The Secretary of War and the President of the United States spoke before hundreds of top U.S. military leaders on Tuesday. This event had been touted for a few days in advance. The idea was to have all the top U.S. military brass gather at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia.  There was a lot of speculation about the meeting. Was it going to be an announcement about Ukraine? Or China? Or was it going to be about Venezuela? It turns out, it was going to be a speech from Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, and a speech from the President of the United States, about recalibrating our military approach, particularly internally. Pete Hegseth has spoken about this a lot over the past few years. I recorded an episode of the Sunday Special with Pete Hegseth about a year ago. He had a new book out, “The War on Warriors,” in which he wrote about wokeness in the military, lowered standards in the military, and the fact that more militaries around the world were not fearing us as much because we had implemented all of these left-wing ideologies within the military. This has legitimately been a big bugaboo of Hegseth’s for years. Well, now he has the opportunity to change all of that because, of course, he sits atop the Department of War. The event, according to The Washington Post, was organized by Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon. He summoned generals and admirals from command posts throughout the world to Virginia. General Dan Caine, Trump’s hand-selected Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told attendees in his opening comments that the event was an unprecedented opportunity, and an honor for assembled senior officers and their top enlisted advisers to hear directly from the military civilian leadership.  Hegseth was going after wokeness in the military again, and he railed against what he called “Fat dudes and men in dresses.” So, optically, yes, I understand the Left being very, very upset about it. But it happens to be something that the American people agree with, along with the people who enlist in our military. Journalists around the nation are very, very upset about what Pete Hegseth did yesterday because they believe the military should be a place for social engineering, as opposed to a place for warfighters. Well, Secretary Hegseth was a grunt. He’s a person who served in the trenches, and on the front lines. And that means he is significantly more in touch with the feelings of people who actually serve in the military, than certainly the people in the world of journalism — and truthfully, more than many of these sorts of political generals who have spent the last 40 years rising in the ranks. Which means that recalibrating along those lines is actually not a bad thing at all. As Secretary Hegseth said yesterday: Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad. And it’s not who we are. So, whether you’re an Airborne Ranger or a “Chairborne Ranger,” a brand new private, or a four star general, you need to meet the height and weight standards and pass the PT test. This, apparently, was very upsetting to folks.  He also went after what he called “Dudes in dresses,” which was a specific reference to the fact that under the Biden administration, there were legitimate videos of troops doing drag as an attempt to drive people into the military. I can’t think of anything that would drive the types of young men who want to join the military away from the military more than men in drag. Honestly, that does not seem like a recruiting pitch for the U.S. military. And you can see it in the numbers. The Biden administration was having a very, very difficult time fulfilling its recruiting quotas. From literally the minute Pete Hegseth was announced as Secretary of Defense, those numbers began to rise. Hegseth then said:  This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh**. People are apparently angry about this. And there’s also a fair bit of gaslighting going on here.  So the way that this works is that when the Left takes over an institution, they skew that institution. And then, when somebody who is not on the Left takes over the institution and says, “We’re going to unskew it,” the Left then says, “How dare you do this? How dare you politicize?” They do this with so many institutions in American life. For example, take higher education, a domain once designed to actually create better American citizens, people who are supposed to be in touch with their civilization. They took an institution that was supposed to be at least titularly nonpartisan and made it highly partisan in favor of the Left. And then people get into power who are not on the Left. And they say, “Let’s shift it back. Let’s shift it back toward the center.” And the Left says, “How dare you touch our hallowed institutions? How dare you attempt to change the underlying politics of that institution?” The same thing in the military. There is an attempt by the Left to hijack the military and use it for a wide variety of social engineering causes, ranging from climate change to DEI to gender identity. And now, when the Right takes over and says, “Hey, we’re not going to do any of that stuff, we’re actually going to go back to the status quo where the military was about winning wars,” the Left responds, “How dare you? How dare you politicize? How dare you intervene? How dare you get involved in politics?” This is an exercise in gaslighting. The Left is perfectly willing to gut these institutions and wear their faces around like a mask from “The Silence of the Lambs.” But the minute the Right says, “Let’s restore those institutions to what they were before,” the Left then claims politicization. It’s nonsense.

