Current Events > Mar-a-Lago members are running the VA

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.propublica.org/article/ike-perlmutter-bruce-moskowitz-marc-sherman-shadow-rulers-of-the-va

Last February, shortly after Peter ORourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. Received, ORourke replied. I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.

ORourke treated the email as an order, but Moskowitz is not his boss. In fact, he is not even a government official. Moskowitz is a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service concierge medical care.

More to the point, he is one-third of an informal council that is exerting sweeping influence on the VA from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trumps private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The troika is led by Ike Perlmutter, the reclusive chairman of Marvel Entertainment, who is a longtime acquaintance of President Trumps. The third member is a lawyer named Marc Sherman. None of them has ever served in the U.S. military or government.

Yet from a thousand miles away, they have leaned on VA officials and steered policies affecting millions of Americans. They have remained hidden except to a few VA insiders, who have come to call them the Mar-a-Lago Crowd.

Perlmutter, Moskowitz and Sherman declined to be interviewed and fielded questions through a crisis-communications consultant. In a statement, they downplayed their influence, insisting that nobody is obligated to act on their counsel. At all times, we offered our help and advice on a voluntary basis, seeking nothing at all in return, they said. While we were always willing to share our thoughts, we did not make or implement any type of policy, possess any authority over agency decisions, or direct government officials to take any actions To the extent anyone thought our role was anything other than that, we dont believe it was the result of anything we said or did.

VA spokesman Curt Cashour did not answer specific questions but said a broad range of input from individuals both inside and outside VA has helped us immensely over the last year and a half. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters also did not answer specific questions and said Perlmutter, Sherman and Moskowitz have no direct influence over the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But hundreds of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former administration officials tell a different story of a previously unknown triumvirate that hovered over public servants without any transparency, accountability or oversight. The Mar-a-Lago Crowd spoke with VA officials daily, the documents show, reviewing all manner of policy and personnel decisions. They prodded the VA to start new programs, and officials travelled to Mar-a-Lago at taxpayer expense to hear their views. Everyone has to go down and kiss the ring, a former administration official said.

If the bureaucracy resists the trios wishes, Perlmutter has a powerful ally: The President of the United States. Trump and Perlmutter regularly talk on the phone and dine together when the president visits Mar-a-Lago. On any veterans issue, the first person the president calls is Ike, another former official said. Former administration officials say that VA leaders who were at odds with the Mar-A-Lago crowd were pushed out or passed over. Included, those officials say, were the secretary (whose ethical lapses also played a role), deputy secretary, chief of staff, acting under secretary for health, deputy under secretary for health, chief information officer, and the director of electronic health records modernization.

At times, Perlmutter, Moskowitz and Sherman have created headaches for VA officials because of their failure to follow government rules and processes. In other cases, they used their influence in ways that could benefit their private interests.

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President Trump is bringing in fresh new ideas from outside the entrenched bureaucracy. How is this bad?
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Nepotism is the theme of the Trump administration

https://tinyurl.com/ybfl3o4t
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Manocheese posted...

President Trump is bringing in fresh new ideas from outside the entrenched bureaucracy. How is this bad?

Shut the fuck up, Christian

This is literally, non-sensationally, what the fall of an empire looks like. We are mirroring Rome.
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Trumps corrupt America
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The Clinton Foundations alleged pay-for-play was a huge issue, but somehow I feel our resident slurpers wont find any issue with this
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And of course it's the head of Marvel pulling the strings...
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butthole666 posted...

This is literally, non-sensationally, what the fall of an empire looks like. We are mirroring Rome.

I think if the blue wave does actually happen it can be reversed. If not, then yeah, America's on the way out.
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Morning bump
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Mr_Biscuit posted...

butthole666 posted...

This is literally, non-sensationally, what the fall of an empire looks like. We are mirroring Rome.

I think if the blue wave does actually happen it can be reversed. If not, then yeah, America's on the way out.

After last night, it's definitely not going to happen
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Manocheese posted...

President Trump is bringing in fresh new ideas from outside the entrenched bureaucracy. How is this bad?

I was really confused when I read this as I was almost positive it was a DE post.....
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Bat178 posted...

And of course it's the head of Marvel pulling the strings...

Isn't Ike the one in charge of the television division
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