Sarah Palin Dines With Donald Trump

By Gary P Jackson

Sarah Palin is having a blast pointing out the nation's history, what makes this the greatest nation on earth, while she she tours historical sites on her One Nation Tour

She's also having incredible fun tweaking the press, who weren't invited, but have decided to tag along. [and bitch the entire time]

Tuesday night found the Palin's in New York City. They plan to visit the Statue of Liberty and other sites on Wednesday. While in town, Sarah and her family had a standing invitation to visit Donald Trump, so they stopped by.

The whole crew went to a pizza parlor in Times Square.

The Washington Post had this to report: [emphasis mine]

On day three of Sarah Palin’s unconventional bus tour came the most surprising moment by far. The former Alaska governor and her daughter Piper dined tonight with media mogul Donald Trump and his wife Melania at a pizza place in Times Square. Palin met Trump at his apartment in Trump Tower, near Rockefeller Center; they rode from there in his limo to the restaurant, part of a New York City chain.

Asked on her way into the restaurant about Trump’s past political donations, Palin responded, “I think I’ll go change his mind and make sure he’s contributing to constitutional conservatives.’’

“She didn’t ask me [to run with her] but I’ll tell you, she’s a terrific woman,” Trump said as they walked in. Trump’s special counsel, Michael Cohen, told reporters that the pair had talked in the past about meeting up whenever Palin found herself in New York.

The group shared pepperoni, sausage, and meatball pizzas.

Palin is staying in Jersey City, where she arrived via bus this afternoon after a short trip to Philadelphia. Tomorrow, she is expected to take an early morning boat from there to Ellis Island, before the crowds of tourists arrive. Then she will greet the first ferry of visitors before taking her boat back and hitting the road.

From there, Palin’s plans are something of a mystery, although she is expected to head for New Hampshire. Details of her week-long tour of historic Northeast sites have remained secret at every step. Reporters have been scrambling to trail her at each stop.

[ .... ]

“Every time you go to New York, you’ve got to see Donald Trump,” Palin said on her way out. "I approve of his independence.” She did an interview inside the restaurant with television reporters. Trump refused to comment as he left, saying only that he thought Palin was “good” and that they talked about “different things.”

Two members of the U.S. Navy, Daniel Delgado and Daniel Johnston in for Fleet Week and hanging out at a friend’s bar down the street, ended up being enlisted by both parties’ bodyguards to perform impromptu crowd control as the stars walked out.

The first person who approached Palin outside the restaurant was Diane Barone, a union activist from Youngstown, Ohio in town for IUE-CWA contract negotiations. She shook Palin’s hand and would not let go, telling the former governor she disagreed with her positions on unions. Palin responded calmly that her father had been a union member and that making things better for working people “is something on which we can agree.” She said afterwards that she doubted she could change Palin’s mind, but you never know: “I thought she would ignore me and she did not, she shook my hand.”

The Miami Herald adds:

NEW YORK -- Sarah Palin and Donald Trump exchanged words of admiration Tuesday after a brief meeting at the real estate magnate's penthouse in a Manhattan skyscraper bearing his name.

Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee, said she and Trump shared similar ideas for improving the U.S. economy, while Trump called Palin a "terrific woman and a terrific friend" who he hoped would seek the GOP presidential nomination.

[ ... ]

"What do we have in common? Our love for this country, a desire to see our economy put back on the right track," Palin told reporters after a 15-minute meeting with Trump outside the Trump Tower, where he owns a three-floor penthouse.

"To have a balanced trade arrangement with other countries across this world so Americans can have our jobs, our industries, our manufacturing again. And exploiting responsibly our natural resources. We can do that again if we make good decisions," Palin said.

Trump demurred when asked if he would support a Palin presidential candidacy.

"She didn't ask me for that. She came up as friends," Trump said. "She's a great woman, a terrific woman and a terrific friend. I'd love her to run."

Palin added, "We both agree that competition is good and the more folks in that primary, the better."

