re: "It's gotten so bad in the last few decades that I half-wonder if some Great Plan was hatched to dumb down the masses and thus perpetuate what documentarian Adam Curtis called "The Trap"."

[John Dewey's] outrageous Hegelianism, the state is supreme, the individual merely a pawn to be trained. This is the basis of our 'educational system'...or you could go and explore the members of [Skull & Bones] who brought the system to the US. This trained "sausage mind" outlook has thoroughly permeated our universities--that's why we have the peer review system...we are all supposed to think alike and find the same answers. This political correctness garbage is another step to total thought control.

-Anthony Sutton On 'Skull & Bones,' US Banks Financing Hitler, & 'Trance-Formation'

http://www.rense.com/politics6/SKULL.htm

Yes the Bushniks' hypocrisy makes me want to vomit and yet I'm still getting emails from my American brother in law urging me to read something called 'The Messiah' which was read out on

Hannity and Combs on Fox. This is about Obama, of course. I told him to stop wasting his time: Obama is going to be President and as a constitutional lawyer he will be a refreshing change from George 'The Pet Goat' Bush and Dick 'I love crime' Cheney and also John 'one hundred years of war' McCain. He can read ( a clear improvement on Bush) and he actually has some concept of the rule of law and even understands something about the constitution of the United States. But the mentally deficient will just go on watching Fox News and pretending it's all a nightmare that will go away. What else can they do? Like the Bushniks themselves they are twisted beyond redemption. Bush and his bunch of ferals should be in jail but no one has the guts to do what needs to be done. Not even Obama. I don't think Hillary Clinton would have lost one minute's sleep over slapping these misfits in jail cells. Not after what they did to Bill -and her. When Nixon was doing this stuff on a much lesser scale Rumsfeld and Cheney were there in the background and so was Bush I. It was Bush I who wrote Dick the Dear Dick letter telling him the party was over and he had to go or be impeached. These old ultra right politicians are like prostitution: illegal but thriving. Everyone should read 'Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism'. It's the big picture on why catastrophe has become the norm from Iraq and Afghanistan to Russia and Wall Street. A bit like turning over a rock and seeing all those bugs swarming. People who can't understand Putin's hold over the Russians should remember that the Russians asked Ivan the Terrible to come back after they threw him out and the country descended into anarchy. He returned the favour by creating the Oprichnina, the forerunner of the KGB. Described as 'six thousand cutthroats'they rode around on black horses terrorising the populace. Putin's a bastard but the Russians are used to bastards (authoritarian rule) and they believe the alternative is chaos. Now, no American voter would be foolish enough to fall for that, would they? And surely they wouldn't believe that democracy is some kind of virus that can be 'spread' by armies and that laissez-faire capitalism can save the world? The ones who watch Fox can.

In fact, the institution of education has become so ineffective that I doubt the average voter knows much of what s/he's voting on, understands the Constitution, or values the role of the press.

While I agree with most of what you have posted today, you might be underestimating the state of our national intelligence.

With Bush's approval rating around 27% and Congress's approval rating is half that, it's obvious the public is very aware of what is going on and they hate it.

The real problem is that most Americans have come to believe that there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that can be done about it. We no longer feel we are in control of our government. People believe the government is going to do what they want to do, and nothing we say or do can stop it.

That's one reason why Obama has garnered so many enthusiastic supporters. He's convinced a segment of the disaffected voters that he can and will change things for the better. He better deliver or it will only deepen our disaffection.

Or as Claude Raines famously said, "I'm shocked, shocked . . . . "

You don't hold a firecracker in your hands until it explodes. At least not twice. Not unless you really have some issues in your life.

This story is getting old. It ain't news anymore. This is not a revelation. There is no discussion here. This ain't even elephant-talk. This is a tape-loop about stuff that is woven into the American way of life.

Life ain't fair. Never has been, never will be as long as the country is populated by nitwits and run by the folks who know that fact, and benefit from it. It all comes down to a few factors.

Americans are ignorant, often willingly so, and seemed pleased to be that way. Why bother thinking things through and discussing it when you can (excuse me George Carlin) outdick the other guy. I mean, why bother your pretty little head (excuse me Babs) when you can put a lot of hurt on those who don't follow the bottom line -- America is NUMBER ONE and Americans are really, really special folks. This is the elephantguy / low-orbit-guy / electrolux-guy / shooter-guy / etc. people's way of thought. It's a part of being American, more so in some folks, less so in other folks.

It's the great unspoken.

Then there's the John Wayne-Ronnie Reagan / Warrior myth. Support the troops even though they may be morons / maniacs / misfits / misogynists. Whatever. They are heroes, out there because they love their country, and they are defending America, fighting for freedom, spreading democracy. You can p*ss and moan all day about socialized medicine, public schools and big gummint, but nobody bats an eye when it comes down to the biggest scam on the planet earth -- the U.S. military. Shee-it, you don't want to be number two when there are manical islamofascists hiding under your bed, ready to saw your head off because they hates our freedoms. So we hafta take the fight to them. Waste them there so we don't hafta fight them in the streets of Boise. So look the other way when they spend all that dough on necessary military stuff to take out the bad guys. Basically, its all about having the public pay for big business' muscle. Sheesh, nothing new under the sun. It's a racket under the guise of patriotism, which is the last refuge for . . . .

And another great American trait. When you screw up, you blame someone else. Not that we screw up, which is step one in the whole process -- deny. Failing that,lie about it. Brazenly and shamelessly. Turn the tables on the other guy. "Hey, we may have lied to start an illegal war of agression to exert our power on the world, control territory, and hand immense chunks of wealth to our buddies, but we didn't lie about getting a BJ . . . "

Finally, you hafta thump your chest and say something like, "Oh yeah, well, they did it first", or, "At least we don't saw their heads off", or "We have a right to defend ourselves, I mean, we're in a war to preserve our way of life", or, "Things happen."

And so it goes. The WaPo is just a symptom, it is not the general malaise . . .