On Monday, however, the various issues associated with Clinton’s email setup came roaring back. According to emails released by the FBI, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy asked the FBI to ease up on classification decisions in exchange for allowing more FBI agents in countries where they were not permitted to go. The words “quid pro quo” were used to describe the proposed exchange by the FBI official. (The State Department insists it was no such thing; “This allegation is inaccurate and does not align with the facts,” said State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner in a statement. “To be clear: the State Department did upgrade the document at the request of the FBI when we released it back in May 2015.”)

The FBI responded that the classification specialist with whom Kennedy made this request was not part of the investigation into Clinton’s emails and is now retired.

Happens all the time? Not really

The Clinton campaign will, as it has done every time there is any news about whether she sent or received classified material on her private server, chalk this up to an interagency dispute over classification. Typical bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo, they will say. This sort of stuff happens all the time!

Except, not really. First of all, we already know from FBI Director James B. Comey that Clinton sent and received emails and information that was classified at the time. (“110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received,” Comey said in his remarkable press conference on the FBI investigation.) Clinton’s explanation has now evolved to this: She didn’t know documents marked with a “c” meant they were confidential (and therefore classified) and, therefore, she never knowingly sent or received classified material – with the emphasis on “knowingly.”

That’s a tough position to hold in light of Kennedy’s attempted quid pro quo, which suggests that at least some people at State were actively trying to fiddle with classification determinations made by the FBI.

It’s hard to square the idea of Kennedy offering a quid pro quo to the FBI regarding a classification decision and Clinton not even knowing that “c” on documents stands for “classified.” One suggests deep understanding of how the classification process works. The other doesn’t.

Now, simply because Kennedy asked for a quid pro quo regarding classification doesn’t mean that Clinton asked him to do so. There’s no evidence of that. There’s also no evidence that Clinton had a conversation of any sort with Kennedy about his classification request. And it’s important to remember that Kennedy is a career officer at State, having worked in the same administrative job for Condoleezza Rice prior to Clinton, so he’s not exactly a partisan.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire

That said, this latest revelation adds more evidence to the “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” argument that Republicans have long made about Clinton’s email setup. The idea of setting up a quid pro quo when it comes to classifications of information will, for many people, confirm their suspicions that the government bureaucracy is simply protecting Clinton. If a State Department official is offering a quid pro quo in this one exchange, can you imagine what they are doing off the books?

Speaker Paul Ryan’s statement speaks directly to that suspicion. “A senior State Department official’s attempt to pressure the FBI to hide the extent of this mishandling bears all the signs of a cover-up,” Ryan said. “This is why our aggressive oversight work in the House is so important, and it will continue.”

Donald Trump was more succinct. “Unbelievable,” he tweeted.

Although a Twitter account he retweeted laid it out in no uncertain terms:

“CORRUPTION CONFIRMED: FBI confirms State Dept. offered ‘quid pro quo’ to cover up classified email”

If the fire burning in Republicans over Clinton’s email server was threatening to flicker out – or at least lose some of its heat – this new information is the equivalent of taking a can’s worth of lighter fluid and dousing the conflagration. It’s going to start burning a lot hotter very soon.

As you said, certainly the race that suffered the indignity or harm must have not liked it either. Thank you for suppling me with that nice come-back and logical piece of wisdom.

Astronomers engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are training their instruments on a star around 94 light years from Earth after a very strong signal was detected by a Russian telescope.

