John Francis Hylan

Yes… I’m procrastinating on the internet again and I’ve come across this man. John Francis Hylan was Mayor of New York between 1917 and 1925. As mayor, Hylan railed against “the interests” and put in motion the building of a publicly owned and operated subway system, which became the a division of the New York City Subway.

The main reason why I became interested in him is because of this speech he made in 1922:

‘The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.

‘They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make catspaws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business.

‘These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.

He garnered the nickname ‘Red Mike’ as obviously supporting any form of public ownership or criticising powerful people and multi-nationals means that you are a communist.  Personally, I like the sound of him.

Hubert Lee - Mind Control

I’m spending Sunday afternoon procrastinating on the Internet (again) and I’ve come across this in the British Pathe archives. This is Hubert Lee who, according to this video, could talk to any animal and command them to perform any task, we’ll OK, he made a few of them look agitated. I can’t find any other mention of this man on the Internet but i’d assume he isn’t ‘real’ as this newsreel is all very tongue in cheek, especially with the comment at the end regarding the Koala with rickets.

ANIMAL HYPNOTIST