PNUT GALLERY
“I’m a bit of a rascal.” Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi responding, in a new biography, to accusations that he had run a harem. Just another day in the life of Silvio.
IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ
#pnut4prez: Dem Debate Recap
While this wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the Republican debates, but nonetheless there were some highlights. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders disagreed on just about every point from gun control to capitalism… but they seemed to agree on one thing: Hillary’s emails.
- Bernie: “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” (TBD if Berns knows what the Google is.)
- Hillary: She was all smiles at Bernie’s comments and exuded confidence throughout. She defended her stance on TPP after coming out against it last week and took cracks at Bernie’s record on guns, saying he’s not tough enough on the issue.
- Lincoln Chafee: He definitely went in the clear loser and came out the same way (kind of like corn). When responding to a question about a vote he regrets (to repeal the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that broke up big banks), he blamed his dad’s death and late arrival to the Senate: “I just arrived at the United States Senate. It was the first vote, and it was 90 to 5.” Eeesh.
Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb were neither here nor there.
- Webb: He felt the need to rant about China to get heard, though it wasn’t really part of the conversation.
- O’Malley: Meh. Possible VP contender?
We almost forgot Trump, who took to trolling all of the candidates on Twitter. Well played.
Too close to call between Hillary and Bernie? Who was your vote for the winner of the first Democratic debate? Tweet @dailypnut and let us know.
NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ
Amnesty Says No Good Guys In Syria Conflict
A recent report by Amnesty International accused the Kurdish militia, YPG (aka the “good guys”), of destroying villages captured from ISIS and kicking out the Sunni Arab inhabitants. Amnesty attested that YPG’s crimes could be considered a “war crime.” The findings will make things awkward for the US who just dropped a large amount of weapons for the militia in an attempt to capture Raqqa, ISIS’ capital.
 Pnut’s Nutshell: Syrian Civil War
Jerusalem Attacks Continue As Violence Escalates
Four separate attacks in Israel left three Israeli Jews dead. A fifth revenge attack by an Israeli Jew left another Israeli man injured after he was mistaken for an Arab. Elsewhere, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces during clashes in the West, Bank and thousands of Israeli Arabs protested in Israel saying that they warned against changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, a holy site for Islam and Judaism. The situation remains very tense.
Turns Out A Russian Missile Really Did Hit MH17
In what was perhaps the least surprising revelation, the Dutch Safety Board said that they believe a Russian Buk Missile brought down Malaysian Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board. The Board did not say who shot the missile, leaving it to our imagination to figure that one out. Luckily it also ruled out a meteor as a possible explanation for the crash.
Keeping Our Eye On…
- Kunduz: Only 15 days after taking over Kunduz, Afghanistan, the Taliban (now well trained in “urban warfare”) pulled out. This comes one week after a US airstrike hit a Kunduz Doctors Without Borders hospital. You know things aren’t going well when the Taliban deems it unsafe…
- Saudi Arabia: The family of a 74-year-old British man living in Saudi Arabia is fighting against his sentence to 350 lashes for possession of alcohol — a serious offense according to the “Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law.”
- General Electric: GE Capital is selling $32 billion to Wells Fargo in the final stages of the removal of its finance sector after years of stagnation in the market.
LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT
No One Is Above The Law… Except In Vanuatu
President Baldwin Lonsdale of the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu came back from an overseas trip to find that his Speaker had pardoned himself and 13 other MPs (half the Parliament) from corruption convictions. The Speaker had assumed pardoning powers in the President’s absence. Like a father coming home to find that his kids have had a house party, Lonsdale was understandably furious and promised to “clean up the dirt.”
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