Kashing In

Trump appoints another lunatic

Kash Patel wants to go after journalists who’ve criticized Trump and his loyalists. Let’s hope I don’t do anything that pisses him off.

I’m not just assuming that Kash will abuse the FBI the way J. Edgar Hoover did (who was accused of being a cross-dresser). I’m taking Kash’s word for it.

On Steve Bannon’s podcast in 2023, Bannon said Donald Trump is "dead serious" about his intent to seek revenge against his political enemies should he be elected in 2024. Kash, who has always been inside Trump World, agreed.

Kash replied to Steve, “We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media ... we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections ... We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're tyrannical. This is why we're dictators ... Because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”

Of course, Donald Trump is aware of Kash’s statement. He knows what Kash intends to do because that’s exactly why he’s being nominated to be the Director of the FBI. Are you afraid for our nation? You should be.

One of the things scary about Kash is the same scary about Pam Bondi as Attorney General. Without any investigations, they’ve taken the position that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen.” Here, Kash is promising to go after people for the crimes of not liking Trump, criticizing Trump, defeating Trump, and reporting on Trump. He’s promising to “come after” people not just criminally, but civilly. How will the FBI do that?

It’s not the Constitution they’re going to use to prosecute us but in spite of.

In Florida, Ron DeSantis and his fellow Republicans are trying to “cancel” woke with legislation that is canceling free speech. You hear Republicans all the time talk about “canceling” woke. Will Kash and Trump go after people for free speech?

Kash Patel is a fascist. He worked in several posts in the previous Trump administration (sic) without any qualifications for any of it. Trump even created one position just because he wanted him around. In his last days in January 2021, Trump was interested in installing Patel in the FBI or CIA. Former Attorney General William Barr wrote in his memory, “only over his dead body.” This time, Trump won’t have anyone resist anything in his administration (sic).

Some of the acts Kash was involved in include Trump’s stealing of classified documents (and defending the thefts), Rudy Giuliani’s witchhunt in Ukraine, Trump’s extortion attempt on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, a push for Trump to use the military to quell Black Lives Matters protests, Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election, and helped block the Defense Department from coordinating the Biden transition team.

Kash even created a children’s book between Trump administrations (sic) featuring Trump as a good king with villains like Hillary Clinton coming after him with the Russia investigation.

With Kash as head of the FBI, it won’t just be children having nightmares.

The adventure: I meant to mention this in the last blog. I took a train from Liverpool to Scotland yesterday and there was a transfer. I take the first train from Liverpool to Wigan. That train was spacy and comfortable but there weren’t any tables or outlets for me to work. The next train had tables and outlets…but there weren’t enough seats. So, I spent the majority of that trip standing. It was a three-and-a-half-hour trip. It made me even more tired before arriving in Edinburgh.

By the way, the view between Liverpool and Edinburgh is sheep. Lots of sheep…and the occasional golfer. Sheep and golfers. The scenery was gorgeous.

Today, I took a bus through the city and didn’t see one goddamn castle. A lot of streets are brick and cobblestone. There are LOTS of buses and they stop nearly every 50 feet. I’m not exaggerating. So, when I saw the Pakistani barber shop and the Turkish barber shop (across the street from each other), I knew I was in a loop and got off the bus on Portobello Street. Then I saw the beach on the Firth of Forth.

There were lots of shops, restaurants, pubs, food stands, and an arcade along the beach full of people and their unleashed dogs. The weather was nice. Yes, I went to a beach in Scotland in December.

And I talked to this guy and his wife.

In the great film Snatch when Cousin Avi, played excellently by the late great Dennis Farina, is upset over having to go to the UK and is told that it has beached, he asks, “Yeah, but who the fuck wants to see them?” I saw them.

From there, I found a pub. The pub was nondescript with frosted-up windows and I couldn’t see inside it. I went in and there was a decent-sized crowd of old people. Everyone was old. So old that nobody was on his or her cell phone. But there were dogs.

.They love their dogs in Scotland.

I had some great conversations with a few Scots and while I was waiting on my ride back to my hotel, one of them who was elderly and outside smoking told me he is NOT British, he’s Scottish. This is where a fight could start.

Here’s a short tutorial, kids: The United Kingdom is the partnership of four nations, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the island that contains England, Wales, and Scotland. Don’t get me started on the Commonwealth. But technically, the old smoking Scot is British, even if he doesn’t consider himself to be culturally. But ya know what? I’m not fighting him on it.

Food: One part of this journey that’s gotten a lot, if not most of the attention are the food pics. I’m not the type of person who posts pics of my meals, but I think the exception should be something unusual, or at least unusual to us. Yesterday, I had my first English breakfast in Liverpool.

In case you can’t tell, the items are an egg, tomato, black pudding, hash browns, mushrooms, toast, sausage, bacon, and beans. This was my first time to try black pudding and I can vouch and say….bleah. It wasn’t all that bad but I never need to try it again.

I didn’t take a picture of this morning’s buffet in Scotland but the items were similar. The only thing missing from the Scottish plate was black pudding, but in its place was haggis. People have been telling me I need to try haggis while in Scotland and this was the best way to do it, in a buffet. I didn’t have to order it only to discover I hate it and be stuck with a full plate of haggis. So I put a tiny bit on my plate because I didn’t want a bunch left over and as it turns, I still put too much on my plate because I HATE IT. I tried a second bite but I quickly had to put some fruit in my mouth to get the taste of haggis out. Ya know, there should be an Irish rock band with the name Taste of Haggis. Maybe there is. This reminder of the morning haggis is reminding me of the taste.

This is a sausage roll I got at the Prince Alfred pub in Liverpool. I had been there a little while and when I got the menu, the bartender asked, “A bit peckish are ya?” The sauce is kinda like BBQ sauce.

From the same pub but not on the same night, bangers and mash. Someone on Facebook said the bangers and mash need potatoes. This is why I often bang my head against the wall.

This was delicious.

Indian/Pakistani food is now a huge part of British food culture. A lot of people say that if you want to eat good food in England, find an Indian restaurant. This is butter chicken. If you’ve never had Indian/Pakistani before, order this. This was my Thanksgiving dinner and it was wonderful.

I didn’t get any of this but it was at the beach in Edinburgh today.

Now what you’ve all been waiting for…

A British classic, fish and chips. You can NOT come to England without having fish and chips. I did not know that in this country, or countries, it comes with mashed peas. This was excellent and the fish was huge. This is not like any fish and chips I’ve ever had in America. I ordered it again last night in my hotel because everything else on the menu just looked like it came from TGY Fridays. That plate of fish and chips was like shit I’ve had in the States. It was good but nothing you fly across an for.

This is the national soft drink. It’s not an orange drink. It’s more like a can of candy in liquid form. It’s almost as intolerable as haggis. Oh, god, please don’t let there be a haggis in a can drink.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

The journey continues tomorrow. Goodbye, Edinburgh. Ya got character.

Timelapse with a voiceover:

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