Whats been in my Shapiro's did we do that already? Do not enough? If we did not enough? If we did, this is behind the bastards. And you know what that introduction means. It's another reading Ben Shapiro's marvelous book Episode Baby, the episodes that everybody loves except the people who hate them. The talented Mr Shapiro, The talented Mr Shapiro talking about Benny's book True Allegiance, which I think I can say is like if the Koran and the Bible had a baby, and then that baby fell off of a ski lift and hit its head on a pile of rocks several times. And then that baby tried to join the military but was told no because it had too much of a history of severe head injuries. And then that baby tried to write a screenplay about joining the military, but then that screenplay was turned down being terrible. And then that baby became a right wing grifter for I don't know, twenty something years and then wrote a fiction book, It would be True Allegiance. That is Ben Shapiro's background. Is That is Ben Shapiro's back, that's his origin story. Ski lift accident survivor Ben Shapiro every word. That's why he cares about that, and that's why he stopped growing. Okay, I think we've all established you can't be Shapira, but I didn't, but I did. It's fine, it's where we are. Is the is the he's a result of starting to be a conservative pund at age sixteen. Yeah. Perhaps the only things I mean, I'm just gonna say it. The only thing sixteen year old should be allowed to do is join the Marine Corps and drink alcohol. That just those two. We shouldn't even let him go to school. Yeah, no school and nothing like that. Just drunk and trunk. We don't need shrunken, drunken teenage marines. Yeah you want Tom wasted. Uh. So we're back. We're back talking Benny Shaps in his book. We ended with uh with combat General Bret Hawthorne talking to his friend, the token Muslim who isn't a terrorist and I think the only Muslim who's not a terrorist that we meet. Um. And now we're moving to a President Prescott chapter. So when we last left President yeah, he just had his nine eleven moment, cruelly wearing a windbreaker. Uh in a disaster site. Yeah, now all right, you have got to be kidding me with this, Mark Prescott said, his eyes bulged, his face had turned beat red. I'm trying to hold the country together and you're out there fucking supporting the enemy by targeting Muslims. How am I supposed to counter the act? He's oh good, he's talking to Brett Hawthorne. So, if you remember earlier in the book, Brett Hawthorne made people, forced people to illegally use racial profiling, which did not work or return any usable intelligence. And now the president is angry because that has been released to the media. Yeah, it's weirdly presented as an argument for racial profiling while being being an example of why it's bad. Yeah, I'm not weird for Ben though, Oh no, not weird, completely consistent with his inconsistent Yeah, yeah, not writing and thinking part for the course on this book. In this book, I'm sure this will change. But one of the things that I find so fun about President Prescott is that he's written like a like an over the top movie villain, like a sniveling, like selfish coward, but all of the actual things he does as president are perfectly reasonable. It's like, oh, you want to have it. You have a job's program, you call him a national guard to deal with a nuclear attack, like the evil President Prescott, that guy angry at jobs program, yelling at an active duty general for forcing police to racially profile people for no effective purpose, like a dictator, disgusting, making it a forty hour work week, refusing to invade Mexico. The whole thing about Mexico that the whole plot of this is that the American needs to invade Mexico after they get nuked by Iran. God, it's so forgettable, it really is. I've lost the thread several times, Like that's like potentially, like oh that's like that's a story. Yeah, Like I don't know what that's about, but okay, but like it's so forgettable, it's gone fair already forget This year's pokes a lot of holes in my brain. So informated. But this is not memorable enough to latch on. No, So the only thing that's memorable are the characters themselves. Like combat General Brett Hawthorne, who has this chapter opens, is sitting on the couch watching the prejudent president rage at him. Oh good, we've got a real classic Ben Shapiro sentence here, all right, let's get let's let's get so many Sophie. On the way to the hotel, comma, the secret service agents had been utterly silent, um semi colon. They refused to answer any of his questions. Comma give him any information at all. Periods on the way to the hotel, comma, the secret service agents had been utter least silent, semi colon. They refused to answer any of his questions common give him, comma give him any information at all. So that's not even a full sentence. There's on the way to the hotel. You don't need a comma there no on the way to the hotel. Hey, I'm sorry, I don't need to it's in all of the like it's it's basically two incomplete sentences that he'd stitched together into one. Still not a grammatically correct sentence, and the only thing he's getting across on the way to the hotel. The secret service agent said nothing bam like that. That's the point. You don't and I mean, the last bit doesn't conclude. That's the kind of comma use that you're supposed to have exercised around grade three, fourth grade. You know, I think when you're doing your little grammar workbooks. I mean, I think the conclusion put a line through it is that we need to criminalize comma usage, band the comma to absolutely clear. He's like, I know that semi colon's exist, therefore I'm going to replace periods with the semi Cohen's. Like anyway, it is. It is fun that Ben has the same attitude towards ending his sentences that the United States has towards ending the war in Afghanistan, which is never do it telling. So the Secret Service doesn't answer his questions, but Brett figures out they must have picked up Hassan. How else could they have found him at Omari's who's that like, guy, who's the big Muslim? He liked leading care Right, the anti Islamophobia charity, but in this they're working with the terrorists. Uh yeah, you can't trust charity. You can't trust it. Not a Muslim charity. Prescott continued to yell. I elevated you, I made you, I saved you, and this is how you reward me. Brett could feel the anger building. He flexed his fist, then let it go, an old trick Ellen had taught him to take his mind off his temper. It wasn't working. Tell me, I expect an answer. What were you thinking? I gave you back your life, no, Brett said, softly, dangerously, I signaled you. I told you to hit the building. Prescott scoffed, disbelieving. You can't be serious. You wanted me to start a war with Iran, after Iraq, after Afghanistan. We just finished pulling the troops