Defense Secretary Austin is hospitalized in intensive care

[Expat]

He is the SecDef for god’s sake.
I am a low level manager In corporate America. If I disappeared for a day, people would be losing their minds.

 

[bwframe]

He is the SecDef for god’s sake.
I am a low level manager In corporate America. If I disappeared for a day, people would be losing their minds.

The administration has to fire Austin. Or get him to resign.

Not that Biden can win reelection anyway, but he certainly cannot afford to look like he cannot make such an obvious executive decision.

We knowingly went without a secretary of defense for days, while in two wars and with our troops attacked daily. There is no other recourse.

 

[shootersix]

Wonder if he had “dirt” on the Clinton’s?

Maybe he could prove what happened on “epstiens island!”

 

[bwframe]

 

[Ark]

So many of this administration's great diversity "firsts" have gone down in flames of incompetence.

 

[2tonic]

Don't know if he was getting the scrotasnip or the addadictomy (in Austin's case I suspect the latter) but it's surprising he had to go to the ICU.
When they perform those operations on 8~14 year old kids (under the illusion of "gender affirming care") they say it's just a minor outpatient procedure.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Don't know if he was getting the scrotasnip or the addadictomy (in Austin's case I suspect the latter) but it's surprising he had to go to the ICU.
When they perform those operations on 8~14 year old kids (under the illusion of "gender affirming care") they say it's just a minor outpatient procedure.

Props for the El Rushbo line.

 

[BugI02]

Well, at least we don’t have mean tweets anymore.

But his buddy Xi wants to know who will tip the PLA off about US military plans if Austin is out of the loop

 

[jsx1043]

Nobody is guessing the obvious? Right off the Wiki...

Part of Austin's primary agenda as Secretary of Defense was the Department of Defense's plan—in coordination with Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president—to confront the COVID-19 pandemic within the department. Austin's first step was to urge service members to get vaccinated, especially after the revelation that almost one-third of active-duty service members had turned down the opportunity to get administered the vaccine.

In order to tout the safety of the coronavirus vaccine, Austin took the vaccine himself and also emphasized that taking the coronavirus vaccine will prevent disease among the troops, particularly those who were deployed overseas.[74]

Occam’s Razor. This was my first inclination when I heard of the story. At first guess I would say the whole thing is damage control and the spin doctors know that he (and the administration) was so vocal about the vaxx and now they can’t be seen as losing the narrative.

 

[JCSR]

I'm confused. Was he getting his wee-wee cut off or getting one attached?

 

[2tonic]

I'm confused. Was he getting his wee-wee cut off or getting one attached?

See post #26.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Don't know if he was getting the scrotasnip or the addadictomy (in Austin's case I suspect the latter) but it's surprising he had to go to the ICU.
When they perform those operations on 8~14 year old kids (under the illusion of "gender affirming care") they say it's just a minor outpatient procedure.

It was probably organ rejection that sent him to the ER.

 

[JAL]

Summarizing the timeline of the Sec Def being AWOL for 1 day shy of two weeks . . .

22 Dec: Sec'y Def goes into Walter Reed for surgery
1 Jan: Goes into Intensive Care at Walter Reed
2 Jan: Deputy Sec'y of Def told to assume operational duties, but no details about why
4 Jan: President Biden informed
5 Jan: Senior Def Dept officials and Congress told
-------------------------
Why didn't Biden know?
2 October 2023: Biden's last Cabinet Meeting, three months ago, 5 days before HAMAS invaded Israel.
--------------------------
Who's running the White House? The Easter Bunny. That explains everything you need to know.



Footnote:
As a company commander, about 6 year into my career, if I'd had a soldier AWOL for so much as a day and didn't know about it, I'd have been summarily relieved of command -- for Dereliction of Duty. A POTUS not knowing where the Hell his major cabinet officials are is Dereliction of Duty. The SecDef is #6 in the line of succession.

 

[rbhargan]

Here is another way to look at it: he is irrelevant. He is just a figurehead diversity hire meant to fill a chair for photo opportunities. The people actually running the show are still at the controls, doing what they have always done. Think of Governor Lepetomane in "Blazing Saddles."

 

[Malware]

I doubt this is the only thing Biden hasn’t noticed in the past week

 

[Shadow01]

"Didn't anybody notice"?

Well, when you are not actually doing anything…

 

[Shadow01]

I doubt this is the only thing Biden hasn’t noticed in the past week

He’s been asking Jill what the brown streak is in his briefs…

 

[tim87tr]

These two posts go together very well....the extended hidden timeline of not losing the narrative.

Summarizing the timeline of the Sec Def being AWOL for 1 day shy of two weeks . . .

22 Dec: Sec'y Def goes into Walter Reed for surgery
1 Jan: Goes into Intensive Care at Walter Reed
2 Jan: Deputy Sec'y of Def told to assume operational duties, but no details about why
4 Jan: President Biden informed
5 Jan: Senior Def Dept officials and Congress told
-------------------------
Why didn't Biden know?
2 October 2023: Biden's last Cabinet Meeting, three months ago, 5 days before HAMAS invaded Israel.
--------------------------
Who's running the White House? The Easter Bunny. That explains everything you need to know.

View attachment 324304

Footnote:
As a company commander, about 6 year into my career, if I'd had a soldier AWOL for so much as a day and didn't know about it, I'd have been summarily relieved of command -- for Dereliction of Duty. A POTUS not knowing where the Hell his major cabinet officials are is Dereliction of Duty. The SecDef is #6 in the line of succession.

Occam’s Razor. This was my first inclination when I heard of the story. At first guess I would say the whole thing is damage control and the spin doctors know that he (and the administration) was so vocal about the vaxx and now they can’t be seen as losing the narrative.

 

[Leadeye]

He is a 4 star for pete's sake, you would think he would have known how to handle incidents like this.

 

[JAL]

He is a 4 star for pete's sake, you would think he would have known how to handle incidents like this.

He's retired . . . no longer active duty. Nevertheless, you are correct that he should.

Austin was pushed aside into retirement because he was marginally competent as the CENTCOM Commander, a Geographic Combatant Command directly in the operational command from the POTUS through the SecDef. His appointment to SecDef required a waiver because he had retired in 2016. There was some controversy about it because of his ineptitude with CENTCOM.

Note that the Chairman of the JCS and individual Service Chiefs are NOT in the operational chain of command --contrary to popular belief. That changed decades ago in 1986 to streamline immediate operational response to nuke attack. The JCS are advisers to the POTUS regarding military policy. Formal operational command goes from POTUS to SecDef to the Combatant Commands. CENTCOM is one of the Geographic Combatant Commands along with NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, AFRICOM, EUCOM, etc. There are also Functional Combatant Commands such as SOCOM and STRATCOM. The full list of them is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_combatant_command