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US unveils plan to punish Russians for election hack

 NBC News       TRACY  CONNOR         December 29th 2016 
The Obama administration imposed sanctions against two Russian intelligence agencies and several high-ranking intelligence officers in retaliation for the alleged orchestration of hacking attacks designed to interfere in the presidential election.

The actions were outlined in an executive order announced by the Treasury Department on Thursday afternoon.

The sanctions essentially put a freeze on any assets the targets have in the United States, which would be limited. There were no new economic sanctions imposed on Russia itself or its political leadership.

There was no immediate response from Moscow. In anticipation of the announcement, Russia on Wednesday called the hacking allegations "misinformation" and "lies" and vowed to respond to any retribution.

"We can only add that if Washington takes new hostile steps, it will receive an answer," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

"This applies to any actions against Russian diplomatic missions in the United States, which will immediately backfire at U.S. diplomats in Russia. The Obama administration probably does not care at all about the future of bilateral relations, but history will hardly forgive it for this après-nous-le-deluge attitude."

As NBC News first reported two weeks ago, U.S. intelligence officials believeRussian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the alleged hacking campaign, and the CIA concluded the goal was to help elect Donald Trump by leaking emails that were embarrassing to Democrats.

Publicly, President Obama has blamed "the highest level" of the Russian government for the hacks, noting that "not much happens in Russia" without Putin giving the green light.

Trump has expressed doubt as to whether Russia tried to meddle in the election. Asked on Wednesday about possible sanctions against Russia in the wake of the cyber-attacks, the president-elect said, "I think we ought to get on with our lives."

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said this week that there is broad support for sanctions against Russian and even the Russian president.

"I predict there will be bipartisan sanctions coming that will hit Russia hard, particularly Putin as an individual," Graham told reporters in Riga, Latvia.

Russia has repeatedly denied involvement, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied that his site was being used by the Russian government when it published emails stolen from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

The Obama administration has indicated actions against Russia may go beyond the steps announced Thursday and include covert operations or cyber options.

After Debbie Reynolds' death, some ask: Can you die of a broken heart?

 Newsy        KATHERINE BIEK        Decrmber  29th 
The son of actress Debbie Reynolds' had some striking words about his mother after she died Wednesday.

"She wanted to be with Carrie," he said.

Reynolds' daughter, "Star Wars" actress Carrie Fisher, died just one day earlier. She went into cardiac arrest on a plane on Dec. 23.

Reynolds died a result of a stroke, but her death sparked questions about whether it's possible to die of a broken heart.

It sounds like the stuff of fairy tales and romantic movies, but some studies say broken heart syndrome, also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy, can happen.

Dr. Ilan Wittstein estimates as many as 10,000 people experience broken heart syndrome each year.

"What we think happens is that the body produces a large amount of these stress hormones, like adrenaline, and when produced in large amounts, it can actually be somewhat toxic to the heart," Wittstein told CBS.

But even more people might suffer from it.

The American Heart Association says doctors can misdiagnose patients with having a heart attack because the symptoms are often similar with broken heart syndrome.

Patients experiencing broken heart syndrome are thought to suffer from chest pain and shortness of breath after a time of physical stress or extreme emotion. But the difference between that and a heart attack is that blocked arteries aren't causing those symptoms.

It's usually treatable, and recovery can be as short as a few days.

The Mayo Clinic says the death of a loved one isn't the only thing that can precede broken heart syndrome. A frightening medical diagnosis, losing a job and even a surprise party can all be potential triggers.

Debbie Reynolds dead at 84

Variety          CARMEL DAGAN               December  28th 2016     8:50PM
Debbie Reynolds, the Oscar-nominated singer-actress who was the mother of late actress Carrie Fisher, has died at Cedars-Sinai hospital. She was 84.

"She wanted to be with Carrie," her son Todd Fisher told Variety.

She was taken to the hospital Wednesday after a suspected stroke, the day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died.

The vivacious blonde, who had a close but sometimes tempestuous relationship with her daughter, was one of MGM's principal stars of the 1950s and '60s in such films as the 1952 classic "Singin' in the Rain" and 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," for which she received an Oscar nomination as best actress.

