Aug 21, 2025
I spent the better part of the day trying to get access to a Windows 11 laptop. I hadn’t used the laptop for two months. There is a Windows setting that forces you to change your password periodically. I don’t know where this setting is found. I don’t even want a password; it’s an unnecessary inconvenience. If Iranian Intelligence steals the laptop, I have no doubt they will know how to get in, password or not.
I assume that because I hadn’t changed the password—the laptop was sitting in a drawer for two months—is the reason Windows decided to lock me out of my account. I spent a few hours with ChatGPT trying to unlock this puzzle box, but no joy. So I decided to bite the bullet and buy PCUnlocker. I created a boot disk on a USB, plugged it in and found that you needed a UEFI boot disk.
Fine. So I created that. Still no BIOS boot menu. Why? Because my PCUnlocker boot disk wasn’t signed, so no luck. Maybe some day I’ll be able to use PCUnlocker. But not today.
So I downloaded a 5 gb Windows iso file. This was a mistake. Then I downloaded the Windows installation media creator and ran it. The Windows media installation media creator assumes that you haven’t already downloaded the necessary iso file and there is no way to tell it that you already have downloaded a perfectly usable iso file. So the media creator…downloads another 5 gb.
This time, the finicky BIOS recognized the USB drive and let me boot from it. I needed a command prompt. That’s ctrl-F10 but good luck finding it in the documentation. Where “the” documentation resides, I have no idea. Now with the command prompt, I substituted cmd.exe for utilman.exe in \Windows\System32 Exit out of that and reboot. Now when your name appears on the login screen, a command prompt will also appear (if it doesn’t, it’s in the Accessibility options). You’ll get
X:\Windows\System32 Type in C: and now you’re at the C: prompt. This assumes your Windows installation is at C: and not some other bizarre location.
Now, all you do is type net user USERNAME NEWPASSWORD
I recommend a password you will not forget, or if you do, you might stumble upon, like 1234 or password.
Hit <Enter>
Your PC will return a message along the Ines of, command completed successfully.
Type exit or reboot or turn off the power. Remove the installation media. When you reboot, enter the new password. Abracadabra, the gates to paradise will open with all your files, all your settings.
Now, back-up that installation. Por favor.
I’m leaving cmd.exe where it is. This could happen again.
Aug 21, 2025
Gerry Spence, the famous trial lawyer, died yesterday. Here’s my Gerry Spence story.In 1990, I wanted to be among the top ten criminal defense lawyers in Miami. That was my goal. Not the best–there were already some very good lawyers practicing. But reaching the top ten was possible.
This meant looking at trials not as a mere rote procedure described in Thomas Wolfe’s The Right Stuff–first I do this, then I do that. First I wait my turn at the podium and then I stay behind the podium to ask a question. Then I ask to approach. Then I stand up to speak. Then I sit down. Etc., etc., etc.
Bo Hitchcock–they made a movie about him when he eschewed conventional treatment for his throat cancer and sought a cure in Leticia, where Colombia, Peru and Brazil meet. His chosen cure was ayahuasca. They made a movie about his quest. The cure was ineffective. But before all that, Bo was one of the few who viewed trial as craft. He wanted to be better too.
Bo and I had an idea. We would travel to Wyoming, sit at the feet of the master and learn from him. Bo made the call, telling Spence that we knew that he was the best and could we learn from him for a week or two?
Spence was a humble man. He thanked Bo and said that he was not the best. If we wanted to learn from the best, we should contact James Shellow in Milwaukee. Shellow was willing to let us learn and invited us to Wisconsin. He also refused to accept the compliment. The best, Shellow said, is a lawyer named Frank Oliver. He’s retired and lives in South Florida.
The journey that started in Miami, reached to Wyoming and then Wisconsin had doubled back to a place called Kendall, part of the urban sprawl that is Miami, maybe a fifteen minute drive from my house, traffic and the Florida Highway Patrol permitting. We told Oliver what Shellow had told us, that he was the best criminal defense lawyer in the country.
“Well, I am” Frank said.
There’s much more to be said about Frank, but that’s my one interaction with Gerry Spence.
Aug 12, 2025
What is more American than the grift?
George Santos “embellished” his resumé, not worrying about the fact that identity politics trumps even outright lies. Santos claimed to be Jewish, biracial, and finding one box unchecked, gay. He is Latino enough and there are Holocaust survivors, albeit imaginary ones, in his family tree. A claimed 9/11 death in the family makes up for a lack of military service, and when the New York Times finally looked into his background and uncovered his failure to graduate from college only means the fact that he is a high-school dropout was lost in the noise. Shilling for sympathy, Santos had his mother die twice. He started a charity for animals and pocketed the cash, knowing that dogs and cats can’t file fraud complaints. He is an accomplished shameless liar, as any good grifter must be.
