Duterte gives peace a chance, while Sweden knocks on Dylan’s door
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IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ
#Pnut4Prez: Finally The Debates Are Almost Over
The best thing about the 3rd presidential debate is that it’s the last one. If you’ve forgotten, the first two debates were filled with interruptions, lies, stalking, dancing, and sniffling. We can only hope that the 3rd debate won’t feel as much like an episode of Jerry Springer. Here’s what to know going into the debate:
- As with the first two debates, the bar is incredibly low for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has very little to gain. Clinton enters the debate with a comfortable lead in the polls and she even has a chance in states that have been dominated by republicans for decades, like Arizona. We’re willing to bet both campaigns will claim their candidate “won” the debate.
- Expect to hear more about the long list of sexual assault allegations against Trump. Clinton has remained relatively quiet about the accusations, leaving the most hard-hitting criticism to powerful surrogates like Michelle Obama, but she has another opportunity to address it on Wednesday.
- The Democratic Party will be watching closely to see if Clinton ties Trump directly to the GOP in an effort to try to win more down-ballot races. Obama did this effectively, but Clinton has tended to refer to Trump as different than mainstream Republicans.
- You can be sure Trump will bring up some of the content from the Wikileaks release of thousands of emails from a hack of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman. But don’t believe everything you hear about what’s in the leaks. While there is some suspicious stuff in some of the emails, most of them just show evidence of politicians being political. The leaks have also taken an international turn, as US intelligence officials believe Russia is involved and Ecuador has now admitted that they cut off internet access to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
- The election is not rigged. Do not believe Trump when he says that it is. He has blamed the rigging of the election on everyone from the media to millions of dead people who he thinks will be voting. “I would advise Mr. Trump to stop whining,” Obama said.
PNUT READ: 3 Ways To Make The 3rd Presidential Debate Enjoyable
Tune in Wednesday night at 9 p.m. EST to watch the debate—If Hillary Clinton has her way, it will be the last time she’s ever in the same room as Donald Trump. Or, if you’d prefer to preserve your sanity, skip the debate and read our recap on Thursday morning.
EU Already Worried About What Happens If Mosul Falls
We aren’t even three days into what has been described a two month battle to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS and the EU is already worried they won’t be able to deal with the aftermath. Mosul, which is thousands of miles away from Europe, is host to 2,500 ISIS fighters that are also EU citizens. The EU is worried that if they aren’t killed in the fighting then they will decide to come back to Europe and conduct terror attacks. That’s just one of the issues officials are thinking through as the fight against ISIS enters a crucial and possibly final phase. Let’s just hope the Iraqis win the battle.
GOOD READ: How Did ISIS Become So Powerful?
NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ
Is Rodrigo Duterte A Closet Hippie?
You may know Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte from such travesties as killing 3,800 suspected criminals, shouting vulgarities at President Obama or even forcing criminals to take Zumba classes. But did you know he’s a peace-loving flower child after all? In an effort to repair relations with China, Duterte arrived in Beijing with a 400-person delegation to start talking friendship. His new “make friends, not war” rhetoric seems odd, considering he told a reporter, “I don’t give a shit [about human rights]” the day before he left for China. But it might actually work: China seems keen to accept Duterte’s olive branch if it means luring a key US ally away from President Obama, and it could ultimately strengthen Chinese influence in the hotly disputed South China Sea.
PNUTTY VIDEO: Duterte Has Some Choice Words For President Obama
Earth Is Getting Hot, But We’re Not Bothered
Turns out the world is burning in more ways than one. NASA announced that 2016 is “locked in” to be the hottest year on record since modern records began 136 years ago. To make matters worse, the assumption that a strong El Nino year was to blame for the high temperatures has been disproved by Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who determined that this year’s temperatures would have been the highest regardless. Just this past month, average temperature for 2016 was 0.91 degrees Celcius higher than the same month between the years 1951-1980. If that doesn’t sound like a scary number, the last time it was this hot Earth was in an inter-glacial period 130,000 years ago. We have reached the same temperatures in under a century and a half.
Nobel Prize Can’t Make Bob Dylan Feel Their Love
Bob Dylan won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” And what could be a more poetic than ghosting on your devotees and never answering their calls? The Swedish Academy is no longer knockin’ on Dylan’s door, for after a few days of calling they were left blowin’ in the wind. “We have stopped trying. We said everything we needed to his manager and friend, he knows about us being eager having confirmation from him, but we haven’t heard anything back,” said the Swedish Academy’s administrative director. But don’t think twice, it’s all right for Dylan. The Academy confirmed that “he will have the prize even if he is not there.”
KEEPING OUR EYE ON
UK: British bank NatWest is denying reports that it closed the accounts of RT, a Russian news site. NatWest clarified that they froze the account of an RT supplier but not RT itself. Still, the Russian embassy in London believes it was an “openly political decision.”
Qatar: Two anonymous Taliban officials claim that the militant group has been having secret peace talks with the Afghan government this month in Qatar. Not only that, but they said US officials were part of the process. The Taliban’s spokesman denies these claims, as it could potentially hurt their brand.
PNUTTY VIDEOS
President Obama poked fun at himself in a fake job interview with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert also made a visual representation of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories.
SPONSORED NUTS: 21ST ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS
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LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT
The Polls Are Looking Great For #GiantMeteor2016
It was meant to be a joke to gauge millennials’ level of unhappiness with the US elections, but it turned into a movement. According to a study from UMass Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion, 53% of the people they polled between the ages of 18 and 35 said they would prefer to see a meteor destroy the world than have Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, 34% said they’d rather vote for a meteor that showers down comings of the apocalypse than vote for Hillary Clinton. And if that doesn’t reflect the downtrodden attitudes of the young voters, over 23% – nearly a quarter of the millennials – preferred the giant meteor to any of the Presidential candidates. It’s probably a good thing the meteor can’t get on the ballot.
