Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Almost 70 percent of American adults are considered obese under a revamped definition of obesity, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the JAMA Network Open and conducted by researchers affiliated with the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Traditionally, obesity was defined as having an elevated body mass index (BMI), calculated by dividing a person’s weight by their height. Earlier this year, the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology published a new definition of obesity, which incorporated anthropometrics, which include body measurements such as waist circumference, waist to height ratio, and waist to hip ratio, in addition to BMI, the study said.

An individual is now classified as obese under three conditions—if they have an elevated BMI plus at least one elevated anthropometric measure or a BMI greater than 40; or at least two elevated anthropometric measures irrespective of BMI; or excess body fat, according to the study.

Researchers analyzed the U.S.-based All of Us database to determine the prevalence of obesity under the new definition.

Of the 301,026 participants aged 18–80 years included in the analysis, 128,992 individuals (42.9 percent) were deemed to be obese under the traditional BMI-based criteria. But under the new definition, 206,361 individuals, or 68.6 percent, were considered obese. Obesity was found to be more prevalent with older age.

“We already thought we had an obesity epidemic, but this is astounding,” said co-first author Lindsay Fourman, according to an Oct. 15 report by The Harvard Gazette, the official news website for Harvard University.

“With potentially 70 percent of the adult population now considered to have excess fat, we need to better understand what treatment approaches to prioritize.”

According to the study, 78,047 participants (25.9 percent) who were not classified as obese under the traditional definition were reclassified as having obesity under the anthropometrics-only criteria. Among these individuals, 22.3 percent had a BMI traditionally classified as underweight or normal, with the remaining in the overweight category.

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology guideline also introduced the concept of clinical and preclinical obesity. Clinical obesity refers to people who have obesity-associated organ dysfunction and/or physical limitation, while preclinical obesity pertains to individuals without such obesity-related issues.

Under the new definition, 36.1 percent of overall participants had clinical obesity, researchers found. Individuals with BMI plus anthropometric obesity were found to have a higher proportion of clinical obesity.

“We found that approximately half of participants classified as having obesity under the new definition also exhibited organ dysfunction and/or physical limitation consistent with clinical obesity,” said the study.

“Our analyses suggest that the new definition of clinical obesity appropriately designates individuals with obesity who are at the highest long-term risk of incident diabetes, cardiovascular events, and mortality.”

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association–Harold Amos Medical Research Faculty Development Program, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials Award Program from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation.

One of the researchers revealed conflicts of interest, having received grant support and personal fees from pharma company Chiesi Farmaceutici. Another researcher received fees from Exavir Therapeutics and Marathon Asset Management, as well as grant support from Kowa Pharmaceuticals America Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc., and Viiv Healthcare.

“We have always recognized the limitations of BMI as a single marker for obesity because it doesn’t take into account body fat distribution,” said senior author of the study Steven Grinspoon.

“Seeing an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in this new group of people with obesity, who were not considered to have obesity before, brings up interesting questions about obesity medications and other therapeutics.”

Obesity in United States

According to a January 2024 post by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is a “common, serious, and costly chronic disease” in the United States. The agency estimated that one in five children and two in five adults in the country are obese.

Obesity can be particularly harsh for children, as it can lead to numerous health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. As for adults, people with obesity have a higher risk of developing several diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.

The CDC attributed the prevalence of obesity to factors such as fewer than one in 10 people eating the recommended daily amount of vegetables, only one in four adults fully meeting their physical activity requirements, and less than one in four youths getting sufficient aerobic physical activity.

According to the agency’s 2023 Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps for 48 states, the District of Columbia, and three territories, all locations had an obesity prevalence of higher than 20 percent.

The highest obesity prevalence was in the Midwest at 36 percent, closely followed by the South at 34.7 percent, the CDC said.

“Three states (Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia) had an obesity prevalence of 40 percent or greater.”

