Why was Lloyd Austin not disclosing his surgery?

I’m dying of it.

OP, your concern is touching, but we know you have another agenda, right Boris?

Benign? It's the second most deadly cancer. Only lung cancer kills more men. In fact, 1 in 43 men will die of prostate cancer. More men die from prostate cancer than are murdered in the US.

Benign? Tell that to my late father.

R3 prostate cancer is extremely common, especially among older men. That is why it is often not treated in older men. They are more likely to die of something else than the cancer. As many as 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, but, as you acknowledge, less than 2.5 percent of men die of it.

Murder is fortunately a rare cause of death, even in the US. The fact that something is a greater risk than murder really doesn’t say much.

R4 sorry to hear about your father, but obviously his death alone says nothing about the nature of the disease.

Prostate cancer can be cured, when detected and treated early. The vast majority of prostate cancer cases (more than 90 percent) are discovered in the early stages, making the tumors more likely to respond to treatment.

From what I've heard, he's a very private person and he did not want it splashed all over the news. How ironic that's exactly as it turned out.

He should have informed the White House and met all the protocol chain of command requirements while still trying to keep it from the front pages. A private person or not, he still has a responsibility to keep the president informed. And he may have been able to keep his hospital stay somewhat quite if he had followed the rules. But the way he handled it basically blew up in his face. It's an unfortunate situation given that he's a private person.

*quiet

He's still traumatized about having a finger probing his ass.

I don’t like people taking about my privates either.

He could have been the Betty Ford of prostate cancer, but no.

I don’t know about you, but you can inform your employer that you will be absent for an upcoming procedure, not go into detail, like give them a heads up…Apparently someone on his staff was absent with flu so the message wasn’t relayed. This chain of command is pretty poor for such a high profile war person. I thought military people had a big responsibility for chain of command. Apparently not.

You know… It’s not like he is flipping hamburgers for a living. If he did, in fact, not inform anybody that he was going to be out of commission for a few days or more, he should not hold office. I don’t care who hired him! Fire him! Everybody else on the face of the earth unless they’re self employed , has to inform their employer that they will be out sick .

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐝 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦

The Pentagon has also offered up the rationale that Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was out with flu when the Secretary of Defense was first hospitalized, but the Pentagon is the world’s largest employer with 2.86 million employees, so the notion that relaying Austin’s condition hinged on only one of them is confounding.

Austin does not seem to be part of Biden’s true national security inner circle, which includes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, both of whom have worked with Biden very closely for many years. This may help explain why no one at the White House noticed that Austin was gone, or why, perhaps, they simply may have assumed he was on vacation.

Austin was hospitalized on January 1 — a federal holiday. But that is not much of a defense, since the Situation Room at the White House operates 24/7, and a simple call or email to the Situation Room staff from anyone on Austin’s team should have been enough to inform the rest of the cabinet and their key deputies what was going on with Austin.

There has rarely been a more fraught time during the Biden administration for the US secretary of defense to be out of commission than now.

The Middle East is on fire, and one of America’s chief firefighters was AWOL.

Austin released a statement saying he “could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed.” That hardly seems the point since Austin and his team did a terrible job keeping the president and other senior national security officials informed of his condition, which went unmentioned in Austin’s apologia.

So, what, if anything, can Biden do? Probably not much. A public reprimand of Austin by Biden would also only serve to reinforce the view held by Republican critics that the Biden team isn’t especially competent.

Well he can fire the guy and replace him. This was gross stupidity.

He didn’t want to use up his sick leave in case he gets really sick in the future. You know, like cancer or something.

𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭 --- 𝐋𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞

Of course

He did not want to give Republicans cause to INVESTIGATE his situation and call for his resignation or impeachment.

He should ride this out over a two-week news cycle.

Bingo r19. It’s yet another political stunt. This is SO dumb, and you are all taking the fucking bait. It’s a non-story, I won’t even waste my time debating this fact. The reality of any large org is that shit like this happens, and some people have values around their personal privacy that might look slightly different than your interpretation. I can most certainly understand why a grown, mature, black man in a highly public government leadership role would *not* want the whole world knowing about his fucking prostate. Younger people may not understand that American’s who are older value their privacy, he wasn’t raised on social media. Do you announce your gyne visits to your weekly staff team? Do you email your department when you’re seeing your urologist? Do you tell your Director you’re running behind because you’re totally constipated because your doctor put you on iron, and now taking a shit is a 45 min process? No, you do not share these things, you either tell white lies or give a vague but mostly truthful excuse for an absence, which he did indeed do.

