Let's read Out of the Ashes. Our hero was saved by a bee sting.

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Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Chapter two

There's a lot of flashback in his book, and when I say flashback I mean direct copy and paste. This book also has one of his worse breaks with reality. In the last state the Tri-states was destroyed, in this book the president is worried about starting a civil war.

quote:

�Al Cody will never sit still for this,� Ben told his personal contingent of Rebels. Two days after the ambush of FBI agents. �We�ve got to move and do it quickly.�

Apparently the war is still going on despite the fact that it ended in the last book. Enough so that there are units and bases to move.

quote:

Ike McGowen took it from there. �Torture, rape, physical humiliation; those are words right out of the last report we received, Jerre.� The ex-Navy SEAL chewed reflectively on a blade of grass.

�I can�t believe President Addison would go along with anything like that,� she said. �He�s . . . hell he�s a liberal. He was heavily into human rights in South America back in the early �80� s� so I�m told,� she blushed.

�Mere child,� Ike grinned.

The Medal of Honor winning SEAL had been with Ben for a decade; one of the men who helped form Tri-States. Ben grinned at him. �What are you grinning about, El Presidente?� Ike asked. �Remembering the first day I met you.�

Then we get a reprint of Ike�s meeting Ben.

quote:

�Any individual found supporting the Rebels� actively or passively,� the network commentator intoned, �will be charged with treason. Highly placed sources within the Justice Department have told our reporters this move is necessary to stem the flow of arms and equipment to the Rebel movement currently operating in the United States. Ben Raines, the commanding officer of the Rebels has been placed at the top of the FBI�s most wanted list. The ...�

President Addison clicked off the TV set and punched a button on his desk.
�

�Whose idea was this treason business for citizens who imply support for Raines?� Addison questioned.

�I don�t believe imply was ever mentioned in the . . .�

�Goddamnit, you know what I mean!� Addison slammed his hand on the desk top. �What in the hell are you people trying to do, start a civil war? We�re still struggling to get our balance from the battering we took eleven years ago.�

�Mr. President, we sampled the views of Congress� all the key members . . .� �I wasn�t told of that.�

Lowry ignored that. �... and they believe the only way this country will survive is to destroy Ben Raines and his Rebels. They . . .

�The British tried that in Northern Ireland for years. It didn�t work there, and it won�t work here.�

�... also believe this threat is so serious as to fully warrant the term treason. If they have to, Mr. President, they have the votes to override any veto should it come to that.�

So the Federal government destroyed the Indians and the Tri-states, and now the president is worried about starting a civil war with the remnant.

We also get a reprint of Ben meeting Salina.

quote:

Sam Hartline looked like the stereotyped Hollywood mercenary. Six feet, two inches, heavily muscled, a deep tan, dark brown hair just graying at the temples, cold green eyes, and a scar on his right cheek. He spoke to the one hundred FBI agents gathered in the old hotel in the deserted Virginia town. He did not have to speak to his own men; they had heard it all before.

When somebody says stereotyped Hollywood mercenary I think of Michael Ironside in V which came out about the time this was written. This is the most complete description we've gotten from anybody in the books as well, which I'm not sure what to do with

quote:

�So you boys are gonna spearhead the move to kill Ben Raines, eh?� he grinned. �And you�re gonna do it by breaking the civilians who support him, right? Well, you�d all better have strong stomachs.� Again, he grinned. �I expect you do. You boys don�t look like that bunch that used to make up the Bureau. You boys look a sight tougher. I�ll tell you this: you drat well better be.� He took a sip of water and again looked over the roomful of men. �Dealing with male prisoners prior to the actual interrogation,� he spoke impersonally. �Man . . . the protector of the home; the strong one. The techniques are diametrically opposite when dealing with the man as opposed to the woman. You must handle the male roughly� right from the beginning. You assault his male pride, his virility, his manhood, his penis power. You take the clothes from the man by force and leave him naked before you. A naked man feels defenseless. He will lose much of his arrogant pride.

�With a woman it is quite different. Do not use physical force except as a last resort. You order her to remove her clothing. You demand it. Make her disrobe. Thus her dignity has, from the beginning, rotted. A very important first beginning.

�Don�t let them sleep. Interrupt them every few minutes while they lie in their cells, imagining all sorts of dire and exotic tortures lying in wait for them. Lack of sleep disturbs the brain patterns; disrupts the norm, so to speak.

�I will give you gentlemen an example.� He motioned toward a man standing by a closed door.

He then proceeds to give a demonstration on a man and his sister. It�s worse the Gitmo but not by so much that people would stop defending it. Sleep deprivation, humiliation, cattle prod, and rape. It�s a cheap way to make the bad guy look like a bad guy, but at least it�s not being held up as a virtue.

quote:

�What are we to do?� Senator Carson asked President Addison. �This nation cannot endure a civil war.�

�I don�t know, Bill,� Aston said, drumming his fingertips on his desk. �It�s a personal thing between Cody and Raines. Cody�s brother was killed in Tri-States. How much support do I really have, Bill?�

More of this not wanting to start a civil war. This is one of the sloppier retcons in the books. Usually it�s handled in a reveal that changes what the characters thought they knew.

quote:

�Sam Hartline is a goddamned psychopath,� Cecil Jefferys told Ike and Ben. �And one hardline friend of the family hater. He was with Jeb Fargo outside Chicago back in �88 and �89.�

Then we get a flashback to Ben finding his brother in Chicago.

The rest of the chapter is more hand wringing about starting a civil war. And Sam raping his way through his prisoners family.

# ? Jan 14, 2017 19:32

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 16:55

rudecyrus: Nov 6, 2009; fuck you trolls

quote:

Ben looked at her. She was shapely and ripe for picking.

This made me shudder.

# ? Jan 14, 2017 22:43

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Three

quote:

Spring drifted slowly and softly into early summer. A strange peace lay over the country; but both sides knew it was a prelude before violence. A quiet before the nation erupted into civil war.

The people who were tortured in the last chapter are given a trial and a hanging.

quote:

On June the first, 1999, a semi-military court, made up of military men and women loyal to Cody and Lowry, Hartline mercenaries, and two extremely frightened citizens from a local town, sentenced Samuelson and his daughter to hang for high treason against the government of the United States.

The trial lasted twenty minutes. Father and daughter were hanged the following morning, at dawn.

Speedy trial with no lawyers sounds like Ben�s wet dream, but here it�s bad.

quote:

In Washington, President Addison sat in his private quarters with Senator Carson. The old senator from Vermont, usually quite eloquent, was decidedly coarse when he finally spoke.

�The poo poo is about to hit the fan, Aston.�

�And there isn�t a goddamned thing any of us can do about it.�
�True.�

�I�m really just a figurehead, aren�t I, Bill?� �That�s about what it comes down to, yes.� �I have given serious thought to resigning.� �Don�t. I have this hope that after a few weeks or months, when my colleagues see how bloody and awful and needless this war is they�ll come to their senses and turn against Cody and Lowry. If that happens, we�ll need you in the White House.�

We also find out that FBI man Lowry survived the hit squad by looking unimportant.

quote:

Ben was once more a hundred percent physically. And at that moment, he was one hundred percent angry. Not a hot raging anger, but a cold deadly one. He stopped his restless pacing and turned to Ike. The ex-SEAL was sitting patiently in the squad tent, a CAR-15 across his lap.

�We�ve got to start all over again, ol� buddy,� Ben said.

�True.� Ike waited. When Ben didn�t immediately speak, Ike said, �You�re not blaming Samuelson and his kid?�

�Oh, hell, no, Ike! There isn�t a man or woman in this world that wouldn�t break under the right kind of torture. No, I�m not blaming them. I�m just sick that it happened.�

Of the things I forgot about these books are dedicated to people talking about poo poo that�s about to happen. Nothing useful, just �the poo poo�s about to hit the fan� type lines.

quote:

Ben began his restless pacing. It was his habit when deep in excited thought. �One year from this date, gentlemen, we are going to strike. We are going to hit so hard, and in so many places, with such force, we are going to knock the pins right out from under Cody, Hartline, and the members of Congress who support them. On June the second, 2000, we are going to take this government and give it back to the people.� He smiled. �At least take the first step, that is.�

Ben�s plan is to quietly arm friendly civilians and set up secret training camps.

quote:

By mid-summer of 1999, the survivors of the bombings of 1988 came full-face with hard reality: America was in the grip of a police state.

