tyb
and drab olive, anon's call it gun tape!
henlo, is it that time again? okie dokie!
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/12/exclusive-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-orders-force-wide-review-of-existing-fitness-and-grooming-standards/
Exclusive–Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Orders Force-Wide Review of Existing Fitness and Grooming Standards
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday ordered a department-wide review of existing standards for each military branch on physical fitness, body composition, and grooming — including on beards, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.
“We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” Hegseth said in a March 12, 2025, memorandum ordering the review.
“Our adversaries are not growing weaker, and our tasks are not growing less challenging. This review will illuminate how the Department has maintained the level of standards required over the recent past and the trajectory of any change in those standards,” he added.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot added in a statement to Breitbart News:
Unfortunately, the U.S. military’s high standards on body composition and other metrics eroded in recent years, particularly during the tenure of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who set a bad example from the top through his own personal corpulence. Secretary Hegseth is committed to restoring high standards, and this review is the first step in doing so.
Hegseth directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R)) to gather the existing aforementioned standards set by each military branch, review them and how they have changed over the last decade, since January 1, 2015.
The review will also look at why those standards changed and the impact of those changes.
Read the memo:
Hegseth has made returning the military to its core mission of warfighting his top priority, which includes having forces ready and fit to fight.
Hegseth spoke about the importance of standards at his confirmation hearing in January, telling Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) that “ensuring that standards are equal and high is of importance to [the president] and great importance to me.”
“Because in those ground combat roles, what is true is that the weight of the ruck on your back does not change. The weight of the 155 round that you have to carry does not change. The weight of the 240-Bravo machine gun you might have to carry does not change,” he said.
“And so whether it is a man or a woman, they have to meet the same high standards. And Senator, in any place where those things have been eroded or in courses criteria have been changed in order to meet quotas — racial quotas or gender quotas — that is putting a focus on something other than readiness, standards, meritocracy, and lethality.”
He also expressed support for gender-neutral physical fitness standards according to the job, and not by any other determinant.
“The standards need to be the same, and they need to be high. And they need to be set by the people closest to the problem set, closest to the understanding of what is required by that job. Commanders, 10 commanding officers, and co-COMs and elsewhere who understand the reality of what face, that is the feedback we should get. That is what should be enshrined and enforced,” he said.
“And no other set of political prerogatives — when I talk about removing politics, ideological or political prerogatives — should contribute to those determinations. Nothing other than the execution of the mission.”
Since becoming defense secretary, Hegseth has highlighted the importance of physical fitness by carving time out during trips to conduct physical training with troops.
In Germany last month, he conducted PT with the 10th Special Forces Group. The photos from the session went viral.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/12/exclusive-army-chief-of-staff-gen-randy-george-orders-a-review-of-all-covid-vax-mandate-related-gomors/
Exclusive: Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George Orders a Review of All COVID Vax Mandate Related GOMORs
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has ordered the Army to review all general officer memorandums of reprimand, or GOMORs, that were issued to soldiers related to the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, his spokesman Army Col. Dave Butler told Breitbart News.
George has personally reached out to some affected soldiers who were issued GOMORs, which is a career-damaging administrative punishment for serious misconduct, to inform them the Army was looking into their cases.
The Biden administration kicked out over 8,000 U.S. troops from the military over their refusal to take the emergency use authorized vaccine. Tens of thousands more are estimated to have left the military over the mandate.
Republicans in Congress eventually overturned the mandate in December 2022, which kicked out healthy troops during a historic recruitment crisis. The Pentagon officially ended the mandate in January 2023.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing that those troops who were kicked out over the mandate and wish to return to service be able to return to their previous ranks, with backpay and benefits.
However, there are some soldiers who are still serving who were punished with GOMORs over their resistance to the vaccine, including with GOMORs, and whose careers were harmed.
George’s order takes a step towards undoing the vast damage that was done by the mandate and repairing those careers.
Approximately 1,900 soldiers were forced out over the mandate. Butler told the Associated Press that more than half have been contacted by phone or email, and about 200 so far have expressed interest in returning to the service.
Under the Trump administration, recruitment numbers in the Army, Air Force and Navy have been going up, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made recruitment one of his top priorities.
