Today is Thursday, July 13, 2023. As you know, I was away from this space yesterday since I was having dinner with my Manhattan cousins, “Rivka” and “Dillon.” We had arranged to meet at 7 p.m. at a restaurant on East 83rd Street strangely called 83 1/2 which is a southern Italian restaurant, located at 345 East 83rd Street. Elliot and I were impressed with the food and the ambiance of this white-tablecloth restaurant. As an appetizer, I had calamari fritti and for my entree, I had gnocchi di spinaci, which is spinach gnocchi. Elliot had a Caesar salad and grilled veal chop as his main dish.

The focus of our getting together was to share vacation stories from our respective excursions – Rivka and Dillon’s African safari in Namibia, a country in Southern Africa, and Elliot and my cross-country saga ranging from Palm Springs, California, to New York. We had a lot to share, given how difficult it was for Rivka and Dillon to get to their ultimate vacation destination, and how our trip was characterized by some infighting among the three of us. Overall, the four of us agreed that the experience was extremely worthwhile, despite the many hours of flying on the part of Rivka and Dillon and our many hours of driving through state after state.

We must have sat for at least two hours, chatting loudly in the small space of the restaurant. There were only a few customers in the restaurant, which was good for us, as we spoke animately about what has happened in the last few months to all of us. We hadn’t seen each other since early January.

I’m heartened to hear that special counsel Jack Smith has ripped apart team Dumpf’s request to permanently delay the trial of their Orange Devil of a client. In a forceful, ten-page response, Smith hit back at Herr Dumpf declaring that there was no tangible reason for postponing a trial date in the classified documents case. This hard-hitting response from the prosecutor who has brought charges against the twice-impeached, disgraced ex-president is covered in an online CNN article by Tierney Sneed entitled “Special counsel rips apart Trump’s plea to delay Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial.”

In a court filing, Smith aggressively rejected the reasons the former president and his codefendant Walt Nauta gave for why the trial should be delayed. The whole world should know the true reason why the bastard is seeking a delay: he hopes to win the presidency once more (Huh?) so that he could dismiss the charges once he’s anointed emperor for life!

The Smith team, which is seeking a mid-December trial date (which is long in my opinion), accused the defendants of giving a “misleading” picture of the amount of evidence that has been handed over by prosecutors to the defendants in the case. The insurrectionist and his bald codefendant cited the need for more time to review the evidence as a reason for pushing back setting a trial date.

The prosecution also railed against the suggestion by Trump’s and Nauta’s lawyers that it would not be possible to seat a fair jury before the 2024 election, as Dumpf is running to return to the White House (God forbid!).

In the filing, Smith responds thusly to the charges that the defendants would not be afforded a fair jury, “Our jury system relies on the Court’s authority to craft a thorough and effective jury selection process, and on prospective jurors’ ability and willingness to decide cases based on the evidence presented to them, guided by legal instructions from the Court.” Smith forcefully adds, “To be sure, the Government readily acknowledges that jury selection here may merit additional protocols (such as a questionnaire) and may be more time-consuming than in other cases, but those are reasons to start the process sooner rather than later.” Take that, Dumpf and Nauta.

“This fiery new filing comes ahead of a Tuesday hearing in the case – the first before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon – who will preside over the trial, where the lawyers from each side will discuss how the classified materials in the case should be handled.”

Thus with this no-nonsense filing, Jack Smith stood by his proposal that mid-December is a plausible date to aim to start the trial, way before the 2024 election. Let’s hope this biased judge will heed Smith’s warning not to delay the trial any longer than need be. The whole world is watching Cannon next week, that’s for sure.

Another way that team Dumpf has been holding up the proceedings is the way that only two of the defendants’ counselors have submitted the forms required for obtaining security clearance thus far, which the attorneys will need, given the classified materials involved in the case. So these lawyers should get their act together and get those documents together in order to receive their security clearance for this very significant case. So let’s see if this judge will look kindly on this fraudster on Tuesday of next week.

Today I intended to take my first pickleball lesson at the Queens College Tennis Center, but I was quite disappointed to learn that there was a misunderstanding of what I actually signed up for today from 6 until 8. When I walked up to the booth in the lobby of the building, I spoke to “Flor” who took my information last week and assigned me this space, but she now informed me that tonight’s session would consist of advanced beginners and not just novices like myself and that there would be no coaches, which is what I require.

Therefore, there is the need to reschedule my first teaching session and Flor suggested next Wednesday, July 19, at the same time as a revised date, but I mentioned that that time would not be good since Elliot and I are taking a walking tour of the Lower East Side that I registered for last week through the Henry Street Settlement – at 5:30. So now I have to wait for Flor to call me with another propitious date. I walked out of the building – disappointed to no end.

I’ll let you know when a new date is arranged.

Stay safe and be well.