But it represents a giant elephant dumping in our room: The meritless mass hiring of people based on skin color, gender and whatever all is represented in the LGBTQI+ black hole is revealing in real-time for the world to see, a cluster clown show in the federal government. Yes, Austin is a decorated military man, and more qualified than many others hired this way, but it is impossible not to notice the fact that he was hired after the Congressional Black Caucus lobbied for a black Secretary of Defense, and that Austin's hiring was lauded in the mainstream press precisely because he was the first black Secretary of Defense. The results speak for themselves.
Briefly, the 70-year-old SecDef underwent a routine surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Dec. 22 to treat early prostate cancer. A week later, he developed a post-surgical infection and ended up in ICU with complications Jan. 1.
On Jan. 2, Austin transferred “certain operational responsibilities that require constant secure communications capabilities” to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who was on vacation — vacation! — in Puerto Rico. That same day, Austin’s Chief of Staff Kelly Magsamen, senior military assistant, Lt. Gen. Ron Clark, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown were told of Austin’s hospitalization. Not one of these people thought to let the President of the United States, aka, the Commander in Chief, anyone else at the White House, the National Security Council or even Deputy Hicks know that the SecDef was in the ICU.
On the flip side of that incompetence grenade, the head of U.S. military forces was out of action and communication for nearly a week — and nobody in the White House even noticed? How long could that have gone on? Does Biden not get daily briefings from the DoD? Weekly briefings, for gosh sakes? It raises again the glaringly obvious question: Who is functioning as President?
All of this led to this astonishing statement on Jan. 9 — eight days after Austin’s hospitalization: “Nobody at the White House knew that Secretary Austin had prostate cancer until this morning,” John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said. “And the president was informed immediately after.”
Well gosh, it’s not like we are engaged in military activities in the Middle East with Iran-backed Houthis, aiding Israel in its fight against blood-thirsty Hamas killers, and supporting Ukraine in what appears to be a losing war against Russia. Who needs a SecDef? Or a President, for that matter?
This whole affair just screams incompetence more than the normal ideological blinders. Just flat out, a lot of people way over their heads in their jobs, for what certainly gives the appearance in many cases of being DEI hires — just as Biden promised. When people are hired based on superficial and immutable characteristics and not merit, it should come as no surprise that we end up with people who just aren’t up to the job.
Remember how the Democrat media was wringing its hands over Sen. Tommy Tuberville blocking military promotions because of the new abortion policy out of the Department of Defense? “Flag officers not being promoted is incredibly damaging to our military readiness,” Pentagon Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh told Fox News. Bobble-head media nodded right along and copy/pasted that messaging.
Nothing “incredibly damaging” about a missing SecDef and the White House ignorant of his absence. A few stories crafted as “this is weird” and then back to regularly scheduled propaganda.
Of course this is the partisan media at work, but also the fellow travelers for DEI. Back in the 80s and 90s I was in newsrooms watching the promotion of lesser talented colleagues, who would fall under today’s DEI rubric, over more qualified colleagues — let’s just say it, white male and sometimes white female colleagues. The media is all in on bigoted hiring and promotion policies and has been for a very long time, which explains part of its general horribleness.
The DEI hiring rot can be seen easily just in several high-profile choices in the Biden Administration: Start with Vice President Kamala Harris’ unlikable cackling and word salad and inability to carry out any actual responsibilities. Or what about Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg disappearing on paternity leave for four months and no one noticing? Or Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s inability to define what a woman is while offering up embarrassing misunderstandings of law and mathematics? Or White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, which...enough said. Or Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., who had publicly advocated for DEI hiring and did so in the Air Force before his promotion. Dr. Rachel Levine, the transgender pediatrician who advocates for child sex changes, was brought in as the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services. And, of course, who can forget Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy Sam Brinton, a bald, lipstick-wearing trans activist with a penchant for taking women’s suitcases at airports.
These are folks at the top (except for Brinton, who was finally fired) but this bigoted hiring policy flows throughout the federal government, including the military. And is getting worse.
Team Biden doubled down on its DEI racism 11 months ago by issuing a wildly unconstitutional Executive Order titled “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” This EO, without Congressional authorization, requires radical, bigoted, racist requirements for hiring in the federal government. It is the very poster child for systemic racism akin to Jim Crow laws and it will give us so many more Kamalas, Buttigiegs, Brown Jacksons, Jean-Pierres at every level.
Republicans willing to put a dagger into the heart of the DEI vampire sucking the blood out of America are in high demand. Let’s hope supply meets the demand.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