After the meeting, Trump and his wife, Melania, rode in a stretch limousine with Palin, her parents and youngest daughter, Piper, to have dinner at a pizza restaurant in Times Square. The Palins planned to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty Wednesday morning.

Interesting how two different media outlets report the same event, huh?

We'll have a lot more on the tour and the media later in the week when the dust settles. Suffice it to say, watching the media this week, and listening to their caterwauling, is entertainment better than you can buy at price.

Here are some more photos of the Trumps, The Palins and the Heaths dining:

Shushannah Walshe posted a photo on her site here.

The lamestream media waiting on the Palins to show up at Trump Tower:

BTW, if you've never watched a member of the lamestream media have a nervous breakdown in real time, I highly recommend following Shushannah Walshe on Twitter. She's a fine example of how wee-wee'd up the media is over Sarah Palin's One Nation Tour!

More to come ....

Indianapolis 500 To Donald Trump: "You're Fired!"

Would you buy a used car from this man?

By Gary P Jackson

The Indianapolis 500 is the world's most iconic racing event, as well as the world's largest one day sporting event. This Memorial Day weekend, Indy is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the very first running of the race won by Ray Haroon in his Marmon Wasp.

Now it's customary for celebrities to turn out in droves for this event. For years Florence Henderson sang the National Anthem, and Indy just wouldn't be Indy without Jim Neigbors singing "Back Home Again In Indiana"!

The Festival Committee generally choses someone of note to drive the pace car at the event. Now this isn't just ceremonial either. You need to be able to pace the field for the start, as well as during yellow flag situations. You also must be a really good driver.

We were floored when such a storied event, with so much history and tradition, chose reality show star, and phony "Republican" Donald Trump to pilot the pace car during the event. It would be a head shaker any year, but this is the 100th anniversary! Surely this would have rated someone of note rather than a cheesy reality show star. Perhaps someone with actual ties to the event?

Long story short the Festival Committee caught hell for choosing this circus clown for such an honored position at the most prestigious event in all of motorsports. A Facebook group headed by Indianapolis attorney Michael Wallack grew to over 17,000 members in just a couple of weeks!

IMS is spinning it hard though. From the official release:

Donald J. Trump today informed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he may be announcing shortly his intention to run for the office of President of the United States, and therefore he thought it would be inappropriate to drive the Pace Car for the 100th anniversary running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 29.

"I very much appreciate the honor, but time and business constraints make my appearance there, especially with the necessary practice sessions, impossible to fulfill," Trump said. "I look forward to watching the race from New York."

Jeff Belskus, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and chief executive officer, noted that he respects Trump's position and appreciated the communication regarding this decision.

"Donald Trump has been very enthusiastic about the '500' from the beginning of our conversations, and I have appreciated the interaction we have had with him and his staff," Belskus said. "From my first conversation, I was impressed by his deep understanding of the event and history, and I thank him for being a true fan."

The driver of the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible Pace Car for the May 29 race will be announced later this month.

Nice spin, huh!

Tony Johns of Pop Off Valve, the "one stop shop for the IZOD IndyCar Series news and commentary," notes the fans were in high dugeon over Trump's lunacy of late, and didn't want that carnival in their town!

The carefully-crafted release is widely seen as a "soft landing" for Trump, but it is clear that IMS was eager to back away from the storm created by Trump's bid for the United States presidency. Trump's connections with IZOD, INDYCAR's prime sponsor for its IndyCar Series, are believed to have been the main reason why the star of Celebrity Apprentice was named the pace car driver for the iconic 100th anniversary of America's most storied closed-course motor race.

The backlash from Trump's public appearances and his controversial statements in the media with regards to the birthers and other high-profile topics spurred INDYCAR fans to start Facebook campaigns demanding that Trump abdicate his position as pace car driver, as well as an avalanche of negative postings on the Speedway's official Facebook page.

Fan-supplied suggestions for possible replacements for Trump have included Admiral William McRaven, commander of SEAL Team Six which was responsible for the killing of Osama bin Laden early this week; Alex Zanardi, former Champ Car and Formula 1 star; A.J. Foyt, four-time winner of the Indy 500 and INDYCAR legend; and others.

