Written for the New York Times of Foreign Affairs and the new republic and other publications of that sort. Hes also an emmy nominated producer of a documentary series on showtime. Viewing in march. Its called the trade and its about International Human trafficking. William is a graduate of Columbia UniversityInternational Affairs and also abhe lives in new york and is a frequent contributor to the discourse around several hot button issues around the world. Please join me in welcoming William Wheeler to our discussion tonight. Thank you guys for coming out. Im going to read a little bit to give you a flavor of what we are talking about and then the two of us will talking conversation for about and a half hour then we will open up to questions. Be thinking about any probing insightful questions you want to ask. This passage comes from when i tried to do this book is look at the cycles of Foreign Policy of the u. S. That are behind entrance themselves across south america and are a big part of the equation driving so many people from the region to a seven borders. Its really trying to understand some push factors behind our border crisis so in the process i started reporting in the los angeles origins of ms 13 and 12 18 street and i followed them in time so this passage comes from one of the first salvadoran born gang members that find themselves swept up into ms 13 energy is a good fit for why these gangs from such fertile terrain in Central America. What became the ms stronghold of our statement will join the gang in 1989 when he was 11 years old the world was entering his 10th and bloodiest years with what he grown up with. Waiting for his father to come home because they were torching buses on the road hiding under the bed while battle raged in the local cemetery. His family left in waves while manwell remained behind with his mother. The neighborhood already fed its shares of sons to the conflict including soldiers like ernesto smokey miranda who played abbecame founding members of ms13. Manwell had been introduced to the game by his cousin whose parents sent him back to el salvador to get away from the trouble in los angeles. Strictly to the neighborhood under the wing of this tall tattooed gangster he felt strong. The older kids who would bully him looked at him differently a few months later manwell found a few deported gang members to jump him in he told himself he didnt need to fear the gunfire anymore now he could shoot back. He jumped in two friends he talked about how this will be Something Big and leave a mark. Years later he would see abas a monster he helped create a cancer he spread but the time he wanted to be the bravest gangster, the most tattooed liberal symbol, all of it. Like the young foot soldiers at sanchez and the other deported gang members were recruiting to their banner manwell as part of a new generation of wheelbarrows that would soon surpass the processes and sophistication and brutality. At the time joining again was neither a way to make a living, nor yet a fake one born into along with his neighborhood. Manwell and the rest were selling with his family there was a young homeless man in the neighborhood his mother worked as a prostitute and he would go around barefoot and ragged clothes first they offered him food they decided to recruit him they warned him of the dangers but little devil replied he is nothing to lose. He told he was not alone anymore and they would love him and protect him. One day an older boy beat him up in the park they gave little devil a knife and returned en masse to confront him. Manwell and the others proclaimed that little devil was part of the morrow now and the young boy stabbed his attackers in front of his new brothers food, protection, baloney, and a poor shellshocked country jewett out as part of a powerful a i think its a very powerful passage. It really does illustrate lot about whats going on as far as people on the ground who have to not just navigate the politics but also the extra judicial actors that are in el salvador. I think it would be very good for us as an audience here to really take a step back, take a step back and talk about the history of why this happened, some of the critical events that led up to the current situation. I think most americans probably know of el salvador from president Donald Trumps rhetoric about it. About how it is a dire threat to the United States and they are exporting violence in the United States. As your book illustrates, history is not anywhere near so need to the story. I feel like its important to go back, at least a little bit generally, go back to 1979 when the celebratory and silver civil war basically exploded onto the scene. Could you tell us a little bit about how that happened, what were the people fighting about and what were some of the foreign interventions that started happening once the civil war started . 1979 el salvador is like a lot of latin america like a lot of Central America sort of driven by its inequalities. There was basically 14 landowning families that had been in charge had all the power was awash with civil insurgencies. Its a cold war and you got right on the heels of 20 years earlier in cuba the cuban revolution 1979 in nicaragua very similar leftist revolution that they rose updike the cuban revolution and inspired a sort of revolt from the countryside that caused the regime to fall. And 79 you actually have the right wing who do empower and what sort of widely credited with sparking the civil war was the assassination of the catholic archbishop named oscar romero. He was given mass in church run hospital in the capital of san salvador. An unknown assailant, presumably later prudent from the right wing takes a rifle, walks in the entryway of the hospital and shoots him dead. A fourth Million People turn out to this catholic priests funeral and he had been sort of a staunch critic a rightwing government that was using torture and disappearances and widespread death squads regime that was characterized by terrorism and hed been really speaking out as a voice of social conscience