Donald Trump is so behind the times I am surprised that Pauline Hanson hasn’t called him a piss-poor copycat.
The Donald pretends his immigration laws aren’t targeting Muslims. Our politicians have no such hesitation with many of them openly calling for a total ban on Muslim immigration.
Due to amendments to the Migration Act in 2014 conferring special executive powers on the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton could ban Muslims tomorrow. He already has Trump powers. Parliament is considering a Bill to give him even greater power to cancel any visa he chooses without having to justify himself.
Donald wants to build a wall and use the National Guard to keep illegal immigrants out. We have a constantly patrolling ‘ring of steel’ manned by our military, and customs and immigration have morphed into a black-uniformed armed quasi-military force.
The Donald has declared he thinks torture works and is reportedly preparing to bring back “black site prisons”.
Our government quite openly advertises that any asylum seeker caught on a boat anywhere within cooee of our country will be indefinitely locked up on an island hell-hole and subjected to never-ending torture, so don’t even try it.
Our juvenile justice system employs the same tactics here with troubled youth. Subject them to violence and humiliation and strip them of any sense of identity – that’ll learn ‘em to be better citizens.
Trump is having a hissy fit about his inability to control the press. Here we just change the media ownership laws to give Murdoch a monopoly and neuter the ABC by slashing its funding, appointing conservatives to the board and former Murdoch employees to the executive, cutting fact checking and demoting to spokesmodel any interviewer with more gumption than jelly, and having representatives of the IPA on every panel and current affairs program.
The courts are frustrating some of Trump’s agenda. Not so here. Any state that has the temerity to introduce marriage equality or voluntary euthanasia or trained counsellors instead of school chaplains will very quickly find themselves instructed by the courts to stop that silliness.
Trump wants to overturn the marriage equality laws. We have never given in to such degeneracy.
Trump is trying to pretend climate change doesn’t exist be removing all reference to it from government web sites and replacing it with his energy policy. Here they don’t even bother denying it, they just tell us all that coal is good for humanity and that they will be giving our money to foreign companies so they can keep mining it. They talk about energy security while allowing nearly all of our gas to be exported, hugely driving up domestic prices.
Trump wants to reduce regulations particularly those pertaining to the environment. Here we just combine the Ministries of Energy and the Environment and make it illegal to challenge development. We didn’t pussy foot around tinkering with the previous administration’s clean energy efforts. We abolished the carbon tax, replacing it with subsidies for polluters, and destroyed the renewable energy industry by slashing targets and subsidies, though fossil fuel subsidies remain alive and well.
Edward Snowden revealed to the world the extent to which the American government spies on its own people. Here such an invasion of privacy was passed into law with the support of both major parties using the justification that it was necessary to protect us from terrorism.
Aside from the fact that insects and furniture pose a far greater threat, let alone violence from a family member, it has not been metadata collection keeping us safe. Our law enforcement agencies learn far more from Facebook and the Muslim community than any communication intercepts. There was ample evidence that Man Haron Monis was becoming increasingly unhinged, including a letter to George Brandis asking if it was legal to contact IS, but the justice system did nothing to stop him.
Trump wants to increase military spending by a paltry $50 billion. We are spending $400 billion on our new war toys and have increased the defence budget above and beyond projections every year including in the 2014 budget from hell.
Trump wants to cut foreign aid. Been there, done that.
Trump has vowed to spare middle-class social programs such as Social Security and Medicare from any cuts. What a wuss. Scott Morrison could show him a thing or two about defunding the ‘lifestyle’ of the poor and vulnerable.
Trump wants to reduce company taxes. Well hell – we said that ages ago and ours are heaps lower than his right now anyway so there! He has state taxes as well. There’ll be none of that.
Republicans see labour organising as a major impediment to their electoral prospects. So they have done everything in their power to dismantle the ability of unions to organise workers and bargain collectively on their behalf. We just have royal commissions that brand all unionists as thugs and criminals, establish a body with draconian powers beyond that of the police, and stack ‘independent’ bodies with people who will cut pay to the lowest paid workers while recommending pay increases for politicians, judges and senior public servants.
So the next time you gasp at Trump’s reckless audacity, have a look around you. We already live in Trump’s vision.
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
