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Zach Wamp Redux

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Tennessee Republicans who, eight years ago, were faced with choosing between candidates for governor, may remember one Zach Wamp, then a U.S. Congressman from Chattanooga, who ran in a stoutly contested Republican gubernatorial primary against Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, the ultimate winner of both the GOP primary and the general election.

On Tuesday, with state voters already seriously mulling over the would-be candidates to succeed the term-limited Haslam, Wamp was once again before a local audience, as he had been scores of times in 2010. Only this time, as he addressed members of the Rotary Club of Memphis at Clayborn Temple, Wamp was conspicuously no longer a party man. As he told the Rotarians, “In 2017, I dislike the Republican Party almost as much as I dislike the Democratic Party.”

Jackson Baker

Zach Wamp

Wamp’s appearance was under the auspices of Issue One, a national nonprofit group of which he is co-chair and which espouses a return to nonpartisan voting, the singular issue which Wamp and his cohorts in the movement believe is what the nation’s founders had in mind.

As Wamp remembers it, the years of the 1990s, during which Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican House of Representatives Speakers horse-traded back and forth on measures such as one calling for a balanced-budget, constituted the last hurrah of the two-party system. After that, things became more tribal in Washington, with members hunkering down within their respective parties and spending half their time raising money. They ceased even getting to know members of the opposing party; still less were they inclined to make common cause with them, as Wamp remembers doing in working out TVA matters along with then-Vice President Al Gore.

The result, Wamp said, has been an increasing tendency to put party ahead of country, a sea change that has left the country’s voters dissatisfied and unrepresented and that accounted for the success of the outlier candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in 2016.

Hence the call of Wamp’s group — and like-minded groups such as No Labels — for a new nonpartisan politics and non-affiliated candidates, the core of whom would come, not from aging baby boomers like himself, but from millenials, some 71 percent of whom are professed independents. To boost that possibility, Issue One has scheduled a two-day event, entitled “Restoring the Founders’ America,” for next spring in Philadelphia.

Wamp may be correct about the fact of ongoing alienation from politics-as-usual, especially among the young, and his organization may also be onto something with its call for independent citizen-candidacies. But, as he acknowledged, the current system — especially in the wake of the “Citizens United” Supreme Court ruling — is held fast to its moorings by lavishly committed special-interest money, and the only real way to change that is by changing the Court, which requires in its turn the kind of altered voting pattern Wamp advocates.

It’s a chicken-egg question, but Wamp and those like him who would be mentors to a new electorate still believe they can redeem the process. Right on, we say.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Help From Abroad on Climate Change

This is a peculiar holiday season. Tradition urges us to be festive, and we will do our best to comply, though it may require more than the usual determination to be of good cheer. The current week began in a climate of uncertainty, and we mean that in both a literal and a figurative sense — literal in the sense that there was a day or two of genuinely cold and dreary weather, sufficient to remind us that, with winter approaching, we are indeed at the mercy of the elements. That chilly prospect coexists this year with wildfires raging once again in the far West, tokens, we are told, of unusually severe drought conditions, and (need we add?) of climate change — a term that is now taboo in the vocabulary of this nation’s reigning government.

In the eight years of President Barack Obama’s administration, the attitude regarding this fact of elemental crisis was summarized by this statement on the White House website: “President Obama believes that no challenge poses a greater threat to our children, our planet, and future generations than climate change.”

Under President Trump, that line has been replaced by this one: “President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.” And no, we are not making this up.

This week marks the second anniversary of the signing of the much-celebrated international accord on climate change in Paris — a compact entered into with the full cooperation of the United States. As is well known, President Trump has withdrawn our participation in the agreement, putting the United States in the position of being the only nation on earth formally dissenting from the goals of long-term planet survival.

This very week, to mark the anniversary of the international consensus on climate change, the nations participating in the agreement convened in Paris for a commemorative One Planet Summit, committed to the goal of what the organizers called “carbon neutrality” — i.e., the progressive reduction of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. The United States government was represented at the affair by a stand-alone booth promoting the availability of American coal, the fossil fuel that has been pinpointed as a major source of the deleterious greenhouse effect stemming from excessive CO2. And we’re not making this up, either.

One of the most intriguing statements emanating so far from the summit has been an announcement from French President Emmanuel Macron concerning an ongoing competition sponsored by his government to provide grants allowing climate scientists from elsewhere to relocate in France so as to pursue their researches into combating climate change. Of the 18 grants offered, 13 have been awarded to American scientists. And the name given to this grant program? “Make Our Planet Great Again” — an obvious counterpoint, for those who need reminding, to Trump’s nativist slogan “Make America Great Again.”

