Where's Lloyd Austin? SecDef's Medical Mystery - The Monday AM Quickie 1/8/24
In my head, it's always baseball season. -Jacob
Subscribe to the AM Quickie's NEW paid newsletters here!
THE BIG NEWS
Secretary of Defense Hospitalized, But No One Notices
A strange-but-worrying story emerged over the weekend: Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, was hospitalized for three days last week before the White House found out, much less the public. The information blackout extended throughout the national-security hierarchy. When Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who was vacationing in Puerto Rico, assumed some of Austin's responsibilities, she didn't know that she was doing so because her boss was in the hospital with complications from an undisclosed elective medical procedure. President Biden, according to most reports, wasn't informed until January 4, three days after Austin was placed in Walter Reed Hospital's intensive care unit.
Austin's hospitalization and the relative secrecy surrounding it have prompted some bipartisan criticism. It comes at a typically busy time for the DoD, which is trying to manage conflicts ranging from Ukraine to Gaza to the Red Sea. "Someone's head has to roll," a brave anonymous DoD official told Politico, adding that it would probably be whomever controlled the disclosure (or lack of it) of information.
Will there be resignations? Maybe a "bruising hearing"? It's still early days for this would-be scandal. No one seems to know the extent of Austin's health issues, with some nodding to his tendency toward secrecy. But it says something about the American empire that its top technocrat could be MIA for days and, well, nothing really happened. The war machine kept on humming. Former VP Mike Pence, who called Austin's unexplained absence a "dereliction of duty," was photographed signing an IDF mortar shell in northern Israel.
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Boeing Jets Grounded Over Structural Concerns
At least 171 Boeing Max 9 passenger jets were grounded in the US over the weekend. On Friday, a piece of fuselage came off an Alaska Airlines Max 9 plane, leaving a sizeable hole in the side of the plane while it was flying at 16,000 feet. No one was hurt, but the episode is yet another frightening notch on Boeing's bedpost of failures.
An earlier version of the Max was grounded after two plane crashes, in Nigeria and Indonesia, killed 346 people. Subsequent investigations into the planes' mechanical issues and into Boeing corporate revealed a culture that privileged managerial priorities over engineering necessities. Top executives pressed for immediate results to complex problems in order to get planes quickly delivered, juice the stock, and ultimately enrich shareholders via buybacks. The result was calamity.
But after billions of dollars in fines, litigation, inspections, delayed orders, and redesigns, the Max is back, with Boeing waiting to fill outstanding orders for 4,500 Max aircraft. As the New York Times noted, "The Max is the best-selling plane in Boeing’s history." The company has to get this right – or at least get those planes to buyers.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- Israel Kills More Palestinian Journalists Al Jazeera reporter Hamza al-Dahdouh and his colleague Mustafa Thuraya were killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, as the death toll for Palestinian journalists nears 100. Wael al-Dahdouh, Hamza's father and also a journalist for Al Jazeera, has become a symbol of Palestinian fortitude, continuing to report even as his wife, children, and other family members have been killed in multiple Israeli attacks. via Washington Post.
- Congressional Leaders Reach Spending Deal Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson and some slightly less seditionist Republicans cobbled together a deal with Democrats to fund the 2024 government to the tune of $1.66 trillion. More than half of it is going to military spending, the only budgetary item that's actually increasing, as Republicans continue their longstanding, bad-faith war on government deficits. Congress still has to pass legislation to make the budget into law, so there's time for this to devolve into a colossal screwup that leads to a government shutdown and an unnecessary economic crisis. via Washington Post and Politico.
- Covid-19, Which Never Left, Is Back Covid cases are on the rise, alongside seasonal illnesses like influenza and RSV. JN.1 is the Covid strain of the moment – the dominant variant – while the disease itself has unfortunately become endemic, killing fewer people than in 2020 but still representing a major threat, especially for immunocompromised folks. via NPR and ABC News.
- Mehdi Hasan Leaving MSNBC Mehdi Hasan, the loquacious, rapid-fire interview specialist on MSNBC, is leaving the cable-news network. His departure follows the cancelation of his show and, essentially, the demotion of several Muslim journalists after the beginning of Israel's latest war in Gaza. via Mehdi Hasan/X.
