In your opinion, best comedy of all time?

Putin's Media Czar Murdered Just Before Meeting Feds

BuzzfeedNews
July 28, 2017

"The U.S. government ruled Mikhail Lesin's death an accident. But multiple intelligence and law enforcement officials suspect it was a Russian hit.
The government is withholding information, so today BuzzfeedNews has filed a lawsuit to pry the records loose."



Vladimir Putin's former media czar was murdered in Washington, D.C. on the eve of a planned meeting with the United States Department of Justice, according to two FBI agents whose assertions cast new doubts on the U.S. government's official explanation of his death.

Mikhail Lesin's battered body was discovered in his Dupont Circle hotel room on the morning of November 5, 2015, with blunt-force injuries to the head, neck, and torso.
After an almost year-long "comprehensive investigation," a federal prosecutor announced last October that Lesin dies alone in his room due to a series of drunken falls "after days of excessive consumption of alcohol."

His death was considered an "accident" and prosecutors closed the case.

But the two FBI agents, as well as a third agent and a serving US intelligence officer, said Lesin was actually bludgeoned to death.

None of these officials were directly involved in the government's investigation, but they said they learned about it from colleagues who were.

"Lesin was beaten to death," one of the FBI agents said," and I would implore you to say as much...There seems to be an effort here to cover up that fact for reasons I can't get into."

He continued: "What I can tell you is that there isn't a single person inside the bureau who believes the guy got drunk, fell down, and died.
Everyone thinks he was whacked and that Putin or the Kremlin were behind it."

More:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/putins-media-czar-was-murdered-just-before-meeting-feds



Note: This thread was first posted yesterday in "Latest Breaking News" but the thread was locked by an LBN moderator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141832238

The White House Is Now Doctoring It's Transcripts

Source:
Mother Jones


Remember when Sarah Palin came along?
She was insane, but eventually her influence waned and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
But then along came Donald Trump: even more insane; and HE got elected president.
But that's not all.
Now we have Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's new director of communications.
He might be the craziest of the lot.

Scaramucci says Trump is a super-competitive guy: "He sinks 3-foot putts," but here's the official White House transcript:
"He's the most competitive person I've ever met...He sinks 30-foot putts."

This is mostly being treated like a joke.
It's the Kim Jong ll-ization of the president:
He sets world records at Scrabble!
He once hit a home run off Sandy Koufax in a pickup game!
He swam to Staten Island in less than an hour!

But this is not a joke and it's not a mistake.
It was deliberate.
And that's a bigger deal than anyone is letting on.
Transcripts are not supposed to be "revised" after the fact.
Official White House transcripts record exactly what the person said, regardless of "what they meant to say."
Every White House has abided by that rule, including Trump's.

Until now.
And guess who's in charge of transcripts?
The White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.
It might be wise not to fully rely on White House transcripts any more.

Read entire article, watch video:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/07/the-white-house-is-now-doctoring-its-transcripts-1/

The Song That Describes Trump Perfectly - written more than 20 years ago

LIFE IS HARD, BUT LIFE IS HARDEST WHEN YOU'RE DUMB

By Austin Lounge Lizards


Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb
No joie de vivre, just endless hours of tedium
With a negative IQ,
You'll be lonely, sad, and blue
Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb

Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb
You wait for years but inspiration never comes
Thoughts you don't have remain unheard
"Cause you cannot find the words
Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb

Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb
Between your ears a dark and silent vac-u-um
If there's a void behind your face,
Why not rent out the vacant space
Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb

Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb
Why not just lay back and smoke a bowl of opium
If being stupid is your fate,
Well just relax 'cause it's too late
Life is hard, but life is hardest when you're dumb




Note:
Because of computer limitations, I'm unable to post the link to the You Tube video of:
"Life Is Hard, But Life Is Hardest When You're Dumb" by Austin Lounge Lizards
(It's a truly great song)

Any old-time San Franciscans out there who remember Playland-at-the-Beach?

"Playland" also known as "Playland at the Beach", was a 10-acre seaside amusement park located next to Ocean Beach, in the Richmond district of San Francisco, CA, along Great Highway, where Cabrillo and Balboa streets are now.

It began as a collection of amusement rides and concessions in the late 19th century, and was known as "Chutes At The Beach" as early as 1913.
It closed labor Day weekend in 1972.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playland
Under "entertainment venues" click on "Playland, San Francisco", (3rd option down)


A full length documentary "Remembering Playland at the Beach DVD" is available from Amazon.com for $18.

