NEWS AND OPINION:
Much of the current political discourse consists of incendiary bursts of outrage and indignation from Democrats over the Trump White House, every syllable amplified by the news media, happy to cover the fireworks as they come and go. But there is another dynamic at work as well. Politics is also a long march with enduring themes — which is where books come in.
Take, for example, “Understanding Trump,” by Newt Gingrich, due in four weeks from Center Street, the conservative imprint of Hachette Books. It features a foreword by the president’s son Eric Trump — who describes the book as “an inside look into possibly the greatest campaign of all time.”
Mr. Gingrich’s work could provide a thoughtful rebuttal against claims that the president is unpresidential. Mr. Trump is, instead, different. Ironically, many inclusive-minded Democrats are not willing to tolerate this difference.
“It is astonishing to me, as a historian, how the elite media and much of the political establishment refuse to try to understand Donald Trump. They have been so rabidly opposed to him, so ideologically committed to left-wing values, and so terrified of the future that they haven’t stopped and considered how extraordinary his success has been,” writes Mr. Gingrich. “President Trump is one of the most remarkable individuals to ever occupy the White House. His set of practical business experiences — and his lack of traditional political-governmental experiences — make him a unique president.”
Mr. Gingrich later advises, “Even today, months after Trump won the election and was sworn in as president, the news media still tries to cover him as if he were a normal politician, and his ideological opponents continue to be viciously dishonest. They are either clueless or lying. Ignore them.”
Meanwhile, another book is on the way from Center Street, this titled “Liars, Leakers and Liberals” by Jeanine Pirro.
“As an online commentator and host of her own show on Fox News for many years, Judge Jeanine Pirro has seen firsthand how narratives take form, whether they are based in truth or not,” the publisher advises, noting that the book will identify the most “egregious lies” and the true toll of fake news, plus the falsehoods of modern-day feminists.
The author will also explain “how the media has twisted President Trump’s words to fit the narrative they’ve created,” along with damage caused by anonymous sources and White House leaks, and the situation that Mr. Trump “inherited” from former President Barack Obama.
Interesting to note that Ms. Pirro had lunch with Mr. Trump at the White House a few days ago, so her own sources are indeed current.
FOR THE LEXICON
“Online outrage mobs.”
That’s a handy term identified by Ari Cohn, an attorney and director of the individual rights defense program for Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an interest group defending freedom of speech on college campuses.
Mr. Cohn points out that “online outrage mobs are all the rage recently, standing at the ready to inundate colleges and universities with demands to punish a student or professor the moment they say something that offends others.”
’SPYING ON TRUMP’
“Americans overwhelmingly believe the Obama administration ’improperly surveilled’ Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and a majority say they would like to see a special prosecutor appointed to look into possible misconduct by the FBI and Department of Justice in spying on Trump,” says a new Investor’s Business Daily editorial, which includes a poll revealing that 55 percent of the respondents said is was likely the Obama administration indeed improperly surveilled the Trump campaign while 54 percent approve of a special counsel to get to the bottom of the matter.
“The poll’s contents are troubling for those in the Democratic Party and the left-leaning media who had hoped to make a case with the American people that President Trump worked with Russian officials to win the 2016 election. The American people don’t seem to believe it,” the editorial suggests.
NOTHING BUT CRICKETS
So is the Democratic rebuttal to the House Intelligence Committee memo just gathering dust?
“The White House did not deny the release of the Democrats’ memo. What they did is they said ’Look, you need to make some redactions and some technical corrections here, and we will get it out right away,” Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican and chairman of the House intelligence committee told Fox News Channel on Sunday.
“Now, from that point, we’ve heard nothing but crickets. The Democrats have been on TV all weekend long. Their memo is sitting at the House Intelligence Committee down at the bottom of the Capitol waiting to be redacted. If they really wanted to get it out, they would have been down there all day redacting it, getting it back over to the White House so that the public can know what’s in it. So this is nothing but politics.”
GO AHEAD AND ENERGIZE
In a joint project, the University of Buffalo and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have created a wearable “nanogenerator” which can convert energy in the human body into energy that can power, say, a cellphone. They are not quite there yet, but the project is powering up.
The simple, tiny generator tab — made of silicone, gold foil and Silly Putty, essentially — delivered a maximum voltage of 124 volts, a maximum current of 10 microamps and a maximum power density of 0.22 milliwatts per square centimeter. — “not enough to quickly charge a smartphone; however it lit 48 red LED lights simultaneously,” the researchers report.
POLL DU JOUR
• 74 percent of U.S. voters are “extremely” or “very” concerned about political divisions in the U.S.: 67 percent of Republicans, 67 percent of independents and 82 percent of Democrats agree.
• 24 percent overall say they are not very concerned by political divisions; 32 percent of Republicans, 26 percent of independents and 16 percent of Democrats agree.
• 49 percent overall are tired of politics “and want it to go away”; 47 percent of Republicans, 53 percent of independents and 50 percent of Democrats agree.
• 24 percent overall say they are energized by politics and want to be more involved; 26 percent of Republicans, 14 percent of independents and 25 percent of Democrats agree.
• 22 percent overall say they feel both energized and wearied by politics; 23 percent of Republicans, 24 percent of independents and 20 percent of Democrats agree.
Source: A Fox News poll of 1,002 registered U.S. voters conducted Jan. 21-23 and released Feb. 7.
• Chitchat and takeaway messages to jharper@washingtontimes.com
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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