What We Learned From Ben Shapiro's Racist Novel

Robert is joined by Katy Stoll and Cody Johnston for a reading of Ben Shapiro's book.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
What doing something he didn't think he would do. My me.
Robert Evans hosted Behind the Bastards, and I'm here looking
at Sophie's horrified face. You know, Sophie, my grandpa had
a saying my co host today are Katie Stole and

(00:23):
Cody Johnson. How are you all doing? Grandpa? It was weird.
We all thought he was going senile when he would
just shout that out. But twenty years ago, but then
I met you Bothie, Sorry, Grandpa Evans? How are you
guys doing today? All right? A plus good? Right on time? Yeah,
Cody is only thirty seven minutes late to record, which

(00:44):
I have to say. Normally there is a calendar invite
that tells me what time we are recording, and there
was not this time, and so I did not know
there was another calendar invite that said one thirty, which
is what I was expecting. Cody is ready for coming,
so quick quick check, Katie? Were you on time? I
was on time? Hey, Robert, quick check? Were you on time? Maybe?
Here's the thing? Were I checked? Chris? Were you on time?

(01:08):
I do normally give Cody a little reminder, and that
is my fault because you are no no, no, absolutely not,
absolutely no, Sophie. There's nothing woker than letting a woman
take the blame for a man's I want all of
our listeners to know. I did not mean that. Seriously.

(01:29):
It was Katie and Sophie's fault. They collaborated like Barack
Obama and Pete Bota. Katie called Sophie and was like,
should I remind Cody? And Sophie was like no, Should
I send an email invite like I normally do? And
Katie's like no, And then they laughed and laughed and laughed.
I was on the email thread with them. I thought

(01:50):
it was messed up. It's or or perhaps you fucked up.
Continue Robert with your show. So, guys, you remember how
last year we had a couple of fun moments where
we got together as friends as as as colleagues, as comrades,
and we randomly page through terrible books. How could I forget?
We learned about what an Edgregor is, which is the
collective satan that the Jewish people have created with their

(02:11):
own their own seared into my memory. That was a
good one. Yeah. I remember the science book science book
we read You Were the Q and on book we
read We learned a lot of good information science Part Science,
Part two. Today I got a little bit of a
different book because sometimes reading through random books at random
points in time means I don't have to prepare as much,
which can help us to get a head over here.

(02:32):
And I love that for you and for us for
our show. And today we're going to read a book
called True Allegiance. Now. This has been described by the
New York Times bestselling author Brad Floor as a blockbuster
debut thriller ripped straight from the headlines, and its author
is a fellaw. Y'all might know old Binny Shaps my favorite.

(02:54):
And Shapiro. Yeah, we are. We are doing the Ben
Shapiro book today. This is fun because I've novelist Ben Shapira.
I've been muting him more avoiding him on Twitter. So
it's been a minute. You've been taking care of your
mental health, and I'm ready to tarnish it right now.
Just light it on fire. There's only so much room

(03:18):
we have on our day to day. That can't have
been easy for you. It wasn't. Everything he says is wrong. Now,
I wanted to talk a little bit before this about
what we do when we have a book by a
terrible person that I don't want to support financially, but
I want to read because there's a trick and I
wasn't telling people the trick before, but now, like, fuck it,
what's what's the worst that could happen? The key is,

(03:40):
The key is as far as I know, this isn't illegal.
The key is purchase the book on Kindle, right, you
download it to your device, you disconnect your device from
the Internet, you apply for a refund from Kindle, and
then you finished doing what you're going to do in
the book before you reconnected to the Internet and removes it.
Great is legal to me? Actually it does sound very leegal,

(04:02):
so a little bit, uh, a little bit of advice
now true. Allegiance was a book published in two thousand
and sixteen by Postial Press. Uh and of course author
Ben Shapiro and I want to read you all the
Amazon description so we so you can know what we're
going for here. New York Times best selling author Ben
Shapiro's new novel asks how close are we to our
country's collapse? And we'll be able to stop it? Once

(04:23):
it begins? America is coming apart in a legal immigration crisis,
has broken out along America's southern border. There are race
rights in Detroit, a Finmary, a fiery female rancher turned
militia leaders, avowed revenge on the president for his arrogant policies,
and the world's most notorious terrorist is planning a massive
attack that could destroy the United States as we know it. Meanwhile,

(04:43):
the President is too consumed by legacies seeking to see
our country's deep peril. Bret Hawthorne as the youngest general
in the United States Army and he's stuck alone behind
the enemy lines in Afghanistan. He's the last lost soldier
of a failed war, fighting to stay alive and make
it back home, but will be able to to have
the collapse of America in time. It sounds like a
real thriller. I have a question. Does there an audio

(05:06):
book version of this? Oh my god, Yeah, they're yeah,
it's free with your audible trial. Does he read the audible?
I have to know, because it just sounds way better
than in your voice than it does in his voice,
and I feel like it's it's yeah. So could you
look it up? Because I'm disconnected from the internet, So

(05:31):
I bet there's a foreword it. Oh my god, Oh
my god, you guys, it's not even the foreword. You
know how books will have like a praise for this
book page where it has the first quote on the
praise for True Allegiance page. Meet our new Iron, Rand
dot Com, Salon dot com, Salon, Oh my god. Oh

(05:54):
it's so good. There's a culture quote. Provocative, intense, and
about five minutes from becoming reality. Ben Shapiro's True Allegiance
is a rivening thriller about what happens when America folds.
It just sounds rooted in fact, not feeling. He's got
an Allan West quote in there. That's good. That's really good, boy.
And then some people that I don't recognize. Okay, so cool,

