Favorite Song in Intermediate School

I was recently asked this question, and I had a hard time answering it. In reality, I don’t think there’s an answer–that is, I didn’t have <i>one</i> favorite song. Indeed, I don’t have one all-time favorite song. It seems like an impossible question to answer.

And yet, I wanted to try and answer this, so the best song I could come up, within a relatively short time, was Toto’s “Africa.” Really, I think I could probably think of a better song to mention, but I was pressed for time.

But I’m not pressed for time now, so I want to see if I can find a better pick–i.e., a pick that comes closer to my favorite song–or, one of my very favorites–during the intermediate years.

What’s you favorite song during intermediate school years?

Trump’s Pattern of Reckless Handling of U.S. Intelligence

This month the FBI went to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve U.S. documents (i.e., documents that belong to the U.S. government, not Trump), and we’re learning that a) the National Archives, the agency that is irresponsible for these documents have tried repeatedly, over a year, to get them back, and b) Trump had highly classified documents–in insecure facilities. There are various levels of classification for these documents, and Trump had among the most secretive and crucial–documents that only a few people have permission to see and documents that require special, secure facilities–both in terms of storage and viewing. For example, some of the documents involve information about the method and sources of vital information–i.e., the way we obtain highly secretive information and the actual individuals, which include individuals from other countries, who obtain this information.

In light of this recent information, someone mentioned a October 5, 2021 NYT article, which had this as the lede:

Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said.

The article points out the problem wasn’t entirely new, and it pointed to problems with the process of recruiting agents (i.e., informants/spies), underestimating foreign adversaries, and other issues. But in light of recent news, I can’t help but wonder if foreign spies identified agents of the U.S. and captured and killed them. For example, check out this paragraph:

A breach of the classified communications system, or “covcom,” used by the C.I.A. helped to expose the agency’s networks in China and in Iran, according to former officials. In both cases informants were executed. Others had to be extracted and resettled by the agency.

Does the C.I.A. know the details of the breach or is it still a mystery?

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