Glenn Beck's Overton Window Please Let it End

I'ma try to finish this tedious tome today. As I mentioned last time, I skimmed ahead, so I know nothing interesting happens, not in these last chapters and not anywhere else in the book.

That this pile of over-written bog-standard conspiracy crap garnered as many five star reviews on Amazon as it has is a sign of the coming Apocalypse, that's all I have to say.

Chapter 35

Noah meets Molly for lunch. Nothing happens, except we hear about how TSA loves to harass Freedom Fighting Americans, who are 100% not terrorists.

Chapter 36-37

The TSA part was because Molly needs to fly to Las Vegas, and how can she, when she'll be harassed and arrested by Security because Noah's Daddy knows who she is?

Noah has a brilliant plan. No, it's not flying her to Las Vegas in one of his private jets. (Beck's ghost writer apparently doesn't understand what the mega-wealthy are actually like.)

Nope, he disguises her as Natalie Portman, and then uses his rich-boy power to get her through Security that way.

I have to admit, my first reaction here was, who the fuck-word is Natalie Portman? Wikipedia tells me she was in one of the Star Wars episodes I didn't see, which makes sense (I guess) because Molly gets them out of a stick spot in these hijinx by quoting Star Wars.

The sticky spot? She's wearing...gasp...a crucifix, and the Star Wars Geek running security knows that Portman is Jewish.

There's some casual nastiness about what Science Fiction fans look like here, by the way: Geek is overweight and wearing ill-fitting clothing, and has a bad haircut.

"The force is strong with this one," Molly says. The Geek melts under her sexiness and deep knowledge of Star Wars.

They get aboard the flight and Molly falls asleep. While she's sleeping, Noah browses through her things, reading her notebook, and generally acting badly. But this is so Beck's ghost writer can tell us (again) that Molly is reading the Original Works of the Founding Fathers, who are perfect, also filled wit humility, not like That President Obama.


Chapter 38

Kearns and Danny are driving to meet their terrorists.

Along the way, Danny explains his theory about how various terrorist attacks, including the Sept 11 attack, are all just False Flags. And so this attack on Vegas is probably one too. Kearns objects, saying that if that were true he would know about it. Danny calls him a naive little kitten.

Not exactly in those words.



Chapter 39

More Deep Thoughts from Noah as he reads through Molly's notebook, which is filled with quotations from the Founding Fathers. More conspiracy whackiness. My boredom is at Peak Beck.


Chapter 40

Kearns and Danny prepare to meet the terrorists. Danny has to explain to Kearns how to approach bad guys, because Kearns never learned that in all his years as a Super-Secret Agent for the FBI.


Chapter 41

Kearns and Danny sell the nuclear weapon to the terrorists. Then they start shooting the terrorists, for reasons that aren't especially clear. This is the worst-run sting I've ever seen in fiction.

But before they shoot the terrorists, they let them load the weapon into their truck, so one terrorist gets away with the bomb.

But Danny and Kearns get aboard as the truck drives away, which the terrorist doesn't notice, because he's an idiot.


Chapter 42

Noah and Molly have rented a car and are driving at top speed toward the location Danny sent to everyone. Why? I guess Molly thinks she needs to help Danny? It's not really clear. Molly is driving, because Noah never learned. (I don't actually know why Molly is driving. Probably so Noah can tell her to slow down, a lot.)


Chapter 43

Danny calls 911 from the back of the speeding Truck o'Terrorist. I'm not sure why. I mean, does he honestly think Emergency Services will fly out here to the middle of the desert to rescue him?

But no fear! 911 is in on the Big Conspiracy. Danny and Kearns are on their own.

Meanwhile Kearns has found his Super-Secret Contact, the only one who knows Kearns is REALLY from the FBI, dead in the back of the truck.

Danny has to point out to him what this means -- this is ANOTHER false-flag operation, like 9/11, and he and Kearns are the scapegoats.

Their solution?

They set off the nuclear weapon.

I mean, what? (A) Is that really their best option? Why not, idk, shoot it out with the sole remaining terrorist when he stops for gas or whatever? Also (B) how is setting off the nuclear weapon here, instead of actually in Vegas, going to help their cause? It's still a terrorist setting off a NUCLEAR WEAPON. Besides which (C) what makes them think some idiot in the White House won't decide this is a first strike? Touching off the destruction of the entire planet?

But that's what they do, exploding themselves and I guess the surrounding 40 or 50 square miles in a blaze of glory.


Chapter 45

Noah and Molly are still driving. They are having a fight about who is more committed to this Fight for Freedom, blah blah blah, when Molly sees police lights behind them.

Noah flings himself out of the car so that he can fling himself in front of the police cars and let Molly get away (she's determined to get to Danny and stop whatever is happening -- she doesn't know it's a nuclear weapon, but she knows it's a Big False Flag).

He stops the police by standing in the middle of the road with his hands raised. They all stop, instead of one stopping and the rest going on after Molly.

Then, as they're all facing him down with their scary weapons, the nuclear bomb explodes.


Chapter 46

Noah gets interrogated. Not very interestingly. We learn nothing new. (If the repetition in the book had been trimmed away, it would be about six chapters long.)


Chapter 47

Noah's daddy interrupts the interrogation. He makes yet another endless speech, again saying nothing new. "Useless eaters," "Saul Alinksy," "democracy is a sham," "people are sheep," blah blah blah.

Then he announces that he must find out what Noah is made of.


Chapter 48

Noah gets tortured some more, with his father watching.  Again, it's very boring torture. Near its end, inspired by Molly, Noah recites some Social Darwinist doggerel his father taught him when he was a boy. This convinces his father, for some reason, that Noah is his True Son and Worth Trusting.

Epilogue

Noah's locked up in a repurposed prison, doing various clerical jobs for his father, but unable to do them in a convincing manner. His daddy is thinking of locking him up good.

BUT THEN.

The guy who fetches him his meals slips him Molly's bracelet, and tells him to do a certain job -- basically leave his computer logged on.

He also slips him a note from Molly: "We are everywhere. I'll see you soon. The fight begins tomorrow."

THE END (thank God)

So apparently in the next book, The Eye of Moloch, which I am not going to read, we still don't get to the concentration camps.

I have to say, this is the least scary Supervillain ever. Apparently what he wants to do is bring peace and prosperity to America by managing the economy.

The bastard.

Also though he wants to stop Good Christian Patriots from having AK-47s, collecting rain water, smoking cigarettes, homeschooling their kids, and refusing vaccinations for their babies.

