re: Yoda and the Clone Wars era Jedi Council were really not competent at their jobs at all

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I always had the impression that Palpatine had the ability to hide or cloak his powers. It's part of what made him so powerful.

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Of course. They were all around him all the time. And it’s documented that force users can sense the force in others - midochlorian testing was just done to identify the level of force ability people had. They would have sensed Palpatine’s massive force presence if he couldn’t hide it