2 + 2 = 5

"Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally... Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia." -George Orwell, 1984

Transfer of Power

"Aristocrats fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society."  -Thomas Jefferson

Unwitting

"Putin has recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." -Former CIA Director Michael Morell

Suppressing the Vote

"I don't want everybody to vote…  our leverage in the elections goes up as the voting populace goes down."  -Paul Weyrich, conservative activist, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation
 

Determining the News

“A handful of us determine what will be on the evening news broadcasts… And those [news stories] available to us already have been culled and re-culled by persons far outside our control.”  -Walter Cronkite
 

Controlling the Public

“Those who manipulate the organized habits and opinions of the masses constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of… It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”  -Edward Bernays, consultant to CBS, GE, Proctor and Gamble
 

Subverting the Power of the People

“[Political parties] are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”  -George Washington, 1796
 

Control of Our Currency

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless"  -Thomas Jefferson
 

Political Evil

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”  -John Adams, 1789
 

Disastrous, Misplaced Power

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted."  -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
 

Inevitable Revolution

 “A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”  -Robert F. Kennedy, 1966

 

Endangered Liberties

 

 “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”  -Thomas Jefferson

 

War Is Not What It Seems

"War is just a racket... something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses."  -Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, Former Commander U.S. Marine Corps, 1933
 

Private Ownership of Government

 

 "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."  -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938 

 

An Invisible Government

 

 "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."  -Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

 

Preying on the Poor

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”  -Thomas Jefferson