(06:16):
we've got we're on a good It sounds like it's
a good book. It sounds like it's a good book
by good people. I'm very excited for this. Yeah, okay,
so it does he read it, Sophie, Oh my good gracious,
that's the right side of history. That's we're doing. True Allegiance. Oh,
I don't think he does. I don't think. I don't

(06:37):
think he does. Narrated by somebody who is not Ben.
That's a good call. Because you might not believe what
you learn about Brigadier General Brett how and the prisident.
He only cares about Obama, I mean not Obama, and
he's a he's a he's a different president. Right, all right,

(07:00):
I'm gonna I'm gonna start with I think chapter one
looks like it's opening with, like, you know, we were
starting with like a terrorist attack going on in New
York City. Wait wait, wait what year was this? Did
you say that two thousand sixteen this came out? Yeah,
I would have had to. Yeah. Great, so the president
obsessive legacy would be Obama, not the president. Yeah yeah,

(07:22):
it is also obsessed with his legacy in a different way,
in a different way. All right, Oh no, it doesn't
start Okay, so the first episode doesn't start with a
new terror. It starts with like nine eleven. Uh. And
I think the character who's going to grow up to
be our our our ranch militia leader in New York
at nine eleven, seeing the towers at the building. So

(07:43):
that that seems like what we're going on with this
this prologue here. So that's good. We're kicking it off
with the nine and eleven and then we move right
in with chapter one to Brett Hawthorne in Afghanistan, Brigadier
General Bret Hawthorne looked at his M nine magazine and
cursed to himself empty. He was set up against a
mud brick hovel in the city's poor part of town.

(08:03):
Even in Kabul there was a large income gap, and
felt the sweat trickle down cold between his shoulder blades.
He hadn't been alone for years. General has always had
a personal security detail, but things had gone hellishly wrong.
Hawthorne was a bear of a man, six three in
his bare feet. And let's talk about this a minute.

(08:24):
I've gotten criticized in the past for making fun of
Ben Shapiro's shortness. And it's true that you shouldn't make
fun of people for being short. Some people in this
very room short, most of us, most of us, most
of us except for you and myself. Yeah, I'm not tall.
I'm There are more there taller people than me in
this room. There are there are, And it's fine, there's

(08:47):
nothing nothing, It says nothing about the personage. But also, well,
so here here's the other thing. For many, many, many
many years, Ben Shapiro claimed that he was my actual
height five eight I did, I was unaware of He
is not we as we all know. Um. So it's

(09:11):
just one of those things where, Okay, you're gonna lie
about this a lot something I don't know. I don't
know I'm making that up, but I've heard that. But
he's been lying about his height for years. It is funny,
and it's funny that his clear self insert character Bret
Hawthorne is a bear of a man, six three in
his bare feet and two pounds in his underwear. So, yeah,

(09:36):
what I'm struck by this is like, there's all these
stories Ben Shapiro, Sorry, no, no, it's fine. Um uh.
Ben Shapiro wanted to be a Hollywood screen run and
he's film to add of that, There's just these few sentences.

(09:57):
I just can feel him being like this would make
a great movie, you know, like he's writing it, Like
those guys of Hollywood won't make it. I'll write this,
you know. Yeah. Yeah, I'm also wondering as a gun guy.
So the M nine is the nine millimeter Bretta side
arm that was up until recently, the standard side arm
of the military. It says he looks at his M

(10:18):
nine magazine. Now there's a couple of things that that
makes me think. So, if you're actually shooting a handgun
like that and it's empty, the slide locks back, and
you can immediately tell that it's empty because the slide
is locked back. Uh. At no point, if you're in
a firefight, would you reject the magazine and look at
the magazine to determine whether or not your weapon was empty? Um?

(10:40):
And I'm not I'm not sure how Brett Hawthorne combat general.
That doesn't make any sense as an opening, Like it
makes sense if he was like looked like the slide
locked back of Brett Hawthorne's M nine magazine and he
cursed to himself empty like that makes gun sense. I
can explain this to you. Ben isn't know he's talking.

(11:00):
Thank you for that, Katie. Um, I have to back
up real quick. We're doing really well. I need you,
Robert real quick to read the blurb at the beginning
one more time with Iron Rand. Oh about Iron Rand. Okay,
that's the whole thing. We're scrolling back. We're scrolling back

(11:23):
true allegiance, Meet our new Iron Randy by Salon dot Com. Okay,
that's it. So here's the thing, folks. Uh, if you
were to go to Salon dot com Salon dot com
and you were to look for that phrase, you'd find
an article. That article is called meet our New Iron
Rand colon. Ben Shapiro's ham fisted propaganda fiction is even

(11:46):
worse than you guessed. Subheader the wingnut pundit resents the
liberal tone of TV but turns out cartoonish, right lenning
prose unreal? Thank you for looking up? That is that
lead of somebody's can you can do whatever you want?
It's amazing. It's the funniest thing I think Ben has

(12:08):
ever done. It's the it's it's everything about him. We
need regulation of book blur. Taking that blurb like no
one would want to be like, oh I'm the new
Iron Rand, Like already it's like, that's not like praise
that you would want to promote. But the fact that
it's just pulled from this really really mean headline is
so good, you guys, there's so much more to say

(12:30):
about combat. General Bret Hawthorne. Okay, okay, oh my god, okay,
So so Bret Hawthorne, who is pounds in his underwear,
has a graying blonde crew cut and a face carved
of granite Um God, not not a face that looks
carved of granite, but a face carved band whatever, horrifying
reality for him. I know what a nightmare for Brett Hawthorn.

