WHO IS HILLARY TRYING TO FOOL?

(h/t p. m. carpenter)

This is a second-hand comment on her review of Kissinger's new book, World Order, and based mostly on David Corn's comments:

Corn quotes Clinton on Kissinger:

Even when there are tensions between our values and other objectives, America, he reminds us, succeeds by standing up for our values, not shirking them.

To which Corn responds, "Kissinger reminds us that America succeeds by standing up for its values? Did she inhale?" He proceeds:

As secretary of state, Kissinger made common cause with--and encouraged--tyrants who repressed and massacred many. He did not serve the American values of democracy, free expression, and human rights. He shredded them.

How can she forget Cambodia?

NOT SURE WHAT THIS MEANS

NTS MediaOnline reports that in San Francisco, Limbaugh & Hannity are moving from Clear Channel's KNEW to Cumulus' KSFO.  KSFO already carries Michael Savage & Mark Levin, so it will become the premier conservative station in the Bay Area.  This switch will happen in late September and I'll try to keep with with KSFO's ratings.  Here are the ratings for May-August:

KSFO-AM

1.8

1.5

1.5

1.7

A NICE PRESENT FOR THE END OF THE WEEK

I really dislike these "patriot" militia rubes so this brought a smile to my face:

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Armed Militia Member Shot At By Border Patrol Agent Is A Convicted Felon  —  The armed militia member who was shot at by a border patrol agent last week is a convicted felon.  —  Rio Grande Valley TV station KRGV reported Wednesday that records show the man, John Frederick Forester …

+

Discussion: The Raw Story, Liberaland, KRGV-TV and Hullabaloo

ANOTHER SOURCE, SAME DATA

The "producers" or "makers" have recovered from the Great Recession but the rest of us haven't.

Only the Wealthy Gained During the Economic Recovery

A new Federal Reserve report reveals that the income disparities between the rich and the average American only increased during the economic recovery.
Iris Dorbian
September 4, 2014 | CFO.com | US

The average income for most Americans, save for the very rich, either dropped or stagnated during the 2010-2013 economic recovery period, according to a Federal Reserve study, reports Bloomberg.

The sizable gains of the wealthy weren’t just restricted to the so-called “one percenters.” The top 3% of families experienced a strong financial windfall, with their share of income jumping to 30.5% in 2013 from 27.7% in 2010.

“Households with access to assets such as homes and stock portfolios have found their wealth buoyed over the last three years,” according to Bloomberg, largely due to a 47% percent climb in the S&P 500 and a double-digit increase in property values.

LIMBAUGH'S STATIONS LATEST RATINGS IN NYC AND LA

Data from Tom Taylor:

NYC

WOR-AM

News Talk Info.

1.5

1.5

1.6

LA

KEIB-AM

Talk/Personality

0.8

0.7

0.7

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

I am NOT a foreign affairs pundit so what I claim here doesn't have much weight but I think the West should've taken a stronger approach to Russian sanctions from the beginning.

France Won't Give Russia Its Warship Until It Behaves
Russell Berman

But with Russia refusing calls to remove its forces from Ukraine, the office of French President Francois Hollande now says the "conditions" aren't right for a delivery, according to Agence France-Presse.

The president of the Republic declared that, despite the prospect of a ceasefire which still remains to be confirmed and implemented, the conditions for France to deliver the first warship are not to date in place."

The statement was issued on the eve of a major NATO summit, and it came as President Obama tries to mobilize a united front among alliance members against Vladimir Putin.

IT'S NOT JUST THE DUCK GUY

Yesterday I heard Sean Hannity say he was having Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty on his TV show to discuss ISIS and I immediately thought this was absurd and I see that Atrios agrees with me. I then thought that this isn't any more absurd than having John McCain or Danielle Pletka on any of the Sunday news shows.

WORST THING I'VE HEARD HANNITY SAY IN A LONG TIME

Today on his radio show:

"We won in Iraq"

His point was that Pres. Obama is throwing a marvelous victory.