So totally evil, yeah.

I have to say this book was a lot more boring than I expected. Lots of propaganda and lies, but it was all Conspiracy Nut lies and propaganda, and frankly, who cares.

I'll look for something less idiotic next time.

Glenn Beck's Overton Window Ch 27-34

You'll remember that Beck left us with the promise of hearing Kearns' life story.

But that was a fake! I swear this novel reads like a first-draft written by a 15 year old and never revised.

Chapter 27

This chapter starts out as if we're going to hear all about Kearns, but instead Beck abruptly quits that story, when Danny demands to stop at a bar/brothel. He wants a beer, he says.

Kearns goes along with this, letting Danny go into the bar by himself to get a beer (Kearns doesn't drink, obviously). Only a few chapters ago he basically took Danny hostage. Now he lets him wander off into a bar by himself.

Where Danny borrows the phone from a stripper and sends a text message to Molly, warning her to keep everyone away from Las Vegas, since that's where the Big Job is going to go down.

Chapter 28

Noah wakes up, after being kept unconscious for almost two days, by someone, to find himself in his father's custody. And his father wants to see him.

I can see that Beck means this to be a scary moment. I can see that Beck wants us to see Noah's daddy as an evil monster. Frankly, though, he's the most boring villain I've ever met. The meanest thing we've seen him do so far is fire someone for checking her watch. Ooo, scary.

Also, all he does is talk and give lengthy presentations to people in boardrooms about the eeevil plan they have to take control of America. Beck has us watch this presentation three times. It never gets more convincing or more interesting.


Chapter 29

Back to Danny and Kearns. They're driving out to meet the terrorists again, and maybe actually sell them the bomb this time. Kearns can't use Mapquest, so he gives Danny access to internet. He also conveniently leaves the room so that Danny can send out another warning out, this time to the whole group of Freedom Fighters. Why didn't he send this last night? Who knows.

He also sends them the location of the meeting with the terrorists. I guess he couldn't have sent that the night before.

Whatever. Kearns has a casual attitude toward security for a high-caliber spy, is all I'm saying.



Chapter 30

Noah meets with his dad. Also, his dad's doctor gave him a bottle of methadone pills, to help him "come down" from whatever he was drugged with by Molly's team. This seems unlikely to me, but okay.

Noah's daddy tells him they found him by tracking his cell phone. Which took 40 hours. Okay.

Also, Noah is shocked to find that you can find people by tracking their cell phones. This is what I mean by inconsistency of character.  Noah is suddenly a naive idiot again, despite being a mastermind ninja fighter only a few chapters ago.

Noah's daddy has a big reveal for him -- Molly is not what she seems.

Apparently this is news to Noah, even though we just spent several chapters establishing that Molly is part of a secret cabal of freedom fights. But Noah's daddy gives him a lengthy presentation (of course) establishing that Molly has been to college, that she shoots guns, that she goes to political rallies with her mother and Danny Bailey.

Then Noah's daddy drops the bombshell: Molly got the job in the mailroom to spy on them.

Now I think even less of Noah's daddy than I did before. He's running an evil empire, but he doesn't bother to do security checks on the people who have access to his files? Okay.

Also, and this is really queasy-making, Noah's daddy establishes that Molly deliberately cut her hair and wore clothing to make herself look like Noah's mommy. Because she knew Noah would find that hot.

I know now more about Glenn Beck's kink than I really wanted to, frankly.


Chapter 31

Noah and his daddy have a private meeting. This is so Noah's Daddy can explain his plan yet again, though once again he doesn't explain it, just talks endlessly about how America is a big mistake, people aren't equal and can't be treated as if they're equal, and how most people are "useless eaters," not to mention evil. A story about a Turkish girl being buried alive by her family in an honor killing is put forth of proof of this.

Noah's daddy points out that in most cultures this girl would have been raped by the time she was sixteen. He means most other cultures, not America, where girls and women never get raped. But in any case, what this has to do with his point or the plot of the book, I don't know. Maybe Beck just wants us to see why Noah's daddy would think he should run the world? Because "most people" are useless eaters who rape and kill children?

I have no idea. This chapter is really incoherent.

Noah's daddy ends by saying that America's government is corrupt, so it's time to overthrow it and establish a new government.

The new government starts tomorrow, Noah's daddy says dramatically, and it will not fail.

Noah's daddy reminds me of those guys who corner you on long bus rides to tell you all about the dangers of vaccinations and drinking diet sodas. But we're supposed to believe he's a super-intelligent evil villain who is about to take over the country.


Chapter 32

Noah, appalled by his father's behavior, flees the building (after first asking several people where he can find Molly, because that won't leave a trail for his father to follow). Someone tells him Molly's mom is in the hospital. So he heads there.


Chapter 33

Luckily Noah used to date a neurologist at the hospital. Luckily.

She gets him in to see Molly's mom, who has just awakened and is asking to see him.


Chapter 34

Molly's mom has been beat up and also poisoned. By Noah's daddy's people, we're meant to assume, I guess? That's never made clear. She's dying, but first she needs to tell Noah some important things.

(1) He needs to find Molly and protect her. That's his job.
(2) Also, he needs to read Ephesians 6:12
(3) Also, Molly's mom knew his mom, before he was even born. So she knows what his mom would want him to do, which is save the world by protecting Molly. At least, I think this is what this part means. Who knows.

Noah rushes off to find Molly.

Ephesians 6:12, in case you're interested:

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

I guess this is meant to refer to Noah's daddy? Or maybe the US Government in general. Obama was president, remember. A dark ruler.

Who knows. Sometimes Beck acts as if the US Government is important and worth preserving, sometimes he acts as if the government is literally Satan, and we need to kill it with fire.

I guess he means people like the Freedom Fighters, who are the true heirs of the Founding Fathers, should be running the government, instead of those terrible corrupt elected officials, who pass things like tax codes and business regulations, and insist on funding public schools.

You know. People who actually govern.


I've skimmed ahead, by the way, and no, we don't get to the concentration camps in this book. Apparently there's a sequel, if you can believe that. Aargh.

Glenn Beck's Overton Window Chapters 21-26

I'll be honest with y'all, this part of the book is really, really, really boring. If I'd been Beck's Ghost Writer's Editor, most of this would have been cut.

Chapter 20

You'll remember when we last left Noah and Molly, they'd just found out about the Big Conspiracy to Take Over America By...Somebody I Guess It Was Noah's Daddy? I Don't Know.

