We Say Fight Back!

Happy Anniversary Communist Manifesto (1848)!

www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Mike Alewitz:

Rouge Forum Conference
Call for Proposals
May 27 & 28, 2016
Hosted by
St. Mary’s University
Calgary, Canada
Proposal Deadline: Monday April 4th , 2016
Conference Theme: Teaching for Democracy and Justice in an Age of Inequality

This year’s Rouge Forum is dedicated to the overarching question of how we engage our students or communities in important issues and work necessary to foster a more
just and democratic world. We look to bring scholars, teachers, and community members with varied experiences, perspectives, and approaches in order to contribute to the larger conversation with the conference attendees.

Here, we are intent on providing a more fulsome conference experience, where attendance means more than simply presenting and listening.

At this year’s Rouge Forum we are developing new formats to better enable meaningful conversations between attendees and presenters; one’s that lead to the sharing of ideas and experiences, while forging new relationships within and across disciplines for a common purpose: the pursuit of a more just and democratic world. We encourage speakers and participants from any discipline whose work intersects with the broad theme of the conference to attend this year’s Rouge Forum.

We areparticularly interested in having discussions around pressing issues of current significance in our communities and across the world. Discussions are encouraged to address at least one of the following themes, broadly construed: rougeforum.org/Proposals2016.pdf

Tens of thousands march in London in largest #StopTrident demo in decades

Protesters opposing the renewal of UK’s costly nuclear deterrent, Trident, have taken to the streets of London. With a number of organizations participating, many young people are at the demo, saying there are better ways to spend taxpayers’ billions.

Jobs:Patent Office:

Job Title: Design Patent Examiner
Department: Department Of Commerce
Agency: Patent and Trademark Office
Job Announcement Number: TC2900-2016-0001

SALARY RANGE:$53,564.00 to $69,633.00 / Per Year
OPEN PERIOD:Monday, February 22, 2016 to Monday, March 7, 2016
SERIES & GRADE:GS-1226-07
POSITION INFORMATION:Full Time – Permanent
PROMOTION POTENTIAL:13
DUTY LOCATIONS:MANY vacancies in the following location(s):
San Jose, CA View Map
Alexandria, VA View Map
WHO MAY APPLY:Applications will be accepted from all U.S. Citizens
SECURITY CLEARANCE:Public Trust – Background Investigation
SUPERVISORY STATUS:No
JOB SUMMARY:  www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/430377400

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Qxr1wdxbg&feature=share

Adam Cohen’s new book tells the story of the 1927 Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell. The ruling permitted the state of Virginia to sterilize an “imbecile” — a scientific term of the day. Cohen discusses the decision, and its legacy, with NPR’s Robert Siegel. Listen: www.npr.org/2016/02/26/468297940/imbeciles-explores-legacy-of-eugenics-in-america

Kounter-Protesters Kick Ku Klux Klan Ass in Anaheim

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Detroit Teen Imani Harris on School Debt: ‘My Education Suffers and I Deserve Better’   I am a sophomore and have spent both my high school years at Renaissance. There are many good things happening in the DPS system, and specifically at my school. Unfortunately, the negative seems to outweigh the positive.

Starting with a lack of teachers and ending with underfunded programs, DPS seems to be getting worse and worse by the second. Who can we blame, and what can we do to fix it? My education suffers and I deserve better.

During freshman year at Renaissance, I was very saddened to find that the Chinese program had been cut, but kind of excited that I got to explore French.

The first week of school was very odd because my French teacher only came the first couple of days. A few weeks later, she stopped coming altogether. I did not have a French teacher that whole first semester. It was only my first semester in high school, and I already had experienced a small portion of how this debt would affect me personally.

Now, as a sophomore I am in French 2. I struggle every day because I don’t even have a real understanding for the basics of French, so how can I understand second level French? This was just the first way that the DPS debt affected me.

This year as a sophomore I had an English teacher for the first two weeks of school. Unfortunately, the teacher decided to leave, and though I know she meant no harm on my education, it still didn’t change the fact that I had no English teacher.

We went without a stable English teacher for almost 6 months. Through the course of this time we continue to receive substitutes, and empty promises of a new teacher.

