The National Security State

Beyond our control kind of says it all regarding the 24/7 surveillance performed on us rubes courtesy the National Security State created immediately after 9/11 thanks to W, Congress and the willingness to allow FUD to take over our lives no matter what the cost may be.

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

The investigation's other findings include:

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

Note,The Hidden World piece is almost 9 years old, think of how many more hidden agencies there are since 2010, designed to track us even more thanks to initiatives created by Obama and Trump. Warms the cockles of one's heart doesn't it.