All police were federalized; they could cross city limits, lines, county lines, state lines. The Federal Bureau of Investigation seemed to change overnight, turning into an organization of frightening proportions. Some citizens compared the new FBI to Nazi Germany�s Gestapo of years past.

It took them that long because they were still trying to cope with so many people and institutions surviving armageddon

quote:

Shortly after the worldwide bombings of 1988, when Hilton Logan was installed as president of the United States, the government began its program of collecting all handguns and high-powered rifles and the relocating of citizens. Logan settled as much of the east coast as could be, avoiding the �hot areas,� filled with deadly radiation. As a result, many states, especially those states not a part of the bread basket region were practically void of human life.
Into those states Ben would send his Rebels to train new people.

So this is geography of this book.

quote:

Nope

A graphic description of people being tortured.

quote:

It was then the government agents and spies learned the hard truth of infiltrating anything Ben Raines set up.

Each unit had several men and women trained in the use of Psychological Stress Evaluators, polygraph machines, and truth serums such as thiopental, scopoline, and other drugs which induce truth under hypnosis.

There, each volunteer was tested thoroughly and rigorously. Nothing was left to chance. They were hanged and buried in unmarked graves. Nothing was released to the government. Let them think their people were still alive, Ben told his Rebels.

This is the Rebel�s version of interrogation. Truth serum and lie detector machines. In Ben�s world they don�t have any real chance of failure. This is used as a more humane version of interrogatio then torture, but it never addresses the ideal that a method would produce false positives.

quote:

Once the original 72 companies of one hundred new Rebels was set, it was very difficult to join Ben�s Rebels. Any new applicant was held in a safe house or spot for two to three weeks. The applicant was subjected to severe testing and questioning the entire time. Shortly the very best of the volunteers got into the actual fighting field units of the new Rebels.

I�m trying to imagine how people could disappear for two or three weeks under a total police state. Everybody is recruited, trained and put into waiting for the big event. Very little time is spent on building the network of safe houses and supplies needed to run this kind of thing.

quote:

�The military stands where it always stands,� Admiral Calland said, a flat tone to his voice. �Ready, willing, and able to repel any invaders who threaten our shores.� �Would that it were,� Preston muttered under his breath. It was muttered so only Admiral Calland could hear.

The military is refusing to get involved in this whole mess.

# ? Jan 16, 2017 22:35

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Four

quote:

Dressed in white Levis and matching jacket, and carrying a half-dozen cameras, Dawn Bellever was a respected and experienced photographer. She�d worked all kinds of assignments since she was a kid reporter back in �88, just before the bombings blew everything to hell. But this demonstration in Richmond was shaping up to be a real bitch-kitty. Dawn could feel it.

She stood calmly by the police line, snapping away at the police and the protestors.

�Give us back our guns!� a man shouted. �You have no right to seize private property.�

A give us back our guns protest. Also I have no idea what the hell is going on. I don�t know how the economy works, I don�t know what the factories are producing, I don�t know how food is getting to the cities.

The gun situation is also very confusing. The government has been confiscating guns for the entirety of the series, yet there�s always more guns to be found.

quote:

A federal cop slamming his billy club on a head brought Dawn back to reality. She took a picture of the man, on his knees, blood pouring from a gash in his forehead.

�Watch that oval office with the camera, a cop said to another officer. �Don�t let her out of your sight. We got to get those films.�

�Your rear end, pig,� Dawn muttered. She smiled at herself for using a word whose popularity had peaked before she was born.

peaked before she was born. She stepped a few feet closer to the line of boots, belts, badges, helmets, guns, sunglasses, shields, and riot shotguns. She thought it ironic that a small American flag was sewn on the right sleeve of each officer�s shirt or jacket.

Aren�t these Americans you�re beating? she silently questioned.

The riot police get to her, but she manages to take down one and take his pistol. A .357 Magnum

quote:

She knew absolutely nothing of guns. She crawled to her knees and hunkered in the street, the blood still dripping from her head. She reversed the pistol and peered down the barrel. Somebody, somewhere close, opened up with some type of automatic weapon, the narrow street reverberating with the boom of rapid fire. People were running all around her. She heard a woman screaming, looked to her right, and saw the second cop who�d hit her holding a young woman against a building. He was hitting her with his nightstick.

�Well,� Dawn said stupidly, �I�m not going to tolerate that.�

Something was fuzzy in her head, fouling up her thinking. Dawn shook her head and raised the pistol. Again, she was looking down the barrel. She righted the weapon, gripped it with both hands, just like she�d seen cops do in the movies, took careful aim at the cop�s right leg, and pulled the trigger.

She blew half his head off.

The recoil knocked her flat on the street and numbed her hands. But she still gripped the magnum. She got to her knees and looked around her. The young woman the now-dead cop had been hammering on was running toward her, the officer�s weapon in her hand.

The girl�s face was bloody, her eyes burning with an intensity that Dawn recognized as near-fanaticism. She jerked Dawn to her feet. �That�s the same cop who raped me last week,� she said, pointing to the unconscious officer in the street. �I was one of �em who broke out of the tank.�

�Raped you!� Dawn said, not believing what the girl was saying.

The young woman�s eyes flicked to the PRESS badge on Dawn�s jacket. �You people don�t know where it�s at, do you? Yeah, rape. Come on, I�ll tell you about it. We gotta get out of here.�

They ran toward an alley and jumped into the back of a van. The driver roared off the instant the women were inside.

�Where are we going?� Dawn asked, a sick sensation in the pit of her stomach. She had killed a man. Worse, she had killed a federal cop. And she was known. Dawn�s face was very well known. As were other parts of her anatomy. She had posed semi-nude for the new Penthouse twice.

So they managed to start publishing Penthouse after the war.

quote:

All across the nation similar events were unfolding as the federal police and Hartline�s men became more savage and brutal in their handling of any suspected Rebel sympathizers.

There�s a list of people who narrowly escaped Hartline. It�s the standard stuff, rape, attempted rape, burning a house down.

The president and vice presidential roles are �unique�

quote:

It had been raining off and on for a week, ever since VP Lowry had met with the military; ever since that damned demonstration that had turned into a riot. Two cops were dead, a dozen civilians dead. A hundred or more civilians hospitalized, several hundred arrested. And the press was really outraged. One of their own was on the run after killing a federal cop and many press-people were blatantly ignoring the government�s censorship order.

President Aston Addison was behaving as if nothing had happened. He had called a press conference; VP Lowry had cancelled it, refusing to allow any network to carry the president�s message. But Addison had not lost his cool; had acquiesced in style, without losing his temper.

Goddamn the man! What did it take for him to show some temper.

And Lowry has learned that Raines is alive.

quote:

Ben Raines had moved east and was in command of the Rebels in the Great Smoky Mountains Park.

The son-of-a-bitch was really alive!

The bastard!

The VP looked like a man who had just bumped into death and couldn�t quite forget the encounter and ensuing chill. When he spoke, his words were slow, carefully enunciated.

�After the states of Tennessee and North Carolina lost so many police officers, I asked Colonel Cody to hand-pick a battalion of men from his own people and from those units of the regular military who remain loyal to us. Every man picked was an experienced combat man. Almost nine hundred officers and men. Late yesterday, 83 of them came staggering out of the park area . . . shot to pieces, frightened out of their wits, babbling about facing thousands of Rebels . . .�

�They may have exaggerated the number somewhat,� Senator Stout said.

