Anti-Donald Trump Skywriting Appears Above California's Rose Parade

Anti-Donald Trump Skywriting Appears Above California's Rose Parade

by Elisha Fieldstadt

Spectators at the Rose Parade in California were distracted from the floats and flowers when anti-Donald Trump skywriting appeared over the annual California event Friday.

Photos on social media showed the messages in the sky that said things like: "America is Great! Trump is Disgusting," "Anybody but Trump" and "Iowans Dump Trump."

Iowa State's Hawkeyes were set to play against Stanford University's Cardinals, and the Iowa caucuses are just one month away.

It wasn't immediately clear who commissioned the skywriting, but aerial advertising company AirSign took credit for the handiwork on Twitter, and liberally retweeted photos from people who were fans of the stunt.

Trump remains a frontrunner in the GOP race, despite being criticized for inflammatory remarks.

A spokeswoman for Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elec...parade-n489026

It will be interesting to learn who was behind this!

I hope they can find out.

:p

Meet the man behind the "Trump is disgusting" skywriting

PASADENA -- A millionaire real estate developer -- who also happens to be a donor to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign - is behind the aerial messages at the Rose Bowl calling GOP front-runner Donald Trump "disgusting" and he says that there's more to come. Much more.


"There's no place for him," said Stan Pate, from Alabama. "He needs to go back to one of his tall towers and build buildings and whatever else he does. He's a despicable man."


"I want to see America wake up and say this is not what we expect," he added.


Those hosting a tailgate party at the Rose Bowl on New Years Day might have been surprised to look up to the sky and see messages blasting Trump. Multiple planes spewed cloud-like messages castigating the GOP front-runner, such as "AMERICA IS GREAT, TRUMP IS DISGUSTING. ANYBODY BUT TRUMP." The messages quickly went viral on social media and created a buzz for those attending the 127th Rose Parade, the annual ritual on New Year's Day in Pasadena, California.




The messages' tagline was "anybodybuttrump.us," a barebones website belonging to a Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based group called the "We the People Foundation." The site is registered to Pate, who The Huntsville Times once referred to in a profile as "an edgy force in Alabama politics."


"This is not over," Pate told CBS News. "This is just beginning."


Pate said that he has bought similar, smaller banner ads at the Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. AirSign, the Florida-based airborne ad firm contracted to fly the anti-Trump messages, confirmed the buys.


"He spews hate, not only on every candidate, he spews it on women, Latinos, Muslims and the list goes on," Pate said. "And it's just time we respond and say this is not what we expect out of a candidate running for president."


Pate has gone the aerial route before. He once flew a banner over the 2010 national college football championship saying, "IMPEACH CORRUPT ALABAMA GOVERNOR BOB RILEY." Riley was the state's governor from 2003 to 2011, and got on Pate's bad side once he pushed to raise taxes.


For 2016, Pate was an early donor to Rubio's campaign. According to FEC filings, Pate gave $5,200 to his presidential campaign committee in early 2015, but he says he's officially undecided. He's also donated to many other Republicans in the past. In 2004, Pate cut a $25,000 check to the Republican National Committee. Pate also contributed tens of thousands to joint fundraising committees supporting various Republican state parties in 2004 and again in 2008, also supporting Sen. John McCain's presidential run.


Pate has also donated to Democrats. In 2007, Pate donated $2,300 to the presidential campaigns of former senators John Edwards, of South Carolina, and Chris Dodd, of Connecticut.


But it is his aerial assault that his garnering him headlines - not his wallet.


"Donald Trump is embarrassing to the country, and he's embarrassing to me," Pate said.


The Rose Bowl has become an unexpected political hotbed - somewhat because of one of the game's participants hailing from an early nominating state. The super PAC supporting former Florida governor Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, Right To Rise USA, descended on Pasadena to set up a tent at an Iowa Hawkeye tailgate party. On Thursday, during the pre-Rose Bowl party aboard the USS Iowa, organizers handed out "Hawkeyes for Jeb" cozies and stickers to Iowa fans. The super PAC event had a custom Snapchat filter that displayed the same message. Democratic front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rubio all will run commercials during the game on ESPN.


The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.


CBS News' Alan He contributed to this report.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the...-donald-trump/

Exclusive — Anti-Trump Air Campaign Donor Stan Pate Denies Connections to 2016 Republicans: ‘This Is All Me’

by CHARLIE SPIERING1 Jan 201615
Stan Pate, the millionaire behind the air campaign against billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Rose Bowl, denies that his attack has a connection to any of the political candidates in 2016.


“I have not had any conversations with any campaign in almost a year,” he said in an interview with Breitbart News. “This is all me.”


He cited rules governing SuperPACs preventing him from coordinating with any of the candidates. Pate’s air campaign featured five airplanes in the sky above the Rose Bowl campaign writing anti-Trump messages that went viral on social media.