Throughout those months we went through a total of 5 teachers. This may not seem like a big deal, but imagine walking in after just getting used to one teacher, to find that you have a whole different person to learn and do work for.www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/14333/detroit_teen_on_school_debt_my_education_suffers_and_i_deserve_better#.Vszx2vkrJMx

Military easily Co-opts Social Nationalist Opt-outs

Thousands of New Jersey high school seniors may be taking the military’s enlistment exam to fulfill a graduation requirement because they opted out of the controversial PARCC tests when they were juniors.

Nearly 50,000 New Jersey high school seniors are required to take an alternative end-of-year assessment because they opted out of taking the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, (PARCC) test last year. School officials say “a significant number” of these students will now likely have to take either the College Board’s ACCUPLACER test or the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, (ASVAB) as approved pathways to graduation. The costly ACCUPLACER is a product of the College Board, while the free-of-charge ASVAB is the military’s enlistment test that is given to 650,000 students in 14,000 schools across the country. Its primary purpose, according to military documents, is to procure leads for recruiters.  www.alternet.org/education/mandatory-school-testing-gone-way-wrong-how-thousands-high-school-students-may-be-pushed

Southwestern College academic faculty leaders are calling for the termination of a new administrator after complaints of a racial nature were brought to the Governing Board during an emergency special meeting on Friday, Feb. 19.

A complaint was launched after Dr. Guadalupe Corona, the new director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, attempted to cancel the first meeting of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee.

Corona allegedly said unnamed people were concerned that “there were too many African-Americans” on the new committee.

“The idea that ‘too many African-Americans’ are serving on this or any other committee is appalling and more so when it is expressed in regards to a committee with this particular charge,” said Andrew Rempt, Learning Assistance Services Coordinator and Academic Senate President Elect.  www.theswcsun.com/racial-complaint-jeopardizes-directors-job/

A majority of students with A and B grade point averages in high school still require developmental education at the community-college level, raising new questions about the skill level of incoming college students and the ways institutions measure their abilities. This is especially worrisome for students of color given that half of Hispanic college students and nearly a third of black college students start their higher-education paths at community colleges.

According to a new report that looked at a survey of 70,000 community-college students, 40 percent of students who said they averaged an A in high school reported that they needed a developmental course in at least one subject. Students with A- or B+ averages said they needed a brush-up course more than 50 percent of the time, and those with B averages required such a course nearly 60 percent of the time. Combined, these three levels of achievement accounted for 57 percent of the community-college students who were asked this question in the survey.

The report’s authors, who lead the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, note the disconnect between students’ beliefs about their ability to succeed at the community-college level and their actual academic outcomes.  www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/community-colleges-remedial-classes/471192/

COLORADO SCHOOLS STILL FAILING: Half of Colorado schools that received a total of $50 million in federal funding from the School Improvement Grant program either got worse or remained static, while the other half saw gains, The Denver Post reports. Aurora Central High School in Aurora, Colorado, has received $1.7 million in SIG grants, but student achievement has been stagnant. “In 2010, 14 percent of students were proficient in math, compared with 12 percent in 2014,” the Post reports. “Reading proficiency improved slightly from 36 percent to 40 percent. The high school’s four-year graduation rate is 42 percent.”

San Diego’s Racist, Capitalist Schools Cheat poor children of color (so build another multi-million $ school complex like Lincoln High (see below) 

Year after year, district officials point out that black and Latino students perform worse on tests than their white and Asian peers. And, year after, officials pledge to tackle the problem with tenacity and laser focus. (“Laser focus” has been an especially popular slogan for current school board members.)

But, despite the pattern of commitments and recommitments, actual progress has been marginal.

Let’s take a 10-year view of just one data point. In 2003, just 16 percent of black 11th graders in San Diego Unified scored proficient or advanced on the high school math section of the California Standards Test. In 2013, that number was the same – 16 percent.