Lowry wants to remove the president, but the military won�t allow it.

quote:

�All right,� Lowry smiled, rubbing his hands together. �The military told me the same thing, but I didn�t believe them.� He turned to Cody. �You know most of the Rebels, right?�

�A good many of them.�

�Know where their families are?�

�Certainly.�

�Start putting the pressure on the families,� Lowry ordered.

�That could backfire,� Tyler said.

�That could really set all the people against us. My God, Weston, we�re not some barbaric third world country. There has to be a better way.�

�Name it,� Lowry prompted. �We�ll talk about it.� She could not.

Lowry looked at the others: Senators Stout, Slate, Douglas, Woodland, Carlise, Reggio; Representatives Tyler, Lee, Altamont, Terry, Clifton. One by one their eyes dropped away from his steady gaze.

Lowry glanced at Cody. �Do it,� he said.

I can't imagine that anything they could think of would be different then what they were already doing.

quote:

Jerre did not accompany Ben to the Great Smokies National Park. She had stayed behind in their base camp in Wyoming. He did not know she was pregnant, and she had warned Doctor Chase if he opened his mouth about it she would personally tell everybody in camp the old doctor was secretly seeing a woman forty years his junior.

�That�s blackmail!� Chase had responded.

�Actually,� Jerre had smiled, �it�s a compliment. That a man your age can still get it up should be written about in the annals of history.�

�Don�t be crude,� he�d blustered. �Perhaps our relationship is more of the platonic type.�

�Horseshit, Doctor.�

Chase could but grin. �Jerre ... I won�t let on to Ben, but I don�t understand your motives in asking me to remain silent.� �Lamar,� she touched his arm. �I love Ben Raines more than life, and I want to bear his children; but Ben does not now and never has loved me.�

Ben is a Fecund man.

# ? Jan 17, 2017 22:07

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

FIve

We start with more flashbacks, about gathering all the gold and silver in the nation. And Ben getting elected mayor for life.

The following is the entire description we get of the first battle in the war. Johnstone's style in this book is very jarring. The book consists of people telling their abbreviated life stories and why they joined the Rebels, isolated descriptions of battles, and Hartline being the bad guy.

quote:

Ben watched the bodies of the dead government agents and mercenaries being buried in a mass grave. After being stripped of all weapons and clothing. They were dumped into a huge, bulldozed out pit, covered, and forgotten. No records were kept as to who was buried in the pit.

�I don�t think we�re going to have that year you wanted,� Ike said.

�Maybe not, but we still are not going on the offensive. The new people need more time in training; several more months. Besides, I want to see what the press does with this,� he waved a hand toward the mass grave.

***

Even in a police state with censorship of the press, hundreds of men and women can�t come together in a shooting war without the press playing it up. When the military failed to follow up on the battle in the Smokies, the press put it all together and the headlines screamed.

CIVIL WAR BETWEEN FEDERAL POLICE AND RAINES� REBELS MILITARY WILL TAKE NO PART

Now it was settled. The breach had widened to the point of open war. Lowry had Congress ask for the help of the National Guard and Reserve troops.

Many commanders refused.

Ben and his Rebels waited and trained.

There's also a lot of poo poo that should have been fixed in editing. Unless there's a town called "New People" I'm aware of.

quote:

Ben Raines stood looking at the tired group of new people. All that was left of the bunch from new people from a half dozen states. They had been ambushed in transit, only a hundred and fifty had made it out alive.

Ben stood on a man-made podium in a natural outdoor amphitheater about a mile from base camp one.

�All right, people,� his voice jerked them to mental attention, eyes forward. Three hundred eyes studied the human legend standing before them. A shade over six feet, one hundred and eighty pounds, hair streaked with gray, blue eyes. Hard looking. �Welcome to base camp one.

There�s some Q&A and we meet Steve Mailer.

quote:

�Steve Mailer. How much time will we have General?�

�Hopefully, six months. It�s enough time, for you�ll be mixed with combat-experienced men and women when the full unit is formed.� Ben smiled. �I read about your . . . incident. You seem to be well-versed in firearms. Pistols, at least.�

�When I saw how our government was . . . the direction it was taking, I began giving myself lessons in firearms.� For a moment the slender young man was flung back in time . . .

The agents had entered his office and faced him, smiling and arrogant. �Where�s the old broad?�

Steve gritted his teeth. �Mrs. Rommey took the rest of the afternoon off. I trust that meets with your approval?�

�Watch your smart mouth, schoolteacher. Turn around, face the wall, and spread your feet.�

Steve had smiled. �Man�s rapidly dwindling individuality will someday end with an act of frightened, submissive, obedience, groveling at the feet of near-cretins. I have no intention of being a party to that final fall of the curtain.�

�Huh?� one agent asked.

�It means, gently caress you!� Steve said. He raised the pistol and turned. The angle of his body had prevented the agents from seeing the .38. He fired twice into each man�s chest. He fanned their bodies, taking their weapons, then ran out the rear door . . .

�...you all right?� Steve caught the last of Ben�s questions.

�Oh. yes, sir. I was recalling the . . . incident in my office.�

�First time to kill a man?� Ike asked.

�Yes, Colonel.�

�It won�t be the last,� Ike told him.

And we hear from our new romantic entanglement Penthouse lady. He uses Ms. here, and it's important enough for Johnstone to call attention to it. I'm not sure of the significance so maybe it has to do with feminism.

quote:

A very blonde-haired lady put up a hand. Ben realized then where he�d seen the woman. In Penthouse. He�d seen quite a lot of the lady in that spread. Although he knew her name, he said, �Name, please?�

�Bellever. Dawn Believer.� She couldn�t believe the general was as old as people said he was. Except for his gray-streaked hair, he looked . . . well, kind of boyish. �What�s to prevent the President from sending in the Air Force and bombing us here in the Park?�

�The President is not our enemy,� Ben said. �President Addison is a good, fair man� even if he is a liberal . . .�

That brought a roar of laughter from not only the new people but from Ben�s seasoned Rebels.

When the laughter had died down, Dawn asked, �I don�t understand, sir. Are you saying that all the rumors we�ve been hearing; by we, I mean the press� about Vice President Lowry really being the man in power, are true?�

�That is correct, Ms. Believer.� Ike and Cecil looked at Ben, then at each other. In all their years of association with Ben, neither had ever heard him use Ms. toward any lady.

quote:

�What do you mean, General?� Steve Mailer asked. �Dispose of them?�

�I intend to try them for treason and shoot them,� Ben replied.

We end this chapter with Hartline and Lowry

quote:

�I also told you to put a lid on the press.�

Cody�s Chuckle was totally void of mirth.

Hartline sat in the VP�s office. So far he had said nothing. Cody said, �This is America, Weston� not South America. We�ve had a free press in this country for several centuries; that isn�t something that can be squelched overnight. I ...�

�I can censor the press,� Hartline said quietly. �You just give me the green light� and a written promise you�ll back me up� and watch me go to work. I�ll muzzle them so goddamned fast they won�t know what hit them.�

�How?� Lowry asked.

�Same way we did in ... ah . . . certain countries in South America and Africa back in the mid-eighties.�

�Can you guarantee your plan will work?� the VP was interested, leaning forward, eyes shining. �Will there be torture?� A tiny dribble of spit oozed from one corner of his mouth.

Cody did not notice the flow, but Hartline did, and thought: a lot of repressed emotions in the VP. A lot of dark covered emotions. �Yes,� Hartline smiled. �I surely can.�

�Do it,� Lowry ordered. �And start here in Richmond. Film it, too. I wanna see it.�

While you beat your meat, Hartline thought. �Yes, sir. Right away.�

# ? Jan 19, 2017 19:50

KillerQueen: Jul 13, 2010

"Ben looked at [person characterized as a little girl]. She was shapely and ripe for picking.

Eugh. Ben Raines is the creepiest uncle.

# ? Jan 20, 2017 03:54

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

KillerQueen posted:

"Ben looked at [person characterized as a little girl]. She was shapely and ripe for picking.