New York City Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani posted a picture of himself posing with a Brooklyn Imam known as being an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing whose son ran a terrorist camp for children. 

In a post to X, Mamdani can be seen posing with Imam Siraj Wahhaj and City Councilmember Yusef Abdus Salaam in Wahhaj’s Bed-Stuy mosque in celebration of the weekly Muslim prayer. 

Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. I was also joined by CM @dr_yusefsalaam of Harlem. A beautiful Jummah. pic.twitter.com/4kcN4CGlUk

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 18, 2025

“Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century,” Mamdani wrote on Friday. 

About that camp…

In August 2018, not one. Not two. But three of Wahhaj’s children were charged with terrorism and felony child abuse for running a ‘terrorist training camp’ in the New Mexico desert that was allegedly meant to train child school shooters, and where the remains of Wahhaj’s abducted three-year-old son were found by police. 

The younger Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40 (at the time), had stuffed 11 children into an RV with five adults on the compound, which could be accessed via underground tunnel. 

The couple and three other adults – Wahhaj’s sisters, Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhannah Wahhaj; and Lucas Morten – were charged with 11 felony counts of child abuse. 

The surviving children from the compound told police that Jany Leveille, 35 Wahhaj’s partner, “intended to confront ‘corrupt’ institutions or individuals, such as the military, big businesses, CIA, teachers/schools and reveal the ‘truth’ to these corrupt institutions or individuals.” 

In particular, the Jihadis were targeting Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta – after Leveille in a journal “expressed her displeasure with Grady Hospital … due to the treatment she and her mother received there,” according to the document. 

A handwritten document titled “Phases of a Terrorist Attack” was found at the encampment where authorities found the decomposing remains of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj’s three-year-old son and trained several children to commit acts of terrorism, CNN reported at the time. 

The handwritten document contained “instructions for ‘The one-time terrorist,‘ instructions on the use of a ‘choke point,’ a location ‘called the ideal attack site,’ the ‘ability to defend the safe haven,’ the ‘ability to escape-perimeter rings,’ and ‘sniper position detection procedure,'” according to the court filing.

Some of the children at the compound told police that Morten allegedly “stated he wished to die in Jihad, as a martyr,” prosecutors said in the motion.

“At times, Jany Leveille would laugh and joke about dying in Jihad as would Subhanna Wahhaj,” according to the court document. –CNN

And of course, the case was botched and the judge was shady. For starters, Judge Sarah Backus let the suspects out on $20,000 signature bond – meaning they didn’t have to come up with any cash. 

Then, all charges were dropped against three of the five suspects after Backus recused herself from the case because the state failed to indict them within a 10-day window.

Then, the compound was mysteriously bulldozed. 

Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said that during the initial serving of the search warrant, their tactical team came upon children holding boxes of ammo, and at least one child was armed when he was found. The defendants’ attorney tried to downplay the “heavily armed” portion of the case.  

While cross-examining of Hogrefe, the suspects’ defense attorneys each took their chance to try and distance the suspects as far from the weapons as possible, and the connotations of violence they imply. One defense attorney suggested it’s “prudent” that children learn how to use firearms safely, which Hogrefe agreed to.

The sheriff also confirmed that Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating the legalities surrounding the occupants’ possession of firearms. 

Another defense attorney pointed out, and Hogrefe confirmed, that the compound’s occupants did not shoot at the tactical team as they raided the compound. He did say, however, that Morton was “struggling” and “resisting” while being arrested by deputies. –KOB.com

THREAD: This week we were given rare access inside the NM compound where authorities think children were getting weapons training to carry out school shootings. This is part of the tunnel that extends out from the property. @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/1tuGlkeHzX

— Gadi Schwartz (@GadiNBC) August 11, 2018

Anyway, Mamdani’s hanging with the guy who raised these pieces of shit. The elder Wahhaj claims he helped authorities find the compound and distanced himself from his three terrorist children, but you know what they say about apples and trees – much less three apples.

