🇺🇸 The Prince's Page Turner

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📉 January 12, 2023: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 47, Disapprove 51 (Rasmussen Reports)

📈 January 11, 2023: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 50, Disapprove 47 (Economist/YouGov)

📉 January 11, 2023: Congressional Job Approval: Approve 21, Disapprove 54 (Economist/YouGov)

📉 January 11, 2023: Direction of Country: Right Direction 29, Wrong Track 60 (Economist/YouGov)

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Left: House Dems Were Smug, But Do They Have a Plan? Christina Cauterucci, Slate

Left: Dems Have Little To Fear From GOP House Investigations Shan Wu, Daily Beast

Right: House GOP About To Make Dems Squirm Cheryl Chumley, Washington Times

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Economy: Consumer prices fell 0.1% in December, in line with expectations from economists (CNBC)

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ENTERTAINMENT

The Prince's Page Turner

Prince Harry’s memoir “Spare” has climbed to the top of the Amazon and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists, in both the US and the UK, breaking UK records in the process. This comes amid intense focus from the mainstream media, including leaked details and pre-publication interviews.

Reporting from the Left: Spare review: The weirdest book ever written by a royal (BBC)

Reporting from the Right: Prince Harry's 'Spare' fallout: Meghan Markle is a great actress, says royal insider (Fox News)

From The Flag: Harry’s book was released Tuesday, and chronicles his frayed relationship with the British royal family, particularly in the wake of his marriage to American actress Meghan Markle. Here’s more from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

"Spare" Us, Indeed – Harry’s Book Is Mere Tabloid Fodder

• The entire memoir is a useless fluff piece that aims to absolve Harry and Meghan from any blame while also boosting their collective profile.

• Americans’ fascination with the royal family has helped Harry and Meghan advance their media career, even though both of their statements are deeply hypocritical.

• Harry’s great great uncle, the Duke of Windsor, was hated by the public – but he never sought publicity, or to tear down the monarchy.

“Prince Harry's 400-Page Temper Tantrum” Brendan O'Neill, Spiked: “This is the most annoying book I have read in a long time. Even the bio on the first page is annoying. The Duke of Sussex, it says, is ‘a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental-wellness advocate and environmentalist’. … 60 percent of the flights he takes are on private jets… putting ‘environmentalist’ in his actual bio? Now that’s chutzpah. Or gaslighting. One of those. Actually, Spare is a big, fat, wordy act of gaslighting. It’s a 400-page tantrum about family and money and tiaras (I’m not joking). It’s primal therapy masquerading as memoir, where the aim seems to be less to tell the truth about what’s being going on in the deranged House of Windsor than to absolve Harry and Meghan of any responsibility for it. These two are never to blame for anything, apparently. Drama and malice just magically appear whenever they’re around. Curious.”

“Why Does America Have To Suffer Harry & Meghan?” Dominic Green, The Washington Free Beacon: “Every nation gets the royal family it deserves. Americans once had Hollywood royalty, but Hollywood has decayed into virtue-signaling and television streaming. Meghan and Harry are pretenders to the throne of American royalty for the 21st century. A second-rate actress and a spare-part prince are parodying a European past for a fanbase that cannot remember it. … Harry keeps saying that the media killed his mother, Princess Diana. He says the media have damaged his and Meghan’s mental health and complains about the ‘emotional toll.’ He says he wants to protect Meghan from Diana’s fate and that his job ‘is to keep my family safe.’ Yet here he is again, seeking public attention and feeding himself, his wife, and his two young children into the woodchipper of celebrity gossip. It makes no sense.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle risk becoming most hated royal couple Lee Cohen, Fox News Opinion

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

The Royal Family Has Been Exposed By Someone It Hurt

• Harry has shown courage in speaking out against the royal family, and exposing its ugliness, even though some criticize his motives.

• The biggest takeaway from the book is that Harry feels inferior as the little brother, and he’s playing dirty pool as revenge.

• Harry’s supposed evolution as a humanitarian is exposed as fake, through his callous writing about fighting in Afghanistan.

“Prince Harry's 'Spare' memoir shows the power of speaking your truth” Steven Petrow, USA TODAY Opinion: “Often it’s nearly impossible to change – much less challenge – the white-washed narratives that define our lives. But Harry did just that: He called out Camilla as the ‘villain’ in his parents’ marriage; he spoke directly to the unconscious racism in his family; he described the heart-stopping coldness of his father; and… how his wife nearly took her life thanks to the ostracism she faced from the Windsors and others. You bet that changes the storyline. ​​… None of this will quiet the critics and the haters, who see both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as seeking to hurt the Windsors and destroy the monarchy, while raking in millions. (Oh, and of course, don’t forget allegations that Harry and Meghan are two-faced in saying they seek privacy while repeatedly putting themselves in the public domain.) Maybe, just maybe, they should open their hearts and actually listen to what Harry’s saying.”

“Why Prince Harry can't stop oversharing” Peggy Drexler, CNN Opinion: “Among the gossipy allegations Harry lobs at his brother in ‘Spare’ are details of a physical altercation between the two during which William knocked Harry to the floor and left him scratched and bruised… Through these disclosures, what we’re seeing is a little brother desperate to fight back against a lifetime of feeling inferior, but doing so in the dirtiest way possible. And, well, it seems pathetic. Competition between children is common, and sibling rivalry between brothers even more so, especially when there are just two of them. Certainly, most aren’t born into families with set hierarchies that serve to remind them of their exact place. But brotherly discord has existed throughout time, inspiring countless works of art in all spheres (most of them tragedies). Harry is not special — his is one of the commonest dramas of human nature.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: ‘Spare’ book pokes gaping holes in Prince Harry’s rebrand Noor Noman, MSNBC Opinion

FLAG THIS

How Harry Fares in Opinion Polling

Survey results published this week show just 26% of Britons hold a favorable view of Prince Harry. That’s the lowest level recorded since the question was first tracked in 2011.

Meanwhile, 64% describe their view of Harry as negative.

Younger Britons are evenly split, with 41% holding a positive view, and 41% holding a negative view. This is a considerable change from December, when 49% of the younger demographic held a favorable view, with 29% feeling the opposite (YouGov).

FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

Rich Thrifting, Giving Better Advice, Not All Spending is Equal

In the midst of depression and a steep decline in his musical career, legendary country singer Johnny Cash arrives to play for inmates at California's Folsom Prison on January 13, 1968. The concert and the subsequent live album launched him back into the charts and re-defined his career.

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Today I Learned that Florida will pay you to hunt snakes. No license or permit is required.