In which the pond celebrates putting a price on 'free' ...

It's the fate of the pond to be bitterly disappointed by the reptiles on a daily basis …

The pond can't begin to count the number of times some reptile has scribbled furiously about Orwell or Orwellian moments or 1984 or Animal Farm or all the rest of it … yet they remain enchanted by the mutton Dutton and all the other authoritarians roaming around, thirsting for a chance to put a little of George's futurist nightmares into practice …

Hence the angle which appeared briefly at the top of the digital page - "Dutton smack down for Bishop."

Not "Bishop tries to stand up to Orwellian Dutton" …or even "Orwellian Dutton seeks to expand powers"...

It says a lot that the pond feels the need to spare the asbestos woman herself from a smack down by the mutton Dutton, though her point is obvious enough …

Perhaps the federal government doing even more spying on everybody and everything that moves might not be in the country's best interests, unless you happened to want an Orwellian regime in charge …

Of course child exploitation and child pornographers are always the best excuse, but the real point is to allow bracket creep and expansion … and slowly and steadily the mutton Dutton and his cohort of bureaucrats have been attempting to build a power base for enhanced domestic spying …

The reptiles have gone very soft on another matter raised by the pond, and noted in the Graudian under the header Victoria threatens to pull out of facial recognition scheme citing fears of Dutton power grab …

Inter alia …

In addition to invoking the most serious offences, the home affairs department also acknowledges that the systems would be used for “the provision of more secure and accessible government and private-sector services” and “improving road safety through the detection and prosecution of traffic offences”. 

Because child pornographers are notoriously involved in traffic offences.

There's an Orwellian on the loose by the name of Dutton, and what's the best defence on offer to his power grab?

The Queensland office of the information commissioner submitted that the bill did not prevent “blanket surveillance techniques” but argued that “indiscriminate use of the face-matching services would not be feasible in practice”.

Ah, it's the muddle defence. It can't be done at the moment in a feasible way.

And if that's the best that can be done to prevent indiscriminate use, get ready for the age of George and Peter …

There's more at IT News here, but the pond would like to turn to another reptile matter …

The reptiles have reinstated their hard paywall, and the pond doesn't mind - if it never reads another piece by Moorice, that will probably be too early - but the pond does object to the reptiles outsourcing certain topics and then whacking a paywall on them too …

The pond noted this in the matter of the Wolf at the hysterical press door.

Now the pond hadn't intended to go there - Wolf did a mixed set, scorching in places, and muffed in others - and what was really remarkable was how craven the 'free' press were, folding the moment a little spray came their way, and how easy certain snowflakes are when it comes to melting in front of a little robust humour (as if a pussy-grabbing President hadn't already made pussy jokes a free kick).

Free?

Well yes there's a reliable joke for starters and the pond was delighted to see the Huckabee Saunders presented as a motorbike ...

But the pond isn't just here to mock motorbikes, there's the question of authorship. 

It turns out that the piece was written by Jon Fasman, not credited by the reptiles, and it could be found for actual, real free at an Economist blog here, truly operating under the label "open ideas" … and with a better pitch: In the age of Trump, calls for civility are calls for servility

All the reptiles did was round up the piece, hook it up with an advert for the fantastic Hucker motorbike and do a little formatting, and throw in the pathetic offering of a servile excuse from Margaret Talev ...

This shameless re-badging and re-working of a freely available an Economist blog piece only emphasises the way not one local reptile could apparently be bothered to drum up a little outrage at the way, in these Orwellian times, that comedians are supposed to follow a correct political line ...

A free press? Not when Chairman Rupert is in charge …

Well good on the Fasman for going there, and hiss boo to the reptiles for charging for what the Economist generously offered for free, and hiss boo to a craven pack of local reptiles helping complete a virtuous circle …outsourcing any indignation over the Wolf at their door, while folding their Orwellian tent and stealing into the night as the mutton Dutton goes about his business of organising the surveillance society …

And so to a few cartoons to celebrate freedom …