It was a lazy Sunday evening, and I was pleased to receive a phone call from an old colleague. It had been five years since we worked together.
I was pleased that he had called me via a popular chat app that I had been urging him to sign up for months.
We shared a mutual fondness for films from the golden era of Hollywood. After reading my article from 2015 predicting a Trump victory in 2016, politics in the US also became a favorite subject for us.
He had recently watched many of Humphrey Bogart’s films. He made the case that In A Lonely Place (1950) was an underrated gem while he was less fond of Casablanca (1942) He also praised All Through the Night (1942). I made the case that Sidney Pollack’s Sabrina (1995) with Harrison Ford was superior to Bill Wilder’s original starring Bogart.
We then proceeded to politics.
We talked about the possibility of Trump running again in 2024 and how he is being gratuitously investigated on myriad grounds. He also wondered how stressful it must be to endure such persecution.
We talked about the Stalinist January 6th Committee and the arrests of Trump allies such as Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon. We talked about the targeting of citizens. I mentioned the suicide of Matthew Perna who attended the January 6th protest and who committed suicide because he simply couldn’t take the pressure of the Kafkaesque persecution from the US Justice system.
IRS can GO TO HELL !!!!!!