GTFOH. The man simply didn’t want everyone up in his business, as in his dick business. He told a staffer, and a weird fluke happened because she got sick, end of mother fucking story, you keep the ball moving in the org. This story is fucking laughable, it’s a joke. And the joke is on us, because it’s a circus of clowns who are trying to make this into a scandal. Utterly ridiculous. He should do nothing else, neither should Biden. As if this comes anywhere NEAR the levels of corruption and unprecedented slime that we saw in the Trump WH, where we had actual Nazis penetrate the Pentagon. GTFOH.

And FUCK the Washington Post for posting that opinion column too. Does Bezos want Trump back? I guess so….tax cuts for the wealthy and all.

It was an avoidable controversy. Typical Democrats are giving Republicans shit to throw at us. Ugh. I just can't anymore.

a tempest in a teapot

Completely agree with r20.

I was completely disgusted to see this on the news. How is it our business that this man has prostate cancer? Beyond pathetic that the media is covering this. And so fucking extra.

Hope he’s okay. End of story. Next.

He didn't want people to know he would only be capable of having dry orgasms for the remainder of his life.

What I take away from this is he’s out of the loop. That’s fine. There’s a lot to the job even without being in the President’s inner circle.

[quote]Well he can fire the guy and replace him. This was gross stupidity.

I wouldn't call it stupidity. I'd call it arrogance. Not only was he out of work, it became known to the media and he still didn't/wouldn't say where he was, or why he was out. And he did this for a few days, while the media kept asking where the fuck he was. And he did make the White House look stupid.

TO the other idiot who is calling this a "non story". It is a story.

This guy is an asshole and he's just not up to having this type of a job. He treats this job , like some regular old job, where can be out and not tell anyone, and maybe still keep your job. Although my job would have fired his ass.

Biden needs to have all his military big wigs 100% on his side, because I foresee the possibility of military action via martial law being required if enough of Trump's crazies get out of hand over the next year, especially if he loses the election. And the military needs to purge as many right wing crazies as possible from the ranks.

If Austin can't be trusted to issue the orders that need to be ordered he needs to retire.

I sure haven't found prostate cancer to be benign. Mines quite aggressive and will likely kill me in a few months.

[quote] What I take away from this is he’s out of the loop.

Austin knew where he was. It was the president unsurprisingly kept out of the loop while American forces are in combat

I'm not sure why this was such a big deal. It was a private medical matter - why must everyone know ?

Because he’s in charge of nuclear weapons?

R26, he was apparently in a fucking ICU. Fuck off.

Tell us the next time you’re getting anally fingered by your proctologist please!

R30, he has a high profile job. If he's too embarrassed, this isn't the job for him. His job requires someone who is dependable. He's not dependable. He oversees 1 million employees. And no one knew where he was. There's NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. He didn't have to say why he was in the hospital, just that he was in the hospital.

R32, he wasn't getting anally fingered, although you're sitting here jacking off thinking about it.

I'd be fired if I did a "no call, no show". He's in charge of the NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Are you not able to comprehend that? He went AWOL. Seriously.

He's not a cook at Mcdonalds. The entire military and the country depend on him and no one knew where he was, he wasn't saying a God damn word and neither was his family, even when it became front page news. Not a single word from them. A lot of people would be fired from their jobs. You, of course want to downplay this, typical. But this was front page news all over the world.

Even people at Mcdonalds and most companies have to sign forms that explain if you do not come in to work and you do not call the company & tell them you won't be in, it's immediate grounds for termination. It's called a "No Call/ No Show". And just a little FYI, since you clearly don't know much about employment (have you ever had a job?). He actually broke the law. He violated" U.S. laws requiring executive agencies to report any top-level absence". Over the years, he's fired people and had them arrested for doing the same thing - going AWOL.

And while he was in the hospital (which I guess didn't have a single telephone) he delegated his authority to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks. And that dumb bitch couldn't be bothered to call anyone either, even when it became front page news - around the globe. But that may be due the fact that she was ON VACATION IN PUERTO RICO. This shit is all happening at one of the most dangerous times for a terrorist attack in America. Our military bases in the middle east are getting attacked (as we speak). And she's too busy on her vacation to call the president, or even shoot a text or an email. She deserves to be fired, immediately. She's beyond stupid. Basically there was NO ONE IN CHARGE

This isn't the job for him. Not only was he AWOL. He chose to have a lazy, idiot to fill in for him, that he knew was out of the country and on vacation. SHAME ON HIM. He's a FOOL.

This ENTIRE thing is something I would 100% expect from the republicans. Seriously, right down to the dumbass on vacation. Even the idiot on vacation, reminds me of 9/11 and all those idiots were on vacation before 9/11 and couldn't be bothered to read all the warning reports. I hope someone's paying attention.

Under the Radar is not AWOL.

I agree that Republican scum (and their sycophants in the media) is making a mountain out of a mole hill with this, but sadly mole hills matter a lot in presidential election years and particularly so when that mole is on a democrat. And it is a tragedy that the first AA SecDef has a completely avoidable black mark on his reputation (and one has to wonder if he were white would this have even been a scandal or, as is usually the case in the military, criticism of the military leadership is simply not allowed).

