AP: A GOP congressman is peppered with questions about Trump during raucous town hall

SOMERS, N.Y. — Voters in U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler’s suburban New York swing district heaped criticism on the Republican during a raucous town hall Sunday night, peppering him with questions around President Donald Trump’s aggressive agenda before devolving into a chaotic chorus of boos as attendees were removed by law enforcement.

The town hall in Somers, a leafy section of Lawler’s Hudson Valley district, began to teeter off the rails soon after it began.

The first crack emerged when Lawler, in his opening remarks, told the packed prep school auditorium: “This is what democracy looks like.”

A little while later, the congressman’s mention of federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew loud jeers.

(AP more…)

Washington Examiner: Mike Lawler latest to host town hall but first to ban filming

• Bulark: She Called a 5-Year-Old the N-Word

  And the online right rallied to her side.
  

  
  
  
  N-word–slinging woman becomes right-wing hero
  OVER THE PAST WEEK, portions of the American right have embraced a Minnesota woman whose claim to fame is that she allegedly called a 5-year-old boy the n-word, going so far as to help her raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

  But the development has also confounded others in the MAGA movement, including some well-known personalities who warn that it’s not the best of looks to celebrate an overtly racist, highly viral rant.
  (Bulwark more…)

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• Bill McKibben: How They Do It in “Foreign Lands”

  
  
  
  … he declared that he was henceforth “instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”

  It was the last phrase—’foreign lands’—that attracted me; it conjures up European monarchs of earlier centuries dispatching sailors to see if fountains of youth or dragons or some such might be found off the edges of existing charts. (No, as it turned out, just indigenous people who could be forced to part with their “foreign lands”). It’s a reminder that for Trump, and for many of us, a myopic focus on what’s happening here is a mistake, because we’ve long assumed that we’re at the head of the world. That unconscious supremacy—born in the actual enormous lead we had in living standards in the rubble of World War II—no longer makes much sense. So just a quick survey of what those funny people in other places are up to.
  …
  You can’t do that in America, because our country has fallen behind these foreign lands.
  (Bill McKibben more…)

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• Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 5, 2025

  …
  No one is reopening the island of Alcatraz as a federal prison. Officials closed it in 1963, after 29 years of operation, because it was too expensive to operate: more than three times as expensive as any other federal prison. …

  It feels rather as if Trump is throwing any strong words he can at the wall to distract from a series of news stories that are not going his way.

  One of those stories is that Trump’s popularity is falling in rural areas, which make up his base. That popularity is unlikely to rebound quickly, as rural areas are being hardest hit by the administration’s cuts. It’s possible Trump hopes that throwing the word “Alcatraz” in all caps at those voters will remind them that he is supposed to be the president who will crack down on the immigrants he insists are dangerous criminals.

  But seven journalists from the Washington Post reported yesterday that many of the men rendered from the U.S. to El Salvador were in the U.S. legally and were complying with U.S. immigration rules. Furthermore, although the Trump administration said it had to send the men to El Salvador because Venezuela would not take them back, the journalists reported that Venezuela refused the transfer only after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act.
  (Heather Cox Richardson more…)

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• NY Times: Spy Agencies Do Not Think Venezuela Directs Gang, Declassified Memo Shows

  The release of the memo further undercuts the Trump administration’s rationale for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport scores of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.
  

  
  
  
  A newly declassified memo released on Monday confirms that U.S. intelligence agencies rejected a key claim President Trump put forth to justify invoking a wartime statute to summarily deport Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.

  The memo, dovetailing with intelligence findings first reported by The New York Times in March, states that spy agencies do not believe that the administration of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, controls a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. That determination contradicts what Mr. Trump asserted when he invoked the deportation law, the Alien Enemies Act.

  “While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the memo said.
  (NY Times more…)

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• Conversation: Why Zelensky – not Trump – may have ‘won’ the US-Ukraine minerals deal

  So, the deal is a win for Zelensky because it gives the US a stake in an independent Ukraine. But even if Ukraine’s critical mineral reserves turn out to be less valuable than expected, it may not matter to Trump.

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• Reuters: Order by Hegseth to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard

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• 404 Media: GlobalX, Airline for Trump’s Deportations, Hacked

  Hackers say they have obtained what they say are passenger lists for GlobalX flights from January to this month. The data appears to include people who have been deported.
  