IKR
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/12/doge-cancels-nih-grants-to-prevent-pregnancy-in-transgender-boys/
DOGE Cancels NIH Grants to Prevent Pregnancy in ‘Transgender Boys
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cancelled several grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Tuesday, including over half a million dollars going to a “pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys.”
DOGE, led by tech mogul Elon Musk, revealed in a late night X post that NIH had just ended the following grants:
Among the most outlandish was a $620,000 grant for “an LGB+ inclusive teen pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys,” referring to biological girls who claim to be boys.
The health institute, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was also spending about $700,000 to study cannabis use in “sexual minority gender diverse individuals,” $740,000 on examining “social networks” among “black and Latino sexual minority men in New Jersey,” $50,000 on assessing “sexual health” among “LGTBQ+ Latinx youth in an agricultural community,” and $75,000 on researching “structural racism,” DOGE stated.
The latest NIH grant cancellations come just a week after DOGE announced the cancellation of grants from the agency that were geared toward transgender experiments on animals, Breitbart News reported.
During President Donald Trump’s recent joint address before Congress, he went over a wide array of DOGE discoveries, including “…$8 million for making mice transgender.”
DOGE followed up the day after Trump’s speech, reporting that funding for such experiments had been cancelled.
“Yesterday, @NIH cancelled seven grants for transgender experiments on animals,” DOGE announced, noting that one of the grants was $532,000 to “use a mouse model to investigate the effects of cross-sex testosterone treatment”:
https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2025/03/12/mother-three-rescued-trapped-wrecked-car-six-days/
Mother of Three Rescued After Being Trapped in Wrecked Car for Six Days
A mother of three was rescued after surviving six days trapped in a wrecked car in Indiana, authorities said.
Johnny Martinez was operating equipment for a drainage and excavation company on Tuesday when he spied a car tucked out of view off the roadway. He called his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwall, who is also an assistant chief at a volunteer fire department, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
The pair went together to check out the car and discovered 41-year-old Brieonna Cassell inside, ABC News reported, citing the sheriff’s office.
“She was very conscious, very alert, very aware of how severe her injuries were,” Vanderwall told ABC News. “She said, ‘I didn’t think anybody was gonna find me. I thought I was gonna die in this ditch.”
Cassell had fallen asleep at the wheel on Thursday night and driven off the road into a deep ditch under a bridge, her father Delmar Caldwell said. He said she tried screaming at passing cars, but no one could see or hear her.
“She was stuck in the car and could not get out. But she was able to reach the water from the car,” Caldwell said. “The only way she was able to survive was using her hoodie and dipping it into the water in a ditch and sucking the water, or bringing the water into her mouth from the ditch.”
Vanderwall credited Cassell’s “survival skills,” using her shirt to retrieve water, “knowing that she had to have water to survive.”
Her father said she had “given up hope of being found” by Tuesday morning, and “then, by the grace of God and the prayers and everything, she was found.” He noted that his daughter’s phone was dead under the passenger seat and she had suffered serious injuries to her legs and wrist.
“Everybody that helped to find her and the volunteers and everything … it was a wonderful miracle,” Caldwell said.
Cassell was flown to a hospital in Chicago, where she is in serious condition, according to the report. Her father said she is in “good spirits” and is “eating a lot.”
Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran commended Cassell’s survival as an “incredible testament to her will to live.” He also praised Johnny Martinez, the passerby who found her car, calling him a “hero.”
Vanderwall said Martinez was able to see Cassell’s car because he was operating a tall tractor. Caldwell said Martinez recognized his daughter when he discovered her because her missing person report was posted all around the area.
“If he hadn’t seen her and hadn’t pushed for me to go back and check on her, she could have laid there for who kno
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/03/12/european-union-to-target-republican-states-with-tariffs-in-trump-trade-war/
European Union to Target Republican States With Tariffs in Trump Trade War
The European Union is reportedly seeking to put pressure specifically on Republican-controlled states as it enacts so-called retaliatory tariff measures on American businesses amid the trade war with the Trump administration.
As an order from U.S. President Donald Trump to impose global 25 per cent tariffs on aluminium and steel products, which are expected to impact an estimated €26 ($28) billion worth of EU exports to America, Brussels announced on Wednesday a package of countermeasures covering about the same in American exports to the bloc.
