WEBVTT - Ben Shapiro's Unreadable Book is Still the Best Thing About 2020 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.040 That's how we start the podcast. Are you already recording? 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:17.040 That's are you recording as you were screaming? Well, I 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.320 was recording. When I started making the noise, I anticipated 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:27.560 that the podcast would start with that's the beauty of 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.960 that professional I'm Robert. I'm Robert Evans. Welcome. No, I 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.559 don't like it. I'm not I'm not doing it. No 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.360 one else is Robert Evans because nobody else gets to 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:45.479 introduce my show a tonally and wordlessly. We have started, 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:51.680 then we have started you okay? Correct? Hi everyone, Hello 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:56.960 America and parts of Canada in the UK Zealand. No, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.959 we don't let them on here. Yes we do. Well. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:05.800 I love you guys. There are some real strict GEO tags. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.760 I'm keeping my eye on you. If you're good on 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.040 the list motherfuckers is what I think. Hello America, except 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.920 the Celtics fans of Boston. I don't say hi to you. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.759 This has been quite the introduction. Um, it's the last 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.840 day of August as we record this. In August is 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.520 a month we did it kind of maybe, I mean, 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.240 we'll see the missiles could all start firing anytime in 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.160 the next several hours left. Yeah, we got like nine hours. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.119 But I did say, I don't know. I started saying 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.200 a few months back that August was going to be 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.039 a really fucking horrible month. And it's been a really 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.720 fucking horrible month. Uh As I like, like this Saturday, 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.520 like two days ago. I guess less than two days ago. Um, uh, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.760 guy got shot dead in the streets of Portland. Um 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.520 that that was not good. Looks like they're going to 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.200 be escalating a series of heavily armed rallies between left 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.800 ring and right wing demonstrators that are likely to degenerate 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.040 in the gunfight. So September might be even worse, probably 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:15.560 is going to be. So that's good. Too much time 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:21.799 until November. So, folks, when things like this happen, and 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.440 when I say things like this, I mean the complete 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:30.120 collapse of democratic society and to an authoritarian bloodsilk nightmare. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.639 When things like this happen, we hear it behind the bastards. 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.720 Know of only one way to try to keep people's 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.640 spirits up, try to maintain you know, um, that that 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.919 fighting spirit that we're all gonna need to get through this. Um, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.359 And that way is, of course reading excerpts from Ben 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:55.240 Shapiro's unbelievably terrible novel, True Allegiance, ah, beautiful prose, Gosh, 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.560 describe it correctly, My goodness. Did I introduce the show 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.919 or Adi and Cody or did I just start shouting 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:06.400 a totally yeah, I can do it. Okay, what is 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.920 this show, Sophie? This show is Behind the Bastards and 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.120 it's hosted by you, Robert Evans. I am, I am 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:18.520 your executive producer, Sophie lick Derman. Anderson is the is 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:23.040 the uh is our ceo um um. And then we're 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:27.320 joined today by h Katie Stole and Cody Johnston of 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.679 Some More News, even More News, Worst Year Ever and 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:39.520 just epic nous. That's good, okay, well, great on the 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:44.640 horse the horse. Everyone is has has boarded the horse. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.120 So I thought you were going to say the horses 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.560 in the back, and I got really scared that you 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:54.960 knew a pop culture reference the horse in the bag. No, 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.320 I don't know any of that. What I do know 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.440 is that we just finished, uh, we just finished when 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:03.320 we last left off, and I recommend there's been like, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.440 what now three episodes of this before just going through 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.760 and we're just skimming Ben's novel and reading chunks of 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:13.200 it because it's very funny. Um. The last chapter was 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:18.680 Brett Hawthorne, combat General and prisoner of terrorist man in 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:25.480 the City of Iran, which, yeah, short terrorists attacked by 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:30.320 the bear of a man kidnapped by short terrorists. Um. 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.440 So yeah, Brett Hawthorne kidnapped by terrorists. He just had 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:37.799 gotten thrown into the cell after having his big meeting 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:42.200 with the bad terrorist guy. Um the evil terrorist Uh 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.520 drifted off to sleep thinking of his wife Ellen um 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.200 or the TV show Ellen. Um. That's unclear at this point, 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:55.160 it's unclear. Um, I choose. I mean, I'm praying for 0:04:55.200 --> 0:05:01.760 Ellen to Brett. We all are we all? We all are? Okay? 