out. For God's sake, we got you, didn't we That wasn't the goddamn point. So again, this guy's the bad guy for not wanting to start a new war. Can't believe him. I don't think you need to add the word disbelieving after using the verb scoffed. Yes, yes you could. That's another classic thing that you should get over in seventh grade creative writing. Is like, Okay, he's scoffed because he doesn't believe them. You don't have to tell us. That's like saying he uh he said, speakingly, Yeah, he spoke wordingly. Yeah. So they argue about this for a while at Prescott's like, you know, I could kick you out of the military. Yeada, YadA, been or not been? Brett says, go ahead, I'd love to tell the press just why you did. Because you couldn't keep this country safe. You weren't willing to make the tough choices like invading a rod keep the country safe. Yeah, by escalating military action. So the president threatens that if he doesn't keep his mouth shut, he'll have federal charges drawn up against him for violating Uh that a mom who's a terrorist civil rights um has been thinks civil rights are a bad thing. As a general, will I think, yeah and yeah. The Brett yeah tells him like, hey, Mr President, you know, if you'd listen to me, all of those people who who were blown up in America would be alive today. Um. Prescott reached down to the coffee table and picked up the remote control. He flipped the channel to CNN, where the anchors continue to gush over Prescott's big speech. General, he said, I can afford a few public relation hits right now, rally around the flag effect and all that you'll be seen as an ungrateful rube looking to hit back at the man who saved you. Your time is over, General, get out of my sight. So yeah, tough but fair, tough but fair. Um, I do love that after a nuclear attack on the United States. CNN is talking about the President's speech and and nothing else, like no, it's no, it's it's tan suit right, Yeah, they'd be talking about radiation probably, so are you kidding? Rachel Maddow would latch onto that. Um, so Prescott woke from it. So I guess Prescott has a nap after meeting with the General and he wakes up to see Prescott woke from his nap an hour later to Tommy Bradley's face written across it was panic. Yeah, It's it's just panic was written across his face or something like that. Don't why why are you always so indirect Ben, like exactly right? Yeah, Mr President? Panic? Sorry it's yeah yeah. So okay. So the President gets the news that Reverend Jim Crawford is assassinated. Uh, and they're blaming it on the white supremacist of white supremacist group with ties to terrorist Mama who solo dad? Are are are Clive and Bundy but Latino woman? Um Above the chiron ran the footage of the continuing riots in the streets of Detroit. Then the anchors cut to some strong john young black man named Leavon Williams they built him as protest leader. Yeah, yeah, here we go. He's calling people to rise up, YadA YadA, forth so forth. Yeah. Uh so we have been writing what he thinks, CNN says. Law enforcement sources tell us that Solidad Ramirez, the fugitive wanted and wanted in connection with the bombing of government offices in Sacramento, California, earlier this year, was spotted during the chaos and the aftermath of the Crawford assassination, entering the police station. Sergeant Ricky O'Sullivan, who had just been cleared in Malone's killing, is missing as well. And yeah, like law enforcement is not going to tie that to anyway. It's whatever Ben needs this to work. She was seen walking into a law enforcement office but is also missing. She was seen breaking into a police station to free the cop who killed the dead eyed black boy. I know there's a lot of threads here. Yeah, Okay, this all checks out. Yeah yeah, so the c the whole reason for this extended digression where he attacks CNN is because the CNN anchor says, everybody's waiting to hear what the president is going to say. Um so, uh. Prescott talks with his assistant about like, all right, what are we gonna what are we gonna say? Uh? Seems to me you've got two choices. One is to allocate resources from New York to these various cities. We've got governors beginning to call asking for help from the FEDS. They want some of the Guard members we've brought back here in their states. President Prescott shook his head. No bad imagery. You remember, Ferguson, you put guns on the street. You might as well tell the media you're a racist looking for street warfare. Next option we parlay with whom Bradley pointed at the TV we're seeing in flat Okay, so now now, now, now the black terrorist is going because it's just like a like process like okay, I see what he's trying. Here we go. You know, I'm I'm sure we've discussed when this book was written. Um, I'm shocked it's as recent as Ferguson, Like this feels like the work of someone you know, a first draft you wrote in college. No, No, this is post Ferguson. And he's been a professional writer for a decade or more when he writes this book, and clearly has not had professional editors for most of that time. Um, it is fun to me that that the Prescott's like, Okay, we should talk to this leave On guy and his assistance, Like, well, the FBI knows that he's got connections to organized crime, and the President's like, yeah, so did Big Jim. That didn't stop anybody from like sainting him, which is just like, yeah, of course, all of the civil rights leaders in Ben's world are connected directly to organized crime, just like all of the Muslim community leaders are connected to a terrorism. But the terror the actual terrorists who blow up a government building are Ben's heroes, although would tell you that the Oklahoma City bombing was of course, had nothing to do with conservatism. Um, it's very good fun fun. In another classic Shapiro moment, even though this is President Prescott's chapter, we're now with Levi on we have a we have a couple of couple of spaces in between paragraphs, and we're we're back with lev Only overnight, Levin had become de facto mayor of the city without the force of National Guard to back them. The local police had fallen into a standoff position with the protesters, but Mayor Burns refused to authorize action to push Levan and his men out of the building, believing that such action would be too provocative. So Levan's got runners going between different positions in the city, YadA YadA. He's he's without National Guards soldiers. Obviously they can't put down these protests. The poor, disarmed cops have no ability to two do anything. Um. I guess they're occupying the police station now, which is would be dy rad um. Yeah. Levin didn't know the exact extent of his power yet. Of course, Mayor Burns said that eventually things would be put back under control. He put in a request to the governor, and the governor had put in a request to the fence. But soon enough things would calm