The Comey Rule Part 1: The Reality, Part 1

I had planned on waiting until I saw all of The Comey Rule on Showtime -- the two parts -- before I reviewed it.  But there are too many things I want to say about first part, on earlier tonight, to wait until tomorrow.

First, as for the craft of the docu-drama, including the acting, it was just superb, ranging from Jeff Daniels as Comey down to every FBI man and woman, in every scene, and also Comey's wife.  Even Kingsley Ben-Adir in the relatively small part (in this narrative) of Obama was good.   I could write all day about how well this first part was done, but the reality it describes cries out for comment.

No one can say with any certainty why Trump won the Electoral College vote, even as he lost the popular vote.  The fact that this resulted in him becoming President, and the horrendous job he has done in that office, is more than enough reason to do away with that anachronistic "college" as soon as possible.

There are other villains in this true tragedy.  Anthony Weiner unable to control his impulses, Jill Stein unable to control her ambitions, the Russian assault on our country via cyberspace, all played some role, and deserve some apportionment of blame.

And Comey?   This first part of this two-part series shows at least three interlocking errors:  the way he first announced the non-actionable result into the FBI investigation into Hillary's emails, his refusal to go public with the FBI's investigation into Trump's Russian connections, and his second announcement (in a letter to Congress) that the FBI was reopening the investigation into Hillary's emails just ten days prior to the election.   Like a classic Shakespearean tragedy, Comey did those three things for noble reasons.  But the result was the complete antithesis and annihilation of nobility, putting America into the most dangerous condition it has been in since the Civil War.

Can we reasonably say Trump in the White House was the result of Comey's actions?   No doubt not completely, but also no doubt yes, at least in part.   I will say, on Comey's behalf, that the writing of his book, A Higher Loyalty, the basis of this mini-series, is at least an attempt at retribution.  And kudos to Showtime for putting this on at a most appropriate time, when we Americans are again focused on an impending Presidential election.

And I'll be back with thoughts on Part 2 tomorrow.   I'm especially looking forward to seeing more of Brendan Gleeson as Trump.  They somehow managed to get someone made to look uglier and sound even more abrasive than the real thing,  A nightmare of a nightmare.

Calling on FBI Director James Comey To Resign

The FBI Director should resign - immediately.

Not only because, in violation of FBI policy, he released a political bombshell fewer than 60 days before an election - 11 days, and the most important election in our country, the election of President - but because his announcement contained no evidence, and is in fact just a fishing expedition having nothing to do with why the FBI had previously been investigating Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server.

That case, the results of which also should not have been announced, was closed, with no charges recommended against Clinton.  FBI policy regarding cases which are closed is to announce just that, not to offer songs and dances about what the subject of the investigation might have done wrong, but was not illegal.  What someone might have done wrong, if not illegal, has always been nobody's business except the FBI and its closed case files.

But in many ways, Comey's announcement yesterday was even more irresponsible and reprehensible. Why was the FBI looking at Hillary aide Huma Abedin's computer in the first place?  Because her sicko husband Anthony Weiner might have used it to send pornographic pictures of himself to underage children.   What does that have to do with Hillary - so much so that the Republicans in Congress gleefully announced that the FBI was "re-opening" its investigation into Hillary Clinton which it closed this summer?  Nothing.

The FBI did discover that Huma Abedin used the same computer as Anthony Weiner on occasion. So?  Having already gone over with a fine-tooth comb thousands and thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails already, and found nothing actionable, what is the likelihood that FBI will now find something, anything relevant to Clinton's emails on Abedin's computer?  Hillary never used the computer herself, and we don't even know if any of Hillary's emails were ever on Abedin's computer.

So this is a fishing expedition.  The FBI is entitled to waste its time, and examine any computer they like.  But announcing this expedition-in-near-absurdity 11 days prior to the most important election in our lifetime is way beyond the pale, and an extraordinary violation of what the FBI is supposed to be: a politically neutral investigative bureau, not an organization than inserts itself in elections - vitally important elections - on the wispiest of reasons.

My father was a lawyer, had friends in the FBI - one lived in our apartment house in the Bronx.  My father was even thinking of joining the FBI.  That was in the 1960s, when the FBI was in the forefront of protecting the civil rights of African-Americans and all Americans.  I was proud of the FBI, then.  More recently, in the past few decades, I have had occasion to give glowing references in FBI interviews to two of my former students at Fordham University who were applying to join the Bureau.  I have hosted FBI agents at conferences I helped organize at Fairleigh Dickinson University about kinesics (non-verbal communication) in 1977 and about The Sopranos at Fordham University in 2008.