By contrast, 42 percent of white 11th graders scored proficient or higher in 2003. By 2013, that number had risen to 53 percent.  www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/the-neverending-cycle-of-committing-and-recommitting-to-fixing-the-achievement-gap/?utm_source=Voice+of+San+Diego+Master+List&utm_campaign=1476da737d-Learning_Curve&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c2357fd0a3-1476da737d-81862829&goal=0_c2357fd0a3-1476da737d-81862829

Longer Lincoln High Video with some context  fox5sandiego.com/2016/02/26/at-least-4-hurt-in-fight-at-lincoln-high-school/

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlr_w3rXX5o&ebc=ANyPxKoQZFmDdIm35kwefivL6W6rAnplryOP4bvPEmidE5hwelX1mX4pd4-36wmYKPcJLoGxpfnn8mMKALMwlmuii7OvpHSYKQ

Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Washington’s Twenty-First-Century Opium Wars   In October 2001, the U.S. launched its invasion of Afghanistan largely through proxy Afghan fighters with the help of Special Operations forces, American air power, and CIA dollars. The results were swift and stunning. The Taliban was whipped, a new government headed by Hamid Karzai soon installed in Kabul, and the country declared “liberated.”

More than 14 years later, how’d it go? What’s “liberated” Afghanistan like and, if you were making a list, what would be the accomplishments of Washington all these years later? Hmm… at this very moment, according to the latest reports, the Taliban control more territory than at any moment since December 2001. Meanwhile, the Afghan security forces that the U.S. built up and funded to the tune of more than $65 billion are experiencing “unsustainable” casualties, their ranks evidently filled with “ghost” soldiers and policemen — up to 40% in some places — whose salaries, often paid by the U.S., are being pocketed by their commanders and other officials. In 2015, according to the U.N., Afghan civilian casualties were, for the seventh year in a row, at record levels. Add to all this the fact that American soldiers, their “combat mission” officially concluded in 2014, are now being sent by the hundreds back into the fray (along with the U.S. Air Force) to support hard-pressed Afghan troops in a situation which seems to be fast “deteriorating.”

Oh, and economically speaking, how did the “reconstruction” of the country work out, given that Washington pumped more money (in real dollars) into Afghanistan in these years than it did into the rebuilding of Western Europe after World War II? Leaving aside the pit of official corruption into which many of those dollars disappeared, the country is today hemorrhaging desperate young people who can’t find jobs or make a living and now constitute what may be the second largest contingent of refugees heading for Europe.

As for that list of Washington’s accomplishments, it might be accurate to say that only one thing was “liberated” in Afghanistan over the last 14-plus years and that was, as TomDispatch regular Alfred McCoy points out today, the opium poppy.  It might also be said that, with the opium trade now fully embedded in both the operations of the Afghan government and of the Taliban, Washington’s single and singular accomplishment in all its years there has been to oversee the country’s transformation into the planet’s number one narco-state. McCoy, who began his career in the Vietnam War era by writing The Politics of Heroin, a now-classic book on the CIA and the heroin trade (that the Agency tried to suppress) and who has written on the subject of drugs and Afghanistan before for this site, now offers a truly monumental look at opium and the U.S. from the moment this country’s first Afghan War began in 1979 to late last night.   www.tomdispatch.com/post/176106/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_washington%27s_twenty-first-century_opium_wars/

To the Editor:

Iraq is experiencing de facto partition driven by violence, factionalism and eroding state authority. The United States cannot prevent this — only mitigate it — and buy time for key parties to adapt their policies to help Iraq have a managed breakup. Here is why.

First, ISIS will strive to recapture previously held Iraqi cities to maintain its so-called caliphate and preserve its image as leader in the global jihadist movement. Iraqi forces and Sunni tribal militias will need more robust American and coalition support — ground forces and air power — to eventually defeat ISIS.

Second, alienation of the Sunnis continues to breed deep distrust of Iraq’s Shiite-led central government. Many Sunnis view Baghdad’s corrupt policies as a greater threat than ISIS, and therefore cooperate (sometimes passively) with the extremists. To mobilize Sunnis into the fight, the United States must encourage Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to implement reforms that provide the Sunnis more autonomy and access to government jobs. He should also equip Sunni militias with heavy weapons and appoint them guardians of their embattled communities.

Third, Iraqi Kurds, who have won autonomy and shed blood against ISIS, expect Baghdad to make revenue- and oil-sharing concessions before committing their soldiers to fighting ISIS again. This will require Mr. Abadi to make compromises that his Shiite base, Turkey and Iran will certainly oppose. Nevertheless, Washington must convince all parties that ridding Iraq of ISIS is in their common interest.

Finally, continued unrest in Basra highlights growing fissures in the Shiite community. Like the Kurds, many Shiites in southern Iraq seek an autonomous region that provides them greater control over Iraq’s extensive southern oil reserves.

