Former FBI director James Comey made an impassioned plea Sunday evening on Twitter, begging Democrats not to move to the “socialist left” because doing so would help Republicans in the midterm elections.
“Democrats, please, please don’t lose your minds and rush to the socialist left. This president and his Republican Party are counting on you to do exactly that. America’s great middle wants sensible, balanced, ethical leadership,” Comey tweeted.
This is remarkable.
- When was the last time you heard an ex-FBI director speaking out publicly? Most of the time nobody knows who these shadowy people are. But since his intervention in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, weeks before the election, James Comey has become something of a celebrity.
- When was the last time you heard of an ex-FBI director speaking out publicly on Twitter? Nobody had heard of Twitter until 2 or 3 years ago.
- Why is Comey making an appeal to Democrats? Why should any of them pay any attention to him?
Comey is not the only spook boss to come out of the shadows. John Brennan is another. So is Robert Mueller. Why are they all doing it?
One simple answer: Donald Trump.
Trump was the first to become a celebrity. And Trump was the first to use Twitter.
Trump changed the rules of the political game. And so now everybody is doing the same as he does.
Even international diplomacy is now being conducted on Twitter. Trump yesterday:
“To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”
I wonder if Rouhani has got his own Twitter account, so he can reply to Trump? (update: Twitter is banned completely in Iran) Has Theresa May got a Twitter account? Or Angela Merkel? Or Vladimir Putin?
I spent a while last night listening to Jerome Corsi’s YouTube live stream:
Who’s Corsi? An author. His latest book is called Killing The Deep State. I haven’t read it. But I’m sure that the Deep State is full of people like James Comey and John Brennan and Robert Mueller.
It was entirely accidental that I got to watch Corsi’s live stream last night, in company with about 1,300 other people. He’s another new internet celebrity, like Jordan Peterson or Stephen Hicks or Alex Jones. There are lots of them these days. None of them are saying exactly the same thing. They each have a slightly different take.
These days you have to take everything you read or watch with a large pinch of salt. It might be true. Or it might not. How do you tell these days? So I listened sceptically to Corsi last night.
And in fact these days I’m tending to listen to voices, not so much to what the voices are saying. And Corsi has a calm, level voice. He never gets flustered. He never gets animated (like Alex Jones or Michael Savage or Jordan Peterson frequently do).
The guy with the sweetest, calmest voice online (in my opinion) is PrayingMedic.
It’s no different really from popular music. You could instantly recognise Elvis’ voice. And Roy Orbison’s. And any number of other singers. But this time they’re just talking. And I prefer some voices to others. I like cool, calm voices. They’re more believable, somehow.
So these days I listen to voices, and if the voice is credible, then maybe I’ll pay attention to what the voice is actually saying.
Frank Davis 
In my opinion Twitter is a social cancer along with Facebook et al. They deserve their sarcastic titles of ‘Twatter’ and ‘Farcebook’.
Sorry but your banding around of the word ‘cancer’ to describe something you don’t particularly like, rather makes you sound TCish.
Rubbish.
I know, I meant ‘bandying’, not ‘banding’.
Yes, Iran tweeted back.
The original meaning of The Deep State was the unchanging staffs of the federal bureaucracies. No matter who’s elected, no matter who they choose to head, for example, the EPA, the thousands of everyday EPA bureaucrats continue at their jobs, often for decades, and can’t be fired w/o specific Cause.
Iran response.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/24/politics/iran-trump-intl/index.html
Re your question about Tess and Twitter. Yes she does.
And Vlad? Yes.
And Angela. Yes. As does Donald Tusk. And yes, so does Junker.
As to whether they write up the BS that appears on their account, or have a flunky to do it for them isn’t clear. One thing’s for sure their accounts are quite sedate compared to Donald.
And President Hassan Rouhani does indeed have an account, though it’s in German and the last entry was July 4th.
twitter.com/hassanrouhani
However Rouhani does of course have Press TV that, like the BBC and Tess, will report on anything he says. Donald’s intelligence agency will dutifully pick up on these and report back to Don.
(I believe it was something along the lines of “the mother of all wars” if America so much as breaks wind in their vicinity. No need to remind me it’s very similar to something a dead Iraqi dictator stated some years back.
I sincerely hope Trump’s posturing. Taking on Iran militarily will result in a seismic shift in geopolitics because they’ll go for our underbelly – Saudi, via Bahrain).