(12:51):
I mean, I'm kind of into this. It's like a
fantasy thing now, toxic masculinity. He can never change his face.
Feel like he's touching himself when he writes about Bret Hawthorne,
combat general and not at all a Ben Shapiro stand in.
So it's so Brett is looking up at the blown
up buildings of Kabul and he he could see the
Kabul Serena Hotel burning. The new coalition government had bragged

(13:12):
about the hotel is the standard bear for the modernization
of the city with its historically imitative Islamic architecture, satellite
TV and wireless internet. Now the flames looked at the
windows as ashes floated down on the city, and I
feel like he brings up that it's Islamic architecture for
a reason to make it seem like even more of
a bad idea. No, I'm just being specific in my pros,

(13:32):
like I'm sure that if knows what Islamic architecture looks
like for one thing. Um, No, I'm sure if you
were to control f that file and just type Islamic,
it would come up as like a descriptor for so
many things they do not need that word. I bet
you're right, we're indexing right now. I'm gonna move right
along to uh. So it goes on to him talking

(13:53):
about how a few short this is pretty great too. Actually,
a few short years ago, Afghanistan had seemed to be
on the up swig. The talent had been on the run,
hiding in the mountains of the Tora Bora region sally Forth.
Every so often it hit a supply chain. The coalition
forces had been sustimate. So a few years ago everything
they'd been great in Afghanistan. The arrogant president and Hathor

(14:15):
knew all this because he had designed the strategy, and
now the strategy had gone to ship. Well, Bret Hawthorne
thought to himself, at least I can tell those stupid
bastards I told you so. It is delightful to see
who thinks that he is. Oh boy, you guys in

(14:36):
Islamic is fewer times than I thought. But I'm already
seeing some religion of peace talk that I'm sure is
going to be fun. Oh boy, the all the words
that are available in in like the little search, because
you only get the few words around it that late
stage Islam is peace, pussy shit. That's that's that's a
sentence for you. I don't know the context yet, but

(14:58):
I'm sure we'll learn. I love the idea that has
been is writing this. He's like his des typing and
he has a cigar in his mouth that he will
never light. No, he's just because it hurts his lungs. Yes, exactly. Yeah,
he hates the taste and hates what it does to him.
He's got to have the cigar and like a glass
of scotch that is mostly ice that he doesn't sit
from cost him three dollars, you've got to savor it.

(15:24):
So um, we're gonna talk about Bret Hawthorne's background now
because we start like a great writer. He starts in
the action se right, pinned down under fired, Islamic hotel
is burning. He grips your right away. You're like exciting, like,
oh yeah, it's like die hard but iron Rand, Yeah, dying,
dying Rand. And now now we go back to let's
learn about Bret hawthorn'sground. Bret Hawthorne was the youngest general

(15:49):
in the American military. He'd grown up lower middle class
in Chicago. His mother a teacher, his father a salesman company.
I'm sorry, at some point you got his search how
many times he mentioned Chicago? Oh? Boy? Is he Is
that a thing for him? Um? It's a thing for
him because of Obama's thing for him, because of guns.
Is a thing for him, because of black people in general. Um. Boys.
So half of the time Chicago's mentioned in this book,

(16:11):
it's the South side of Chicago, which is the baddest
part of town. And if you go there, you better
be aware for a man namely Roy Brown, bad, bad,
bad man in the hole damn town, madder than a
junkyard dog. That's right, Katie, That's absolutely correct. What that's
a great So he'd been a shy, gentle quiet kid,

(16:35):
built like a read but he learned one skill pretty
quickly at Thomas Edison High how to talk his way
from a bad out of a bad situ. O good lord. Okay.
So he learned this from Derek Um because Brett, Yeah,
I think Derek's gonna be a black inner city kid
who teaches him how to be cool. That's my guess.

(16:57):
So Brett sat by himself a lot at lunch because
he wasn't one of the Irish kids. He wasn't one
of the Italian kids. He made the mistake of trying
to befriend a couple of black kids that hadn't gone well.
He'd ended up with a black eye and a few
new vocabulary words. I'm sorry, it'll be any shaps. It is,
this is, it's every single thing, he says. You're like, so,

(17:19):
did this literally happened to you? You had a bad
experience in this in your life. No, I don't think
this actually happened. No. I think he imagined that if
he had tried to talk about it's the thing that
you do where you like imagine conversations with people and
you get into an argument about them, like, well, this
is what I would say, then that's what this is.
This is his Yeah. So, because I'm trying to befriend

(17:42):
black kids is a bad idea, he said, because of
the words you'll learn. He sat alone until he made
the mistake of a city of looking up one day
and standing standing above him, glaring at him, was a behemoth,
a black kid named Yard. Nobody knew his real name. Everybody,
he just called him Yard because he stood on played

(18:02):
on the school football team, stood six ft five, clocked
in in a solid two hundred pounds. He's it's very funny,
but I'm sorry. Uh, nobody knows his name, but he's
on the football team. Yes, no one knows his name.
What's on his jersey? No one knows his name Yard,

(18:23):
No one knows his dis blame, unbelievable. Then he's just
number twelve. Nobody knows the star football player's name. No,
he's Yard. Never mind, I'm not mad where he goes
and nobody even cared to find out where he got
that nick, I'm not mad, you're mad. You're the ones.
How we all doing great? Never been better? So Yard

(18:48):
stood six ft five, clocked in in a solid tune
at eighty pounds, and looked like he was headed straight
for a lifetime of person work. Oh jesus, are you
kidding me? Excuse me? What does that look like? Then?
Don't be off put by his laughing. Just how we

(19:08):
deal with this pain we're to We're not even two
pages into the chapter one. This is absolute trash, headed
for a life. Why is he headed? Five? Because he's
a tall black man. He's the star football team, Ben.
Maybe he's not for prison. The coach loved him, everyone

(19:29):
else feared him. Okay, all right, Yeah, So Brett looks
up and this causes Yard to attack him. Um, oh
my god. I thought that Brett was a vehemoth man
as well. I thought he was. That's a good point, Katie.
But he was small in school. Okay, he had a
growth spurt once he started using gud. Okay, that makes sense.