Ultimately, Baghdad’s ability to equitably distribute oil profits between the Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite enclaves will determine if Iraq’s breakup will be a managed affair or one decided by bloodshed or Iranian influence.

Col. Tom Greenwood

Agent Orange affecting children and grandchildren of Vietnam Vets

decades after the Vietnam war, veterans exposed to Agent Orange are still fighting for disability pension payments.

On Thursday WREG told you about one vet  who appealed for help from his dying bed.

During the course of our investigation we learned about another group of Agent Orange victims looking for help, the children and grandchildren of these vets.

Agent Orange didn’t just manifest in the bloodstream of veterans.

It got passed in their DNA but they need help proving the damage.  wreg.com/2015/05/01/agent-orange-affecting-children-and-grandchildren-of-vietnam-vets/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=riChnx9U9SI

THE LIBYA GAMBLEPART 1
Hillary Clinton, ‘Smart
Power’ and a Dictator’s Fall
By JO BECKER and SCOTT SHANE
FEB. 27, 2016
The president was wary. The secretary of state was persuasive. But the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi left Libya a failed state and a terrorist haven.

…Did the opposition’s Transitional National Council really represent the whole of a deeply divided country, or just one region? What if Colonel Qaddafi quit, fled or was killed — did they have a plan for what came next?

“She was asking every question you could imagine,” Mr. Jibril recalled.

Mrs. Clinton was won over. Opposition leaders “said all the right things about supporting democracy and inclusivity and building Libyan institutions, providing some hope that we might be able to pull this off,” said Philip H. Gordon, one of her assistant secretaries. “They gave us what we wanted to hear. And you do want to believe.”

Her conviction would be critical in persuading Mr. Obama to join allies in bombing Colonel Qaddafi’s forces.  www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/hillary-clinton-libya.html?emc=edit_th_20160228&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=2254121

Marines’ early out options dwindle as the drawdown ends Marines hoping to take advantage of early exit opportunities this year had better act fast.

After years of drawing down troop levels, the Marine Corps is on track to meet its authorized end strength of 182,000 by the end of September, about a year sooner than expected. As the service closes in on its goal, the sun is setting on early out programs.

“As a result of achieving our target end strength, the use of many of our force-shaping measures has been suspended,” said Col. Gaines Ward, head of Manpower and Reserve Affairs’ plans, programs and budget branch.

Enlisted retention opportunities are increasing, but not everyone is out of the woods. Personnel officials are assessing whether another retention board is needed for staff sergeants twice passed over for promotion to gunny. An annual board was initiated in 2014, and in the past two years, 314 out of 1,061 eligible Marines were denied further service by the board.  www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2016/02/23/marines-early-out-options-dwindle-drawdown-ends/80279848/

Obama’s Phoenix Program: Drones One of the least understood aspects of American security policy is the use of armed drones for killing alleged terrorists overseas. These covert executions have long raised grave questions of morality, legality and secrecy. Yet President Obama is failing to adequately address them despite promises to make the program more transparent and accountable.

In the last year and a half, “there has been virtually no progress and little has changed with regard to the U.S. lethal drone policy,” according to a new report by the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, that measured progress on recommendations made by a bipartisan panel of military and intelligence experts in June 2014. The new report, by the Stimson staff, gives Mr. Obama shockingly poor grades of Cs, Ds and Fs across a range of critical categories.  takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/americans-are-still-flying-blind-on-drones/?emc=edit_tnt_20160226&nlid=2254121&tntemail0=y

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

The West is the plan for many of China’s new rich. In the past decade, they have swept into cities like New York, London, and Los Angeles, snapping up real estate and provoking anxieties about inequality and globalized wealth. Rich Chinese have become a fixture in the public imagination, the way rich Russians were in the nineteen-nineties and rich people from the Gulf states were in the decades before that. The Chinese presence in Vancouver is particularly pronounced, thanks to the city’s position on the Pacific Rim, its pleasant climate, and its easy pace of life. China’s newly minted millionaires see the city as a haven in which to place not only their money but, increasingly, their offspring, who come there to get an education, to start businesses, and to socialize.