down. In the meantime, he urged patience and restraint. Lev On, on the other hand, called for action. He humored every reporter, gave a quote to every journalist. He trotted out Kendrick Malone's mother as often as possible, making his own case for authority bulletproof on the back of her grief. Levan's long term plan, he told the media, was justice. He didn't define it and they didn't have to know. He meant to run for office on the back of his organized resistance. It had worked for Mary and Barry Big Jim had said it would work for Levan Williams. All that changed At four am. Ah, he gets a call from the president. Um. Yeah, so let's see what the okay. The President's assistant is like, Oh, we just want to tell you how much we admire you. Thank you for tamping down the violence. Levon grins because, of course the violence is all his fault, um, not the coops killed people. Uh Um. Okay, Mr Bradley, I really appreciate the sentiment. What can I do for you? Well, leave On It's like this, we couldn't admire your stand on social justice more particularly in the wake of this tragedy with Jim Crawford. I know you and he were close friends. The President wants to ask you for a favor. Please keep your followers from committing acts of violence. That's how this works. Yeah, and leave On reasonably says, I can't control what everybody does. It's a passionate time. Um, and they're like, yeah, just do your best. And he says, in order for me to keep my credibility with my people, they're going to need the President to say something in solidarity. They're going to need to know that he endorses our movement for justice. They turned out for him at the polls and they know he's with them, but they need some sort of sign. They're going to need him to pledge to stop police brutality against our people. They're going to need his promise to reopen the Ricky oh Sullivan case. Bradley coughed, we could do most of that leave on, but that last one that's out of our hands. We don't control the d o J. Well, then we might have a conflict here. I've got a lot of very angry people, and they're very angry for a reason. You do control the d o J. Like that is the executive anyway, whatever you you appoint the attorney, generally you have some power in this. Yeah, there's some there's some there's some power going on there. Yeah. Uh So the President tells tells Levan that he has another idea that might serve both of our interests, but he's going to have to trust the President, and Levin asks how long and he says, not too long, you'll see something in the news. Um. So they asked him to hold off for forty eight hours and then they're gonna they're gonna give him a sign. So, uh, I guess we'll see what that is not in the next chapter because it's And we're back to El Paso and Ellen who has has been Shapiro the General's wife who has been, but unlike Ben's wife, she loves her husband. Should we take a break before we go into this chapter? Appate? You know who does love their husbands bombs? Yes, Raytheon loves husbands and wives. That's why it shows up at so many weddings. Love school buses too. Okay, this is dard. What about what about hospitals? So such a Raytheon could not support hospitals more. Anyway, here's some ads, and we're back. So we're in El Paso with Allen um oh, and they're invading Mexico. Okay, alright, alright, oh boy. First paragraph the Apache attack. Helicopters veered low over sad Guarez and fired and fired directed rockets at a small duplex on the outskirts of the city. It went up in flames. Governor Davis watched the real time broadcast, yelping is the duplex disappeared in a puff of smoke and fire. There goes one of the bastards. He smiled. That bastard was one of the leaders of the Warez cartel, just hanging out in the duplex across the border. Yeah. So it starts with the Governor of Texas sending an Apache Tech helicopters to bomba city in Mexico. Jesus. Uh, that's very fun. Um. Yeah, so Texas National Guard attacks helicopters just start strafing vehicles and built bombing buildings. Um, that's cool, very cool. Yeah yeah yeah, about time. The night was so yeah he he the governor invades Mexico. Uh, and it goes great. The night was quiet, quietest it had been for months, by which I mean nothing happens on the border. The next day, though, residents of El Paso woke to a terrifying site, a National guardsman hanging dead from a billboard in the center of town. Painted in broad black letter were the words plata oplomo, silver or lead. In other words, pay us or die. Governor Davis wasn't in the mood to pay. It's also weird to send a message to the National Guards. What for what? Yeah? For what what are you talking about? You want to not be invaded by the national The governor wasn't in the mood to pay. Well, this seems like a threat against the entire United States. I don't know. There's a lot that's complicated here that doesn't track. Yeah, it makes no sense because nothing Ben says does. Um. Yeah, so that governor orders a full scale investigation. I think we know who did it, but okay, um yeah. And it turns out now there's rumors of a drug cartel in the city. Rumors of a drug cartel in El Paso. Huh that's shocking. Um yeah, so uh clearly, and for whatever reason, Ellen is the one heading up the investigation. Who is I think his his public affairs officer is now controlling a military investigation of the cartel murdering a soldier in El Paso. Ellen acted swiftly, placing National Guard troops in the local police centers, increasing security along the border. How is that hurt? How does she have that authority? Because you didn't want to introduce a new character, Yeah, we have established what she does. Yeah, she's like public relations for the governor. Yeah, that's not what this I guess now she runs the next feminist. She's a feminist. She could do whatever she wants. She's one of those classic pr ladies slash commander of the National Guards police operations. She's a multi hyen. Yeah. For ten hours, the border patrol had caught two men attempting to flee into Mexico. After questioning, Ellen had them detained and definitely pending further investigation into their activities the night of the hanging, and she redoubled eplements to the border to stop any further infiltrations and deter any attempts by collaborators to escape into Mexico. Sounds out of her pay grade. It really does. Sounds out of the governor's pay grade. To be honest, this is not really governor ship. All of it was good policy, none of it made for good pictures on the front pages around the country, and Ellen was stunned by the magnitude of the coverage. The media coverage exploded with protest on the other side of the real Grand nothing but women and children. As the sun came up, at least a hundred women stood carrying toddlers and babies, waving their hands and screaming for the National Guard to let them cross. The National guardsmen stood their