Eugh. Ben Raines is the creepiest uncle.

In the context of the book, that's one of the "least creepy" things that will come up. These books have a lot of very graphic rape and torture. I don't know really know where to draw the line on what gets cut, so I draw it as close to pg-13 as I can. It's a little like reviewing Fatal, with fewer charts.

When I read these books as a teenager, it never really occurred to me because it was always something the bad guys did, and that gives you an excuse to shoot bad guys. Reading it this time puts it in a whole new light. It's porn, sometimes torture, sometimes snuff. It's just to graphic to be anything else.

# ? Jan 20, 2017 07:59

KillerQueen: Jul 13, 2010

Throwing Turtles posted:

In the context of the book, that's one of the "least creepy" things that will come up. These books have a lot of very graphic rape and torture. I don't know really know where to draw the line on what gets cut, so I draw it as close to pg-13 as I can. It's a little like reviewing Fatal, with fewer charts.

When I read these books as a teenager, it never really occurred to me because it was always something the bad guys did, and that gives you an excuse to shoot bad guys. Reading it this time puts it in a whole new light. It's porn, sometimes torture, sometimes snuff. It's just to graphic to be anything else.

That's completely fair! I also think it's telling that even the least creepy thing is still super child brides-y.

Also, your write-up of this series so far is pretty cool. I love how hard it is to figure out how many people survived the "apocalypse". I guess a major chunk of every national organization survived? Also the bombs were "clean" yet Benny need a geiger counter? And I guess all the germs just died? It's just so strange that for how much gunporn and how many weird survivalist talking points are shoehorned into this that no detail is put into the survivalist part of things. It's like if a Fallout game just kinda forgot radiation existed halfway through.

# ? Jan 20, 2017 09:47

Cerebral Bore: Apr 21, 2010; Fun Shoe

Yeah, I was just about to ask how exactly they're going to keep those hidden training camps supplied while maintaining secrecy in areas with next to no population. It's not like a weekly truck column to a presumably uninhabited area is going to stay unnoticed for very long in a full-blown surveillance state.

But I suppose that the practicalities of guerilla warfare has to take a back seat to the right-wing revenge fantasy and the drooling over underage girls.

# ? Jan 20, 2017 10:22

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Six

quote:

The warm days of late summer passed quickly for the Rebels in the Great Smoky Mountains. They were up with the sun and trained until dusk. They were all nut brown from the sun and lean and hard from the training. Long, lung-straining up-hill runs were twice a day; push-ups, set-ups, duck-walking up-hill until one�s legs felt muscle would surely rip from bone. Brutal demanding physical training was a fact and a part of everyday life. They learned rappelling, demolitions, how to make homemade bombs from chemicals found in any farmer�s supply outlet.

They were taught disguise techniques, running the gamut from street beggar to businessman to apple Annie. Reflexes were honed down to a razor-sharp edge.

In close combat training, Ike circumvented the unnecessary and went straight to the killing blows. A few of the new people were hurt during this, one was killed, but the training never stopped.

The mountains exploded with the sounds of grenades and mortar and automatic weapons fire. In rifle training, both Ben and Ike were adamant on one point.

�You�ve all got to become expert shots. In many instances, the enemy will be wearing flak vests, body armor; so you�ve got to learn to hit the leg, the arm, or the head. The leg or arm is good in one sense. Knock a leg out from under a man and he�ll lie on the field and scream. That�s demoralizing to his buddies and pretty soon someone will come to his aid. Then you can kill them.�

While the rebels are playing Mulan, Sam Hartline is playing Nazi.

quote:

Hartline and his men, backed by FBI agents with warrants charging several newspeople with treason for refusing to cooperate with the congressional mandate to submit all copy before airing, entered the Richmond offices of NBC. This was to be the test network.
�
�Where is the bureau chief?� Hartline said. �Or whatever you people call the boss. Get him in here, pronto.�

A badly shaken young secretary stammered, �It isn�t a him� it�s a her. Ms. Olivier.�

�Well now,� Hartline smiled. �That�s even better. Get her for me, will you, darling?�
�
Hartline lifted his eyes, meeting the furious gaze of Sabra Olivier. He let his eyes drift over her, from eyes to ankles and back again. �You kind of a young oval office to be in charge of all this, aren�t you, honey?� he asked.

�Get out!� Sabra ordered. The words had just left her mouth when Hartline�s hand popped against her jaw, staggering her. She stumbled against the open door, grabbing the doorknob for support.

�Dear,� Hartline said, �you do not order me about. I will tell you what I want, then you see to it that my orders are carried out. Is that clear?�
�
�What do you want?� she said.

�For you to cooperate with your government, stop taking the Rebels� side in this insurrection. And to submit all copy for government approval before airing.�

�No way,� Sabra said, and Hartline knew he was dealing with a lady that wasn�t going to back up or down. Yet. �Then you want it hard,� he said, the double-meaning not lost on her, as he knew it would not be.

Her dark eyes murdered the mercenary a dozen times in a split second. Her smile was as cold as his. �I never heard of anyone dying from it, Hartline.�
�Oh, I have, Sabra-baby. I have.�

Protestors at the University of Virginia

quote:

But this was not the 1960� s; the newly federalized police had no restrictions on them as the police in the �60� s had.

They were met with snarling dogs and batons and live ammunition. The dobermans and shepherds literally tore one marcher to bloody rags; three others died from slugs fired from M-16� s; another died from severe head wounds from a beating. Dozens were arrested, in the process, beaten bloody.

Which sounds a lot by the sixties. Here�s the protest at the tv station.

quote:

They were driven out by tear gas and maced as they ran almost blindly from the buildings into the street. There, they were manhandled and bodily thrown into vans to be transported to local police stations.

Many people do not realize just how precious the Bill of Rights is� until they no longer have it.

Hartline breaks Sabra by raping all of her coworkers and torturing a news anchor with a cattle prod. When she agrees to do what he says, he threatens her son to force he have sex on camera so he has more leverage in case she gets out of line.

The chapter ends with rebels swapping stories about their dealings with Sam Hartline and his men.

# ? Jan 20, 2017 20:24

PJOmega: May 5, 2009

Conservative pulp fiction has a really sickeningly gleeful usage of rape as justification. It's as if the author (and the target audience) want to indulge but know it is societally forbidden, so they live vicariously through the bad guys. Who then die for their acts.

Oh wow the whole persecution/guilt complex makes a smidge more sense now.

# ? Jan 20, 2017 20:41

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

"apple Annie"? That's a figure of speech from the Depression. How old was this guy?!

# ? Jan 21, 2017 02:16

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

He was born in 1938. The biography section on wiki is pretty short. He was the youngest of four children. His father a minister and his mother a school teacher. He quit school at 15 to work in a carnival and as a deputy sheriff. Later he joined the army, then went into radio broadcasting.

Which kind of explains a lot actually.

# ? Jan 21, 2017 02:56

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

It occurred to me today that I'm writing Cliffs notes for a set of Cliffs notes that cover an outline of a novel.

Chapter 7

quote:

�This is it?� President Addison asked, looking around him at the handful of men and women gathered at the presidential retreat. �This is all?�

�I�m afraid so, Aston,� Senator Carson said glumly. �All that I know for certain we can trust, that is.�

Fourteen men and five women making up the group of twelve representatives and seven senators.

�It�s worse than I thought,� the president said, his voice no more than a shocked whisper. �I was sure Matt would be among the group.�
�They got to Matt,� Representative Jean Purcell said.

Good liberal president Addison is gathering his supporters for something. Maybe an impeachment, maybe some kind of coup. Support failed to materialized, mainly because Hartline raped the wife of any politician who wouldn�t support Lowry.

Or they did this.

quote:

�Yes,� Representative Linda Benning spoke. �More like a shock to us. Then we found out why. To make it brief, Mr. President, Matt was set up ... a young girl, a very young girl. Naturally, it was Hartline and Cody. Everything was filmed.�

�How old was the girl?� Aston asked.