But Pate hasn’t been entirely disengaged from political activity surrounding the 2016 election.


He admitted that he met privately with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)79%
early in 2015, but insisted that he has not had contact with the campaign since then.


“This is not a Marco Rubio effort, I have not talked to anybody in that campaign since the day I sat down with Sen. Rubio in Birmingham Alabama,” he said, referring to his meeting in early 2015.


The millionaire campaign donor has supported many political causes and candidates over the years, however his only 2016 donations have been to Rubio.


According to FEC records, Pate made a donation in January 2015 and a donation in March 2015 to Rubio.


A Rubio spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.


Pate revealed that he also hosted Jeb Bush aboard his private airplane in early 2015 before the former Florida governor announced that he was running for president. Pate described Bush as a candidate he could “respect” and was “a guy with common sense.”


A Bush spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.


Pate felt that it was time for somebody to speak out against Trump, calling his current standings in the polls “embarrassing” for the United States and wouldn’t be respected as a president around the world.


“Just because you built a tall building with your name on it doesn’t mean respect … his private business, he’s been a dictator, we’re not looking for a dictator,” Pate said, referring to Trump. He said he decided to run his campaign on his own after it was clear that Trump was not going away.


“This is a guy when he looks in the mirror, he sees the greatest man that’s ever walked the earth – he’s wrong,” he said.


The current field of Republican presidential candidates, Pate explained, probably felt that it would be inappropriate to imitate Trump’s behavior, one reason why he decided to act.


“I don’t think it’s in their heads and in their hearts to disrespect another candidate like Donald Trump does,” he said.


While conversing with friends across the country, he signified frustration with the Republican debates – citing Trump’s attacks against Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly as part of his motivation for retaliating against Trump.


“I’m tired of listening to Trump, I’m tired of it – just look at what he did to Megyn (Kelly) that’s just despicable,” he said. “Listen to how he’s attacking Hillary Clinton – despicable.”


He also stated that he would support Hillary Clinton if Trump won the nomination.


“Quite frankly, if it was Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, I would vote for Secretary Clinton,” he said. “I will accept anybody but Trump.”


He said that he would continue his campaign calling it his duty as an American citizen to stop Trump.


“This is a campaign to expose Donald Trump and send him a message and organize people,” he said.


He explained that he thought putting the message up during the Rose Bowl was an efficient way communicate with the most number of people who had their attention on New Years celebrations.


He was satisfied with the results of the campaign, particularly on social media, he explained, where he admitted it was hard to predict what would go viral.


“I’m excited to see that people have decided that it was something worthy of being communicated among themselves,” he said. “I’ve achieved the objective and this is only the start. This is the first shot – not the final shot.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...his-is-all-me/

Thank you Mayday!!

http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Stan_Pate

He must be worried Trump is going to win and deport all illegal aliens. Given his resume, maybe he hires them.

http://media.breitbart.com/media/201...mp-640x480.jpg

by MATTHEW BOYLE
1 Jan 2016Washington, DC
2,476 comments

It turns out that the millionaire GOP establishment donor who bankrolled the anti-Donald Trump skywriting at the Rose Bowl parade on New Year’s Day isn’t just any ordinary donor-class millionaire. He’s backing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the man who is emerging as the anti-conservative establishment and donor-class candidate for president in 2016.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Luther Stan Pate IV—an Alabama real estate developer worth millions—has donated thousands of dollars to Rubio’s electoral efforts.

On Jan. 29, 2015, Pate donated $5,200 to Rubio—who, at the time, hadn’t yet officially launched a presidential campaign but was acting as if he were running for president.

Just days earlier, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reported exclusively that Rubio had hired Anna Rogers, then the finance director for Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, to lead “the effort to raise the $50 million or more he’ll need to run in the Republican primaries.”

“He has told us to proceed as if he is running for president,” a senior Rubio adviser told ABC News for the piece, which ran on Jan. 23, 2015—six days before Pate’s donation to Rubio.

A couple months later, Pate gave another $2,500 to Rubio, according to the Center for Responsible Politics. Later in the year, after Rubio launched his presidential campaign, the Rubio campaign returned $5,000 of the $7,700 total that Pate had donated to him. That is standard operating procedure because the Federal Election Commission (FEC) only allows donors to make a total of $2,700 to an individual presidential candidate.

Pate is the man who set up, on Dec. 29, a new anti-Trump Political Action Committee. FEC filings show that Pate is listed as the Treasurer and Custodian of Records for the new group entitled the “WeThePeople Foundation.”

That organization wrote messages like “America is great. Trump is disgusting” and “Anybody but Trump” and “Iowans dump Trump” in the sky at the Rose Bowl with at least five skywriting planes on Friday. Skywriting is a fairly expensive endeavor, and doing so with five planes makes it even more expensive.