Why would a PR firm want to take over the country? Surely there's more money in letting -- say -- Donald Trump take over the country, and then snookering him into looting the place for you.

Whatever. Molly takes Noah to see "how the other half lives," except that's more like 90% these days, but okay, and also, that's not where she actually takes him. Instead they go through a Sekrit Doorway into a Sekrit Hiding Place, one of the Freedom Fighter's hideouts. It has all these elaborate rooms, all built "with love and ingenuity."

How can Noah tell that? Well, he just can.

There are bookshelves. These contain all sorts of books, including the worst of Orson Scott Card, a John Birch society handbook, and a pile of men's adventure novels survivalist guides.

Hollis in one of them loading his own ammo, because it is tastier that way (I'm not kidding, that's the explanation we get, just like homemade cookies are tastier than storebought, ammo you load yoursef is better because...homemade, I guess?)

Also there a boardroom sort of place where some of the Freedom Fighters are cosplaying Founding Fathers. It turns out, just like in Fahrenheit 451, each Freedom Fighter memorizes some text written by the Founding Fathers, so that it will Not Be Lost From History.

Why don't they just buy some copies of the books? Yeah, I don't know either.

Molly recites the most common bit from Thomas Paine, the part about the summer soldier. Noah has never heard this before. Because he didn't grow up in the USA and wasn't educated in an American school.

That's the thing about Noah. Sometimes -- as in the opening chapters -- he's an utter dope, both stupid and ignorant. And sometimes, as when he gave that little speech in the bar, he's super competent, highly educated, and brilliant.

And then back to being an dumber than a box of hammers. "Thomas Paine? Who's he?"

Also, he's read Dale Carneige. I mean, oh, my God.

Molly fetches Noah some sweet tea. There's some chat about it being sweet tea. Because she's from the South. In case you forgot.

Then they argue about the 2nd Amendment, basically so Beck's Ghost Writer can make all the bone-headed points every gun nut makes.

Then -- plot twist! -- Noah passes out. THE TEA WAS ROOFIED.

Oh, Molly. Weren't you just trying to bone this guy last night? You heartless slut.


Chapter 22

Back to Kearns and Danny. Apparently Danny's going to do some undercover mission with a fake nuclear bomb. Kearns back there in Chapter 16-17 seemed to be working for the FBI. In fact, as I recall, he had a government jet at his command.

But now he claims to be working all on his own. He's been "out in the cold" so long, only one guy still knows he works for the government.

It must be the guy who has the keys to the jet.

Also they eat breakfast in a farmhouse. Why? I don't know. I'm not even sure why this chapter is in the book. Maybe so Glenn Beck's ghostwriter can say "out in the cold," thus demonstrating to you that he knows all about Real Spy Stuff.


Chapter 23

Kearns and Danny make a phone call to set up the meet. The guys they're going to sell the fake nuclear weapon fanboy all over Danny. Because he's a big YouTube star and terrorists planning to blow up things with nuclear weapons love YouTube stars.

(Is Danny supposed to be Rush Limbaugh? Or Louder with Crowder? Or Alex Jones? IDK, and this is so stupid I don't care.)


Chapter 24

Kearns and Danny drive to the meet. On the way, Kearns stops the car so Danny can see what stars look like outside a city. Apparently Danny, though he is a famous YouTube Star and Freedom Fighter, has never left the city, or at least never looked up when he was outside a city.

Kearns says it's important to know the stars are there. Because stars = heaven.

Okay.

They get to the meet, which is being held in someone's garage, apparently, and uh-oh, trouble: only four of the five guys they're supposed to meet are there.

I think this is another plot twist?


Chapter 25

But apparently not, because they all sit down to talk. Missing Fifth Guy is away on a business trip. (Didn't they just set up the meet like 90 minutes ago?)

There is some chat about Zionist bankers.

(Side note: This is one problem with this book. Danny starts out being cast as a bad guy. Now, apparently, he's a good guy, sort of? But a dupe of Kearns, who is a good guy, maybe? And they're setting up these guys, who are buying nuclear weapons, so...bad guys? But no one's character is consistent, and every now and then someone who is supposed to be one of the heroes will say something about Zionist bankers or global conspiracy or some other coded (barely coded) speech for Them Evil Jews. It's hard to know how Beck's Ghost Writer means us to read all this. Or if he or Beck even understands what they're saying.)

After the anti-Semitic bonding is done with, Kearns shows them the bomb.

Why did he need Danny here again? You got me.

And then -- plot twist! -- we find out who the terrorists are going to blow up, with a fucking nuclear weapon: the Senate Majority Leader.

Why would you need a nuclear weapon to do this? How would you get a nuclear weapon into the office of such a person?

Who knows, who cares. I'm guessing Beck is planning to use this as his Reichstag Fire, to kick off Martial Law and Concentration Camps and the Death of America, but we're 60% through the book. I mean, come on.

Frankly, it should have started with the nuclear weapon. If we're going to actually explode this weapon, I mean.

Chapter 26

Kearns and Danny drive away, not having sold the nuclear weapon to the terrorist fanboys. Kearns thinks the fanboys are up to no good -- maybe the missing one ISN'T away on business, but is planning to ambush them.

Or something.

Apparently there's going to be another meet tomorrow, to actually sell them the weapon (why? Why not sell it to them tonight? What idiot wrote this book), but first we have to hear Kearns' life story.

Danny literally asks for it. "We've got a long drive," he says.

The next chapter seems to be Kearns's life story. What the actual F.



More in a few days, if I can stand it.

Glenn Beck's Overton Window Chapters 16-20

More of this stupid book. We still don't get to concentration camps. What even the hell is this book about?

Chapter 16

Some guy named Stuart Kearns from the FBI shows up to ask for one of the people who got arrested. Glenn Beck's ghost writer plays it like it's a big mystery who he's here to see, but I guessed right away it was Danny Bailey, so I won't even pretend it was suspenseful. Stuart is a kind of a jerk, and I don't know if we're supposed to know he's a jerk or think he's a world-weary tough guy. He's been married like six times, he doesn't get along with other law enforcement officers, blah blah, all the cliches.

Anyway, he reads Danny's files, and we find out Danny's back story, which is also filled with cliches, except that Danny has been investigated by a Joint Commission on Terrorism for things he'd said on his "ham radio show," which, seriously, oh my God.

Also, Stuart ruminates about how, these days, "even the most liberal of politicians" are fine with "preventive detention" for terrorism suspects, which he then goes on to define as "indefinite incarceration" for "thought crimes." This makes me hopeful that we're about to get to the concentration camp part of the book, but nope.