SOME NUMBER
2018
That's when Elon Musk gave an interview to the New York Times during which he was "under the influence," according to the Wall Street Journal. Under the influence of what – that's not clear, but Musk appears to be a fan of a variety of common recreational drugs. In a soberly reported article, the Journal tries to square Musk's erratic behavior and bouts of sleeplessness with his drug use, some of it public, some not. "People close to Musk, who is now 52, said his drug use is ongoing, especially his consumption of ketamine, and that they are concerned it could cause a health crisis," writes the Journal. "Even if it doesn’t, it could damage his businesses."
ON THE SHOW TODAY
1/8: Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Neil Kraus, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, to discuss his recent book The Fantasy Economy: Neoliberalism, Inequality, and the Education Reform Movement.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
You Won't Believe Who Dershowitz Blames After Being Exposed On Epstein List
Alan Dershowitz – lawyer to scumbags everywhere – can't stop talking about his definitely normal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Jimmy Dore Keeps Trying To Kill His Audience
Does vaccine paranoia still play? Some pundits hope so.
PARTING WORDS
"We have new information that strongly suggests that the Business Insider source(s) is at @MIT."
-- From a tweet by billionaire hedge-fund honcho Bill Ackman, who spent the weekend raging on Twitter about Business Insider's reporting – apparently correctly – that Ackman's wife, Neri Oxman, plagiarized parts of her PhD dissertation. Oxman was previously known for receiving funding from Jeffrey Epstein, giving the pedophile financier an award, and then having her husband email the now-former head of the MIT Media Lab to ask him to keep it all quiet. The most recent Ackman drama has dovetailed with the billionaire's personal campaign against elite universities that he has deemed to be lax about on-campus antisemitism. It's now led to him declaring war on Business Insider and MIT's leadership. For what it's worth, the source revealing Oxman's plagiarism appears to be her own dissertation, which is available online from the MIT library.
Quickie Discount Code Corner
Hey check it out! Stuff on sale!
IAC Laser Engraving: IAC Laser Engraving is a Leftist-owned Worker Collective started by long time listener, Ryan Lubin in September of 2021. Visit iaclasers.com to order your custom item today and enter in Coupon Code: "MAJORITY10" at purchase to receive a 10% discount on their AMAZING products."
ExpressVPN: Secure your online data TODAY by visiting this link. That’s https://www.expressvpn.com/majority and you can get an extra three months FREE.
Fast Growing Trees: Go to this link right now, and you’ll get FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF your entire order.
Ritual: Get key nutrients without the B.S. Ritual is offering our listeners 10% off during your first three months. Visit here to start your Ritual today.
Aura: Protect yourself from America’s fastest-growing crime. Try Aura for 14 days for free: https://aura.com/majority
ZBiotics: Go to https://thld.co/zbiotics_majority_0722 and get 15% off your first order of ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic by using my code MAJORITY at checkout.
HoldOn Bags: HoldOn plant-based compostable kitchen/trash bags: Get 20% OFF with code MAJORITY at https://holdonbags.com/majority
StoryWorth: StoryWorth is an online service that helps every other figure in your life share stories through thought-provoking questions about their memories and personal thoughts. Get started right away with no shipping required by going to https://storyworth.com/majority you'll get $10 of your first purchase!
Henson Shaving: Go to https://hensonshaving.com/majority and use code MAJORITY for a free 100-pack of blades!
Quip: If you go to this link RIGHT NOW, you’ll get your first refill FREE.
Shopify: Go to this link here for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features.
LiquidIV: You can get 25% off when you go to liquidiv.com and use code MAJORITYREP at checkout.
Stamps.com: Start mailing and shipping with stamps.com, and keep more money in your pocket every day. Sign up with promo code MAJORITYREPORT for a special offer that includes a 4-week trial, plus free postage and a digital scale.
ZipRecruiter: Find the right employees for your workplace with ZipRecruiter. Try it FOR FREE at this exclusive web address.
Nutrafol: For FIFTEEN DOLLARS OFF go to https://nutrafol.com/men/ with promo code MAJORITY.
Outer: See the difference at go.liveouter.com/MAJORITY. Plus, for a limited time, get $300 off and FREE shipping.
Sunset Lake CBD: Visit sunsetlakecbd.com.
Grove: Go to this link here today to get a free gift set worth up to fifty dollars with your first order. Plus, shipping is fast and FREE.
Headspace: Try this link, with discount code MAJORITY and get one month FREE of their entire mindfulness library.
StartMail: Start securing your email privacy with StartMail. Sign up today and you’ll get 50% off your first year! Go to this link here for our special promotion!.
CozyEarth: Go to this link here and enter the special promo code MAJORITY at checkout to SAVE thirty-five percent now.