Today is Monday, August 28, 2023, the eve of Elliot’s leaving for Boynton Beach, Florida, tomorrow to visit with ailing cousins. So I will be on my own until this coming Saturday. I haven’t decided what I’ll be doing during that time.

A significant story came out today in Trumpworld when U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set the date for Little Don’s trial on federal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and those surrounding the January 6th insurrection and attack on the U.S. Capitol. This development is written about in an online article for AlterNet by David Badash entitled “‘She’s bringing it’: Legal expert explains why hearing ‘could’ve been worse for Trump.'”

This morning, Dumpf’s attorney became so agitated after the judge rejected the defense’s motion to have the trial pushed back to April 2026 that she had to scold the whiny man, saying, “take the temperature down.”

After hearing arguments from both prosecutors and the defense attorney, Judge Chutkan announced the trial in special counsel Jack Smith’s case alleging Herr Dumpf attempted to overturn the election results and subvert the peaceful transfer of power will begin on March 4, 2024. Many were quick to note that is the day before the “Super Tuesday” presidential primary.

It was Dumpf’s attorney, John Lauro, who repeatedly refused to budge at all on his requested trial date of April 2026. Federal prosecutors asked for a date in January 2024, which was not granted.

Chutkan made it clear that both dates were not acceptable, stating that Trumpworld needed more than five months to prepare but not definitely two years.

The judge clearly struck down the defense’s request with this admonition, “You are not going to get two more years. This case is not going to trial in 2026.”

This is when the defense lawyer became impassioned and Judge Chutkan admonished him, saying, “Let’s take the temperature down for a moment,” as he got heated over the government’s trial proposal and amount of discovery materials.

When told of the new trial date, Lauro sheepishly said, “We will certainly abide by your honor’s ruling, as we must. We will not be able to provide adequate representation . . . the trial date will deny President Trump the opportunity to have effective assistance of counsel.” Is Mr. Lauro making a case for Dumpf to fire him here?

Professor of Law, political commentator, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice, Harry Litman, said that the hearing could’ve been worse for Trump, “but I’m not sure how.” He added, “She called his lawyers misleading, obviously took their proposal as a stunt, and set a trial date about as early as she might have. Does Trump now fire Lauro?”

Now we have a situation in which competing trial dates could be set for the same month in 2024, as District Attorney Fani Willis wants to set the Georgia trial date also for March 2024. Also, if the trial in Washington lasts more than 11 weeks, it could bump up against Dumpf’s other federal trial, on charges of illegally retaining classified documents after he left office and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. That trial is scheduled to begin in Florida in late May, so here there are so many indictments, and so little time to try and convict the ex-president before the general election. This frenetic schedule should give Dumpf and his legal team a major headache. But maybe justice will finally be served at the end of this whirlwind maelstrom.

The carnage from guns was evident again today at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill when a lone gunman killed a faculty member in a campus shooting, but was himself detained by authorities, as an online CNN article contends by Sara Smart and Jason Hanna.

Thus a suspect is in custody after a shooting at the North Carolina university left a faculty member dead and prompted students and others to shelter in place for hours as police combed the school for the assailant, school officials said.

Shots were reportedly fired at 1:02 p.m. ET at the school’s Caudill Laboratories, and a suspect was taken into custody shortly after 2:30, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said at a Monday evening news conference.

The names of the faculty member and the suspect were not immediately released. It was too early to know the motive for the shooting, UNC Police Chief Brian James indicated. The gun used in the killing has not been found either, the chief added.

The Chancellor said, “This loss is devastating and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community. We will work to rebuild that sense of trust and safety within our community,” Guskiewicz said.

This is only the second week of the fall semester at the school. Let’s hope that this early school shooting does not augur more of the same for the entire school community in this country. As some background information, the university has a student body population of about 32,000, along with more than 4,000 faculty and 9,000 staff members.

Yesterday I was absent from these pages because Elliot and I were expected at a memorial service for our friend’s father in Clifton, New Jersey. We were asked to chauffeur another good friend who knew the decedent for all his life, so we couldn’t say no. We picked up “Sally” at around 4 across the street from her apartment building on 108th Street, which was just 10 minutes away.

Even though I had paper directions to the restaurant, we used GPS on my phone instead. The spoken directions asked us to take the Lincoln Tunnel which is not the usual route that we take to New Jersey. So Elliot got a little discombobulated in reaching the tunnel. We made very good time, despite a few missed turns: we got to the Barrow House a little after 5. The service was called for 6.

The dinner/service was held in a back room with about five tables set up to accommodate 10 people or so. At the rear wall stood a collage of pictures taken of our friend’s father during various stages of his life. I couldn’t be more impressed with the resemblance between father and son that I saw in early photos of our friend’s paterfamilias.

Elliot knew more people on the other side, while I really didn’t recognize many relatives on “Ralph’s” side. I had to ask his wife who most of the people in the room were.

Elliot and I sat at the table with two of Ralph’s daughters and one boyfriend. Soon waiters began bringing in the food which was plentiful and very delicious. There was salad, burrata, three entrees, including salmon, pasta, and chicken. For dessert, there were berries and cream plus cookies that were truly heavenly. We also had coffee or tea.

At about 8, people were asked to come to the front of the room to speak of the deceased man who succumbed to pancreatic cancer at the age of 91. Grandchildren, nieces, grandnieces, the sole living brother of the decedent, the second wife, and the grieving son all spoke movingly of the 91-year-old man they knew as “Jim.” I had never knew Ralph’s father, so last night served as a poignant reminder of who Jim really was. He was truly a jack of all trades. In the many encomiums that I heard in that rustic room, I learned that Jim was a successful writer, sports promoter, and entrepreneur. During his lifetime, he held a number of jobs, principally as executive director of the National Association of Men’s Sportswear Buyers (NAMSB) in which its semiannual trade shows brought together thousands of suppliers and retailers and were the premier event nationally for menswear as well as among the largest by volume and attendance for any type of trade show.

We got home pretty late, where we dropped off Sally at her building first. Then we drove back to our street, where I parked the car in our garage.

Stay safe and be well.

Here is the playbill for the Jaws-inspired play that we just saw.