to get people to stop obeying the orders. When ramirez killed the quarter Million People turned out to his funeral and turns into a massacre. Rightwing forces start shooting down on the mourners, their snipers, explosions, 42 people died in this televised address that had drawn a fourth Million People. And very quickly in rapid succession you have the outbreak of the civil war that pitted five video groups leftists across the leftist spectrum. The initial hope was that they would do it it happened in nicaragua, cuba and be able to ignite a popular aand bring the regime down. They were particularly trying to do this very quickly because they knew that Ronald Reagan was going to office and they were worried that he would take sides. That initial uprising was unable to bring down the regime. As reagan came into office he did in fact double down and back to rightwing government and for a period of a couple years you had a bottle that was playing out of the country saw between these groups and the a aforces. As of about 1982 in 1983 it looked like the getty as had the upper hand. They were probably going to win. They had control of about a fourth of the territory of el salvador. The right going government was stealing about a thousand people a month at this point. They were doing it with u. S. Trained troops and supplies and they were unable to wage sophisticated counterinsurgency so most often they would go into these remote villages and try to drain the sea to get the fish. They would sort of scorched campaign. Some of these battalions were implicated as in the case of almost all day the mascara for about thousand people mostly children some of the worst abuses known to man it looked like the gideons were going to win the world but that u. S. Double down under reagan its a started supplying particularly air support and at that point the nature of the conflict shifted into war of attrition that dragged on for the better part of a decade. It was in this period of time that he had 80,000 people die you had a Million People displaced half of them internationally. A lot of them they mostly fled to los angeles and settled a lot in the area around macarthur park. In that time period to him or early 80s, the sort of aba los angeles yet African American gangs, latino gangs, the salvadorans sell themselves at the bottom of the pecking order in this area. Started to as they got swept up first they were banding together started in a group of stoner kids that smoke pot and listen to black metal music. As they started to get creative on the gains they circulated through the hall and came out looking like very much an american again. I think thats the first big misconception of the trump rhetoric messages that its framed as something the u. S. Imported from el salvador but really its just sort of very american byproduct of the realities in los angeles. The war goes on until about 92 and 192 comes becomes a lot easier to make the case that people who dont have a regular immigration situation here are to be sent back if they want to follow the law, bill clinton starts the first mass deportation of salvadorans with criminal records and start sending back these products of the la gang environment. Where they have a little criminal network and gain tactics like extortion and sends them back to these countries like el salvador, guatemala, basically they have very little connection and the environment in which they land and they fall back on their survival skills of gay members. But they find is that a lot of the orphans of this war talk to their banner. Thats the beginning of the Central American phase of the gang war. Whats really interesting to me right now is that we have a product that originated in Central America and due to the fact that there are refugees in my understanding approximately 500,000 people actually fled to el salvador during that time period and many of them did end up here in los angeles, but as time goes on as Technology Develop some of that problem is no longer just corded off here in los angeles. This isnt just from a personal level but actually a governmental level. The war ends in 1992 but i think its kind of interesting to look at whats happening in el salvador in terms of their political policies toward some of these gang members. The american deportations began, thats my understanding and lots of members or former members of ms13 or deported back to el salvador. Then there is a rise in crime, from what i understand. Then the government response in a particularly heavyhanded way, tell me about this model deborah policy they implement it in 2002 and the subsequent super model duro they implement in 2006. They actually say that when i went looking to el salvador, i had been in europe and middle east and looking at how the european political system was being shaken up by refugees from libya, syria and i watch some of the first far right populist scripps form in greece and hungary and the groups trying to use this sort of refugee crisis as a way to galvanize largely fascist groups and concerns among voters so when i looked at what was happening on our own border with el salvador in the southern border crisis i was really interested in how this was going to affect our political system. Thats kind of what drove me down there. I went down there i think the other question i was concerned with was the u. S. Really responsible for Latin Americans gain crisis . We deported these gangsters into these countries still reeling from the civil wars, what does that mean for the largescale deportations happening right now in our own government . Was academic this problem worse . So when i got down there in the evidence i found was kind of mixed. One of the first things i found was that el salvador in government had its own complexity of this problem. Primarily that came in the form of this war that the salvadoran state waged against the gangs. For 20 years u. S. Have been supporting salvadoran governments from both sides of the political spectrum they use a very sort of heavyhanded military response where they go into the