Evergreene Digest A Journal of Progress for the Rest of Us

• Why Americans, and those who are employed to write about them, cannot enjoy holidays
• The scandal of "vacation deprivation."
• America: The Grim Truth

The Economist

“Let's take a boat to Bermuda, Let's take a plane to St Paul, Let's take a kayak to Quincy or Nyack, Let's get away from it all.” That may be all very well if you are not Lexington. For reasons only the flinty-hearted editor of this newspaper can explain, there will be no summer break this year for your columnist. True, Lexington has been allowed to saddle up his ultimate driving machine and motor north to join friends in a cabin in the Adirondacks. But get away from it all? No sir, this is a space that must be filled week in and week out this summer, come what may.

• Americans have bought the line that there are no class distinctions in this country, but as the aftermath of the great financial crisis of 2008 plays out, it has become clear that, in the memorable words of Warren Buffet, “There is class warfare, all right... but it is the rich class that's making war, and we're winning.”
• The jobs emergency

Zelig Stern, Socialist WebZine

It is likely no surprise to most Americans that the unemployment report for July released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated no improvement for the job situation. With the number of unemployed and underemployed workers remaining high at 16.5%, most people have at least one friend or family member in this category. What may come as a surprise is that while workers are subjected to chronic unemployment and underemployment, corporate profits have been recovering substantially and the ultra rich (those with over a million dollars in investible assets) have more than recovered their losses from the economic crisis. Americans have bought the line that there are no class distinctions in this country, but as the aftermath of the great financial crisis of 2008 plays out, it has become clear that, in the memorable words of Warren Buffet, “There is class warfare, all right... but it is the rich class that's making war, and we're winning.”

In the last 18 months, the left has learned the hard way that it needs to be more independent of the White House to realize the change we’re seeking.
The left has lost its nerve and its direction
Hope Is Dead. Long Live The New American Independence Movement.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation

When Barack Obama embarked on what most political insiders saw as an audacious campaign for the presidency, the question was whether a newly-elected senator from Illinois could entice Democrats to consider a contender other than a former first lady who proposed to be the first woman president and a former nominee for vice president who was saying important things about the growing economic divide in America. What ultimately won him the Democratic nomination in 2008 was a decision by the principled left—professional and amateur—that the one leading candidate who had expressed blunt opposition to the war in Iraq before it began had shown better judgment than Hillary Clinton or John Edwards.

• The under-reported scandal here is not that the White House tried to control and muzzle the professional left. The scandal is that the left, for the most part, complied.
• As Gibbs Attacks Progressive Critics, ACLU Says Obama White House Enshrining Bush-Era Policies

Sally Kohn, Common Dreams

On May 12, 2009, I attended a briefing at the White House as part of a group of grassroots activists and community artists. Mike Strautmanis, Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Liaison and top White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, made some remarks about how community activists have a seat at the table as the Obama Administration sets the agenda for change. I raised my hand. Sometimes, I said, the role of advocates isn't to be inside at the table, but entirely outside the room, "creating the political space needed for change".

Strautmanis bristled visibly. He criticized the "professional left" (he didn't use this exact phrase, but it's what he meant) for approaching the Obama Administration with an "outdated mindset", holding protest signs outside the fence instead of realizing what it means to be "inside the fence". At the same time, he not-so-subtly warned that those who criticized the Administration, instead of cooperating, would find themselves back on the outside.