Jon.

Lawyer. Proud Liberal. Comics, music, and film aficionado. LGBT Activist. On here mostly to keep up to date with information, rarely contribute.

[Jon. @coldironsbound1]

Alright, Twitter, it's been real. But I'm heading for bluer skies. Whoever is the last one out, let your final tweet be just the word "CROATOAN". ✌️✌️

[explore.org @exploreorg]

Yearly bear cam maintenance staff reporting for duty.

[explore.org @exploreorg]

Bearapalooza!

[Acyn @Acyn]

Mamdani: In a win for every ice cream lover across New York City, we will work with the state to do away with the frozen dessert permit that requires restaurants to seek out a superfluous second permit for what they’re already doing: serving food.

No more treat-sploitation, as we say.

Right now, barbershops need three licenses to cut hair: one to be a barber, one to own the shop, and one from the city on top of both.

The state of affairs is frankly anti-fade, and we will not stand for it, which is why we will work with the state to streamline these licenses as well.

And to the bingo enthusiasts out there, for too long, the potential earnings of a hot streak at bingo have been capped by arcane rules that no longer reflect how the game is actually being played.

With OPEN, DCWP will remove unnecessary regulations, including prize limits.

These are just a few of the improvements we are proud to announce today as we make it clear we are in the pocket of Big Abuela.

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: ICE agents were caught, on video, entering a U.S. citizen’s home without a warrant, tackling the father to the ground, while pinning down his 15-year-old grandson.

As the family repeatedly told agents they were U.S. citizens, and demanded to see a warrant, the agents ignored them.

The daughter began recording and repeatedly asked to see a warrant, but they refused. She also told agents her father is diabetic, and that the teenager they were restraining was only 15 years old.

The agents continued to arrest both U.S. citizens from their home, without a warrant, eventually releasing the child but taking the father.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits government agents from entering a home without a judicial warrant.

If federal agents can force their way into a U.S. citizen’s home, ignore repeated demands to produce a warrant, and use force without lawful authority, they aren’t just violating one family’s rights… they’re undermining one of the core constitutional principles America was founded on.

A free country depends on the government being bound by the Constitution. If those limits can be ignored without consequences, we are no longer a free country.

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

It's hard to know what to make of the Vice President's bizarre, almost nonsensical, comments here. It sounds like he is equating the use of these "hideous signs" to an alternative version of the Nicene Creed.

A little background: The Nicene Creed, formulated by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, is an essential profession of faith used by the Catholic Church (among other churches). It is also the familiar creedal formula spoken by Catholics during Sunday Masses: "I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth..." It's a statement of belief, mainly about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It obviously doesn't talk about "hideous signs" welcoming people.

However, the Nicene Creed does affirm belief in the church as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic." (These are the four traditional "marks" of the church.) This means, among other things, believing that the church comes to us directly from the apostles (it's "apostolic"). Thus, it derives its authority not only from Jesus Christ, but also through the "apostolic succession," an authority passed down from the apostles in the early church to the Pope and to the bishops today.

It's ironic, then, that the Vice President is mocking things like love and the church's teaching on migrants in the same breath that he is professing his faith through the words of the Creed, which includes belief in authority of the church. Because this "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" church has long proclaimed the Gospel message of love and care for the stranger, which Jesus himself preached during his public ministry.

So a butchering of the Creed would mean, in fact, not listening to the church's teaching on these matters and, even worse, not listening to Jesus's own teaching on love and loving the stranger.

Because, in the words of the Creed, we also believe in "one Lord, Jesus Christ."

[Kevin Lamb @KevinLamb74]

Jon Favreau: "Lucasfilm was like 'we haven't done a movie in a while, can you do something with these characters, is there something there?'"

And then he describes condensing the Season 4 scripts he had already written into a two hour movie minus all references to events that happened in the previous three seasons so that people unfamiliar with the show wouldn't be lost.

Did George Lucas ever say "Hey, I haven't done a Star Wars movie in a while, how about I just throw some established characters on screen in a totally throw-away adventure not connected to anything that came before and see what happens." 🤦

Disney still just shoveling out theatrical releases to hit quarterly deadlines. No creative vision at all.

Link to interview below.

[Matt Margolis @ItsMattsLaw]

tort law exam ass case

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

Larry Bushart spent 37 days in jail for posting a meme on Facebook.

I’ve been doing this work for 25 years, and I can honestly say this is the worst First Amendment case I’ve ever seen.

Not because Larry threatened anyone. He didn’t. Not because he committed violence. He didn’t. Not because this was a close call. It wasn’t.

He posted a political meme — the kind of thing millions of Americans do every day — and local officials decided to treat it like a crime.

And because they had badges, prosecutors, jail cells, and the terrifying machinery of the state behind them, they got away with it for 37 days.