gang neighborhoods, they arrest these kids who look like they might be gang members, they throw them in jail on very little option without very little grounds often they dont have a case, the case is thrown out. The coldest plan Moe Baddourah on the iron fist. It backfired down there. Its actually by putting gang members and with each other what used to be neighborhood gangs neighborhood groups have become National Gangs and National Groups by fighting a military response, a lot of the gang members had sort of responded in kind and become little armies. At the same time they are doing that, theres a lot of abthe gay members have learned to barter and fight against the government and every time the military the stick has been used without the carrot, it lunges more and more people into what looks more like a ab in some segments of society. I was trying to make sense of what the salvadoran government had done to make the problem worse. I interviewed one of the first, the architects he was the former National Police chief from el salvador and he said to me can we call it plan Moe Baddourah but it wasnt a plan it was a plan. It was a publicity exercise. There wasnt a well thought through criminal philosophy behind this. It was basically a way to win but max. We had elections coming up and our party was had done really nothing to turn the tide in the country economically we had these pr announcements where the president was on tv there were these troopers coming down the walls and we announced we were going to go after the gangs. It was politically successful but everyone has agreed in the country that it backfired tremendously. I think anyone who reads like any part of this book will definitely wonder how you actually got access to some of these accounts. You are interviewing current and former members of not just ms13 but also government officials and other informants. Could you maybe let us know a little bit how that process works. When you show up in a country like el salvador, as a foreigner, how to get people to talk to you . I was working at with a photojournalist on the commit site anywhere you moved to a new city can be your friends but you together with friends, they take you out for a beer you kind of go from there. It would put the photojournalist, hes really talented down there named juan carlos. Hed been covering a gang issue for a long time so he could make some introductions but i also found i was in honduras honduras is horrific and aba hitman who had told me how he killed 150 people. He was a little bit concerned about who i was. He took me out for many beers in the effort to find out if i was a spook or cop or an arc. I remember having to twerk on the dance floor with him one night to enlighten his concerns. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile. In el salvador there was almost a abover the whole thing. Gang members were very reluctant to talk. I come on the heels of this truce. People were very tightlipped. We kinda go fishing i went out the first day i was out there the book opens with the scene where i was out with this selftaught csi crime scene investigator sort of guy. Hes a very bizarre and sort of eccentric figure. He has this real passion about digging up these bodies and giving closure to the victims families. He very much sees whats happening in el salvador as a war in which the poor are the victims. He introduced me to an informant from ms13 who tells me the story of the grant we are excavating its pretty beautiful brutal, the gangs use violence as a way of branding and a respect so i can read a little bit from a section where people talk about why they use a machete to kill and the logic behind that choice. Going to see the police and finding informants was one of the ways i talk to people. I found some of those people to be very very frank. Very frank about what they had done in the sins they carried with them on their shoulders and i felt that they needed to be understood. I also felt that they wanted it to be known that one of these guys said and probably end up ive turned informant and he was from the gang barrio 18 and he had turned informant and the only place he could go to high because the gangs control large swaths of the country was to go to the territory of his enemies that he was actually living in marcella tricia territory and he got a civilian job and nobody knew what his back story was. Nobody knew he had killed seven people nobody knew that his tattoos were all hidden. But he said he had recently been recognized by two former gang members on a bus. The reality is you cant hide forever in this country, somebody defined in public and end up the same way my victim did. He said thats fair. I didnt have any right to do what i had done. He was open to honest accounting about that. He also said, it really stuck with me, the other thing that i realized in this society its really easy to blame gang members for everything. I think thats the thing he wanted me to understand is that the society there was some form of what people might call narco democracy happening. Highlevel collaboration between drug traffickers and members of the political elite for both parties. He was trying to help me understand that while gay members had done these horrible things and things he really regretted there was also the public conception of the gangs and something that salvadoran elites behind the maduro trafficking and trump as well and various other american Law Enforcement officials is that this idea of ms13 as the scary monster beneath your bed theres a real danger to doing that because it gives the gangs a lot more capital in recruiting power it also hides or serves as foil for a lot of the other problems i dont have easy solutions in the societies were the gang members find traction. One of the things that you point out in the book is that the el salvador in government is certainly not a clean player in this entire situation. In your reporting, did you feel like there was ever a threat to you . And did you feel like there was more pressure from either the gangs or government