An international team of researchers is now examining the radio signal and its star, HD 164595 — described in a paper by Italian astronomer Claudio Maccone and others as a “strong candidate for SETI” — in the hopes of determining its origin.
“The signal from HD 164595 is intriguing, because it comes from the vicinity of a sun-like star, and if it’s artificial, its strength is great enough that it was clearly made by a civilization with capabilities beyond those of humankind,” astronomer Douglas Vakoch, president of METI International, which searches for life beyond Earth, tells CNN.
Whenever a strong signal is detected, “it’s a good possibility for some nearby civilization to be detected,” Maccone tells CNN.
But experts say it is highly unlikely to be a message from alien beings.
“Without corroboration from an independent observatory, a putative signal from extraterrestrials doesn’t have a lot of credibility,” Vakoch says.
Advanced civilization?
Paul Gilster of the Tau Zero Foundation, which conducts interstellar research, said that if the signal was artificial, its strength suggested it would have to come from a civilization more advanced than our own.
Such a civilization would likely be Type II on the Kardashev scale, an attempt by the Soviet astronomer of the same name to categorize various technological stages of civilizations.
“The Kardashev scale is based basically on the energy that that civilization might be able to funnel for its own use,” says Maccone.
At present, our own species is somewhere near Type I on the scale, whereby a civilization is able to harness all the energy available to it on its own planet, including solar, wind, earthquakes, and other fuels.

Dyson swarm (pictured) or Dyson spheres are proposed technologies for capturing all energy emitted by a star.
A Type II civilization would be able to harness the entirety of the energy emitted by its star, billions of billions of watts.
Doing so would require a colossal undertaking, likely the construction of some kind of superstructure, such as a giant sphere or swarm of super-advanced solar panels popularized by astronomer Freeman Dyson that could catch and store all radiation put out by the sun.
Scientists believe superstructures are probably our best chance of detecting alien life unless they are actively trying to communicate with us.
A Dyson sphere was one of the solutions suggested to the peculiar light fluctuations detected around Tabby’s Star, which caused great excitement when they were detected last year.
Maccone is working on developing an alternative mathematical measure of how advanced civilizations are, based on the amount of knowledge and information available to them, that “might help us in the future classify alien civilizations” that we detect.
Dimming star remains mystery, but it’s likely not caused by comets

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram lines up planets recently discovered by Kepler in terms of their sizes, compared with Earth. Kepler-22b was announced in December 2011; the three Super-Earths were announced April 18, 2013. All of them could potentially host life, but we do not know anything definitive about their compositions or atmosphere.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This illustration depicts Kepler-62e, a planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun. It is about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This illustration depicts Kepler-62f, a planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, in the same system as Kepler-62e.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram compares the planets of our own inner solar system to Kepler-62, a five-planet system about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are thought capable of hosting life.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
The planet Kepler-69c is about 2,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram compares the planets of our own inner solar system to Kepler-69, which hosts a planet Kepler-69c that appears to be capable of hosting life, in addition to planet Kepler-69b.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This artist’s illustration represents the variety of planets being detected by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
The Kepler mission has discovered 1,284 new planets. Of these newly discovered planets, nine orbit in the habitable zone of their star and nearly 550 are possibly rocky planets roughly around the same size as Earth.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. Given the proximity of the dwarf star, the rosy sun would appear very large in the sky.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
On Thursday, July 23, NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b, “Earth’s bigger, older cousin.” This artistic concept shows what the planet might look like. Scientists can’t tell yet whether Kepler-452b has oceans and continents like Earth.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
Kepler-452b is about 60% larger than Earth, left. It’s about 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
A team of astronomers announced April 17, 2014, that they discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the “habitable zone”: the distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface. That doesn’t mean this planet has life on it, says Thomas Barclay, a scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames and a co-author of a paper on the planet, called Kepler-186f. He says the planet can be thought of as an “Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth.” The planet was discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. It’s about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The picture above is an artist’s concept of what it might look like.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
Scientists announced in June 2013 that three planets orbiting star Gliese 667C could be habitable. This is an artist’s impression of the view from one of those planets, looking toward the parent star in the center. The other two stars in the system are visible to the right.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram shows the planets thought to orbit star Gliese 667C, where c, f and e appear to be capable of having liquid water. The relative sizes, but not relative separations, are shown to scale.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram lines up planets recently discovered by Kepler in terms of their sizes, compared with Earth. Kepler-22b was announced in December 2011; the three Super-Earths were announced April 18, 2013. All of them could potentially host life, but we do not know anything definitive about their compositions or atmosphere.
Hide Caption
8 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This illustration depicts Kepler-62e, a planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun. It is about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.
Hide Caption
9 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This illustration depicts Kepler-62f, a planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, in the same system as Kepler-62e.
Hide Caption
10 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram compares the planets of our own inner solar system to Kepler-62, a five-planet system about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are thought capable of hosting life.
Hide Caption
11 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
The planet Kepler-69c is about 2,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
Hide Caption
12 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram compares the planets of our own inner solar system to Kepler-69, which hosts a planet Kepler-69c that appears to be capable of hosting life, in addition to planet Kepler-69b.
Hide Caption
13 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This artist’s illustration represents the variety of planets being detected by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.
Hide Caption
14 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
The Kepler mission has discovered 1,284 new planets. Of these newly discovered planets, nine orbit in the habitable zone of their star and nearly 550 are possibly rocky planets roughly around the same size as Earth.
Hide Caption
1 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. Given the proximity of the dwarf star, the rosy sun would appear very large in the sky.
Hide Caption
2 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
On Thursday, July 23, NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b, “Earth’s bigger, older cousin.” This artistic concept shows what the planet might look like. Scientists can’t tell yet whether Kepler-452b has oceans and continents like Earth.
Hide Caption
3 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
Kepler-452b is about 60% larger than Earth, left. It’s about 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
Hide Caption
4 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
A team of astronomers announced April 17, 2014, that they discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the “habitable zone”: the distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface. That doesn’t mean this planet has life on it, says Thomas Barclay, a scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames and a co-author of a paper on the planet, called Kepler-186f. He says the planet can be thought of as an “Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth.” The planet was discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. It’s about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The picture above is an artist’s concept of what it might look like.
Hide Caption
5 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
Scientists announced in June 2013 that three planets orbiting star Gliese 667C could be habitable. This is an artist’s impression of the view from one of those planets, looking toward the parent star in the center. The other two stars in the system are visible to the right.
Hide Caption
6 of 14

Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth
This diagram shows the planets thought to orbit star Gliese 667C, where c, f and e appear to be capable of having liquid water. The relative sizes, but not relative separations, are shown to scale.
Hide Caption
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What’s happening at HD 164595?
In a statement, Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, said that “it’s hard to understand why anyone would want to target our solar system with a strong signal.”
“This star system is so far away they won’t have yet picked up on any TV or radar that would tell them that we’re here,” he added.
METI International will be observing the star from the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama, Vakoch says, “searching for any brief laser pulses that might be sent as a beacon from advanced extraterrestrials.”

NASA: Proof of alien life in 20 years 01:08
The SETI Institute is also examining HD 164595, using the Allen Telescope Array in California.
So far, the team has not found any signals to match those originally detected by the Russian telescope, but Shostak notes that “we have not yet covered the full range of frequencies in which the signal could be located.”
“A detection, of course, would immediately spur the SETI and radio astronomy communities to do more follow-up observations.”
According to Vakoch, “if this were really a signal from extraterrestrials, we’d want to survey the target star across as much of the electromagnetic spectrum as we could.”

The discovery of a strange star could mean alien life 01:46
So is it aliens?
Probably not, says Vakoch, pointing to potential technological interference or amplification through gravitational lensing, where a signal behind a planet or other large object appears to be far stronger than it actually is, as potential causes.
Maccone says gravitational lensing is “an important possibility that should be taken into account for future SETI research.”
“We should learn how to discriminate that against real extraterrestrial signals,” he added.
Vakoch says “the greatest limitation of the May 2015 signal is that it hasn’t been replicated. Before we can give any credence to a signal as coming from extraterrestrials, we need to see it repeatedly to make sure it wasn’t just a transient phenomenon.”
“It deserves at least a few hours of observing time by SETI researchers at other locations to make sure we don’t miss an opportunity to make first contact, however remote.”
If it does prove to be transient and unexplained, HD 164595 could become another “Wow! signal,” frustratingly tantalizing and mysterious in equal measures.
Shostak writes that “of course (it’s) possible” the signal could be from an extraterrestrial civilization, but without confirmation, “we can only say that it’s ‘interesting’.”
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Hope that helps.