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 17 rejected an advocacy group’s emergency application to allow a religious parent to opt her child out of California’s mandatory vaccination policy for schoolchildren.

The court’s decision in We The Patriots USA v. Ventura Unified School District took the form of an unsigned order.

No justices dissented. The court did not explain its ruling.

The applicant, We The Patriots, is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Caldwell, Idaho.

California’s position is that its vaccination mandate keeps children healthy and prevents the spread of dangerous illnesses.

The group filed an emergency application last month with the Supreme Court on behalf of a woman identified as Jane Doe, who is seeking an exemption for her son from the vaccination mandate based on his personal beliefs.

The school district initially granted the son an exemption based on his personal beliefs, but later revoked it. The school district has barred the son from attending school for the time being. His last full day of school attendance was in December 2024.

Doe applied for the exemption based on her understanding that the vaccines required by state law are “researched, developed, tested, and/or produced using cell lines artificially developed from aborted fetuses and contain products that could result in harm to a human recipient,” according to the application.

The Constitution’s First Amendment does not allow “California to exile children from public school because their parents seek to raise them in accordance with their religious beliefs,” the application states, citing the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor.

In that case, the high court ruled for parents in Maryland who, for religious reasons, wanted to opt their young children out of school storybooks that promote LGBT lifestyles.

“That principle protects parents’ right to opt their children out of LGBTQ+ school curricula. It also protects parents’ right to opt their children out of an act that would render them complicit in abortion,” the application reads.

On Sept. 9, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the group’s request to pause an Aug. 15 order by U.S. District Judge André Birotte. The district judge rejected the group’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to suspend the vaccination policy.

We The Patriots had filed with the district court on May 22, asking it to block the enforcement of section 120335 of the California Health and Safety Code against the plaintiffs and other parents and children whose sincere religious beliefs prevent them from receiving the required immunizations.

That state law states that school districts in California may “not unconditionally admit any person as a pupil” unless he or she has been immunized against diphtheria, influenza, measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis B, chickenpox, and “any other disease deemed appropriate” by the state public health department.

The district court previously rejected a prior application for a temporary restraining order on June 17, finding that the plaintiffs failed to show that they would face irreparable harm without such an order, according to Birotte.

The school district filed a brief Oct. 1, urging the Supreme Court to dismiss the emergency application.

The case is unusual in that the applicant asked the high court to halt California’s school immunization requirement and recognize a new constitutional entitlement to attend a specific school, not only for the child concerned, but “for an undefined set of ‘all similarly situated’” persons.

“They press that suite of extraordinary remedies on a thin paper record, without an evidentiary hearing or a developed preliminary injunction ruling. That is the litigation equivalent of pulling the fire alarm and asking the building to be emptied before anyone has confirmed there is smoke.”

The district court and Ninth Circuit were right to rule against the applicant, the brief said.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to We The Patriots’s attorney, Cameron Atkinson of Harwinton, Connecticut, and the school district’s attorney, David Adida of Santa Monica, California.

No replies were received by publication time.

UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that a commercial vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” approximately 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of Aden, Yemen. Security firm Ambrey identified the vessel as the liquefied natural gas tanker MV Falcon.

UKMTO WARNING 036-25 UPDATE 001 – ATTACK – 18 OCT 25

Click here to view the full Advisory⤵️https://t.co/yo0ifPJJjr#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/YIvtfvr5rn

— UKMTO Operations Centre (@UK_MTO) October 18, 2025

Shipping analyst Tanker Trackers wrote on X:

The LPG tanker FALCON (9014432), which caught fire today in the Gulf of Aden, was laden with Iranian LPG from Assaluyeh after loading there on 2025-09-25. She was most likely heading to Ras Isa, Yemen; to supply the Houthis. This vessel was detained in January 2025 in Istanbul for 13 deficiencies. The Indian-owned, Cameroon-flagged tanker is 31 years old and 25/26 crew are accounted for. One person is still missing. No known insurer and she isn’t blacklisted by any government. 