  
  
  
  Hackers have targeted GlobalX Air, one of the main airlines the Trump administration is using as part of its deportation efforts, and stolen what they say are flight records and passenger manifests of all of its flights, including those for deportation, 404 Media has learned.
  …
  Information about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s flight is in the hacked data.
  (404 Media more…)

  Wired: Signal Clone Used by Mike Waltz Pauses Service After Reports It Got Hacked

  The communications app TeleMessage, which was spotted on former US national security adviser Mike Waltz’s phone, has suspended “all services” as it investigates reports of at least one breach.
  

  
  
  
  The messaging app used by at least one top Trump administration official has suspended its services following reports of hackers stealing data from the app. Smarsh, TeleMessage’s parent company, says it is now investigating the incident.
  …
  TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, and yet they seem to be proliferating. Leaked data reportedly from Signal indicates that multiple US Customs and Border Protection agents may be using the Signal look-alike. When asked about the breach and whether CBP officers use Signal, the agency told WIRED, “We’re looking into this.”

  After a number of reports by Lee and 404 Media over the weekend, TeleMessage removed all content from its website on Saturday and took down its archiving service on Sunday.

  “We are committed to transparency and will share updates as we are able,” the Smarsh statement adds. “We thank our customers and partners for their trust and patience during this time.”

  Since the revelation last week that Waltz appeared to be using Signal, experts have feared that information shared on the app could jeopardize US national security.
  (Wired more…)

  ArsTechnica: Signal clone used by Trump official stops operations after report it was hacked

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• Reuters: Trump signs order restricting research that enhances pathogens

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• CNN: Hegseth orders Pentagon to cut number of senior generals by 20%

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• NY Times: Trump Administration Disqualifies Harvard From Future Research Grants

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• Slate: Not This Time

  Black women are sitting out this round of Trump protests. I can explain why.
  (Slate more…)

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• ProPublica: The DEA Once Touted Body Cameras for Their “Enhanced Transparency.” Now the Agency Is Abandoning Them.

  An internal email obtained by ProPublica said the agency made the change to be “consistent” with a Trump executive order. But at least two other federal law enforcement agencies are still requiring body cameras.
  …
  One former federal prosecutor expressed concern that the change would make life more difficult for DEA agents.

  “The vast majority of times I viewed body camera footage is based on allegations from a defense attorney about what a cop did,” said David DeVillers, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. “And I would say 95% of the time it absolves the cop of wrongdoing.”
  (ProPublica more…)

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• Silver Bulletin: We’re tracking more data on Trump’s popularity

  An old pattern has re-emerged: his haters are increasingly more passionate than his supporters.

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• Closer to the Edge: Alireza Doroudi

  They took him.

  No trial. No charge. No explanation.
  

  
  
  
  Alireza Doroudi, a 32-year-old Iranian PhD student in mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama, was taken from his home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 25, 2025. It was before sunrise. Off-campus. No warrant. No heads-up. Just a knock, a pair of cuffs, and silence.

  More than a month later, he’s still gone.
  (Closer to the Edge more…)

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• YLE: The Dose: Measles slowing? Flu deaths, water safety, and lots of talk in vaccines

  
  
  
  …
  RFK Jr. recently claimed that “none of the vaccines on the CDC’s childhood recommended schedule was tested against an inert placebo, meaning we know very little about the actual risk profiles of these products.” That’s not true—but it’s also more nuanced than a soundbite allows.
  …
  Vaccine science is complex, but our current processes are top of the line. Falsehoods, half-truths, or messy talking points—especially when amplified by the highest health office in the U.S.—can be confusing and do real harm.
  …
  However, most measles cases are among U.S. citizens who traveled abroad and brought the virus home. Thus far, in 2025, 92% of index measles cases were among U.S. residents who traveled abroad.
  (YLE more…)

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  Steward Beckham: When America Wished Upon A Star

  And how successor generations mistook a dream for a destination.

  Deep in the dreary days of the Great Depression, a flicker of enchantment emerged, a blue fairy floating across an animated night sky, granting a lonely craftsman’s wish: to bring a wooden puppet to life. That wish was underscored by a melody that would echo far beyond its origin.

  “When You Wish Upon A Star” wasn’t just a lullaby; it became the cornerstone of America’s most powerful cultural mythmaker: the Walt Disney Company.
  

  
  
  

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