TWITTER SUCKS FOR LONGER ARGUMENTS

This important post from Coates should be on a blog:

KISSINGER IN 1995 AND 2014

In 1995, Henry Kissinger was looking back nostalgically at the Cold War because it was a much simpler global political arrangement:

"The danger of nuclear war diminishes, but the incidence of other wars increases," he told about 1,000 people at the annual fund-raising event at Temple Adath Israel.
Ironically, the United States' approach to a new foreign policy has been complicated by the end of the Cold War, he said.
"In my day, you could say, if it's good for the Soviet Union, it's probably bad for us," said Kissinger, 71, who served as secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, from 1973 to 1977. "It was a good rule of thumb.

In 2014, he still is looking for a Simpler World Order:

Henry Kissinger on the Assembly of a New World Order
The concept that has underpinned the modern geopolitical era is in crisis
By Henry Kissinger
Updated Aug. 29, 2014 12:04 p.m. ET
Wall Street Journal

The economic system has become global, while the political structure of the world remains based on the nation-state. Economic globalization, in its essence, ignores national frontiers. Foreign policy affirms them, even as it seeks to reconcile conflicting national aims or ideals of world order.

A third failing of the current world order, such as it exists, is the absence of an effective mechanism for the great powers to consult and possibly cooperate on the most consequential issues.

The contemporary quest for world order will require a coherent strategy to establish a concept of order within the various regions and to relate these regional orders to one another.

Even as the lessons of challenging decades are examined, the affirmation of America's exceptional nature must be sustained. History offers no respite to countries that set aside their sense of identity in favor of a seemingly less arduous course. But nor does it assure success for the most elevated convictions in the absence of a comprehensive geopolitical strategy.

The mention of American Exceptionalism is Kissinger's way of pandering to the Baggers & Neo-Cons and amounts to a renunciation of true Liberalism.

SOURCE FOR 1995 QUOTES:

The Philadelphia Inquirer
MAY 11, 1995 Thursday WEST EDITION
KISSINGER SAYS CHANCES OF GLOBAL WAR HAVE FALLEN BUT HE DOESN'T EXPECT WORLD PEACE SOON.
BYLINE: Ralph Vigoda, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
SECTION: NEIGHBORS; Pg. W01
LENGTH: 653 words
DATELINE: MERION

THIS IS OLD NEWS BUT...

(h/t Barry Ritholtz)

it's worth posting because of all the conservative talk about "the makers" vs. "the takers."  From Pew Research:

ANOTHER PART OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

I first heard about wage theft about 40 years ago from a friend who wasn't paid for overtime at a McDonald's in upper upstate NY and it seems that this has been happening for decades. 

More Workers Are Claiming ‘Wage Theft’

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
AUG. 31, 2014
NY TIMES

The lawsuit is part of a flood of recent cases — brought in California and across the nation — that accuse employers of violating minimum wage and overtime laws, erasing work hours and wrongfully taking employees’ tips.

Julie Su, the state labor commissioner, recently ordered a janitorial company in Fremont to pay $332,675 in back pay and penalties to 41 workers who cleaned 17 supermarkets. She found that the company forced employees to sign blank time sheets, which it then used to record inaccurate, minimal hours of work.

Commissioner Su of California said wage theft harmed not just low-wage workers. “My agency has found more wages being stolen from workers in California than any time in history,” she said. “This has spread to multiple industries across many sectors. It’s affected not just minimum-wage workers, but also middle-class workers.”

“This is just not acceptable,” Mr. Weil said. “You can’t threaten people to lose their jobs because they are asserting rights that go back 75 years.”

DANIELLE PLETKA SHOULD NOT BE ON FACE THE NATION...

(see here) maybe "Face the Firing Squad" would be appropriate considering all her lies and mistakes since 2000:

- Pletka was willing to deny funding to the IAEA just to prevent the Palestinians from getting a seat on it.
- Pletka has defended the American use of torture.
- Pletka falsely accused Chuck Hagel of being an anti-Semite.
- Pletka refuses to acknowledge the implications of not finding WMD in Iraq.
- Pletka refused to acknowledge the success of Operation Desert Fox.
- Pletka denounced the 2007 NIE on Iran as purposely deceptive.
- Pletka denounced the 2006 report by the Iraq Study Group that concluded Iraq was on the verge of disintegrating.

BIBLICAL POSTSCRIPT

The inconsistencies in the Bible are symptomatic of general problems with old writings and certainly not limited to the West.  For example, there most likely wasn't a Lao Tzu, the purported author of the Tao Te Ching and the Analects of Confucius were written down by his followers after his death and some were written by their disciples.