The LPG tanker FALCON (9014432), which caught fire today in the Gulf of Aden, was laden with Iranian LPG from Assaluyeh after loading there on 2025-09-25. She was most likely heading to Ras Isa, Yemen; to supply the Houthis. This vessel was detained in January 2025 in Istanbul… pic.twitter.com/D1kUoUADVi

— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) October 18, 2025

The cause of the blast remains unclear, but rumors are already surfacing …

🚨🇮🇷 Indian tanker “FALCON”, carrying Iranian LPG hit by a submarine in the Gulf of Aden.
No one has claimed responsibility. pic.twitter.com/UEkcKKFFjG

— Terror Alarm (@Terror_Alarm) October 18, 2025

*Developing… 

Democrats who live in the Bluesky echo chamber are losing their minds after the White House social-media team opened an account on the far-left platform. Overnight, Bluesky turned into ‘Bluecry’ as Trump memes and posts invaded what liberals thought was a ‘safe space.’ Not anymore.

“What’s up, Bluesky? We thought you might’ve missed some of our greatest hits, so we put this together for you,” the Trump social media team wrote on BlueSky, adding, “Can’t wait to spend more quality time together!” 

Here’s the welcome video Trump’s social media team posted on Bluesky and X…

We realized everyone over at Bluesky probably wasn’t seeing our content.

So we decided to fix that.

Here are some of our greatest hits all in one place. Enjoy ❤️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/v6SdrMIWtW

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 17, 2025

How Democrats responded to the White House on Bluesky:

Meanwhile, Google Search trends show elevated interest in X.com versus Bsky.app … 

The Trump White House has the informational war dialed in against radical leftists who still can’t ‘meme’… 

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Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Federal agents outside the ICE facility in Portland were not taking any BS from Antifa agitators Friday night, with officers spraying one screeching lunatic directly in the face with bear spray.

The individual was seen on camera earlier yelling at agents stationed on the roof to jump off and kill themselves.

She then got in the faces of agents on the ground, repeatedly telling them they are “fucking stupid.”

The agents gave her multiple warnings and even told her they were going to take action if she did not back away, giving her a count down before spraying her.

The person then flailed around crying, screeching about not being able to breathe, and screaming for attention.

Watch:

🚨 FAFO IN PORTLAND: Anti-ICE “protestors” and Antifa militants pretend like they’re big and tough until they get BEAR SPRAYED by federal agents

Then the tears start flowing.

This deranged woman routinely yells at ICE agents to KlLL THEMSELVES, and FAFO’d HARD right here. pic.twitter.com/uKcE3FEdT5

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 18, 2025

This is a classic FAFO moment.

She is totally incapable of shutting up.

Here’s her tonight yelling at ICE agents to jump off the rooftop. pic.twitter.com/PsRjgXJFa5

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 18, 2025

Nursing 101:
If you’re screaming, you’re breathing 🤷🏻‍♀️

— Holly (@foreveralone11w) October 18, 2025

Nothing says ‘resistance’ like crying for mommy after federal agents remind you that law enforcement sprays back.

— merikuh (@merikuh) October 18, 2025

FAFO: Play stupid games, win bear spray. Actions have consequences.

— rowdyamerican (@rowdyamerican45) October 18, 2025

As we have highlighted, ICE and other federal agents are under constant organised attack by domestic extremists working in coordination with illegals funded by cartels, so they’re simply not going to take any shit from these morons.

The insanity outside the ICE facility in Portland has been ongoing since the Summer, yet the likes of Jimmy Kimmel are spreading propaganda that the Trump administration is making it all up to justify a “military takeover.”

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has spent years bankrolling left-wing Democrats – from Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to progressive ballot measures across California. And look at California now. Things have deteriorated so badly that even Benioff, once the poster child of Bay Area liberalism, told The New York Times one week ago he would welcome President Trump’s National Guard deployment in San Francisco. 