Linda cleared her throat. �Ah ... eleven.� �Jesus Christ!�

�A very mature eleven,� she added.

This has been the needlessly creepy segment of the post.

quote:

...The man signhed. �This is movie stuff , right out of Hollywood. Or, when Hollywood existed, that is. It just doesn�t happen in real life. That�s what we all thought. Larry Barwell came to me last week, after I confronted him outside the chambers and called him a traitor. He came to my house, crying. They . . .�

�Goddamnit!� Aston snapped at the man. �Stop using they. Who the hell is they?�

Anguish shone in Milton�s eyes. �Cody�s men. Hartline�s men. Lowry�s agents. God, Aston, we�re trying.�

Hollywood in this world is pretty intense. Anyway the people who are still loyal to Addison because Hartline had enough votes without them. Addison also points out that the military is backing him, but it�s much smaller than the mercenaries, FBI, and cops Hartline has at his disposal.

quote:

� �No I think we have only one hope.�

�And that is,� Senator Henson asked.

�Ben Raines,� the president reluctantly replied.

We cut to Ben as he�s flashing back to the first book. It�s more jarring this time because it happened in the middle of a conversation instead of being sorted out by page breaks.

Somebody at the FBI wants to meet Ben.

quote:

�Tommy Levant, senior agent with the FBI. He�s fed up with Cody and what the man has done with the Bureau. Word is, he wants to work with us.�
�Trap?�

�I don�t think so, Ben. Levant is one of the old breed of agent: straight and narrow. The Hoover type of Bureau man. One of the few older hands left.�

I don�t know much about Hoover, but I do know that Nixon was scared of him.

The rebels have 10,000 men, and Ben decides the plan is to conduct the war one town at a time, liberating it I presume, then moving on. He also wants to hit the deserted bases for weapons because it�s been awhile since they did that and the weapons have probably respawned.

quote:

Both men turned to watch a black girl walk across the camp area. She was small, petite would be the word, and if one wished to be chauvinistic in describing a lady: stacked.

�Steady, Ike,� Ben grinned. �Remember, you�re a Mississippi boy.�

�I bet my ol� granddaddy is jist a-spinnin� in his grave,� Ike said. �Lord have mercy, would you look at that action at the fantail.�

�Ike� you�re impossible!� Ben laughed. �What�s her name?� �Carla Fisher. Great balls of fire.�

Over his chuckling, Ben asked, �What�s her story?�

�I don�t know; but I shore intend to find out.�

Her story is that she was charged for the murder of a man she had never heard of.

quote:

She was degraded, cursed, browbeaten, and humiliated. She was also treated to the standard search procedure used for suspected female narcotics users and pushers� at least that is what it started out at its inception. In many big city jails, all females are subjected to this search. One of the more Dachau type tactics many police departments utilize.

Stripped naked and either showered or hosed down� dependent entirely upon the department and the time of day or night� one is forcibly held down and then bent over by police matrons� if they are handy� and then the female is searched in every conceivable place a woman might elect to hide a small packet of drugs. It is anything but pleasant, and if the matrons happen to have a sadistic streak, it can not only be cruel, but painful� not to mention extremely humiliating.

If this tactic is thought to be helpful, in any way, toward breaking a prisoner�s story, it will be used. Narcotics sometimes has nothing to do with it. It is but a legal variation of Hartline�s tactics.

Johnstone�s attacking common prison practices is one of his few saving graces.

Carla was eventually found not guilty after the police found the actual criminal but by that point her life was pretty much destroyed. She couldn�t get a job, her parents lost there�s because of the mess. Eventually her parents committed suicide and she killed the DA. Then she joined the Rebels.

quote:

None of this could have happened in Ben Raines� Tri-States.

Que another reprint/flashback to the first book. This one describing the wonderful welfare system of the Tri-States.

quote:

Within a week�s time, all towns within a fifty-mile radius of the shadows of the Great Smokies were shut down tight. Every person over the age of eighteen� if they so desired, and most did� were armed. With those weapons, the people were making their first real start in a hundred years in establishing some control over their lives.

A Tennessee federal highway patrolman almost messed in his underwear shorts when he drove through a small town and all the adults were armed� and not just with squirrel rifles, either. Many had M-14� s, M-15� s, and M-16� s. A few carried old BAR�s, Grease Guns, Thompson, and M-11� s and 10� s.

�Hey!� he shouted at one young woman. She was pushing a baby stroller and had a .30 caliber carbine over one shoulder. �What the hell is going on around here?�

Gun memes haven�t changed much.

quote:

Sabra Olivier sat in her office and watched the six o�clock news; watched it with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. The censored report was bland stuff, stories that would not have made it prior to Hartline�s . . . visit.
�
The news was so innocuous she changed channels; but that move produced nothing better. Hartline and his men had been to all network offices. She looked at the anchorwoman on ABC and wondered if Hartline had forced his way with her, too. Sabra concluded the mercenary probably had. But, she smiled cattily, with that one�s reputation, Hartline probably hadn�t had to do much forcing.

Occasionally we get more subtle slut shaming.

Sabra also puts together a plan to put a reporter into Raines camp, ostensibly for producing a Hartline fluff peace, while allowing the tv studio to put coded messages in the broadcasts.

# ? Jan 21, 2017 19:17

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Eight

quote:

In the southwest part of the nation, Colonel Hector Ramos� Rebels began their search of deserted military bases, looking for weapons. In some bases, the military can be devious in hiding the main armament room, and it takes an ex-military man to find them. Hector knew right where to look.

�Hola!� Rosita Murphy said, stepping down into the coolness of the long corridor, gazing at the long rows of M-16� s, M-60 machine guns, and other infantry weapons.

I don�t know anything about military bases, so I don�t know if the armory is cunningly hidden or if you can just check every building.

quote:

Hector grinned at the small woman. �Nice to know the Irish in you can still be overriden by your mother�s tongue.� She returned his grin.

�My mother made sure I could speak both languages, Colonel. I gather these,� she waved at the rows of arms, �go to Tennessee?�

I�m assuming this means Irish Gaelic and Spanish. She�s identified as Spanish/Irish so I assume she�s from Europe. She also has a crush on Raines.
Two pages of copy paste about the Tri-States battle by a General Krigel. He was one of the first to desert the American side for the Tri-States. He has a man crush on Raines.

quote:

Krigel thought about that for a moment. �He was a Hell-Hound in �Nam. Then he was a mercenary in Africa for a few years. But not of the stripe of Hartline; more a soldier of fortune type. Ben . . . is a dreamer, a visionary, a revolutionary. He�s a planner; a man who believes in as much freedom as possible for the law-abiding citizen. Ben Raines is ... quite a man.�

Jerre is more pregnant. She�s having twins. There�s nothing else to indicate how much time has past. She�s hanging out with a guy named Matt, who loves her. But she loves Raines. The whole reminds me of Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged how she kept trading up men every time she met a better one and everybody involved acted like it was a normal rational thing to do.

quote:

�You know how I feel about you, Matt.�

�But you love General Raines?�

�Yes. And always will, Matt. Let�s be honest this time around, too.� He grinned at her. �I�ll just wait then, Jerre. And I�ll wait with you� if you don�t mind.�

�I don�t mind,� she said softly. �I don�t mind at all.�

�If you were ten years younger, I�d whip your rear end,� Ben said to Doctor Chase.

