8647 or S647: Take Your Pick

This guy is an idiot; well, sort of

Make no mistake…. THIS is what he meant.

Arrest James Comey. pic.twitter.com/TCqp46m0QZ

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) May 16, 2025

This right-wing fellow knows that he has carte blanche to post recklessly because under Trump puppet Pam Bondi, the gloves are off. Any Democrat or left-leaning Independent is fair game for prosecution and, down the line, deportation. Moreover, the tweeter in his bio identifies himself as a "Christian," so he is entitled to say whatever he wishes to say or do in the name of "faith."

And anyway, this fellow is significantly brighter than James Comey, which is to say, smarter than the tree growing in your backyard. Or dying in your backyard. As TIME notes

The Obama appointee who was fired by Donald Trump in 2017 is being investigated by federal law enforcement after posting a photo of seashells on a beach that appeared to form the shape of “86 47,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday, claiming that the since-deleted post was a call for the assassination of the President….

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey wrote in the caption accompanying the Thursday Instagram post. Comey later clarified in a follow-up post, “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

Oh, dear Lord. The proper response is "I didn't know it was political" (or better, "It is not political.") Conceding that he thought it was "political" begs the question of "what political message was it sending?'

TIME explains

Eighty-six is slang broadly meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service to,” according to Merriam-Webster, although the dictionary notes that it has recently, albeit sparsely, also been used to mean “to kill.” Forty-seven, meanwhile, is an apparent reference to Trump, who is the 47th President of the U.S.

To a male growing up in the mid- to late- twentieth century, "86" meant "to eliminate," anything from avoiding to kill, depending on the circumstance. However, Matt Gaetz would have accepted the TIME definition:

Oops!!! Hey did you see this @FBIDirectorKash and @KristiNoem? pic.twitter.com/Fzq7qTjH4K

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 16, 2025

James Comey is a 64-year-old former FBI director who should have known better. Instagram is not a social network service  for 74-years-olds and Comey has gotten himself into a bucket of (mostly undeserved) hot water because he thought that he was one of the cool kids. It is especially not a service or platform for lawyers, engineers, and other individuals whose imagination run the gamut from A to B- who sees things as they are rather than as they are widely misinterpreted as.

When such individuals see four letters strung together with an emphasis on one letter, they should read the number in that manner. In this case,  the numbers 8647 ran together with one number- the 8- standing out.

 

That 8- which looks a little like an S- stands  apart from the 647. It is most logically seen as an 8 followed by the three-digit 647. That would be logical but, of course, Instagram.

Jim Comey posted this probably because he is not the brightest bulb in the pack. In 2016, he reported an investigation into Hillary Clinton, which was ongoing, but not an investigation into the Trump campaign, which was ongoing. With fewer than two weeks before the 11;16 election, he was informed of a cache of emails between Clinton and  aide Huma Abedin had been found on a computer belonging to Representative Anthony Weiner (her husband). In order to determine whether any was classified, he needed to ask a Court for a search warrant, which would have been leaked to Republicans. They in turn would have leaked the news to the public.

Comey could have waited until after the election to obtain a warrant. However, convinced that Hillary Clinton would win, he was afraid that he'd be accused of playing politics to have ensured the defeat of Donald Trump. He notified congressional leaders because he had earlier promised Congress to notify it of any developments.

Then-Republican National Committee chairperson Reince Priebus claimed "The F.B.I.'s decision to reopen their criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's secret email server just 11 day before the lection shows how serious this discovery must be." 

It is unknown whether, just as presciently, Priebus earlier this year declared "extensive Super Bowl success ensures that the Kansas City Chiefs will wallop the Philadelphia Eagles in the upcoming Big Game." Following a dip in Clinton's numbers following Comey's announcement in late October, voters had largely forgotten about the announcement. But when the FBI director on November 6, two days before the election, stated that the emails were only ones which previously had been reviewed, the public was reminded about this exaggerated scandal. HRC then lost an election she was expected, but not certain, to win.

The FBI director declined to vote in the election because he believed in that position he needed to project objectivity and neutrality. However, he really, really wanted Donald Trump to be defeated, while his actions probably were the deciding factor getting Trump elected.

As we first learned in the Ashcroft-Comey-NSA episode during the Bush 43 Administration, Comey is not someone lacking integrity. At the same time, he is not someone excessively imbued with intelligence or sound judgement. He should have left the seashell photo alone, and it is a mystery why he would say he thought it had political significance when it was unclear what it was about or that it wasn't even S647. It is a tempest in a teapot, though excellent fodder for a media which would rather not focus on Donald Trump, who has recommended that Mark Milley and Elizabeth Cheney be executed, that Judges be prosecuted, and his political opponents be imprisoned.

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