None of this prevented his election to the 117th Congress.
If anything, he is the perfect candidate.
Aug 6, 2025
The Hotel Arbez was selected as a debriefing site. The border between France and Switzerland cuts through the dining room and a staircase. During WWII the Germans respected Swiss neutrality and respected the border. It is said that even the SS did not go up the Hotel’s stairs in search of enemies of the regime.
Tarek wasn’t supposed to leave Switzerland; USDoJ attorneys had no authority to operate in France. So he was going to sit on the Swiss side of the table while USDoJ sat on the other side. What is called “Queen for a Day” immunity would be granted; that is, use immunity for anything discussed at the table.
The debriefing never happened. Goaded by British lawyers who were unfamiliar with American plea bargaining, Tarek asked for assurances, assurances that could not be given without knowing what he had to trade. And that could only be gleaned during a debriefing. I sent him an email a week ago commenting on the Ghislaine Maxwell meeting with the DoJ. The immunity grant given to her was exactly what they had offered Tarek, who changed lawyers, gave up on a deal with DoJ, went to trial in Switzerland and got eight years.
Aug 5, 2025
My first exposure to the shadow puppets was their display in the film The Year of Living Dangerously, starring transgender Linda Hunt, except that she wasn’t transgender, the term was not in use then, she merely played a man, a photographer. A pre-antisemitic Mel Gibson also starred. Based on a novel by C.J. Koch. Journos in Jakarta, all of them hearing the siren call of Vietnam. We forget that Indonesia was the Dutch East Indies, that Bali was the only Hindu territory outside of the subcontinent and that once women there normally went bare-breasted. Suharto replaced Sukarno and their names were similar enough that no one paid attention. I thought the word for those “puppets” was wayang (as in wayang on the left) but I could be wrong. Of bhasa Indonesia I know nothing.
Pablo Neruda’s first wife was from the Dutch East Indies (not the girl of Veinte poemas), she returned to the Netherlands just in time to see the country overrun by Panzer Divisions. Now Indonesia is the world’s largest–by population–Muslim country, but theirs is a tolerant Islam, alcohol is permitted and restrictions imposed by the Prophet (pbuh) are interpreted in a generous fashion.
Gil Williams, who wrote Man on a String (as Michael Wolfe) loved Vietnam, not so much the American War, but the combination of French and Chinese food that gave rise to Vietnamese cuisine. On Panama Canal transits he sought out ships that offered French Basque cuisine which he judged superior to almost all others. He would be happy to learn that Vietnam today follows not the Khmer Rouge but Deng Xiao Ping.
When I was in Phnom Penh I saw the ads for buses to Vietnam, Sài gòn only four hours away, Miami to Tampa, I had to go. Crossing the border it suddenly became possible to read the signs, though I didn’t know what they meant. English widely spoken, French not so much. But Orangina avec sandwich jambon beurre, bread like France. Even a French bookstore! Rhodia legal pads!
I was never arrested by Colombia’s DAS, merely detained briefly once for bad language. I got the equivalent of a “time out” at the airport. They decided that my Spanish wasn’t good enough to sustain an accusation of improper use of the language. Lesson learned. I used to have a cédula de extranjería. I don’t have that brown booklet anymore and I assume that the records were lost when M-19 stormed the Supreme Court in Bogotá and burned the files. It would be nice to get it back.
Aug 4, 2025
On the day I was stopped by police for possible involvement in an attempt to assassinate Jacques Chirac, I went to a saloon in Paris and brought a puppet I had purchased as a gift for my son. At first the puppet stayed in its backpack, but then he insisted on being brought out.
How was I to know that he had a foul mouth? A French-speaking English woman drinking with a group from work popped in to translate now and then because the puppet had little fluency in French. This did not stop him from buying rounds and of course, I had to apologize to everyone for the puppet’s generally rude behavior. On my left (puppet’s right) were two French guys, intrigued, commenting from time to time on the puppet’s behavior and largesse. They say, “you know how Americans are” but I tell you, puppets are worse. They really are.
Aug 2, 2025
A young mother with her malnourished two year old son has staked out a begging post at the entrance to the BTS Metro station at Ekkamai. She is unwashed, unshod; she looks about fourteen and her son, similarly covered with the dirt from the busy street, is always either sleeping in her arms or playing in a discarded styrofoam box. She holds up a dirty plastic cup recovered from the trash for her begging; a few, but only a few stop to drop a few coins into her cup.
