3 members of Trump's Mar-A-Lago Club have been secretly running the Veterans Affairs Dept.

[DesertRat]

Link to tweet

Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke 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,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.”

O’Rourke 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 Trump’s 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 Trump’s. 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.”

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

[UTUSN]

1. K&R

[3catwoman3]

2. Senator Duckworth is right.

I was in the AF nurse corps for 4 years of active duty, and 8 years as a reservist.

It is my considered opinion that someone who has not served in some capacity has no business being in any position of influence over the VA - particularly not rich cronies of Cadet Bone Spurs.

My retired military pilot husband agrees.

This is obscene.

[DesertRat]

3. I agree and I'm thankful that Sen. Duckworth is taking action on this

Thank you, and your husband, for your service.

[Leith]

4. Yet Another Example

of the blatant, widespread corruption we are forced to endure.

[DesertRat]

5. There's so much corruption, it's hard to keep up with it all

In another time, this would be a big scandal. But these days it doesn't even make much news.

[Lucinda]

6. Thank you! The comments from vets responding to her tweet are heartbreaking n/t

[DesertRat]

7. kick for visibility

[Hortensis]

8. Not so secretly, announced publicly not quite two months

after Trump's inauguration. That was the presser where Trump had his new director of the VA on stage for the obvious purpose of publicly humiliating him by revealing he was not among those invited to Mar-a-Lago to supposedly decide the future of the VA. These people's doings have been discussed ever since by observers.

Speaking of much larger, even, under-discussed and under-reacted-to events, the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing? Most media seem to think Amarosa's slimy trash book is far more important than both together.

Will healthcare mandates, including that for VA healthcare, be declared unconstitutional? That IS a major goal.