ground. They didn't point their weapons Ellen and Davis had agreed there would be no such activity, both for both moral and media reasons, but they looked threatening enough in their uniforms. Young strong, square Jawed. I hate this book so much. It's so bad. It's very bad. And also, like, have you seen National Guards soldiers been. They're they're just like dudes and ladies. Like they're half of them are middle aged. It's like their weekend job. They're not. Yeah, jaws as far as I can see. Yeah, Like it's very funny. It's very funny that, like the good policy is confronting people trying to cross a border to see their families with a line of soldiers and that that's that's the heroism is having the soldiers is on its way. Yeah. And of course when this happens, this completely predictable protests from shutting down all border pro traffic and invading Mexico. When that happens, the media gets involved, but obviously not because it's a meaningful story. One of the biggest media magnates in Mexico owned several major media outlets in the United States. Ellen wasn't surprised at the number of cameras showing up. Obviously this was a big story. Still, she resented the intrusion. There's been zero cameras for the murdered National guardsmen, but get a few dozen women crying on the border with their kids, and the media had a field day. I don't believe there were zero cameras for a murdered National guards but executed by a cartel after an invasion of Mexico. Go. She complains that someone's tipped off the cameras. Um, and that's the reason they're reporting on the invasion of Mexico and the human to It's logical, right, what are the reasons would there be to report on that. It wasn't hard to gather who had tipped off the cameras. One of the biggest magnates in Mexico owned several major media outlets in the United States. That guy, that guy for reporting that news to the invasion of Mexico. Hey, hey, I know we would never cover this normally, but because I'm your boss, I want you to film some of the American invasion of Mexico lamestreamingdient. Yeah, And of course Ellen notes that the murdered National guardsmen hadn't gotten any cameras. It's also like, no it would have been the number one story in the country. Uh like, okay, yeah, whatever whatever. Um so, yeah, the cameras find find their way to Ellen for comment. We will maintain the security of the people of Texas, she said. Our immigration services have not screened any of the people out there were so most of them are wonderful people who want to come here and work and build a life without taxpayer help. We simply don't know who they are, and without screening them, we're not going to open our borders to anybody who wants to cross. We have the body of a national guard has been hanging from a billboard that tells the story of what we get when we don't check those who crossed the border. And it's telling that he does have to invent a thing, right like, in order to justify shutting down the border. And it's basically he's basically saying the thing that Trump ran on. Right. I'm sure some of them are wonderful people. I mean, this book came out two months before Trump was elected. Yeah, yep, they're the same person. Um. Yeah, the headlines hit almost immediately. Oh, this should be good. Texas Governor's top aid says immigrant women children post security threat. I might posit that the top store would be Texas Governor's top aid controlling li terry investigation into murdered soldier. Yeah yeah, that's a better headline. Yeah. Um yeah. She should have known better than to give him any material they could misuse. And again, what material wouldn't they have missed used? She vowed to ignore any calls coming from a media number. Um yeah, that's how it works, right. I know there's probably some sort of caller idea the media, the media, the media is calling me, yes, scam likely media number. Yeah. So it's this is the third the tertiary story in the news. The number one story is that New York got blowed up. The number two story is the riots, the BLM style riots all over the country. And I guess number three is America invades Mexico but they're not showing any of it, just the president's speech, no no, and until they get the tip mm hmm, and that the Mexican miller terry doesn't do anything because they don't want to fight with the National Guard, and they secretly like the cartel being cleared out, so they're okay with being invaded by the good guys. Each day, small groups of National Guards been raided ciadad Guarez, usually by motor vehicle convoys across the border. The cartel members had picked up on the nature of the offensive action and it inserted themselves into heavily civilian areas, cutting down on the ability of Texas forces to strike without facing the prospect of urban warfare. Now more dangerous search and destroy emissions have been authorized. The American side of the border remained quiet until it wasn't. Oh good, so we're going to get a border massacre because obviously invading Mexico sparks more violence in the US and stopping all those moms from getting across their families doesn't. Again bench Para making the point that he refuses, Yeah so, oh yeah, a bunch of protesters get shot dead eventually twenty six people. Um, everyone figured it for a drug cartel. It then the footage came out. Ellen saw it on the evening news as a network anchor. In toned what you were about to watch is very graphic. Younger viewers are advised not to watch. She cut to a grainy, close range video of a man in a National Guard uniform from behind walking up to a group of tents. Get out of our the National guardsmen said, in a thick Texas accent, get out of are you little? And then he uses a racial slayer for Mexican people. Um, which, okay. A few children, rubbing their eyes came scurrying out of their tents, their mother's following. Seeing the barrel of a gun, they raised their hands. The screen went white with the fired shots, flash after flash, again and again. When the night vision calmed, the smoking bodies of two dozen in instants lay on the ground. Um. So, yeah, I guess. I'm sure it's somebody posing as the National Guard to make them look bad, right, Ben wouldn't have a National guardsman. Sure, I bet it's Leon or something. I'll give I'll give Bencham credit if it actually is. If he's actually making the point that no, there's racists in the National Guard. They totally murdered children in this, you know. But I don't think that's what I say. Yeah, I think I think I might take a pet against that doesn't feel like what we're building to here. So the governor is angry at her, angry at his aid that he put in charge of the invasion of Mexico. Um, which I would be angry at this too. Um, perhaps he shouldn't have invaded Mexico in the bull offense in my book, I would say, so, I didn't write this book. Might also literally be treason to give an unelected aid