Notes From Comey

  1. ¶TL;DR;
  2. ¶Is this What has Become of Patriotism in America?
  3. ¶The Two Sides of James Comey

TL;DR;

  1. We have to think for ourselves.
  2. Let’s agree on some baseline facts. Since facts should exist in the public domain, a failure to agree there dooms future discussions.
  3. Is James Comey a leaker? We argue no (see below)
  4. Is James Comey a traitor? We argue no (see below)
  5. Did Mr. Comey act devisively? We argue yes (see below)

Is this What has Become of Patriotism in America?

Choose this day if you will think your own thoughts or chew on the regurgitated nuggets placed in your mouth by your favorite media outlet. The “moderates”, the “middle ground” is now reserved for those thinking their own thoughts, seeing two sides of a coin, and arriving at self-motivated conclusions.

America, no matter how much we berate the media companies, they are not the problem. Whether you choose to hate on CNN or Fox News, the issue remain with us the viewers. Thinking is hard work! Since we get but 24 hrs each day; how, then, do we keep up with issues in far away places? The oldest answer is we use people we trust. But quietly that model of someone you trust - turned into “some one organization” summarizes things for you.

The problem: All summarization is subjective. By choosing importance, and choosing things for omission summarization takes on editorial license. Overtime summarization biases - get codified and held up as golden calves that we do not double-cross. All of this is part of a cognitive sense-making exercise that allows people who “hurt” when we think about things - to create mental short-hands, or heuristics, for our world - albeit sometimes untrue.

Thus we arrive at the Story of James Comey.

The Two Sides of James Comey

All that said, if you watched any of Comey’s hearing a while back you heard a very one-sided story. It’s just a matter of which side. Media outlets aspiring for “fair and balanced” came up woefully short, as did outlets seeking to provide “objective analysis” - the sides have been established and no one broke rank. We tune in solely asking the pundits “What do we think about this?” - said differently - “Tell me, friend, how should I behave in light of this event?” All in the endeavor of not having to dig in and think to hard. Its a short hand of maybe this is important, but since I am not sure, I will just get the tweet-notes (spark-notes of the cliff-notes - fitting into 140 280 characters)

To save our American way of self-government “We The People” must first govern our own beliefs, decisions, and thought process.

So that you can fact check, cross reference, and in general see for your self: here is the full Comey interview with the Senate Comittee. Please listen/read it at your own pleasure: link and his prepared statement can be found here: link

Additionally, quoting the great American Senator Moynihan:

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."

– “Pat” Moynihan

So here are some facts that I hope we can all agree to that exist in Comey’s testimony. A separate discussion could be levied regarding the trustworthiness of such a testimony, but until someone produces primary data regarding such topics, I am not interested in postulating about slander.

Facts Within the Testimony:

  1. Comey felt the President had crossed him before and thus felt the urge to take judicious notes.
    1. reference
  2. Comey had never taken notes of this kind with any other government official - president or otherwise
    1. reference
  3. Comey, when reasonably possible, would edit or filter his notes to de-classify its content.
    1. reference
  4. Comey, testified that President Trump told him on numerous occasions that he was doing a great job.
    1. reference
  5. Comey, sent his unclassified notes to a friend - with instructions to “Make sure the Press sees this”
    1. reference
  6. Comey testified that it was his belief that serious dealings had transpired via the Russian government with the most recent US election.
    1. reference

So in wake of this:

  1. Comey was called a liar
  2. Comey was called a leaker
  3. Both

Important Conclusions:

  • What is a Leak? Did Comey Leak?
    • A leak is a breach of committed confidentiality.
    • Very quickly you have to consider
  • Motivations?
  • Indirect Language

Abdicating our thinking to Media outlets is not far different to abdicating your democratic responsibility.

References:

essay
politics comey