The skywriting also directed viewers to the Rubio campaign-donor Pate’s new PAC website, anybodybuttrump .us/, a crudely designed site that viscerally attacks the 2016 GOP frontrunner.

The website allows visitors to donate to the Rubio campaign-donor Pate’s new PAC, to buy anti-Trump items from the organization’s online store, and to display various videos and anti-Trump materials.

Pate is an eccentric establishment GOP figure who’s been associated with behavior similar to this before.

Lagniappe, a weekly newspaper in Mobile, Alabama—Pate is based in Tuscaloosa—devoted an August 2007 cover story to Pate’s sharp-elbowed political tactics.

“In mid-2005, Pate sought $16 million in public funds for a real estate development, a shopping center to be named Midtown. The Tuscaloosa City Council declined [to grant] the aid with Council President Jerry Plott and Councilman Kip Tyner being the most vocal opponents,” said the article, which was also picked up by various local bloggers.

It wasn’t Pate’s first difficulty with the councilmen and he was frustrated.

“He [Pate] fought us tooth-and-nail to get that money,” Plott said.

“But I didn’t think public dollars should be spent on a private business. He began a public crusade to try to destroy me.”

Pate apparently conceived a Web site aimed at fomenting discord against Plott. Amidst the many charges of corruption on theplottthickens .com, a dormant discussion board asks for feedback on the councilman and a line on the site declares, “I am Stan Pate and I approve this message,” then gives a Northport post office box address.

Pate admits to having founded the site and claims good reason for such. “I filed an ethics complaint that is a matter of public record against Mr. Plott,” Pate said, “and I made it very clear in multiple ads and in the newspaper and in Tuscaloosa and on various publications that I feel like Mr. Plott’s dealings while he was on the city council were unethical and corrupt.”

At this time, Rubio’s team is not disavowing the efforts his donor Pate has taken against Trump. Alex Conant, Rubio’s communications director, has not responded to a request for comment when presented with evidence that the Rubio campaign’s donors are behind this attack on Trump.

While Trump has battled with pretty much everyone in the entire GOP field in 2016, he’s crushed a few candidates: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are among those still running. And outgoing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), former New York Gov. George Pataki and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are among those not running anymore.

But there are a few candidates that Trump is treating carefully.

Rubio is one of them. Trump has been very critical of Rubio’s pro-amnesty positions on immigration, his work on trade, and Rubio’s horrendous attendance record when it comes to votes and national security briefings in the U.S. Senate. But he hasn’t gone as aggressively after Rubio as he has gone after, say, Bush.

Rubio is the last remaining establishment-backed candidate who’s got a clear shot at the nomination.

Bush and Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all could bounce back, but each of them is struggling and Rubio is the only non-conservative in the top-tier of polling along with Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Dr. Ben Carson.

That means Rubio presents basically the only threat to conservatives’ chances in 2016—and now that Rubio’s team is coming after Trump this aggressively, with the skywriting above the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Rubio may have just inadvertently wandered into the bear’s den.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ing-rose-bowl/

Jeb Bush Super PAC Chief Praises Marco Rubio Donor’s Anti-Donald Trump Skywriting Campaign

by MATTHEW BOYLE
1 Jan 2016
Washington, DC

The head of the major Super PAC backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president, Mike Murphy, praised the efforts of a donor to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to attack billionaire 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump by skywriting nasty messages at the Rose Bowl on Friday.

“Not us but can’t argue with it!” Murphy, the head of Right to Rise USA, Tweeted on Friday with an image of the anti-Trump skywriting.

Because Murphy was behind a previous anti-Trump effort involving a plane—he hired a plane to fly above a Trump rally in Alabama with an anti-Trump banner on it—people suspected that Murphy was behind this latest effort.

But it turns out, actually, that Rubio donor Luther Stan Pate IV—a Tuscaloosa real estate tycoon worth millions—was the one behind the effort.

Thus far, Rubio is keeping the maximum-allowable-by-law political contribution to his campaign that Pate made—all $2,700 worth.

Pate and his allies—and Rubio’s allies—have been desperately trying to separate Rubio from the underhanded effort. Pate claimed in an interview with Breitbart News that he’s not backing any particular candidate, and in addition to a private meeting he had with Rubio a year ago, he also hosted Bush aboard his private jet.

“I have not had any conversations with any campaign in almost a year,” he said in the interview with Breitbart News. “This is all me.”

Pate also told Breitbart News he’d support Democrat Hillary Clinton in a general election over Republican Trump.

But Pate hasn’t donated to any 2016 presidential candidates or campaigns except Rubio’s, Federal Election Commission records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show.

That’s a stark difference from Pate’s behavior in previous election cycles. FEC records from the 2008 presidential election cycle show he backed both Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on the GOP side, and on the Democratic side Pate backed both John Edwards and Chris Dodd for president.

