Stein Wants A Recount, Castro Just Wants Out

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We hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend. We used the opportunity to reflect on everything we had to give thanks for, from new Colombian peace agreements to you, our readers, who give us purpose and joy. Have a great rest of the week!

IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ

#Pnut4Prez: Jill Stein Gives Al Gore Terrible Recount Flashbacks

Green Party candidate and definite loser of this year’s election Jill Stein raised more than $5 million last week to file for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three close states that handed Trump the Presidency. Trump won those states by roughly 27k, 10k and 68k votes respectively. Without those three states, Donald Trump would not have a majority in the electoral college. Stein felt compelled to act after “computer scientists” supposedly claimed that there was enough evidence to believe that the vote counting machines had been hacked. To the best of our knowledge, there is no such evidence of hacking.

As expected, Donald Trump is not happy about the recount, lashing out at the Green Party and the Democrats. Trump tweeted that the recount was a scam by the Green Party to raise money and lambasted Hillary Clinton’s hypocrisy for not accepting the election results despite her statements that Trump should accept them. He also tweeted that he would have won the popular vote if “millions” of people hadn’t voted illegally. Again, there is no such evidence of non-citizens voting, and he is currently trailing the popular vote by more than two million votes.

It is worth noting that Hillary Clinton did not initiate the recount, has already conceded the election, is the victim of Twitter attacks by Jill Stein and has spent the weekend celebrating Thanksgiving. Her campaign counsel, however, released a statement saying the campaign will be present in the recount but that no one should get their hopes up: all the Trump victories are way bigger than any margin of error found in a recount and significantly more than the 500-vote difference in the 2000 Florida recount. What will this achieve? Probably nothing but heartburn, divisiveness and erosion of trust in democracy.

NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ

Not Even Fidel Castro Could Survive 2016

Former Cuban dictator and surfer bro t-shirt print Fidel Castro has died after a long life of marathon speeches, shaking his fists angrily at America and oppressing his own people. Castro seized power in 1959, throwing out a US-backed dictatorship and proceeded to install his own, Russian-backed communist dictatorship. He has been a thorn in the eye of US policy for 11 US Presidents and, presumably, couldn’t handle the thought of dealing with Donald Trump. He ceded power to his brother, Raul, in 2006 due to medical conditions. Raul Castro has worked with President Obama and Pope Francis to thaw US-Cuban relations, something some House Republicans want to stop until Castro takes steps to improve democratic participation and human rights conditions. Perhaps Castro could strike a deal by keeping power while opening a Trump Tower in Havana?

FUN READ: Memorable Quotes From Fidel Castro

Millions Of South Koreans Want President Park To Pa(r)ck It Up

Over a million protestors took to the streets of Seoul and other South Korean cities over the weekend to demand the impeachment of their President Park Geun-hye after a political scandal that would make the House of Cards writers seem conservative. It’s alleged that President Park passed state secrets to her friend who then used them to extort money and favor out of business leaders. So far, President Park refuses to resign, which means she might have to be impeached, a process which could take months. The political crisis could not come at a worse time as the economy slows and an incoming President Trump indicates that he is less willing to shoulder the cost of protecting South Korea from the North. Fun…

France Ends Its Primaries In A Single Week

While the US presidential election schedule seems much like a reality TV show, the French primaries are, well, very French. The French Republican Party (conservative) finished its entire primary process in a single week, cramming in heartbreak and unexpected twists when former president and human-Napoleon-Complex Nicolas Sarkozy was knocked out in the first round, followed by Alain Juppe yesterday. The winner, Francois Fillon, is a former prime minister under Sarkozy, a social conservative who believes that France needs a free-market jolt to get its sluggish economy going again. He’s promised to protect French identity against mass migration and the threat of Islamic radicalism, as well as take on the unions who, we presume, are gearing up to go on strike already. Think of Fillon as a much more likable and less radical Ted Cruz, whose biggest rival is Marine LePen, France’s Donald Trump.

GOOD READ: BBC Profile On Francois Fillon

KEEPING OUR EYE ON: 

DAPL: Native Americans and police in North Dakota spent Thanksgiving weekend reminding us all that there is a darker side to the holiday. Things turned violent as police used water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas in subzero temperatures to remove Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Syria: The Syrian Army, with the help of Russian airstrikes, made gains in Aleppo over the weekend. The army captured the largest rebel-controlled neighborhood, effectively severing the rebels into two camps, making it easier to add pressure on them.

NOLA: A mass shooting attack killed one and wounded at least nine others in New Orleans’ fashionable Bourbon Street following a football game over the weekend. The police don’t know the motive yet.

PNUTTY VIDEOS 

Daily Pnut reader Noam Chomsky is worried about the unpredictability of Donald Trump.

LOOSE NUTS: FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

Bosnia Widens Scope Of Tourist Attractions

How did you celebrate Thanksgiving? Did you go home to see your family? Or were you able to escape to somewhere warm and avoid them? Perhaps next year you should consider Bosnia & Herzegovina, home of historical Sarajevo, beautiful scenery and the world’s best pavements. Bosnian government officials gave journalists a titillating, scintillating, awe-inspiring tour of a small patch of recently renovated pavement outside of the Presidential Palace. The pavement, which features absolutely nothing remarkable, cost more than $194,000. But fret not oh unworldly reader, if FOMO was to take ahold of you, you are in luck! The pavement was broadcast live on Facebook. Oh the wonders of modern technology.

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