Does it get any better than a Polonius prattle on a Sunday?

The pond did at one point think of taking a squiz at the dog botherer, but really it's entirely understandable that the government's main media arm would break a boycott, in order to cover the fearless leader going about his duties.

Pravda would certainly do it, and be damned to all this idle chatter about press freedom, the lizards of Oz are certainly at one with Pravda.

Of course the reptiles weren't going to forsake their coverage of Malware on the world stage …

Speaking of government media, the pond held back Polonius for a special way to start a Sunday …

Indeed, indeed, there's nothing like locking people up in gulags for a period of indeterminate detention through a series of specious legalisms to evoke the glorious days of Stalinism, and it certainly can't be argued that Stalin was a fascist, though perhaps he was a mite authoritarian …

And now, because there's always a history lecture involved, it's off to the lecture hall ...

Damn you kiwis, with your pathetic moral stance, as if our Polonius couldn't out humbug you with an even better moral stance …

Now here's the thing. The pond isn't usually inclined to out-pedant a pedant like Polonius, but Barns used a cunning 'get out of Nauru gulag modifier, as quoted by Polonius, which is to say "fascist tendencies", together with a reference to authoritarian politicians in places like Hungary and Poland.

And to be fair, all that requires is for the mutton Dutton to show fascist tendencies in certain matters.

It goes without saying that inspector plod from Queensland has fascist tendencies in abundance, and loves a decent Border Force uniform, and frequently shows off with pride a strong streak of authoritarianism, which no doubt came in handy when busting ne'er do wells in the deep north.

To reinforce its pedantry, the pond wandered off to a dictionary, and sure enough, 

2. any ideology, movement, programme, tendency, etc, that may be characterized as right-wing, chauvinist, authoritarian, etc (here)

Well there certainly have been programs and tendencies …

And that's without dragging in a cartoon about the gulags ...

Of course it might have been a bit trickier to make the first definition stick ...

1. any ideology or movement inspired by Italian Fascism, such as German National Socialism; any right-wing nationalist ideology or movement with an authoritarian and hierarchical structure that is fundamentally opposed to democracy and liberalism …

… though even here, it might be fairly suggested that the mutton Dutton has absolutely no time for liberalism, and has a curiously distorted and bizarre view of what constitutes Liberalism …

But okay, the pond understands that Polonius is trying, in his own feeble way, to work himself up to a restatement of Godwin's Law, in a bid to stop the pond being forced to fill up the swear jar too high …but what happens if prattling Polonius jumps the Donald shark and nukes the Donald fridge?

Dearie me … Polonius of all people should surely remember that Mussolini was appointed to his post by the king, in a way that was deemed entirely legal within Italian law at the time, following a March on Rome …

And Adolf scored enough votes at general elections to get doddery old Paul von Hindenburg to offer him the position of Chancellor …

Talk about acting within the law …

Meanwhile, the Donald shows all the inclinations of an authoritarian populist demagogue, with a supreme lack of interest in the other arms of government ...

As for that classic line "the democratically elected Trump administration is acting within US law", why Polonius could have saved Robert Mueller a heap of time and money with that sort of revelation.

The pond suggests that he send all the information he has to Mueller so his futile inquiry might be brought to a speedy end ...

Who knew, but the pond is grateful for Polonius's heads-up …and meanwhile, the United States continues to act like an elephant in a china shop, with the upside that there's much work for cartoonists …