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.159 So the next chapter is a President Prescott chapter, which 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:10.400 is again Barack Obama but white, Barack Obama but white, 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.360 and mixed with a little bit of f DR and Hitler. 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:21.080 I'm Hitler like other parts. Um. Okay, were you asking, Katie? 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.360 I was gonna say, did we decide like a prototype 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.880 for him, like like Kevin Costner. I don't know if 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:33.800 that's you know, it seems like Ben is patterning the 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.320 president in this off of the kind of person who 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.760 has not gotten elected ever in democratic politics, but um 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:46.719 Republicans believe is like, yeah, he's like the fantasy Republican 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.960 democratic president, right, so he's like a little bit of 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.240 Bill Clinton mixed in with a little bit of Hitler. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.560 That's that's that's what we get with President Prescott. Yeah, 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.000 President Prescott always felt a surge of power through his body. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.000 He's set in the situation room. This is where they 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.760 had made all their biggest decisions. It's where Kennedy read 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.960 teletype during the Cuban missile crisis. It's where President Barack 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.839 Obama had set watching Seal Team six take out Osama 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.440 bin Laden. And this is where Prescott new he'd be 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.800 sitting at the head of the table while American Special 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.240 Operations troops dispatched. It brought him a shami. It is 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.560 kind of unclear in this up until now. I think 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.200 this is the first Barack Obama reference we get very 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.880 unfair for Barack Obama. What the timing has been of 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:35.279 like American history and Ben Shapiro's alternate timeline. Um, just 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.440 the president right after Obama. I think this is the guy, 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.239 Like what if a random Democrat who was also Hitler 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.120 instead of Trump. That's that's I mean, you could make 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.880 the case that that is Trump in some capacities. But yeah, yeah, 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.839 except for Trump, I don't think he's ever been owed 0:06:55.120 --> 0:07:01.200 by um the weight of a historical anything, because he's 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.320 not really capable of feeling the emotion of awe. But anyway, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:09.800 uh yeah, so they intelligence figured out General Hawthorne's signal. 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:11.600 If you remember, he was like being he was on 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.040 one of those terrorist videos and he'd like blinked the 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:19.880 coordinates of where he was. Then yeah, that's good. Uh 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:24.400 so yeah, um Hawthorne had spoken the pre written message 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.320 from a Shami just as a Shammi had written it, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:28.960 prompting a national debate on whether Hawthorne had should have 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.160 complied with the propaganda requirements of the world's leading terrorist. 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:34.960 But intelligence kept the fact that Hawthorne hadn't complied under 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:36.760 their hat. Well, the west rest of the world had 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:40.280 watched Hawthorne's mouth, Intelligence had watched his eyes. Which is 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:44.560 very funny to me, because like every time anything vaguely 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.280 like that's that's any that's vaguely a mystery occurs that 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.080 involves like a video clip, that's you know, anytime something 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.280 like that goes viral, whether it's a murder or whatever 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.960 the entire Internet sets to trying to solve it. And 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.560 if this guy had been blinking in Morse code while 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:04.120 deliver like like, there's a zero percent chance that everything 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.560 he had been saying wouldn't have already been liked to do, 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.640 would have figured it out. My favorite would have figured 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.360 it out was that one sentence that you just read, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.920 um butt Intelligence kept the fact that Hawthorne hadn't complied 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:23.520 under the Oh wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.840 that's a few sentences. That's a ok yeah, good good yeah, yeah, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:32.680 good improvement, improvement. Ben he had a copy editor for 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.520 this chapter, Yeah, he must have, so, yeah, this he 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.600 talked been talks about how Hawthorne had taken the trick 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.920 of blinking in Morse code from a Vietnam era pow 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.400 who had blinked out torture, which is maybe a little 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.760 bit easier than blinking out the coordinates airstrike now and 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:55.920 then geographical coordinates. Yeah, it's very funny, um. And