According to the Associated Press, EU officials admitted that their tariffs would be “aimed at products made in Republican-held states,” including meat produced in Kansas and Nebraska and lumber products from Alabama and Georgia. The bloc will also impose levies against American bourbon whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
While President Trump is not up for re-election and, therefore, does not need to worry about personal political ramifications, Brussels appears to be banking that impacted local Republican politicians and lawmakers in Washington, many of whom will face re-election next year, will put pressure on the White House to back down.
Announcing the measures, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy.”
“Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.”
It comes as Eurostat revealed that under the final year of the Biden presidency, America’s trade imbalance with the EU rose to €198.2 ($216.2) billion, up from €155.8 ($170) billion in 2023.
President Trump has argued that tariffs, in conjunction with tax cuts and deregulation, will play a critical role in reshoring industries back to the United States after previous decades of globalisation have seen communities across America devastated as corporations fled to cheap labour regions in Asia, South America, and elsewhere with little to no financial repercussions from Washington.
In the first month of his second term in the White House, Trump has pointed to companies such as Apple, Honda, Oracle, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) investing hundreds of billions of dollars into increasing production in the United States to avoid tariffs as evidence of the effectiveness of his strategy.
While the Europeans have attempted to cast their measures as “retaliatory” to Trump’s tariffs, it would be more accurate to describe Trump’s tariffs as being retaliatory to longstanding tariffs and other trade barriers imposed on American goods by Brussels to protect its internal single market from competition from U.S. companies.
“We have massive deficits with the EU… They don’t take our farm product, they don’t take our cars… How many Chevrolets or Fords do you see in the middle of Munich? The answer is none. The EU has abused the United States for years, and they can’t do that,” Trump remarked last month.
In addition to incentivising companies to bring production to America, the Trump administration’s tariff strategy also appears to have geopolitical aims, namely to see supposed allies such as the European Union decrease their dependencies on antagonistic states such as Communist China—Europe’s top importer—and Putin’s Russia, long one of the bloc’s top energy suppliers.
Following Trump’s election victory in November, EU Chief von der Leyen suggested that the bloc could replace Russian gas imports — which outweighed the money the EU spent on funding Ukraine last year — with American Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to redress the large trade imbalance with the United States.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hyihyn12yl
Iran's Khamenei threatens US with military action
'Military threats are unwise, we will strike back' Supreme leader says; Tehran confirms receiving Trump's proposal for nuclear talks sent via the UAE; Khamenei dismissed the offer, calling it deceptive
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded Wednesday to remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Iran, including a threat Trump issued last week against Tehran.
Trump said he had sent a letter to Khamenei offering negotiations on a nuclear deal but warned that there were "two ways" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons—"a military option or reaching an agreement." On Wednesday afternoon, Tehran confirmed it had received the letter via the United Arab Emirates.
"When the U.S. president says he is ready to negotiate with us, it is a deception of public opinion," Khamenei said. "There is no point in negotiating when we know the other side does not uphold its commitments. Trump's call for talks is an attempt to appear as if he seeks dialogue and peace while portraying Iran as the one rejecting it."
Khamenei also issued a warning to Trump, saying, "The U.S. threatens military action, but that would not be a wise move because Iran would respond with a counterattack. They say they will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons," he said, adding, "If we wanted to obtain nuclear weapons, the U.S. would not be able to stop us. But we do not seek nuclear weapons, and we have explained our reasons for this before."
However, Khamenei’s assertion that Iran does not want nuclear weapons contradicts findings in reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.
"Iran does not seek war," Khamenei said, "but if the Americans or their agents make a mistake, Iran's response will be decisive, and the U.S. will be the main loser."
Over the weekend, Trump told reporters at the White House: "The next thing you'll be talking about is Iran—what's going to happen with Iran—that’s all I can say. We are in the final stages with Iran. It's going to be interesting."
He added, "Soon you’ll be discussing it, and I hope we can reach a peace agreement. I'm not speaking from a position of strength or weakness—I’m just saying I would prefer a peace deal over the alternative. But the alternative would solve the problem."
On Saturday, in his first response to Trump’s remarks, Khamenei said, "There are bully states that insist on negotiations not to resolve problems but to impose their demands. For them, negotiations are just a way to extract further concessions, and this goes beyond Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran will categorically reject their demands."