The children of wealthy Chinese are known as fuerdai, which means “rich second generation.” In a culture where poverty and thrift were long the norm, their extravagances have become notorious. Last year, the son of China’s richest man posted pictures online of his dog wearing two gold-plated Apple Watches, one on each front paw. On Web forums, citizens complain that fuerdai are “flaunting what they haven’t earned” and that “their grotesque displays are a poison to the work ethic of Chinese society.” President Xi Jinping has spoken of the need to “guide the younger generation of private-enterprise owners to think where their money comes from and live a positive life,” and the government recently held an educational retreat for seventy children of billionaires, who were given a crash course in traditional Chinese values and social responsibility. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/chinas-rich-kids-head-west?mbid=social_facebook

Peter Navarro on CSPAN demonstrating the run-up to WW3   www.c-span.org/video/?401605-1/book-discussion-crouching-tiger

Ten Cities in the US–in Ruins

As the most prosperous communities in the United
States have gotten richer since the end of the Great
Recession in 2009, economic conditions in many distressed
areas have deteriorated even further.

A new report by the Economic Innovation Group, based on an analysis of Census Bureau data, found that a number of cities in the old industrial heartland are still among the worst even as surrounding areas have improved markedly. By contrast, the pain has been more spread out in states across the Sun Belt.  (Cleveland, Detroit, and More)  www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/business/economy/poorest-areas-have-missed-out-on-boons-of-recovery-study-finds.html

NYTImes Discovers Most of the Powerful are Rich and White! 

The Faces of American Power, Nearly
as White as the Oscar Nominees

We reviewed 503 of the most powerful people in American culture, government, education and business, and found that just 44 are minorities. Any list of the powerful is subjective, but the people here have an outsize influence on the nation’s rules and culture.  www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/26/us/race-of-american-power.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the Thom Hartmann Program that the United States is now an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” has created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, “look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves.”

Carter was responding to a question from Hartmann about recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign financing like Citizens United.

Transcript:  theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/

When the National Society of High School Scholars asked 18,000 Americans, ages 15 to 29, to rank their ideal future employers, the results were curious. To nobody’s surprise, Google, Apple and Facebook appeared high on the list, but so did the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency. The Build-A-Bear Workshop was No. 50, just a few spots behind Lockheed Martin and JPMorgan Chase. (The New York Times came in at No. 16.)  www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/the-new-dream-jobs.html?emc=edit_tnt_20160226&nlid=2254121&tntemail0=y&_r=0

JNU row: Police likely to book teachers who harboured absconders

After students, it could be the turn of some teachers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to face police action. Highly-placed sources in the Delhi police told Mail Today on Tuesday that they were trying to zero in on teachers and staff of the varsity who had “harboured” the five students accused of sedition regarding the events of February 9. Even the vice chancellor of the varsity could be booked.

Police sources said several teachers were under the scanner as the “sudden disappearance” of the accused was as surprising as their “reappearance” which suggested that they had been hiding in the varsity with inside help.  indiatoday.intoday.in/story/jnu-row-police-likely-to-book-teachers-who-harboured-absconders/1/603699.html

Secret police? Virginia considers bill to withhold all officers’ names.

It started with a reporter’s attempt to learn whether problem police officers were moving from department to department. It resulted in legislation that is again bringing national scrutiny to the Virginia General Assembly: a bill that could keep all Virginia police officers’ names secret.

In a climate where the actions of police nationwide are being watched as never before, supporters say the bill is needed to keep officers safe from people who may harass or harm them. But the effort has drawn the attention of civil rights groups and others who say police should be moving toward more transparency — not less — to ensure that troubled officers are found and removed.

If it is made law, experts say the restriction would be unprecedented nationwide.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/02/24/secret-police-virginia-considers-bill-to-withhold-all-officers-names/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

News Alert: Chinese Media Must Serve the Party

Chinese news media covered President Xi Jinping’s most recent public appearances with adulation befitting a demigod.

Front-page headlines across the nation trumpeted Mr. Xi’s visits to the headquarters of the three main Communist Party and state news organizations on Friday. Photographs showed fawning journalists crowding around Mr. Xi, who sat at an anchor’s desk at the state television network. One media official wrote the president an adoring poem.

The blanket coverage reflected the brazen and far-reaching media policy announced by Mr. Xi on his choreographed tour: The Chinese news media exists to serve as a propaganda tool for the Communist Party, and it must pledge its fealty to Mr. Xi.

