5.1 mil. Americans have security clearances. That’s more than the entire population of Norway

[timosman]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ion-of-norway/

March 24, 2014

Critics of the country's national security apparatus say Washington is addicted to secrecy. Judging by the ballooning number of Americans with government security clearances, they might have a point.

About 5.1 million people — or more than 1.5 percent of the population — held security clearances last year, up from 4.9 million people with clearances the year before. The new figure comes via a report commissioned by President Obama and released by the Office of Management and Budget, which estimates that 60 percent of those security clearances had immediate access to confidential data.

...

Here is your 1%.

[Swordsmyth]

It's time for a blanket revocation for anyone who isn't currently required to have one.

[VIDEODROME]

I'm thinking of getting a TWIC Card. I wonder if that counts.

[tod evans]

Declassify everything and watch the $#@! hit the fan...

[Aratus]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ion-of-norway/


Here is your 1%.

Declassify everything and watch the $#@! hit the fan...

I agree. Even if it's to the 99.999999999 percentile, it's a step in the right direction!

[timosman]

I agree. Even if it's to the 99.999999999 percentile, it's a step in the right direction!

You can never be perfect. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Stop not letting people know about the fact you know their bull$#@!. The results are almost immediate.

[Aratus]

You can never be perfect. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Stop not letting people know about the fact you know their bull$#@!. The results are almost immediate.

I've watched certain folks do FOIA requests, at the BLACK VAULT site,
the youthful owner spent five years requesting Benghazi files, only to
finally get them just the other day, due to their sensitivity. If 99.9% of
the files are released that are inside the system, this is a major system
dump. This could include WW1 and WW2 era files, let alone quite a few
of Alan Turing's technical papers that are still inside the NSA. By holding
back on one file out of a million, we keep a Top Secret clearance. Up above
"tod evens" suggested declassifying everything. I stopped jist a tad short.

[Aratus]

If you want to be clever, you release files only if the person can accurately
name the system header, but not a batch of 'em as to a given hypertext topic.
Without a precise filing system, one can be inside a labrynthian D.C maze of jargon.
Like knowing Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress, or not... It becomes a big
paper chase once you enter the 'innards' of the way IKE ran things in the 50s.

[timosman]

I've watched certain folks do FOIA requests, at the BLACK VAULT site,
the youthful owner spent five years requesting Benghazi files, only to
finally get them just the other day, due to their sensitivity. If 99.9% of
the files are released that are inside the system, this is a major system
dump. This could include WW1 and WW2 era files, let alone quite a few
of Alan Turing's technical papers that are still inside the NSA. By holding
back on one file out of a million, we keep a Top Secret clearance. Up above
"tod evens" suggested declassifying everything. I stopped jist a tad short.

4 years, 1 term after the end of the last term max. At least we would know if the current $#@! is doing anything about the mistakes of the past. If they have long term plans they shouldn't be secret. I hope they are not planning WW III. The bull$#@! about time needed to infiltrate a criminal org in order to figure out what they are up to needs to end.

[Aratus]

Trekkie logic. Any plans to any matter/antimatter device that has ten pounds of gold or lead do more than just implode ought to be top secret... This is the level above leaking A or H Bomb specs, even if ancient and almost WW2 era!!!

[timosman]

Trekkie logic. Any plans to any matter/antimatter device that has ten pounds of gold or lead do more than just implode ought to be top secret... This is the level above leaking A or H Bomb specs, even if ancient and almost WW2 era!!!

It shouldn't be secret. The government should not have that much power.

[Aratus]

It shouldn't be secret. The government should not have that much power.

Further Star Trek lore from the 196Os about the events Gene Roddenberry postulated for his tv franchise
that he has happening after A.D 2062 involves how the Vulcans contact we lowly humans and the first
technical space flight that accelerates faster than a ion rocket on impulse power. FTL speed travel. The
universe opening up despite Murphy's Law to something faster than Robert Heinlein's spindizzys. Humour
me with the idea that projects at the federal level can royally bollix or screw things up when they are not
to the good. Having the plans for a matter/antimatter device and having it be a cakewalk snap to build
does suggest it will be built. Since WW2 powerful senators often fund basic R & D ideas. This is a trend.
If you don't keep the good folks who are near total screw-ups away from your new gizmo device that
you are experimentally testing, unexpected results can happen. In part, this is behind the idea that less
government can be a better idea than more government. If you implode to a near totally the amount of
gold and/or lead that can fit inside a railway car, you might end up modifying the face of the earth in a
big way. Even the uranium or plutonium or radium inside a nuke will do something highly significant
if ALL or nearly all the matter is converted to energy. Go to Einstein's formula. The arena to test even
a simple device like this does not exist even on Antartica, which has a very small population currently.
This is a Trekkie version of how an apocalypse can result from gov't bloat at the federal level. Sincerely said.

[timosman]

Further Star Trek lore from the 196Os about the events Gene Roddenberry postulated for his tv franchise
that he has happening after A.D 2062 involves how the Vulcans contact we lowly humans and the first
technical space flight that accelerates faster than a ion rocket on impulse power. FTL speed travel. The
universe opening up despite Murphy's Law to something faster than Robert Heinlein's spindizzys. Humour
me with the idea that projects at the federal level can royally bollix or screw things up when they are not
to the good. Having the plans for a matter/antimatter device and having it be a cakewalk snap to build
does suggest it will be built. Since WW2 powerful senators often fund basic R & D ideas. This is a trend.
If you don't keep the good folks who are near total screw-ups away from your new gizmo device that
you are experimentally testing, unexpected results can happen. In part, this is behind the idea that less
government can be a better idea than more government. If you implode to a near totally the amount of
gold and/or lead that can fit inside a railway car, you might end up modifying the face of the earth in a
big way. Even the uranium or plutonium or radium inside a nuke will do something highly significant
if ALL or nearly all the matter is converted to energy. Go to Einstein's formula. The arena to test even
a simple device like this does not exist even on Antartica, which has a very small population currently.
This is a Trekkie version of how an apocalypse can result from gov't bloat at the federal level. Sincerely said.

The apocalypse can not result from government bloat?

[Aratus]

The apocalypse can not result from government bloat?

On the other hand, if you simply have gov't bloat but if none of the security cleared people
you have near the top secret projects are bollixed up or screwed up or just screw-ups, you
might get lucky. They will simply look at the plans for the matter/antimatter device and not
build it. The devil is in the details. This is the decision tree fork in our evolution. TREK = fiction

[Aratus]

There is a whole generation of Trekkies who wanted to be a starship captain because
Kirk's Enterprise has more power under the hood than a hundred vintage T-Birds!!!

[timosman]

On the other hand, if you simply have gov't bloat but if none of the security cleared people
you have near the top secret projects are bollixed up or screwed up or just screw-ups, you
might get lucky. They will simply look at the plans for the matter/antimatter device and not
build it. The devil is in the details. This is the decision tree fork in our evolution. TREK = fiction

[Aratus]

The apocalypse can #### result from government bloat?

Just think, methinks at the century mark of THE CAGE, the Star Trek pilot from 1964, we may have
working designs for matter/antimatter devices and artificial intelligences like Commander Data, and
if you are alive then, worry if they want to test an engine drive way too close to this planet Earth...

[timosman]

There is a whole generation of Trekkies who wanted to be a starship captain because
Kirk's Enterprise has more power under the hood than a hundred vintage T-Birds!!!

What does this ad hominem have to do with the discussion at hand? Haven't seen any Trekkies around before you came.

[timosman]

Just think, methinks at the century mark of THE CAGE, the Star Trek pilot from 1964, we may have
working designs for matter/antimatter devices and artificial intelligences like Commander Data, and
if you are alive then, worry if they want to test an engine drive way too close to this planet Earth...

Are you OK? Please dial 911 if you are not well.

[Aratus]

MARK TWAIN's book... THE DAMNED HUMAN RACE is brilliantly titled.
Odds are, it's prophesy. Donald Trump is a catalyst. He is a screw-up.

[timosman]

MARK TWAIN's book... THE DAMNED HUMAN RACE is brilliantly titled.
Odds are, it's prophesy. Donald Trump is a catalyst. He is a screw-up.

You can not stay on topic, can you?

[Aratus]

You can not stay on topic, can you?

You know me. I'd change Trump's clearances first, and work back in time by
each administration until I got to the IKE era ones, to prune things down to
where we have only 500,000+ people and not the five million. I am aiming at
Idiocy &a Bloat. I'd declassify 99.99% of the gov't files in phase one. In my
book you get to only 50,000 people having a clearance, this is like what FDR
had. Or HST. Before IKE. You then release 9/10ths more of the files...likewise.
By phase two, you see if you need to do more things, if so then do phase 3.

[Aratus]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ion-of-norway/

The topic today is this perfectly brilliant and well written WASHINGTON POST article!

[Aratus]

Here is your 1%.

5.1 million divided by 100 = 51,000

333+ million divided by 100 = 333,000 plus

Technically, it's less than 1/6th of our top 1%

[timosman]

The topic today is this perfectly brilliant and well written WASHINGTON POST article!

Not a good time for an ad hominem after the issue has been debated for a while. Are you trying to distract Tekkies?

[Zippyjuan]

You know me. I'd change Trump's clearances first, and work back in time by
each administration until I got to the IKE era ones, to prune things down to
where we have only 500,000+ people and not the five million. I am aiming at
Idiocy &a Bloat. I'd declassify 99.99% of the gov't files in phase one. In my
book you get to only 50,000 people having a clearance, this is like what FDR
had. Or HST. Before IKE. You then release 9/10ths more of the files...likewise.
By phase two, you see if you need to do more things, if so then do phase 3.

Presidents and Congress don't need security clearances. Unless revoked, security clearances are generally for life.

[timosman]

5.1 million divided by 100 = 51,000

333+ million divided by 100 = 333,000 plus

Technically, it's less than 1/6th of our top 1%

Are you a top grader in a common core school trying to troll the forum? Kids these days.

[timosman]

Presidents and Congress don't need security clearances. Unless revoked, security clearances are generally for life.

How stupid is that?

[Aratus]

Not a good time for an ad hominem after the issue has been debated for a while. Are you trying to distract Tekkies?

Are you saying the WaPo screwed up the numbers statistically speaking?
Why pull in poor Norway? We have MORE people with security clearances
than actually live in Rhode Island and if SPACE FORCE expands the number
who actually have top secret or better clearances, then we will have a big
number equal to the good folks who live in the state of Massachusetts now.

[Aratus]

If SPACE FORCE becomes SIXTH branch of the armed services,
6.66+ million people will need security clearances, even if all be at
minimum wage, and good folks are farmed out to TRUMP INc!!!