September 9, 2023

LIGHTS ON: Big 24 hour power outage in upstate New York starting Thursday night so we have catching up to do …

MAGNITUDE: As many as 820 people are reported to be dead after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck about 50 miles from the city of Marrakesh in Morocco overnight. 

  The US Geological Survey said that the quake in the High Atlas Mountains was the strongest to hit the area in more than 100 years.

  Marrakesh has many historic buildings of unreinforced masonry, tight streets, and open markets that make it a tourist attraction. Many of those buildings simply turned to rubble.

  The full damage and number of casualties is yet to be assessed. Morocco had a quake of 5.8 magnitude in 1960 that killed 12,000 people.

 TRIALS ANDTRIBULATIONS: A federal judge yesterday shot down the request by former white House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to have his Georgia election meddling case moved to federal court on the grounds that he was just doing his job for President Donald Trump. It’s a setback as well for Trump, who is expected to file the same motion to move to federal court.

  The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from doing campaign or election work while on the job, and Meadows was doing not only that, but pressuring Georgia state officials about the vote in Georgia. 

  Yesterday was busy. A Georgia judge unsealed the special grand jury report that was the basis for indicting Trump, Meadows, and 17 other people. That report also recommended the indictment of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, and Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser. Prosecutors chose not to charge any of those in the ultimate indictment.

 And finally, former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro was convicted yesterday on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena for documents and testimony by the House committee that investigated the January 6^th insurrection.  Each count carries a maximum of one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

  Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon was convicted of the same last year and sentenced to four months in jail, but he’s out on appeal.

POLITICS AND POSTS: The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the Biden White House, top government health officials, and the FBI likelyviolated the First Amendment by improperly pressuring tech companies to remove or suppress posts on covid-19 and elections.

  The judges wrote that the White House likely “coerced the platforms” with “intimidating messages and threats of adverse consequences.” 

   The judges also wrote that the FBI, for instance, “targeted” social media posts that gave incorrect poll hours or mail-in voting procedures.

THAT 2000s SHOW: Actor Danny Masterson, best known for the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in his Hollywood Hills home at the height of his career more than 20 years ago. The jury deadlocked on a charge that the actor had raped a third woman.

  “This has been a long and arduous road for the victims of Mr. Masterson,” Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascón, said in a statement of admiration for the women who accused him.  “They not only survived his abuse, they also survived a system that is often not kind to victims.”

  The 47-year-old Masterson and all three of his accusers were members of the Church of Scientology at the time of the incidents. The women said the church had discouraged them from filing legal complaints against a fellow member. 

Masterson played Steven Hyde on “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006 and was also a cast member in the comedy, “Men at Work.” He appeared in the Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” until he was fired in 2017 when the rape allegations emerged. He is married to Bijou Phillips, daughter of the late John Phillips from the 1960s foursome, The Mamas and the Papas.

THE WAR ROOM: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has admitted that last year he refused to allow Ukraine to use his Starlink satellite system to guide a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet, feeding fears about his outsized power.

Ukraine is heavily dependent on Starlink for its war effort. 

  Historian and journalist Walter Isaacson says in a new book that at the time of the planned attack, Musk spoke with the Russian ambassador to the US who had told him an attack on Crimea “could lead to a nuclear response.” 

CENTER COURT: American teenager Coco Gauff plays Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus this afternoon for the US Open women’s tennis championship. At 19, Gauff is the first American teenager to reach the finals since Serena Williams in 2001.

  Tomorrow, Daniil Medvedev of Russia is up against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic for the men’s championship.

THE SPIN RACK: A Philadelphia police officer was charged with first-degree murder in the point-blank shooting of a 27-year-old man who was sitting in his car. Prosecutors and police officials said the body camera footage of the killing showed a different account than what Off. Mark Dial originally described. — The number of people missing following the Maui wildfire has dropped to 66. — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem endorsed Donald Trump for president. — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told an interviewer that calls for Sen. Diane Feinstein are sexist, despite Feinstein being obviously debilitated by advancing age at 90. “It’s a guy thing, but that’s the way the world is,” Pelosi said. There have also been calls for the resignation of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The 83-year-old Pelosi says she will run for re-election next fall.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Coast Guard has arrested a man trying to cross the Atlantic by running inside a giant floating hamster wheel. Reza Baluchi threatened to kill himself and it took the Coast Guard three days to convince him to give up.

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