officials to either speak to not speak or to not report on Something Like this . I think the real threat that general abwho live in the country and have to live in the communities that they reporting on i think its a very courageous act to do journalism daily day in and day out and in societies where you have powerful people in government that dont want some of this to come to late and you have the gangs who you have to navigate in your own personal life. I didnt feel like i was under great threat. I went out for about two weeks at night with the gang antiswat units, the commander units but go out and respond to gang crisis and emergencies and at no point in that happenstance but i never really felt in danger there. I did start to, i shouldve answered this in the last section but i had a major turning point in el salvador where i was going around talking to informants and former gang members going into very huge homes rehabilitation programs that exist in el salvador and trying to find people who had left a gang and find out why and what was the catalyst that allowed them to do that and really just trying to find people from different epochs or stages of the gang revolution. One of these days i went into a prison and i was just fishing. I did have appointments with anyone i didnt know who i would find. I spent six hours talking to people and nice guys grateful for the stories that they did help me as a journalist and what i was trying to do. As i was trying to leave i noticed another guy who missed his lunch to come talk to me. As a courtesy because he had missed his lunch hes in jail i sat down and talk with him and he blew the lid off of why everything was so hushhush and why after this truce had fallen apart the gangs had come back as a military force with weapons and an agenda and we can talk a little bit about the truce later on. For me that was a point at which i realized there was something much bigger going on. As i started to unpack that and investigate that i found myself talking to people who had been under surveillance, people who had had family members murdered by powerful people and as i started to talk to more and more people who were not just casual victims or perpetrators of this conflict but people who knew skeletons in the closets of p powerful people were. I felt like maybe its time to leave the country. Lets talk about the bigger skeletons which is the fact that the government in the gangs were sorted, they were cooperating so much that there was a secret truce that occurred somewhere in the mid22,000. This seems like a thing that the government did not necessarily want to. Including the domestic audience to know about. Tell us a little bit about how that worked. What exactly did the government do at that point when they realized they couldnt continue head on, iron fist policies against the two gangs. For about 20 years the war ends and 92 and the two parties the gideons, and the rightwing government they both sort of International Press packed up and move on. The story they told was very much that sort of a Success Story the u. S. Brokered Peace Process in the hallmark of that success is that these two parties became Political Parties and stopped worrying. He competed at the ballot box, peacefully,. Violence is on the present. The under declared a state of war. Left wing government takes power. What happens is a photo or a newspaper. The government is up to something. It has been taking leaders from both of these rival gangs that are in the maximumsecurity facilities and they each head their own presence and they put them in the medium security wings. The government is embarrassed. Its pretty clear almost overnight the murder rate in el salvador is cut in house. And then rising and rising. All the sudden something has happened. They have the ability to control the level of murder that what seems like neighborhood entities they have this kind of commanding control that they can agree to something and abide by it. It comes out that there is a truce. Theyre trying to quell the murder rate. Doesnt really own the fact that they did this. A lot of people see family members. There was a lot of resentment against the gangs. Some people thought that this was going to be we have made these people lepers in our society. Theyve never have a voice. They have never been brought to the table. And they control life for a lot of our country. Some hope that this is gonna be a time of the mobilization. And then there were lofty promises made. We are the representatives of the people. That last for about a year and half. And when it ended. Murders were higher than the death toll. The gangs were fighting with the new tactics and weapons. They have learned they have political leverage. They have taught the gangs that you would put fewer bodies in the street. When i came into the country i was trying to unpack how this have happened. I came in thinking sympathetic to the troops. There were a few other instances where they wanted that. We will leave that behind. And that few point times where it turned up like that. It was usually something very nefarious. One of my sources cited. We will give you jobs stop being gang members. Behind that and they came and took one of the jobs. They said okay, great. I have to give up all of your gang members. A journalist that i met there and interviewed the closest to the leadership of marcel. You dont know how the people i have to kill. Talking friends and family in the dozens. It is something much more you furious. And as best i can report. Was trying to event a juror truth. They were associated with the salvador in drug cartels. And to get the gang to stop killing each other. Which is can he be good for the government. That would be a huge political success. It was good to be good for the drug cartels. It meant that is bad for business. We were and have an agreement that between those in government and gang affiliations. They have to move their drugs. Throughout the country. The gangs learned in the process to barter back. Said as they have learned how the government worked they