Reynolds received the SAG lifetime achievement award in January 2015; in August of that year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voted to present the actress with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Nov. 14 Governors Awards, but she was unable to attend the ceremony due to an "unexpectedly long recovery from a recent surgery."

Reynolds had a wholesome girl-next-door look which was coupled with a no-nonsense attitude in her roles. They ranged from sweet vehicles like "Tammy" to more serious fare such as "The Rat Race" and "How the West Was Won." But amid all the success, her private life was at the center of one of the decade's biggest scandals when then-husband, singer Eddie Fisher, left her for Elizabeth Taylor in 1958.

Reynolds handled it well personally, but got more tabloid coverage when she divorced her second husband, shoe manufacturer Harry Karl, claiming that he had wiped away all of her money with his gambling. The 1987 novel "Postcards From the Edge," written by Carrie Fisher, and the film adaptation three years later, were regarded as an embellishment on Reynolds' up-and-down relationship with her actress daughter. In 1997, Reynolds declared personal bankruptcy after the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino closed after years of financial troubles.

For movie fans, she was always the pert star of movies, TV, nightclubs and Broadway. But to industry people, she was known for her philanthropy, including more than 60 years of working with the organization the Thalians on mental-health care. She was also known for her energetic battles to preserve Hollywood heritage. She bought thousands of pieces when MGM auctioned off its costumes and props, including Marilyn Monroe's "subway dress" from "The Seven Year Itch," a Charlie Chaplin bowler hat and a copy of the ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz." Reynolds spent decades trying to get these items showcased in a museum.

She continued to work well into her 80s, via film and TV work, guesting on "The Golden Girls" and "Roseanne" and drawing an Emmy nomination in 2000 for her recurring role on "Will and Grace" as the latter's entertainer mother. She also did a number of TV movies, including an almost-unrecognizable turn as Liberace's mother in Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra" for HBO in 2013. She also frequently did voice work for "Kim Possible" and "Family Guy."

Marie Frances Reynolds was born in El Paso, Texas; when she was 8, her carpenter father moved the family to Burbank. At age 16, "Frannie" entered the Miss Burbank Contest, winning in 1948 for her imitation of Betty Hutton singing "My Rockin' Horse Ran Away." She was spotted by Warner Bros. talent scout Solly Baiano, who signed her to a $65-a-week contract. Studio head Jack Warner renamed her Debbie — against her wishes, she said.

Reynolds languished at the studio, often having to perform errands such as escorting visitors on tours or addressing envelopes; she appeared in front of the cameras only for a bit part in "June Bride" and then a flashier role as June Haver's sister in "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady."

When the contract lapsed, MGM picked her up at $300 a week. The studio, where she would reside for the next 20 years, first assigned her a role lip-synching Helen Kane's voice as the original Betty Boop in the musical "Three Little Words." In romantic musical "Two Weeks With Love," she used her own voice to put across "Aba Daba Honeymoon," and she was also given a supporting role in "Mr. Imperium," starring Lana Turner.

After the studio insisted on her as the romantic lead in "Singin' in the Rain," Gene Kelly put her through rigorous dance training, which she admitted she needed. "They took this virgin talent, this little thing, and expected her to hold her own with Gene and with Donald O'Connor, two of the best dancers in the business," she once told an interviewer. Many years later, "Singin' in the Rain" was No. 1 on AFI's 100 Years of Musicals list, and ranked No. 5 in its 2007 list of the greatest American films.

She was 20 when the film opened and her career kicked into high gear. She was next given the female lead in "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis," co-starring Bobby Van, and segued into another musical comedy, "Give a Girl a Break," with Marge and Gower Champion.

On loan to RKO, she impressed in the comedy "Susan Slept Here," with Dick Powell as a screenwriter who must deal with a juvenile delinquent, played by Reynolds, on Christmas Eve. After the film became a hit, Reynolds' contract was renegotiated. While she was assigned to lackluster musicals such as "Athena" and "Hit the Deck," the comedies were better, such as "The Tender Trap," with Frank Sinatra.