(19:56):
At some point he turned from Ben Shapiro literally into
Ward Jim roll right. It's just like this, like eventually
he turned into a bear. Right. Ben's just waiting like
my dad didn't. He's just watching Brave on a loop,
just like that's going to be me one day. I'm
going to be the bear. No, that's liberal propaganda. Also Frozen,

(20:19):
definitely liberal propaganda. So guys, this is I looked ahead,
and it's very bad. So Ben's Brett is sitting down
at school and and Yard looks at him and he
makes the mistake of looking up, and then Yard mumbles
something in his face. What said Brett? I said, Yard?
Groud growled, did you just call me in word? Because

(20:41):
I just heard you call me inward. Yeah, did you
call him N word? No? I don't think he did,
but I mean in his head Ben Shapiro did when
he came up with this character, Like he's like thinking
this and oh my gosh, okay, you know what isn't
headed for a lifetime of prison work outs. I can't
begin to imagine the products and services that support this podcast.

(21:03):
I was going to guess Yard. Actually, Yard probably makes
millions of dollars as a as a talented football player
who just got angry because Ben Shapiro absolutely called him
the N word. Cool. It still counts even if it's
under your breath, Ben, Yeah, even if it's under your
breath every waking hour of the day. All right, products,

(21:34):
we're back, and we are just slowly making our way
through this book. We did the we did the blurbs.
We did we got the description, the physical description of
the main character. I don't think we're going to get
far through this book, you guys. I don't care because
the next chapter is the President. But I want to
know how this situation with Yard works. Oh good God.

(21:57):
Yard's hand came down on Brett's shoulder, heavy is doom.
Brett could feel his bowels begin to give way when
a smallish hand emerged on emerged on yard shoulder. Oh
my god, what a bad right, so bad? You remember
when you we've all had a hand emerged on us,
just punches right through like the chest burster. Oh my god.

(22:26):
Ben Shapiro writes the way monks fuck just like badly, badly,
but also constantly apparently. Yeah, yeah, boy, okay. Uh so
a hand emerchuse on a black hand. Yards swiveled ponderously

(22:48):
to face down the person connected with the hand ponderously ponderously. Yeah,
this is his black friend Derek, who defends uh Ben
Shapiro for not saying the INN word. Yeah, yeah, so
it's good. It's it's it's good. So Derek, Derek is
his friend, Um who such an obvious stand in for Ben. Yeah,

(23:10):
it's incredibly obvious. And Derek is a stand in for
the friend that been, the black friend. Ben Shapiro has
never made a wish that he had so that these
situations could be avoided, and who would stand up for
him every time on Twitter he got called out as
a racist. Actually, my friend Derek defended me when I
thought the N word a couple of times at the

(23:34):
definite future prisoner. Unbelievable. Oh my gosh. Okay, so, uh
one thing I want you to do at some point
is uh do a search for the word honky, because
I feel like, yes, definitely. But first we have to
talk about Brett's growth spurt. It's going to happen between

(23:56):
his junior and senior years of high school. Brett finally
hit his growth spurt. Like his dad, he bloomed late,
but when he did, he put on muscle and height
like a racehorse. He sprouted five inches to six ft two.
He broadened through the chest, filling out to a healthy
to fifteen. The coaches that ignored him in high school,
but at the Citadel he goes to military school, he
quickly became their favorite. Yeah, it's a real sad inside

(24:18):
into his psyche of what he desperately wants. I feel
like I've learned so much more about Benny Shap's just
from the first couple of pages. Not hate him, Look,
I mean that it's sad. We're all we're all suffering
from the same problem, we just express it in different ways.
And Ben has done this since then. Um. I uh,

(24:39):
I've thought about this before, um, specifically with Jordan Peterson
doctor doctor George Yes Um, Jordan Bumblebee Peterson, uh in
that he so he tries to explain things to people,
and he like slips in some I think odious views,
and he does it language that seems like demic, but

(25:00):
it's also kind of contradictory. It's like it's it's if
you pass what he says, it's not great. Um, and
he just sort of talks and talks and talks. I've
always wanted him to stop what he's doing and write
a novel because I know that if he writes a novel,
then his views will be very revealed and a tremendous

(25:21):
here not like not intentionally necessarily, it just it'll lose
out of him, like here's here's what I think about
everybody on the page. He will write a novel that
he thinks is about like a decent man running for
president and saving the country, and everyone will point out
ten minutes after it's released, like, oh, you wrote mind
com exactly exactly. You'll be like all these all these

(25:41):
emotions and feelings you're talking about, and like what you
think needs to like to take taking the chaos and
turning into order everything you're writing about there will be
like a three page part where Jordan Peterson talks about
seeing his first acidic jew and it will be like
a word for word almost what Yeah, and one will
know it until it's published. He won't know it. And uh,

(26:03):
I definitely want him to do that. And I'm glad
that Ben has done that. It shares a lot. So
I'm just gonna skim the next couple of pages because
we've got to move on to the president. Um. But yeah,
so when he was twenty two, he got sent to
Saudi Arabia and and and missed Operation Desert Storm for
the most part. Um, and he was really bummed that