I give her 20 baht whenever I pass. She sees me coming and smiles, knowing that I will stop as I approach, that I will turn away from the pedestrian traffic and reach into my pocket for a small banknote for her struggling family. The little boy never smiles.
Last night she was still at the station when I returned from dinner around 10 pm. There were few out at that hour; her takings at that time would be limited. I slowed my pace and waved. She smiled.
Her son looked at me and gave me the finger.
Jul 10, 2025
Will AI Eat Relativity?
Relativity relies on the availability of poorly-paid new law graduates to analyze documents provided in discovery in civil cases. What will be the effect of AI on Relativity and the document review industry?
With respect to health care, Bill Gates claims that AI will decimate the medical sector. Decimate is only 1 in 10; he’s talking about 8 in 10 losing their jobs. He also points out that the shift caused by AI is already happening.
Gates identifies three areas that will be exempt from AI. First he exempts his own profession, which is a blind spot most suffer from (it’s always, “it will affect someone else”). The second is the energy sector “because it’s too big.” Nonsense. This is just a matter of scale.
The final exempt field, according to Gates, is pure science, basic research. Studies that led to transparent wood, for example, will be safe from AI because AI lacks the creativity to imagine transparent lumber. AI would probably do well with, “is there any way to make wood transparent?” But coming up with the question in the first place is outside AI’s capabilities.
That brings us to Law. How will AI affect the practice of Law? We must start with Cicero, who taught us what lawyers do:
“Respondere is the issuing–usually in oral form–of an opinion on a particular case at the request of a layman, magistrate, judge or other iuriconsultus. free of charge, Cavere is the drafting (and advising on drafting) of wills, forms of contract and other transactions; Agere denotes a person acting in a trial or the advice given on his behalf by a jurist.”
Of these, only Agere will survive the AI tsunami. Remote trials will lead to holographic trials, but don’t be fooled–it will be while yet before robots defend clients in criminal trials. However, we may see automation of certain court proceedings.
Legal work not involving hearings will be eliminated by AI. That includes most of what lawyers do outside of court—including the review of discovery.
AI will eat Relativity. Relativity’s defense will be to incorporate AI in its program. Once that is accomplished, they won’t need document reviewers. All they will need is an appropriate large language model.
Apr 30, 2025
(Guest post by Dr. D. Ball)
There is an old saying: He who enters the conclave “papabile” comes out “cardinale.”
Predictions mean almost nothing. When Ratzinger was elected, it is rumored that the one he almost lost to was Bergoglio, but there is really no proof as the ballots are burned after each ballot. In any event, Bergoglio’s name was never mentioned as being a serious candidate.
When Bergoglio assumed the throne, he announced that his would be a short pontificate. This is what the College of Cardinals (“CC”) wanted: Ratzinger was more or less a continuation of JP2, and together, their reign went extended from 1978 to 2013. Ratzinger had rewritten the Catechism at JP2’s order, seen the end of the Cold War and basically put what they thought were the final touches on Vatican 2. The CC did not want to risk repeating such a long traditional-ish pontificate, so out comes the shy, outlying 76 year old candidate with half a lung missing .
But, alas, the Holy Spirit has other plans, or as the Yiddish saying goes, man dacht und Gott lacht.
Like Catholics everywhere, I mourn Francis’ final illness, immense discomfort and passing, although the blessing of dying during the octave of Easter is indeed a blessing. However, the past 12 years have witnessed an erosion of the foundations of the Catholic Church which you have often heard me call a transformation into just another Protestant social action committee. The Church in which you first served as an altar boy no longer exists…by Papal fiat!
As an honorary Argentinian, and as someone who knows people who knows people, I am privy to certain knowledge that might be considered privileged. Francis was almost certainly a Mason. So is Tagle. This has been rumored for years. Tagle also was involved in some sort of financial mismanagement as the head of Caritas. Though the Filipinos are indeed very devout Catholics as a rule, many have also fallen prey to the clutches of Freemasonry, and yet other, many others, have been baptized by priests who were married or in adulterous relationships and who acted in every way in rural areas of the Philippines like proper diocesan priests…except they were actually ordained by Aglipayan bishops.
Tagle, if elected, would be a continuation, perhaps even a more liberal one, than Francis, if that can be imagined, and the globalist agenda will overtake the theological one.
The CC I think will want to try to find a middle ground: someone who is not a theological dinosaur, not on the edge of death, progressive and open as far as social issues and gay inclusion are concerned, and willing to use his considerable moral power to take a stance against the spread of right-wing dictatorships or tyrannies across the formerly immune West.
