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Hey, Robert here. It's been like two months since I had LASIK and I'm still seeing 2020. All I had to do was go in for a consultation, then go in for a maybe 10 minute procedure and then my eyes have been great ever since. You know, I healed up wonderfully. It was very simple, couldn't have been a better experience. So if you want to explore LASIK plus I can't recommend it enough. They have over 20 years experience in the industry and they performed more than two million treatments right now if you want to try getting LASIK plus you can get $1000 off of your surgery when you're treated in September, that's $500. Of per eye, just visitmylasikoffer.com to schedule your free consultation. Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried true crime. And if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams. Let's breaker handle the hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization of your podcast. Go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. Want to say I don't know less? Listen to stuff you should know more. Join host Josh and Chuck on the podcast packed with fascinating discussions about science, history, pop culture, and more episodes. Dive into topics like was the lost, city of Atlantis Real? And how does pizza work? Say goodbye to I don't know, because after listening to stuff you should know. You will listen to stuff you should know on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's been eating my shapiro's did we do that already? Have we done that already? Still think we did? Not enough if we did. Not enough if we did. This is behind the ********. And you know what that introduction means. It's another reading. Ben Shapiro's marvelous book episode. Oh, baby, the episodes that everybody loves except the people who hate them. The talented Mr Shapiro. The talented Mr Shapiro. Talking about Benny's book true allegiance, which I think I can say is like if the Koran and the Bible had a baby. And then that baby fell off of a ski lift and hit its head on a pile of rocks several times. And then that baby tried to join the military but was told no because it had too much of a history of severe head injuries. And then that baby tried to write a screenplay about joining the military. But then that screenplay was turned down for being terrible. And then that baby became a right wing grifter for, I don't know, 20 something years, and then wrote a fiction book. It would be true legiance that is Ben Shapiro's. Background is that is Ben Shapiro's background, his origin story, fame, ski lift, accident survivor, Ben Shapiro everywhere. That's why he cares about that and that's why he stopped growing. OK, that's. I think we've all established that you can't be mean to Ben Shapiro. But I didn't. But I did anyway. It's fine. Where we are is the, is the. He's the result of starting to be a conservative pundit age 16. Yeah, yeah, perhaps the only thing. I mean, I'm just going to say it the only thing 16 year old should be allowed to do is join the Marine Corps. And drink alcohol. That's just those two. We shouldn't even let him go to school. Yeah, no school and nothing like that. We don't need them. Smart, drunken teenage marines. Yeah, you want them? Waste it. Uh, so we're back. We're back talking Benny Shaps in his book we ended with with Combat General Brett 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. I mean, he's the only tall one too. And now we're moving to a President Prescott chapter. So when we last left President, yeah, he just had his 911 moment cruelly wearing a windbreaker 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 ******* supporting the enemy by targeting Muslims? How am I supposed to counter the ackies? Oh, good. He's talking to Brett Hawthorne. Excellent. So if you remember, earlier in the book, Brett Hawthorne made people forced people to illegally use racial profiling, which did not work, or return any usable intelligence. And now the president is angry because that has been released to the media. Yeah, it's weirdly presented as an argument for racial profiling while being being an example of why it's bad. Yeah, I'm not weird for Ben, though. Oh no, not weird. It's completely consistent with his inconsistency. Yeah, not writing and thinking par for the course on this book, in this book. I'm sure this will change. But one of the things that I find so fun about President Prescott is that he's written like a like an over the top movie villain, like a sniveling, like selfish coward. But all of the actual things he does as President are perfectly reasonable. It's like, oh, you want to have it, you have a jobs program, you call them the National Guard to deal with a nuclear attack. Like the evil President Prescott. **** that guy's angry at Prescott. What jobs program? Yeah, yelling at an active duty general for forcing police to racially profile people for no effective purpose? Like a dictator? Disgusting. Making it a 40 hour workweek? Refusing to invade Mexico? All right, thanks. Thing about Mexico that the whole plot of this is that the American needs to invade Mexico after they get nuked by Iran. God, it's so forgettable. Yeah, 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 OK, but like, it's so forgettable it's gone. Should be fair. I already forget this year's poked a lot of holes in my brain so information leaks out anyways, but this is not memorable enough to latch on. Well, 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 President 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 it. Because so many Sophie's on the way to the hotel, the Secret Service agents had been utterly silent; They refused to answer any of his questions, give him any information at all. You gotta do that again. Say it one more time. On the way to the hotel, The Secret Service agents had been utterly silent; They refused to answer any of his questions. Common give him it, give him any information at all. So that's not even a full sentence. There's no action on the way to the hotel, You don't need a comma there on the way to the hotel. I'm sorry, I don't need to. It's in all of the the like. It's. It's basically 2 incomplete sentences that he'd stitched together into one. Still not a grammatically correct sentence, and the only thing he's getting across on the way to the hotel. The Secret Service agent said nothing. Bam, like that. That's the point. You don't. The the last bit doesn't conclude that's the kind of, use that you're supposed to have. Exercised around grade three, 4th grade. You know, I think when you're doing your little grammar workbooks, I mean, I think the conclusion here, put a line through it, is that we need to criminalize, usage. Band the comma usage too, yeah, absolutely clear. He's like, I know that semicolons exist, therefore I'm going to replace all periods with them semi colons. Anyway, it is it is fun that Ben has the same attitude towards ending his sentences that the United States has towards ending the war in Afghanistan, which is never do it. 