Justin Hyde at Jalopnik tells a slightly different story of how this came about: [emphasis mine]

As Jalopnik first reported this morning, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has booted Donald Trump from the driver's seat of the pace car for the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 after fans complained he was too politically motivated.Update!

A source affiliated with the race told us a meeting was held this morning to determine precisely how the Indy speedway folks will enforce the decision. The choices included replacing Trump outright with another celebrity pace car driver, asking him to pull out or keeping Trump involved with the race, but change the pace car to another Chevrolet vehicle and bring on another driver to drive it.

The move comes after widespread negative response from fans and outsiders. A Facebook group founded by Indianapolis attorney Michael Wallack devoted to bumping Trump has already grown to over 17,000 supporters within a few weeks. Wallack and others say the race doesn't need the spotlight Trump lugs with him. Trump's controversy-seeking also had no upside for the speedway or its corporate backers, including Izod and Chevrolet.

Although a Trump spokesman earlier today said he had no plans to withdraw, Trump did just that, saying it would be "inappropriate" while he was considering an official announcement of running for president:

"I very much appreciate the honor, but time and business constraints make my appearance there, especially with the necessary practice sessions, impossible to fulfill."

Because when you think of refraining from public appearances, Donald Trump immediately comes to mind; and getting yourself in front of millions of voters in an important swing state for free is a big impediment to a presidential campaign.

So Trump asks his buddies over at IZOD to get him this high profile gig, and the fans ain't having it!

Delicious!

And this guy thinks he can get elected President? Yeah, good luck with that.

This story has a happy ending though, as the Festival Committee has chosen someone more fitting to pace this august event. Someone more in line with what the event is all about: one Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr.. A.J. to his friends and fans. A true living legend.



A.J. Foyt is one of the greatest drivers to ever sit in a race car. The four time Indy 500 winner [the first to do so] raced at a time drivers drove anything and everything and the Indy 500 was part of USAC's racing series that included sprint cars, stock cars, and raced on both paved and dirt tracks. Foyt is one of only a handful of drivers, including Mario Andretti and Tony Stewart to win the championship in all of USAC's main dirt series divisions in the same year.

This is the sort of champion who should be at the wheel of that Chevrolet Camaro pace car Memorial Day weekend.

Now, if only the GOP would tell Trump to take a hike ....

Jonathan Hoenig: Donald Trump is No Capitalist

By Gary P Jackson

Jonathan Hoenig, Managing Member of Capitalistpig Asset Management LLC, has some harsh words for "The Donald" in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal's Smart Money blog: [emphasis mine]

Successful businessmen are oftentimes the worst defenders of capitalism. Recent financial interventions began not with President Obama , for example, but with the $30 billion bailout of Bear Stearns under the supposedly fiscally conservative Bush Administration and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former head of Goldman Sachs ( GS: 160.42, -1.05, -0.65% ) . The TARP slush fund , onerous Sarbanes-Oxley regulation and prescription drug entitlement were all their handiwork too.

Both Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.B: 81.68, -0.58, -0.70% ) and speculator/philanthropist George Soros are successful businessmen with extremely anti-capitalist ideals. Buffett proudly advocates for a highly progressive income tax where earnings are looted from one segment of the population and transferred to another . Soros has long supported centralized planning and heavy government intervention in the free market.

Yet because of their great individual wealth, their ideas are championed as business-savvy proposals which would lead to a stronger, more prosperous economy.

They would not – and neither would those of Donald Trump.

For example, Trump professes to support free trade, yet proposes a 25% tax on imported goods from China to level what he sees as trade imbalances in the global economy. It's a contemptuous proposal which would immediately punish Americans by raising the price on virtually everything we buy.

He has also called for regulators to stop European stock operator Deutsche Börse's ( DBOEY ) planned $9.5 billion buyout of the NYSE Euronext ( NYX: 37.85, +0.26, +0.69% ) , telling Fox Business Network, "I don't want foreign countries owning the New York Stock Exchange." If he was the president, he added, he "wouldn't even have allowed the discussions to take place." In a capitalist country, shareholders make that kind of decision, not regulators . Trump sees a clear role for government picking winners and losers in the economy, just the same as the previous presidents he claims to critique.

