[23538] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] How "Get Smart" puts the lie to the Comey
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lauren Weinstein)
Thu Apr 30 15:14:34 2026
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:04:57 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
To: privacy-dist@vortex.com
Message-ID: <20260430190457.GA5007@vortex.com>
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How "Get Smart" puts the lie to the Comey prosecution
The Trump DOJ has indicted former FBI director Jame Comey with
"threatening the president" due to a social media post he made showing a
photo of seashells on the seashore he spotted, arranged as the numeric
8647. They claim the 86 means "kill" and the "47" means President Trump
(47th president).
Leaving aside the obvious First Amendment issues, the DOJ interpretation
of "86" is laughable. That numeric phrase apparently first came to
public usage in the early 20th century with meanings such as "reject",
"item sold out", "unwanted" and other various negative connotations far
short of any kind of actual threat.
In fact, when I first started hearing the phrase 8647, I immediately
thought of the old 60s TV series "Get Smart" -- featuring Don Adams as
Maxwell Smart - Agent 86. Creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry chose 86 to
indicate that Smart was a kind of reject. Sidenote: Was there also an
Agent 47 in the show? YES, though not a main character. It never
occurred to me anyone would use that phrase as a threat!
Point is, even if we assume that Comey associated the 47 with Trump,
there is no reason to assume he associated 86 with a threat of any
kind.
That the Trump DOJ is stooping so low is disgraceful but not
at all surprising.
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
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