The BBC is reporting on it.

The RSPCA is looking into claims made by a prominent lawyer that he killed a fox with a baseball bat.

Jolyon Maugham posted on Twitter on Thursday morning: “Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How’s your Boxing Day going?”

The animal welfare charity tweeted that the claim was “distressing”.

Which is so sad because he meant it to be funny. Jokes are such a personal thing.

Government guidelines state you can use cage traps and snares to catch foxes and you must “humanely kill any fox you catch while it’s in the trap or snare”.

Humanely doesn’t mean “with a baseball bat.”… Read the rest

Jolyon Maugham QC’s fox-smashing exploit has garnered him considerable attention, and not the good kind. Maybe being a preening sadist isn’t such a great marketing ploy after all?

Had a difficult Christmas? Feeling a bit low today? At least you didn’t jump out of bed and bludgeon a fox to death with a baseball bat.

— Jack (@j4ppleby) December 26, 2019

https://twitter.com/Fisher_Download/status/1210253653828886528 https://twitter.com/Law_Rhetoric/status/1210140158231642112

Sorry to those upset by my tweet. My chickens were very distressed by the fox – both before and after I'd despatched it – and I wanted it out of the way quickly.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) December 26, 2019

So I smashed it with a club.… Read the rest

Odd thing to brag about.

https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1210110735189233665

It's almost as if you knew the fox was going to harm the chickens, because of biology, and that's why you tried to segregate them? How did you know the fox didn't identify as a chicken and just wanted to be its authentic self?

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) December 26, 2019

I didn't especially enjoy killing it but I imagine that's what the RSPCA would have done, if they had anyone on call in Central London on Boxing Day.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) December 26, 2019

A great many people have pointed out that the RSPCA has a 24-hour hotline for exactly this purpose. The RSPCA have pointed out that what Maugham claims to have … Read the rest

In further news of holiday cheer, Walmart doesn’t pay overtime for those very same holidays.

Walmart is one of several big-box retailers who are open on Thanksgiving Day and will start its Black Friday sale at 6pm.

Walmart is also one of the few big companies that does not offer employees increased hourly wages for working shifts on a holiday. At Target and Amazon, workers are paid time and a half for each hour worked.

“Walmart doesn’t offer holiday pay. They have a discount you have to work certain days to receive and one discount only lasts two days,” said a Walmart worker in Idaho who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. They are re scheduled

… Read the rest

God almighty. These people.

Republican of Arizona.

https://twitter.com/RepGosar/status/1209504003307868160… Read the rest

It matters.

https://twitter.com/h1x_sam/status/1209247306467250176 https://twitter.com/h1x_sam/status/1209247316948840448 https://twitter.com/h1x_sam/status/1209388337993306112… Read the rest

… Read the rest

Rudy Giuliani talked to a reporter for New York magazine the other day.

As we sped uptown, he spoke in monologue about the scandal he co-created, weaving one made-up talking point into another and another. He said former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, whom he calls Santa Maria Yovanovitch, is “controlled” by George Soros. “He put all four ambassadors there. And he’s employing the FBI agents.” I told him he sounded crazy, but he insisted he wasn’t.

The sarcasm is interesting. She did her job, and she answered questions before Congress, therefore Giuliani mocks her. She’s not a criminal or a traitor, so let’s sneer at her as a saint.

“Don’t tell me I’m anti-Semitic if I oppose him,” he said. “Soros

… Read the rest

Of course he did.

Stephen Miller pushed to embed agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a refugee agency in a bid to target the parents of unaccompanied migrant children for deportation, a new report has revealed.

Pro tip: that’s not what refugee agencies are for.

The Washington Post reported that according to six current and former Trump administration officials, the White House sought to plant ICE agents at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which cares for migrant children who cross the border without a parent as part of the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Program.

Stephen Miller is another Mengele, minus the medical skills.

According to the Post, Miller has long claimed that the

… Read the rest

Happy Festivus from Pettson and Findus, via Sven Nordqvist.

Best known for his series about the old farmer Pettson and his talented cat Findus, Sven Otto Rickard Nordqvist originally wanted to be an illustrator but was rejected by several art schools. Instead he studied architecture at Lund Institute of Technology, and worked for a time there as a lecturer in architecture. At the same time he continued to look for work as an illustrator working on advertisements, posters and picture books. In 1983 he won first prize in a children’s book competition and since then has worked exclusively as an author and illustrator of children’s books.

H/t Jeffrey… Read the rest

Common Dreams says it’s very bad in Australia.

The fires in Australia’s southeastern state of New South Wales (NSW) were at the “catastrophic” level on Saturday, according to the BBC. 

“These fires are likely to continue to spread well past Christmas,” said NSW Rural Fire Services Inspector Ben Shepherd.

Photos shared on social media showed hazy skies around the country. 

“Everything is burning,” said one Twitter user. 

https://twitter.com/Shorewife/status/1208265220461711360

As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Australia just endured a heat wave that broke records for temperature in consecutive days. 

“I think this is the single loudest alarm bell I’ve ever heard on global heating,” said Kees van der Leun, a director at the American consultancy firm Navigant.

The view from … Read the rest

Gee, who knew Bill Cosby even still had a publicist? One wonders what the point is. Is he expecting to revive his acting career?

Bill Cosby's publicist calls Eddie Murphy a "Hollywood slave" after #SNL jab https://t.co/CVURK0Q2jG pic.twitter.com/wWxgFXFLM5

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) December 23, 2019

I guess Cosby “used comedy to humanize all genders” in his spare time from assaulting women.… Read the rest

There’s another thing Jolyon Maugham said a couple of days ago…

It's pretty dreadful on both sides. Pretending it's one way aligns you with those promoting extremists.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) December 21, 2019

That’s not it (I’m getting to it), but I’ll just say I haven’t seen anything like that from the gender critical side. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but on the other hand, I think if it did exist we would be buried in screen shots of it. I doubt that it does exist. I think Maugham is equating skepticism about Magic Gender with calling women ugly hearted cunts. I think they are very different.

But that wasn’t it; this is it.

Deliberate misgendering of transmen

… Read the rest

Oh hey, Jolyon Maugham has finally grasped the point.

Every bit as revolting as we have come to expect from The Spectator: embrace NewTruth or lose your job. https://t.co/cIk5rHDPr0

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) December 23, 2019

Hahaha nah just kidding, he’s talking about something else. New Truth about this subject bad, New Truth about that other subject good.… Read the rest

In actual evil…

For more than nine months, María, 23, has been waiting in an immigration detention center in Arizona hoping to reunite with the six-year-old niece she raised as a daughter. When the two asked for asylum at the border last March because they feared for their lives in Guatemala, border officials detained María in the Eloy detention center and sent the girl to foster care in New York, 2400 miles away.

The Guardian first reported on the ongoing separation of this family in October. As the story spread, lawmakers and more than 200 clergy asked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to grant María parole so she can leave detention and reunite with the girl. A woman

… Read the rest