The ideal candidate will be one who will be diplomatically astute, somewhat intellectual, who is willing to abrogate Francis’ antagonism towards the Tridentine Mass, bring back some of the old traditional pageantry of the Church, strengthen catechesis of young Catholics (which, I can tell you, is in a pathetic state), and be multilingual.
He must be able to speak, read and write Italian because that is the administrative language of the Church, and that immediately excludes charismatic, media-friendly American candidates like Cardinal Dolan of NY. Cardinal Burke would qualify, as he is fluent in Italian and Latin, but he wants to undo Vatican 2, bring back the Tridentine Mass, turn the priest back around, and revolutionize by turning the clock back, which will not happen. I do not believe the CC will elect a reactionary like Cardinal Sarah (he’s 79 anyway) or one of the homophobic Africans … the CC won’t retreat on that issue.
Most religions have come to realize that the gay community is a good ally to have. They know that if the gays are once again excluded, the Church will begin to disintegrate or even go into schism.
I’ll venture a few educated guesses:
1) It’s time for an Italian again. How long has it been? 47 years since we had a real Italian? Zuppi of Bologna would be my first choice over the one that everyone is speaking about, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who is from the Veneto region. Either one would be good, and they are the right age. Grech, from Malta, was very close to the last two popes and is an old insider, and who is more Catholic than a Maltese? He would be fine too. Erdo of Hungary is a bit too stalwart, like Orban. Schönborn of Vienna is 80, but an intellectual; however, his downfall is that he is from a true noble family. No go. The camerlengo Kevin Farrell, formerly Archbishop of Dallas , born in Dublin and naturalized American, would be fine, but generally the camerlengo is never elected, and his spoken Italian is quite “American freshman doing the Eurail tour.” Scola of Milan (83) and Bagnasco of Genoa (82) are both too old. Their time has passed.
2) Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, is a distinct possibility. He is savvy, progressive, speaks Hebrew and Arabic, but at 60, we are looking at a long pontificate. He was quite close to Francis, which may be a positive for some, but not for all. Despite all the tears and the fact that 108 of the 135 electors were given the red birretta by Francis, a lot of powerful people did not like what happened to the Church under his watch.
3) Turkson from Ghana was spoken about in the last two conclaves. Accessible, smart, politically gifted…but let’s be honest: Is the CC really ready to put a black man on the throne of St. Peter? He’s 76 so he might be a compromise candidate if the conclave lasts beyond 5 ballots.
4) Aveline from France is too liberal, just another Francis.
Now for pontifical names. I pray the tradition of taking the last pope’s name as a tribute is going to end. While making a wishlist, I also hope they return to the rule of waiting 50 years before beginning the process of canonizing someone, and that having been a Pope does not automatically grant one an inside track towards sainthood.
Trust me – for all the good moments, Bergoglio was no saint. He did many things in his life which I am sure he has come to regret – as we all have – but in his case, some of his actions resulted in fatal consequences. What he did to my former correspondent the Cardinal Archbishop of Wroclaw was a travesty and a case of the pot calling the kettle black (I can go into further depth at another time).
I am hoping for a bit more expansive thinking: Pope Paschal III (denoting the Pope’s role as alter ego for Jesus’ sacrifice) would put to rest the controversy of Paschal the antipope of the Middle Ages, but nobody will go for that.
My reasonable choices, in order of preference, would be Clement XV (“forgiving” is a wonderful connotation, as well as the name being a backhanded slap at the Jesuits because Clement XIV was the Pope who suppressed the Order), Gregory XVII (“shepherd” is a good image for a Pope), or Pius XIII (the only problem being the number).
Leo XIV would be fine because after all Jesus, descendant of King David, is the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, but Leo XIII is not very well regarded by current thinkers so that name will probably fall by the wayside. BTW, just a parenthetical: Pope Leo XIII was elected at age 68 and in extremely frail health after the amazingly long pontificate of Pius IX, the thought being that the CC needed more time to think of who to put on the throne of St. Peter. Well, Leo wound up lasting 25 years. Nobody will take the name Peter, despite what some media and prognosticators have claimed.
Apr 21, 2025
Copy machines were always busy at the law office. Whatever you wrote, you needed one copy for opposing counsel, one copy for chambers, and one—if you were feeling reckless—or two for your own files. If you ran out of plastic toner, you were lost. Without copies to take to the Clerk’s office for filing, it was as if your work had not been done. Nowadays, the copiers are mostly silent. Filing at the clerk’s office is electronic only.
Paper has its own demands. You have to do something with a pile of documents. An email can easily be ignored; an email may be dumped into a spam folder only to expire after a month without anyone ever knowing that it was there.