(26:24):
we let the curds die, which I didn't hear Ben
speak up a whole lot when we abandon them in seriously,
why not in a position he's changed. Yeah, it's interesting. Um,
he meets someone named Ellen, who I don't care about. Um,
they have a kid together. Um, he's in Kosovo as
a captain. By September eleventh, he's a major. A major.
By September eleventh, he was a major, a major who,

(26:45):
by simple coincidence, knew Peshtow. So one of the most
simple coincidence, a simple coincidence. He learned one of the
most complex and difficult to master languages on the face
of the planet, just as a coincidence, Like you do, I,
I was just drawn there. There was no reason. Here's
the best part. He's one of the first one on
the ground in Afghanistan. And uh he knew little of

(27:08):
the country's culture, but his knowledge of the language made
him a valuable commodity. So do you know a little
of a culture but noah language, How did you learn
that language? Yeah? How do you learn Pashto? And nothing
about Afghan culture? Fans view of the world. It's amazing,
it's like and it's like, yeah, he did like a matrix.

(27:30):
He like he like jacked into the matrix and he
learned the language. But nothing, but nothing at all, not
a goddamn thing about Afghan culture. So he hangs out
with the Northern Alliance. Some rotton there's a Rosetta stone,
the Pashto Rosetta stone. Coincidence, missed all the culture stuff. Cool? Uh, Yeah,

(27:51):
he hung out with the Northern Alliance and it was
all very Lawrence of Arabia, Brett thought, except that Peter
O'Toole had never had to deal with roadside bombs or
donkeys laden with explosives or the were of the opium trade.
Such a good point, and it's interesting he describes it.
Is he like is he tempted? Right? There's like half
it is what I think about the world, and half

(28:11):
it's like what if it's like could I do? Ah?
Oh yeah, I'm sorry. It's so good, it's so good. Okay. Um,
so yeah, the administration makes a terrible deal that that
dooms the effort in Afghanistan, and Brett Hawthorne is there
as it's all falling apart and he's with a CNN

(28:33):
crew and he saves the day. Um he's he'd been
ushering the CNN crew around because, as he told his wife,
got to keep those schmucks from reporting that we eat Muslims.
What wait wait Robert, So he's he's digging. He's making
a dig at the mainstream media, obviously, but admitting the candidates,

(28:58):
but like the yeah, like doing saying the awful things
like a good thing. He doesn't because CNN would report
that American soldiers eat Muslims because they hate American soldiers
and don't, for example, respond worshipfully when we fire missiles
at an empty air base in Syria and talked about
the beauty of our weapons. They don't do that. They
hate the American military. Oh then I hate them exactly,

(29:22):
all right. So a little dig in here about how
lazy the CNN people are. And then Brett turned to speak.
This is after the camera says they've had eno footage.
Brett turned to speak, and from behind the cameraman he
saw a child on a donkey about three feet away.
His service weapon, a Baretta M nine, was in his
hand before he even felt it leave. He's a kid

(29:43):
on a weird little racist So I bet he's right.
I bet he's right. Oh, he's absolutely right. And and
the evil scene and cameraman zooms in eagerly as the
situation degenerates, because he wants to wants to capture the

(30:06):
kid being shot by Yeah, okay, we're going to go
on to the president here. I don't need I don't
need more of this description of the child dying. No,
I don't know that the child. I'm sure he saves
the child. And the evil scene and cameraman is angry
at this. President Prescott. Okay, that's a good name. That's
a I mean, that's a solid. President. We simply he

(30:31):
didn't do like a very like African uh oh rock
bo bomb something like that, President black Man, No, he's
Mark Prescott. Alright, okay, solid solid. We simply can't pay
for it, Sir. White House Chief of Staff Tommy Bradley

(30:53):
was standing over the President's desk in the Oval Office,
a sheaf of budget papers in his hand, crumpled wrinkled
papers covered in red notes. Than members just didn't add up.
President Mark Prescott didn't care listen to be tom Oh
my god, oh how transparent can you be? That's so
that's like it's also really poorly written. It is because

(31:13):
we go from like, yeah, the President's chief of staff
standing over a sheaf of budget papers in his hand,
crumpled wrinkled papers covered in red notes. That's not even
a sentence. Crumpled wrinkled papers covered in red notes is
not a full sentence. There's no action in that sentence.
It is a creative So it's like a it's like

(31:33):
palauk style. Yeah, he's got that, like it's like two
words sentences, you know. And yes, I was going to
say this has a very Palinuki right, yeah, Palu palanukish
way too generous. So, um, listen to me, Tommy said,

(31:54):
the president, my reelection relies on our ability to secure
funding for this action. You know that, I know that
the Poles it. We don't have a choice in the matter. Okay,
so what's this what's this action about? Yeah, Oh, he's
afraid of becoming a Jimmy Carter was like, what's he
alluding to? With like, like regards to Obama, I'm still
we're awhile into this kind. I can't figure out responsibility

(32:14):
what they can't pay for? Um. I wonder if we'll
ever find out there was a stock market crash that's
apparently this Democratic president's fault, just like the stock market
crash in two thousand and eight didn't start in the
Bush minutes stration because it was a Bomba's fault that
it crashed in the Bush administration. I mean, it's a
Bomb's fault for being black. That is absolutely true. And

(32:38):
I bet if they'd been at high school with Ben Shapiro,
they would have had an interaction. Yeah. I bet if
uh him in high school, be like, you're gonna go
to prison, prison, and nobody knows your name and nobody
knows your name Star football player that everybody knows unreal,