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? Omaris? Who's that? Like Guy who's the big Muslim? He's like leading care, right? The, the, the, the anti Islamophobia charity. But in this they're working with the terrorists. Yeah. Yeah, you can't press charity, can't trust it. Not a Muslim charity. Prescott continued to yell. I elevated you. I made you, I saved you. And this is how you reward me? Brett could feel the anger building. He flexed his fist and 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 wouldn't be to start a war with Iran after Iraq, after Afghanistan. We just finished pulling the troops out, for God's sake. You got you, didn't we? That wasn't the *** **** point. So again, this guy's the bad guy for not wanting not wanting to start a new war. Can't believe him? Yeah. I don't think you need to add the word disbelieving after using the verb scoffed. Yes, yes, you you could. Then that's another classic thing that you should get over in 7th grade. Creative writing is like, OK, he's scoffs because he doesn't believe them. You don't have to tell us. That's like saying he, he said speaking. Yeah. He spoke wardingley wardingley. Yes. Yeah, so they argue about this for a while. The Prescott's like, you know, I could kick you out of the military, yadda yadda, 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 Iraq. Tough choice. Uh? Keep the country safe? Yeah, by escalating military action. So the President threatens that if he doesn't keep his mouth shut, he'll have federal charges drawn up against him for violating that Imam who's a terrorist civil rights. Didn't think civil rights are a bad thing as a general rule. I think yeah, made things worse. Yeah, and yeah, Brett, yeah, tells him like, hey, Mr. President, you know, if you listen to me, all of those people who, who were blown up in America would be alive today. Prescott reached down to the coffee table and picked up their remote control. He flipped the channel to CNN, where the anchors continued to gush over Prescott's big speech. General, he said. I can afford a few public relation hits right now. Rally around the flag effect and all that. You'll be seen as an ungrateful rube looking to hit back at the man who saved you. Your time is over, general. Now get out of my sight. So. Yeah. Tough, but fair. Tough but fair. I do love that. After a nuclear attack on the United States, CNN's talking about the President's speech and and nothing else like, no. In suit, right? Yeah, they'd be talking about radiation, probably so. Are you kidding? Rachel Maddow would latch on to that. So Prescott woke from it. So I guess Prescott has a nap after meeting with the general and he wakes up to see. Prescott woke from his nap an hour later to Tommy Bradley's face written across. It was panic. What's lazy, yeah? It's it's very just panic was written across his face or something like that. Don't. Why why are you always so indirect, Ben? Like, exactly right. Yeah. Mr. President, panic. Sorry, it's. Yeah yeah. So OK, so the president gets the news that Reverend Jim Crawford is assassinated and they're blaming it on the white supremacist, a white supremacist group with ties to terrorist Mama who Soledad are are are right right, right are Clive and Bundy but Latino woman? Above, the chyron ran the footage of the continuing riots in the streets of Detroit. Then the anchors cut to some strong jawed young black man named Levon Williams. They build him as protest leader. I called him. Yeah, yeah, here we go. He's calling people to rise up, yadda yadda. And so forth, so forth. Yeah, so we have been writing what he thinks, CNN says. Law enforcement sources tell us that Soledad Ramirez, the fugitive wanted in wanted in connection with the bombing of government offices in Sacramento, CA earlier this year, was spotted during the chaos in 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's not gonna tie that to anyway. It's whatever. Ben. Ben needs this to work. Wait. 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. Gotcha. I know there's a lot of threads here. Yeah. OK. This all checks out. Yeah, so the see, the whole reason for this extended digression where he attacks CNN is because the CNN anchor says everybody's waiting to hear what the president's going to say. So, uh, Prescott talks with his assistant about like, alright, what are we going to, what are we going to say? Seems to me you've got two choices. One is to allocate resources from New York to these various cities. We've got governors beginning to call asking for help from the feds. They want some of the guard members we've brought back here in their states. President Prescott shook his head. No bad imagery. You remember Ferguson, you put guns on the street, you might as well tell the media you're a racist looking for street warfare. Next option we parlay with whom Bradley pointed at the TV. We're seen in flat. Ah, OK, so now, now, now, now the black terrorist is going to. Yeah, because it's just like a like process. Like, OK, I see what he's trying. Yeah, here we go, you know? And I'm sure we've discussed when this book was written. I'm shocked it says recent as Ferguson. Like, yeah, this feels like the work of someone. Yeah. You know, a first draft you wrote in college. No, no, this is post Ferguson, right? It's like he's 17 or something 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. It is fun to me that that the Prescott like, OK, we should talk to this Levon guy and his assistants, like, well, the