Google "Remembering Playland at the Beach DVD".. Market Street Railroad
(I was unable to post a link to this DVD)

Inside Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Last Big Tour

By Stephen Rodrick
Rolling Stone Magazine


It's about an hour before Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheater for what may be the last time.
Backstage, Petty is in his dressing room putting on a frontier rebel's headdress to fight the chill.
Keyboardist Benmont Tench is tweeting about the sad state of our country under Donald Trump.
Bassist Ron Blair has battled stage fright for years since rejoining the Heartbreakers in 2002, after a 20-year sanity break.
He wanders into Petty and cops to something you're not going to admit to your bandleader unless you've known him for 40 years.
"I'm kinda nervous, you know," says Blair in a quiet voice.

Petty rarely describes himself as the leader of his band, but as "the older brother they sometimes have to listen to."
Tonight, he gives Blair some fatherly assurance and a toothy Southern smile:
"Let me be nervous for you."

The band takes the stage and blows through "Rockin' Around," the first song on it's self-titled first album, from 1976.
Petty ends the next two songs strumming in front of the drum set, trading man-crush smiles with drummer Steve Ferrone (Tench jokes, "They should get a room&quot ,
Petty even grins through a joyous version of "Walls," from 1996's "She's the One," an album he's complained about for nearly 20 years.

And then there's a flash of lightning...Rain pours down...The Heartbreakers are shooed into the catacombs of Red Rocks, and 9,000 fans head for cover.

There's been a valedictory feel to the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour, which Petty says is the band's final country-spanning run - the "last big one."
Everyone else is a bit skeptical.
"I've been hearing that for 15 years," says guitarist and original Heartbreaker Mike Campbell.
"We'll see."

More:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/inside-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-last-big-tour-w490231


Tour info:
http://www.tompetty.com/tour

What's your favorite line and/or scene from Pulp Fiction?

I loved the scene where Travolta & Uma Thurman enter the "Jack Rabbit Slims' Twist Contest"
and I also loved the scene later on where Thurman is revived after she suffers an OD.


(Favorite quote)
BUTCH -- You okay?
MARSELLUS -- Naw man, I'm pretty fuckin' far from okay.
BUTCH -- What now?
MARSELLUS -- What now? Let me tell you what now.. I'ma calla' coupla hard, pipe-hittin' niggers, who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch.
You here me talkin', hillbilly boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight..I'ma get medieval on your ass.

Intelligence authorization bill fails in House

The Hill
July 24, 2017


House Democrats and a handful of Republicans on Monday blocked the passage of the annual authorization for intelligence agencies under an expedited process, looking instead for a way to bring it up in a way that allows for more debate.

The Intelligence bill authorizing funds for the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and other programs typically passes each year by wide bipartisan margins.

House GOP leaders scheduled it for a vote this week under a process, known as suspension of the rules, that limits debate to 40 minutes, forbids amendments and requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

Democrats and 10 Republicans prevented the legislation from reaching the necessary two-thirds threshold to pass in the failed 241-163 vote.
It's expected that House GOP leaders will schedule it for floor consideration in the near future under a procedure that will need only a simple majority vote and more debate time.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged her caucus in a missive Sunday night to vote against the bill so that it is brought up again under a different procedure.

"Although the underlying bill is not problematic, taking it up under suspension is," Pelosi wrote.

More:
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/343531-intelligence-authorization-fails-in-house

Jeff Sessions Had a Terrible Week

CNN
July 22, 2017
(updated July 23)


(CNN) - Everyone knew President Donald Trump wasn't happy with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.
No one - until this week - knew just HOW unhappy he was.

"Sessions' should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else," Trump told three New York Times reporters on Wednesday in an interview at the White House.
Trump added that Sessions' decision, on which he was not consulted, was "extremely unfair, and that's a mild word, to the President."

That's a stunning vote of not-much-confidence from Trump in a man who was one of his top surrogates during the 2016 campaign and one of his fiercest defenders in the early days of the presidency.

What Trump told the Times, in short, was: Had I known what I know now, I would had never given Sessions the AG job.

The next day, as fate would have it, Sessions was scheduled to talk to reporters, which is super awkward when your boss has said he wasn't and isn't happy with you and that he never would have hired you if he knew how things were going to play out.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/22/politics/worst-week-in-washington/index.html

Are there any Oscar-winning movies that you absolutely hate?

(I'm talking about films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture)