Austin develops a detailed plan for transferring his authority as needed and the chain of command, etc.
Austin notifies Biden, either directly or through Jake of his diagnosis and his treatment plan. Austin discusses the plan he has in place for being under anesthesia and down time for recovery, as well as any future unforeseen complications. Austin requests that the information be kept as confidential as possible, on a need to know basis.
Having cleared his plan with his boss (Biden), he then informs the necessary people on his staff.
Austin has the procedure having transferred responsibilities as planned.
Austin has complication and unless he lost consciousness, notifies second in command to take over and notify Biden.
Austin recovers from complication, is cured of cancer, lives 20 more years, several of them serving his country as a highly successful and appreciated Sec of Defense.
What I think happened:
Austin heard the word “cancer” used in a sentence with his name with no qualifying negative. He heard “it’s cancer” and freaked. It happens. A lot. It doesn’t matter if you are the biggest baddest toughest smartest coolest calmest soldier on the planet, that simple 6 letter word can stop you in your tracks. Your brain gets stuck in a loop, it’s cancer I have cancer how is this possible I am too busy to deal with this it is going to hurt I am going to die. Repeat 24/7.
I have seen it with patients I had to give the news to, and it happened to me.
So I am guessing that Austin, being the kind of person that is used to being calm under fire, etc, assumed he could handle it. He thinks he is handling it. But his judgement is impaired because like an iceberg, 90% of his mental/emotional capacity is working below the surface processing the C word. So there is a lot less left to function and results in a lot of buffering.
For those who have never had such an unexpected out of the blue catastrophic shock, trust me, you have no idea. You just don’t.
Which is why I have a lot of empathy for him, hope he is completely cured, and wish him to continue in the position that he is good at.
I've been thinking that if you are in the ICU, you won't be telling anyone anything - you may not even be conscious enough to talk. But from this tmelline, it doesn't really look like that. Some of that time yes, but there appear to have been periods where he could have directed someone to act. If he wasn't in total shock.
Austin should resign immediately. If he wants to, that is. Or not resign, if he wants to stay. Really, let the fucking grownups at the White House figure this shit out. And Congressional Republicans?- go fuck yourselves.
He was also hospitalized on 12/22 and had lights-out anesthesia. That was problem #1. Abdominal surgery is still major surgery, despite the robotics being "minimally-er invasive". Prostatectomy is not done with twilight sedation. The 2nd hospitalization might have been twilight, but the 1st one wasn't.
This was bizarre. The Secretary may have reasoned that Biden already gets enough flack for his own advanced age, so he didn't want to add "older cabinet member with serious health issues now in hospital" to the list of things the anti-oldsters are complaining about. But the job is too important to be keeping health issues a secret. If they don't have prevention of this sort of thing written into the department's administrative rules & regs, they really need to write it in now.
Slightly OT, but Blue Cross of Massachusetts will cut back in what they'll pay for anesthesia for colonoscopies; they'll pay for "twilight anesthesia", not full except for certain cases.
Meanwhile a bunch of seniors are cancelling their colonoscopy appointments.
I can understand wanting to keep something like that private, but that's not in the cards if you're in his position. But having said that, it wasn't as bad as Coach Stupidville holding up promotions for a fucking year, so the GOP should probably lay low on this.
SER is wise to follow McCaffrey on this. Austin didn’t get where he is by being unaware of DoD protocol; he knew better. That his #2, once informed, did not return from vacation is also troublesome. Both of these folks need to ‘spend more time with their families’, as the euphemism goes. This is a legit NatSec issue which, of course, the (R)s will make political.
A common side effect of UTIs, especially in older people, is confusion. I’m not a medical professional but I’ve seen family members experience this and that is NOT something you want to think about the Defense Secretary going through.
We have also had family members seem to be developing dementia, when - surprise! - it's a UTI. (Even more of a shock when later, they actually do develop dementia.) But the undiagnosed UTI maskarading as dementia is a thing.
Joe Biden has a cluelessness issue anyway. He doesn't need to add to the perception - even among Democrats, like me - that he's out to lunch. This incident makes him look weak and not in control. He needs to ask/tell Austin that he fucked up badly here and that he needs to take care of his health issues on his own time - so do the right thing and resign. The very fact that he apparently doesn't understand why this is a big deal is reason enough to shit can him.
He may or may not be "clueless" but he definitely is perceived that way by a very large number of voters, including Democrats. The polls may not be 100% accurate, but they're not off by 50%. This situation only feeds into that perception.
Ugh, my sister also had the tube down her throat thing done this past year, to drain her stomach fluids. Its true you don't get any sort of anesthesia, they want you to be awake and using your throat and esophagus muscles. I had to step out of the room and cover my ears bc I couldn't handle watching it.
Well wishes but very unfortunate for his reputation.
What I think should have happened:
Austin gets cancer diagnosis.
Treatment plan developed with his physicians.
Austin develops a detailed plan for transferring his authority as needed and the chain of command, etc.
Austin notifies Biden, either directly or through Jake of his diagnosis and his treatment plan. Austin discusses the plan he has in place for being under anesthesia and down time for recovery, as well as any future unforeseen complications. Austin requests that the information be kept as confidential as possible, on a need to know basis.
