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Not long ago, Donald J. Trump and Russell Simmons were close. The hip-hop mogul and his brother Rev. Run would fly on Mr. Trump's private plane to Mar-a-Lago, the real estate developer’s lavish Florida resort. Mr. Simmons even had a playful nickname for Mr. Trump: Richie Rich. When Mr. Simmons was going through a divorce, Mr. Trump's teasing phone calls lifted his spirits. "He'd say funny stuff," Mr. Simmons said, adding that he had put Mr. Trump on speakerphone so that others could hear Mr. Trump's jovial taunts about his ex-wife getting the upper hand in the divorce. "He'd say,...

Here is a link to a really amazing video find. I hope some of you will download this YouTube video just in case it gets pulled one day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFi2z6WC_2EVery happy to share this link, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

New York City bungled the job of reopening Central Park's Wollman Skating Rink for six years, wasting millions. Then last June, city officials said it would take two more years to correct the mistakes and complete the job. The fumbling aroused the managerial spirit of Donald Trump, the real estate developer, who offered to take over.

Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez has been indefinitely suspended by the official Miss America Organization after sending a series of offensive anti-Muslim messages on Twitter. Velez, 20, launched an anti-Muslim tirade at filmmaker Michael Moore on Thursday after he shared a photo of himself outside of Trump Tower in New York City with a sign reading: 'We are all Muslim.' Moore's photo was in response to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US, which inspired the hashtag #WeAreAllMuslim on social media. The former beauty queen sent a number of tweets directed to Moore including...

The New York Times found themselves the crosshairs for their reporting on the San Bernardino shooting. No, it wasn't their absurd article from their editorial board, which called not only for a renewed ban on assault rifles, but for those Americans who owned them to turn them over for the good of the country, or something. It was their article that the shooters, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, had their radical sentiments posted on social media. FBI Director James Comey undercut that narrative last week, where he said such developments were "garble." The Times Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, said that a "systematic...

s part of his effort to turn things around after his recent pathetic speeches on fighting terrorism, the president met with columnists from multiple outlets. The ground rules said no one could quote him directly — but one of his claims is appalling even when paraphrased. Obama, the Times reported online, “indicated that he did not see enough cable television to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments. Republicans were telling Americans that he is not doing anything when he is doing a...

PBS: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's comments on banning Muslims from entering the U.S., a campaign surge for Sen. Ted Cruz, plus assessing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s first month on the job. Brooks says Republican Senators would rather vote for a Democratic Majority Leader than "universally unpopular" Ted Cruz. JUDY WOODRUFF, PBS NEWSHOUR: When it comes to Trump, David, I know we have been talking about him, but this week, with the statement about keeping Muslims out of the country, is this...

LE BOURGET, France — With the sudden bang of a gavel Saturday night, representatives of 195 countries reached a landmark climate accord that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change. Delegates who have been negotiating intensely in this Paris suburb for two weeks gathered for the final plenary session, where Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France asked for opposition to the deal and, hearing none, declared it approved.With that, the delegates achieved what had been unreachable for two decades: a consensus...

LE BOURGET, France — With the sudden bang of a gavel Saturday night, representatives of 195 countries reached a landmark climate accord that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change. Delegates who have been negotiating intensely in this Paris suburb for two weeks gathered for the final plenary session, where Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France asked for opposition to the deal and, hearing none, declared it approved.With that, the delegates achieved what had been unreachable for two decades: a consensus...

WATERLOO, Iowa -- Until Monday, when Donald J. Trump proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States, Hillary Clinton could hardly keep herself from laughing at the mention of his name. "I'm sorry, I can't help it," she told ABC News on Sunday, letting out a giggle that made advisers squirm. She is no longer laughing. At a town hall here on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton delivered her most damning, direct criticism of Mr. Trump, saying that he traffics "in prejudice and paranoia," and that his Muslim proposal was "not only shameful, it's dangerous." But Mrs. Clinton also strove to...