Benioff’s comment sparked a firestorm inside the Democratic Party machine. Within days, the billionaire tech titan faced mounting outrage from his own political allies, such as Democratic donor Ron Conway, who resigned from the board of the Salesforce Foundation. 

Scoop: Ron Conway, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Democratic donor, resigned today from the board of the Salesforce Foundation. He told his longtime friend, Marc Benioff, he barely recognizes him anymore. https://t.co/DH2orHDihy

— Heather Knight (@hknightsf) October 16, 2025

Facing mounting outrage from his own political allies and fearing exile from the progressive bubble he helped fund, Benioff walked it all back (or perhaps his lawyers/PR team) and issued a carefully worded apology on X late Friday afternoon:

Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco. My earlier comment came from an abundance of caution around the event, and I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused. It’s my firm belief that our city makes the most progress when we all work together in a spirit of partnership. I remain deeply grateful to Mayor Lurie, SFPD, and all our partners, and am fully committed to a safer, stronger San Francisco.

Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco. My earlier comment came from an abundance of caution around… pic.twitter.com/7TRdTu7hdq

— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 17, 2025

Surprisingly, Benioff has yet to delete this X post, showing the plunge in police officers in the crime-ridden metro area. He did not provide context that the drop began around the time the far-left city leaders pushed “defund the police” and continued other failed criminal and social justice reforms. 

Benioff, traditionally a left-wing donor and advocate for progressive causes, has recently been seen taking more centrist or right-leaning positions under Trump’s second term.

Venture capitalist David Sacks, who is now Trump’s AI and crypto czar, wrote on X, “Dear Marc @Benioff , if the Democrats don’t want you, we would be happy for you to join our team. Cancel culture is over, and we are the inclusive party.”

Dear Marc @Benioff, if the Democrats don’t want you, we would be happy for you to join our team. Cancel culture is over, and we are the inclusive party. https://t.co/FXTtDgbaNt

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 17, 2025

Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute reminded readers yesterday (read report) that Benioff (or maybe his foundation) is part of the “billionaire-backed networks fueling the “No Billionaires’ protests.” 

💸 Billionaire #5: MARC BENIOFF

Salesforce billionaire funds added $20 million+ to the mix. Together: $294.4 million from billionaire-backed networks fueling the “No Billionaires” protests. 🔥💰 pic.twitter.com/pDA2BzR66f

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Perhaps Benioff should take David Sacks’ “olive leaf,” as many of the nation’s builders already have, by abandoning the Democratic Party that’s morphed into a self-destructive machine embracing socialism, Marxism, and bowing to a globalist-aligned agenda to destroy the nation from within.

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The billionaire-funded ‘No Kings’ protests kicked off on Saturday, with what organizers claim are more than 2,600 protests across the country against “authoritarian power grabs” by the Trump administration [which are promptly halted by activist judges who overrule the ‘king’ every time].

The events are supposed to be peaceful and lawful, but stick around – we’ll be watching throughout the day while these future rocket scientists get their wiggles out. A similar protest in June descended into political violence. 

In honor of No Kings today, here is my favorite interview of all time. 10 seconds of pure glory. pic.twitter.com/jypj2HfWsI

— Jeff Hunt (@jeffhunt) October 18, 2025

Officials in several states boosted security ahead of today’s ‘peaceful’ protests – with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin activating the National Guard to support police “to help keep Virginians safe,” and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordering state troopers and guard members to Austin – where he says an “antifa-linked” protest was about to go down. 

Austin PD chief Lisa Davis said that officers will protect protesters’ right to assemble, and that the department’s “Dialogue Police Team” will be on site to assist demonstrators, whatever the hell that means. 

Times Square was swamped with protesters.

NOW: Large crowds gather in Times Square for “No Kings” protest in NYC

Video by @FreedomNTV Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/8HPt5in6WD

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) October 18, 2025

Professional protest signs provided by the communist group Party for Socialism and Liberation. PSL is linked to billionaire Neville Roy Singham hiding in China. 