FBI knows that he's got connections to organized crime and the president's like, yeah, so did big Jim. That didn't stop anybody from, like, santing him. Which is just like, yeah, of course, all of the civil rights leaders in bins world are connected directly to organized crime, just like all of the Muslim community leaders are connected to terrorism. Hmm. But the terror? The actual terrorists who blow up a government building are bins heroes. Although Bin would tell you that the Oklahoma City bombing was, of course, had nothing to do with conservatism. Very good. So fun, fun. In another classic Shapiro moment, even though this is President Prescott's chapter, we're now with Levon. We have a, we have a a couple of couple of spaces in between paragraphs and we're we're back with Levon. Finally, overnight, Levon had become defacto 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 Levon and his men out of the building, believing that such action would be too provocative. So Levon's got runners going between different positions in the city, yadda yadda. He's he's without National Guard soldiers. Obviously, they can't put down these protests. The poor, disarmed cops have no ability to. To do anything. I guess they're occupying the police station now, which is would be pretty rad. Yeah, Levon didn't know the exact extent of his power yet, of course. Mayor Burns said that eventually things would be put back under control. He put in a request to the governor, and the governor had put in a request to the feds. But soon enough, things would calm down. In the meantime, he urged patience and restraint. Leave, on the other hand, called for action. He humored every reporter, gave a quote to every journalist. He trotted out Kendrick Malone's mother as often as possible, making his own case for authority bulletproof. On the back of her grief. Levon'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 Marion Barry. Big Jim had said it would work for Levon Williams. All that changed at 8:34 AM A he gets a call from the President. Yeah, so let's see what the OK, the president's assistant is like, oh, we just want to tell you how much we admire you. Thank you for your tamping down the violence. Levon grins. Because, of course, the violence is all his fault, not the cops who killed people. OK, Mr Bradley, I really appreciate the sentiment. What can I do for you? Well, Levon, it's like this. We couldn't admire your stand on social justice. More particularly in the wake of this tragedy with Jim Crawford. I know you and he were close friends. The president wants to ask you for a favor. Please keep your followers from committing acts of violence. That's how this works, yeah. And Levon reasonably says I can't control what everybody does. It's a passionate time. 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 O'Sullivan case. Bradley coughed. We could do most of that, Levon, but that last one that's out of our hands. We don't control the DOJ. 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. I was like, you do control the DOJ, like that is the executive anyway, whatever you you you appoint the attorney general. You have some power in this? Yeah, there's some, there's some. There's some power going on there. Yeah. So the President tell or tells Levon that he has another idea that might serve both of our interests, but he's going to have to trust the President and leave on asks how long, and he says not too long. You'll see something in the news. So they asked him to hold off for 48 hours and then they're gonna they're going to give him a sign. So I guess we'll we'll see what that is not in the next chapter because it's this is we fade to black, fade to black, burst into his ear, and we're back to El Paso and Ellen, who is is Ben Shapiro, the general's wife? Who is Ben's wife? That's why. But unlike Vince's wife, she loves her husband. Should we take a break before we go into this chapter? Yeah, appropriate. You know who does love their husbands? Bombs? Yes, Raytheon loves husbands and wives. That's why it shows up at so many weddings. Hmm. Love school buses too. OK, this is dark. What about what about hospitals? So such a Raytheon could not support hospitals more. Anyway, here's some ads. 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And getting it done was easy too. You know. I went in, I had my consultation. They told me I was a good candidate. And then I went back in a couple of days later. But a Bing bada boom, you know, my eyes were perfect. So LASIK Plus is a leader in laser vision correction in the United States. They have over 20 years in the industry and more than two million treatments performed. If you want to start your LASIK plus journey, you can get $1000 off when treated in September. That's 500 per eye. So visit. Mylasikoffer.com to schedule your free consultation now. And we're back. So we're in El Paso with Ellen Ohh and they're invading Mexico, OK? All right, getting yeah. Oh boy. First paragraph. The Apache attack helicopters veered low over Ciudad Juarez 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 as the duplex disappeared in a puff of smoke and fire. There goes one of the ********. He smiled. That ******* was one of the leaders of the Juarez Cartel, just hanging out in a duplex across the border. Yeah, so it starts with the Governor of Texas sending in Apache Tech helicopters to bomb a city in Mexico. Jesus. Ohh, that's very fun. Yeah, so Texas National Guard attacks helicopters, just start strafing vehicles and built bombing buildings. That's cool. That's very cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for about time. The night was so yeah, he the the governor invades Mexico and it goes great. The night was quiet, the 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 letters were the words Plata or plomo, silver or lead. In other words, pay us or die. Governor Davis wasn't in the mood to pay. It's also weird to send a message to the National Guard to pay us for what? For what? For what? What are you talking about? You want to not be invaded by the National Guard. 