In his Thursday front-page New York Times profile of "gruff" Sen. Ted Cruz on the trail in Iowa political reporter Matt Flegenheimer took pains to portray the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate as an unlikeable, socially awkward “bomb-thrower” ideologue (“appraised as grating and pompous as a matter of bipartisan consensus”) in “Cruz the Gruff Taking a Turn At Being Nice.” The online headline was no less hostile: "After Making Enemies, Ted Cruz Tries to Make Friends.” Never mind that his poll numbers show he's gaining a lot of supporters in Iowa.Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders suffer heavy deficits...

Americans are more fearful about the likelihood of another terrorist attack than at any other time since the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, a gnawing sense of dread that has helped lift Donald J. Trump to a new high among Republican primary voters, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. From Our Advertisers In the aftermath of attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris and in San Bernardino, Calif., a plurality of the public views the threat of terrorism as the top issue facing the country. A month ago, only 4 percent of Americans said terrorism was the most...

OK there is a pretty good show on Bloomberg right now, it has a couple of guys each day, who are pretty reasonable about the campaign. Today they reported that yesterday I think it was, Ted Cruz said in a closed meeting, some things critical of Donald Trump. I haven't heard a peep from Donald about this, and I don't know whether he will say a word about it. But it seems that Ted Cruz is starting to stray hazardously close to becoming a target himself.

The audio is at the link. The comments about Trump and Carson start at 2:00

Early on in Jeb Bush's campaign, his advisers, many of them veterans of the 2012 general election campaign, huddled to discuss a vexing concern: Mr. Bush had something of a Mitt Romney problem. The similarities between the two men were, and remain, unmistakable: Tall and lean. Well-bred sons of political dynasties. Diction harking back to a more genteel era. ("Gosh, darn!" Mr. Romney would exclaim; Mr. Bush chides supporters against sounding like "nervous Nellies.") Both were personally likable policy aficionados who inspired tremendous loyalty from aides. But like Mr. Romney before him, Mr. Bush has showed difficulty connecting with many...

Ted Cruz said a New York Times report claiming that he criticized Donald Trump is "misleading." The Texas senator's presidential campaign eagerly pushed back against the suggestion that Cruz spoke ill of The Donald at a private fundraiser in New York City. A Times report citing two anonymous sources at a Madison Avenue luncheon with Cruz said the senator questioned Trump's "judgment." In response, the Cruz campaign sent out a statement blasting the story. "In the course of a presidential election, the voters are going to make a decision about every candidate," Cruz said. "And ultimately the decision is, who...

For those of you who have not cut the cord and ditched your cable/satellite service, a new cable channel could be joining your programming line-up: GunTV. It's a 24-hour shopping channel for firearms and firearms accessories. The channel will roll out on January 20, 2016 and will start with a six-hour daily broadcast and then move to a 24-hour programming schedule beginning 2017. The New York Times writes, "The project is the brainchild of Valerie Castle and Doug Bornstein, two home shopping industry veterans based in Rancho Mirage, Calif., who saw what looked to them like an untapped market." And...

The White House on Tuesday sharply condemned Donald J. Trump for calling to bar Muslims from entering the United States, saying the statement disqualified him for the presidency and calling on the other Republican presidential candidates to repudiate his campaign or be excluded as well. The fact is that what Donald Trump said yesterday disqualifies him from serving as president, and for Republican candidates for president to stand by their pledge to support Mr. Trump, that in and of itself is disqualifying,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday at his daily briefing. “What he said is disqualifying,...

WASHINGTON - Many of President Obama's Democratic allies in Congress say they do not believe he is being aggressive enough in confronting the terrorist threat of the Islamic State after last week's attacks in California, undermining Americans' sense of safety, especially among voters who will decide the party's fate in elections next year. The concerns began to surface last month, when senior administration officials went to Capitol Hill to urge Democrats to reject a bill to curb a Syrian refugee program and were rebuffed. That hostility grew with their increasingly uncomfortable efforts to defend Mr. Obama's strategies in the Middle...