READING FOR THE WEEKEND (Aug. 9, 2014)

Grotesque inequality in Thailand, and the absurdity of the "posh Thais" in the country's "civil war" (be sure to watch the video) (The Guardian).

Second Ebola patient arrives in U.S.: Complete Ebola news rundown (Zero Hedge).

5 countries that hate America, and 5 countries that love it (Salon).

Ayn Rand's libertarian "Groundhog Day": Billionaire greed, deregulation, and the myth that markets aren't free enough ... Wall Street wrecks the economy and we keep pretending they're heroes worth emulating (Salon).

Some times you just gotta tell it like it is ... climate scientist drops the F-bomb after startling Arctic discovery (Salon).


WHAT FREE MARKET? HEDGE FUNDS NEED THE COURTS / RIGGED FX MARKETS
Judge threatens Argentina with contempt over statements about their debt and his claim that they defaulted on that that (NY Times).

Hedge funds furious over having their Portuguese bank bonds written down to zero contemplate legal action in Europe (NY Times).

Foreign exchange price fixing scandal has triggered fines, lawsuits, and prosecutions ... Euromoney is linking us to some of the top stories involving the rigged foreign exchange markets (Euromoney).


SERIOUS STORIES THAT WILL BE IGNORED BY THE RIGHT
House panel: No wrongdoing on the part of the Obama administration in Benghazi attack (SF Gate).

David Stockman: The collapse of the American Imperium ... the perfect storm of policy failures (PeakProsperity).

Voter fraud? Yeah, right. Comprehensive examination of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of 1 billion (yeah, "billion") ballots cast (Washington Post).

Don't believe the haters - the truth about the U.S. Post Office (Alternet).


IRAQ
Iraq: Islamic state "now controls resources and territory unmatched in the history of extremist organizations" (Washington Post).

Death of a religion: Isis and the Yazidi (The Guardian).

40,000 Iraqis stranded on mountain top as ISIS threatens death (The Guardian).


CORPORATE TAX DODGERS
After getting taxpayer funded bailouts banks cash in on "inversion" (tax dodging) deals designed to elude taxes (NY Times).

Reluctantly, patriot flees homeland for greener tax pastures (NY Times).

A tax inversion in all but name (NY Times).


MEANWHILE, IN CRAZY LAND
Rush Limbaugh: Liberals will politicize Ebola like they used AIDs to 'undremine' Reagan (Raw Story).

Rep. Mo Brooks says DREAMers shouldn't be allowed in the military because they're not loyal and will have access to nukes (Buzzfeed).

GOP congressman Curt Clawson (R-Fl) mistakes senior State Department officials with dark skin and Indian surnames for foreigners, repeatedly asking them about "your country" and "your government" (Foreign Policy).


MISCELLANEOUS
Robert Reich: The Ivy Leagues are a ludicrous waste of resources (Salon).

10 actors who had to get drunk to shoot their movies (What Culture).

Survey shows that Senate Republicans Cruz & Cornin offices are among the most expensive in the Senate (Houston Chronicle).

So, just how bad is Ramen for you anyways (Huffington Post)?

The poster child for a dysfunctional, dated, and costly nuclear weapons complex (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).

I bought every last pie at Burger King to spite whining brat (KMBC).

- Mark