What’s more, in the 2010 Senate election in Florida, Pate supported Charlie Crist—the then-Republican-turned-independent who’s since left the GOP for the Democratic Party—against Rubio. Rubio’s catch phrase in that election against Crist was that Crist “would say or do anything to win an election.”

Rubio has broken many promises he made to the voters of Florida since being elected to the U.S. Senate—most notably that he wouldn’t back an amnesty bill, but then he went and championed one with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as part of the “Gang of Eight,” which also included the now-indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)—so it’s no surprise that Rubio is keeping money in his presidential campaign coffers from Crist donors who engage in tactics like this against other Republicans.

Rubio’s team winning praise from Bush’s team isn’t likely to help Rubio convince anyone he’s still a conservative. Rubio is now competing in the establishment non-conservative lane for the GOP nomination, having overtaken Bush in polling. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Bush, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are also competing in the establishment lane, while Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and several others compete in the conservative lane.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ting-campaign/

Perhaps such rich political donors are angry a candidate can't be bought.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jean

Perhaps such rich political donors are angry a candidate can't be bought.

---

It's driving them mad, and I'm lovin' every minute of it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

It's driving them mad, and I'm lovin' every minute of it!

---

Yes, and I think it's a lot of the reason Donald has so much support. People are sick of our corrupt political system. Good to see someone shake the norm up.

Anti-Trump Air Campaign Donor Stan Pate Denies Connections to 2016 Republicans: ‘This Is All Me’

http://media.breitbart.com/media/201...RC-640x480.jpg

by CHARLIE SPIERING
1 Jan 2016

Stan Pate, the millionaire behind the air campaign against billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Rose Bowl, denies that his attack has a connection to any of the political candidates in 2016.

“I have not had any conversations with any campaign in almost a year,” he said in an interview with Breitbart News. “This is all me.”

He cited rules governing SuperPACs preventing him from coordinating with any of the candidates. Pate’s air campaign featured five airplanes in the sky above the Rose Bowl campaign writing anti-Trump messages that went viral on social media.

But Pate hasn’t been entirely disengaged from political activity surrounding the 2016 election.

He admitted that he met privately with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) early in 2015, but insisted that he has not had contact with the campaign since then.

“This is not a Marco Rubio effort, I have not talked to anybody in that campaign since the day I sat down with Sen. Rubio in Birmingham Alabama,” he said, referring to his meeting in early 2015.

The millionaire campaign donor has supported many political causes and candidates over the years, however his only 2016 donations have been to Rubio.

According to FEC records, Pate made a donation in January 2015 and a donation in March 2015 to Rubio.

A Rubio spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Pate revealed that he also hosted Jeb Bush aboard his private airplane in early 2015 before the former Florida governor announced that he was running for president. Pate described Bush as a candidate he could “respect” and was “a guy with common sense.”

A Bush spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Pate felt that it was time for somebody to speak out against Trump, calling his current standings in the polls “embarrassing” for the United States and wouldn’t be respected as a president around the world.

“Just because you built a tall building with your name on it doesn’t mean respect … his private business, he’s been a dictator, we’re not looking for a dictator,” Pate said, referring to Trump. He said he decided to run his campaign on his own after it was clear that Trump was not going away.

“This is a guy when he looks in the mirror, he sees the greatest man that’s ever walked the earth – he’s wrong,” he said.

The current field of Republican presidential candidates, Pate explained, probably felt that it would be inappropriate to imitate Trump’s behavior, one reason why he decided to act.

“I don’t think it’s in their heads and in their hearts to disrespect another candidate like Donald Trump does,” he said.

While conversing with friends across the country, he signified frustration with the Republican debates – citing Trump’s attacks against Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly as part of his motivation for retaliating against Trump.

“I’m tired of listening to Trump, I’m tired of it – just look at what he did to Megyn (Kelly) that’s just despicable,” he said. “Listen to how he’s attacking Hillary Clinton – despicable.”

He also stated that he would support Hillary Clinton if Trump won the nomination.

“Quite frankly, if it was Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, I would vote for Secretary Clinton,” he said. “I will accept anybody but Trump.”

He said that he would continue his campaign calling it his duty as an American citizen to stop Trump.

“This is a campaign to expose Donald Trump and send him a message and organize people,” he said.

He explained that he thought putting the message up during the Rose Bowl was an efficient way communicate with the most number of people who had their attention on New Years celebrations.

He was satisfied with the results of the campaign, particularly on social media, he explained, where he admitted it was hard to predict what would go viral.

“I’m excited to see that people have decided that it was something worthy of being communicated among themselves,” he said. “I’ve achieved the objective and this is only the start. This is the first shot – not the final shot.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...his-is-all-me/

Absolutely, Jean!