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 it makes no sense because nothing Ben says does. Yeah, so the governor orders a full scale investigation. I think we know who did it, but OK. Umm, 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. Yeah. So clearly and for whatever reason, Ellen is the one heading up the investigation who is, I think is his public affairs officer is now controlling a military investigation of the cartel murdering a soldier in El Paso. Ellen acted swiftly, placing National Guard troops in the local police centers, increasing security along the border. How is that hurt? How does she have that authority? Because you didn't want to introduce a new character, yeah. But you didn't establish which she does. Yeah. She's like public relations for the governor. Yeah, that's not what this you do. I guess now she runs the National Guard. Feminist. She's a feminist. She can do whatever she wants. She's one of those classic PR ladies. Slash, commander of the National Guards police operations. She's a multi- yeah. OK, within hours the Border Patrol had caught two men attempting to flee into Mexico. After questioning, Ellen had them detained indefinitely pending further investigation into their activities the night of the hanging, and she redoubled deployments to the border to stop any further infiltrations and deter any attempts by collaborators to escape into Mexico. Really sounds out of her pay grade. It really does sounds out of the governor's pay grade. To be honest, this is not really governorship. If it was good policy, none of it made for good pictures on the front pages around the country, and Ellen was stunned by the magnitude of the coverage. The media coverage exploded with protest on the other side of the Rio Grande. Nothing about women and children. As the sun came up, at least 100 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 had Davis had agreed there would be no such activity, both for both moral and media reasons, but they looked threatening enough and 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 Guard soldiers been there? They're just like dudes and ladies. Like they're half of them are middle-aged. It's like they're weekend job. They're not squared square jaws, jaws as far as the eye can see. Yeah. Like? It's very funny. It's very funny that, like the good policy is confronting people trying to cross a border to see their families with a line of soldiers, and that that's that's the heroism is having the soldiers opposed to the caravan is on its way. 1st when this happens, this completely predictable protest 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 owns 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 had been zero cameras for the murdered National Guardsmen. But get a few dozen women crying on the border with their kids and the media had a field day. I don't believe there were zero cameras for a murdered national guards, but executed by a cartel after an invasion of Mexico. She complains that someone's tipped off the cameras and that's the reason they're reporting on the invasion of Mexico and these women trying to cross. Logical right? What other reason 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 tipping the invasion of Mexico. Hey, hey, I know we would never cover this normally, but because I'm your boss, I want you to film some of the American invasion of Mexico. The lamestream greedy. Yeah, and of course Ellen notes that the murdered National Guardsman hadn't gotten any cameras is it's also like, no, no, it would have been the number one story in the country. Ah, like OK yeah, whatever. Whatever. 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. We're sure 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 Guardsman hanging from a billboard that tells the story of what we get when we don't check those who cross the border. It is 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. Oh yeah. I mean, this book came out two months before Trump was elected. They're the same person. They're the same person. Yeah, the headlines hit almost immediately. Oh, this should be good, Texas governor's top aide says. Immigrant women children pose security threat. I might posit that the top story would be Texas governor's top aide controlling military investigation into murdered soldier. Yeah, yeah, that's a better headline. Yeah, she should have known better than to give them any material they could misuse. Then again, what material wouldn't they have misused? She vowed to ignore any calls coming from a media number. Of course, yeah, that's how it works, right? I know there's probably some sort of caller idea the media. Is calling me yes. Scam. Likely it's. Give me a call immediate number. Yeah, so it's this is the third, the tertiary story in, in the news. The number one story is that New York got blown up. The number two-story is the riots, the BLM style riots all over the country. And I guess #3 is America invades Mexico, but they're not showing any of it, just the president's speech. And until they get the tip. And that the Mexican military 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 OK with being invaded each day by the good guys. Each day, small groups of National Guardsmen raided Ciudad Juarez, usually by motor vehicle convoys across the border. The cartel members had picked up on the nature of the offensive action, and it inserted themselves into heavily civilian areas, cutting down on the ability of Texas forces to strike without facing the prospect of urban warfare. Now more dangerous search and destroy emissions have been authorized. The American side of the border remained quiet until it wasn't. Oh good, so we're going to get a border massacre, because obviously invading Mexico sparks more violence in the US, and stopping all those moms from getting across to their families doesn't. Again, you're making the point that he refuses. So. Oh yeah, a bunch of protesters get shot dead. Eventually 26 people. Everyone figured it for a drug cartel hit. Then the footage came out. Ellen saw it on the Evening News as a network anchor intoned. What you're 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 R, the National Guardsman said in a thick Texas accent. Get out of our you little. And then he uses a racial slur for Mexican people. Which OK. A few children rubbing their eyes, came scurrying out of their tents, their mothers following, saying 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 