control of the National Guard. Yeah, it seems like it's a crime, right. Um, so the governor's news story if everything else wasn't going on. Sorry continue, Yeah, and Bubba of course tells him that the President's yelling at him. Um, but not over the invasion of Mexico. Over this, which I think the yelling would have started. I would have think that the President would have sent into federal agents to arrest the governor of Texas for invading a sovereign nation. Um, I didn't ellen, gripped your fists. I didn't ask for this, Bubba. I did it as a favor to you, some favor, he said. I've got two dozen dead kids and their mama's and a boy in a National Guard uniform responsible for all of it, A boy I kept here in Texas instead of sending him to New York like Prescott wanted me to. Do we know who the little bastard was? Yes, she answered, we do. Um, Okay, cool, His name because it's bad. He's bad. He's bad. Uh so he's it's a soldier, a sergeant named James Easton, McLawrence and Davis is like, don't they all have three names? I guess that like serial killer thing? Um? Oh boy. She passed him a photo of a young man in a National Guard uniform. His eyes were open a shade too far, bright blue and off putting. His mouth was slack. Mclaurence joined the Guard after dropping it out of high school and getting his g e d. Not a stellar candidate for higher rank, barely at the bottom rung. He's full active weight. How is he full active duty and in the National Guard? That doesn't make any sense, Ben, do you not know the National Guard works? Doesn't sound like he does. He's full active duty. He joined the National Guard, he's full active duty. No, then that's active duty Army. That's not the National right. Yeah. Also, they're saying this guy's bottom rung, but he's a sergeant, which is not the bottom not not a bottom is actually a role with a lot of responsibility where you're often in charge of significant number of lives. I think you're just supposed to go with it, don't question him just right about this stuff? Right, what you know, not what you fantasize about. Noah, keep it to your like live journal. So the governor asks what that set this guy off? And uh, Ellen gives three possibilities. One is that he hated illegal immigrants because his dad lost his job at a manufacturing plant that moves south of the border. Uh. And another is that he was paid by cash by the cartels. And another is that he's quote just crazy simple as that useful information. Yeah, yeah, and it's I mean classic have been to like start with, Oh, well, maybe he's angry because his dad lost his job. Yeah, racism does not actually enter into that at all. Really, Um, that's interesting have been because wide wide range we can get racism, we can get there a lot of a lot of a lot of shades. So, uh, Davis is sending Ellen to New York. Now, I guess she's botched the job of commanding the army to invade Mexico. So Bubba's I don't know, may be gonna put like the agriculture secretary in. Well, what's she gonna do in New York? She's going to talk to the president. Um, because the president wants to humiliate Bubba Davis in front of the entire country. Quote, Hell, he could have a local d a down here drop charges against me. Is that they're frog walking me when I get off the plane. It's a setup. Ah. So Bubba doesn't want to get arrested for invading Mexico. Uh. And so he's sending Ellen too because she won't get arrested. They won't touch you because of Brett. Um, that's fun. Um. And Ellen's like, well, but the president hates my husband, and the governor says, it doesn't matter your husband's a national hero. He's not going to arrest you. Um. Ellen had to admit that the idea appealed to her. She hadn't seen Breton nearly a year now, and she'd missed him awfully. Every time they flashed his face across the television. Her chest ached from missing him so much. What do I say to Prescott? She said, you tell that son of a bitch that we're not going to back down off the border, not for him or anybody. And if he asks you about mclaurence, you tell him we're investigating. Turned down any federal offers for help. We don't need the feds down here mucking up our operation. Not your choice, not your choice. Also, it's the crime off the rails in this book, I mean it's it is a crime of a U. S. Serviceman in a foreign country. At no point would that be the jurisdiction of Texas law enforcement. They would have nothing to do with this legally, they can't. It would be like the FBI or somebody would not be local police in any way. That's just not how the government works. But what if it is, Yeah, like all those full time active duty National guardsmen and the full active duty part of the National Guard that's active duty, but not the army. Yeah, um, this is also this is unimportant. But if you've already written a couple of sentences about how she missed him terribly or awfully, she was an awfully choice of words. Um, after you've done that, you don't need to say when watching them on TV, her chest ached from missing him so much. Ye, just your chest? Why, I'll get it. I can. I can put two and two together. Whenever she saw him on TV, her chest ached. I understand why. It's because she missed him so much. You don't even have to say she missed him. You could say The idea of seeing brettig an appeal to her been nearly a year every time she saw him flash on TV, her chest ached, and the reader using his brain for her brain, all laid out for me. Yeah, not like You're not trying to convey a complicated emotion she misses her husband, and like, especially after reading the rest of the book so far, I get it. I'm all caught up with her feeling. Yeah, basic human emotion. Um okay, so uh yeah, okay. So Ellen does immediately point out that cross border murder falls under federal jurisdiction, and the governor says he's busy, he won't mind, and it'll allow him to save face, to put me up for public scourging. I'll be the bad guy's southern hick who won't let the sweet faced yankee down here to fix things. That's what the media is looking for anyway, Right. They wouldn't send a Yankee. There's FBI offices in Texas. They would send someone from the El Paso FBI whose job is to investigate murdered Americans in Mexico. That's a thing that they do, right, it's the Yankees. They gotta sit a yankee down to Texas. There's no Texans in the FBI carpet bagging fed Oh man, what's your end game? She's had said in game, Darlin, this thing here has been going on since the Alamo. There's no end game, just a game that won't end anyway except us holding our ground. You're cutting and running, but don't worry you just Yes, the invasion of Mexico over cartels is the same as the Alamo. Remember, and games, a game that won't end, like cut one of those. Yeah, dude, Like I can't even he didn't have an editor. Oh, absolutely not. There's no way. And if you at what, Yeah, it's probably his dad, well, someone he