You are here

The vision for Evergreene Digest is to be the preferred one-stop on-line source for information and perspectives that major news entities exclude from the present day American conversation. The Internet makes it possible to loosen the grip on big media by taking the news into our own hands. We readers-turned-reporters can restore integrity to the nation's single most vital conduit for democratic participation, our media.

Home Page

Can the Middle Class Be Saved?

The Great Recession has accelerated the hollowing-out of the American middle class. And it has illuminated the widening divide between most of America and the super-rich. Both developments herald grave consequences. Here is how we can bridge the gap between us.

Don Peck, Atlantic

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button above—so we can bring you more just like it.

Andy Reynolds/Wonderful Machine

In October, 2005, three Citigroup analysts released a report describing the pattern of growth in the U.S. economy. To really understand the future of the economy and the stock market, they wrote, you first needed to recognize that there was “no such animal as the U.S. consumer,” and that concepts such as “average” consumer debt and “average” consumer spending were highly misleading.

In fact, they said, America was composed of two distinct groups: the rich and the rest. And for the purposes of investment decisions, the second group didn’t matter; tracking its spending habits or worrying over its savings rate was a waste of time. All the action in the American economy was at the top: the richest 1 percent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 percent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure was flowing through their hands and into their pockets. It was this segment of the population, almost exclusively, that held the key to future growth and future returns. The analysts, Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod, and Narendra Singh, had coined a term for this state of affairs: plutonomy.

More...

Section(s): 

Series | Beyond the Battlefield, Part 10


Exploring the challenges that severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and their loved ones face after they return home

  • Part 10: As Veterans Fight For Needed Care, Long-Term Funding Remains A Question Mark
  • Portraits Of Lives Reconstructed
  • The Growing Survivability Of Battle and its Costs

David Wood, Huffington Post

Former Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., urged Congress in 2001 to set aside money for wounded veterans.

Huffington Post Editor's Note: "Beyond the Battlefield" is a 10-part series exploring the challenges that severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan face after they return home, as well as what those struggles mean for those close to them. Other stories in the series can be found here. Listen to reporter David Wood discuss "Beyond The Battlefield" with NPR's Terry Gross here.

 Three days after Sept. 11, 2001, Congress met to authorize giving the president the power to respond with "all necessary and appropriate force" to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. It was, in effect, a declaration of the war that has now lasted a decade. In a rhetorical cascade that went on for five hours, hundreds of politicians of both parties joined the war fervor, demanding that troops be sent to "crush" the perpetrators and their supporters.

Only one person, a now-retired Democratic congresswoman, took time to observe that war would create a new generation of wounded veterans who would need lifetime care, and that Congress ought to agree to pay those bills before sending young Americans into battle.

More...

Related:

Portraits Of Lives Reconstructed, Huffington Post

  • To accompany the ten part series by David Wood, Beyond The Battlefield, The Huffington Post has produced video portraits of several of the soldiers who have been severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who care for them. These videos, by videographer Adam Kaufman, will be added to this page as they are published.


The Growing Survivability Of Battle and its Costs (Graphics), Chris Spurlock, Huffington Post

  • The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, like those before, have lead to the death of many of the young people sent to fight them. These wars, however, are also different from any in the past: Thousands of of severely wounded soldiers are being reached on the edge of death and given new life, thanks to impressive new medical procedures and technologies that range from swift battlefield trauma care to "smart'' artificial limbs to spray-on skin. These miracles and the challenges they create have been probed in the ten-part series on the Huffington Post, Beyond The Battlefield, by David Wood, a veteran military writer.
  • To accompany that series, Chris Spurlock, a Huffington Post designer, has created a series of interactive graphics that illustrate the scope and costs of these injuries. All of these graphics are being assembled on this page as they are published.
     

NYT Misleads Readers on Iran Crisis

  • Paper disappears some inaccurate reporting
  • Contact the New York Times and ask it to investigate and explain the editing of the January 5 front-page article, and to correct both misleading assertions about Iran and nuclear weapons.
  • How the Media Is Taking Us Toward War With Iran

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

In two articles yesterday (1/5/12), the New York Times (NYT) misled readers about the state of Iran's nuclear program.

On the front page, the Times' Steven Erlanger reported this:

The threats from Iran, aimed both at the West and at Israel, combined with a recent assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran's nuclear program has a military objective, is becoming an important issue in the American presidential campaign.

There is no such International Atomic Energy Agency assessment.

More...

Related:

How the Media Is Taking Us Toward War With Iran, davidswanson, War Is a Crime .org

  • Media lies and the onset of war.
  • Iraq. Began with big lies. Ending with big lies. Never forget.
  • Robert Parry | Slip-Sliding to War with Iran
     
Section(s): 

Media Manipulation and the Drums of War: How Media is used to Whip the Nation into Wartime Frenzy

 

  • As the US and Iranian governments escalate tensions in the already volatile Straits of Hormuz, and China and Russia begin openly questioning Washington's interference in their internal politics, the world remains on a knife-edge of military tension. Far from being a dispassionate observer of these developments, however, the media has in fact been central to increasing those tensions and preparing the public to expect a military confrontation. But as the online media rises to displace the traditional forms by which the public forms its understanding of the world, many are now beginning to see first hand how the media lies the public into war.
  • Faking It: How the Media Manipulates the World into War

James Corbett, Global Research

As the drums of war begin to beat once again in Iran, Syria, the South China Sea, and other potential hotspots and flashpoints around the globe, concerned citizens are asking how a world so sick of bloodshed and a population so tired of conflict could be led to this spot once again.

To understand this seeming paradox, we must first understand the centuries-long history of how media has been used to whip the nation into wartime frenzy, dehumanize the supposed enemies, and even to manipulate the public into believing in causes for war that, decades later, were admitted to be completely fictitious.

More...

Related:


Video | Faking It: How the Media Manipulates the World into War, James Corbett, Global Research
The centuries-long history of how media has been used to whip the nation into wartime frenzy, dehumanize the supposed enemies, and even to manipulate the public into believing in causes for war that, decades later, were admitted to be completely fictitious.

 

Molly Ivins | The Trouble with Ron

 

  • Molly, with her usual insight, laid out the essential struggle we're having with Paul. As a libertarian leftist, I understand viscerally the charm of Paul's message. Who wouldn't be charmed? He's anti-war, anti-torture, anti-drug war, and anti-corporation -- a real progressive dream date. Until you reflect on the fact that he's also anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-sane immigration policy, and apparently, anti-separation of church and state as well.
  • If America ever becomes a fascist state, it will be Ron Paul's long-time followers who bring it about. And we -- progressives, miniorities, feminists, gays, "intellectuals," and Jews like Maher and Stewart -- with be the first ones to feel their genocidal rage.
  • The Apostles of Ron Paul

Sara, Orcinus

At a time when corporations are buying up elections – not to mention the 24-hour-news cycle – help ensure that a source for truly independent journalism lives on. Support Evergreene Digest today by using the donation button in the above right-hand corner.

Molly Ivins, God bless her big heart, warned us about Ron Paul over a decade ago. Her coverage of this 1996 Texas congressional races included this prescient precis:

Dallas' 5th District, East Texas' 2nd District and the amazing 14th District, which runs all over everywhere, are also in play. In the amazing 14th, Democrat Lefty Morris (his slogan is ''Lefty is Right!'') faces the Republican/Libertarian Ron Paul, who is himself so far right that he's sometimes left, as happens with your Libertarians. I think my favorite issue here is Paul's 1993 newsletter advising ''Frightened Americans'' on how to get their money out of the country. He advised that Peruvian citizenship could be purchased for a mere 25 grand. That we should all become Peruvians is one of the more innovative suggestions of this festive campaign season. But what will the Peruvians think of it?

More...http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/06/trouble-with-ron.html

Related:

The Apostles of Ron Paul, Josh Harkinson, Mother Jones

  • The Venn of Paul: As befits a movement with mainstream aspirations, libertarians have taken a big-tent approach to ideological purity.  A pro-life, anti-immigration conservative like Ron Paul is welcome, as is a free-love prophet like the late Robert A. Heinlein—and, of course, libertarian thought overlaps with segments of both left and right.
  • Meet the rabid fan base—techies, hippies, tax haters, and war protesters—who believe that only Ron Paul can save America from itself.
  • Loveable Extremist
     

The Pentagon and its Sock Puppets

  • The Pentagon’s self-exonerating report, by contrast, suggests that media sock puppets may become a modus operandi.
  • Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
  • How the Media Is Taking Us Toward War With Iran

Scott Horton, Harpers

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button in the above right-hand corner—so we can bring you more just like it.

A Pentagon Campaign Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks.

An internal Department of Defense review has concluded that a Rumsfeld-era program under which retired military officers who appeared on American broadcast media were given special briefings and access was consistent with Pentagon rules. The New York Times reports:


The inquiry found that from 2002 to 2008, Mr. Rumsfeld’s Pentagon organized 147 events for 74 military analysts. These included 22 meetings at the Pentagon, 114 conference calls with generals and senior Pentagon officials and 11 Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Twenty of the events, according to a 35-page report of the inquiry’s findings, involved Mr. Rumsfeld or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or both. One retired officer, the report said, recalled Mr. Rumsfeld telling him: “You guys influence a wide range of people. We’d like to be sure you have the facts.”

More...

Related:

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand, David Barstow, New York (NY) Times
In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

How the Media Is Taking Us Toward War With Iran, davidswanson, War Is a Crime .org

  • Media lies and the onset of war.
  • Iraq. Began with big lies. Ending with big lies. Never forget.
  • Robert Parry | Slip-Sliding to War with Iran
     
Section(s): 

In 2012 Bishops Join Fight to Repackage Discrimination as ‘Religious Freedom’

  • Don’t be surprised if the “religious freedom” argument finds its way into conservative arguments about “big government” in 2012. It’s not just for the religious right anymore.
  • Protest against Cardinal George Gay Rights-KKK Comparison planned
  • Catholic bishops assault health and religious freedom

Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

Archbishop Timothy Dolan spreads incense.

Four days before Christmas, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops paid for a full-page advertisement in the Washington (DC) Post, co-signed by dozens of leaders of Catholic institutions. But the ad offered no holiday cheer. Instead, it aggressively highlighted the Bishops’ pointed confrontation with the Obama administration: either amend a regulation requiring employer health insurance plans to provide contraception without a co-pay, or stand accused of religious discrimination.


The Bishops’ opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services rule—which they describe as mandating “preventive services” (scare quotes in original)—was to date the most public salvo from their Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. That effort was launched last June because, in USCCB president Timothy Dolan’s ominous words, “never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith and as a service provider. If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave.” At the Bishops’ annual meeting in Baltimore this past November, Dolan took his charges into conspiratorial territory, telling reporters that “well-financed, well-oiled sectors” were attempting to “push religion back into the sacristy.”

More...

Related:

Protest against Cardinal George Gay Rights-KKK Comparison planned, Kate Sosin, Windy City (Chicago, IL) Times

  • George has reiterated his controversial re marks (that compared the gay liberation movement to the Ku Klux Klan) twice since the initial comment.
  • LGBT Activists To Protest Cardinal George Over KKK Comparison

Catholic bishops assault health and religious freedom, Scott Dibble, Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune

  • Official Catholic positions say that abortion is impermissible even in cases of rape and incest; that stem cell research to help cure and treat debilitating illnesses is unacceptable, and that all artificial contraception and sterilization methods, including birth-control pills, vasectomies and condoms, are a violation.
  • The Catholic bishops' efforts blatantly undermine religious freedom in our country.
     

Corporate elites and their small-minded political servants are creating the Incredibly Shrinking America

 

  • As Benjamin Franklin put it at the time, "America's destiny is not power, but light." The light is our historic commitment to the common good, shared prosperity, and a government of, by, and for the People.
  • To get America moving, the People must lead. Join the action!
  • Obama Nominates Carlyle Group Partner to The Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

What a paragraph! This sparse, 52-word opening of our Constitution did not merely launch a fledgling nation--but a bold experiment in democratic idealism. The rest of the document consists of details, but this carefully considered Preamble set forth our nation's purpose. It declares to all the world that the BIG goal of America--its very reason for existing--is to create a society that embraces and fosters such egalitarian values as justice, tranquility, common effort, the welfare of all, and liberty.

More...

Related:

Obama Nominates Carlyle Group Partner to The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Counter PsyOps, It's Our Economy
Once again, Obama reveals that change will remain absent under his leadership, and the military-industrial complex will continue to garner powerful positions during his administration.

 

Pages

Subscribe to Home Page