innocents lay on the ground. Umm, so, yeah, I guess it it I I I'm sure it's somebody posing as the National Guard to make them look bad, right? Ben wouldn't have a National Guardsman do the thing that's messaging for sure. I bet it's Leon or something. I'll give. I'll give him credit if it actually is, if he's actually making the point that no, there's racists in the National Guard. They totally murder children in this, you know? But I don't think that's what they say. Yeah, I think, I think I might take a bet against what you're claiming that doesn't feel like what we're building. To here so the governor is angry at her, angry at his aide that he put in charge of the invasion of Mexico. Which I would be angry at this too. Perhaps he shouldn't have invaded Mexico. Invertible offense in my book, I would say so. I didn't write this book. Might also literally be treason to give an unelected aid control of the National Guard. I don't know. Yeah, that seems like it's a crime, right? So the governor's new story. If everything else wasn't going on, sorry. Continue. But of course tells him that the president's yelling at him, but not over the invasion of Mexico over this which. I don't think the yelling would have started. I would have think that the President would have sent in federal agents to arrest the Governor of Texas for invading a sovereign nation. I didn't. Ellen gripped her fists. I didn't ask for this, Bubba. I did it as a favor to you. Some favor, he said. I've got two dozen dead kids in their Mamas and a boy in a National Guard uniform responsible for it. 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 ******* was? Yes, she answered. We do. Oh, OK. Cool his name talking like this because it's bad. He's bad. He's bad writer. Is it's a soldier, a Sergeant named James Easton, Mclawrence and Davis is like, don't they all have three names? I guess that like serial killer thing. Ohh 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. McClure joined the guard after dropping out of high school and getting his GED. Not a stellar candidate for higher rank. Barely at the bottom rung. He's full active duty weight. How is he full active duty and in the National Guard? That doesn't make any sense, Ben. Do you not know what the National Guard works? Doesn't sound like he does. He's full active duty. He joined the National Guard. He's full active duty. No. Then that's active duty Army. That's not the National Guard things, right? Yeah, also the 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. This stuff, yeah. Don't like right away. You know not what you fantasize about, Noah, right? Keep it to your, like, live journal. So the governor asks what that set this guy off and Ellen gives 3 possibilities. One is that he hated illegal immigrants because his dad lost his job at a manufacturing plant that moved South of the border. And another is that he was paid by cash by the cartels. And another is that he's, quote, just crazy. Simple as that. That's useful information. Explanation for people's behavior. Yeah, yeah, and it's, I mean classic have been to like. Start with Oh well, maybe he's angry because his dad lost his job. Yeah, racism does not actually enter into that at all, really. That's interesting. I've been he's wide, wide range. We can get racism. We can get, yeah, ballism in there. We get a lot of lot of lot of shades. So, uh, Davis is sending Ellen to New York now? I guess she's botched the job of commanding the army to invade Mexico. So, Bubba, I don't know, maybe going to put, like, the agriculture secretary in charge of something. Well, what's she going to do in New York? She's going to talk to the president because the president wants to humiliate Bubba Davis in front of the entire country. Quote, hell, he could have a local DA down here drop charges against me so that their frog walking me when I get off the plane. It's a setup. Ah, so Bubba doesn't want to get arrested for invading Mexico, and so he's sending Ellen to I she won't get arrested. They won't touch you because of Brett. Umm, that's fun. And Ellen's like, well, but the president hates my husband, and the governor says it doesn't matter. Your husband's a national hero. He's not going to arrest you. Ellen had to admit that the idea appealed to her. She hadn't seen Brett in 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. And what do I say to Prescott? She said. You tell that *** ** * ***** that we're not going to back down off the border, not for him or anybody. And if he asks you about mclawrence, you tell him we're investigating. Turn 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 of US radar with off the rails and this book. I mean it it's it is the crime of a US serviceman in a foreign country. It no point would that be the jurisdiction of Texas law enforcement. They would have nothing to do with this. Legally they can't. It would be like the FBI or somebody would not be local police in any way. That's just not how the government works. But what if it is? Yeah, like all those full time active duty and. National Guardsmen in the full active duty part of the National Guard. That's active duty, but not the army. 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 bad choice of words. After you've done that, you don't need to say. When watching him on TV, her chest ached from missing him so much. Yeah, just her chest ache. Why? I'll get it. I I can. I can put two and two together. Whenever she saw him on TV, her chest ached. Hmm, 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 Brett again appeal to her had been nearly a year. Every time she saw him flash on TV, her chest ached. And the reader. I can follow. I'm like using his brain or her brains all laid out for me. Yeah. Not like you're not trying to convey a complicated emotion. She misses her husband. And like, especially like after reading the rest of the book so far. I get it. I'm all caught up with her feeling. Basic human emotion. OK. So yeah. OK, 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 guys. Southern Hick who won't let the sweet faced Yankee down here to fix things. That's what the media is looking for anyway, right? They wouldn't send a Yankee. There's FBI offices in Texas. They would send someone from the El Paso FBI whose