also 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.679 just that they would know like that that would be 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.440 what the that the government would in stantly agree. Ah, yes, 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.600 this captured person has called for an air strike on 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.080 the capital of a sovereign nation. That's got to be 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.120 what we do. Well, not only do we know that, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.520 that's what he's calling for to do it. Yeah, we're 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:17.640 going to launch. Yeah, well, no, he doesn't know it, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.960 been doesn't note. The message prompted a full scale debate 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.400 inside the White House. It raised too many questions. First, 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.959 was Hawthorne's location correct? How would he know where he 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.520 was given that prisoners were typically blindfolded and kept in 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.680 windowless rooms before their executions. If Hawthorne was wrong about 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:33.760 the location and a heavily populated area of Tehran, the 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:35.720 United States could end up with the blood of dozens 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.400 on its hands and an international mess almost impossible to 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.440 clean up. They could brill him it all in Iranian 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.280 nuclear weapons, but after Iraq, the public wouldn't be buying 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:50.120 that's not that's not the Yeah, that's not the reason, 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.400 not to kill dozens of innocent people that the public 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.959 might not buy it, right, Yeah, maybe we can't get 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.520 away with killing the civilians all the To be fair, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:02.400 he has written articles about how he doesn't care about 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:07.240 civilian casualties, So sure it did isn't very surprising, you know, 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.120 it just occurs to me, Cody because that article he 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.560 wrote about how he thinks it's he thought it was 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.320 stupid whenever people complained about civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.720 it's fine to kill civilians in Afghanistan. He was seventeen 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.960 when he wrote that article. And there's probably a pretty 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.320 good essay to be written by someone smarter than me 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:31.280 about Ben Shapiro, age seventeen, urging the nation to mass 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:35.600 murder strangers in Afghanistan and Kyle Rittenhouse, age seventeen, taking 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.640 his A R fifteen across state lines illegally to shoot 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:44.680 strangers in another city. Probably something going on there, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:50.719 so uh yeah yeah. Second, even if Hawthorne was right, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.839 could the American aircraft breach Iranian airspace to take out 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.360 of Shami? A strike in a populated area would require 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.720 too much pinpoint accuracy for a missile. Military aircraft would 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:01.880 have to be utilized. Such an attack would surely have 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:06.040 grave ramifications for international politics, including ongoing nuclear negotiations with 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.120 the Iranian. Yeah. I think you're not going to keep 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:10.800 negotiating with them if you bomb their capital right now. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:16.200 I do suspect that would have an impact, Like it's 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.960 it's logic and reason he's doing logic and reason. Yeah, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:24.720 this is also like incredibly boring. It's like basic and 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.480 stuff like, oh, they might shoot the plane down and 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.720 that would be a problem. Like he's he's tried to 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.440 like portray this dude is like this feckless and wildly 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.960 responsible president. But then everything is going through in his 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.440 head is like, yes, these are all things you'd have 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.800 to consider if you were going to bomb the capital 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.480 of a rod Like it's like, what are we what 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.840 are we spending our time on here? Yeah, oh Jesus Christ. 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.000 So and then he has this thought go through the 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.600 heads of this presume of like supposedly progressive Democratic candidate. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.760 The Israelis were sitting around waiting to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.079 with the Americans taking action in Iranian soil, they could 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.040 take advantage of the situation to double up with the 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.600 brief bombing campaign, sinking any possibility of a nuclear deal. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:13.319 It's like, I don't know, just very very boring, boring. 