Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaddeus McCotter, and A Few Top Tweets…

1. The 4th of July – Happy Birthday America! I’m sorry I can’t be there to celebrate with you, but in just thirteen days I’ll be back on your soil and I’ll do my best to make it up to you then. In the meantime, it’s five more days in my village and one more week in the Bode. Crazy…

2. How to Get Kicked Out of the Peace Corps - There aren’t too many rules in the Peace Corps, but I’ve recently learned that A) smoking pot and telling the Peace Corps and B) leaving the country and not telling the Peace Corps, are two easy ways to get yourself put on the next plane back to America. Just a heads up for all future Peace Corps volunteers.

3. Balloon Toss – I taught my last class a few days ago and finished things off with an epic game of water balloon toss. So fun. I also think it was the first time I’ve ever played with water balloon’s without a single person threatening to call the cops. A success on so many levels.

4. AMERICA TIME! – Ten more things I’m looking forward to…

1. washing machines
2. NY bagels
3. couches
4. stores with change
5. 24/7 electricity
6. real meat (i.e. injected with chemicals and hormones)
7. reality TV
8. anonymity/personal space
9. women who aren’t afraid of the sun
10. driving

5. The Thai Elections – Easily the most interesting news story of the weekend (at least in SE Asia) was the HUGE victory by Yingluck Shinawatra in yesterday’s Thai elections. Yingluck, the younger sister of former Prime Minster Thaksin (who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and has been living abroad in exile) was virtually unknown just a few months ago and will now become Thailand’s first female Prime Minister.

6. Welcome to the Party Thaddeus - Mitt, Newt, Michelle, Ron, Herman and now…. Thaddeus? That’s right, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (or as I like to call him “The Rocking Republican”) is now officially a candidate for President of the United States of America. If you’ve never heard of McCotter and haven’t seen his ROCK SOLID video, then you need to drop everything and watch it now…

And if you’re craving more “ROCK SOLID” w/ Thaddeus you can watch Part 2 here: Rock Solid Part 2

7. Quote of the Week- “Perhaps it’s the skies of a 9/11 blue, perhaps it’s the passage of a decade, perhaps it’s the thought of all the articles and reflections and memorial services now just weeks away, I can’t help seeing the city as a kaleidoscope of now and then, jagged images of molten steel and lost ones alternating with scenes of careless summer laughter. New York has won again. It has come back. America has not. That’s the kernel these images secrete.

First the city: magnet of talent, storehouse of stoicism, champion of churn, New York has prevailed. I’m glad all is not neat and tidy for the anniversary down at the World Trade Center site and that the Freedom Tower is incomplete. This is not a cherry-on-the-cake kind of city. What inspires is not a 1,776-feet tower in the making, but all the litigiousness and crazy aspirations of a New York minute. The city has asserted its ability to come together. The “homeland,” awful post-9/11 neologism, has not. America struggles still to rediscover its bearings and sense of direction. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with their more than 6,000 U.S. dead, still take their toll. The “banksters,” salvaged by tax dollars, get richer. Ordinary folk get poorer. Youth unemployment is at 24 percent. Corporations sit on their cash piles. Algorithms drive Americans to the news that comforts their prejudices and stokes their anger. No wonder ideological division has become so paralyzing in Washington.

One thing White loved in New York was its refusal to succumb — to gravity or the impossible logistics of ushering millions onto and out of an island every day — and the way a feeling of belonging to something unique and mighty seemed to inject the most diverse set of people “with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin.” – Roger Cohen (New York and the Planes)

8. READY FOR $150 OIL? – An oil spike during an election year? Shiiiiiiiiit. “Highs on crude, heating oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel and gasoline seem likely over the next 12 months. Following some further easing over the summer, the second leg of the long-term bull market in petroleum — the first occurred in 2007-08 — probably will begin this fall. As oil producers’ spare capacity gradually declines to worrisome levels, the average monthly price could reach a record $150 per barrel by next spring, with spikes to $165 or $170. With this, $4.50-a-gallon gasoline will become the norm. That will put a huge dent in consumer wallets, while ramping up the desirability of fuel-efficient cars. … [C]ommercial hedgers … are ‘overwhelmingly bearish’ and are putting their money where their convictions are.” - Gene Epstein

9. Top Tweets – Some funny (and possibly offensive) tweets from the last couple of days…

• DSK may get off but it’s not gonna stop maids from rock, paper, scissoring who cleans his room. HE HAS TO LIVE WITH THAT! – Seth Myers
• Is it safe to start molesting hotel maids again? – Michael Ian Black
• Still so thrilled gay people can get married in New York. Next, I think we should let them have driver’s licenses. – Rob Delaney
• Just realized Shia LaBeouf has every vowel in his name, which might be the most interesting thing about him. – Michael Ian Black
• Eric Cantor seems like the smartest Republican the same way Velma seemed like Scooby’s smartest pal. – Seth MacFarlane
• If you see me at the beach, and I go into the water, I am peeing. – Andy Richter
• The most consistent thing I know about people who don’t own TVs seems to be their desire to let you know that they don’t own a TV. – Peter Giles

10. A Wedding – And finally, congratulations to Syd and Lauren who were married yesterday in what I heard was a beautiful ceremony up in Vermont. I wish I could have been there. I couldn’t be happier for you two!