Call My Bluff No. 8647

Every now and then I think that news is dull. Nothing to see there. And then we have the entirely unexpected. One of the most remarkable stories of the last few years is the one that came through late Saturday night. Here is the Guardian:

Trump accuses former FBI director of calling for his killing through coded picture. James Comey posted picture of shells arranged to say “8647”, using common slang for kicking a customer out of a bar.

The story seems to be that Comey was wandering about and either (as he claims) saw some shells arranged, as a joke, or (as is possible) arranged them himself, as a joke, in the form of the numbers 8647. He posted a picture of them on Instagram. He wrote: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” Well, if I were a follower of Comey I would have scrolled on with a yawn and a rub of the eye. But Trump has cried conspiracy. And now the Guardian, at least, has stepped in to explain why Trump is talking rubbish.

In the spirit of Hegel, we must always subject everything to Hegelian analysis: that is, listen to what everyone says, and then say something else.

The funny thing about this is how it becomes a story.

Does anyone remember Call My Bluff, the old BBC programme in which the amusingly voiced Robert Robinson presided over the arch chaos of Dennis Norden and Frank Muir telling lies? This sort of bluff is mocked, still, in Private Eye. Take a novel word, like, to take an old example, ‘dox’ and explain it in different ways: it is derived from doxa and means to glorify someone; it is derived from ‘docs’ and means the rubbish spouted by Ph.D. students; it is derived from ‘docks’ and means buy one’s enemy some cement shoes and escort them to the quayside for a brief walk, etc. This story is just like this. Trump is Dennis Norden. Comey and the Guardian are Frank Muir.

1. Thesis

Trump said: “He’s calling for the assassination of the President.” Kristi Noem, Head of Homeland Security, said: “Disgraced former FBI director James Comey just called for the assassination of POTUS Trump.” Tulsi Gabbard, Head of National Intelligence, said: Comey “just issued a call to action to murder the President of the United States”.

Well, I marvelled, and looked for an explanation.

The explanation is that 86 = code for getting rid of something, is a synonym for ‘nix’ (where ‘nix’ is American for ‘cancel’), and that 47 = Trump, the 47th President.

Well. James Comey was a former director of the FBI. He was fired by Trump in 2017. It could be part of a conspiracy, right? Comey might have been signalling to the secretly arranged 8647 brigade?

Well, apparently not. Indeed, Comey was appalled. He said he knew it was political, but that he didn’t know it suggested violence. (“We better 86 him!” Who? “47!”)

2. Antithesis

The only thing that brings even the slightest tincture of possibility to the thesis is the fact that the FBI is a dubious organisation: we all know that something was a bit rum about Kennedy, Watergate, Pearl Harbour, the Alamo, George Washington’s teeth, etc.

The New Republic and Vanity Fair are condemnatory. But the Guardian calmly restores us to reality with a kind, explanatory, piece, written in pained middle-aged middle-class teacherly manner, entitled. ‘What does ‘8647’ really mean? Not what Trump’s supporters are saying.’ It explains what it means. Good! Here we learn:

• Merriam-Webster says 86 could mean ‘kill’ but it does not endorse its use, as it is so rare.
• 86 might refer to Chumley’s bar in 86th East Barrow St, New York, and the exit out of which unruly Prohibition-era drunkards were thrown. To ‘86’ someone, means to throw someone out.
• 86 might mean refer to a dish on a menu that is sold out.
• 86 might be US Navy code for equipment to be upgraded, marked AT-6, hence pronounced 86.
• 86 could refer to John Barrymore, the actor, who was not be served, as he was so drunk.
• 86 could mean “Take someone eight miles out of town, and put them six feet under.”

It finishes its argument by saying that T-shirts have been sold saying ‘8646’ i.e., “Impeach Biden”. It is all harmless fun, carried out by Right as well as Left. (The Daily Mail reminds us that Gretchen Witmer got in some trouble for having 8645 behind her during a Zoom call.) Though the Guardian tells us all this with a curious solemnity. With its fact-checking face on, of course.

3. Synthesis

In the spirit of Robert Robinson, I declare both of these a bluff. Now, I happen to be something of an amateur numerologist. I always tell everyone that only four numbers matter, 1, 2, 3 and 4, and that even 4 is a bit of an afterthought. If anyone ever makes a series of points and gets to 5 you can be sure he or she is not thinking but simply listing arbitrarily. I have seen academic arguments in which some genius gets to point no. 5: whereupon I think “Bust!”

I have a book here by Annemarie Schimmel, a sort of popular Oxford University Press book, from the 1990s, entitled The Mystery of Numbers. I consulted it to see what she says about 86. Nothing. And 47? Nothing. She dilates on 46 and 49, but not 47. Clearly, there is something we are missing. So I investigated. And this investigation generated satisfactory results after about two minutes.

One of Shakespeare’s most political plays is Coriolanus. It involves an autocratic subverter of the republic – remind you of anyone? And I discover the following. Line 86 from Coriolanus in the Wells and Taylor edition of William Shakespeare, The Collected Works (1988) is:

Confess yourself wondrous malicious.

Yes, I think I have cracked it. Comey was obviously using what we call the Coriolanian Code to convey his meaning indirectly to Donald J. Trump.

And line 47?

Come, come.

This stumped me until I remembered that Trump’s greatest offence was what he did to prevent the 46th President coming to power. So I looked back at line 46 and found this.

Why stay we prating here? To th’ Capitol!

I rest my case. James Comey, former Director of the FBI, of course, was alluding to the January 6th ‘insurrection’ of 2021, when Trump, depending who one listens to, urged his followers to be peaceful /urged his followers to th’ Capitol to block the machinery of the great US Constitution.

So what Comey was communicating, with his shells, was that Trump had been wondrous malicious for urging his followers to go to th’ Capitol.

(It is interesting to find that the Deep State uses the Wells and Taylor edition of the complete Shakespeare for its codes. If I had relied on the Arden edition of Coriolanus I never would have cracked the code. Since Shakespeare wrote much of the play in prose, the lines come out differently simply because of the different pagination.)

Incidentally, Psalm 86, verses 4 and 7, also indicate something of the attitude of Comey. He is not asking a Hitman to intervene, but the Deity himself. Comey lifts up his soul to the Lord, and says, “In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.”

Comey was probably not expecting Trump to notice his Instagram post; but he certainly hoped that YHWH would see it.

James Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in Turkey.