really likes and and it doesn't feel comfortable speaking up to his boss. I think that's my guess. Yeah, so Ben's Brett or sorry, Ellen agrees to go to New York. Uh, and she's sitting in the National Guard terminal at the airport, which might exist. I don't know, I've never I don't know that the National Guard has not impossible, Okay, sure, Like I don't know. Maybe, um is that a thing that exists? Cody? Are you trying to find out? What are you fact checking? Ben? Um So As she's sitting there waiting to fly to New York, she gets a call from a number she doesn't recognize, so she uh picks up um to at least hear what the media had prepared. At worst, she could give a no comment, so she goes back on her promise to not pick up from the media. But it's not the media. It's Brett. Honey, don't come to New York. He sounded winded. Horse, Brett. What's going on? I can't say for certain yet, Just don't come to New York. Something bad is going down. How you know that? No time to explain. The line went dead. It's probably time, Yeah, probably for too long would have gone on. Yeah, she you know it's bad because he doesn't tell her he'd take a bullet for you. Baby. It's just there's so many like cryptic messages this woman gets from her husband. I would be sick of it. Yeah, finish your sentence. Finish your sentence. Don't just like hang up and tell me not to do something. And I don't know. Yeah, it sounds like it's time to take a break for stops. You know, speaking of taking a bullet for you, We've already done it. These products would take a bullet for you, haven't we We did that months ago. Well, here's some fucking ads anyway, you God damn Yankees, rank Libs, yank lib Feds, and we are become returned. So next chapter is a solidad chapter. Who is remember the terrorists Aimon Bundy, but a Latino woman so that no one can call Ben racist? Smart covering your tracks? Yeah, they camped outside the city, no fires, no lights. They'd separated after Detroit split up to avoid being followed. They set the rendezvous for Nashville three days later. Sola Dad recommended that they wind their way through several states to throw any would be trackers off the scent. She took Ezekiel west and south. Aidan took Ricky east and doubled back through Kentucky. Nearly all the men made it. A few apparently decided they'd had enough after Detroit, after seeing their faces on television labeled white supremacists. They took off for the hills. So it Dad told them to ditch all their electronic gear to make for the northern border. If they could, they flee into Canada to and seemed like what a bunch of gun nuts would do. Okay, Um. The ones who were left looked like they've been through a war. Eddie was the worst, fat So as they all called him, had taken a tire iron to the gut and gotten stomped at the center of the crowd. He'd been in and out of consciousness ever since, his fever spiking radically just before hitting camp, as he Kiel told Sola Dad, he'd started twitching and then gone quiet. When Aidan and Ricky drove in, Solidad motioned them over, they put down their kickstands, turned off the hogs loves calling motorcycles hogs, literally slapping. I think he's been on a motorcycle. I think he wants to have been on a motorcycle, but I don't know that. I think he's been on a motorcycle. We can all fill in the blank. Yeah, moped, he can write a moped. He could write a moped. He shouldn't write a moped. Our big boy vehicles, UM, and I wouldn't. I wouldn't want been to. Yeah, we're a big girl. Just not a Been Shapiro. Uh, I'm just looking if there's a Been Shapiro on a motorcycle picture because there's so many shameful swords and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's a little gun. Um m m, all right, what we got do we have? Do we have been Shapiro on a motorcycle? Um? No, I'm not. I'm not seeing it. Yeah, there is, he does have that. He does own a leather jacket your right coding. If the motorcycle pick existed, it would be online. He would would be the first response. It would be the saddest thing that anyone's ever seen. Um. But Ben is a little bit too smart to be pictured on a motorcycle. So he gets his motorcycle kicks by calling him hogs every tiet chance he gets. Um, just an embarrassed for him. Yeah. So their friend Fats So who's dying is in a coma. And once they all get back together, Aiden, who's the former fed who murdered a bunch of other Feds for her asks, do we have anybody who knows anything about medicine? She shook her head. We need to get him to a hospital. I do love this is I don't think Ben meant it, but this is the most accurate part of the book, because that is the thing all of these like right wing militias have is like none of them are medics, like none, None of them ever bring medical supplies. None of them take care of each other. No, they rely on Antifa to take care of them at protects. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, that part is pretty pretty on brand. Um. Yeah, So they decide they've got to take him to a hospital. Um, and Aiden's like, he's not gonna live anyway, and Sola Dad gets angry, Um, we're not going to leave him to die. YadA, YadA, YadA. Um okay, so, um, they're having a big fight. Um, and Aiden's angry because he doesn't want to risk everybody's lives. Um. So, but Sola Dad's like, I've got to make I gotta make the hall. You know, I'm I'm the boss. Um. So she calls for Ezekiel, who's the token black eye in the militia, give me a hand with this man. She leaned over the body, felt the heat emanating from the burning skin. She gripped him around the biceps, put her back into it, and moved him nowhere. Embarrassed, she gripped him tighter, pulled again. When she looked up, Ricky gotta go with her legs. She's got to use her legs. She wants to move. That's putting your back into it. That's bullshit. Sorry. So the cop who killed the dead eyed black boy helps and it's like, we gotta get him help. Nobody's gonna die for me ever again, Um, no one died for you. You killed somebody, Yeah, you shot, you shot a person to death, a child. It's just some That's how he's coping. That's what he's telling himself. Yeah, um okay. So they get the guy they dropped Fats so off at an emergency room. Um, and they have, uh, the black guy stay with him because he's the only person without a national face in the group. Um cool, Um yeah, do do do? I've been way too much time on this. Huh. This is just like a boring book. It is. It is a boring book, Like and they she so Ben starts this next it's like a full page that starts with like they dropped him off at the hospital and Ezekiel stayed with him. And then after that, the next like six paragraphs are her talking with Ezekiel will he tells her she's going he's going to stay behind and stuff like. It starts by explaining what happens and then walks through it all slowly, um like a bad writer. Back to the action. The headlights from the hogs carved