And, one more time, we are not making this up, either. Vive la Difference!

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Editorial Opinion

Undermining the Public Will

We live in a time when elected officials and bodies seem determined to ignore the will of the populations they have been elected to represent. This phenomenon is observable in every governmental sphere — state, local, and national — and it threatens the democratic principle in the abstract and strikes at the core of our functioning democratic machinery at all the aforementioned levels.

We have just seen the House of Representatives and Senate in Washington, D.C., willfully ignore public sentiment, expressed in virtually every imaginable kind of opinion sampling, by passing an unpopular tax-cut giveaway for corporations and the wealthy few that will be paid for at the expense of the middle class — in the loss of accustomed deductions now, in the raising of future insurance premiums due to a provision of the bill weakening the mandates of the Affordable Care Act, and in the probable reduction of entitlement benefits down the line in the name of “economy.”

Similarly, during the past decade, we have often seen the Tennessee legislature behave with contemptuous indifference to the public’s unmistakeable disapproval of a plethora of gun bills that have ended up being enacted at the behest the NRA and other like-minded interests in the firearms industry. At the same time, the General Assembly, for naked partisan reasons, has turned its back on the expressed needs of individuals and the state’s financially distressed hospitals by refusing billions in federal aid for Medicaid expansion.

And now we find Memphis city government flouting public need and citizen opinion with a series of proposals, some of which directly contravene the results of referenda carried out at the ballot box. There is a questionable ordinance proposed by Councilman Reid Hedgepeth, reportedly favored by the Strickland administration, as well, that would restrict the rights of public assembly under cover of assuring “order.” There is the proposal by Councilman Ed Ford and others that would revoke the public’s right, already expressed via referendum, to a fair trial of instant runoff voting (IRV) in the next city election, and there is an effort by Councilman Berlin Boyd on behalf of replacing a two-term limit for council members that was only recently approved by the voters.

There is room for concern, too, in county government, where a power struggle currently rages between a majority of the Shelby County Commission and the administration of county Mayor Mark Luttrell. The issues here are not as clear-cut, though the core matter of the moment is the need to sue for damages resulting from the over-proliferation of opioids in Shelby county. Sadly, all that is being litigated in Chancery Court is the incidental question of who has the authority to direct such legal efforts. A suit challenging the distributors of opioids is on file in Circuit Court but cannot go forward until the two branches of county government mediate an end to their jurisdictional dispute. Meanwhile,  the public continues to suffer.

Surely, it is no big thing to ask the various governments we elect to represent the public will, but it seems a tenuous prospect just now.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1501

Space Bus

According to The Daily Star, a daily tabloid newspaper published in the U.K., a recent “raft of UFO sightings included a “flying bus” over Mississippi.

The Mississippi couple who saw the skybus dismissed the sighting, believing the craft to be “some secret military aircraft probably headed to Memphis.”

Weird Wrestling

Last week, thesportster.com, which self-identifies as “the world’s most entertaining sports website,” published a list titled “15 Wrestling Urban Legends You’ve Probably Never Heard Before.”

The wrestling clickbait repeated an oft-told tale about a disgruntled tag team that “to take a measure of revenge on [Jerry ‘the King’] Lawler,” used the Memphis wrestler’s signature crown for a toilet. It’s not a new story, of course, but if you haven’t read it, it’s still ew.

News to Us

Many thanks to WREG for giving an old obscene gesture a new, decidedly modern context. Last week, Channel 3’s report about 40 pounds of marijuana found in a home in Southeast Memphis included this account: “No one answered the door when WREG knocked. But later, a silver F-150 pulled up, dropped a child off, and sped away. They made it clear WREG was not welcome by flashing a middle finger out the window.” Merp.

Listed

Memphis cracked the top-10 on Fodor’s 2018 “Go List,” a collection of “must see” tourist destinations. Memphis was ranked at a respectable #6, just below Kuwait, and just above Armenia. So, yay?

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Fairer Sex

As becomes increasingly obvious, we are unmistakably in the middle of a sea change apropos relations between the sexes. That “we” clearly refers to the corridors of power in politics, media, entertainment, and elsewhere. And by the sexes, we mean something beyond the erstwhile binary sense of the word. It is obvious, in this polymorphing world, that a contemporary Noah would be hard put, in filling a lifesaving craft with representative survivors, to restrict himself to the ordinary one-and-one-makes-two.