However, the premise that we were exposed to danger or risk of non- or even delayed action in the event of a crisis is simply cooked up. We have a chain of command in which even when the top guy is unavailable there is still someone to make decisions and issue orders. It's not like Austin alone would make the decision to drop nukes if the situation arose. It's not like the military stopped functioning when the leader was AWOL We've gone on spending our children's futures and killing at the same pace we always do.

I don't know what I would advise Biden to in this. He needs to show resolute management and control as the Commander-in-Chief. At the same time, were Austin to resign/be fired, it's an election year and there won't be any further confirmations from this Senate with Tommy Tuberville present. And I fear that strong leadership at the DoD is mandatory heading into what is going to be a contested election whether it is close or not because I fully expect the MAGAts to riot when Trump loses.

I just hate it when the Republicans are scrambling to find a cudgel and the Democrats just hand it to them.

[quote] Basically there was NO ONE IN CHARGE

That's been obvious for quite some time

Keep trolling, r36.

And yet Biden evacuated 1230 THOUSAND people from a HOT war zone.

He did this when Trump negotiated with the Taliban, had them released from Afghani jails, and ultimately, Trump felled the Afghani government as a result.

What Biden did was MIRACULOUS.

Spot on, R38.

I don’t understand why it is our business.

[quote] I don’t understand why it is our business.

Showing yet another reason why you will never be President

After all is said and done the guy just doesn’t look like he’s well. He probably should retire.

See, if he didn't announce, no speculation. The Republicans in Congress will block and successor, and right now we do not need a hands tied underfill without all the authority of the position.

[quote]Under the Radar is not AWOL.

Wrong, when no one knows where the fuck you are at, it's AWOL. When the idiot you put in charge to take your place while you're who knows where, and they also can't be found (she was on vacation).Who the fuck (especially in a job like this - in charge of the GOD DAMNED U.S MILITARY) picks someone who will be on vacation to take their place. THAT'S GROUNDS FOR BEING FIRED. No one being able to find either of those two fucking idiots, is GROUNDS FOR BEING FIRED. Making your boss look like bumbling, incompetent idiot to the entire world, IS GROUNDS FOR BEING FIRED.

He wasn't under the radar. He was AWOL. His boss did not know where the fuck he was. No one at the pentagon knew where the fuck he was. The useless, lazy dumbass who was taking his place couldn't be found by anyone either.

And this isn't some office job. THIS IS THE PENTAGON. This man is in charge of the U.S military and the NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

This piece of shit was too embarrassed to say what was wrong with him. He didn't even have to say what was wrong with him. Just that he was in the hospital. And of course, he should have picked a decent replacement, who was actually going to be IN THE COUNTRY while he was in the hospital. Like I said, this is something so fucking stupid, it's EXACTLY something I would expect from the republicans. And for that, this fucker should be fired. And if a repug did this, we'd all over this calling his resignation.

For 3 (THREE) days, this useless cunt refused to answer his phone. FOR A CALL FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Why were datalounge threads being posted in the past progressive tense?

r44, sorry snowflake. You obviously do not know that SoD is a political appointment.

The Secretary was doing his job, even in the hospital. We do not appoint Presidents and the SoD to actually fight wars. We expect them to exert their judgement on important decisions. If Austin can order a military strike from a hospital bed, so be it.

Have no fear citizens ! I was ready to make any necessary decisions.

R44. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Damn, Rachel Levine is ugly. No close-ups.

It's clear that it was a medical emergency. The man had a procedure and AFTERWARDS had a very bad outcome which resulted in his being hospitalized AGAIN. (Probably an infection raging in some body part adjacent to the wound left by the surgery). If it was cellulitis or a UTI, that can quickly become life-threatening. Under those circumstances (pain, high-fever), making a dozen calls to let people know all up and down the chain of command probably seemed secondary, especially if he had communicated something of the issue to a subordinate with instructions to pass it along.

PS Black men have much worse outcomes overall with prostate issues than white men, and die of prostate cancer at a much higher rate than white men. If you've ever had a PsA, you know that there is an entirely different set of numbers used for black men to indicate increased risk. Those who are pooh-poohing his experience for something "routine" are demonstrating medical ignorance.

Yes, but he knew in early December of his cancer diagnosis, the surgery was a scheduled surgery, and then he had complications. Therefore he should have informed his colleagues of his upcoming surgery . I’m not saying he should have specified medical details but give notice. If he did inform others, and they dropped the ball, then something is seriously wrong with the chain of command.

So I guess Merrick Garland won't be the only Cabinet officer leaving soon

Lloyola asks for privacy as she undergoes bottom surgery.