Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
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From Politico: GOP leaders weigh drastic plan to save Alabama Senate seat
With less than four weeks until the special election and no sign that the party’s besieged nominee will exit the race, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his top advisers are discussing the legal feasibility of asking appointed Sen. Luther Strange to resign from his seat in order to trigger a new special election.
McConnell aides express caution, saying they're uncertain whether such a move, one of several options being discussed, is even possible. Yet the talks underscore the despair among top Republicans over relinquishing a seat in deep-red Alabama, further diminishing their slim Senate majority.
New GOP polling obtained by POLITICO suggests that Moore is cratering. Asurvey conducted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee after allegations emerged that Moore had engaged in sexual misconduct with teenagers showed him trailing Democratic candidate Doug Jones by 12 points. Other recent polling has the race closer.
McConnell’s team had been high on the idea of asking Jeff Sessions, who held the Alabama seat for two decades prior to becoming Attorney General, to run as a write-in candidate. But the committee polled the prospect of Sessions waging a write-in bid and the outcome was unfavorable, said three people familiar with the results. Party officials worry that a write-in candidacy would serve only to split the Republican vote and seal a Jones victory.
From Election Law Blog: The Latest Ploy GOP Considers to Avoid a Roy Moore Senate Problem Likely Violates the 17th Amendment
According to Politico it is an idea Republican leaders nationally are now weighing: get Luther Strange, the temporary Senator appointed to replace Jeff Sessions, to resign, and then with the new vacancy, declare this election void and start over.
I’ll talk about the political implications in a bit, but first the constitutional issue. Here’s what the 17th Amendment says, in pertinent part:
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
When Jeff Sessions resigned, that created a vacancy. Alabama law allowed the governor to fill that vacancy and to set the date for a special election. The governor (actually the predecessor) appointed Luther Strange and purported to set the date of the replacement election. (There’s some controversy about whether he had the authority to do this). The new governor reset (or properly set) the replacement election. We’ve had the primary, and now we are in the general election.
From the Washington Post: Two more women describe unwanted overtures by Roy Moore at Alabama mall
Gena Richardson says she was a high school senior working in the men’s department of Sears at the Gadsden Mall when a man approached her and introduced himself as Roy Moore.
“He said, ‘You can just call me Roy,’ ” says Richardson, who says this first encounter happened in the fall of 1977, just before or after her 18th birthday, as Moore, then a 30-year-old local attorney, was gaining a reputation for pursuing young women at the mall in Gadsden, Ala. His overtures caused one store manager to tell new hires to “watch out for this guy,” another young woman to complain to her supervisor and Richardson to eventually hide from him when he came in Sears, the women say.
Richardson says Moore — now a candidate for U.S. Senate — asked her where she went to school, and then for her phone number, which she says she declined to give, telling him that her father, a Southern Baptist preacher, would never approve.
From CNN: Zimbabwe is under military control after army seizes power from Mugabe
Zimbabwe's military leaders have seized control of the impoverished southern African nation,placing longtime leader Robert Mugabe under house arrest and deploying armored vehicles to the streets of the capital, Harare.
Mugabe, 93, the world's oldest living leader, was unable to leave his home, according to Jacob Zuma, the President of neighboring South Africa. Troops were reportedly stationed at Zimbabwe's Parliament and the presidential palace.
In a dramatic televised statement early Wednesday, an army spokesman denied a military takeover was underway.
But the situation bore all the hallmarks of a coup: The military was in control of state TV in Harare, a significant army presence was at the city's international airport, and Mugabe has not been seen in public.
Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) on Wednesday said he would oppose the Senate GOP’s tax package, becoming the first Republican senator to stand against the top legislative priority for his party.
Johnson said he couldn’t back the bill unless it was changed to help “pass-through” businesses that he said take a backseat to corporations in the measure as written.
“These businesses truly are the engines of innovation and job creation throughout our economy, and they should not be left behind,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, neither the House nor Senate bill provide fair treatment, so I do not support either in their current versions.”
Johnson has long argued that pass-through businesses would be treated less favorably than corporations under the GOP tax bills. Pass-through businesses have their income taxed through the individual income tax rates, rather than paying the corporate rate.
News outlet RT has registered as an agent of a foreign government in America, after years of accusations that it was a propaganda arm of the Russian government. So what is RT and why has it become the subject of fierce debate in the US?
It was a late February afternoon, when millions of Americans' phones and laptops started buzzing with breaking news from the White House.
"Gen Flynn was fired amid the scrutiny..."
"The White House national security adviser fired..."
President Trump had asked National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to leave the White House, said the reports. Flynn had misled Vice-President Pence about his contacts with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
It was the first resignation in the new presidential administration. But one media outlet, RT, reported it differently: "General Flynn retires as National Security Adviser"
Misleading headlines are only one part of RT's approach to news, which makes the American government and analysts believe it is just an arm of the Kremlin.
Twitter’s latest salvo in its Great Clean-Up of 2017 is a reorganizing of what it means to be verified. First, after getting a torrent of heat for giving its coveted blue checkmark to Jason Kessler, the man who organized the deadly white nationalist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, the company decided Nov. 9 to suspend its verification program.
Now Twitter is going even further and revoking the verification for other prominent tweeters who are famous for their bigotry, including the famous white nationalist and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, the alt-right activist Laura Loomer (who was recently kicked off of Uber and Lyft because of her anti-Muslim tweets), Kessler, the British anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson, and others. Also Tim "Treadstone" Gionet, who went by the handle Baked Alaska and formerly served as tour manager for Milo Yiannopoulos, has been banned from Twitter permanently. Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from Twitter after inciting a racist trolling campaign against the actor Leslie Jones in 2016. Gionet’s Twitter account was littered with Nazi overtones, including doctored photos depicting people he doesn’t like in gas chambers.
A popular card game known for its controversial humor is taking on America's controversial president.
Cards Against Humanity on Tuesday announced its holiday promotion, Cards Against Humanity Saves America. As part of the promotion, the makers of the oft-offensive party game bought a plot of vacant land on the United States-Mexico border. The placement, the company notes, has the potential to complicate the building of President Donald Trump'sproposed border wall.
Talk of the wall was a hallmark of Trump's campaign in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Trump sold his signature campaign promise as a key element of his plan for immigration reform, but the pledge has been a source of threats, international tension andfunding strife in the months since he assumed the Oval Office.
Now, Cards Against Humanity has traded political posturing and jargon for a clear attack on the president's character and political stances, calling Trump "a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans.”
Country superstar Blake Shelton might have made a name for himself as a coach on NBC’s hit series, The Voice, but he’s got another title now: 2017’s Sexiest Man Alive!
So what went through his mind when he first heard the news? “That y’all must be running out of people,” he tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “Like, Wow, we’re down to somebody who is somewhat symmetrical.”
All kidding aside, Shelton, 41, credits his girlfriend of two years,Gwen Stefani, for convincing him to embrace the crown. “She goes, ‘Listen to me, you’re going to regret this for the rest of your life if you don’t take this gift and just live in the moment,” Shelton says of his “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” duet partner.
But a bigger incentive for the singer was being able to stick it to his fellow coach (and 2013 Sexiest Man Alive) Adam Levine. “I can’t wait to shove this up Adam’s ass,” Shelton adds. “As proud as I am and honored that you guys asked me, that’s really the only thing I care about.”