Larry is a retired police officer and National Guard veteran. The meme he shared quoted Donald Trump’s “we have to get over it” comment after a 2024 Iowa school shooting. Whatever you think of Trump, the meme was plainly political commentary. Perry County officials knew what it referred to. They knew it wasn’t a threat against a Tennessee school.

They arrested him anyway.

In the middle of the night.

They set his bond at $2 million.

He lost his job. He missed family milestones. He sat in jail for more than a month before the charges finally collapsed — because, of course, there was no crime here.

Today, @theFIREorg secured a measure of justice: Perry County agreed to pay Larry Bushart $835,000 for violating his constitutional rights.

This case should scare the hell out of people across the political spectrum.

Because if the government can jail you for a meme by pretending not to understand obvious political commentary, your rights are only as secure as the good faith of the most authoritarian official in your town.

That is exactly why we have the First Amendment. Not for speech everyone likes. Not for opinions that flatter the powerful. Not for the bland, safe, committee-approved stuff.

It exists for moments when fear, outrage, politics, and authority all line up and say: “Surely this is the exception.”

No. It isn’t.

I’m incredibly proud of @theFIREorg’s legal team. And I’m even prouder of Larry Bushart for refusing to let the government get away with treating his constitutional rights like a suggestion.

But despite the correct verdict, I'll probably always get angry every time I think of this case.

Let’s make this the last time anyone in America is arrested — let alone thrown in jail — for a meme.

Celebrate your independence. Defend your First Amendment.

https://t.co/7ADQTxeHsL

[Craig Minassian @MinassianMedia]

In honor of Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show, a look back at when he served as The Daily Show’s Senior White House Correspondent, confronting then Press Secretary Jake Siewert. 

Grateful for the opportunity to work with Stephen then and so many moments along the way.

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

Grogu tries a lemon for the first time.

[Netflix Sports @netflixsports]

This dad at the Red Sox game went into full dad mode — managing it from both sides after little bro threw away the foul ball 😂

Big bro was sick 😭

[Jon. @coldironsbound1]

@mattyglesias This is a dogshit take for someone who had made a career of dogshit political takes. I can only assume that your engagement numbers are down so low that you need to find a controversial topic to stir things up.

This take is so bad, it makes David Brooks seem like Ezra Klein.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

"pope should stay out of politics." brother you need to stay out of a size medium

[capitolhunters @capitolhunters]

For those still behind: Melania's Epstein presser yesterday ("I was not a participant") was almost certainly driven by Amanda Ungaro, an Epstein victim who had a child with Paolo Zampolli, who brought Melania to the US. Zampolli just got Ungaro deported; she's vowing revenge. 1/

[State of New York @NYGov]

it’s hole filling season

[Cyrus Janssen @thecyrusjanssen]

An Iranian man left this comment on my YouTube channel. This is without a doubt the single best explanation of the reality facing Iranian people today👇

"As an Iranian, I can tell you the situation is no longer just political—it's existential. We are trapped between two collapsing structures: one internal, one external. On one hand, we face a deeply dysfunctional government, led by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic’s unelected institutions.

Decades of economic mismanagement, suppression of dissent, and brutal ideological control have alienated multiple generations. No one believes in reform anymore—because every attempt has either been co-opted or crushed. But here's the paradox: We are also terrified of regime collapse—because we've watched the aftermath of Western intervention in countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. Each was promised freedom; each descended into chaos, civil war, or foreign occupation.

So no, we don't trust the U.S. or Israel. Not because we support our regime—but because we know how imperial powers treat ‘liberated’ nations in the Middle East.

Freedom, in their language, often means vacuum, fire, and permanent instability. Right now, many Iranians live with three truths at once: The Islamic Republic is morally and politically bankrupt. The alternatives offered by foreign actors are not liberation—they’re collapse.

A bad government is survivable. No government is not. We are not silent because we agree. We are cautious because we’ve learned—too well—what happens when superpowers decide to "help." In a sentence: Iran is a nation held hostage by its own regime, but haunted by the fate of its neighbors. We are stuck in a house we hate, surrounded by fires we fear more."

[Justin Re: Covington @JCov1]

Gay version of Waffle House closing

[Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 @ScooterCasterNY]

"You're here to terrorize this city" - Vietnam Veteran confronts Federal ICE agents outside Whipple Federal Building in Minnesota

[Acyn @Acyn]

Kelly: When Trump was driving the Taj Mahal Casino into bankruptcy, I was being shot at over Iraq…. When Trump was writing birthday greetings to Epstein, I was the first on the scene to recover the bodies of my fellow astronauts… When Trump was peddling conspiracy theories against President Obama, I was sitting next to my wife’s hospital bed… I’ve been through a lot worse in service to my country. The President and Pete Hegseth are not going to silence me.