Chapter 17

Instead, Stuart and Danny take a plane ride together. It's a chartered plane, so Stuart can smoke. Apparently this is important, since the Ghost Writer spends a couple of pages on it. (I think the point is that non-smoking planes are an infringement on AMERICAN LIBERTY, but who knows.)

Then Stuart tells Danny that they want him to do something. I am entirely confused about what. I think infiltrate a Terrorist Group? I don't know, because most of the rest of the chapter is spent watching a video Danny made where he dressed up like Colonel Sanders and talked his way into some Congressman's office. This is supposed to prove something, or maybe it's supposed to be funny? It sets up the really hilarious punchline that ends that chapter.

"That's good," Stuart says.

"Oh, Stuart," Danny says, "that's not just good. That's finger-licking good."

(Me: Oh, my God.)


Chapter 18

Back in Noah's palatial apartment, he wakes up to the scent of bacon cooking. Molly has made him breakfast, as a good women does. (And of course it's bacon. What is it with conservatives and bacon?)

There's a charming little breakfast scene where she's too stupid to do the crossword puzzle, so he has to help her out.

Then they go for a walk in Central Park, and stop for coffee, and she asks him what his PR firm would suggest for her group, Patriots R Us. He gives her the usual dumb talking points Conservatives are always suggesting -- a flat tax, Immigration Reform so that The Good Immigrants Can Come and Not the Bad Ones, Cut Spending.

Then he asks what her Patriots R Us Group meant by "saving the country." Saving it from who? he asks.

And she says, very meaningfully, "You know."

Suspenseful music.

Noah claims he doesn't know. She points out there was a meeting at Noah's daddy's firm yesterday. Noah agrees, but says he wasn't there, which sure isn't how I remember that chapter, but okay. Molly asks him to find out what happened.

No, says Noah.

Fine, then I'm leaving forever, says Molly, and gets up and walks away.


Chapter 19


Noah caves, and takes Molly into the Bat Cave through the Sekrit Back Entrance.

Yeah, I'm not kidding. The Most Powerful Man in the world has a Sekrit Back Entrance to his office, and the motherfucker isn't even guarded. You go into it through a department store elevator.

That makes perfect sense, Glenn Beck's Ghost Writer.

Once they're up in the Bat Cave, that's not guarded either. They just walk right in, and all the notes and PowerPoints from the meeting all still lying around the meeting room, as it would be, for a Top Sekrit Meeting like that.

So they power up the PowerPoint and read through the Top Sekrit Plans.

At one point, the Power Point helpfully Explains what the Overton Window is, which is lucky, since Molly is too ignorant to have ever heard of it. Noah explains, with examples.

“And this Overton Window, it’s used all the time?” 

“All the time, everywhere you look. We never let a good crisis go to waste, and if no crisis exists, it’s easy enough to make one. Saddam’s on the verge of getting nuclear weapons, so we have to invade before he wipes out Cleveland. If we don’t all get vaccinated one hundred thousand people will die in a super swine-flu pandemic. And how about fuel prices? Once you’ve paid five dollars for a gallon of gas, three-fifty suddenly sounds like a real bargain. Now they’re telling us that if we don’t pass this worldwide carbon tax right now the world will soon be underwater."

Then the PowerPoint reaches the real dastardly plan:

• Consolidation of media outlets to a new internationalism.
• Gather all power to the Executive Branch!
• Reinforce collectivism and Social Justice!
• Expand the malleable voter base by granting voting rights to certain groups like ex-felons, migrants, and Puerto Ricans! Label dissenters as racists!
• Set beneficial globalization against terrorism, climate change, debt crises, and human rights
• Abandon the dollar! Adopt an international currency!

Abandon the dollar! It's demonic!

Then they come to the end of the slides, which is one single phrase: Casus belli.

"Oh noes," Molly says, and flees.

Chapter 20

Outside, and I kid you not, they see a storm is coming. Noah once again hails a cab, because he's not the son of the richest and most powerful man in the world, and they drive around talking about this huge secret while the cab driver definitely doesn't eavesdrop.

Noah says the Casus Belli hasn't happened, so she should just calm down.

She says it has -- the financial collapse is the Cause of War. (Remember this book was published in 2010, so written in 2009, just after the financial collapse of 2008. The Big Talking point among Conservatives then was that Obama was destroying the world with the Bail-out.)

“They’ve doubled the national debt since 2000," Molly said, "and now with these bailouts, all those trillions of dollars more—that’s our future they just stole, right in front of our eyes. They didn’t even pretend to use that money to pay for anything real, most of it went offshore. They didn’t help any real people; they just paid themselves and covered their gambling debts on Wall Street.” 

Noah says they'll be okay, meaning he will be okay, since he's his daddy's boy, and that since he loves Molly, she'll be okay. But Molly says no one will be okay.

We are now 50% of the way through the book.

I am starting to think we are not going to get to the concentration camps in this book.

Glenn Beck's Overton Window Chapters 13-

God, this book. I'll just warn you, we don't get to the concentration camps in this section either, so feel free to skip this bit if you like.

Why can't conservatives write? And why do conservatives want to read this crap? This piece of overwritten drivel has almost 600 5 star reviews on Amazon.

Chapter 13

Noah wakes up in the paddy wagon, Molly cradling his head in her lap. Aw, isn't that sweet? She's such a nurturing woman.

Among other things, this tells me Glenn Beck's ghost writer has never taken a knock in the head. If you're knocked unconscious for longer than a few seconds, you've got serious brain damage. But Noah's Just Fine. Maybe he doesn't have a brain. That would explain a great deal.

Anyway, he ends up in a cell with about sixty other guys, some of them guys from the Freedom Fighters Bar, or whatever it was called, I'm far too bored to go back and check. No one has read him his rights yet. Plus also no one has searched him, or taken away any of his stuff, including his class ring. So we also know that Glenn Beck's Ghost Writer has also never been taken into custody.

Blah blah blah, Noah -- for some reason him and no one else -- gets yanked out of the cell and threatened with about six different felony charges, but luckily his lawyer shows up right then, and says he's pulled strings and has arranged to get everything dropped.

But meanwhile. Noah has seen, through the window in the interview room (luckily the interview room has a window) all the infiltrators from the Freedom Fighters Bar, including the one who shot at Danny, standing in a big circle laughing and chatting with several police officers. (One of them is wearing a Confederate Flag patch, because of course the Real Racists are Progressives Pretending to be Conservatives.) OH NOES. It is a False Flag!