�You can�t reach that far,� the doctor fired back over the radio. �Not from Tennessee to Wyoming. Besides, she made me promise not to tell you.�

�Why did she do it, Lamar?� �I ... really don�t know, Ben,� the doctor lied. �I guess she just wanted some time to herself.�

These jarring translations are typical as well. As time goes on they become less common because of the simple fact that we start seeing only Ben�s point of view.

quote:

To be as smart as you are, Raines, you don�t know jackshit about women. �Doctor Canale�s a good man, Ben, runs a fine clinic. Jerre will be all right. We intercepted one of Ramos� transmissions; set on the same scrambler frequency. I like your plan, Ben.�

�I think it�s the only way, Lamar. The people have to get involved. We can�t do it all for them. Hell, I won�t do it all for them.�

No idea what the plan is.

quote:

�Ike.�

�Ben . . . you �member that female reporter on NBC; that one you always said you�d like to strangle for her liberal views?�

�Roanna Hickman. Yes. What about her?�

�She just pranced her rear end up to our easternmost outpost. Says she wants to do a story on you� for broadcast.�

Ben looked at him for a few seconds. �Well, I�ll be goddamned.�

�Probably,� Ike agreed. �But let�s not get into that.�

# ? Jan 23, 2017 19:00

Young Freud: Nov 26, 2006

I love that, in the beginning of the book, the military is powerful but stays out of the war between Raines' Rebels and the US government. Then, when they actually get in and support Addelson, they're so weak they can't stand up to a bunch of mercenaries and the FBI.

Young Freud fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Jan 24, 2017

# ? Jan 24, 2017 03:45

JcDent: May 13, 2013; Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

We have tanks, jets, helos and training, but poo poo, some cops and agents with popguns and the odd MP-5 (IIRC, this book was written way before DHS started selling cops body armorz rifles and APCs) are too scary!

Inetereating how Hartline rapes the wife of a Senator and instead of defectibg or seeking vengeance they all just give up.

# ? Jan 24, 2017 10:20

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Nine
Man these books have a lot of rape and usually I don't transcribe it because it's not relevant. A lot of the time I don't even mention it. But this chapter is a little different in this chapter it gives an actual points of view that grow the characters a bit. So those will be in here.

quote:

The word went out from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to all base commanders: Order all personnel to keep a low profile when off base. No interference with Ben Raines� Rebels unless the men are provoked. This is a fight between Lowry and Raines. Stay out of it.

This is another staple of Johnstone's work. In case of civil war the military will take a pass and then support whoever wins.

The VP finds out.

quote:

playing pitty-pat.� VP Lowry read the message and then pushed it from him. �gently caress the military. We don�t need them. Hartline is beefing up his men to the tune of a hundred a day. The intelligence reports we�ve received all state that Raines won�t make a move before the first of the year� at the earliest. By that time Hartline will have a full division under his command. Maybe more than that. Raines is helping destroy himself and doesn�t even know it. The bastard is stupid.�

That�s the first time in the book we get any information on how big these armies are.

quote:

But Lowry would only shake his head. �He�s too confident in the people. Oh, they�ve had their little victories in the towns around the mountain base of Raines. But that is because Raines� main force is so near. Let him play his game� it just gives us more time. Hartline�s plan is working.� The VP giggled. He clicked on a Betamax. �You never saw this, did you?�

�Saw what?�

�Sabra Olivier sucking Hartline�s pecker.� �You�ve got to be kidding!�

�Watch.� Al Cody watched with a sick sort of sensation in his stomach. He was solidly opposed to this type of filth . . . but still, he felt himself becoming sexually aroused at the sight. He glanced at Lowry. The VP was rubbing his crotch, a tiny bit of spittle had gathered at the comer of his mouth and his eyes were . . . odd-looking.

It�s weird seeing Betamax in print, it also tells us something about Johnstones taste in VCRs but I don�t know what that is. I also just found out that they stopped producing Betamax cassettes in 2015.

Also there�s a rape in this scene which is presented in the most confused jumbled way possible, giving us Cody�s thoughts trying to justify what's going on even though he's opposed.

quote:

�Come on, baby,� Hartline�s rough voice cut into Cody�s thoughts. �We�re almost there.�

It�s all for the good of the people, Cody kept that thought. �Don�t tell me you�re not gettin� your rocks, too, Sabra-honey. . .�

The good of the people. Raines must be stopped . . .

�... you�re slick as 10W40.�

... by any means possible. And if that entails something as . . .

�You�re not shivering from the cold, Sabra-honey. It�s ...�

... disgusting as this is, then so be it. This nation must . . .

�... just that you like my cock, right, baby?�

... endure.

�Ah� that�s good, Sabra.� Must endure. �How�d you like to mount that from behind, Al?�

�What?� Cody opened his eyes just as Lowry was turning up the lights, turning off the Betamax.

We join Ben and the reporter Miss Roanna Hickman.

quote:

�What kind of game are you playing, Miss Hickman?� Ben asked her.
�
�No game, General,� Roanna said firmly. �Game time is all over. We�re all putting our lives on the line this go-around. For the women, our asses, literally.�

She brought the men up to date on what Hartline was doing, and had done. �If this is true,� Cecil said, �and for the moment we shall accept it as fact, Ms. Olivier is playing a very dangerous game.

Hickman also informs us that Sabra�s husband left her because of the �affair� with Hartline, taking their son but leaving their daughter. Roanna is invited to take a lie detector test. She agrees.

quote:

your tastes?� �Liberals are, taken as a whole, just too far out of touch with reality to suit me,� Ben said. He softened that with a smile.

�I�d like to debate that with you sometime, General. Yes. That might be the way to go with this interview. Hard line conservative views against a liberal view.�

�I�m not a hard line conservative, Miss Hickman,� Ben told her. �How could I be a hard line conservative and believe in abortion, women�s rights, the welfare of children and elderly... and everything else we did in the Tri-States?�

�You also shot and hanged people there,� she fired back at him.

�We sure did,� Ben�s reply was breezy, given with a smile of satisfaction. �And we proved that crime does not have to exist in a society.�

More of Ben�s philosophy in addition to his conservative communism. He�s pro choice which actually surprises me. I think it might change in later books but I�m not sure. I also like how ensuring a standard of living for all citizens didn�t cause crime to drop, instead it was all of the executions. Of all the things in these books that feels like the most accurate depiction of conservative thought.

Also we get another flashback.

quote:

�And you felt that was the right and just thing to do?� Roanna asked.

�I did and do.�

�And that is the type of justice you plan to prescribe for the entire nation? If you are victorious against Lowry and Hartline?�

This strawman is one I don�t understand at all. Given that rape squads, torture, and arbitrary execution are a part of your daily life, you get hung up on the death penalty. I�m against the death penalty but I can�t imagine that being a sticking point in this situation.

quote:

�VP Lowry�s got the hots for you, baby,� Hartline told Sabra. �I showed him the film of you going down on me and it got him all worked up.�

Another rape scene. But this one offers actual insight and a touch of progressive thought. The idea that somebody could participate in a rape as a survival strategy does not negate the fact that it's still rape. And this was written before 30 years of feminist work trying to educate the public on what rape is, and why you shouldn't do it.

quote:

The mercenary�s fingers were busy between her legs.

Respond� respond! she told herself. Get into the act and make it good. She closed her eyes and pictured her husband, Ed, making love to her. She felt a warmth begin to spread down her belly. �Do I make brownie points by loving the VP?�

Cut back to Ben getting information on VP Lowry.

quote:

The message read: Lowry might be unstable. Showing signs of slight mental deterioration. Believed the VP about to ask Hartline to set up liaison with NBC chief in Richmond, Sabra Olivier. Has video tape of lady with Hartline; watches it daily. Must warn you if lady is playing games, she is playing in the big leagues, way out of her field. If aforementioned lady is working with you people, ease her out. Hartline is insane, but brilliantly so. If he discovers the game� if any� the lady will die hard.

We also get a description of Roanna�s lie detector tests. She passed, but it also dredged up a bunch of memories from her childhood. Her father was molesting her, and she shot him. And dragging it out in this manner made her feel much better.

Of course psychology doesn�t work this way. But at the time it was written there was quite a bit of pop psychology about solving mental health issues by bringing out repressed memories.

We also find out that him and Jerre split up and he has eyes on the penthouse model. Also we get a flashback to when his wife died.