job is to investigate. Murdered Americans in Mexico? That's a thing that they do right now. Thanks. It's the Yankees. They got to send the Yankee down to Texas. There's no Texans in the FBI. Libby Yankees on some carpetbagging fed. It's. Oh man, what's your end game? She's had said in game, darling, 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. We all remember in games. A game that won't end. Yeah, and like, cut one of those. Yeah, dude. Like, I can't even. He didn't have an editor. Absolutely not. There's no way. And if you do get to look into the. Yeah. It's probably his dad. So there is someone he really likes and and doesn't feel comfortable speaking up to his boss. I think that's my guess. Yeah. So been Brett or sorry, Ellen agrees to go to New York 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 them. But not impossible. OK, sure. Like, I I don't know. Maybe. Is that a thing that exists, Cody? Are you trying to find out? Are you fact checking, Ben? Yeah. 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 picks up 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 bread. Honey. Don't come to New York. He sounded winded. Horse? Brett, what's going on? I can't say. Certain yet? Just don't come to New York. Something bad is going down. How do you know that? No time to explain. The line went dead. Ohh, I'd love it. It's probably time. Too many comments, no. Yeah. On for too long. Would have gone on. Yeah. Yeah. She you know, it's bad because he doesn't tell her he'd take a bullet for you, babe. It's just there's so many, like, cryptic messages this woman gets from her husband. I would be sick of it. Finish this sentence. Finish your sentence. Don't just, like, hang up and tell me not to do something and I don't know. Yeah, sounds like it's time to take a break for yeah, perhaps. You know. Speaking of. Taking a bullet for you? I've already done it. These products would take a bullet for you, haven't we? 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Three days later. Soledad recommended that they wind their way through several states to throw any would be trackers off the scent. She took Ezekiel W, then S Aiden took Ricky. East and double 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. Soledad told them to ditch all their electronic gear to make for the northern border. If they could, they flee into Canada. That doesn't seem like what a bunch of gun nuts would do, OK. Umm. The ones who are left look like they've been through a war. Eddie was the worst. Fatso, as they all called him, had taken a tire iron to the gut, then 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, Ezekiel told Soledad he started twitching and then gone quiet. When Aiden Enrique drove in, Solidad motioned them over. They put down their kickstands turned off. The Hogs loves calling motorcycles hogs. Literally slapping my think he's been on a motorcycle. I think he wants to have been on a motorcycle. Yeah, yeah, but I don't know that I think he's been on a motorcycle. Get on a little. We can all fill in the blank. Yeah. Moped. He can ride a moped. That he shouldn't write a moped, yeah. And boy vehicles. Mm-hmm. And I I wouldn't I wouldn't want Ben to. A big girl. Yeah, we're big girl. Just not a Ben Shapiro. I'm just looking if there's a Ben Shapiro on a motorcycle picture because there's so many. Shameful. With swords and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and this little gun. Umm. All right. What we got, do we have, do we have Big Shapiro on a motorcycle? No. No, I'm not. I'm not seeing it. Yeah, there is. He does have that. He does own a leather jacket. You're right, Cody. Motorcycle pic existed. It would be online. He would. It would be the first response, and it would be the saddest thing that anyone's ever seen. 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 chance he gets. Just so embarrassed for him. Yeah. So their friend Fatso, who's dying is in a coma and once they all get back together. Aiden, who's the former Fed who murdered a bunch of other feds for her, asks, do we have anybody who knows anything about medicine? She shook her head. We need to get him to a hospital. I do love this is, I don't think, been minted, but this is the most accurate part of the book because that is the thing. All of these like right wing militias have is like none of them are medics, like none 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 protein. Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that part is pretty, pretty on brand. Yeah, so they decide they've got to take him to a hospital and Aiden's like he's not going to live anyway and Soledad gets angry. We're not going to leave him to die, yadda yadda yadda. OK, so they're having a big fight, and Aiden's angry because he doesn't want to risk everybody's lives. So but soledad's like I've got to make. I got to make the call, you know? I'm. I'm the boss. So she calls for Ezekiel, who's the token black guy 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, oh, she's gotta go with her legs. She's gotta use her legs. She wants to move. She that putting your back into it? That's ********. Sorry. Well, the dead eyed black boy helps and is like we got to get him help. Nobody's gonna die for me ever again. No one died for you. You killed somebody you shot. You shot a person to death. A child, Ricky. It's just some that that's how he's coping. That's what he's telling himself. OK, so they get the guy, they drop fatso off at an emergency room, and they have the black guy stay with him because he's the only person without a national face in the group. Cool, OK. Yeah, 22222. I'm like, it's been way too much time on this. This is just like a boring book. It is. It is a boring book like and they 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 Zekiel stayed with them and then after that the next like 6 paragraphs are hit her talking with Ezekiel, well, he tells her she's going, he's going to stay behind and stuff like it starts by explaining what happens and then walks through it all slowly like a bad rider. Is boring. Slide back to the action. The headlights from the hogs carved A3 pronged gash into the darkness. Carved a gash. That's my boy to one side of Soledad, Ricky Road, to the other, Aiden. The night was silent except for the rumbling of the engines, the murky smell of the murky smell of the trees. How do spoken like somebody who hates trees and what is murky smell? How is something smell murky? Well, he grew up in a haunted marsh, so he has a different association. Same swamp creature. Ben Shapiro. You are right, Katie. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. My God of the trees. I wish everyone could see our faces. They're just so disgusting. Every four sentences I'll be making the the base and I'll look over and Cody's making the exact same thing. It's just confusing. God. OK, so the start of this they're driving through the forest in Tennessee, and Soledad thinks about how awesome she is and how awesome it is that they're doing this. And, like super rad that we're a a bicycle, a motorcycle militia. Aiden, I'm sorry I dragged you into this, she yelled at last. Sorry, he grinned. I've been waiting for this all my life. Something to fight for. She glanced over at Ricky. His mouth was set in a tight line, his gaze focused on the dark horizon. Nothing left to fight for, said Ricky. You guys know what you're up against. That's incoherent. Yeah, so she apologizes out of the blue. She apologizes to Aiden, and it's like, I'm sorry I drag you into this, and he's like, why are you sorry? I've been waiting for something to fight for my whole life, and then Ricky 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 incoherent. Nothing's been the thing to fight for. Is hard. Yeah, they're fighting for something. Why? Why would you say anyway? This doesn't make sense. So Ricky says they're not going to let us go. They say we killed Jim Crawford. They say we're white supremacists, Soledad 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. He's so mad. He's so mad. Nuts, but effective. Ah boy. Also, when they they they 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 curious how many times hog is used in this chapter. I actually do want to know how many times the word hog is used in this book entirely. Only four? OK, only four matches. Oh, so they're all in this chapter. OK, how many times is the word motorcycle used? That's a good question. Cody, 14. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK. That's a fair fair ratio. You impressed, you impressed us. Very good job, Ben. Yeah, point to you, Ben. OK, so they're talking. It's very boring talk that yeah. OK, so they talk about how they're revolutionaries and then comparing themselves to the founding fathers, solidad says. If it's good enough for Benjamin Franklin, it's good enough for me. You do realize Ricky said Riley Franklin took off for some French ***** ******* during for most of the Revolutionary War. It thundered overhead and the clouds opened up. **** she heard Aiden say. Just what we needed. Yeah, OK. It's raining, gotta yadda yadda. Umm. Oh, there's something solid ahead of them. OK. I think they they the the man has found them, so they get off the road. It's a military drone, OK. Too small to be anything else. They could be looking for someone at for someone at wait. Military drones are very small. OK anyway. 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 though it couldn't be any? It couldn't be more than 10,000 feet from the ground during a rainstorm, which. I don't think you're going to see a drone in that those conditions, including a motorcycle. But OK, whatever. Oh, it's a predator drone. Yeah, those aren't, those are giant. Those are the size of a car. Not not a small drone, OK? Whatever been doesn't do any research. There's a drone perspective is off, the drone is on Aiden, and they fire a missile. OK, so the drone does a missile strike on these guys. And it blows her off of her motorcycle. She peeked over the hedge. The 1st 20 feet of trees had been completely obliterated. The embers of the splintered, burning trees floated through the air on the ground, its rear wheel spinning. Soledad could make out the twisted metal of Aden's bike. Near it, she could see what looked to be a white lump of flesh. A mangled arm. That's the next sentence. Just a mangled arm, a torn fragment of a maroon scarf she'd handed him to wipe off the handlebars. Is the sentence after that for cleanliness? Yeah, 2 not sentences. And use commas sometimes then. Or make them full sentences, you know? She saw a mangled arm, a torn fragment of a maroon scarf she'd handed Aiden earlier. You know, something like that. Something like that. She felt an arm on her shoulder. Get to your damn bike, Ricky shouted into her ear. They're coming back around. She tried to get to her feet, but her left leg wouldn't respond. Looking down, she could see the black ooze of blood creeping through her pants. Ricky swung her roughly onto his back. He pushed himself on the cycle. He cranked the throttle. Aiden, she moaned. *** ** * *****. Behind him. The drone dropped to attack altitude. All right. *** ** * *****. *** ** * *****. Good, good reading. Uh, I'm still just, like, really bored. I I know this is 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. Have like, these people are talking about how they like the new founding fathers, but, like, her grievances are very unclear, right? Like, she doesn't pay her 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, like, 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. Right, like, yeah, vague. And just like the vague. Like fighting, fighting for something. Yeah. OK. What? What? I mean, you freed the cop you think is innocent, even though he admits he shot the boy. And you? Blew up a federal building because they came at you for not paying taxes. What's, what's the ideology though? How are you like vague so that people could fill in their own ideologies and relate to it? I don't know if that's. I think it's enough. He trusted like the aesthetics, right? They're on motorcycles and they have guns. Obviously they're the good guys. Obviously. And like their opposition to, like, the Obama of it all. And just like, yeah, they sort of vague signifiers and markers of like, oh, I they're, yeah, the motorcycles and the wind, the murky trees. Yeah, the murky trees. What? It's amazing. What does that mean? Nothing, Sophie. It means nothing, OK? So the leave on chapter opens with revealing, you know, how the