In DC, a bunch of people dressed up as Trump and Vance in prison clothes (or they’re French) at the No King’s rally.

Trump and Vance ‘dolls’ appear in prison clothes and chains at ‘No Kings’ rally in DC

What would have happened if a Trump rally had done this with Sleepy Joe? pic.twitter.com/KtfnOqf7Hg

— RT (@RT_com) October 18, 2025

In Philadelphia, officials are closing roads and instituting parking restrictions for a large march from City Hall to Independence Mall. 

In Chicago, No Kings organizers say the demonstration carries special meaning in light of DHS’s “Operation Midway Blitz” – the department’s ongoing immigration enforcement campaign. 

“ICE is occupying our city. They are attacking our neighbors with tear gas. They are indiscriminately snatching people from streets and businesses and homes,” said Kathy Tholin, a board member of Indivisible Chicago, which is organizing a downtown rally and over 30 others in the suburbs. 

In Maryland, Towson University’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, which earlier this year organized an “ICE Out of TU” rally to demand the school declare itself a “sanctuary campus”, is at it again, this time activating, organizing, and mobilizing students as woke foot soldiers in the Democratic Party’s latest color-revolution-style operation against President Trump, under the billionaire-funded movement known as “No Kings.”

🚨 BREAKING UPDATE: This Saturday, Oct 18 — “No Kings 2.0” goes GLOBAL. Organizers claim to stand against “kings and billionaires.” But new @peterschweizer team research into ‘Riot, Inc.’ shows the unrest is FUELED BY BILLIONAIRES. 🔥 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/13HdjFPVKe

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

The billionaire-funded protest – one of many taking place across Maryland and other parts of the U.S. today – has, in past activation periods, mostly featured white, deranged baby boomers. What’s unique about the Towson protest is how these dark-money NGOs can rile up young people using the same tactics U.S. intelligence agencies employ overseas in regime-change operations.

But what’s more interesting, according to local media outlet Baltimore Banner, is that when Towson administrative staff asked members of the Young DSA for a list of speakers at today’s event, citing safety concerns amid rising political violence, the socialist group refused to have their speakers vetted. 

Baltimore Banner explained more:

Towson University students moved their “No Kings” rally off campus after a school official told them speakers’ names would be run through federal government databases and vetted for security reasons.

. . . 

Students moved the event, fearing that speakers would be targeted by the Trump administration, which has threatened to pursue and punish liberal activist groups if their names were shared with federal authorities.

A university official, the students said, told them there were concerns about potential political violence.

. . . 

Members of a Towson student group, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, say administrators have never discussed background checks for speakers at other political rallies they’ve organized, and a Maryland ACLU attorney said such a requirement has an “obvious chilling effect on speech.”

While Towson is a public institution, not a private one, it’s part of the University System of Maryland, which means it’s subject to First Amendment protections. It cannot impose arbitrary or discriminatory restrictions on speech or assembly, including political events, without a compelling public-safety justification.

The latest justification appears to be an intense climate of political violence emanating from left-wing activists in September, from the Charlie Kirk political assassination by a suspected furry-loving radical leftist to the transgender shooter who shot up a Minneapolis church, even leftist publication The Atlantic couldn’t ignore this alarming issue with a recent article titled “Left-Wing Terrorism Is on the Rise.”

The problem with the permanent protest industrial complex (report here), funded by leftist billionaires (as explained by investigative researchers Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute), is that dangerous rheotric has been laid for the last ten years, such as calling Trump and his supporters “Facists” and “Nazis” that dehumanizes political opponets, allowing armed left-wing (who has declared war on facists) to mobilize and justify civil terrorism operations. 