And she made a big impression in her dramatic turn as Bette Davis's daughter in Gore Vidal's adaptation of Paddy Chayevsky's "The Catered Affair" (1956).

In 1956, she also starred in RKO's "Bundle of Joy" (a musical remake of "Bachelor Mother") opposite crooner Eddie Fisher, whom she had recently married.

"Tammy and the Bachelor," which featured her million-selling single of the ballad "Tammy," defined Reynolds and may have limited her to roles as the wholesome all-American type. She went on to play essentially the same part in such films as "The Mating Game" and "The Pleasure of His Company," with only the occasional tart turn in movies such as "The Rat Race."

Reynolds had one of the principal roles in 1962's all-star Cinerama epic "How the West Was Won." And in the 1960s she remained a star, despite the ho-hum box office performances of "Mary, Mary," "Goodbye Charlie" and "The Singing Nun."

When Shirley MacLaine dropped out of 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," Reynolds got her best chance to shine center stage in a musical comedy about the real-life woman who went from rags to riches and survived the Titanic sinking. (One of the show's signature songs, "I Ain't Down Yet," became an unofficial anthem for the actress as she survived all the turmoil in her life.

She had two of her best roles in "Divorce, American Style," directed by Bud Yorkin and co-written by Norman Lear; and the 1971 black-comedy suspenser "What's the Matter With Helen?" with Shelley Winters.. But her movie roles were slowing down and the actress tried series television; "The Debbie Reynolds Show" lasted only one season on NBC from 1969-70.

In 1973, the actress divorced Karl and discovered she was almost $3 million in debt as a result of his gambling losses. She worked it off by appearing 42 weeks a year in nightclubs and Las Vegas and Reno.

She also established the Debbie Reynolds Professional Studios in Burbank. She went to Broadway in a revival of "Irene," drawing a 1973 Tony nomination for best actress in a musical, which gave daughter Carrie Fisher one of her first roles. After doing "Annie Get Your Gun" on tour, Reynolds returned to Broadway in a short-lived turn in "Woman of the Year." She toured with Meredith Willson's stage musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" in 1989, 25 years after the film debuted.

Reynolds appeared in a number of successful exercise tapes for older women, "Do It Debbie's Way," and co-authored the autobiography "Debbie, My Life" in 1987.

That same year, Reynolds' private life was again in the spotlight when Carrie Fisher's novel "Postcards From the Edge" debuted. The work centered on the stormy relationship between an actress and her showbiz-star mother. Though many were convinced this was a roman a clef, Reynolds laughingly pooh-poohed comparisons with the self-centered mom. (MacLaine, the original choice for MGM's "Molly Brown," played the mother in the 1970 film adaptation.)

In 1993, the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino opened in Vegas, where she appeared for most weekends in the showroom with Rip Taylor. The next year she opened her Hollywood Movie Museum in Vegas. Reynolds said she got the idea for the hotel as an afterthought, as she was looking for a permanent home for her collection of movie memorabilia.

Reynolds appeared in a number of films in the 1990s, including the title character in the Albert Brooks comedy "Mother." She also cameo'd as herself in "The Bodyguard"; appeared in Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth"; and played a mother determined to marry off her son whether he's gay or not in the 1997 "In and Out." She also appeared in a broadly comic role as the grandmother in Katherine Heigl vehicle "One for the Money" in 2012.

Reynolds also did voice work for many animated film and TV works, starting with the title character in 1973's "Charlotte's Web." and providing voices for the English version of anime "Kiki's Delivery Service" and for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie," "Rugrats in Paris" and "Light of Olympia."

In 2005 she won the President's Award at the Costume Designers Guild Awards "for her collection and conservation of classic Hollywood costumes." However, a deal for placement of the collection fell through, and Reynolds was forced to auction off most of the collection, which was valued at almost $11 million.