(32:58):
so good. The uemployment rates crap climbed me on ten
percent and is headed towards the mark if you counted
those who had stopped looking for a job. The real
unemployment rate was closer to which was the unemployment rate
during the Great Depression UM and never was close to
that during Obama's administration. UM cool. So Prescott did what

(33:20):
Prescott knew how to do. He survived the easiest way
to survive in his predecessor's wars, no matter what the cost,
and then pump up the spending at home. There was
no glory to be one on the poppy fields of Afghanistan.
Ever Lasting glory didn't come in the form of military
victory in this day and age. It came in the
form of everlasting social programs that grew and inured to

(33:41):
the benefit of all Americans. He's saying, that's benefit. He's saying,
not fighting a hopeless wars that waste all of our
money and and benefit national security not one iota, and
instead spending the money to help Americans is bad. That
it's cowardly. This is unbelievably every pundit should before to
write a novel like I want to know what's in

(34:04):
your soul. I want to know what's in there. Yeah,
I've read one and it's bad. I run for president.
I will publish my bad novel. Just like spooky stories
and animalphous parodies, Cody, it's not fair to call them
animorphs parodies. They are animorphus erotic fiction, and I think
you know what I will say, erotic literature. I don't wait,

(34:27):
you've read it and I haven't. Thank you so much,
Thank you so much for saying it is. My book
is going to be just for kids, for kids about
being It's going to be a girl in her imaginary
friend Donkey. That's a good size. That's a good idea

(34:49):
for a book less thirsty than Cody's book, which is
drier than the Sahara. It's desperate. But he was thirty
seven minutes late. We can we can rise him a
little one note, Cody, Uh, there's actually no such thing
as a funk panther. Prove it. I dare you to

(35:12):
prove that. Somehow, I think there's a fun panther in
this book. Yeah, several couple of type in panther. Let's
see how many time? Um, I wonder if the word
funk disappear in this at all, I bet not. I
bet he. Oh my gosh, no, nineteen matches. He is
Brent asterisk bred badass, is a military loose cannon off.

(35:33):
He doesn't give a fun Oh boy, fuck you, motherfucker.
Get the funk out of my hood to get him
in the funk off my border. Fuck these animals, That's
what I was looking for. Unless he's actually talking about
fucking animals, and I'm going to pop right over there
and see if it's Oh, the Taliban had used the
hangar as an execution post. There was a line of

(35:54):
bodies lying on the floor, and many of them wearing
American uniforms. Those bodies have been mutilated obscenely. They done
it slowly, that they'd enjoyed themselves. Animals, he said softly,
fuck these animals. Okay, so not actually fucking animals. Yeah,
that's cool. I was gonna comment on the poorly written

(36:17):
aspects of it. Is badly written. All. Yeah, more about
the president. Okay, FDR was worshiped not because of World
War two but because of social security. Wait, who's speaking
right now? The president? This is just a rant. Bins
going on it again. About the president who can't afford
something that we haven't been told what it is yet.

(36:38):
I love this is just like one of his town
hall dot com like essays that he's like, they're not
going to publish this, I'll put it in my book.
Oh my god. So Prescott spent he spent on green technologies,
on education programs, on food stamps, and highways. It's fucking highway.

(37:01):
He's going to use this so the pores can drive
to work the pavos. I I love that. So far.
The message of the first page of the President Prescott
chapter is that he's a coward for spending money on highway?
Is it not Afghanistan? Were you scared of the guns?
I am, Why don't you invest in human beings? Lies? Unbelievable, unbelievable.

(37:29):
So yeah, this obviously spending money on Americans rather than
Afghanistan destroys the economy. He's making a great point. Yeah,
he's making a very important point. Um and yeah. And
so President Prescott starts to doubt whether or not he's
going to win a second term, and then a miracle.
In the middle of the night, Prescott woke up with
a phrase ringing in his brain over and over. It

(37:49):
was as though a higher power had placed them in
his mind. He grabbed a pin from his bedside drawer
and wrote it down, work freedom, the work freedom program.
That's how God's or yesterday. Yeah, he woke up with
the melody in his head and he had to write
it down. So he kept going to all his friends
and me like, does this is this anything? Okay? Wait?
What this is? Like a really gross Ben thinks he's

(38:12):
being smart, but this is a Holocaust reference that he's making.
He's comparing social welfare programs to the Holocaust. Let me
let me read you this paragraph. Everyone recognized the value
of freedom, but what did that mean other than the
right to a job? Freedom and nothing? If you couldn't
put bread in your children's mouths at night? And America
was a country of workers. Freedom was work, and work
was freedom. Work freedom, simple, easy, repeatable, genius. What was

(38:36):
stamped on the gates of Auschwitz and a number of
other death camps are bite mocked. Free work brings freedom.
That's literally what he is literally compared jobs program. Yeah,
I'm fucking believable. Yeah, it's believable. It's believable that you
won't who won't you know who won't make ghoulish holocaust

(38:56):
comparisons to score a cheap political point against a fake president,
Jordan Peter And wait, never mind, Hine Rand, no ship
uh would be products and services, Katie. I can't believe
that was right. That was a real nailed it. You
nailed it. These products and services will in fact bring

(39:19):
freedom to view work freedom, the work freedom products that
advertise on this show. We're back, gang. It's time for
me to admit something now forty or seven minutes into this,
which is that um, when we when we decided we're
going to do another one of these, I really agonized

(39:40):
over which book to choose, and I really frustrated Sophie
by going back and forth. We had a number of
contenders for this, and I was worried that the Ben
Shapira book wouldn't be a good idea because I was like,
it's probably just like a really lame thriller like he
wrote like the like he had like a script for
a generic action movie and he wrote it, and we're
just gonna be like reading through turgid prose about shooting

(40:01):
people and it's just going to be very boring. I
would have to be like twenty minutes and be like, Okay, guys,
I'm sorry, we gotta like revamp and figure out something else.
I've learned so much about it. I believe that this
was a script he pitched around and then, and I
am certain that in his head his dream was that, like,
I'm going to pitch this script and myself as a screenwriter.

