Former FBI Director Jim Comey will not be posting anything that even flirts with political commentary ever again while the Trump administration has the reins of law enforcement. Comey will be investigated for an Instagram post in which he did not call for a violent overthrow of Donald Trump – and yet the administration is treating it as such, hence the investigation, a criminal one, at least that’s the assumption. It is a damned dangerous assumption given that it feels safe.
As reported by the Associated Press:
In an Instagram post, Comey wrote “cool shell formation on my beach walk” under a picture of seashells that appeared to form the shapes for “86 47.”
Numerous Trump administration officials, including Noem, said Comey was advocating for the assassination of Trump, the 47th president. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately,” Noem wrote.
Comey was stupefied and wrote in response:
“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.”
It all spurned a lot of backlash and political commentary from social media:
Are they also gonna open an investigation into Comey opening up an investigation into Hillary Clinton 11 days before the 2016 election basically handing it to Trump?Trump officials say Secret Service is investigating Comey's '86 47' social media postapnews.com/article/come…
— Morgan J Freeman (@mjfree.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T02:30:25.418Z
As funny and somewhat harmless as this sounds, it is absolutely chilling. Comey has every right to comment on the nation’s politics. One might say that as a former FBI Director, he should probably stay politically detached. But Comey was fired by Trump and was fired for doing nothing more than his job – ensuring that Trump wasn’t purchased part and parcel by the Russians with their own investigation. The very fact that Trump fired Comey over looking at the evidence, as he did with Clinton, sort of makes one think that perhaps there is something to be found somewhere. Trump would have been far better served by simply laughing and yelling, “Investigate away, nothing there… ” Unless there was, in fact, something “there.” It would likely still be “here.”
Whether Comey should comment on the day’s politics is an entirely separate question from whether he has the right to do so. He does, or – at least, he did, but that was prior to the near-lawless administration and its savage need to suppress all dissent and critical comment. The fact that he will be investigated is not even shocking – thus it has the chilling effect that the administration craves. If Comey can’t post seashells that “look” interesting, what happens to the guy who outright criticizes Trump in a colorful (But still non-violent) sort of way?
And that’s the point. We don’t yet know the limits this administration will go to regarding what it believes to be “enemies” – all who dare to criticize anything about Trump. Would Trump go after Obama? One thinks that the answer might be “Yes,” in a situation where things got really tense. It is terrifying.
No one knows it better than Jim Comey.
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God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and also on X at @JasonMiciak, and please follow me now on Bluesky.
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Oh we know the limits all right…concentration camps, mass murder, the dictator is the law, and so on. WW2 showed us EXACTLY where this leads…to war. Phuck Comey. It’s hard to care about that asshole who helped this dictator steal the first election. Go ahead karma…burn his sorry ass. He helped elect this child killer so live with the results motherphucker.
Please please please be careful about anything that even sounds like a call to violence here. We cannot have that – it is wrong, for one, and second, this isn’t normal. There are still limits – you note unlimited action, but we don’t want to call attention to ourselves with something easily seen as wrong anyway.
Peace, and be careful, please.
jason
Talking history…and our present parallel. How this ends is just an educated guess. Name one dictator who willingly stepped down. One. Just one. Now name how they lost power. Violence? Our whole goddamn culture was founded, maintained, and still is controlled by violence or the threat of. The police state doesn’t show up with good moral arguments…they come with guns. Just noting facts. Comey can take a short walk to hell.
Cmon Jason, it’s cringe & embarrassing when you try to play coy. You’re better than that. I know, you know & Comey sure as hell knows what that shell pattern was, just own it.
I didn’t say that he didn’t know what it was. Does that mean that it’s a call to violence? No – it’s not. So let’s own up to reality. Comey would be more likely to fight a violent uprising over a legally elected president. That’s the important reality.
jason
You’re saying it wasn’t a call for violence? Just political commentary?
YOU’RE A LIAR
Go back to your hiatus
Ill use a zoomie tactic:
imagine if a Republican did this about a democrat…
Or is this just more performative politics that will end up going nowhere? They can’t hire lawyers, good ones at least, to even begin to work up cases to present to a grand jury, so they’re doing the “court of public opinion” crap. You know, performative politics. Comey might have to suck up and hire a lawyer, but he’s a good test case dummy for this. Let’s see here just what they do to someone they already hired and fired in T1.0. Might be a clue to the rest of them: See kids, if you don’t tow the line, here’s what we will do TO you. A truly heartwarming job attraction offer. Then the leopards ate whose face?!? Oh, my goodness, he posted a picture of seashells…what were they smokin’ when they “saw” the patterns in the shells? I thought those psychedelics were outlawed in RWNJ territory.
If they monitor seashell posts, I wonder when this blog gets on Patel’s crazy radar, or any of these lying nazis’ radar? I’ve already spent six hours with the FBI being harassed…and that was when we were still a democratic Republic. Hope folks here are ready since Yale professors, who teach classes and write books on authoritarian governments, are moving to Canada, and reminding us of Germany in the 30s. Can’t happen here you say? Already has. Just ask that political prisoner in El Salvador. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. NEXT!
H, Jason, it’s good to see you back in the saddle. I don’t believe there are limits in this administration. Every person in it is horribly flawed in their own right. That is, of course, why they were chosen for their position. When they get into a group, as in Cabinet meetings, they not only do the “Kowtow Dance” for Dear Leader; they build each other into a frenzy of being the best that humanity has to offer. Couple that with the paranoia and victimhood that trouble any insular group and the rest of us can only be seen as enemies who must be destroyed. There cannot be limits to their actions because any leniency would allow those enemies (us) to destroy what is good for the world (them).
I don’t have a problem being their enemy. I will fight these tyrants as hard as I am able. The hardest part is to not become tyrannical myself. 😳🤞
Yes, hi, Cleora. I took a self-imposed sabatical – I have written for seven years now and I needed a break. I will be doing less but hopefully less is more.
Writing is a perishable skill, though, and it may take a bit to get back to where I was. Good to see you.
jason