In 1955 Reynolds was among the young actors who founded the Thalians, a charitable organization aimed at raising awareness and providing treatment and support for those suffering from mental health issues; Reynolds was elected president of the organization in 1957 and served in that role for more than five decades, and she and actress Ruta Lee alternated as chair of the board. Through Reynolds' efforts, the Thalians donated millions of dollars to the Mental Health Center at Cedars-Sinai (closed in 2012) and to UCLA's Operation Mend, which provides medical and psychological services to wounded veterans and their families.

Reynolds was married to third husband Richard Hamlett, a real estate developer, from 1984-96.


Daughter Carrie Fisher died December  27, 2016; Reynolds is survived by her son Todd, a TV commercial director from her marriage to Eddie Fisher; and granddaughter, actress Billie Lourd.
Condolences to the family ... Debbie you will be sadly missed .
RIP  ... The PICs

Merry Christmas to Everyone ----The PICs

Merry Christmas  everyone  to your families  from our families  ...The PICs

Obama just made it very hard for Trump to create a Muslim Registry

Instead of reanimating a Bush-era registration program, Trump will have to go back to square one.
For nine years, from 2002 to 2011, a version of one of Donald Trump’s most extreme proposals was standard US government policy: requiring certain people in the US on visas from Muslim-majority countries to register with the government.
President Barack Obama suspended the program in 2011 — after years of complaints by civil rights groups that the program targeted Muslims and wasn’t effective in preventing terrorism. But it had never been fully dismantled — it was still sitting around for the Trump administration to dust off.
Until now.
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security published a regulation that would totally get rid of the National Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) — forcing the Trump administration to take the time to create something new, and giving civil-rights groups an opportunity to stop them.
The regulation goes into effect Friday, December 22 — well before President Trump is inaugurated. So when his administration takes office — if it’s serious about finding a way to register people from Muslim-majority countries in the US — it’s going to have to find another way to do it.

The registry didn’t get destroyed, it just stopped tracking anybody

At least one contender to lead the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, is recommending the Trump administration “update and reintroduce the NSEERS screening and tracking system” for men in the US on “nonimmigrant” visas (such as work or student visas) from particular countries.

The NSEERS program forced people from 25 countries to register with the federal government and check in for follow-ups. It resulted in the deportation of about 13,000 people. It did not result in any convictions for terrorism or related crimes.

Twenty-four of the 25 countries included were Muslim-majority countries — and the 25th was North Korea. The NSEERS program registered visa-holders of all faiths from affected countries. But most of those affected were Muslim — and in context (it was passed after 9/11), that certainly didn’t seem like a coincidence.
A letter last month urging the Obama administration to dismantle NSEERS, signed by 51 House Democrats, argued that NSEERS created a chilling effect in Muslim-American communities:

“When instituted in 2002, the program caused widespread and palpable fear in affected communities, separated families and caused much harm to people affected by it. Boys and men were required to register with local immigration offices, were interrogated, and subjected to serious due process violation. Communities saw family members and neighbors disappear in the middle of the night, held in overcrowded jails and deported without due process. More than 13,000 people were placed in removal proceedings, businesses closed down, and students were forced to leave school with degrees uncompleted.”

Kobach’s plan didn’t specify exactly which countries a new NSEERS program would cover. But it seems like a reasonable guess that Trump’s reanimation of NSEERS would target the same countries as the last one — creating a (more restrained) version of the “Muslim registry” Trump endorsed on the campaign trail.

Obama’s White House has spoken strongly against any sort of discrimination against Muslim immigrants. Indeed, that’s one of the reasons that it stopped tracking anyone under the program in 2011.
But while the Obama administration didn’t fully get rid of  the program, they cleared out the entire list of countries from which people would be registered.
The regulatory framework to screen and track visa-holders still existed, it was just screening and tracking immigrants from zero countries. It was dormant, but not defunct.
So when Kobach’s proposal leaked, that all it would take to start NSEERS back up again would be for DHS to announce that they were re-adding countries to the list — something they could do with a simple notice in the Federal Register, without requiring any time for public opinion, comment, protests or other regulatory delays. From there, it would just have been a matter of making a list to get the registry up and running again.