a three progged gash into the darkness, carved to gash. Oh to one side of Sola dad Ricky Road to the other. Aiden. The night was silent except for the rumbling of the engines, the murky smell of the murky smell of the trees. How do like somebody who hates trees? What is murky smell? How is something smell murky? Well, he grew up in a haunted marsh, so he has a different association, same swamp creature. You are right, Katie, Oh my god of the trees. I wish everyone could see our faces, just so disgusted. I'll be making the face and I'll look over and Cody's making the exact It's just confusing. Oh god, Okay, So the start of this, they're driving through the forest in Tennessee, and so what Dad thinks about how awesome she is and how awesome it is that they're doing this and like super Brad that wear a bicycle a motorcycle militia. Um uh, Aiden, I'm sorry I dragged you into this, she yelled at last. Sorry he grinned, I've been waiting for this all my life, something to fight for. She glanced over at Ricky. His mouth was set in a tight line, his gaze focused on the dark horizon. Nothing left to fight for, said Ricky, you guys know what you're up against? That's incoherent. Yeah, So she apologizes out of the blue. She apologizes to Aid and then it's like, I'm sorry I drag you into this, and he's like, why are you sorry? I've been waiting for something to fight for my whole life. And then Ricky's just says, nothing left to fight for? You guys know what you're up against. That's not that's completely nonsensical. He's trying to be cool and sparse with the language, and it's just ineffective. Yeah, it's just it's just didn't coherent. Nothing's been Yeah, the thing to fight for is hard. Yeah, they're fighting for something. Why why would you say anyway? That's yeah. So Ricky says, they're not gonna let us go. They say we killed Jim Crawford. They say we're white supremacists. Sola Dad said, do I look like a white supremacist? White supremacy comes in many forms, direct quote MSNBC today, they're nuts. I know, I know, I know. Oh he's so mad, he's so mad. Nuts but effective? Oh boy? Um. Also, when she's mentioned three times this chapter that all of their electronics are off, when did he watch MSNBC? Are you having time on your hog? Yeah? Ben, I'm sure how many times hog is used in this chapter? I actually do want to know how many times the word hog is used in this book entirely? Only four? Okay, only four matches. Oh so they're all in this chapter. Okay, how many times is the word motorcycle used? That's a good question, Cody. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, that's a fair, fair ratio. You impressed, you impressed us. Very good job. Yeah, point to you, Ben. Okay. So they're talking, that's very boring talk that uh okay. Um. So they talk about how their revolutionaries and then comparing themselves to the founding fathers. Sola Ed says, if it's good enough for Benjamin Franklin, it's good enough for me. You do realize, Ricky said Riley Franklin took off for some French who horring during for most of the Revolutionary War. It's thundered overhead and the clouds opened up ship. She heard Aidan say just what we needed. Yeah, okay, it's raining, YadA YadA. Oh there's something solid ahead of them. Okay, I think that the man has found them, so they get off the road. It's a military drone okay, Um, too small to be anything else. They could be looking for someone, for someone out wait. Military drones are very small okay. Anyway, Um, so the drone. He's thinking of the little little drones you can get for the park. The drone. Couldn't they see it? Even it couldn't be It couldn't be more than ten tho fet from the ground during a rainstorm, which I don't think you're going to see a drone in that those conditions in a motorcycle. But okay, whatever, Um, oh it's a predator drone. Yeah, those aren't. Those are giant. Those are the size of a car, not a small drone. Okay, whatever, it doesn't do any research. Perspective is off. Oh the drone is on Aiden and they fire a missile. Okay, So the drone does a missile strike on these guys, um and it blows her off of her motorcycle. Uh, she peeked over the hedge. The first twenty ft of trees had been completely obliterated. The embers of the splintered burning trees floated through the air on the ground. It's rear wheel spinning. Solidde could make out the twisted metal of Aiden's bike near it. Comma, she could see what looked to be a white lump of flesh. Period a mangled arm. That's the next sentence. Just a mangled arm, a torn fragment of a maroon scarf she had handed him to wipe off the handlebars. Is the sentence after that? Yeah, not sentences and commas Sometimes then there make them full sentences, you know. She saw a mangled arm, Comma, a torn fragment of a maroon scarf she'd handed aidan earlier. You know, something like that, anything like that. She felt an arm on her shoulder. Get to your damn bike, Ricky shouted into her ear They're coming back around. She tried to get to her feet, but her left leg wouldn't respond. Looking down, she could see the black ooze of blood creeping through her pants. Ricky swung her roughly onto his back. He pushed himself on the cycle. He cranked the throttle aiden she moaned, son of a bitch. Behind him, the drone dropped to attack altitude. All right, son of a son of a bitch? Good good reading. Yeah, I'm still just like really bored. I know, like stuff going on, but I don't know if it's the plot or like how it's written or both. It's horrible, just everything leading up to this point. Yeah, yeah, it's not like we don't really like these people are talking about how they're like the new Founding Fathers, but like, her grievances are very unclear, right, like she doesn't pay your taxes, and so they murder a bunch of Feds and then they break a cop out of prison on the other side of the country. And I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing. What are they fighting for? And we don't see any of them really express an ideology like yeah, vague and just yea the vague, like fighting fighting for something? Yeah, okay, what what I mean? You freed the cop you think is innocent, even though he admits he shot the boy. Um, and you blew up a federal building because they came at you for not paying taxes. Uh, what's what's the ideology? Though? It vague so that people could fill in their own idea all gs and relate to it. I don't know if that he trusted, like the aesthetics right there on motorcycles and they have guns obviously they're the good guys, and like their opposition to like the Obama of it all, and just like yeah, these sort of vague signifiers and markers like oh they're yeah, the motorcycles in the wind, the murky trees. Yeah, the murky trees. It's amazing. What does that mean? Nothing, Sophie means nothing. Okay, So uh. The lev On chapter opens with revealing, you know, how the President had been calling him