I'm still proud of the FBI.  It's one of our great American institutions.  But Director Comey has disgraced the organization - twice now - with his kowtowing to his Republican Party.  He needs to leave.  If not, President Hillary Clinton's Attorney General will need to ask him to leave as a first order of business.

Photography Flips into Snapchat

One of the joys of understanding McLuhan is how his insights can leap forth at unexpected times to supply us with a connection or a new insight about a matter - or medium - at hand.  About six months ago, I came to realize that the photograph has flipped into the selfie in our own day and age.  Just yesterday, I did a little podcast on this subject - in which I also pointed out that radio has flipped into the podcast. And today, just a few hours ago, I realized that photograph has also flipped into Snapchat.

One of the best things about McLuhan's tetrad or four laws of media is that a given medium can enhance, obsolesce, retrieve, and flip into multiple media.  In case you'd like a quick refresher on the tetrad, it is an exploratory tool that McLuhan developed to help us make sense out of the emergence of media.   Take radio, for example:  It (1) enhances or amplifies sound (speech, music, etc) sent instantly across great distances simultaneously to lots of people; (2) obsolesces the written word as in newspapers as a mode of news delivery; (3) retrieves the spoken word that of course never really went away but was eclipsed to some extent by the products of the printing press; and radio, when it is pushed to its limits, (4) flips into television, which broadcasts like radio but re-inserts the visual into the mix.   And, radio, the professional mass medium, also flips into podcasting that anyone with a microphone and a connection to the Internet can do.    More on the tetrad in my book, Digital McLuhan, pictured below.

But back to photography: its flip into Snapchat is profound indeed, because permanency has always been one of photography's hallmarks.  As Andre Bazin so aptly noted, a photograph rescues an image from "its proper corruption in time".  In contrast, the Snapchat photo is deliberately intended to corrupt over time - and very quickly.  Because the essence of Snapchat is that you send someone a photograph that you want him or her to see only when they receive it, and not any time after.  If only former Congressman Anthony Weiner had known about Snapchat!

So we can now add Snapchat to the selfie as one of the media that photography has flipped into.   Like a reflection in a pool of water, which can also be a selfie and also can disappear as soon as the person staring into the pool walks away, Snapchat epitomizes the ever percolating evolution of media to forms that are at once both new and well established in our past.

See also Marshall McLuhan and the Kindle and Tetrad on Eyeglasses Flipping into Google Glass 

                               the spoken word
     McLuhan and the Kindle          |     McLuhan and the Selfie

Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington

My favorite part of Bones 7.3 is Lance and his efforts to get a green light to carry and use, if necessary, a gun on the job.  As he points out to Booth, who is dubious, Lance after all is FBI, and he could cover Booth's back when they go out together.

What Sweets didn't know (I called him Lance, because that goes a little better with Bond) is packing and firing a gun would turn on Daisy.   That's not only good for obvious reasons, but it's saving Daisy that focuses Sweets when he goes through his qualifying tests, which he passes with flying colors - like James Bond - and even gets nicked in the process.   Which also excites Daisy.

Indeed, Daisy may be the leading character tonight, because she also figures in the hunt for Prince Chamington's killer (or dismemberer), the same person who killed the brilliant toy designer (Charmington the doll was found with her body).

Meanwhile, toys, or at least play, is the thing in a lot of the rest of the story, too.  Angela and later Hodgins find the Chinese-translated-into-English assembly instructions that accompany a baby walker set indecipherable - something everyone can relate to - and Bones gets in touch with the importance of play in a baby as well as adult's life.

As I've been saying for the past two weeks, it's a pleasure to see Bones enjoying herself and the way she looks at Booth, which is a real credit to Emily Deschanel's acting.  About the only note that rang a little false in tonight's episode is Angela saying something about no pictures of naked Congressman, as she looks in vain on the victim's computer for something pertinent to the case or at least interesting.  That line was no doubt inspired by Anthony Weiner, and the script likely written this summer, but all that feels like ancient history now, doesn't it.  I run into the same temptations in my novels - the key is to resist putting in a reference to some current, hot topic.  By the time the novel is published - or the TV episode is on the air - that current hot reference will likely have cooled to fading room temperature.

But the series is just bubbling and the best it's been in years, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ... Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ... Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

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