Conservationist Jane Goodall has died at the age of 91.  The British primatologist and anthropologist was best known for her work studying chimpanzees, which began in 1960. Goodall remained active in the scientific community until the day she died, and was on a speaking tour in California at the time of her passing. Born in London in 1934, Goodall grew up in England with a love for animals, which was spurred in part by her father buying her a stuffed toy chimpanzee named “Jubilee.”  She traveled to Africa in 1957 and later met anthropologist Louis Leakey, who saw promise in her curiosity and invited her to Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees.  In July 1960, at the age of 26, Goodall established a field camp at Gombe Stream National Park, where she pioneered immersive observation and discovered that chimpanzees possess the ability to use tools, hunt, and form social bonds.  Over the decades, Goodall became a fervent conservationist. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 and launched Roots & Shoots, a youth-oriented environmental movement.  She was named a UN Messenger of Peace in 2002 and has received multiple awards, including the Templeton Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was presented by Joe Biden in January 2025. Goodall’s later years were devoted to conservation, climate activism, and youth outreach. Goodall was married twice and had one child. She was raised Christian and maintained a belief in a higher power, even as her scientific colleagues were atheist or agnostic. She had critical words for organized religion, choosing instead to embrace a looser approach to spirituality. “I realized that my experience in the forest, my understanding of the chimpanzees, had given me a new perspective,” she wrote in one of her books, Reason for Hope. “I was ­utterly convinced there was a great ­spiritual power that we call God, Allah or Brahma, although I knew, equally ­certainly, that my finite mind could never comprehend its form or nature.”

With a government shutdown underway because Democrats are demanding $1.5 trillion in new spending, here are five brutal consequences of the stoppage. Troops Protecting America Will Go Without Pay  Thanks to the shutdown, members of the military working to protect America will go without pay until new funding is approved. Despite not getting paid, military personnel will still be expected to stay on duty and perform their required tasks.  “Military personnel on active duty, including reserve component personnel on Federal active duty, will continue to report for duty and carry out assigned duties. This includes duty involving excepted and, to the extent they can be performed without incurring new obligations, non-excepted activities,” according to the Department of War’s shutdown contingency plan.  Civilian employees of the military who are not needed in support roles will be furloughed while the shutdown continues. At the same time, other federal law enforcement officers, such as those working for the Department of Homeland Security, will also go without pay.  “Our [Homeland Security] law enforcement officers will continue to work throughout the Democrats’ Shutdown to make sure our homeland is safe and secure. More than 200,000 of these patriots will go without pay,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “The Democrats will be forcing over 150,000 officers and nearly 50,000 members of the military—our frontline of defense—to continue protecting our nation without pay.” Credit: Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Law Enforcement Operations The shutdown could stifle the work of certain federal law enforcement task forces cracking down on violent crime across the country, the National Association of Police Organizations warned.  “Federal funding for task forces will stop flowing,” the organization warned. “Federal grants, resources, and supports for state and local law enforcement will stop, leaving vital public safety initiatives in the lurch.” The organization, which represents 250,000 law enforcement agents, stated that law enforcement personnel should not be expected to put their lives on the line without adequate compensation. “To have them risk their lives without pay undermines support for the work they are doing and increases the stresses and strains the job puts on them and their families,” the organization added. “We are calling on all lawmakers to do the right thing and enact a continuing resolution to fund the government before time runs out.” Veterans Will Lose Assistance Military veterans will also lose access to key Department of Veteran Affairs assistance programs, according to the American Legion. They will no longer be able to receive transition program assistance or career counseling, regional benefit centers will be closed, and there will be no ground maintenance or placement of permanent headstones at VA cemeteries. Additionally, multiple hotlines will be closed.  “President Trump opposes a lapse in appropriations, and on September 19, the House of Representatives passed, with the Trump Administration’s support, a clean continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Unfortunately, Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands,” the VA said in a letter to veterans.  Travel  While airports will continue to operate across the country, there could be delays as thousands of Federal Aviation Administration employees are expected to be furloughed. Additionally, aircraft controllers and TSA employees will also be working without pay throughout the shutdown.  “Under [President Trump’s] leadership, [the Department of Transportation] has hired 20% more air traffic controllers than the previous administration did in the same time period. Our team at the [FAA] did tremendous work to make this happen AHEAD of schedule,” said Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “Now, [Sen. Schumer] and [Rep. Jeffries] are holding their paychecks HOSTAGE to push their America Last agenda through Congress.” “The American people shouldn’t have to suffer through endless delays and cancellations because Democrats are too busy fighting for benefits for illegal immigrants! Make it make sense!” Duffy added.  Credit: Photographer: Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Healthcare Programs Expire, Nutrition Programs Languish  Certain healthcare programs have either expired or are expected to face delays as the shutdown continues.  For example, the Acute Hospital Care at Home Initiative, which enables hospitals to obtain approval to treat Medicare patients with conditions such as respiratory diseases or bacterial infections at home, expired on Tuesday. The popular program required congressional approval to continue and had been benefiting approximately 1,200 patients per month.  Two other healthcare programs that could be impacted by the shutdown are the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides low-income families with additional nutrition, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is intended to provide food benefits to low-income individuals.  The programs will move forward “subject to the availability of funding,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson said they could be significantly hampered by the program.  Vice President JD Vance told Ben Shapiro that he believed the shutdown was a politically untenable situation for Democrats, who voted Tuesday and Wednesday to block a temporary spending plan. “You already see, I think, the Democrats cracking a little bit because they realize it’s such a preposterous position to say, ‘We’re gonna shut down TSA, we’re gonna not pay our troops because you guys won’t give us benefits for illegal aliens.’ It’s crazy, and I don’t think it’s a tenable political situation for them to be in,” Vance said.