Though the party has been tightening its control over the media since Mr. Xi became the top leader in late 2012, the new policy removes any doubt that in the view of the president and party chief, the media should be first and foremost a party mouthpiece. Mr. Xi wants to push the party’s message domestically — and internationally — across all media platforms, including advertising and entertainment, scholars say  www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/world/asia/china-media-policy-xi-jinping.html

Solidarity for Never

Dolos God of Treachery

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago’s premier teachers union collects more than $25 million a year in member dues from roughly 28,000 teachers and administrators. How it spends the money goes far beyond run-of-the-mill pay and benefit negotiations with employers.

Eight CTU employees, including CTU President Karen Lewis, raked in over $100,000 for the 2013-14 school year—the focus of the Sun-Times‘ investigation. Administrator Lynn Cherkasky-Davis was paid a salary of $233,071, while Annette Rizzo, a health and benefits coordinator, made $205,221. Even though Lewis only had the sixth-highest salary in the union—$145,918 without perks and benefits—she also got a separate $67,186 paycheck from the Illinois Federation of Teachers for her role as the organization’s executive vice president. This brought her total compensation to more than $211,000.

Lawyers were another big beneficiary. In 2013-14, the CTU paid more than $1.2 million to Robin Potter and Associates and two other law firms: $500,201 to Dowd, Bloch, and Bennett; $361,958 to Poltrock and Poltrock; and $361,159 to Robin Potter. (Coincidentally, Robin Potter is owned by the mother of Jackson Potter, a CTU staff coordinator and close associate of Lewis’ over the years. The CTU claims this connection had no impact on the decision to recruit the law firm.)  laborpains.org/2016/02/24/chicago-teachers-union-wastes-millions-of-dollars/

Spy versus Spy

A former CIA officer serving jail time for leaking documents to the New York Times accused federal officials of setting a double standard by apparently refusing to aggressively prosecute Hillary Clinton.

Clinton was “a high ranking official who should know better, but completely given a pass, and almost an apologetic pass,” Jeffrey Sterling, who was found guilty of leaking classified information to Times reporter James Risen last year, said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Monday.

The comments from Sterling, who is serving a 3.5-year prison term, come as an indictment of the Democratic presidential frontrunner’s controversial use of a “homebrew” email setup throughout her tenure as secretary of State.

The rhetoric also echoes prominent conservative critics of Clinton, who have claimed that her email practices surely jeopardized national security. Critics have said that the Obama administration should appoint a special prosecutor so that Clinton’s case is handled fairly.

More than 1,700 emails on Clinton’s private email system have been classified, 22 at the highest level of “top secret.” Both the State Department and Clinton’s presidential campaign have insisted that none of the documents were marked as classified at the time they were sent.

Sterling was found guilty of leaking classified details about Iran’s nuclear program. According to the Justice Department, the 19-year CIA veteran leaked the information to Risen after an unsuccessful lawsuit against the spy agency for racial discrimination. Sterling is African American.

The information was subsequently published in Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War.”http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/270271-cia-leaker-clinton-given-a-pass-for-emails

Eyewash’: How the CIA deceives its own workforce about operations

Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”

Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients.

But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.

Teen Who Hacked CIA Director’s Email Tells How He Did It

A hacker who claims to have broken into the AOL account of CIA Director John Brennan says he obtained access by posing as a Verizon worker to trick another employee into revealing the spy chief’s personal information.

Using information like the four digits of Brennan’s bank card, which Verizon easily relinquished, the hacker and his associates were able to reset the password on Brennan’s AOL account repeatedly as the spy chief fought to regain control of it.

News of the hack was first reported by the New York Post after the hacker contacted the newspaper last week. The hackers described how they were able to access sensitive government documents stored as attachments in Brennan’s personal account because the spy chief had forwarded them from his work email.

The documents they accessed included the sensitive 47-page SF-86 application that Brennan had filled out to obtain his top-secret government security clearance. Millions of SF86 applications were obtained recently by hackers who broke into networks belonging to the Office of Personnel Management  www.wired.com/2015/10/hacker-who-broke-into-cia-director-john-brennan-email-tells-how-he-did-it/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSMzkvYWLkQ

Secret Spies of SeaWorld

The Magical Mystery Tour

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

So Long

Yolande Betbeze Fox www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/us/yolande-betbeze-fox-miss-america-who-defied-convention-dies-at-87.html?_r=0