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Attempt at derailment

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, October 27, 2023 7:11 AM

I've never had a problem telling people what I did (I'm civilian retired), although perhaps not in very much depth.  Most anything I did that was classified is declassified or so out-of-date as to be irrelevant.

OTOH, the government does take potential leaks very seriously.  I haven't been investigated myself, but have been interviewed for a couple...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, October 27, 2023 7:11 AM

Psychot
One good rule of thumb for government employees: if someone says they can't tell you what they do, there's about a 99% chance they work some mundane admin job and are trying to sound more important than they are. Those who really can't talk about their work simply throw their fabricated cover legend at you, as they're trained to do.

Before 9/11 a sports car club I belonged to had originally been formed by employees of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, MD.  The club used the parking lots of the NSA facility to hold 'low speed' competitive events.  Employees, then, could say they worked for NSA, they couldn't tell anyone what it was that they actually did in working for NSA.  NSA and the MP's of Fort Meade enforced one rule at our events on the NSA parking lots - NO CAMERAS!  If the MP's saw a camera in use, they would stop the person and confiscate any film the person had - in the camera or on their person.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by NittanyLion on Friday, October 27, 2023 9:53 AM

alphas

"... when we're supposed to be a society that aspires to 'better to let a hundred guilty go free rather than punish one innocent wrongly' as our ideal of the presumption of innocence."

 

That sounds very nice but in today's USA of 350M residents with estimates that 2M or more are involved in gangs and similar plus all the drug related violent crime, actually following that ideal will cause chaos in society.   

My limited experienc participating in the USA criminal justice system is juries usually do a fair job of judging defendents so the system normally works.    Now the civil justice system is another matter.   I believe it is basically now "broken" for various reasons.

 

And if you're so familiar with the system via juries, you'd know that you're instructed to follow that model.  That's why we don't find people innocent and instead call them "not guilty." 

"Err on the side of caution" does not mean that our system is intentionally letting the guilty walk free.

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Posted by CMStPnP on Friday, October 27, 2023 11:33 AM

caldreamer

I am still not allowed to say.  I do not wish to spend the rest of my life in the super max prison in Florence Colorado.  By the way, such nice people such as Terry Nichols the Oklahoma city bomer and El Chapo are finding out how hard life in that prison is spending 23 hours a day in 7X12 foot room.

What does this even remotely have to do with Trains or Railroads?   

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Posted by CMStPnP on Friday, October 27, 2023 11:47 AM

Psychot
One good rule of thumb for government employees: if someone says they can't tell you what they do, there's about a 99% chance they work some mundane admin job and are trying to sound more important than they are. Those who really can't talk about their work simply throw their fabricated cover legend at you, as they're trained to do.

Been my experience as well also most clearences or a good percentage are issued for just in case you come across something not for you handle secret stuff everyday.   I had a public confidence clearence until recently and it was for just in case.   I never saw anything in 6 years that justified the clearence.   The secrecy in me not being able to tell someone what I did in detail (which I can do now) was because of fear I might be targeted by hackers.......that was it. 

On this topic and back to Trains.   I can understand why railroads want to know who is on or near their property.    I think a lot of railroads use aerial platforms now as well as high rail trucks to keep things secure or to check on things.   The hi rail truck is kind of becomming obsolete in some purposes that it was used in the past for.    Probably still has some utility though.

Reason I mention the paragraph above is you can't just look around and think it is OK to tresspass anymore.   Pretty sure you have to look up now as well.

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Friday, October 27, 2023 2:51 PM

caldreamer

I am still not allowed to say.  I do not wish to spend the rest of my life in the super max prison in Florence Colorado.  By the way, such nice people such as Terry Nichols the Oklahoma city bomer and El Chapo are finding out how hard life in that prison is spending 23 hours a day in 7X12 foot room.

 

Sounds like too many video games and meth.

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Posted by caldreamer on Friday, October 27, 2023 9:22 PM

 I grew up in Brooklyn and saw what the Mafia controled. As far as Jimmy Hoffa was concerned, He got what he deserved.  It makes me laugh every time the FBI goes hunting for him.  Its been 47 years and they have a better chance of finding Amelia Earhart then they have of finding Jimm hoffa.                          Murderers and drug dealers deserve their day in court.  Terrorists and traitors only long enough to be sentenced and executed.

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Posted by alphas on Saturday, October 28, 2023 12:52 AM

 

"And yet the USA has more people behind bars than the rest of the world - country by country."

 

The USA is the 3rd largest country by population so its meaningless to compare it's head count to other counties that have far less population.   Of the two larger countries: 

China is a controlling dictatorship that treats the criminal very harshly; has not allowed the drug problem to develope to what the US has; uses the death penalty for major offenses so there's less long-term prisoners; and has plenty of both slave labor and "prison type" labor that it does not officially count as prisoners.  So no one outside of their government knows what the real prisoner head count actually is. 

I know very little of India's legal system of today.   However, back in the late 60's I worked with an Indian friend.   He told me their justice system was very corrupt and anyone of the right caste or having financial resources could get off.    I'm not aware of India now having the drug problem to anywhere near the extent that the US currently has.

 

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Posted by Backshop on Saturday, October 28, 2023 6:34 AM

caldreamer

  Terrorists and traitors only long enough to be sentenced and executed.

 

How do you know they're guilty without a trial?   I guess that you would have no problem killing Richard Jewell?

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