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.920 It's yeah, yeah, it's not like he's not doing like 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:23.760 a a very legitimate like thought process, but also it's boring, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.520 like I don't need any of this. I don't need 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:31.400 to hear this, this internal debate. Um, or if you're 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.720 going to write a scene where they talk about these 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.760 things and you have characters giving a view points and 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.920 then arguing, like, show me two more long paragraphs where 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.000 he just goes back and forth about like this would 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.840 be a good foreign policy triumph and it people won't 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.840 call me a coward. But you know, we could also 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.120 just do it later. And it's just it's it's it's 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:59.839 again said, reveal things about the characters of the individuals 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.680 in this administration by how they react and discuss the 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.840 different possibilities, Like chances are everyone would have a different 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.360 viewpoint and then I would learn something about each one 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.000 of them based on their viewpoint. Yeah, yeah, do the 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.160 thing like watch a single episode. I normally wouldn't say this, 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.000 but watch a single episode of The West Wing, a 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.520 show that has characters that argue about things like what 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.640 to do and do that instead of this. Yeah, um, 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.240 that would be my thought. I never thought not like 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.520 watch the West Wing would be like great advice, but 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.600 just watch the West Wing. Well, he wants to write television, 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.800 so he should know that dialogue is an option he does, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.520 and it is it's one of the best options. Yeah, 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:46.520 you could have dialogue in this momentum. Yeah, yeah, it's 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.040 very it keep just keeps on going. In fact, Prescott 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:50.839 had been leading and leaving, leaning in the direction of 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.080 leaving things be, but two factors had decided him on action. First, 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.679 Prescott wanted a taste of glory. Just Prescott Prescott. Prescott 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.160 like Ben might a book, write a book, yeah, Like 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.800 have him be a character that does things. Don't just 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.560 like tell us have him like like Prescott like proposed 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.000 to do that. And then one of the characters says, 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:13.680 like you just want you just want it for the 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.120 glory or like what like obviously not that exactly because 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:21.200 that's bad, but like have people challenge him or something, 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.120 and then he explains why they're wrong, or he wavers 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:28.160 because maybe they're right or something. He has to ignore 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.040 good advice, and you like see him make a choice 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.880 to like yeah, yeah, no, instead that sounds like a 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:39.160 lot more work, Yeah, Or he could write an essay, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.640 boring essay about it, like all the options. And it 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.960 turns out the president decides to bomb a sovereign nation 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.520 because that would make it difficult for Congress to turn 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:54.680 him down about his his work freedom program. The everybody 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.600 gets a job program that he wants to ram through. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:03.400 Yes that I'm Yeah. Congress famously is a huge fan 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:09.360 of the United States randomly bombing the capitals of sovereign nations. Uh. 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.720 And so you get whatever you want as president if 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.880 you are like, hey, guys, I just bombed Iran for 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.560 no good reason. What Ben is doing here is showing 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.320 us a stunning understanding of our government and how it works. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.640 What are you doing? Is showing us done? Like he's 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.200 just showing us a window into what he thinks the 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.360 government should operate, Like what he thinks people should do 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.560 in order to get what they want. Yes, that's what 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:38.480 I actually meant. Yeah, that really is what's going on here. Yeah. Uh, 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.200 it's so the president who again only cares about his 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:48.640 his uh like signature piece of social welfare legislation that's 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.280 clearly meant to frame him as a Nazi because the 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.040 work Freedom program are bite mocked fry, you know what 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.440 I'm saying. Yeah, he already had his. So while he's 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.240 like getting his final briefings for the bombing of the 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.440 capital of a sovereign nation, Uh, he's daydreaming about the 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.320 work Freedom program, and he writes a slogan on his hand. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.960 This is what Ben calls a slogan protecting America from 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:17.120 those who would harm it. A broaden at home. And 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.280 that is a lot for a hand and a lot 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.040 for a slogan. That's a lot for a slogan. It's 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.840 it's that Simpson's giant hand character tired of all these jokes, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.720 giant hand. If Trump had hired been to to run 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.600 his campaign, it would be making America a country that 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.520 used to be better, better than it is currently because 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.360 it's not good enough right now, would be good for us. Yeah, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:47.120 Comma America. Put that on a fucking hat. Uh. Second, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.440 some right wing bloggers had caught onto Hawthorne signal. Mostly 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.040 they were kookie survivor caught onto Hawthorne, So okay. A 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.400 bunch of right wing bloggers had had found out that 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.760 he was okay, So Ben does include the internet cracking 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.360 the code. That's good. That's good. I got to be 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.400 fair to talking about cookie right wing bloggers, so that's 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.720 good too. Yeah. Mostly there were the cookie survivalist types, 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.200 the kind of folks opposed to conspiracy theories and message boards. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.720 But the CIA informed Prescott that's such information once you 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.760 get out could jeopardize any sort of attack. Um, so 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:17.800 that's that. Okay, I'll give Been credit for that one. 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:22.200 That that was Been that has been understanding a reality 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.479 of the world around him and then using it to 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:29.920 predict something in a a fictional scenario. Did he did that? 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:35.240 All right? So that's good, good sentence then. Yeah. Already 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.440 some of those nuts on Fox News had been making 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:41.480 oblique references to the rumors. Um, be nice to like 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:42.919 hear what that was? Like, how do you make an 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.679 oblique reference to people online believing that a US general 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.880 is calling for air strikes on till on using morse 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.840 code blinking, Like, how do you like, how do you 0:17:53.960 --> 0:18:00.200 slightly reference that? I guess I'd like to know. That's 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.320 another thing where like show me that. Yeah, yeah, show 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.320 me the tell show me these things instead of just 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.359 telling me them in the least interesting way possible. So YadA, YadA, YadA. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:12.919 We talk about how he decides not to do an 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.119 air strike and the CIA has its own thing that 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.200 they tell him to do and blah blah blah blah blah. Um. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.760 So yeah, now he's in the situation room. We're back 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:23.760 around to where we were at the start of this chapter. 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:28.280 He's sort of explained he didn't really Yeah, it's just 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.960 um wait, so like we're it's still we're still in 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.720 the situation room, and now we really happened. They've just 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:38.680 described like they've just explained why we're here, as opposed 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.359 to weeks of debate or days of debate you know, 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:43.240 had ended with like you know, he knew that it 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.320 was time for action. You know, sometimes you just can't 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.000 listen to other people's arguments. You have to make it 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:51.320 because also like you like just in terms of like storytelling, 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.760 that's a that's the chapter that you write, right, like 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.879 you'd like, here's yeah, debate, like it's here all of 0:18:59.920 --> 0:19:04.639 the things that are happening, cryptographer whoever who figures it 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:06.919 out and informs the government, and then you have like 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.760 the meeting and like now this is again if President 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.959 Prescott and his administration are characters, if there's characters in 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.480 here that we like we can engage with and be 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.960 interested by, even if they're the bad guys, um or 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.760 if they're incompetent, If they're characters, but they're not characters there, 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.520 um yeah, they're they're just like they're for been to. Yeah, 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.520 their little wax sculptures. They're a little little action figures 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.760 for him to play with. Yeah, they're little action figures. 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.600 That's exactly right. Um. Yeah, So he sends in I 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.200 guess a wet work team to go get this guy 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:48.360 out somehow. Um yeah, the C I A. Um, so 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:53.000 that's great. So he's told that the CIA success odds 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:59.240 are less than but he sends in the CIA team anyway. Um, 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.800 I think there's a thanks. Thanks. Let's see here now. Now, 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.160 the CIA operatives, dressed in local garb, set a quick 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.560 burning charge on the outside of the iron work door. 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.000 It flared brightly but the alleyway, but in the only 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:13.639 way there was nobody to see it. One of the 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.280 operatives gently nudged the door open with its foot for 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.760 for him spread a dark hallway. No lights came in order, check, 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.560 whispered one of the men. They crept down the hallway, 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.000 visibility no greater than ten feet ahead to the sides, 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.159 ran door after Yeah. Okay, so it's been trying to 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:35.120 write an action scene. The guy identifies himself as police. Um, yadda, YadA, YadA, YadA, yadda. Uh, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.639 just a bunch of guys doing a doing a boring 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:42.680 special forces type raid thing. So the team, the team 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:50.120 finds Brett and he's uh, okay, well kind of yeah. 