Ben Shapiro's Book: Part Whatever, The Journey Refuses to End

Another reading of Ben Shapiro's terrible novel.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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,

(00:24):
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

(00:44):
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

(01:07):
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

(01:29):
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

(01:52):
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

(02:16):
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,

(02:37):
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?

(02:57):
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

(03:19):
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,

(03:40):
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

(04:02):
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,

(04:24):
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

(04:46):
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

(05:08):
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,

(05:30):
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

(05:53):
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

(06:19):
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

(06:43):
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

(07:04):
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.

(07:25):
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.

(07:47):
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

(08:08):
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,

(08:30):
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

(08:51):
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,

(09:12):
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

(09:33):
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

(09:55):
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

(10:17):
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

(10:39):
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

(11:04):
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.

(11:28):
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.

(11:49):
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

(12:11):
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

(12:32):
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

(12:56):
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

(13:17):
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,

(13:37):
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

(13:58):
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

(14:19):
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

(14:43):
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

(15:05):
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

(15:27):
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

(15:47):
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

(16:09):
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,

(16:31):
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,

(16:52):
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

(17:13):
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

(17:36):
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

(17:57):
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.

(18:18):
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

(18:41):
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

(19:01):
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,

(19:25):
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.

(19:46):
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

(20:07):
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

(20:31):
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

(20:52):
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

(21:14):
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.

(21:34):
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

(21:56):
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

(22:17):
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

(22:40):
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

(23:05):
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

(23:27):
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

(23:49):
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,

(24:11):
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,

(24:32):
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.

(25:00):
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

(25:20):
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,

(25:44):
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.

(26:07):
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,

(26:28):
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

(26:49):
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.

(27:11):
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

(27:33):
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,

(27:58):
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,

(28:19):
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

(28:44):
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

(29:06):
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,

(29:26):
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

(29:47):
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

(30:08):
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,

(30:30):
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

(30:50):
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

(31:11):
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

(31:35):
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

(31:55):
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,

(32:19):
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

(32:40):
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

(33:01):
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,

(33:21):
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

(33:41):
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

(34:04):
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

(34:25):
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,

(34:48):
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

(35:08):
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.

(35:29):
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.

(35:49):
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?

(36:20):
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

(36:44):
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,

(37:09):
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?

(37:30):
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?

(37:54):
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

(38:16):
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,

(38:36):
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

(38:58):
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

(39:20):
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.

(39:42):
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

(40:06):
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,

(40:32):
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

(40:56):
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,

(41:16):
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

(41:37):
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.

(41:57):
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

(42:19):
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

(42:40):
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

(43:03):
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

(43:25):
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

(43:47):
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.

(44:10):
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

(44:33):
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

(44:54):
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

(45:15):
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

(45:38):
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,

(46:00):
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.

(46:21):
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

(46:43):
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

(47:05):
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

(47:27):
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.

(47:52):
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

(48:15):
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,

(48:38):
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

(49:01):
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

(49:25):
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

(49:46):
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,

(50:09):
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

(50:29):
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

(50:51):
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

(51:13):
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

(51:34):
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

(51:56):
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,

(52:18):
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.

(52:39):
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

(53:07):
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

(53:30):
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

(53:51):
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

(54:14):
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

(54:35):
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

(54:56):
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,

(55:17):
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

(55:39):
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

(55:59):
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,

(56:23):
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

(56:45):
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

(57:08):
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.

(57:29):
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

(57:50):
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.

(58:20):
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

(58:42):
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

(59:04):
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

(59:26):
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.

(59:47):
That's the end of the episode. Take a bullet for
your baby, bread all right,