There was a time when the mechanics of the existing sexual universe could be rendered by the old cartoon of a stone-age man using one hand to drag an unconscious female by the hair, while the other hand held the club that rendered her supine and the bully boy’s to dispose of, presumably as a guest, permanent or temporary, in his lair.

Crude as that old stock image was as a metaphor for primitive courtship, it bespoke an uncomfortable truth about the enduring algorithms, through stage after stage of social evolution and of gender and power.

Now all that is being called into question, and good riddance. The club — which is to say, the male dominance built into the prevailing social model — is being challenged with a vengeance. Maia and Isis are reincarnated as Wonder Woman, who is no man’s tool and won’t be dragged anywhere. The Playboy Philosophy has gone to its reward. The reversals of fortune that have seen Bill O’Reilly, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Charlie Rose, and seemingly countless others purged from their positions of acceptability have been quick and presumably irrevocable.

The parameters of the emerging new order are indistinct, as yet. The old order will no doubt reassert itself to some degree. The giddiness felt by some will doubtless subside. The boundaries between healthy sexual interplay (flirting, hooking up, etc.) and sexual harassment are in flux and are being redefined. And the challenge now is to reform and redefine stable and just forms of behavior. The boys club is being deconstructed.

This is a revolution that won’t be accomplished by elaborate blueprints nor by elites with specialized knowledge. It will be determined by men learning to behave and by women reporting bad behavior.

The only “guidance” the current moment of transformation has required is an old-fashioned one, summed up in the biblical phrase: “You shall know the truth, and it shall make you free.” The instigators of the powerful change now underway have, for the most part, been members of the American free press doing their jobs: afflicting the comfortable by exposing various male misbehavior and predation, previously behind facades of silence and acquiescence.

It is no accident that the deniers of this overdue revolution are represented by bona fide predators — in Washington as well as in Hollywood, New York, Alabama, and elsewhere. But it appears increasingly obvious that those who deny their acions and seek to sustain the dying male-dominated zeitgeist are doomed to be outed.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Happy Jones: Memphis Activist

Memphis lost one of its most valuable citizens Thursday when Dorothy Jones, better known to family, friends, and the world at large as “Happy,” passed away at the age of 80.

Happy Jones was born a member of the socially prominent

Snowden family but, like her late sisters, Sally and Edie, embraced society in the largest possible sense. She involved herself in every imaginable public issue aimed at broadening justice and opportunity for citizens at large — from the sanitation workers

‘Happy’ Jones

‘ struggle of 1968 to black-white comity to women’s rights to fairness and equality for the LGBTQ community.

She was an activist for numerous other causes, worked as a marriage and family therapist and social worker, and was a recipient of the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis Legends award. Politically, she worked within the Republican Party to help establish a two-party political system during the 1960s and 1970s but became an independent, working across party lines, as her ever-growing progressive streak became irreconcilable with the rightward drift of the party she had been born into.

Among her important accomplishments were the chairmanship of Concerned Women of Memphis and Shelby County, which did much to heal the divisions aroused by the sanitation strike and the consequent assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and the founding of the Memphis Community Relations Commission, the goal of which was to consolidate social progress.

In the words of her longtime friend, Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen: “No one made Memphis more a City of Good Abode than Happy Jones. She was always in the forefront of progress and justice. Happy was a leader for over 50 years, crossing political and racial lines. Hers was a life well lived.”

And well enjoyed, as well. As any of her companions can testify, no nickname was more appropriate than the one she bore as her message to the world.

At election time, for the last couple of decades, she had joined with two other activist women, Jocelyn Wurzburg and Paula Casey, in publishing a widely noted ballot indicating their respective choices for public office. (The three of them usually agreed, but not always, and they made a point of stating the reasons for their recommendations.)

As happens tragically often in the case of longtime devoted spouses, Happy’s death follows closely upon that of her late husband, Fred Terry, who passed away in September. Both he and she were involved in a freak household accident resulting in a mutual fall, following which, in the process of their receiving medical attention, already dormant illnesses were discovered to be in progress.

Happy Jones’ lifetime of selfless devotion to public causes is symbolic of an age, largely bygone, in which reasonable voices in support of reasonable outcomes counted for much in the life of the community at large. She will be missed.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

County Commission and Luttrell Clash Over Opioid Suit

Even as candidates are sorting themselves out for next year’s elections to the Shelby County Commission and the office of county mayor, the current version of the commission is still involved in what has been an extended power struggle with outgoing Mayor Mark Luttrell. That conflict has now entered an intense new phase, prompted by a disagreement between the warring entities over strategies for dealing with the ongoing opioid crisis.

