Condemning Donald Trumpās cruel bigotry is easy ā well, OK, maybe not for the Australian government, but for actual human beings with functioning consciences.
Then again, our country is so screwed up, our governmentās response to the rise of the most extreme racist authoritarian president in US history is to ask him if heās still ok to take desperate asylum seekers we wonāt help, coz we are sick of the expense of torturing them in isolated hellholes.
In all the furore about thatĢżphone call between the Orange Freak preening about the White House and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the fact that the key topic was a proposal for cruel and illegal human trafficking gets forgotten. Not that it wasnāt a stunning spectacle to see Turnbull come into contact with a bigger ego for the first time in his life. And at least the orangutan with a dumb hair piece didnāt just spontaneously threaten to invade us mid-call, like he with Mexico.
The rise of Trump is extremely disturbing and dangerous, but it is always important to look on the bright side. For instance, anyone who ever wanted to see a replay of Caligulaās reign over the Roman Empire, only live-tweeted, is in for a real treat.
It is not just that the Trump administration is pushing measures of sheer evil, like or screaming ahead with fossil fuel projects to hasten an already developing eco-holocaust. Itās that itās all so unpredictably unstable.
You never know what will come next. I wake up each day expecting to see a headline like āTrump Nukes China After Chow Mein Take Away Arrives 10 Minutes Lateā.
I always knew a decaying capitalist system could slide into barbarism, but I never could have guessed neo-fascism would be this weird.
Then there is Trumpās attempts to communicate. I made the mistake of actually reading the transcript of Trumpās just after his inauguration and I will never be the same again. I think I suffered multiple strokes during the first paragraph.
A Trump speech makes a William Burroughs novel look coherent ā only without the excuse of truckloads of smack. A two-year-old learning to speak makes more sense. Trump starts sentences, then clearly forgets why. Much of what he says holds no logical connection to anything else.
For instance, , Trump told the reporter: āWe have to stop people from just pouring into our country. We have no idea where theyāre from.ā Well in that case, you small-handed alleged child rapist, how on Earth do you know where to build the fucking wall?
Of course, we should be careful not to exaggerate. For instance, just because Trump has banned all entry to the US from seven largely Muslim nations, that doesnāt mean it is a āMuslim banā. It is merely a ban on Muslims from countries with which Trump has . The distinction is clear.
Some of the complaints against Trump can seem pretty petty. Like the claims German Chancellor AngelaĢżMerkel had to about the Geneva Conventions. I mean, the guy is leader of the free world for Godās sake, he is far too busy to be reading up on international treaties on human rights from, like, last century! Heās got a wall to build!
And some of his measures are clearly justified. Like when a former Norwegian prime minister found himself because he visited Iran in 2014. I surely cannot be the only one to have read that and shouted: āFinally! A world leader willing to take action against the real threat to peace and stability in the world today ā retired Norwegian politicians!
āFor too long these Norse bastards have lorded it over us, but no more! Not on The Donaldās watch!ā
The explosion of protests and resistance to Trump has been a badly needed source of hope. Some leftists, however, want to complain about the protesters hypocrisy ā where were they during Obama? Why aren't they protesting against thisĢżor that?
Leaving aside the protests that did occur during Obamaās rule (or did I just dream Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter?), it is a simple fact that it is impossible to have a rise in protests without that meaning people are protesting who previously didnāt.
Yes, the Democrats are hypocrites who commit war crimes and push racist policies. And no doubt they will seek to co-opt anti-Trump sentiment for their own ends.
But the alternative is to just sit passively and watch. Presumably the only point to complaining about anti-Trump protests is so you can have future conversations such as:
āWhat did you do during the Trump regime daddy?ā
āI complained online about the hypocrisy of those opposing his agenda for their selective approach to protesting.ā
āDid it work?ā
āYeah it got a few likes.ā
After Trump hung up on Turnbull and called the refugee deal ādumbā on Twitter, it seems social media was filled with to Australians for their Commander in Chiefās rudeness. They seemed to think Turnbull is actually respected down here, or that anyone with a conscience is āoffendedā that Trump would spit on a deal that would never have been proposed in any decent society.
Well, donāt worry about it. Hereās a deal: you get rid of your mega-rich pro-corporate racist bastard of a leader and weāll see what we can do about getting rid of ours.
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