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.760 So the correct amant tore into the souls of Brett's feet, 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:54.720 gashing them, but Brett hardly felt it. He hadn't moved 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:56.960 this fast since high school football. Get the funk out 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.320 of here, he screamed at the Americans standing twenty yards 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.240 above him on this airs. They know you're here. Get out. 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:04.320 He heard the sound of a couple of safeties being 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.600 switched off, and then he saw the guns pointed directly 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.639 at him. Run you morons, he shouted. The operatives were 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:12.720 blocking the stairs, standing there idiotically. Then again, he had 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:14.600 time to think it was covered with blood from head 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.200 to toe. He didn't have time to explain the blood. However, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:19.119 he didn't have time to explain the bodies of Yusuf 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.000 and his fellow Thuck. So we don't get any explanation. 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.080 Is he's killed a bunch of people. Um Brett has 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:29.000 and I guess freed himself. I think, what what has happened? 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.000 We haven't had another chapter of him, so this is 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.600 just yeah, they're just letting us know that, like without Yeah, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:39.199 he's already been working to get out. Oh, here we go. 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.359 The next page or two is him explaining again, but 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.840 keeps doing this thing where like he's trying to he's 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.640 he'll have an action scene and it'll spend two pages 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.120 explaining all the things that happened before that action scene 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.320 that he was just at and he keeps doing it 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.280 this way instead of just telling a story. Like hate 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:56.880 when people do that, not just because bench a hero 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.520 does it, but I hate in general. Scripts are stories 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.239 and stuff where you're like you have to stop and 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.520 be like, did I miss something? I don't like that. 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:07.920 I don't like it? Yeah, because he wanted he didn't. 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.120 He didn't want to like write a complicated scene where 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.199 like this team breaks in and Brett has to like 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.359 free himself, like as they're sort of coming in and 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.480 like clearing the building and its tense. So instead like 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.320 he has them just greet him. Brett's already freed himself. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.040 They meet him having freed himself, and he warns them 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:26.000 that it's a trap, and then we go back for 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.360 two pages and explain how he freed himself before this 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:32.000 all happened, so that we can return to the present. 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:34.919 Unbelievable and if you're okay, So if you're going to 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:39.320 do that, fine, don't go back and explain it. Just 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:42.840 keep moving forward, like if if, if you want to 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:44.520 do the thing, We're like, oh, he's he was already 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.760 breaking out, and that's that's okay. Move on. Yeah, into 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.240 the last chapter on a night where like and then 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.040 you know, Brett began to you know, sawl Awagh it 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.400 like his his cuffs or something like as the guard 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:58.880 or something, and then like oh and then we see 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.680 him he's freed him self. Clearly this was set up before. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:05.119 I don't need you to go back to pages and 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:09.640 disrupt the flow of the narrative to detail in boring detail, 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.320 very boring detail of him killing these two Pakistani teenagers 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:20.720 or yeah, also just the phrase, uh, standing there idiotically 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:26.080 just right, and they were just standing there. He can 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:30.000 infer that they shouldn't be standing there doing anything. You 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:34.280 don't need to tell us that they're being idiotic about it. Yeah, yeah, 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:37.160 it's And also I should note here that Brett Hawthorne 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.920 stabs the teenage boy guarding him through the eye when 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:43.600 he is on the ground. Um, where do you get 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.720 a knife? Oh? I don't know it happens. I'm not 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:48.919 going to read through this whole stupid fight, but he 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:51.280 stabs a teenage boy to death in the eye. That's 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:55.800 important for Ben to have happened. You know, who won't 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:59.560