The current wrangle was precipitated last Thursday by commission chair Heidi Shafer’s independent action in signing on with a national law firm to prosecute a lawsuit against a variety of drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and physicians. Luttrell objected to what he saw as a usurpation of administrative authority under the county charter and — pending the outcome of a scheduled mid-week vote by the commission on a resolution of support for Shafer’s action — prepared legal action to abort it.

Ostensibly, the dispute is over a choice of law firms to pursue remedies for damages resulting to Shelby County and its citizens from the ongoing opioid epidemic, as well as over the nature and scope of the recovery effort, and the timetable for prosecuting it. There are legitimate differences of opinion on these matters, and there is no denying the importance of the opioid crisis or its effect on Shelby County. The fundamental differences between the Luttrell administration and what would seem to be a majority of the 13-member commission are rooted in the aforementioned power struggle, one which has the potential to overshadow the long-distance future of local government.

The  basic conflict began during budget deliberations a couple of seasons back, when a majority of commission members chafed at what they saw as the county administration’s too-close-to-the-vest accounting of the county’s fund balance. Even after the budget of 2015 was finally signed, sealed, and delivered, the commission and administration clashed repeatedly over funding matters, with the commission wanting ever more information about and oversight over the process. In the ensuing struggle, the commission sought to hire an independent attorney to help monitor fiscal matters. In the end, former Commissioner Julian Bolton was allowed to come aboard as a kind of ad hoc “policy adviser” to the commission. He is now, as it happens, serving also as local counsel for Napoli Shkolnick, the firm with which Shafer executed her agreement on behalf of the county and one that, she says, is assisting the opioid-related legal efforts of numerous other governmental entities nationwide.

Luttrell insists that the administration has been on course to develop its own timely legal strategy on behalf of Shelby County, has dutifully and fully kept the commission informed of its efforts, and that the current imbroglio can only create confusion and delay and impede a successful legal effort on the opioid issue.

The disagreement will doubtless be resolved by mediation or judicial ruling, and the county charter, which was extensively revised in the recent past, may have to undergo further alterations by referendum or convention. At the moment, though, both the opioid crisis and the ever-worsening strains within county government are serious problems calling for some immediate solution, even if only a stopgap one.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Should Shelby County Raise Officials’ Salaries?

The old bugaboo of pay raises for public officials rose again at Monday’s regular meeting of the Shelby County Commission, and, perhaps because of the proximity in time to Halloween, enough members of the commission were spooked by the prospect of raising their own salaries and those of several other elected county officials that the proposal — actually, three separate proposals in as many formal ordinances — went nowhere.

Technically, the votes taken Monday were on second reading, and there is one more final reading to come, presumably at the commission’s next meeting, scheduled for November 13th, but nobody needs a crystal ball or consultation with either a pollster or a necromancer to see that the ordinances are doomed to defeat in two weeks’ time, as well.

In point of fact, there is a commission majority in favor of the pay raises, but the county charter prescribes that issues of this kind require a supermajority of the entire commission.

That would be nine votes, and the ordinances fell short Monday by identical votes of seven for, four against, and one abstention. The seven aye votes belonged to six of the seven commission Democrats — Willie Brooks, Walter Bailey, Justin Ford, Reginald Milton, Eddie Jones, and Van Turner — and one Republican, Steve Basar. The four naysayers were Republicans Terry Roland, David Reaves, George Chism, and commission Chair Heidi Shafer. (GOP Commissioner Mark Billingsley would later ask that his vote be added on as a fifth no.) The one abstainer was Democrat Melvin Burgess Jr., who, as a declared candidate for Assessor in 2018, might have been concerned that, as a would-be tax collector for the county, his vote would draw special attention from opponents in next year’s election.

Under the proposed pay hikes, the salary of the county mayor would rise from $142,500 to $172,000; the sheriff salary from $116,995 to $154,890, and those of county clerk, trustee, register (all now pegged at $109,810), and assessor ($110,465) to go to $126,000. The commissioners’ salaries (currently $29,100, with the chair getting $31,100) would go to a uniform $32,000.

