

Already there were Republicans such as Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham ready to pin down Trump for his breaches.  But for McConnell to come forward is revealing. Responding to Trump’s continued denial of untoward conduct and his spiteful remarks about the nation’s intelligence community, the majority leader said, “Any foreign breach of our cyber-security measures is disturbing, and I strongly condemn any such efforts. The Russians are not our friends. I have the highest confidence in the intelligence community,” and, most significantly, that “this simply cannot be a partisan issue.”

The smell of fish is in the air.