FIFA officials arrested in Switzerland on corruption charges

[Malthus]

NYT review of the FIFA movie:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/sports/fifa-film-an-epic-fantasy.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

The best damning with faint praise ever:

It's not such crap.

That, from the Director. 

Oh man, the timing of this thing could not be better. 

[Valmy]

It certainly could not be. This is a classic case of there is no such thing as bad publicity.

[DGuller]

My sister and I once by chance came upon a Soviet movie from the 1980ies.  It was so captivating that we had to watch all of it.

It started off with a literal trainwreck, as an overworked railroad depot controller sent a train onto the wrong set of tracks, and one of the train engineers was killed.  That set up the main conflict driving the movie plot:  the transportation minister's struggle to keep his job after a spate of rail accidents and derailments. 

For most of the movie, the plot centered around various bureaucratic machinations and political intrigue, as the minister's rivals pounced upon him.  The culmination was a heated ministers' meeting, where the embattled transportation minister denounces the carelessness of other ministers' industries in transporting their cargo, which led to many of the accidents blamed on him, and declares that safe railway transportation is a team effort. 

The movie didn't tell us whether he kept his job or not after all, but it did show him walking away from the meeting looking satisfied.

[Valmy]

So the heroic bureaucrat kept his job despite his incompetence? Man they came a long way from Battleship Potemkin.

[derspiess]

I wish there were more Soviet era movies with English subtitles.  I hear they made some halfway decent war flicks.

[celedhring]

I wish there were more Soviet era movies with English subtitles.  I hear they made some halfway decent war flicks.

"They fought for the motherland" is pretty damn awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMw629pnIL4

[Syt]

Also: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/

[The Minsky Moment]

But the USA is only doing this because it lost the 2022 WC to Bullshit.

Doubt that Loretta Lynch cares about that.  The average American doesn't care much either, assuming they were even aware it happened, which they aren't.

[Malthus]

I wish there were more Soviet era movies with English subtitles.  I hear they made some halfway decent war flicks.

Have you seen Come and See?

[Norgy]

I wish there were more Soviet era movies with English subtitles.  I hear they made some halfway decent war flicks.

"Come and see". It definitely has English subtitles.

[Norgy]

I wish there were more Soviet era movies with English subtitles.  I hear they made some halfway decent war flicks.

Have you seen Come and See?

[Malthus]

I wish there were more Soviet era movies with English subtitles.  I hear they made some halfway decent war flicks.

Have you seen Come and See?

Great minds, etc. 

Though arguably, Come and See may not be exactly the right genre of "war movie" - more of a "war as horror" movie. It is however undeniably a great film.

[Liep]

FIFA has called a press conference with an hour warning. 18 CEST with Blatter. MORE DENYING!

[Malthus]

FIFA has called a press conference with an hour warning. 18 CEST with Blatter. MORE DENYING!

I really wonder if it would make the slightest difference if he called a press conference and announced "I am the mastermind behind all the corruption! And I enjoyed doing it! Any you can't stop me from doing it again - Muahahaha!" 

[Syt]

Blatter's election: a win for and by Russia!

http://tass.ru/en/sports/798164

Sport minister: Russia has authority to influence development of sport

Russia has 324 representatives in international sport organizations of whom 57 occupy leading positions

MOSCOW, June 2 /TASS/. The recent elections of the FIFA president showed that Russia is a respected sport power, Russian Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko said at a meeting of the presidential Council for the development of physical culture and sport on Tuesday.

"I would like to note that we have regained our positions of the world sport leader and a respected and reputable sport power. The events that took place at FIFA last week showed that Russia had sufficient authority in sport and could influence events linked to development of sport," Mutko said.

"I would also like to note that the previous Council issued an instruction to increase the number of our representatives in international sport organizations. Today, we have 324 representatives of whom 57 occupy leading positions," the Russian sport minister added.