The votes essentially fell along predictable lines, with Bailey, speaking for the Democratic contingent of aye voters, pointing out the obvious, that the cost of living was continuing to rise and wondering if the objectors were contending that the pay of officials could never rise accordingly. Roland protested with insistent righteousness that commissioners should serve the public, not themselves, and he and Reaves professed themselves open to a public referendum to change the charter and tie future raises for the affected county officials to pay raises for rank-and-file county employees. As Democrat Turner noted, that was basically a way to put things off for the present.

For the future, such a referendum is not a bad option. Though prospects for passage might be remote, they are no worse, and could be better, than the existing odds for such proposals on the commission itself. We know all the political arguments against pay raises for public officials, and we regard it as unfortunate that the arguments for them cannot be evaluated on their own merits, the same way that pay matters out in the regular marketplace are, or should be.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Holiday Eats

CREDIT: Annapustynnikova | Dreamstime

Family, friends, and valued coworkers. Voluminous laughter. A toast and the clink of glassware. Expertly done hors d’oeuvres and a splendid spread. Such are the elements of a great holiday party. For some ideas to push your party over the top, read on …

India Palace

1720 Poplar (278-1199)

indiapalacememphis.com

Neighborhood: Midtown

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: Indian

The palak paneer, vegetable samosas, and the tandoori chicken are true crowd-pleasers, and India Palace offers a private dining room for those special gatherings.

Riko’s Kickin’ Chicken

1329 Madison (726-5347)

Neighborhood: Midtown

Open For: Lunch

Cuisine Type/s: American

Riko’s, a popular food truck, turned into an instantly popular restaurant when it opened last spring. Sure-fire selections include the hot wing platter, the Kickin’ fries (topped with chicken!), and the famous shrimpburger. The holidays are here, and Riko’s has deep-fried 14 to 16-pound turkeys, $49.99. Catering is also available. Stop by for more details.

Pearl’s Oyster House

299 S. Main (522-9070)

8106 Cordova Center near Germantown Pkwy. (425-4797)

pearlsoysterhouse.com

Neighborhood: Midtown and Cordova

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: Cajun/Creole

The char-grilled oysters are tadiefor, and the staff expertly takes care of parties large and small. Both locations have large or small private dining options for holiday gatherings.

Railgarten

2166 Central (231-5043)

railgarten.com

Neighborhood: Cooper-Young/Lenox

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch, dinner, late-night Tuesdays, and Saturday and Sunday brunch

Cuisine Type/s: New American

It isn’t a holiday party until somebody puts out the grub! Choose from our set menus or we’ll put together something just for your event plus select from several different space options both inside and out.

Annapustynnikova | Dreamstime

Mulan Asian Bistro

2149 Young (347-3965)

4698 Spottswood (609-8680)

2059 S. Houston Levee (850-5288)

mulanbistro.net

Neighborhood: Midtown, East Memphis, Collierville

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: Chinese, sushi

Come to Mulan Asian Bistro for your holiday party. Book our private room at the Cooper-Young location that comfortably seats 35 to 40 people or our East Memphis location that seats 30 to 35. There is karaoke or HD video hook-up available, and you may choose from a la carte dining or catered buffet-style service.

Molly’s La Casita

2006 Madison (726-1873)

mollyslacasita.com

Neighborhood: Midtown

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: Mexican

Molly’s La Casita will be 35 on December 12th!! We will be having specials the entire month of December. Enjoy the holidays and our 35th birthday with us.

Kooky Canuck

87 S. 2nd (578-9800)

1250 N Germantown Pkwy. (800-2453)

kookcanuck.com

Neighborhood: Downtown and Cordova

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: American and Canadian

Custom-made for big appetites. The Kooky Burgers are fine indeed, ditto for the inventive BBQ Egg Rolls, and nothing’s more fun than the tabletop s’mores.

Next Door Eatery

1350 Concourse (779-1512)

nextdooreatery.com

Neighborhood: Crosstown

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: New American

Serving real food from American farmers, Next Door has a high-energy, urban vibe, making it a great place to gather with friends and family for the holidays. Open seven days a week at 11 a.m., the menu features a variety of shared plates, fresh salads, sandwiches, burgers (don’t miss the 50/50 Burger!), and bowls. Next Door offers kegged wine, craft beer, and cocktails. Visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @nextdooreatery.

Half Shell

688 S. Mendenhall (682-3966)

7825 Winchester (737-6755)

halfshell-memphis.com

Neighborhood: East Memphis and Southwind

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch, dinner, and brunch

Cuisine Type/s: Seafood

Now accepting holiday party reservations for our private rooms at both locations. Our Mendenhall room seats 15 to 24; Southwind seats 20 to 30. For more information, call 682-3966 (Mendenhall) or 737-6755 (Southwind).

