12/19/2025

 Friday, December 19, 2025

1946 War broke out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacked the French in Hanoi

1971 Stanley Kubrick's cult classic "A Clockwork Orange," based on the book by Anthony Burgess, premiered

1988 Unexploded WW II bomb found in Frankfurt, Germany - 5,000 evacuated

2024  Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing "acts of genocide" in Gaza by damaging water supply infrastructure and depriving civilians of clean water.

In bed at 9:15, up at 5:25.  15°, w/c -8, high 23°, low 14°.  Wind gusts up to 37 mph.  

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 9:30  a.m.  Trulicity injection at 10:15  a.m.

Hannah was found guilty of obstruction.  After six hours of deliberations, jurors in Milwaukee found Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstructing law enforcement, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison, but acquitted her on a charge of concealing a man wanted by immigration authorities.  I had expected a hung jury and was surprised and disappointed to read the headline this morning.  It seems that Hannah was, as the Irish say, 'too clever by half.'  Unless the verdict is rejected by Judge Adelman, which is unlikely, or overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is probably also unlikely, this result is a devastating loss for Hannah.  She will be a convicted felon and will be removed from the bench, losing her $175,000 per year salary and generous benefit package.  I assume she would be entitled to some pension and health care benefits after 9 years of service as a circuit court judge and wonder whether they may be forfeited as well.  She spent her life working for the Legal Aid Society and for Catholic Charities, not pursuing more lucrative employment.  She never married and lived in an upper flat of a duplex on West Wisconsin Avenue, which she may or may not have owned.  In any event, she is 66 years old, single, and not a wealthy person.  Losing her ample salary and generous fringe benefits, along with being labeled a federal felon, will be a major setback in her otherwise commendable life.  The crime of which she was convicted also carries a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment, though I can't imagine Lynn Adelman sentencing her to prison.

    Hannah, Geri, and I were pretty good friends for several years.  Judge Patricia McMahon and Lynne Oehlke, who ran St. Catherine's Residence of Women, for whom I did some consulting work during my House of Peace days, were close buddies of Hannah.  Lynne retired from St. Catherine's in 2013 and died from cancer two weeks ago.  Pat McMahon retired from the bench in 2010 after 25 years on the bench.  I noted that Tom Barrett was called as a character witness for Hannah in her trial, and I was reminded of a Christmas holiday party at Pat's house in the Washington Highlands neighborhood.  Barrett was one of her guests, as were Geri and I.  Tom was Milwaukee's congressman at the time, a locally very famous and well-liked guy.  When he left, he waved goodbye to a small group, including Geri and me, and I warmly replied, "Goodbye, Steve."  What a doofus.

Epstein documents disclosure: diamonds in dungheaps and scrambled eggs.  We are, as expected, hearing complaints from journalists that the Epstein file disclosures are incomplete and unsearchable, in violation of the Epstein File Transparency Act, and redacted up the wazoo.   I am reminded of Louis, the police chief in Casablanca:  “I’m shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”  My Facebook post one month ago today:

One of my proclivities that I’m not proud of, that indeed causes me some shame and embarrassment, is pessimism.  I don’t know when I developed this trait, perhaps in childhood, perhaps when at age 19 I returned from a couple of months of active duty in the Navy to learn that my One True Love had dumped me, but surely by the time I served in Vietnam and the time I returned from Asia to experience culture shock from my own homeland.  Pessimism and its related attitude of cynicism provide some measure of protection against bitter disappointment.  It is an outgrowth of fear, an unadmirable psychological defense mechanism, but one that I confess to having.  As George Will has written: “The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.  I think of my idiosyncrasy as I witness the celebration over the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405).  A warning: First, we must remember that the legislation provides many reasons for non-disclosure of information, including identification of victims, records that depict or contain child sexual abuse material, information that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution,” materials that include “images of death, physical abuse, or injury,” information that is “specifically authorized … to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy,” and is “properly classified” under an executive order.  Each of these grounds for non-disclosure will require some level of interpretation and implementation by Kash Patel’s FBI, Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice, Marco Rubio’s State Department, the CIA, and Donald Trump’s White House.  Knowing what we do of Trump and his loyalty-based political employees, I cynically and pessimistically suggest that (1) the most incriminating or embarrassing materials may already have been purged from the files, deep-sixed, and (2) we would be foolish to expect good faith on the part of the FBI, DOJ, CIA, State Department, or the White House in deciding what materials to withhold on the basis of the grounds authorized by the EFTA and how expansively to swipe the blackout Sharpie.   The legislation ended Phase 1 of the Trump team’s gamesmanship and started Phase II.  We have years of gamesmanship, cover-up, obfuscation, and litigation ahead of us.  Don’t expect any reasonableness or good faith or cooperation on the part of the Administration.

Big Basement Day.  Geri and I spent part of the afternoon moving stuff out of the storage area and the workroom in the basement back out to the finished area.  Tomorrow, Andy and Peter will come over to move the heavy butcher block table.  Then, we'll (mostly, I'll) have to deal with the more difficult and time-consuming job of deciding what to keep and what to finally discard, and where to put whatever I/we keep.