Where’s Lloyd Austin


Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin kinda went missing. At first, we were told he was in Walter Reed’s intensive care unit for “complications from an elective procedure.” Then we found out yesterday that the secretary had surgery for prostate cancer on December 22, and had to return on January 1 due to complications. We all wish him the best, well, most of us, and doctors say he’s doing well. But another complication is that nobody was told that the Secretary of Defense was off the clock.

The Deputy Defense Secretary didn’t know and was on vacation. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t know. But worse of all, the President of the United States didn’t know. Now, some Republicans are calling for his resignation but I wouldn’t take those too seriously because these are the same goons trying to impeach President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without any evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.

But it’s bad to go missing and not inform anyone if you’re the leader of the world’s largest military. Why did Austin and his staff not disclose his procedures to the White House? When they finally did, it was just minutes before the Pentagon released a statement. This is the sort of lackadaisical mayhem we’d expect from the Trump administration, not the professional Biden White House that’s run by adults.

In 2019, Trump had a secret visit to Walter Reed and wouldn’t disclose to the public why he went. Trump’s Press Secretary at the time, Stephanie Grisham, initially told the public that Trump was only there for two hours to “begin portions of his routine annual physical exam.” Trump later claimed he finished the physical at the White House. Physicals usually aren’t done in stages.

After leaving the White House, Grisham wrote a book and implied the reason Trump visited Walter Reed that day was for a colonoscopy. Apparently, he didn’t want to transfer power temporarily to Mike Pence if he underwent anesthesia (which is the norm), didn’t want his MAGAt followers to see he wasn’t invincible, and didn’t want late night comedians and political cartoonists to make him the butt of butt jokes. Honestly, I’m surprised the Trump Campaign isn’t selling signed prints of the inside of his ass to his followers.

The Biden administration and Pentagon insist that Austin’s job is safe, but who knows as criticism from the press and politicians increases. Maybe they’ll become more concerned by being compared to the chaos of the Trump administration.

I don’t think Austin should resign or be fired, but I do think President Biden needs to give him a good chewing out. Secretary of Defense is a serious job. You can’t just not show up for work like your job is working the window at Taco Bell and you had just smoked a big bowl of Fruit Loops (which oddly enough, makes you want to go to Taco Bell)…or like it’s a position in the Trump administration.

Creative note: I wrote this cartoon yesterday and planned to start it last night, which I did. I finished drawing it around 11:30 p.m. and sent it to my proofers. My plan was to color it this morning which I did. I was still up at 1 a.m. and checked out all the new cartoons at GoComics and dammit, someone had done a Where’s Waldo/Austin cartoon. I thought it was pretty different as that cartoonist only drew one Waldo, but it was the same premise. I showed both to a friend who told me they were different enough, so I should finish this cartoon. She also told me mine was better. But frack I hate when that happens…and especially with that cartoonist as he’s a terrible racist MAGAt who bases a lot of his stuff on total bullshit.Ugh. What do you think?

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9 thoughts on “Where’s Lloyd Austin”

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  1. Yeah, the whole thing is just odd. I can understand wanting to keep your personal business, especially a cancer diagnosis, out of the public eye, but you’ve gotta tell your boss! Especially when you have a big, important job like he has! If he’d said something in the first place no one would have blinked an eye but now all hell’s breaking loose and the whole world is up in arms. It was a very dumb move on Austin’s part. A part of me wonders if the cancer diagnosis so freaked him out that he just wasn’t thinking clearly. But it seems that would be completely out of character for a man in his position, who I would think has rock-steady nerves.

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  3. re: “I’m surprised the Trump Campaign isn’t selling signed prints of the inside of his ass to his followers.” Because there’s no market – they’re already intimately familiar with what it looks like…

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  4. Since you asked: It’s unfortunate that both you and another cartoonist used the “where’s Waldo” trope. Not surprising, but unfortunate. I often find similarity, more among the right wing cartoonists, who probably receive faxes from the RNC suggesting the day’s stupid attack. This is particularly true of Lisa Benson, Chip Bok, Al Goodwyn, Mike Lester, Henry Payne, Varvel, sometimes Stantis, sometimes Ramirez and a couple of others (if I’ve overlooked several of you, my apologies. You too, are deplorable.) Reading them, I assume that word comes from above and, uncreative lackeys that they are, they simply color by numbers.

    The responsibilities of the Sec. of the DoD, though, are not strictly military. They are mostly administrative. He’s a civilian and not in the chain of command, except to distribute the wishes of Commander in Chief.

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  5. LLOYD AUSTIN WAS LIKELY INJURED OR KILLED IN THE RUSSIAN MISSLE STRIKES ON KIEV AT THE END OF DECEMBER AGAINST NON EXISTENT BUT EXISTING NATO CTRL CENTERSm

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  6. Pingback: Claytoonz: Where’s Lloyd Austin | The Inquiring Mind

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