Cowboy Cartel & Bug Hollow

COWBOY CARTEL

Apple TV+ trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZYlEs26cWs

This is an imperfect documentary from 2024 but I recommend you watch it. Because the IRS helped bring down the Zetas and now it's been crippled. All this institutional expertise eviscerated.

But you can love "Cowboy Cartel" without being a lefty.

Turns out the Zetas, a legendary Mexican drug cartel, are laundering their money via horse racing.

I was familiar with the Zetas from Don Winslow's book "The Border," the final installment of his Cartel Trilogy. Although not as good as the initial installment, "The Power of the Dog," it's necessary reading if you've read the first and the second, "The Cartel." I absolutely recommend you read "The Power of the Dog," it may be pulpy but it's highly readable and will educate you on the drug trade to a degree you heretofore didn't know existed.

So this is a doc. But since it's done for Apple, it's done on a very high level. As in the re-enactments can be easily confused for actual footage.

Furthermore, the arc does not resemble fiction. Just when you're getting all excited, when the momentum builds, it then dissipates, and then ultimately renews.

So what you're watching here for is the story. And it's utterly fascinating. How a newbie FBI agent discovers the ruse and then enlists the rest of the government to help him with the bust.

It's the characters that are so interesting. We're used to entertainment celebrities, whereas these are just regular people doing their jobs. But they have character and are dedicated, they're the stars of their own movie. Whether it be the IRS agent or the cops or the... It takes a village to bring down a cartel, and this documentary tells you how it is done.

"Cowboy Cartel" shows what we're up against in the drug trade. It shows how evil the Zetas are. You wonder whether this battle can ever be won. But one thing is for sure, by shrinking our government willy-nilly we're going backwards.

Not that this is a political show, that's just one of my takeaways.

Watch it and tell me what you think.

BUG HOLLOW

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1399636847/?bestFormat=true&k=bug%20hollow&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-pd-bk-d_de_k0_1_10&crid=28NSTS9L1SQCS&sprefix=bug%20hollow

I would have listed this first but it's much harder to get someone to read a book as opposed to watch a TV series.

But I want to recommend this book. Because it's highly readable. It's about a family and the stuff that happens to it and those they encounter.

The thing about life is it is unpredictable, and that is what this book represents so well. You're on one path, worrying about something, and then you're hit with a brick from the left and your earlier thoughts don't matter.

And then there are choices.

And then there are relationships.

Life is messy, it is not linear. You can try and force it to be organized, but you always fail. You can get a professional degree and then the firm you work for closes, or is eclipsed by technology. You can find the love of your life and then they die.

Good things happen too.

And oftentimes what looks bad, a near disaster, can end up becoming good.

I just don't want to give away any of the plot. I just want to say once again that this is a highly readable book, you can finish it in days, because you want to marinate in the world of the Zillers and find out what happens. "Bug Hollow" is an antidote to today's troubled political landscape.

People will surprise you.

Actually, that's what life is about.

What is that overused John Lennon quote?

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

That's utterly true. And "Bug Hollow" is a perfect example of that.

If you're looking for a summer read, this is it. Not because it's lowbrow genre fiction, but because it takes you away and is easy to read.

I just wish it continued.


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