On top of that, he has pushed for a one-time 14.25% tax on the rich as a means of supplementing funding for Social Security and Medicaid, along with universal health care .

Philosophically, those positions are indistinguishable from the anti-capitalist political establishment now in power.

Trump, of course, is free to run and support whatever platform he wishes, as are his many fans across the country. But despite his personal fortune, they should know his proposals and political philosophy are far from capitalist. Punitive and redistributionist taxes, centralized planning, barriers to trade and an entitlement "social safety net" are all ideas straight out of Karl Marx , not John Galt .

"You need a person like me to run this country for a while because we have to get this country back so that we're respected again." Trump told CNN recently.

A businessman whose proposals seek to destroy capitalism? There's nothing to respect about that.

Read more here.

The old saying "buyer beware" has never been more appropriate. Donald Trump is not what he seems.

Voters were hoodwinked by Obama and his rhetoric. Trumps record and ideas are more in line with Barack Obama [and Karl Marx] than any Conservative or Tea party member.

Trump is simply playing his supporters for fools, just like Obama did to his in 2008.

The Greatest Mitt Romney Website Ever?

By Gary P Jackson

Got turned on to this website yesterday and just had to share.

Everyone knows Mitt Romney is a human windsock, the ultimate finger-in-the-wind politician. The man flips and flops so much that he makes John Kerry looked like a principled leader! Now someone has put together a neat website that gives you random flip-flops on demand. It's like a slot machine filled with creamy goodness!

Here are some examples of what you'll find:

WHICH MITT ROMNEY ARE WE GETTING THIS YEAR?

On health care reform:

'I like mandates. The mandates work.' [1]

'I think it's unconstitutional on the 10th Amendment front.' [2]

On abortion:

'I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose.' [1]

'I never really called myself pro-choice.' [2]

Pandering to hunters on the second amendment, then to liberals:

'I've been a hunter pretty much all my life.' [1]

'Any description of my being a hunter is an overstatement of capability.' [2]

On being a Conservative: [not like anyone in their right mind ever thought he was]

'Relative to the leading candidates, some people see me as being more conservative.' [1]

'I'm not the most conservative candidate.' [2]

On stem cell research:

'I will work and fight for stem cell research.' [1]

'In the end, I became persuaded that the stem-cell debate was grounded in a false premise.' [2]

On government bailouts:

'The TARP program... was nevertheless necessary to keep banks from collapsing in a cascade of failures.' [1]

'When government is... bailing out banks... we have every good reason to be alarmed.' [2]

'I'm going to take burdens off the back of the auto industry.' [1]

'Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.' [2]

On taxes for the rich. His first answer was smarter, but always with a finger in the wind, his message "evolved" with what he thought were the prevailing winds. Notice it "evolved" toward the liberal point of view, which is Romney's default setting.

'I believe the tax on capital gains should be zero.' [1]

'It's a tax cut for fat cats.' [2]

Here's the "best" one. This is one Romney goes back and forth on.

He's run as the "anti-Reagan" then as the "natural heir" to the Reagan legacy, and when that didn't work in 2008, he promptly went on tour with Jeb Bush declairing "The era of Reagan is over." Of course, as always, Romney is on the wrong side of history, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth, Ronnie couldn't be more popular. The Republican base have never lusted after someone with Reagan's proven leadership more.

'I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.' [1]

'Ronald Reagan is... my hero.' [2]

The bottom line? Mitt Romney is a lot like Texas weather. If you don't like what you see, hang around, it will change in a little bit. Mitt Romney really has no core values, no core principles. He simply says whatever he thinks people want to hear. It's why he has never been able to lead on any issue. A guy like Romney can't lead, cannot be proactive. All he can do is react to situations after the fact. Even then, he can't settle on what to do. He's not capable of being the nation's Chief Executive and the military's Commander-in-Chief.

For more Romney flip-flops, check out the website here.