Open Mic Night: Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore is raking in donations from his supporters after being accused of trolling for teenage girls when he was in his 30s. He raised half a million dollars in three days last week.

Moore is now trailing in the polls, but senate Republican leaders are gaming ways to block him if he wins. They could refuse to seat him, or seat him and eject him.

In addition to being accused of child molestation, Moore is a bit of a nut job who has claimed that the First Amendment guarantees religious freedom only for Christians and that some American communities are ruled by Muslim Sharia law.

  Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was caught on an open microphone yesterday saying the Republican Party will be “toast” if it becomes the party of President Trump and Roy Moore. The state’s junior senator was appearing at a tax reform event.

Flake has previously, although not so bluntly, decried the direction of his party. He said on the Senate floor that the Republicans have given up their “core principles in favor of the more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment.”

The Tax Men: The NY Times ran a story that says many state and local political leaders from both parties are concerned that Republican plans for tax reform will hurt their ability to raise new taxes or even maintain their current level of tax revenue.

“The Republican measures would eliminate or severely curtail taxpayers’ ability to lower their federal tax bill by deducting the cost of their state and local taxes,” the Times said. “Without that offset, local leaders say, taxpayers will begin to seek relief closer to home, potentially making it more difficult to provide basic services.”

International Affairs: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri suddenly showed up in Paris yesterday with the French president, after spending two weeks in Saudi Arabia, possibly against his will. Hariri resigned while he was in Saudi Arabia, but there’s been no explanation why. The French have not revealed anything about Hariri’s conversations with President Emmanuel Macron. — Throngs of demonstrators turned out in Zimbabwe’s capital yesterday in a massive call for President Robert Mugabe to resign, finally, after 27 years of dictatorial rule. The 93-year-old Mugabe is under house arrest by the military, but has refused to call it quits. — The Argentine navy is searching for a 30-year-old submarine that went missing Wednesday with 44 hands on board. They say they heard some faint signals yesterday. The diesel-electric ARA San Juan was returning to its base south of Buenos Aires when it suddenly went silent. The sub has backup methods of communication. Britain, Chile, and the United States are helping with the search.

Tiger Beat: Former teenage television and music star David Cassidy is reported to be in a Florida hospital with liver and kidney failure. Doctors have him on a list for a new liver. The 67-year-old former teen idol, the star of the 1970s television series, “The Partridge Family,” has struggled over the years with alcohol and drug use.

No Assist: Basketball father LaVar Ball, whose son LiAngelo was released from criminal charges in China this past week, claims he didn’t get much help from President Trump. After all, his shoe brand is called “Big Baller.”

ESPN reports that when he was asked about Trump’s help, Ball responded “Who?” He said, “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

Ball has an ego to match Trump, who claimed sole credit for getting three UCLA basketball players out of China. But Trump doesn’t have his own $400 basketball shoe company.

The Obit Page: Australian rocker Malcolm Young, who with his brother Angus founded the band AC/DC in 1972, has died at age 64. Young left the band in April 2014, suffering what was later to be revealed as dementia.

Oh, Jesus: A British bakery chain has apologized after creating an advertising scene of the Nativity in which the baby Jesus, surrounded by the three wise men, was replaced by a delicious-looking sausage roll with a bite taken out of it.

One woman pointed out that Jesus was Jewish and therefore portraying him with a pork roll is inappropriate. Other than that, evidently, it was just fine with her.

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