(40:23):
But once they meet me, they'll be like, the only
person who can play play Brett's like John Wayne was
short and built the sets around him. You got to
change it. So Brett's actually a short, obnoxious guy. It's
actually better and you're short on camera. It's better for
lighting purposes. Man. Then we love the script, but the

(40:43):
protagonist needs to be more unpleasant to listen to. All Right,
give us some more all right, I we only have time.
We we we will not get through enough of this.
You know what, Robert, that's fine. You know, I think
it's disgusting. I think it's I think it's embarrassing that
we haven't gotten through this whole thing anything. That's fine,
But we gotta do like a ten part series. So

(41:04):
we finished it, Okay, So what should we what should
we what should we go through next? I feel like
going through chapter chapter, We're just gonna get bogged down.
Is there anything you want me to search for? Try
to We'll have a question. So when when he ran
into that future prisoner? Um, and he didn't say the

(41:24):
N word, but he thought the N word? Yeah? Was
it typed out? Was the word type? Oh? Yeah? Oh yeah,
So I would say search for the other instances. I
also wouldn't mind hearing about this. What was the woman character?
What was her description? What did she do? Um? Oh,
do you mean the militia leader? Yeah? Well I know
that her first chapter starts with her baking cookies for

(41:46):
a swat team that's coming after her. Yes, no, I
mean mind checking that Outum, all right, are you absolutely
if there? I will lie about a lot of things
to Cody, the coronavirus, for example, Yeah, but I will
never lie about Ben Shapiro's pros Sola Dad Central Valley, California.

(42:07):
The swat team didn't expect it the first time she
brought them cookies. Nobody brings the swat team cookies, but
Sola Dad Ramirez Dyes, well, Solad Dead Ramirez knew the
value of good press, and she baked mean chocolate chip cookies. No,
oatmeal raising here, she said, good naturedly, handing out the
meltingly hot treats to them in wearing full military here

(42:27):
and carrying M force set to burst number one. Ben,
does he mean they were about to come? No? Um,
So military grade M fours and similar weapons based off
the A R platform UM have a burst fire mode
which does a three round burst in in addition to
semi automatic. No one would use it in that situation

(42:51):
if you are a semi automatic is primarily for killing,
like for actually trying to take aim shots. So if
you are entering a building in the thought that you
might have a gunfight, you're not going to have your
rifles set on berts. Sorry, it's just very Yeah. Also, um,
if just this is nitpicking, meltingly hot, something is melting

(43:11):
we as we the reader who assume that they're hot.
You don't need to me. Yeah, it's very awkward. Um,
they all eat the cookies, which I feel like it's
a bad call for a swat team entering a hostile
You got to take the food the person you're rating.

(43:34):
Um is this Wait? So okay, so this woman, um
is the cookie maker? Because also there's the other woman
right there was like his wife that a kid. Yeah,
she's unconsequential, right, So that that's what like, there's nothing
else about So she's a right wing militia leader, I
am going to guests, But she also knows her gender

(43:56):
role and how knows her way around a kitchen. Yeah,
meltingly hot cookies. It seems like she's a ranch owner.
And there's the e p A ruled that there's a
type of rare fish um that was in danger from
water over use in the river and they were stopping
her from from doing her important farm work. Um, and
we're we're going to confiscate her property if she didn't

(44:17):
start stop watering her plants. Um. So h that's a
way to frame it, I think. So. I think it's
a mix of that and like what happened with the
Bondi's god, yep cool. But yeah, but she she does
know how to bake, and that's important for a woman,
she protested. She sued it didn't matter, according to the government,

(44:38):
that her husband's father had bought the farm worked it
up from nothing. It didn't matter that her husband had
worked his heart out, almost literally on the farm, keeling
over at the ripe old age of fifty two while
grazing those damn cattle. It didn't matter that she had
fifty some employees and their families depended on her. All
that mattered was the smelt that damn fish. It's definitely
the exactly yeah it is, it is, and it kills

(45:01):
all her cows. So she Oh my god, there's even
a reference to you guys ever done like a lot
of driving up the Five from Los Angeles nurds. You
know how they have all those like Congress made dust
bowl Pelosi even there's even a direct reference to that.
They're making her the character who put those signs up.
You know what I've always wondered. I have to drive
up there frequently because my family lives in the Bay Area,

(45:23):
So I make that drive a lot, done a dozens
of time, and I'm always wondering, who did this? Are
there any ones that say, stopped by for my meltingly
hot cookies? Nope? I wonder how solidad Ramirez feels about immigration.

