8647: The Trump Justice Department brought an indictment and arrest warrant against former FBI Director James Comey accusing him of threatening the life of President Trump by posting a picture of seashells arranged in beach sand with the message “8647.”

  It’s the sea shell threat.

  To “86” someone is generally slang for throwing an unruly customer out of a restaurant or a bar. The Justice Department under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is stretching it as a threat to kill. Blanche said the posting was the subject of a yearlong investigation and that “You can not threaten to kill the president of the United States, full stop.”

  Comey a year ago came across the shell arrangement while walking with his wife on a North Carolina beach and posted a picture of it on Instagram. He later took it down after some people took it as a threat to the President.

  Trump fired Comey during his first term. After failing last year to prosecute Comey for perjury before Congress, the Justice Department has gone to a laughable length to get him. Trump has said publicly that he wants is enemies to go through what he did when he was indicted.

  Blanche said, “This is just like any other case.”

THE KING’S SPEECH: Britain’s King Charles addressed a joint session of Congress yesterday delivering understated barbs. 

  Charles was praising and conciliatory, saying for instance, “The Alliance that our two Nations have built over the centuries – and for which we are profoundly grateful to the American people – is truly unique.”

  But then there was this sly reference to Donald Trump’s disruptions: “As my Prime Minister said last month: ‘ours is an indispensable partnership. We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last eighty years. Instead, we must build on it’.”

  He spoke how Britain and all of NATO leapt to America’s aide after the 9/11 attacks, an understated dig at Trump’s insults to NATO.

  Charles mentioned “the disastrously melting ice-caps of the Arctic,” another elbow to Trump who claims climate change is a hoax.

  And he referenced the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that took down his brother, mentioning  the need to  “support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today.”

   Then last night he went to dinner at The White House.

— The New Republic reports that “60 Minutes” did not air some of President Trump’s rants during his Sunday night interview with Norah O’Donnell. Here’s one sparked by mention of the No Kings rallies:

  “It’s a total scam run by the Democrats. It shows you that– like Charlottesville. Charlottesville was all funded by the Southern Law (Southern Poverty Law Center.) That was a Southern Law deal too. And it was done to make me look bad, and it turned out to be a total fake. It basically was– a rigged election.

This was a part of the rigging of the election.”

  He went on, “They spent millions and millions of dollars on absolute far-right and just bad, bad groups. And then they’d use those groups and they’d say, ‘These are Republican groups and we’re coming to your rescue.’ And they’re the ones that have funded it and they’re the ones that kept ’em– keep ’em going.” 

INFINITE SCROLL:

— Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr yesterday ordered the Walt Disney Company to file early for renewal of licenses for their eight broadcast television stations citing Disney’s Diversity, Equity employment practices. The licenses were actually up for renewal between 2028 and 2031.

  The letter came as President Trump and his wife, Melania, are calling for ABC to fire late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel for making a joke last Thursday about Mrs. Trump “looking like an expectant widow.”

  Kimmel was taken off the air for a time last year for remarks he made about assassinated right wing organizer Charlie Kirk.

— President Trump was up at 4:05 this morning posting a meme of himself as a man carrying an assault rifle against a backdrop of explosions with the message; “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”

— A judge ruled that former federal prosecutor Maureen Comey, the daughter of James Comey, may proceed with her lawsuit accusing the Justice Department of firing her for political reasons.

— Writing in the language of Donald Trump, acting Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche filed paperwork defending the President’s White House Ballroom project. “Because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t,” the filing says, “especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

  It’s clear that Trump is giving directions to what is supposed to be an independent Justice Department.

— The State Department plans to begin issuing passports featuring an image of Donald Trump inside, available only at the Washington DC passport office.

THE OBIT PAGE: Nick Pope, a UFO skeptic who investigated sightings for Britain’s Ministry of Defense and became a believer about visitors from outer space, died on April 6th at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He was 60.

  While finding that most “sightings” were simply lights in the sky or other explainable phenomena he said some reported incidents from credible sources were evidence of alien visitation. He said, “I started my tour of duty believing in aircraft lights, but I ended it believing in aliens.”

TWISTER: Tornado weather continues this spring with a twister ripping through Mineral Wells, Texas. A neighborhood of luxury homes was left largely in rubble. Spectacular tornados have hit in at least eight states in recent days. 

  Power poles have snapped in half and hail actually the size of baseballs has fallen.

BELOW THE FOLD:  Canada’s new citizenship law, effective in December, allows Americans with distant Canadian ancestors to claim dual nationality. Americans are reported to be rushing to apply.

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