# ? Jan 24, 2017 20:48

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Ten

quote:

�How are the new people working out, fitting in?� Ben asked Cecil. �A-Okay, so far. Slater and Green are both prior-service. Air Force. Judy Fowler�s going to be fine. I think they�re all going to make it, Ben. But we�re getting to the point of overtraining.�

�Some of the people getting edgy?�

�More than a few. Jimmy Brady is hell-on-wheels with a rifle. Ike says he�s never seen anyone better. Dawn Bellever is never going to be any great shakes with any weapon, but she managed to qualify on the range. I�ve assigned her to your office,� he dropped that in without pausing.

We�re still talking about how ready we are and I�m still complaining about it. I�ve noticed in my own writing as well as some that I�ve edited people get stuck on how something is and try to keep the story going without changing the things we like. I refer to this as potted plant writing.

quote:

�Guess I�ve delayed long enough, Ben� you�d better hear it from me and not from the grapevine.�

�We�ve been together a long time, Cecil. Never been any lies between us.�

�Call a spade a spade, eh, Ben?� Cecil laughed at the old joke.

�I�m glad you said that and not me, buddy. Come on, Cecil� what gives?�

I hate these jokes not only because their putting racist words in a black characters mouth, but also because they add nothing at all to the story.

quote:

�Tina.�
Ben sat up in his chair.

�She�s left the base camp.�

�Got her a boy friend?� �No, Ben,� Cecil spoke softly. �She�s gone with Gray�s Scouts.

Out in the field.� Ben started to blow wide open. He caught himself and forced himself to calm down. Ben took several deep breaths and relaxed in the chair. �I keep forgetting she is a grown woman. And drat good at her work. But I would like to know why I wasn�t told of this.�

�You know the rules, Ben: no questions asked in that outfit.�

Ben�s occasionally mentioned stepdaughter has joined some sort of super special forces group. This is something that Johnstone was way ahead of his time on. Women in his stories can fill any role that men can and they aren�t really treated any different. Although part of this boils down to the characters are so one dimensional that they are nothing more than a name most of the time. Also I want to remind everybody that Tina has a twin brother whose name I forget.

quote:

Gray�s Scouts were formed during the weeks just after the government invasion and consequent crushing of the Rebel�s dream. Their job was to infiltrate government offices; act as saboteurs; perform long range recon into enemy territory; and anything else Captain Dan Gray might dream up that was dirty, dangerous, and bloody.

Captain Gray had left Special Forces before the invasion, having no taste for civilized man fighting civilized man, when, as was the case, the �enemy� was simply a group of men and women attempting to build a livable society and take care of their own.

Which the Tri-States were doing perfectly well and without so-called �Federal Government advice.�

Gray had spent five years in Britain�s SAS (Special Air Service) and was as wild and randy as those boys are trained to be.

The SAS occasionally pops up to give a bit of international flair to the book. There isn�t much difference to all of the special forces people that show up in the book. The Navy SEALs don�t do water related stuff, Delta Force doesn�t rescue hostages. It�s like he distilled the every type of special forces into a few mostly indistinguishable characters.

quote:

To date they had been involved in only minor hit and run operations against the military units loyal to Lowry and Cody. But like Ben�s Rebels in the mountains, they were chomping at the bit for a good fight.

It would not be long in coming . . . for any of them.

This kind of crap makes up a lot of the book.

quote:

Colonel Hector Ramos headed the first convoy to reach the mountains. He and his personnel set up on the western boundaries of the Great Smokies, patrolling a seventy mile stretch of terrain, from the Georgia line to just south of Maryville, Tennessee. They had traveled across Texas, Louisiana, then angled northeast through Mississippi and a portion of Alabama.

General Bill Hazen�s convoy rolled in the day after Ramos arrived and took up positions from Maryville to Newport. Major Conger was less than three hours behind him. Conger deployed his personnel� the smallest detachment� as roaming scouts and listening posts along the Virginia line.
[/quote ]
It�s like reading a very badly written let�s play of a very boring 40k game.

[quote]
�So you think we have a chance of pulling this off without open warfare?� General Krigel asked.

The CO�s of Ben�s four brigades sat in a tent in Base Camp One, almost in the dead center of the Great Smokies.

�With Lowry gone I believe the rest would be downhill,� Ben replied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tRoIgNZ8Z8&t=54s

quote:

�I�ve deliberately let the word out we wouldn�t strike before the first of the year at the earliest. Preferably not until mid-summer of 2000. I was afraid many of the civilians would back off from helping themselves; reports coming in say that is true. I keep forgetting that even though many of the people have served in the military, in their hearts, they�re civilians. Hartline�s men crushed a small town up in Ohio; just stood out and shelled it and then shot the survivors.�

�Haven�t any of these goddamned people ever heard of flanking tactics?� Hazen growled. �Damnit, are we going to have to wet-nurse the entire nation?�

One weird trick to winning a fight, artillery hates it.

quote:

�Steady, trooper,� Krigel laughed at his friend. �You seem to forget that for a decade and a half before the war of �88, we didn�t have a draft and the country was not what one could call pro-military ...�

This line made sense when it was written. I�m trying to find pro-military movies in the early 80s and I�m coming up with Stripes and Private Benjamin.

Then we get a copy past flashback of the Vietnam flashback in the first book.

Now we switch over Hartline getting ready.

quote:

�Beginning this Friday,� Hartline told Cody, �I want your cryptography section to video tape all shows that have anything about me or Raines on them. Go over them from top to bottom for coded messages.�

I�m surprised that they weren�t already doing this.

quote:

�Why, hell yes. Whole goddamn thing is a game. One day she hates me so badly her eyes are like a snake; next day she�s inviting me to her house and lickin� my dick like it�s peppermint candy-doesn�t take a genius to figure that out.�

In the first book Ben used the exact same line to describe his relationship with First Lady Fran. I�m including it here because it�s so weirdly specific.

quote:

�What oval office do you want, Al� Lowry wants you with him when he jazzs Sabra.�

�I ...� Cody shook his head. �I don�t want any, Hartline.�

The mercenary laughed. �That�s not the way we play this game, Cody. What�s the matter, Al? You like boys, maybe?�

�Good God, no!�

�Okay, then, I�ll get Little Bit for you.�

�Who?� �Jane Moore. The blonde oval office you�ve mentioned a time or two. Little Bit, I call her.� �I don�t want her, Sam.�

�She�d be a fine romp, I�m thinking. Hell, she isn�t but about five feet tall and you know what�s said about those kinds of gals: Big woman, little pussy; little woman, all pussy.�

Hartline laughed and slapped the desk with his heavy hand. Al Cody felt sick at his stomach. He thought he might know, now, how an animal felt trapped in a cage; or like that man riding a tiger; afraid to stay on, afraid to get off.

So this is really gross but I know stuff like this happens occasionally. Maybe not as severe, but it happens. It's also where I start defending sexual harassment laws to guys who think that it doesn't happen to men.

Cody changes the subject

quote:

�Memphis. They were looking for another suspected Rebel cell. They didn�t find that, but they . . . well, goddamnit, they said they saw rats in there as big as dogs!�

Hartline was silent for a moment. Cody thought the mercenary was going to laugh at him and was surprised when the man said, �I don�t doubt it. There is no telling what aftereffects the bombings might have produced. What the radiation and the germs might have done to genes in humans and animals. I�m surprised something like this hasn�t turned up before this.

�Are you serious!�

�Sure,� Hartline said with a shrug. �Scientists don�t have� and never did have� the vaguest idea what massive doses of radiation might cause or produce in humans or animals after a period of time. There were monsters born in Japan after the bombings in �45� I�ve seen the pictures and read the reports; but the Japs and the Americans hushed it all up.� �Monsters! Jesus Christ!�

I don�t think there is a conspiracy theory about the Godzilla movies actually being documentaries.

# ? Jan 29, 2017 20:32

JcDent: May 13, 2013; Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

"Don't want to rape a woman? What are you, a pedo-queer? But anyways, we have to shoot some teenage mutant ninja turtles before we rape the reporter anyways..."

