That pretty place, pictured above, is Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort spot owned by our current president, Donald J. Trump. According to an article in The New York Times, this is where our current president met with Oliver Burckhardt, the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Extremity Care, which makes "pricey medical products including paper-thin bandages made of dried bits of placenta."
A week before his meeting with our current president, one of Mr. Burckhardt’s biotech companies donated $5 million to MAGA, Inc., a pro-Trump political committee. This paved the way for Mr. Burckhardt to attend the dinner at Mar-a-Lago. "At the dinner, Mr. Burckhardt got a chance to speak briefly to the president and other guests about himself and the work of his company." According to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private event, "Mr. Burkhardt also brought copies of a flier urging the Trump administration to reverse a plan to restrict Medicare reimbursement for the bandages that his company makes, and which criticized former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. for having rammed through a policy that would create more suffering and death for diabetic patients on Medicare.”
The next morning, after the dinner, Mr. Trump posted the flier on his social media site, and about one month later, the Trump administration announced it would delay until next year the Biden administration plan to limit Medicare’s coverage of the bandages.
Had this encounter between our current president and Mr. Burckhardt taken place on a ship, I believe I would have titled my blog posting, "Shakedown Cruise." That is, incidentally, a genuine nautical term that does not, actually, relate to the connection between payments made to politicians and the public policy decisions that those politicians then make. Since the encounter about which I am reporting took place on land, and not on a ship, I decided that my blog posting today should be billed, instead, as an opportunity to "Learn Some Latin."
For those who aren't fluent in that ancient tongue, you can click the link for a definition of of the following expression:
Is it the case that those who might charge Trump with corruption are too overwhelmed with instances of it to make a move? I don't think there is a coordinated effort to see that every act of corruption leads to formal charges. Right?
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly right that there is no coordinated effort to see that every act of corruption leads to formal charges. I am not sure, though, that those who might charge Mr. Trump with corruption are too overwhelmed to make a move. Currently, the Department of Justice does not really act independently of the president, so I think that this is probably the main reason that possible acts of corruption by the president are not being pursued.
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