It’s no mystery how Charlie Kirk’s murderer was conditioned to think conservatives are fascists. pic.twitter.com/9ZItjQE1nr

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 12, 2025

Communists are very good at this…

As always, the same old communist strategy. pic.twitter.com/ZcUGoU0kBi

— G£411B€R (@glauberrss) September 12, 2025

Now it becomes clear how the Democratic Party machine operates to radicalize young foot soldiers to activate them in the same covert color revolutions that the State and CIA do overseas for regime change operations. Shouldn’t be a mystery here, the deep state still operates in the shadows of the non-profit world – and even foreign adversaries – something the Trump administration wants to “dismantle” and “destroy.” USAID was a start. Now go up the donor list of these NGOs. There’s a reason for this (read here).

We can’t imagine a movement more steeped in ‘idiocracy’ than citizens able to freely demonstrate in public against an ‘authoritarian’ king. Try that in North Korea.

Authored by Jacob G. Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

Given that the Federal Reserve has obviously abandoned its 2 percent target for the rise in prices brought on by its own paper-money inflationary policy, it’s important that we keep in mind how our nation’s paper money-system and the Fed’s inflationary policy plunder and loot the American people.

There is the plunder and looting that takes place through the simple inflationary expansion of the money supply. By inflating the amount of money in circulation, the Fed reduces the value of money sitting in people’s savings accounts or that they receive in income. Their savings and income buy less than before simply because the federal government, through its inflationary policy, has debased the value of money.

This is what has been occurring ever since the U.S. government converted to a paper-money standard during the President Franklin Roosevelt administration during the 1930s. Prior to that time — in fact, for more than 125 years prior to that time — the official money of the American people had been gold coins and silver coins. That’s because the Constitution mandated gold coins and silver coins as the official money of our nation.

But gold coins and silver coins cannot be printed, like paper money can. So, FDR used the excuse of an economic “emergency” to declare a permanent end to our constitutional monetary system. Indeed, he did it without even the semblance of a constitutional amendment. And the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his extraordinary “emergency” power to effectively amend the Constitution through executive order and congressional law, even though the Constitution does not delegate“emergency” powers to either the president or the Congress.

Ever since then — year after year, decade after decade — the value of the paper dollar has gone down. That’s because the federal government found it more convenient to pay for its out-of-control welfare-warfare-regulatory programs through newly printed money than by simply raising income taxes on people.

After all, people get upset when public officials raise their income taxes. With rising prices that come with inflation, most people have no idea that it is federal officials who are causing the prices to rise through inflationary debasement of the value of people’s money. So, they get angry at people in the private sector who are raising their prices to reflect the lower value of the money rather than get angry at people in the government sector who are causing the rising prices through inflationary expansion of the money supply.

Even at an inflationary rate of 2 percent per year, the citizenry are still getting plundered and looted to the tune of at least 2 percent per year. When one compounds that amount year after year, the amount of plunder and looting increases substantially.

But there is another factor to consider — the benefit that an inflationary policy brings to state and local governments in the form of higher property taxes on people’s homes.

Over the years and decades, the Fed’s inflationary policies have caused the value of people’s homes to soar. While this phenomenon has caused people to feel like they are increasing the equity in the home, it actually doesn’t make any real difference at all. Why? Because all the home values in the surrounding area have increased too.

Thus, people quickly discover that selling their home in the hope of acquiring a better home doesn’t work out. In order to benefit from the increased inflationary-induced value of their home, they have to move to another part of the country — one where home values are relatively lower.

The people who love the inflationary increase in home values are state and local government officials. That’s because they rely on property taxes to fund their operations — and those property tax revenues are based partly on the assessed value of people’s homes.

Thus, as the value of people’s homes increase due to the Fed’s inflationary debasement policies, the real-estate taxes that state and local officials are assessing on people’s homes are constantly going up. That means that while people are receiving no real benefit from the increase in their home values, they are suffering a constantly worsening situation in terms of the real-estate taxes they are paying, which are going up year after year, decade after decade.