Having cleared his plan with his boss (Biden), he then informs the necessary people on his staff.
Austin has the procedure having transferred responsibilities as planned.
Austin has complication and unless he lost consciousness, notifies second in command to take over and notify Biden.
Austin recovers from complication, is cured of cancer, lives 20 more years, several of them serving his country as a highly successful and appreciated Sec of Defense.
What I think happened:
Austin heard the word “cancer” used in a sentence with his name with no qualifying negative. He heard “it’s cancer” and freaked. It happens. A lot. It doesn’t matter if you are the biggest baddest toughest smartest coolest calmest soldier on the planet, that simple 6 letter word can stop you in your tracks. Your brain gets stuck in a loop, it’s cancer I have cancer how is this possible I am too busy to deal with this it is going to hurt I am going to die. Repeat 24/7.
I have seen it with patients I had to give the news to, and it happened to me.
So I am guessing that Austin, being the kind of person that is used to being calm under fire, etc, assumed he could handle it. He thinks he is handling it. But his judgement is impaired because like an iceberg, 90% of his mental/emotional capacity is working below the surface processing the C word. So there is a lot less left to function and results in a lot of buffering.
For those who have never had such an unexpected out of the blue catastrophic shock, trust me, you have no idea. You just don’t.
Which is why I have a lot of empathy for him, hope he is completely cured, and wish him to continue in the position that he is good at.
I've been thinking that if you are in the ICU, you won't be telling anyone anything - you may not even be conscious enough to talk. But from this tmelline, it doesn't really look like that. Some of that time yes, but there appear to have been periods where he could have directed someone to act. If he wasn't in total shock.
The GOP is going to lecture us about military preparedness, really?
coach will mansplain it to us
> "I almost lost consciousness just thinking about someone putting a tube through my nose without first shooting me up with all the drugs."
Not to mention that they put the tube through his nose to suck out his poop through his nose.
Austin should resign immediately. If he wants to, that is. Or not resign, if he wants to stay. Really, let the fucking grownups at the White House figure this shit out. And Congressional Republicans?- go fuck yourselves.
“Congressional Republicans?- go fuck yourselves.” Is always a good answer.
He was also hospitalized on 12/22 and had lights-out anesthesia. That was problem #1. Abdominal surgery is still major surgery, despite the robotics being "minimally-er invasive". Prostatectomy is not done with twilight sedation. The 2nd hospitalization might have been twilight, but the 1st one wasn't.
This was bizarre. The Secretary may have reasoned that Biden already gets enough flack for his own advanced age, so he didn't want to add "older cabinet member with serious health issues now in hospital" to the list of things the anti-oldsters are complaining about. But the job is too important to be keeping health issues a secret. If they don't have prevention of this sort of thing written into the department's administrative rules & regs, they really need to write it in now.
Austin should resign because of "health issues" and help Joe out here....
Slightly OT, but Blue Cross of Massachusetts will cut back in what they'll pay for anesthesia for colonoscopies; they'll pay for "twilight anesthesia", not full except for certain cases.
Meanwhile a bunch of seniors are cancelling their colonoscopy appointments.
Per WBUR:
https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/01/05/blue-cross-massachusetts-colonoscopy-anesthesia
I can understand wanting to keep something like that private, but that's not in the cards if you're in his position. But having said that, it wasn't as bad as Coach Stupidville holding up promotions for a fucking year, so the GOP should probably lay low on this.
This story is nonsense no matter how you slice it.
SER is wise to follow McCaffrey on this. Austin didn’t get where he is by being unaware of DoD protocol; he knew better. That his #2, once informed, did not return from vacation is also troublesome. Both of these folks need to ‘spend more time with their families’, as the euphemism goes. This is a legit NatSec issue which, of course, the (R)s will make political.
A common side effect of UTIs, especially in older people, is confusion. I’m not a medical professional but I’ve seen family members experience this and that is NOT something you want to think about the Defense Secretary going through.
We have also had family members seem to be developing dementia, when - surprise! - it's a UTI. (Even more of a shock when later, they actually do develop dementia.) But the undiagnosed UTI maskarading as dementia is a thing.
Joe Biden has a cluelessness issue anyway. He doesn't need to add to the perception - even among Democrats, like me - that he's out to lunch. This incident makes him look weak and not in control. He needs to ask/tell Austin that he fucked up badly here and that he needs to take care of his health issues on his own time - so do the right thing and resign. The very fact that he apparently doesn't understand why this is a big deal is reason enough to shit can him.
Disagree about Joe Biden having cluelessness issue.
He may or may not be "clueless" but he definitely is perceived that way by a very large number of voters, including Democrats. The polls may not be 100% accurate, but they're not off by 50%. This situation only feeds into that perception.
Found the Morning Joe fan.
Ugh, my sister also had the tube down her throat thing done this past year, to drain her stomach fluids. Its true you don't get any sort of anesthesia, they want you to be awake and using your throat and esophagus muscles. I had to step out of the room and cover my ears bc I couldn't handle watching it.