and been like, you chill out for a couple of days. I got a secret for you. Turns out the secret is that they were blowing up that cop and the terrorist mama with the drone. Um. So the President seems to think they killed all three of them, and that's what he tells levi On. Um. So that's great. Uh yeah, So just so you know, leave On, the President is very proud of what you've done there. You've kept people under control in a bad situation. Won't be forgotten. About that, sir Levon Coft, I can only keep them tamped down for so long that people are agitated about that attack. Still with Sullivan being dead, that helps. But they think the mayor is a shill for white privilege. It's just not how you say it, a chill, not a shill for white privilege. That's not really a term anyone would use. But well, I guess some people maybe are some people so, um, I aw, he's got these like weird buzzword grievance things that he's just gotta dip it in and that's what it is, yep. Um. So, I'd be curious to know how many times to talk about intersectionality in this. Yeah, I haven't seen it come up yet. But so what levi On is asking the President for is the ability to remake the police department and put his own people in there. Um and for the President to throw his support behind that. Um. So I guess that's that's that's what he's proposing. Um. And uh, yeah, they talk about this in a conversation. I don't think we need to go all the way through uma YadA, yeah da yaha. Uh and yeah, the President says all right, yeah, Well let's I'll pressure the governor to give you the police of Detroit. Within days, the applications began piling up on Levan's desk. He'd moved over to the Mayor's office, taking up virtual residents there along with his secret political weapon, Regina. Alone, he meets with the police union. It doesn't go well. The man was old school blue and he didn't want to hear about changes to the department. He pointed out that they all had contracts leave on enjoying his new found power. Let the man stew for a few minutes. Then he told them they had every intention of honoring the contracts. There just might be a few more cops writing desks. The new boys, he said, would take over the streets. No more Ricky of Sullivan's. Now things were running smoothly, though. Levan slotted personal interviews with each of the possible new officers. Each was slotted for ten minutes. Meanwhile, Levin worked at the committee appointed by So, yeah, he's he's just putting a replacing the police with his guys. Um, Okay, that's fine. Um. He writes a new directive for the police that they're not allowed to use racial profiling, which of course, uh is bad um. When told of the new strictures, dozens of new of dozens of officers quit right away. Good riddance, Levin told the mayor, less pensions for you to pay. When Billy Barton walked into Levan's new office and slapped down a list of four hundred officers willing to quit over the new standards, Levin looked him dead in the eye. Well, he said, I suppose it can't be helped. Changed has casualties. The media viewed Levin's new standards is groundbreaking. Rachel sensitivity, they said, had never been used as an actual policing criterion. But nowhere was that criterion more necessary than Detroit. Had Rickie O'Sullivan been hot and held accountable under these standards, Levan said, Regina standing beside him, perhaps Kendrick would still be alive today. Showing attitude to police officers is something that Detroit cops should have understood had he been properly trained. Don't call our kids thugs just because you don't understand the experiences they've had growing up. They've seen cops pull over their dad's dragged them off to jail. We have an entire generation of missing men in our community. Sensitivity is the key. Okay, so that's why hundreds of cops quit, which scans now, but Ben is framing all of this as as bad as bad. Remarkable about this yeah yeah, um, so he changes the rules that anyone convicted of a non violent felony could be considered to be a police officer. Um and yeah, which is also He's like, why why should having sold pot disqualify you from me? Exactly? Yeah? Um more cops resign at this. The final blow to the police enrollment standards came in the area of education. The standard for the department had always been a high school degree or equivalent. Now, with the applications pouring in, Levon had to face the fact that not enough applicants had graduated from high school. Many had dropped out. Again, he cited racial disparities and changing the policy, explaining that every trainee would be given remedial education necessary to do the job. How can you expect people to work their way up the ladder if we don't give them the chance to get on the first rung. He's just being very reasonable here, and also like, yeah, tons of police departments except G E. D S. It's not uncommon. Yes, like people who don't have the education provide free education to police officers. Sounds good. Hid violent felons make them racially sensitive. Yeah, this guy is the bad guy. Uh so he gets he gets a cover on time. And one of the things that's frustrating about this is there's no clear understanding of how much time is passing because Levan is completely remaking a major cities police department and he winds up on the cover of time is the new face of law? How is this happening so Fastically the mayor yeah, and I and then he's yeah, he said okay, but then at the end of it he says that this all happens within forty eight hours. No, uh, I mean if only. Yeah. It was like it was boring reading like hearing about it because it was written in that way where it's like, okay, so this is like like you're just describing like a paragraph of month or something. Yeah, it's two days book. Makes How much do we have left of this book? The pace we are of the way through? Well, that's not enough. No, it's not painful, it's not Shall we save the rest for another day? Yeah? I think think one more episode in us, and I think next episode will finish this book and our next chapter will be bad. Oh thank god. But also the people in other scenes in other places, and yeah, it was literally anyone. Much like Ellen, I've missed bread Hawte. Whenever he's not talked about on the page, written about on the page, my heart aches from him not being on the page. And when his name is mentioned, my heart thumps faster because his name was mentioned and we miss him bread Hawthorn. Yeah, okay, this feels like a good spot to endit. Cody Plugables. Yeah, guys, chuck us out with our other show where You're ever and Cody even more news is the name of the podcasts and some more news his name of a show on YouTube that you can watch. Hell yeah, and our twitter's dr Mr Cody and Katie stole A crushed it. Yeah, we're at Bastard's pot on Twitter on Instagram. That's the end. That's the end of the episode. Take a bullet for your baby, bread all right,