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Thursday 20 August 2015

FBI Had 12-Page File On George Carlin Because He Made Jokes About Government

george_carlinBy John Vibes

Comedian George Carlin is known as one of the most controversial and outspoken entertainers of his time and, as far as the government is concerned, he could have possibly been a terrorist.

He went into great detail about corruption in government and business.

During the 1978 Supreme Court case, FCC v Pacifica Foundation, the government cited Carlin’s work as an example of profanity. They used his “Seven Dirty Words” segment to show the type of language that was being used in records and broadcasts. However, the government’s interest in his work did not stop there.

Just after his 1969 appearance on the Jackie Gleason show, Carlin caught the attention of the FBI because he made jokes about then-FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. According to the government, Carlin had “referred to the Bureau and the Director in a satirical vein.”

They added that his act was “considered to be in very poor taste” and “it was obvious that he was using the prestige of the Bureau and Mr. Hoover to enhance his performance.”

carlin1-1After Carlin’s appearance on the show, the staff of Jackie Gleason received a number of anonymous letters — allegedly from fans but possibly from the FBI — condemning Carlin for speaking about the government in the critical way that he did. It has been proven that the FBI has indeed sent threatening letters to public figures in the past, pretending to be concerned colleagues or a member of the public, including to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

carlin4A letter claiming to be from a viewer of the Jackie Gleason show, criticizing Carlin’s statements.

Anyone who speaks out against the injustices of the world, whether they are a dangerous terrorist or a harmless comedian, will receive unwanted attention from government.

Below is a video showing Carlin’s deep political analysis in action:

Read the 12 pages of FBI documents on Carlin here.

"Mystery" Cyanide Foam Covers Streets In China After Tianjin Storms As "Massive Fish Die-Off" Photographed

On Wednesday evening we noted that China, in what looks like an attempt to discourage investigative reports into Communist Party culpability for the explosion at Tianjin which killed more than a hundred people and injured more than 700 last week, revealed the previously unnamed majority shareholders of Tianjin International Ruihai Logistics. 

The two men - a Mr. Yu and a Mr. Dong - have Party ties and admitted to using their political connections to skirt restrictions on the storage and handling of hazardous chemicals like sodium cyanide. 

That admission isn’t likely to satisfy the Chinese public, which is looking for the head (figuratively speaking we hope) of someone higher up in the party, as scapegoating a few locals with tenuous Party ties doesn’t seem to constitute the type of wholesale, rigorous investigation that would indicate Beijing is serious about getting to the bottom of how 700 tonnes of toxic chemicals ended up being stored at a facility that was only licensed to warehouse a fraction of that total.

In any event, the "cyanide thunderstorms" we warned were rolling into the area have now blanketed Tianjin in a "mysterious" white foam. The images are below.

Source

And as The South China Morning Post reports, some claimed the rain had burned their skin and lips, which would be consistent with a text message purported to have emanated from the American Embassy (which immediately denied its authenticity) advising workers to "avoid ALL contact" between their skin and any rain:

Some residents and journalists near the blast site in Tianjin experienced skin burns as rain hit the Binhai New Area on Tuesday.

 

Amid fears the rain could spark toxic reactions with chemicals at the site - in particular with hundreds of tonnes of sodium cyanide - an official urged the public to "stay far away".

 

As the rain progressed, an unusual white foam emerged on roads near the blast site. A journalist for Caixin reported feeling burns on the lips and arms after being exposed to the rain.

As for the official explanation for why the streets in Tianjin are now running white with what might very well be an extremely toxic, cyanide-laced foam, Tianjin's environmental monitoring center says it's "a normal phenomenon when rain falls, and similar things have occurred before." 

And in case that wasn't enough of a punchline for you, here's a look at what happened after no chemicals were detected in the seawater around the blast site:

How Jeb Bush Funneled Pension Money to Lehman Before Getting a $1.3 Million a Year Consulting Job at the Firm

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At this point, it almost feels like kicking someone while he’s down. Jeb Bush can’t even stand up to Donald Trump, let alone his own growing series of scandals.

In the latest revelation from David Sirota and team at International Business Daily, we learn that:

For Florida taxpayers, the move by the administration of then-Gov. Jeb Bush to forge a relationship with Lehman Brothers would ultimately prove disastrous. Transactions in 2005 and 2006 put the Wall Street investment bank in charge of some $250 million worth of pension funds for Florida cops, teachers and firefighters. Lehman would capture more than $5 million in fees on these deals, while gaining additional contracts to manage another $1.2 billion of Florida’s money. Then, in the fall of 2008, Lehman collapsed into bankruptcy, leaving Florida facing up to $1 billion in losses.

But for Jeb Bush personally, his enduring relationship with Lehman would prove lucrative. In 2007, just as he left office, Bush secured a job as a Lehman consultant for $1.3 million a year, Bloomberg reported.

Next time, please just ride off into the sunset and paint landscapes with your brother.

Weeks after Bush took the Lehman job, the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) — a three-member body that makes investment decisions about state pension funds and whose ranks had recently included one Jeb Bush — gave Lehman additional business: SBA purchased $842 million worth of separate investments in Lehman’s mortgage-backed securities. Over the course of one year from June 2007 to June 2008, the SBA would shift an additional $420 million of pension money into the same fund in which the state had begun investing under Bush.

In short, during Bush’s first year working for Lehman, his former colleagues in Tallahassee, the state capital, moved vast sums of Florida pension money into the doomed Wall Street investment bank, even as warnings about its financial troubles began to emerge. 

“This is a breathtaking conflict of interest going on here,” said Craig Holman, governmental ethics lobbyist with Public Citizen, a good-government group. “This cost Florida very dearly, and it enriched Jeb Bush.” 

Jeff Connaughton, author of the book “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins,” said the transactions illustrate a larger culture that dominates the politics of finance.

Florida originally began investing money in Lehman in 2005, while Bush was the highest profile member of the SBA, which oversees the $150 billion pension fund. The Bush-led SBA that year committed $176 million to Lehman; in 2006, as Florida moved another $87 million into the Lehman investment, the firm hired Jeb Bush’s cousin, George Herbert Walker, to run the firm’s investment management division.

The next year, Lehman offered the outgoing Florida governor the consulting job. Bush had worked briefly at a Texas-based bank after college, but he lacked significant Wall Street experience.

Fortunately for Jeb, being a crony doesn’t take any real skill.

Most of the investment losses that hit Florida starting in July 2007 were tied to the Lehman mortgage-backed securities bought the year Bush began his employment at the firm.