Evergreene Digest A Journal of Progress for the Rest of Us

Johnson and Israel hope to bring other families of violence together for forgiveness. They also plan to write a book together with dreams of eventually building a grief center in north Minneapolis.

Renee Tessman, KARE-TV | MN

• This isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.
• GDP Revised Down: Economy Grew At A Much Slower Pace Than Previously Thought.
• Tax Jujitsu: Why Democrats Should Propose a “People’s Tax Cut”.
• Jobless? Your leaders are at ease with that.

Paul Krugman, New York Times | NY

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Thomas Sklarski

What will Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, say in his big speech Friday (August 27) in Jackson Hole, WY? Will he hint at new steps to boost the economy? Stay tuned.

But we can safely predict what he and other officials will say about where we are right now: that the economy is continuing to recover, albeit more slowly than they would like. Unfortunately, that’s not true: this isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.

The small sliver of truth in claims of continuing recovery is the fact that G.D.P. is still rising: we’re not in a classic recession, in which everything goes down. But so what?

• Adil E. Shamoo, a professor of ethics, writes in What You Will Not Hear About Iraq, "Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq...
• Iraq: Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has Certainly Left Its Mark
• The occupation of Iraq isn't over - it's being rebranded

Debra Sweet, The World Can't Wait

Sunday (Aug 22), the Associated Press reported "Baghdad - An American solider was killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said, marking the first American fatality since the last combat unit in Iraq pulled out of the country."

As the "last" combat brigade left Iraq, President Obama prepares to give a major speech next week.  He probably won't claim victory; that would be laughable.  He will claim that the U.S. is taking responsible action, now that the Iraqis are ready to "step up" and run "their own" country.  This is the same plan the Bush regime had, but framed and re-branded, Obama-style, to cover a thoroughly illegitimate occupation.

• While most climate experts say that it is too soon to draw any conclusions about a link with climate change, many agree that current events fit in with the warnings issued by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the past 20 years.
• The truth: Still there, still inconvenient
• Who Cooked the Planet?

Julia Slater and Renat Künzi, Swiss Info

Tourists in Moscow wear face masks against the smog (Keystone)

As flooding in Pakistan disrupts millions of lives, and huge areas of Russian forest burn, many people are wondering whether they are linked.

Flooding of a 1,000km stretch along the Indus river has already claimed about 1,600 lives, and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Over 13 million people have been affected.

In Russia temperatures have stood for weeks at almost 40 degrees; fires have destroyed villages and forests, while a pall of smog lies over large stretches of the country, including Moscow. More than 50 people have died as a direct result of the fires, while the mortality rate has doubled in the capital, the authorities admit.