An Empty Vessel in the Big Apple

Hudson Yards has opened, a new office, upscale condo and luxury shopping development built over an active trainyard on New York’s West Side. The city and state chipped in $6 billion for the project, but maybe that’s not as bad as it sounds.

What is bad, undeniably, is the 150-foot-high, 16 storey, copper-covered selfie magnet looming over Hudson Yards plaza called Vessel. The structure, consisting of 154 flights of stairs, may be a perfect metaphor for New York: you keep climbing but get nowhere.

Gloves, Because Poor People Touch These Things

Hedge fund manager and foreclosure king Steve Mnuchin, the current Secretary of the Treasury, recently visited the U.S. Mint to see newly-printed currency with his name on it. Mr. Mnuchin was clad in a plain dark suit, accessorized with a red tie and his newly-minted wife, the minor film star Louise Linton. Ms. Linton once represented a Scottish leather goods company, and was disappointed that her name could not be printed on the bills next to her husband’s as the Treasury’s “Brand Ambassador.”

Louise Linton was clad in about $10,000-worth of black leather Michael Kors garb she ordered straight from the catalog. The gloves alone cost $625; it would take more than a dozen of those uncut $1 bill sheets she’s holding to buy them.

Mr. and Mrs. Mnuchin previously raised the public eyebrow when they took a government plane to view the total eclipse from the roof of Fort Knox, the U.S. Government gold depository. “Glad gold is safe!” tweeted the Secretary later, probably because his wife wasn’t carrying a bullion-sized purse. Ms. Linton wore Hermes, Tom Ford, and Valentino for that occasion.

More:

“‘Like Bond villains’: What happened when Steven Mnuchin and his wife posed with a sheet of money,” Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post

“Louise Linton Clearly Wants America to Hate Her as Much as Possible,” Lizzie Crocker, Daily Beast

“Louise Linton Gets Mocked for ‘Disney Villain’ Style After Previous Tone-Deaf Outfit Controversy,” Jillian Ruffo, People

“With Long Leather Gloves, a Sheet of Money, and a Smize, Louise Linton Strikes Yet Another Pose in DC,” Kaitlin Menza, Vogue

“The Treasury Secretary’s Wife,” Kevin D. Wiliamson, National Review

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You Paid $41 Million So Trump Can Golf In New Jersey

“Rep. Leonard Lance, a New Jersey Republican, announced Wednesday that the small town of Bedminster — population 9,000 — has been designated a priority for the Secret Service.

The township is home to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, one of Trump’s favorite retreats. His daughter Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were married there, and Trump summoned advisers there for post-election transition planning.

With the official designation as a presidential residence, Congress appropriated up to $41 million to cover security costs incurred between the Jan. 20 inauguration and Oct. 1, which starts a new fiscal year. Trump’s residences in Florida and New York already get such funding.

The costs are incurred by state, county and township law enforcement officers when Trump comes to town, as he did this month for the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament.”

— “Trump’s Third Home Away From Home To Cost Taxpayers Millions,” Peter Overby, NPR News

More:

“15 Surprising Facts About Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey,” Ashley Hoffman, TIME Magazine

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Goodbye Palm Beach; Hello Bedminster

In May, as Florida heats up, flocks of migrating golf bums head north. This weekend our Golf-Bum-in-Chief has landed in New Jersey‘s Trump National Bedminster Golf Club. You can join him for a mere $350,000 initiation fee and thousands a year in dues, food, drinks, and facilities charges. Not to mention golf bets and tips for caddies, waiters, and parking valets.

While the stop-gap federal spending bill will reimburse Bedminster Township police overtime for round-the-clock security, it does nothing to mitigate Somerset County resident headaches due to the road closures, traffic congestion, and inevitable protests attendant on the Garden State presidential golf excursions.

We hope all this doesn’t scare the goats. Mr. Trump keeps about 4 of them on the luxury property to pretend it’s a farm, which lowers his taxes from about $80,000 to less than $1,000 a year. Does this mean there’s fresh chèvre and cabrito on the club’s menu?

More:

“6 Things to Know About Bedminster, NJ, Trump’s Summer Getaway,” James Ramsay, WNYC

Updates:

“Trump reportedly hits the links in NJ,” Brandon Carter, The Hill

“Could Trump golf course get slapped with a tax to cover cost of his N.J. visits?” Claude Brodesser-Akner, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

“Anti-Trump protesters take to Bedminster, gear up for summer rallies,” Nick Muscavage, Courier News and Home Tribune

“‘Spend Your Free Time In A Red State’: A motorcade of protesters rolls by Trump’s N.J. property,” John Wagner, Washington Post

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‘Downton Abbey’ Ex-Congressman Indicted on 24 Counts

A federal grand jury has indicted former Congressman Aaron Schock on 24 criminal counts that include theft of government funds, wire fraud, making false statements, and filing false tax returns. Once a Republican star, he used federal and campaign funds to support a lifestyle of personal trainers and personal photographers, a stylish wardrobe, charter plane and helicopter trips for Hawaiian surfing, tango-dancing in Bueno Aires, glacier jumping in Patagonia and a plush Downton Abbey-themed Capitol Hill office with a $5,000 chandelier.

The Washington Post ran a feature on the office, and questions were raised. Mr. Schock resigned from Congress during an ensuing ethics inquiry, but an FBI investigation followed, and the Bureau’s findings were sent to the grand jury which has now returned the indictments. Looks like media coverage of Aaron Schock will be resuming shortly. Hope he’s still got the wardrobe for it.

Update:

“Appeals court rejects Schock’s effort to dismiss indictment,” John Bowden, The Hill

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Honest Abe Schock Says Farewell

Disgraced Congressman Aaron Schock (R, IL-18), who resigned to forestall an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation, compared himself to Abraham Lincoln in a farewell speech on the House floor on Thursday:

“Abraham Lincoln held this seat in Congress for one term. But few faced as many defeats in his personal business and public life as he did. His continual perseverance in the face of these trials, never giving up, is something all of us Americans should be inspired by, especially when going through a valley in life.”

Of course President Lincoln didn’t have the FBI and a grand jury investigating his possible misuse of campaign funds and taxpayer dollars.

Congressman Schock’s resignation is effective March 31st. He will be returning to his humble log cabin somewhere in the wilds of Illinois. Near a golf course, perhaps.

Related:

“Aaron Schock leaving Congress with $3.3M in campaign funds,” Chicago Tribune

“Ex-Schock aide dishes to FBI,” Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan, Politico

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Schock & Awe

Aaron Schock, Earl of Peoria and the Viscount Sangamon, has retired from the Imperial Government and will return to his country estates. Lord Aaron was aghast to discover he was sitting in the House of Commons, not the House of Lords.