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Delegates at the United Nations sat in silence and then walked out during Donald Trump’s speech earlier today. The FBI was investigating Republican Senator Susan Collins for an alleged illegal pay-to-play scheme until the Trump administration killed it. FCC Chair Brendan Carr spent nearly a decade in an Alcoholics Anonymous offshoot that former members call a cult. And JD Vance just personally stripped hundreds of thousands of people of healthcare.
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Trump’s U.N. Speech Draws Silence and Walkouts
The United Nations has finally found something its 193 member states can agree on.
Trump used his speech before the 81st U.N. General Assembly Tuesday to issue threats to other countries. The speech drew no applause (despite several awkward pauses that intentionally left room for it) and several delegations walked out while he was still talking.
Most of the Iranian delegation left after Trump asked the audience whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly.” The Cuban delegation also walked out, after Trump called the nation “an absolutely failed state” and predicted that its government would fall.
Trump also bragged about a 65-billion-barrel oil deal with Venezuela, where his administration took over the oil industry after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro in January. He told delegates, “To the visitor belong the spoils.”
Trump’s FBI Shut Down a Bribery Probe Into Susan Collins
Susan Collins wants Maine voters to buy what she’s selling again in November, but they apparently aren’t her only customers.
A new ProPublica investigation reveals that the FBI was building a bribery case against Collins before the Trump administration shut down the case. Martin Kao, the former CEO of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, told agents his company funneled donations to Collins in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in Navy contracts.
In 2019, Scott Reed of pro-Collins super PAC 1820 PAC met with three Navatek executives at a Washington coffee shop and asked them for $500,000. The executives offered an even larger amount if Collins directed federal business to the company.
Federal law prohibits government contractors from making political contributions, so the executives proposed disguising the contribution under a fake group called “the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers.” Immediately following the meeting, Kao gave $150,000 to the PAC.
Kao was charged with campaign finance crimes and loan fraud in 2022. He told agents Navatek had made $900,000 in donations to lawmakers and secured more than $40 million in contracts annually in return.
The FBI was preparing to open a bribery investigation at the end of 2024, but the task force assigned to it was disbanded when Trump returned to office. Some of its members were fired because they had investigated Trump in the past.
Trump’s FCC Chair Spent a Decade in an AA Group Former Members Call a Cult
As it turns out, Brendan Carr’s current job is not his first time working for a cult leader.
An investigation by the Guardian published Tuesday found that FCC Chair Brendan Carr spent about nine years in an offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous that former members compare to a cult. He joined in 1996, when he was about 17, and seems to have stayed through law school.
Former members say the group’s leader, Michael Quinones, dictated where they lived, worked, and studied. One described him as the “Epstein of AA,” alleging that teenage girls and young women in the group were pressured into “dating” and having sex with male members.
None of the 14 ex-members who spoke to the Guardian alleged that Carr was involved in the abuse. Several described him as a victim of the group, with one saying he used to sneak her food when she was hungry.
Quinones died of cancer in 2007, the same year the group was investigated by police. They did not press charges because the girls were 16 or older, the age of consent in Maryland.
Vance Announces Plan to Cut Hundreds of Thousands From Obamacare
The Trump administration has found a way to punish Americans for not getting sick.
On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance declared the administration is cutting Obamacare coverage for around 750,000 people it claims are fraudulently enrolled. Another 419,000 enrollees will face new checks of their immigration status and income, with Vance saying he expects most of them to be found ineligible.
CMS administrator Mehmet Oz said some of the enrollees are “phantom” accounts that do not belong to real people. That claim comes from the Paragon Health Institute, a think tank run by a former Trump adviser, which considers anyone who went an entire year without filing a medical claim a potential phantom.
Richard Frank of the Brookings Institution called the administration’s claim that millions of people are wrongly enrolled “implausible,” and said that much of what officials call fraud is really bookkeeping errors. Protect Our Care called the announcement a smokescreen for kicking eligible people off.
In May 2025, the Trump administration quietly reinstated all 850 agents and brokers who were suspended the previous year for allegedly enrolling people in plans or switching their coverage without authorization. The administration has given no reason for bringing them back.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
MAGA Festival Headlined by Kid Rock Canceled After Selling Six VIP Tickets. Eric Deters, a former Republican candidate for governor of Kentucky, has canceled the Kid Rock-headlined Freedom Fest he hosts on his farm after selling only six $1,000 VIP tickets. Deters had counted on about 100 of his wealthy friends to foot the bill for the festival, which has previously brought in speakers like Donald Trump Jr. and Candace Owens. He said he’d never do the event again in a Facebook video on Monday, warning that the friends who didn’t show up would never get another favor from him.
American CEO Leaves Canada Early After Posting “Lake America” Photo. Jane Smith, CEO of Family First Credit Union in Michigan, cut short a family trip to Halifax after an image of her family in “Lake America” sweatshirts went viral across Canada. The family created the image on Chat-GPT as a joke about Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario, and her sister reposted it publicly without its AI label. Smith said she received threats over the post and has since apologized, telling a Michigan news station she understands why Canadians took offense.
Kentucky Is Erasing $250 Million in Medical Debt. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order on September 15 directing $2.5 million to Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys medical debt for a fraction of its value and then forgives it. The program will cancel about $100 in debt for every dollar the state spends, erasing $250 million owed by roughly 130,000 Kentuckians in a state where one in five residents has an unpaid hospital bill. The first 46,000 letters telling people their debt is gone have already gone out.
Colorado’s Wildlife Overpass Cuts Animal Collisions by 91 Percent. Last December, Colorado opened North America’s largest wildlife overpass over Interstate 25 in Douglas County, and state officials say it has reduced wildlife collisions on that part of the highway by 91 percent. The bridge, 209 feet by 200 feet, is accompanied by five underpasses and a system of fencing to direct animals to the crossings. Cameras have since photographed elk herds on it and pronghorn crossing back to the west side of the interstate for the first time in decades. Because it prevents so many crashes, officials expect the $15 million project to pay for itself in about 15 years.
Alternet is one of the astute analysts of our current debacle.
Of course they did..