Secretary of Defense Is Hospitalized; White House Doesn’t Know for Three Days
Imagine that you are suddenly admitted to the hospital and you can’t go to work. You’d probably want to let your boss know, right? Now, imagine that you are the U.S. Secretary of Defense, you have complications from routine surgery, and you land in ICU. It would be good if your top boss, the President of the United States, knew what was going on.
Over the weekend, it was revealed that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized on New Year’s Day following elective surgery. The Department of Defense didn’t tell the White House until Jan. 4.
The good news is that Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks assumed most of Austin’s duties. The bad news is that Hicks was on vacation at the time and didn’t find out until days later why she was filling in for Austin. By Friday, Austin was still in the hospital but feeling well enough to return to his duties.
Why did it take so long for the White House to find out about Austin’s hospitalization? That remains a mystery. “Not telling the [White House], Congress or the media he is sick, and then telling Pentagon staff he is working from home is next level. This is a problem,” a former Department of Defense official told Politico.
“Someone’s head has to roll,” another official told Politico.
William Penn no Longer Welcome in Philly’s Welcome Park
Welcome Park in Philadelphia sits on the site of the home of the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. The park, named for Penn’s ship, was completed in 1982 and features a statue of Penn at its center. According to ushistory.org, it is “the only site in historic Philadelphia dedicated to celebrating the life and contributions of William Penn.”
On Jan. 5, the National Park Service, which maintains Welcome Park, announced that changes would soon be made “to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.” Plans include “expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia”; they do not include the Penn statue or the model of Penn’s home, Slate Roof.
“The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled,” the press release from the National Park Service states. “In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.
“The public is invited to submit comments on this proposed design for the rehabilitation of Welcome Park for a 14-day period from January 8th – 21st, 2024 through the National Park Service’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) at https://parkplanning.nps.gov.”
‘Peaceful, Reliable, Drug-Free’ Alternative to Suicide Debuts in Switzerland
The “suicide pod” was unveiled in Switzerland recently, with all legal obstacles cleared for the machine invented in part by Philip Nitschke, the first doctor in the world to legally perform an assisted suicide via lethal injection.
Nitschke says the pod is a “peaceful, reliable and drug-free” alternative to suicide.
He explains the process here:
“The person will get into the capsule and lie down….They will be asked a number of questions and when they have answered, they may press the button inside the capsule activating the mechanism in their own time….Death takes place through hypoxia and hypocapnia, oxygen and carbon dioxide deprivation, respectively. There is no panic, no choking feeling.”
Nitschke definitely has ardent opponents. An organization in the UK called Care Not Killing strongly condemns the use of the pods. “The development of personal gas chambers marks a new low in the debate about whether or not to kill people via assisted suicide and euthanasia,” commented Care Not Killing’s chief executive, Dr. Gordon MacDonald.
Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo, told the Christian Post earlier this year, "The fundamental duty of doctors has always been to act as healers for their patients, not assist in killing them. Any doctor who helps a patient commit suicide — by whatever means — violates this sacred oath." Schiavo was in a vegetative state for 15 years before a controversial decision to remove her feeding tube, which ultimately resulted in her death.
Forget the Polls: Psychic on Fox Predicts Outcome for Trump
Now for something completely silly. Fox News host Jesse Watters had a psychic on his show a few days ago to foresee the future, specifically as it pertains to Donald Trump. After drawing a card of a man wearing a long black coat, Paula Roberts, aka “the English Psychic,” said that for Trump this represents “a sense of loss, but it's very specific… It's as if he may be thinking more about what he's lost, and not still taking full advantage of what he still has.” Another card drawn represented “his disappointments and failures.”
Does this mean Trump will lose the presidential election or go to jail over one of his indictments? The psychic didn’t specify.
Maybe we need this guy to help us out:
The Welcome Park story is infuriating, and I want to leave a coment, but it's not up yet. My Tyson ancestors were brought to Pennsylvania by Penn as part of his effort to first, offer a safe place for fellow Quakers to practice their religion freely and second, because they possessed a trade he felt necessary for a successful colony. This administration is supposed to be all for immigration, and Penn successfully established his colony the right way. The only blemish was the initial allowance of slaves, but many of the newly arrived German Quakers felt that was not a policy Quakers should practice and worked to get it blocked in Pennsylvania.