got wise and started asking for millions of dollars weapons, transferred by military intelligence. And for gang members to be inserted into the military and police that were charged with that. Behind the scenes of what looked like the coup by a moment in el salvador you actually had you have a deal between the government from an American Perspective we spent a lot of money in military and economic aid to el salvador. We have turned a blind eye to what our allies there are doing. Its not just the case in el salvador. It is the case in u. S. Foreign policy around the world. With very narrow ideas of what american interests are. What it looks like for my reporting is the people that are taking the money. Were actually arming the gangs for the drug cartels and increasing them out of the country. Before i open it up to the audience for questions i want to bring the entire conversation back from the brink of, located what looks like a hopeless situation. Bring it back to the people of el salvador. He talked about the paradox that is happening on the ground. The more elite classes being the most anti gang in the entire country. But the lower classes are the ones that suffer the most. Yet these are the ones have much more sympathy for the gangs that are running the streets. Can you speak to that tension in society there is a way forward is there a way forward from the ground up. The guy that i started with. He was someone he hit a wall and it was a very specific moment where he had been from the heels of a drug deal gone bad. He just carried this kid out with him. There were drugs in women and gambling. They just sort of broke him. He was tired of hiding out all the time and he basically put down his guns and paid for a job dash might pray to for a job. A few days later there was one of these programs where they were getting a Second Chance a job to gang members. They are from the lower classes largely. Outliers in the society. They had wellfounded anger against the games. It is a very rare and precious thing with this opportunity he had found. Im joined when i was 11 years old. They could be gotten out if they gave them the carrot as opposed to the stick. The u. S. For a while have been getting in the way of that. We did not allow any funding to go to any programs that had contacts with criminals. It would be a transnational criminal organization. For the international syndicate. These are a lot of guys around education. Without a high school education. Very parochial dash make parochial and they lead dismal lives. There is some rethinking about that. To actually put more money into those things. I think that is one version of a suspect Success Story. I think there are people who find themselves trapped without a whole lot of options. The options seem to be to get out of the country. They have such control over the territory. I think theyve have a really hard time and there is a lot of other places like it that i had been on the globe. We look at world war ii happened. In the u. S. Rebuilt europe with the Marshall Plan and one of the u. S. Congressman that has worked there. We spent 5 billion destroying the company and then we just walked away. I have friends in el salvador i think it is a vibrant society. I think its really beautiful parts to the country. A great surf destination. I dont like to paint overly dark pictures. What i was trying to do with the book in some ways was to attack the amnesia that inmate invades our discussion about the border since 2012 our border crisis is a Central American border crisis. The three countries of el salvador. Even though they are combined population is a quarter of the population of mexico. About a million a year. And so i was trying to understand what they were fleeing in a lot of ways. We just signed agreements with these countries. That they are supposed to be safe asylum guarantors. It is going to make the gangs more powerful. I think the highlevel corruption that i got into reporting on it reveals how complicit agents of the state are. I think as americans especially when we have these when you look at the rise of al qaeda. In the 1980s. You have to remember that there is a history that theyve have a history in these places. A lot of the pockets around the world. They are getting harder and harder to make a living in. Thats as true as in others. We are can open it up to some audience questions. Please raise your hand i will call you and then they will bring the mic around to you. [indiscernible] what is the relationship between the gangs in the drug traffickers. I see in my head. Its always kind of the same thing. That is a great question. What is the relationship between the gangs and the drug traffickers. It is important to draw a line. We are not sophisticated multi billiondollar narcosis style Drug Trafficking organizations that you find coming out of mexico. They are by and large neighborhood guys who havent had it. Theyll have they dont have it drug supplies in the same way that we have or we would see in other countries. They make money by taxing everything that goes in or out of the areas that they control. If your beer delivery guy that sales that. The gangs are going to take a portion of all of that. Its almost a futile authority in that regard. His small mistakes. It is small stakes. And it requires killing. That is part of the tragic cycle. They are killing 70 people. Some new people. And that creates informants. They dont really had a great solid investigative property. Its not something you would see an narcosis season three in any way. I think thats important to keep in mind. The u. S. Is doing a good job of stopping a lot of the drugs that are coming out across the caribbean. The cartel are set for dorian. They are smaller scale. They are transshipment route. They are starting to work as contractors for those. Which are much more sophisticated and fierce organizations. If i correct. Then on any reduction facility. The texas cartel. They are family operations. They had been operating for generations in the region. Basically they guarantee the shipment of drugs