Bluefin

135 S. Main (528-1010)

Bluefinmemphis.net

Neightborhood: Downtown /South Main

Attire: Casual

Open For: Lunch and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: Sushi, hibachi, and Korean

Sleek setting, wide, eclectic menu with sushi, Korean tacos, hibachi, Philly Cheese Steak (!), fried rice, and more.

Caiman Authentic Venequelan Cuisine and Bakery

4509 Summer, just west of Perkins (746-8666)

caimanrestaurant.com

Neighborhood: Summer/Berclair

Attire: Casual

Open For: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: Latin American

Taste the delicious, authentic Venezuelan dishes at Caiman, such as carna asadas, arepas, and cachapas. Call for details on savory or sweet party platters for your next event.

Peabody Hotel (Corner Bar, Lobby Bar, Peabody Deli, Capriccio Grill, Chez Philippe)

149 Union (529-4000)

peabodymemphis.com

Neighborhood: Downtown

Attire: Casual to dressy

Open For: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Cuisine Type/s: American/Italian/French

Celebrate the holiday season with private parties at The Peabody. Impress the office or your best friends with a party customized just for you. From historic banquet rooms, to Capriccio Grill and Chez Philippe, The Peabody has the perfect venue with unique menus for your event. For more information, call Leslie Potter, 529-3675.

The Kitchen, American Bistro

415 Great View Drive East, Ste. 101

(729-9009)

thekitchenbistros.com

Neighborhood: Shelby Farms Park

Attire: Casual to dressy

Open For: Lunch, dinner, and brunch on Saturday and Sunday

Cuisine Type/s: New American

High energy restaurant and bar serving seasonal food and drinks in a relaxed and sophisticated setting. Now booking holiday events for 30 to 35 in our private dining room.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Trump’s “Achievements”

We have now reached the final quarter of the calendar year, and one of the modish political commentaries of the season is a lament, usually delivered with utmost solemnity by a talking head on cable TV, that President Trump has failed to deliver on his legislative agenda — the idea being that is a seriously unfortunate mischance for the nation.

Really? We can barely restrain ourselves from having a celebration and leading a march down Mid-America Mall. Trump’s “agenda,” to dignify the whimsically erratic and ever-changing stream-of-consciousness that seems to guide him, is, so far as we can tell, a toxic and dangerous stew of things that augur no good for the nation. If only the protestation of the pundits, that the president can’t get anything done, were true! The fact is — and this definitely cools our joy — that Trump has been able to make some momentous changes by abundant use of the kind of independent presidential directive that he used to condemn when President Obama employed the strategy.

Obama issued his directives — on behalf of DACA (the Dream Act for Childhood Arrivals), for example — in order to advance overdue action when Republican-imposed gridlock had stymied it. Trump uses the device to achieve ends that have never even been taken through an established congressional process. To name just a few: Trump has struck down DACA, eliminated vital environmental safeguards, endangered an important international agreement restricting nuclear activity in Iran, and, most recently, withheld prime-the-pump funding from insurance companies participating in the Affordable Care Act.

And Trump is at war not only with congressional Democrats but with responsible members of his own Republican Party. Just ask the two GOP Senators from Tennessee — Bob Corker, whom circumstances have induced to itemize out loud the ways in which this president menaces the country, and Lamar Alexander, who has seen his bipartisan efforts to maintain the premium supports for the ACA undermined by Trump.

So we do not grieve over the president’s inability to achieve legislative results in tandem with Congress. The rude truth is that, like all tyrant types, he does enough harm on his own.

Bernal Smith As  members of the Memphis community — and the journalistic calling — we mourn the unexpected and untimely passing this weekend of Bernal Smith, the innovative and public-spirited publisher of The Tri-State Defender.  

Bernal Smith

During the four years of his stewardship, Rhodes graduate Smith advanced the long tradition of the Defender as an outlet for the aspirations of Memphis’ African-American population, made it a beacon as well for the entire local community, and all the while he was making the paper a fully independent local publication for the first time.

Beyond all that, Smith was a capital fellow, a genuinely companionable and compassionate friend, a consistent pleasure to be around for all who encountered him. His trajectory was toward ever more productive relationships and achievements. That he died in his prime is to be regretted and mourned. That he lived among us and left an important legacy behind is a memory for which we remain thankful.