He cries about this to his lawyer, who shrugs. So what, his lawyer says. Grow up, you big baby.

"News flash, son: there’s no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, and no Legal Fairy who cares about what you think you saw. Injustice exists in this world, and while you’re lucky enough to be insulated from the worst of it, most people aren’t.” He patted Noah on the arm. “Your righteous indignation is noted and filed. Now let's get out of here." 

But Noah refuses to leave unless the lawyer gets everyone else from the Freedom Fighters' Bar off the hook too. So the lawyer agrees to do that, though it means getting Noah's daddy involved. Fine, Noah says. Go ahead.


Chapter 14

Noah gets out of jail. Out on the street, he meets up first with Hollis, who thanks him humbly. Noah asks him what time it is, and Hollis -- I kid you fucking not -- tells time by the stars for him.

I mean oh my God. Give me a fucking break. I know Hollis is supposed to be this Magical Middle American Wise Man, but (a) who the actual fuck tells time by the stars these days and (b) he's in New York city now, not Arkansas, so the stars will be different and (c) PLEASE.

Anyway. Then Molly's mama and Molly come up to be grateful also and Noah gives them a ride home in his limo. He tells them he doesn't always ride around in a limo. I'm wondering why he doesn't. He's the son of the richest man in the USA, after all. Why would he ever ride in anything else (a) and also (b) where are his bodyguards?

Anyway, he drops Molly's mom at her hotel and he and Molly stop at a restaurant where he orders curbside meals that they eat in the limo, chicken and waffles, which he calls "Al Sharptons," not racist at all. Molly is from the South but she has never heard of chicken and waffles.  Okay.

Noah tells Molly about his Dad's life. His daddy, as it turns out, is a Rhodes Scholar, just like Bill Clinton, and also a disciple of Edward Bernays -- the Jewish Svengali who started the whole eeevil practice of PR. (See, Jews really DO control everything!)

I bet you didn't know that Goebels had Bernays' book on his nightstand! Noah tells Molly, who is appropriately awed.

Bernays…believed it was the responsibility of the elites in society to manipulate the general public into decisions they weren’t smart enough to make on their own, by whatever means necessary. His vision for this country, for the world, really, was a huge, benevolent nanny state, a plutocracy, where the people would be spoon-fed in every aspect of their simple, dreary lives. He’d show them how to vote, what to eat, what to love and hate, what to think, and when to think it. And, God help us all, my father took those lessons to heart 

At this point, Noah abruptly changes the subject and says, oh, and also my mom was at Woodstock. I've seen her in the movie. She's naked and making out with this guy. Even more abruptly, Molly climbs into his lap and asks to come home with him.

What?

Yeah, you got me. But that's what happens.

Chapter 15

In this chapter, we find out Noah lives in a big fancy apartment and that he's very odd.

He takes Molly home with him. It's a very big apartment, across the street from the French Embassy. Molly is such a hick that she thinks the French embassy is his apartment. Also they meet the ex-governor of New York in the lobby. Noah is fancy and rich, get it?

He send her to his spare room to sleep, but she comes to his bedroom, dressed in nothing but his old lacrosse shirt, cuddles up under the covers and throws her bare leg over him.

"Don't tease the panther," he tells her.

She is obviously coming on to him. But he just keeps reading his book. And she just goes to sleep.

I have no idea what the scene is supposed to mean. Noah is a gentleman? Molly is... stupid?

It's a bizarre scene, and this is not how humans behave.

We are 40% of the way through the book, according to my Kindle. Here's hoping something happens soon.

Glenn Beck's Overton Window Ch 8-12

In this section, we almost get some plot.

But then Glenn Beck's ghostwriter decides to give us more characters making long speeches filled with conspiracy theories and other nonsense instead.

Chapter Eight

Noah finally goes inside the bar, though it takes him a page and a half. This book is even more overwritten than Trigger Warning

Once inside he finds -- oh, this is a shock -- that the crowd is not the redneck mob of "old white people of limited intelligence" that "the media" had led him to expect.

Instead, what diversity!

[It was] a mix of everyone—three-piece suits rubbing elbows with T-shirts and sweat pants, yuppies chatting with hippies, black and white, young and old, a cowboy hat here, a six-hundred-dollar hair- cut there—all talking together, energetically agreeing and disagreeing...

This is the same drum J.A. was banging in Trigger Warning. Liberals are the real racists, conservatives welcome anyone, conservatives don't care how rich or educated you are, blah blah blah.

And maybe MAGA Americans even think that's true, because (after all!) they have black friends, and they have a gay cousin, and there's even this old Spanish guy they talk to sometimes, sits next to them at the football game, he's as nice as anyone!

But while MAGA Americans will accept people who aren't like them, and even become friends with people who aren't like them, they're still racist and prejudiced against those people in the aggregate.

It's like a friend of mine tells me, about her conservative father. He's hired black people, and worked with them. But those people are different, he tells her. His black people are good black people. Not like those criminals and lazy takers, up there in St. Louis!

I don't hate women, conservative men will tell me. Didn't I marry one? But those Feminazis, they're cancer.

My gay cousin is fine. But LGBT people in general? They're freaks!

Back in the bar, Noah notes that a folksinger is playing, up on the stage. Some "1960's era folk song," which Noah sees as a good PR move, since how could they be racist or violent if they were singing the same songs Martin Luther King Jr sang?

This would work better if we knew what song the folksinger was playing. Possibly Glenn Beck's ghostwriter doesn't know any actual folk songs.

Noah runs into Molly -- literally. We learn for the first time that she has a "slight Southern accent." Also, she notices that Noah is wet from the rain, and immediately devolves to caretaker mode, as your good woman will. She takes his coat, finds him dry clothing (yes, in a bar), and introduces him to a "gentle giant" named Hollis, who I hope will be a main character, given the amount of time we spend with him.

Hollis is also from the South, is wearing working class clothing, and has "perfect etiquette' and stereotypically terrible grammar. (None of them working class southerners know proper English.) In these chapters, by the way, we'll meet five people from this political group. They're all white and all of them except Hollis are middle class, and not noticeably educated. But so diverse.

Chapter Nine

Nothing much happens in this chapter.

More time in the bar, and Noah talks to Molly. We find out Molly doesn't drink (because she's a good woman), and Noah is a 'human lie detector.' Okay, bub. There's a scene where he points out someone who's spying on the group, I guess for the eeevil media, though that's never made clear.

This spy is white too. So diverse.