According to ChatGPT, with a 2 percent inflation rate, the nominal value of someone’s house, given compound interest, will increase by 22 percent over a ten-year period, meaning, as ChatGPT states, its “real purchasing power remains about the same.”

But notice something important: while the real purchasing power remains the same, the same can’t be said of the amount of property taxes that must be paid to state and local officials.

The property tax burden is constantly increasing because the taxes are being assessed on the nominal value of the home, not the real purchasing-power value of the home.

Thus, it’s important to keep in mind that America’s paper-money monetary system that FDR foisted upon our nation on a permanent basis, which is reinforced by the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve, which was established in 1913, ends up looting and plundering people not only at the federal-government level but also at the state and local government level.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

The geostrategic context of newfound pressure upon each, their increased bilateral tensions, and rising fears that false flag provocations in Europe could manipulate them into war with one another make it likely that their planned Budapest Summit will be more successful than the Anchorage one.

The next Putin-Trump meeting will soon take place in Budapest. Prior to their last one in Anchorage, the vision that they were working towards was a resource-centric strategic partnership that could then become a steppingstone towards a more comprehensive one in the future. For that to happen, either Putin had to freeze the frontlines or Trump had to coerce Zelensky into withdrawing from Donbass, but neither could agree to what was requested of them so their New Détente went nowhere.

Even worse, the Europeans then became serious obstacles to peace, even going as far as teaming up with the Brits and Zelensky to propose dangerous “security guarantees” that riled Russia.

Trump ramped up his rhetoric against Putin afterwards, arguably due to him being manipulated by Lindsey Graham and Zelensky, thus culminating in the latest talk about sending Tomahawks to Ukraine.

It was within this tense context that they talked again, right before Zelensky’s trip to DC, and agreed to meet in Budapest.

Each side is also coming under a lot of newfound pressure nowadays that conceivably influenced their latest call and plans to meet.

From Russia’s side, the new TRIPP corridor will inject Western influence along Russia’s southern flank via NATO member Turkiye (despite Russia’s thaw with Azerbaijan), Poland is reviving its long-lost Great Power status along Russia’s western flank, and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) revealed last month that French and UK troops are already in Ukraine’s Odessa Region.

As for the newfound pressure that the US is nowadays coming under, this concerns the nascent Sino-Indo rapprochement after America’s bullying of India backfired, Russia finally clinching a long-negotiated deal with China to build the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline on presumably favorable terms for Beijing, and all of this resulting in the failure of Trump 2.0’s Eurasian balancing act.

At the same time, Russia and the US could be manipulated into war with one another by possible British and/or Ukrainian false flags.

SVR warned twice about their alleged false flag plots in the Baltic, which was followed by the suspicious drone incident in Poland that was weaponized by deep state elements in a failed bid to manipulate its new president into war with Russia. Shortly afterwards, Estonia claimed that Russia violated its maritime airspace, which led to NATO threatening to shoot down Russian jets, then there was a Russian drone scare in Scandinavia. SVR since warned that Ukraine is now plotting a false flag attack in Poland.

The geostrategic context that was just outlined suggests that a grand compromise might now be possible so as to alleviate some of the aforesaid pressure on each, reduce bilateral tensions, and thus prevent any false flags from manipulating them into war.

To that end, Russia might accept some limited Western “security guarantees” for Ukraine, the US might curtail its arms exports to Ukraine and NATO, and then they might clinch their hoped-for strategic resource deals upon freezing or outright ending the conflict.

Informal quid pro quos, such as Russia helping the US “manage” Iran so long as the US gets Zelensky to implement a degree of (at least symbolic) “denazification” and possibly withdraw from Donbass, could also be agreed to for facilitating this arrangement.

At the same time, Ukraine, the EU, and the UK might carry out provocations to sabotage the Budapest Summit. In any case, if Putin and Trump do end up meeting again sometime soon, then they’re expected to agree to something tangible this time around.