(45:44):
Oh boy, well, good news, Katie. She was a week
away from filing I think for bankruptcy. Yeah, yeah, filing
for bankruptcy when she received the letter. It came from
one of her former employees. Emilio. He'd immigrated from Mexico
decades before, across the border illegally. She'd paid him well,
sponsored his citizenship, and brought his family over to join him.
He's a valuable employee, she told her skeptical friends, and

(46:07):
if you were living on that side of the border,
wouldn't you jump it. He's not taking money from anybody
except me, and I'm paying him for work. He was
one of the last men to be laid off as
the ranch died. She cried the night she told him
the cash had run out. He thanked her, hugged her,
and moved his family to Los Angeles. So he writes
her a letter, Well, that's a good immigration story. I guess. Well,
I feel like if you do a search for Emilio,

(46:31):
oh good Christ. Oh no. He became almost almost so.
He and his family had been forced to take a
small apartment in East Los Angeles, and Emilio had gotten
a job at a factory, a local one of those
classic East factors, so their sun. Juan had been enrolled

(46:59):
at the public high school that's where he'd been killed.
One of his classmates apparently had tried to recruit him
into a gang when he refused, several of the gang
members found him in the bathroom. They started punching him. Yeah,
they beat him to death for not joining a gang. Yeah,
they did. Uh, Football, gangs and factories. It's just so

(47:20):
he's so simple, he's such a simple boy. So she
she refuses to pay her tax bill and instead sends
the money over to Emilio so we can bury his
his his boy, um who didn't said no to gangs. Yeah,
and then that's why the swat team comes after her
because she's not paying her taxes because she had to
help Emilio bury his gang killed boy. And that's what

(47:42):
starts the standoff. Let's stand him for the Bundy standoff
that happened when the bundees refused to actually pay mandatory
grazing fees that were very clear and very fair for
more than a decade until finally there was an action
that was then stopped because the government got scared because
we don't, or at least didn't live in a Yeah,

(48:03):
this is a rich tapestry. There's a lot that brings
up really important moral questions and we shouldn't mock it. No, No,
it's good, you're right, it's good. I don't mean anything.
I just said, Oh, he talks about there's a character
named Levon. There is he talks about. Oh my god,

(48:24):
Levon not a white character. Really, No, Detroit, Michigan is
where Van and the first sentence of Levan's chapter is
Detroit was a ship hole. But it was his ship hole.
I hate this so much. That's the way Levan Williams
had thought of it. He'd grown up in this ship
hole right near eight mile Road along stretch. It is horrible.

(48:47):
This is horrible. Oh my god, I will not have
Detroit and like, just write a book you like saw
eight Mile with Eminem and it takes place your dorm
room when you were in law school. That's the world,
you know. Oh my god, he must right, he must

(49:07):
talk about rap baddles. Let's I'm just gonna see. Oh
my god, there's no Let's see if there's hip hop
or like I'm trying to think of like, it's not
his vernacular, the words like man, why are you doing that?
What are you? Yeah? Yeah, yeah it does. It doesn't
look like we have that problem. Thank God for small miracles, Yeah,

(49:29):
thank God for small miracles. Well, guys, I don't know
how much more I mean we could, we could, we could,
we don't seme for hours, um, but we can't because
time is Yes, Cody, could you real quick just search
for the word Marxism. Oh my god, of course, thank you,
of course, let's just see marks. Yeah yeah, Marxism. Oh no,

(49:54):
only once where um the president's plan to uh, actually,
I'm gonna read you with the President's plan because this
is what Ben essentially calls Marxism and socialism. This is
the president speaking, the evil president who doesn't want us
to be in unemployment. I premise you right now that

(50:16):
you will not pay one additional dollar in Texas for
this program. You will not lose your job, and if
your employer should selfishly fire you, we're establishing a business
trust to which our businesses will contribute, which will pay
your salary during rainy days. Businesses may try to scare you,
but people are always frightened of what they do not understand.

(50:36):
Selfishness must not be allowed to trump the vital liberties
of the American people. And this action will not contribute
to our national debt. It will contribute to our collective wealth.
With the entire American population working, produce and creating, not
just eight percent or ninety percent or even nine. We
will boost our gross domestic product exponentially. Is like, what

(50:59):
if there was a social safety net? Horrible? Damn you
amazing one? Last one? Yep, do a search for um
I Q Oh boy, oh Cody, maybe just a shot

(51:19):
in the darkness. Nope, nope, no, no, okay, that's for
his other book. This has been not that illuminating. I
mean it has been eliminating, but only in affirming the
things that we know. Um, just for a number for numbers,
sick patriot? Oh boy, yeah, let's see that only two? Yeah?

(51:41):
What ben you loser? Yeah, Carolin America America, unbelievable. I'm
so glad you picked this book. I am too. Yeah,
he's so glad. I am so glad that Sophie finally
insisted that I picked this book rather than vacillating like
a fucking coward. And I am going, did you hop
right in? Right now? Um, let's go to my orders

(52:03):
that reunun Yeah, I don't want I don't want old
Bennie Shaps to get any of that. Can you feedback?
Can you give feedback as to why you want to
read fund Yeah? Yeah, you know what I will I
will say, Barbara, does that you guys want to plug
your plugables? Yeah, well, you can check out our show
that we do with Robert Worst you're ever. I'm sure

(52:24):
you guys know about that. Uh, and you could check
out our show Even More News. That's our podcast. Do
you want to tell them about the other things we do?
It's a YouTube shows called some More News. You can
google it and google our names to find all the
social media accounts that are associated with the shows and
with so personally because they exist, they exist, They're out

(52:46):
there with tweets. You know what. I love these things
that exist. Yeah, yeahah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, famous for that. Yeah. Well,
my atem has been successfully returned. I'm so happy for
there's a lesson for all of you. Uh. If you
want a game, Amazon a little bit, uh the smart one.

(53:06):
That's cool. Also, you can follow Robert on Twitter and
I right, okay, you can follow us on Twitter and
Instagram at Bastards Pod. We have a t public store
and a website behind the Basketts dot com. What she said,
Bye bye bye, hello Hi ship.