Forcing the Trump administration to start from square one could make it easier to block the new registry effort

When the Bush administration created the NSEERS program in 2002, unsurprisingly, one of the most common concerns in response to the original proposal was that it would inhibit the civil rights of Muslims; even before any specific countries were listed as NSEERS targets, civil rights groups could see how a tracking system would probably work.

The Bush administration responded by defending its record on civil rights protection. In the wake of 9/11, it acknowledged, “some American Muslims have been targets of discrimination. The government pointed out that the FBI had investigated civil rights violations against Muslim, Arab, and Sikh Americans, and would continue to do so. And it “unequivocally rejects the notion that the requirements of (NSEERS) are intended to be, invidiously discriminatory.”
President Bush made it clear that he did not see Muslims or Islam as a threat, and urged Americans not to succumb to Islamophobia.
 President-elect Trump, and the people who will make up his White House, do not have that sort of track record. Trump originally called for a ban on Muslims from entering the US (something he’s since revised to a ban on immigrants who don’t share American “values”). His national security adviser, Mike Flynn, has tweeted that “fear of Muslims is RATIONAL”; his deputy national security adviser, KT McFarland, has stressed that not all Muslims are radical (“not by a long shot”) but that “even if just 10 percent of 1 percent are radicalized, that’s a staggering 1.6 million people bent on destroying Western civilization and the values we hold dear.”

As long as the Bush-era regulations that authorized NSEERS stood, the Bush administration’s justification of them stood as well.  The incoming administration doesn’t have the credibility of  a  9/11 behind them to lay claim to.  And despite claims  NSEERS isn’t anti-Muslim discrimination, it certainly reeks of it.

But now that the Trump administration won’t have the ability to simply reanimate existing regulations, it will have to propose a new set of regulations to register and track people from particular countries during their time in the US. That could be a valuable opportunity for Democrats and civil rights lawyers to block, or at least slow, the new registry.
They might not succeed — but they certainly have a bigger chance than they would have if Donald Trump, on day one of his administration, started adding countries back to the list to restart a program that was dormant but still viable.

Putin says Turkey ambassador murder is ploy to wreck Syrian peace process

Thomson Reuters     ANDREW OSBORN      December  19th 2016 
MOSCOW, Dec 19 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the killing of Russia's ambassador to Turkey was a despicable provocation aimed at spoiling Russia-Turkey ties and derailing Moscow's attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for the Syria crisis.

In televised comments, Putin, speaking at a special meeting in the Kremlin, ordered security at Russian embassies around the world to be stepped up and said he wanted to know who had "directed" the gunman's hand.

He heaped praise on the murdered Russian ambassador, Andrei Karlov, who was shot in the back and killed as he gave a speech at an Ankara art gallery, and made clear that Moscow's response to his assassination would be robust.

"A crime has been committed and it was without doubt a provocation aimed at spoiling the normalization of Russo-Turkish relations and spoiling the Syrian peace process which is being actively pushed by Russia, Turkey, Iran and others," said a stern-faced Putin.

"There can only be one response - stepping up the fight against terrorism. The bandits will feel this happening."

Putin, who said he personally knew the slain envoy, said he had agreed in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan that Russian investigators would soon fly to Ankara to help the Turks with the investigation.

"We must know who directed the killer's hand," Putin told Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Sergei Naryshkin, the head of his SVR foreign intelligence service, and Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the domestic FSB security service.
Putin ordered security at Turkish diplomatic facilities in Russia to be stepped up and said he wanted guarantees from Turkey about the safety of Russian diplomatic facilities.

"I also ask you to implement the agreed proposals on strengthening security at Russian diplomatic facilities abroad," Putin told the meeting.

The foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey are due to discuss the future of Syria in Moscow on Tuesday.

The Interfax news agency cited Leonid Slutsky, a senior parliamentarian, as saying earlier on Monday that the talks would go ahead despite the murder.

In an odd coincidence, Putin had been planning to attend a Moscow play on Monday night written by Alexander Griboyedov, Russia's ambassador to Iran, who was murdered in 1829.

Putin canceled when he heard his Turkish envoy had been murdered. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alison Williams)