president had been calling him and been like, 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. So the President seems to think they killed all three of them, and that's what he tells Levon. So that's great. Yeah. So, just so you know, leave on. The President is very proud of what you've done there. You've kept people under control in a bad situation. It won't be forgotten about that. Sir Levon coft. I can only keep them tamped down for so long. My 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 shill for white privilege, shield for white privilege? That's not really a term anyone would use. But OK, we're not selling it. Well, I guess some people maybe are. So, but always got these like weird buzzword grievance things that he's just got to. You dip it in and that's what it is. Yep. So I'd be curious to know how many times you talk about intersectionality in this. Yeah, I haven't seen it come up yet, but yeah, and So what Levon is asking the president for is the ability to remake the Police Department and put his own people in there, and for the president to throw his support behind that. So I guess that's that's that's what he's proposing. And, uh, yeah, they talk about this in a conversation. I don't think we need to go all the way through. Yarra, Yarra, Yarra, Yarra. And yeah, the president says. All right, yeah, well let's let's, I'll, I'll pressure the governor to give you the police of Detroit. Within days the applications began piling up on Levon's desk. He'd moved over to the mayor's office, taking up virtual residence there, along with his secret political weapon, Regina Malone. 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 newfound power. Let the man Stew for a few minutes. Then he told him they had every intention of honoring the contracts. There just might be a few more cops writing desks. The new boys, you said, would take over the streets. No more Ricky o'sullivans now. Things were running smoothly, though. Leave on slotted personal interviews with each of the possible new officers, each with slotted for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Levon worked with the committee appointed by. So yeah, he's he's just putting up by replacing the police with his guys. OK. That's fine. He writes a new directive for the police. They're not allowed to use racial profiling, which of course. Is bad. When told of the new strictures, dozens of new of dozens of officers quit right away. Good riddance, Levon told the mayor. Less pensions for you to pay. When Billy Barton walked into Levon's new office and slapped on a list of 400 officers willing to quit over the new standards, Levon looked him dead in the eye. Well, he said. I suppose it can't be helped. Changed has casualties. The media viewed levon's new standards as groundbreaking. Rachel sensitivity, they said, had never been used as an actual policing criterion, but nowhere was that criterion more necessary than Detroit. Had Ricky O'Sullivan been taught and held accountable under these standards, the Avon 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 dads, drag them off to jail. We have an entire generation of missing men in our community. Sensitivity is the key, OK. So that's why hundreds of cops quit, which scans no. But Ben is framing all of this as bad as bad. Remarkable about this opus. Yeah, so he changes the rules so that anyone convicted of a nonviolent felony could be considered to be a police officer. And yeah, which is also like, why? Why should having sold pot disqualify you from being exactly. Yeah. More cops resign at this. The final blow to the police enrollment standards came in the area of education. The standard for the department had always been a high school degree or equivalent. Now, with the applications pouring in, Levon had to face the fact that not enough applicants had graduated from high school. Many had dropped out again. He cited racial disparities in 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 1st rung? It's just being very reasonable here. And also like, yeah. Tons of police departments, except GED's. It's not uncommon. Yes, also like to educate people who don't have the education. Provide free education to police officers. Sounds good. Nonviolent felons make them racially sensitive. Yeah, this guy is the bad guy. So he gets he gets a cover on time. And one of the things that's frustrating about this is there's no clear understanding of how much time is passing, because Levon is completely remaking a major cities Police Department, and he winds up on the cover of time as the new face of law. How is this happening? So basically, the mayor. Yeah. And I and then he's yeah. OK. But then at the end of it, he says that this all happens within 48 hours. Yeah, this is absurd. I mean if only. Yeah. It was like, it was boring reading, like, hearing about it because it was written in that way where it's like, OK, so this is like, oh, like, you're just describing like a paragraph a month or something. Yeah. No, it's two days. Look. Makes how much do we have left of this book, the pace we are 84% of the way through. Well, that's not enough. No, it's not painful. It's not. Should we save the rest for another day? Yeah. I think we've got one more episode in US. And I think next episode we'll finish this book and our next chapter will be. Brett Hawthorne, thank God, but also like people in other scenes in other places and literally anyone. Much like Ellen. I've missed Brett Hawthorne. Whenever he's not talked about on the written about on the page, my heart aches from him not being on the page and I and when his name is mentioned, my heart thumps faster because his name was mentioned and we miss him. Brett Hawthorne. Yeah, OK. This feels like a good spot to end it. Katie Cody pluggable. Yeah guys, check us out with our other show. Where's your ever and Cody? Even more news is the name of our podcast and some more news is name of a show on YouTube that you can watch. Hell yeah, and our twitters are doctor Richard Cody and Katie stole crashed it? Yeah, we're at ******** pot on Twitter and Instagram. That's the end of the episode. That's the end of the episode. I'll take a bullet for you, babe. Take a bullet for you, babe. Brett, alright. 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