In travel news, Trump wants to send Abrego Garcia to Uganda and federal troops to Chicago. Anna Delvey (Inventing Anna) remains in the US because the Nine Sages of the Supreme Court haven’t dealt with the appeal of her criminal case. With so much Trump-related litigation taking up the court’s attention on both its regular and “shadow” dockets, perhaps there is little time to devote to Anna’s case. It shouldn’t take long for the Nine Sages to issue their “cert.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(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.