# ? Jan 29, 2017 21:11

Veritek83: Jul 7, 2008; The Irish can't drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I've known gets mean when he drinks.

quote:

Jimmy Brady is hell-on-wheels with a rifle.

Uh, when was this written? Because I'm guessing this is a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brady. I mean, it's possible to come up with a reference that's in poorer taste, but...

Veritek83 fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jan 30, 2017

# ? Jan 30, 2017 16:23

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Veritek83 posted:

Uh, when was this written? Because I'm guessing this is a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brady. I mean, it's possible to come up with a reference that's in poorer taste, but...

Not sure why but your link isn't working.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brady

If this is who you mean it would be possible but not likely. The timing is right the book was published in 83, but Johnstone isn't subtle. When he tells a joke he makes everybody knows how clever he is. The Brady bill didn't become a thing until later in the decade. If there ever was a mention of it we would see it in the form of some unhinged woman running for senate because her husband was shot so she wants to steal all of the guns. It's possible he used the name without realizing where it came from, or he just made it up.

# ? Jan 30, 2017 19:00

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 16:55

Throwing Turtles: May 3, 2015

Chapter 11

This chapter brought to you by the Penthouse letters column.

quote:

�Something troubling you, General?�

Ben turned at the sound of the voice. He had been standing beside a huge old tree, really gazing at nothing, thinking about nothing of any importance.

�Not really, Ms. Bellever. I was letting my mind stay in neutral, so to speak.�

�I do that sometimes,� she said, stepping closer to him. She wore some type of very light perfume, and the scent played man-woman games in Ben�s head. �Or I used to, that is.�
...
�I�ve seen you looking at me several times.�

�You�re nice to look at,� Ben admitted. �I enjoy looking at a beautiful woman.� He smiled in the dusk and she saw the flashing of his teeth against a deeply tanned face.

�Something amusing, General?�

�I think you know what I was thinking.�

�You saw the Penthouse spread?� �Oh, yes.�� She returned his smile. �Like what you saw?�

�You on a fishing expedition?�

�Everyone likes to be stroked from time to time.�

He laughed at that. �Yes, Ms. Believer, I liked what I saw very much.�

It still baffles me that society has got it together enough to run Penthouse just so Ben can have the opportunity to sleep with a Penthouse model. She could have posed before the war, and still been in her 30s, but that�s not young enough I guess.

quote:

She waited, and Ben had a hunch he knew what she was waiting for. It had been several months since he had been with a woman, and Ben was a virile man; but he wondered about this lady. Her motives, in particular. So he waited.

There isn�t really a happy ending for any of Ben�s romantic interests. Death or betrayal then death. I can�t remember which one she�s in, so call this maybe foreshadowing.

quote:

�I�m not a kid, Ms. Bellever . . .�

�Dawn.�

�... Dawn, then. I�m past middle-age. You�re what . . . not yet thirty?�

�That�s close enough,� she said evasively. �But what has age to do with it� unless, of course, you�re proposing to me.�

�I don�t believe I shall ever do that again,� Ben said flatly. �Your wife was killed in the battle for Tri-States, right?� �Yes. Salina. She and the unborn child. I also lost an adopted son, Jack. My adopted daughter, Tina, is ... in another camp.�

They kiss then she goes back to her tent for this conversation.

quote:

�You�d better set your sights a bit lower, honey,� a woman�s voice spoke softly from the confines of the canvas. �That one is off-limits.�

�Says who?� Dawn said without turning around.

�Common sense,� another female voice cut through the darkness.

�If I had any common sense,� Dawn said, turning around, looking into the darkness of the big eight-person tent, �would I be here?�

The battle of Fort Wayne, Indiana between Hartline�s men and the non rebels living there happens off screen. When I was putting this part together I was assuming that Hartline was in the scene. Instead it was a nameless mercenary calling all the shots. He doesn�t get an identity until he starts talking about Hartline with a buddy.

quote:

The residents of Fort Wayne, Indiana� those that remained alive, that is� slowly put their guns on the ground and walked out to Hartline�s men. The mercenaries waited just past the northeastern city limits sign, on old highway 37. Behind the rag-tag staggering knot of men and women, the city burned, dancing colors and dark plumes of smoke formed a kaleidoscope of tones against the sun, just rising above the horizon.

Nameless merc get�s the the business of winning hearts and minds.

quote:

�All right, people,� the mercenary captain spoke, his words no longer harsh and demanding, taking on a gentler tone. �You may find this hard to believe, but I�m an American, just like you people. I was born in Havana, Illinois; and I don�t, repeat, don�t want any more killing.� He waved his free hand toward his men. �None of us do.�

�Okay, you folks hate us, fine, we can live with that. We�re soldiers, and we have a job of work to do, and we�re doing it, distasteful as it might be. And that job of work is to restore order to America.� He pointed to the greasy smoke filling the sky behind them. �There was no need for that. None at all. All your friends, your loved ones� they died for nothing.�
�They died for freedom!� a woman shouted.

The mercenary laughed. �Do you really believe that? If so, then you�ve been brainwashed. You people are being used� can�t you see that? Ben Raines is using you. That�s all he�s doing.�

quote:

�How long has it been since you people had a good hot meal? A T-bone steak? A good cup of hot coffee? Well, you can bet Raines and his Rebels aren�t going hungry. They�re eating three squares every day! Sleeping soundly at night . . . while you people are starving and dying. Think about that for awhile.�

He walked back to the teenager, waiting beside his car. Cleaned up, she would be very attractive. �What�s your name, honey?� he asked.

�Lisa.�

�How long has it been since you�ve had a good hot meal? Clean clothes? A nice bed with clean sheets on it?�

She was reluctant to answer.

�I won�t hurt you, Lisa. I promise,� the mercenary said with a smile.

�Come on, tell me.� �Long time,� she finally said.

�Would you like to have those things? I bet you have friends who would like to have them, too� right?�

She slowly nodded her head. �Look, I don�t want to hurt anyone else. Please believe that.� He worked his best I�m-so-misunderstood-but-so-lovable expression onto his face. �I�m going to disobey orders and not take most of these folks to the camps. I think I can talk my way out of trouble. Now, here�s what I want you to do for me. I want you to get your friends together . . . young people of your age, and talk to them. These aren�t all the survivors, right?�

He sends Lisa out to get the survivors, promising that she can meet wherever she likes. He just wants to tell them about Ben Raines. With that out of the way he gets everybody else to agree to cooperate for the promise of food.

quote:

When the survivors had been loaded onto the trucks, and Lisa and her two friends were gone, a mercenary walked up to Jake. �You slick-talkin� bastard,� he said. �How do you do it, Jake?� �I was raised in the church, Tony. It�s my life of clean living. Besides, wouldn�t you really rather gently caress than fight?�
�Any day.�

�Okay. We just keep on doing it my way. Hartline don�t give a poo poo how it�s done� just as long as it gets done. It�s easier this way.�

Jake is a lot better at dealing with people then Hartline. Jake is trying to turn the populace against Raines with forgiveness, food, and shelter. Hartline would have tried to rape them into submission.

quote:

�How about them survivors we picked up down in Marion?�

�Why . . . Tony,� Jake smiled. �We�re their friends. Friends don�t hurt friends. Friends care for friends. Make sure they�re comfortable, have enough to eat, a warm place to sleep. In two weeks, Tony, they�ll spit in the face of Ben Raines. Bet on it.�

�You�ll get a promotion out of this, Jake.�

Back to the flirting.

quote:

�Sleep well?� Ben asked.

�Fine, General. You?�

�Like a baby. You look very nice this morning, Ms. Bellever. What is that fragrance you�re wearing?�

She smiled. �Soap.� �I beg your pardon?� �Soap. Perfume is rather a short commodity in this camp.�

�Umm,� Ben said. He handed her a list of things he wanted her to do and left the tent. When she returned from her lunch break, there was a bottle of Shalimar sitting on her desk.

# ? Feb 2, 2017 20:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Let's read Out of the Ashes. Our hero was saved by a bee sting.

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