Dr. Jane Goodall, known for her dedication to conservation and decades’ worth of advocacy for animals, died on October 1. She’s best known for her work with chimpanzees while observing them in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. At age 91, Jane passed away while on a speaking tour. She quite literally died while doing what she loved. The Jane Goodall Institute released a statement on Wednesday announcing its founder’s passing. “The Jane Goodall Institute has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, has passed away due to natural causes. She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States,” the message reads. “Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dr. Jane Goodall (@janegoodallinst) Jane Goodall Wanted The Best For Our World Jane Goodall believed in the good of our planet and that every living thing deserved love and respect. She devoted a significant amount of her work to studying chimpanzees and became the world’s most renowned expert. In 2018, Jane shared a message of hope for the new year. “There is still so much in the world worth fighting for. So much that is beautiful, so many wonderful people working to reverse the harm, to help alleviate the suffering. And so many young people dedicated to making this a better world,” she said. “All conspiring to inspire us and to give us hope that it is not too late to turn things around, if we all do our part.” Jane Goodall touched the lives of millions who will never forget her dedication to our planet. “You will be missed Dr. Goodall. Thank you for everything. Your life is a legacy,” a fan shared on Instagram. “This is absolutely a loss to the entire world,” another person shared. “We must ensure her work continues on.” “Her last name said it all she was purely all good,” a fan most profoundly stated. This story’s featured image is by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Bloomberg Philanthropies. The post Renowned Animal Activist Jane Goodall Died At Age 91 While On Speaking Tour appeared first on InspireMore.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sidestepped a question Thursday about withholding his paychecks during the federal government shutdown, claiming that the shutdown would not last long enough for him to have to make a decision. Jeffries said the members of Congress themselves would be able to make the choice to receive or deny their pay […]

Unfortunately, Democrats are putting ideology over safety.

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