that are coming through that territory. Through the protection they head in the state. Through local corruption arrangements that they had developed over time. I did some work in el salvador in the late 90s i believe. With kind of a hopeful time there. I visited a lot of places. At that time i think a fifth of the gdp came from remittances. Economically they really depended on people who lived here. At that time they would go around. There was a lot of hope. They thought it was a little bit different. A little bit more than other parts. You can still feel the remnants of the war i think. Im curious as to whether you would go to villages and towns. They were built by people who lived here. A lot of the immigration here from the 80s did not go down over time we talk about exporting the Gang Violence and members that lived up there. Im curious about the ties economically and socially. In terms of money and getting assertion. About 17 or 18 . Of the countrys gdp comes from the salvadorans in this country right now. Deporting large scale. In the status of the administration they tried to do is can have a huge Economic Impact on the country. The most complex arguments i heard are maybe the government doesnt really want all of these people to come back and thats why they keep this sort of war against the gangs going. It pushes people out again. There is a complex argument about the economics of it. They talk to the sky angel of death who was great. Out there fishing in this prison and the guy comes up. He was in the arch program and hes doing metal goth women. In the half naked sort of step. He came up here to la and his father was killed by special forces soldier. He got involved in the gang life. As soon as it went back. There was a time where the la guys were the big time. They have these quote tattoos. The kind of look that was so cool in the 90s. They were the dogs. After a while it was the wild west. These guys here Technical Training and resources. And they can do Crime Scene Investigation in el salvador. You can bury someone under your Kitchen Table and they would never find out about it. El salvador and became the big dogs and today there is some evidence its not that theyre sending them to the u. S. To create new clicks. The circular door between particularly with the monitor up. As one of the most interesting interviews i did. In the skys kitchen. He was a Police Intelligence agents. In the process he was a member of a death squad. We had have our orders. He talked about it and was very proud of it. Some weapons that he used. The gang members in Los Angeles Los angeles you could deport them. In el salvador you dont have an option. A lot of people claim that it was another way of them getting that most of the people fleeing the gangs are not gang members. There are people who are trying to leave the gang life. There is a natural magnet in current that is cycling gang members among the much more populous victims. It seems like the gangs are trying to exert some control now over the american gangs in the east coast at least. The cycle of violence that has really increased it seems to be reviving. And at the leadership in jails. They do seem to be trying to get their act together at least. There is still some serving here. It is the other factor. They are under the control of the mexican mafia. It is complicated. We will do one more question. Have you observed any local groups that are effective at breaking the cycle of violence. Are there groups in el salvador that are stuck in the cycle of violence. I dont have a comprehensive answer. I did talk to the neighborhood of el salvador where the first one was supposed to be founded. The church is one way out. It is a tight rope. It means that you have to live most of your life. If you fall out at all you get murdered. The gang will respect that. With the extremely devout life. Another former member had spoken to one of my friends on camera. Another former priest minister was murdered there. Its not an easy way out. Kind of what it was telling me. Rather than there be a lot of gang members. I think that is it more often more often the case. What seems to be happening is in their areas once the gangs stop fighting with each other. They do bring in order the order there was more reliable. Once they take control they put down these rules. And the rules are terrible for you. I think a lot of the victims are women. It is a hard world to live in. At least there is some order there. I think it is moving to the banks been a more effective guarantor. That is a lot to think about it just an hour. So please join me in thinking William Wheeler for joining us tonight. [applause]. And i wanted to thank the los angeles town hall for finding the space for us. In a brief preview of what is coming up for us in march. This is can going to be about crypto currencies. It is about to change the world. And then april we will do an event on the military revision of space. The president has just established the Space Command force people have obviously made none of this in certain circles. This is a developing area of international governance. We will cover that in april. Another round of applause please , for William Wheeler. I think we still have a bunch of food and drinks for you. Feel free to mill about for a little bit. Here is a look at the books being published this week. Donald trump has better ideas for america than the old right or new left. In the citizens citizens guide to beating donald trump david offers his strategy to prevent President Trump from being reelected. And in john adams under fire. The chief legal affairs. They were at the boston massacre in 1770. Political activist in co and co organizer of the womens march reflects on her views with we are not here to be bystanders. Matthew l geo with the winner of 1967 and 68. It fueled his interest to run for president. And in some shes got gotta do it the journalist discusses how running for office made her realize the importance of local politicians to their communities. Look for the titles and book bookstores these coming weeks