Also, we meet Danny Bailey, a YouTube star who is here to get a speech. Hollis says he's trouble, Molly says he gets people "fired up" about the wrong things. Certainly the speech he makes in Chapter Eleven is full of silliness.

Danny is also white.


Chapter Ten

But first Molly's mama speaks. We don't find out she's Molly's mother until later -- it's a Big Reveal. We do hear that she's about 55, and that the "honest beauty" of her younger days has "mellowed and matured." That's all we're told about her, because whether a woman is pretty or not is all that really matters.

She gives a long speech explaining how certain people (progressives, as she reveals) have hijacked America and are "perverting" it, replacing "equal justice with social justice," those bastards.

Also lobbyists. They're evil.

Also, America was founded as a "representative Republic," but no one is representing the people in this bar. (Wild applause.)

Also, the Founding Fathers meant us to get along with just the Constitution, and it's only 14 pages long, but look at these law books! Full of so many laws! And so complicated!

Also, too many taxes. The IRS is exactly the same as the Gestapo.

Also, Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't interested in Social Justice. He wanted equal justice.

This seems to be the big point Glenn Beck is trying to get across, that Martin Luther King Jr. would have been with the MAGA Americans, not with the progressives. All that tells us is that neither Glenn Beck nor his ghost writer knows anything about Martin Luther King Jr.

Molly's mama calls for them to "transform" America, but not with violence. Peaceful means only, she declares. Hmm. Does the NRA know about this part of her argument?

This argument, though, is not aimed at MAGA Americans, who believe all of their violence is perfectly legal and perfectly justified. They're protecting their rights; they're standing their ground.

But those Black Lives Matter people, rioting and resisting arrest and shouting bad words, that's just behaving like a mob.

Molly's mama finally shuts up (this is the second lengthy speech in the novel, and not the last) and Molly asks Noah what he thinks. He tries to be polite, saying that Molly's mama seems like she means what she says, but Molly insists on his real opinion. He says it just seems pointless, that politics never accomplished anything.

Molly demands he tell her why he's here, then. He admits he came because he wanted to get to know her. Then she tells him these politics here? Those are her. And flounces off.

Way to win hearts, Molly.


Chapter Eleven

Jake drinks a lot of beer. Hollis comes to sit next to him and cheer him up. Hollis also doesn't drink. I think that's code for Good Guys in this book. Bad guys drink alcohol. Good guys drink Coca-cola.

Danny Bailey gives a long and stupid speech. His basic points, the government is lying; unemployment is high; we're putting too many people in prison (hey, even a stopped clock); and there's an eeeevil plan to put certain people in 'military labor camps.'

What people? Danny Bailey explains that the eeevil government is keeping track of everyone who owns a gun, everyone who home-schools, all returning veterans, everyone who opposes abortion, everyone who opposes immigration, everyone who owns a copy of the Constitution -- all the right-thinking citizens, in other words. All of these people will be rounded up and put in work camps.

The government already has a plan in place, Danny Bailey insists. Executive Decision Number 51! All they need is an emergency, a manufactured emergency, and the arrests begin!

But we can fight then! Danny says. We can win because our hearts are pure!

Noah scoffs. A silence falls, and everyone turns on him.

Dramatic chapter break.


Chapter Twelve

Danny mocks our hero, calling him "Ivy League," and inviting him to get up on the stage if he has so much to say. Noah demurs, but you know he's going to do it. Deprive Glenn Beck's Ghost Writer of the chance to write another long speech? He wouldn't dare.

Noah gets up on the stage and says everything Danny and Molly's mama has said is true. Powerful Secret Cabals control the USA, Rich Men own the country and the government, the Bill of Rights is meaningless, and a New World Order is indeed about to be implemented.

But the people in this bar can't stop it, Noah says, because they're dupes, distracted by in-fighting and conspiracy theories. (The New World Order isn't a conspiracy theory?) Also, they've been infiltrated by agent provocateurs. He points out some in the crowd -- a guy wearing a "Born in the JewSA teeshirt," a white supremacist, a "Birther," a "Freeper," and a Holocaust Denier.

Those aren't real members of this political group, see. Heavens, no. Conservatives aren't racists! These are false flags, they're infiltrators sent by those powerful cabals (run by Goldman Sachs and other Globalists, gee, I wonder why this guy was wearing an anti-Semitic teeshirt, no idea).

But because of these infiltrators, Noah says, no sensible American will join this crusade. Why would they, he demands.

According to the network news, you’re all borderline-insane, ignorant, paranoid, uneducated, hate-mongering, tin-foil-hat-wearing, racist conspiracy theorists. 

Which obviously we're supposed to believe is not true. I can't think why, since everyone we've met so far from this group has been paranoid, uneducated, racist conspiracy theorists. (To be fair, I doubt that Glenn Beck realizes all his talk of Globalists and Seckrit Cabals controlling the world is a racist trope.)

Noah concludes by inviting anyone who wants to punch him outside for a fistfight. Okaaay, that's normal.

Before he can leave, though, Molly's mama stops him to tell him how wonderful his speech was. They have a lot in common, she says, they should talk.

But eagle-eye Noah (who I'll just mention does not even remotely resemble the guy we met in the breakroom, hitting on Molly) notices that Bad Police Men are showing up at the doors. They need to get out of here, he tells Molly's mom. Bad things are about to happen.

Then one of the crowd (obviously an infiltrator) pulls a gun and shoots at Danny. Storm-troopers, I mean American Police Officers, rush in and begin hitting everyone with billy clubs. One pulls Molly's hair.

(Historical note: Back before Black Lives Matter started saying some police officers were dangerous and racist, and that their powers ought to be checked, Conservative Americans had no trouble criticizing the police. It's only since Ferguson that the police, as far as MAGA Americans are concerned, have become too Holy to criticize.)

One starts to bash in a Good American's head. But Noah reaches out and stops him. Because Noah is Ninja like that.

Seriously, has the ghost writer even met Noah? When did he become a Superhero?

Same time he became a powerful political speaker, I guess. When the plot needed him to be.

Noah gets bashed in the head.

Dramatic chapter break.

I hope we get to the damn concentration camps pretty soon.

Glenn Beck's Overton Window Part II Ch 4 through 7

This is my read through of Glenn Beck's The Overton Window, presented for your entertainment only. The first installment can be read here.

Chapter Four

When we left the book, Noah's daddy, the eeevil Arthur Gardner, was lecturing incoherently about how easy it is to destroy democracy with advertising, or something. (Seriously, the main problem with this novel is the incoherence of the writing. Often I can't even decipher what Beck/Beck's ghost writer is trying to say.)

Chapter Four starts with Noah in the hallway outside the boardroom. His daddy has sent him out with a list of phone numbers. No names -- this is so mysterious, Noah thinks. Because I guess this is his first day working for his father.

He calls the phone number and issues invitations to a meeting with his father. He marvels at how rich people have assistants to answer their phones, even at six o'clock on a Friday afternoon! Why, maybe even they'd have people answering their phones 24/7! How incredible would that be?

No one gives a name at any of these phone numbers -- because that's how conspiracies work, I guess -- but Noah hears someone speak off the line during the last phone call, and realizes that it's the "next U.S. treasury secretary, assuming the election went as forecast." Right now this man was the President of the Federal Reserve. (Gasp!)

Then Noah goes into his father's private kitchen (if there's a private kitchen, why was he eating Tootsie Rolls in the employee breakroom) and burns the slip of phone numbers. As one does, in a conspiracy.

Chapter Five

Nothing much happens in this chapter. Noah takes a stroll down some hallway somewhere in the big corporate office building his father owns, and narrates for us the exhibits there, which showcase the past work done by his father and grandfather and so on.

But first we get this odd story: No clocks are allowed at Doyle & Merchant (the name of his daddy's PR firm). Once, a woman had glanced at her wrist watch while Arthur Gardner was rambling speaking. Not only was she summarily fired, but Arthur banned all watches and clocks from the business from that point on.

This is what I mean when I say Glenn Beck has no idea how businesses work. Can you imagine running an organization of any size, never mind a global PR firm, if no one had access to a clock of any sort? Do we just show up for meetings when the whim takes us, or what?

Anyway. Among the PR triumphs that Doyle & Merchant have pulled off over the past hundred years, we learn, are the state lottery; pet rocks; teeshirts with Che Guevera on them (what saps, wearing teeshirts featuring "the century's most brutal killer"); and the First Gulf War. Also, D&M has done the PR work to elect every President except Jimmy Carter and Nixon.

If I ran an evil empire like this one, I don't know that I would put displays of my evil deeds out on public display like this. That doesn't seem like a good way to run a conspiracy.

Noah feels what might be guilt. Apparently the work D&M do is news to him. He decides to go meet the uppity temp worker, better known as his One True Love. Though apparently he's forgotten he's in love with her. Now she's "a naive young woman" who needs to be taught a thing or two. (Sometimes Noah talks like he's 12, and sometimes like he's 62.)

Chapter Six

Nothing much happens in this chapter. (I think I'm going to be saying this a lot.)

Noah catches a cab instead of taking one of the D&M limos (why would he? Also, would he? He's the son of the richest man in the USA. Is he going to be riding in cabs?)

The driver of the cab is an immigrant from the "Middle East." While trying to drive them out of a traffic jam, the driver runs them into a military checkpoint (one in the middle of New York City, apparently) and they both get pulled from the cab and interrogated. Noah is released once he remembers he's the son of the richest man in the country. This takes him awhile, mind you.

The cab driver remains in custody. Noah feels what might be guilt over this, as he walks away. Vague guilt seems to be Noah's main emotion, when he isn't channeling a cranky octogenarian.

We don't find out why the military checkpoint is here, what the interrogators wanted, or how they knew Noah was in the cab -- as they seemed to have. They also know he's on his way to this patriotic meeting, which might be why they stopped him? Except that doesn't make sense. Why interrogate Noah? Why not grab up the organizers of the meeting? It's not like they're hiding. They're putting notices on bulletin boards all over town, in fact.



Chapter Seven

Nothing much happens in this chapter.

Having lost his cab driver, Noah decides to walk the rest of the way to the meeting. Because that's what the only sons of the richest and most powerful men in America always do.

The most powerful descriptor gets added in this chapter. Arthur's not content to be rich, Noah tells us, he also wants power.

Most of this chapter is Noah walking and thinking things we already know -- his father owns a PR firm, it's a powerful PR firm, people are dupes who can be manipulated by PR forms, fap fap fap.

At the end of the chapter, he reaches The Stars'n'Stripes Saloon, which is where the meeting is being held, because of course it is. And it turns out to be filled with "Right-Wing nutcases" and "knuckle-draggers," as Noah calls them now.

I'm sure he'll learn better soon.

For the record, we're 18% of the way into the book, according to my Kindle. Almost nothing has happened.

This seems to be a feature of Reactionary books -- lots of padding.

Reading Glenn Beck's The Overton Window Ch 1-3

MAGA Americans love to talk about "the Overton Window" nearly as much as they like to talk about Saul Alinsky, so when I saw this book by the infamous Glenn Beck available for free via my Kindle, I snapped it up.

Time for another read-through of a silly book by a silly writer. Though from what I understand, Beck didn't actually write this one -- he paid a ghost writer to write it for him. Which is just sad. Because this book is terrible.

It starts with an introduction, in which Beck assures you this this book is not fiction, it is (dum dum) faction.

Beck defines faction as fiction based on facts. (1) That's pretty much all fiction, you potato, and (B) yeah, no, not this one.

The rest of the introduction is Beck lecturing us on how he's not an ideologue and this book isn't about being Right or Left wing, and it has nothing to do with who is President now, this is just about the Truth. (Who was President then, by the way, was Obama.) This could really happen, he asserts, and it could happen any time, not just when that radical...um, no matter WHO has seized control.

Beck know critics will try to silence him, by saying his book is silly or terrible, because that's always what happens when people try to Speak the Truth. He doesn't care, though. He's going to Speak the Truth anyway.

Then we cut to a prologue (yes, this book has both an introduction and a prologue) in which an obvious lunatic named Eli Churchill is talking to what I guess is a reporter, via a payphone.

(Me: Oh My God.)

I mean, seriously, when was the last time you even saw a payphone? I had to explain to my students what one was when it showed up in a 1985 movie I was showing in class.

Anyway, this guy is reading from an enormous sheaf of papers, trying to tell the reporter what he has learned.

"Could you just tell me?" the reporter begs. This is a faction, obviously, since in reality the reporter would have hung about about 20 minutes earlier, when this raving conspiracy theorist first began to rave.

Churchill says all that money that got lost in the budget (this was a scandal Conservatives were pretending to be outraged over in the early years of the Obama administration) wasn't lost. It was being used to build something.

“I’ve seen the place, one of the places where they’re getting ready for something—something big—planning it out, you know? I got a job inside in maintenance, as a cleanup man. They thought I was just a janitor, but I had the run of the place overnights."

So...it's like a building?

But no, because in the very next breath, Churchill says it's not a building.

“They’re building a structure…Not like a building, but like a political and economic and social structure.” 

Okay. So how do "they" hire you to scrub floors in a political and social and economic structure? And how exactly do you have the "run" of a structure like that, overnights?

Never mind, it doesn't matter, because right then someone shoots Churchill.

Eli Churchill had enough time left to begin a quiet prayer but not enough to end it. His final appeal was interrupted by a silenced gunshot, and a .357 semi- jacketed hollow point was the last thing to go through his mind. 

That's what passes for clever writing when you're Glenn Beck's ghostwriter.

Chapter One

Here we meet the main character of the novel, Noah Gardner, who were's supposed to think is adorable. He's so sexy and "puckish" that he sleeps with a different woman every weekend. Though only because he lowers his standards. He'll even sleep with a six, apparently. What a man!

But now that he has reached the advanced age of 28, he wants to give up his slutty lifestyle and settle down with a real woman.

Luckily one shows up. She's working at a temp at his ad agency, and despite that she's a temp, she's dressed....well, I don't know exactly how she's dressed. Glenn's ghostwriter says she's not following the dress code. Also that she's a "free spirit."

Is she wearing overalls? Jeans? a mini-skirt? Thigh boots and mesh stockings?

No idea. Also we don't know what she looks like except that she's really hot. But it's an "aloof and effortless hotness" which "dares" men to bring it up. You know. That "effortless hotness" real women have.

Also she has a perfect "line," something Noah's artist friend talks about.

Noah falls in love in 5 seconds. Literally. This is true love, he knows, just from looking at her "effortless hotness," and that perfect "line."

Chapter Two

So he hits on her. Guess how.

"Need some help?" he says. She's pinning something to a bulletin board, so obviously she needs his help to do that. I mean, she's just a girl. She shoots him a contemptuous look and continues to try to pin whatever it is up all by herself.

And now we get a description!

You won't be surprised to find that "effortless hotness" means not much makeup. Also her "abundant" hair is pinned up in a loose bun with two crossed pencils. And she has -- I know this will shock you -- green eyes.

He goes over to help despite her dismissal and finds she is posting an "amateur" looking notice about a political meeting to the bulletin board. The header lets us know this meeting will be held by a political group called We The People.

If you love your country but fear for its future, join us for an evening of TRUTH that will open your eyes! 

Oh my God. It's a TEA PARTY novel.

There are about fifteen "guest speakers" listed, all associated with groups like "The Guardians of Liberty" and "Founders Keepers." One is a YouTube start with 300,000 followers!

The "Effortlessly hot" woman is Molly Ross, as Noah discovers after looking at her name tag (after a long lingering look at her cleavage, where he spots a tattoo of what might be an angel). Molly says she doesn't expect anyone from this place to come to the meeting, since PR firms aren't interested in The Truth.

Also she knows who Noah is.

“Noah Gardner. Twenty-first floor, northwest corner office. Vice president as of last Thursday. And a son of a … big shot.” 

“Wow. For a second I wasn’t sure where you were going with that last one.” 

Oh look. More Humor!

Noah turns out to be the son of the owner of the PR firm, which I guess is why he's sitting around in the break room eating Tootsie Rolls (I kid you not, that's what he's eating). You'd think the son of the owner would have his own office and his own staff and better taste, but not in this Factional Universe.

Anyway, Noah says he plans to go to her meeting. Why? Because he's patriotic. Very patriotic, in fact. Not because he's stalking Molly or anything.

Molly makes what is supposed to be a sparkling joke about Noah and the Ark, and we're out of there.

Chapter Three 

Oh, here's some plot, finally. 

Chapter starts with a faux document from Homeland Security, all about how the collapse of the economy is causing "radicals" to rise up, and how a "contingency plan" needs to be formed to deal with them.

A list of radicals includes one or two radical liberal groups, like "Earth First," but mainly it is groups like The Tea Party and homeschoolers and "anti-abortionists," as well as gun-rights activists, Anti-Immigration groups, Christian Dominionists, and White Nationalists.

You may not remember this, but during the early years of Obama's time in office, a report did leak saying that the FBI and Homeland Security judged that White Nationalists and other conservative activists were a danger to the country. Conservatives had a screaming tantrum, because obviously white nationalists and anti-abortion groups weren't a threat.

The document goes on to talk vaguely about "enhanced interrogation" and "extralegal detention" of members of this group, before being abruptly cut off as we switch to a meeting in a boardroom, being led by Noah's daddy, Arthur Gardner, who is 78 years old even though his son is only 28, and who has -- I think, the writing is hard to follow here -- been hired by Homeland Security to run a PR program which will convinced "the public" that this leaked report isn't true.

No problem, Arthur says. In fact, it's already done. (How? Well, he just told the Washington Post to say it was fake. Problem solved.)

Then we have a 15-page long speech from Arthur, in which he snarls and screams at everyone in the room, including the people from Homeland Security, telling them that the truth is whatever he says it is, that he's rich, that they are cowards and fools*, and that the world is about to be destroyed by a financial tsunami.

Here he tells a story of an actual tsunami which he watched, standing on the roof of his big hotel in Sri Lanka. Lots of people died under the giant wave. He found this very interesting.

We're supposed to think Arthur is a monster -- I know, because a few pages later he name-checked Saul Alinsky along with some other evil people, like the founder of the Washington Post -- so I guess him watching hundreds of thousands of people die just for fun is supposed to reveal the depths of his villainy.

Apparently Arthur is also the one Churchhill was talking about, back in the prologue, since we also learn here that he is building a "structure," a "new framework," which will last after the USA has been washed away in the coming tsunami.

There's tons more. But my God is the writing terrible. Glenn Beck's ghostwriter apparently thinks that people stand around spouting speeches is good writing. It's not. Also, why would a super villain like Arthur Gardner reveal his plans in a boardroom filled with sixty or seventy people? Including some from Homeland Security?

I mean, is he an idiot?

Noah leaves halfway through this rant speech, and who can blame him.

So far this book is both badly written and very slow. Also, it's clear neither Glenn Beck nor his ghost writer know how actual big corporations work.

That's as much as I can take today. More later!

* ETA It occurs to me that Noah's dad is a pretty good picture of Donald Trump, right down to the world salad and the bullying. I wonder if this is intentional? I know Trump wasn't running for president in 2010, when this book was published, but he was already pretty well-known.