Collected Quotes

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.“

— a letter to the editor of The New York Times, 1931
Versions with "things" instead of "events" have been published since 1888, and without things or events since 1827. Quote Investigator

The History of U.S. Immigration Restrictions

A History of Racism, Jobs, and Resistance to Change

Interview of Samoset with the Pilgrims¹

Recent debate over immigration and closed versus open borders raises questions about the American history of immigration. It seems that every native-born citizen is descended from immigrants; even the first Native Americans were new arrivals at some point.² This article looks at tightening restrictions on immigration after the United States of America began in 1789.

For the first 86 years there were no immigration restrictions at all. The Page Act of 1875 was the first federal immigration law and marked the end of open borders. Rep. Horace F. Page (R-CA) introduced it to "end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women." The first Chinese immigrants to the U.S. were mostly males, arriving after 1848 as part of the California Gold Rush. The Page Act technically barred East Asian forced laborers, prostitutes, and convicts, but in practice the focus was on preventing polygamous Chinese marriage and native-born Chinese. While the number of Chinese immigrants actually increased after the Act, the female population dropped.⁵

Facebook Ignores Privacy Settings

If you're using the internet, you've given away all rights to privacy.

"Steve Satterfield, Facebook’s director of privacy and public policy, said the sharing deals did not violate privacy rules because the partners functioned as extensions of the social network." (emphasis added)

In other words, it's all internet.

In March 2018 it was reported that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, used Facebook data to build tools for President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Facebook said then that it had instituted stricter privacy protections. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, told lawmakers in April that people “have complete control” over everything they share on Facebook.

However,

• Facebook continued sharing for Pandora and other companies even after an F.T.C. agreement led to an official change in policy.

• Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of all Facebook users’ friends without consent, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.

• The Russian company Yandex, which has been accused of giving information to the Kremlin, had access to Facebook data as recently as last year.

• Facebook used contact lists from its partners, including Amazon, Yahoo and Huawei, to analyze relationships and suggest more connections.

• Facebook allowed Apple to hide all signs that it was asking for data. Apple had access to the contact numbers and calendar entries of people who had changed their account settings to disable all sharing.

• Facebook permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends, and it let Yahoo view streams of friends’ posts as recently as this summer.

• Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and others could obtain users’ email addresses through their friends, in spite of the user's privacy settings.

Europe has stricter regulation of social media companies. The United States has no general consumer privacy law, leaving tech companies free to monetize most kinds of personal information as long as they don’t mislead their users. The F.T.C. currently has consent agreements with Facebook, Google, and Twitter from alleged privacy violations.

Facebook’s agreement comes from the company’s early data sharing in 2009, when it made some information from its 400 million users accessible to all of the internet. It shared information that included users’ locations and religious and political beliefs to help personalize sites like Bing.

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Source: Gabriel J.X. Dance, Michael LaForgia, and Nicholas Confessore, "As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants," New York Times, December 19, 2018

 

Look Out Any Window

  

Nick Varvel        Aspen Song Wild Bird Food

Contrasting birds as seen at the feeders.

The American Goldfinch is chrome yellow with sharp, black and white racing stripes. The House Finch is drab brown and white with blurred brown stripes.

Of course, it's not fair to compare male to female.

Was Morgan Freeman in Close Encounters?

The YouTube poster describes it as an "intense scene" with a "very 'simple' setup that delivers a great moment":

I watched Close Encounters again after visiting Devils Tower in Wyoming recently, where the movie has become part of the monument's history. On hearing the voice, I immediately thought "Morgan Freeman." In fact, an online search shows that many others have the same impression. But Freeman is not listed for Close Encounters, not on Internet Movie Database or Wikipedia, for either the movie or the actor. Could he be uncredited, or working under another name?


David Anderson, Richard L. Hawkins, Craig Shreeve, and Bill Thurman in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) — IMDb

A still caption for this air traffic control scene lists four names for the six people in the picture: David Anderson, Richard L. Hawkins, Craig Shreeve, and Bill Thurman. Unfortunately, this scene and still are the most common ones associated with those names. What is the name of the lead actor communicating with the pilots? An image for Morgan Freeman in 1977 could not be found.

    

The answer came from a column in Jet magazine from February 2, 1978:

Where Close Encounters Of The Third Kind becomes a close encounter of the real kind for Black actor David Anderson who appears as an air traffic controller in the sci-fi thriller. In life, Anderson has been with the Federal Aviation Administration for 27 years — 19 of which he's been an air traffic controller.

Anderson's IMDb page shows him appearing in 35 movies and TV shows after Close Encounters, from 1982 to 2007, and lists him in 1985 as a technical consultant, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired).

A Chronology of NFL Protest Quotes

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

— Colin Kaepernick on his reason for not standing for the national anthem, August 27, 2016

“I don't know if you know — the NFL is way down in their ratings. And you know why? Two reasons. Number one is this politics, they’re finding, is a much rougher game than football, and more exciting. And this, honestly, we've taken a lot of people away from the NFL. And the other reason is Kaepernick. Kaepernick.”

— Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a speech in Greeley, Colorado, October 30, 2016

"It was reported that NFL owners don't want to pick him up because they don't want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump. Do you believe that? I just saw that. I just saw that."

— President Donald Trump taking credit for the failure of an NFL team to hire free agent Colin Kaepernick, March 21, 2017

"Yes, I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it. And you don’t have doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say."

— President Trump on the violence in Charlottesville, August 15, 2017

"Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa."

— David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, August 15, 2017

Shocker! CEOs Admit They Won't Invest Tax Cuts in Worker Wages

"Of course the GOP tax scam didn't help working people. CEOs would rather pay themselves than pay us." — Wisconsin congressional candidate Randy Bryce. The evidence just keeps rolling in.

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speak to members of the media in front of the West Wing of the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, May 28, 2018

As America's largest banks post record profits, massive companies continue their unprecedented stock buyback spree, and already-obscene CEO pay packages are set to rapidly expand in the aftermath of the Trump-GOP tax cuts, top corporate executives are now openly admitting that they have no plans whatsoever to invest their enormous windfall into wage increases for workers.

During what Axios described as a "rare, candid, and bracing talk from executives atop corporate America" at the Dallas Fed late last week, Troy Taylor, CEO of Florida's Coca-Cola franchise, said of the possibility of broad wage hikes for workers: "It's just not going to happen. Absolutely not in my business."

"Of course the GOP tax scam didn't help working people," noted Wisconsin congressional candidate Randy Bryce, aka "The Iron Stache," in response to the Axios report. "CEOs would rather pay themselves than pay us."

And CEOs are not merely conceding that "the days of most people getting a pay raise are over" despite the lofty promises Republicans made after they rammed through their $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. As Axios reports, well-heeled corporate executives are also actively moving to "reduce their workforces further" to cut costs and boost their bottom lines.

The NFL and Patriotism as a Marketing Tool

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) kneels down with teammates before the U.S. national anthem was played ahead of an NFL football game against Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday Oct. 1, 2017. Saints players then stood when the anthem was played. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)

The NFL owners have decided to fight a recent loss of television viewers with a dose of patriotism (NFL Policy Will Require Players on Field to Stand for Anthem, Show Flag 'Proper Respect', Scooby Axson, Sports Illustrated, May 23, 2018). The issue worsened last year when Donald Trump said that owners should fire players who disrespected the flag. One problem is that it's not clear whether the viewer loss is due to player demonstrations or changes in the broadcast market and viewing technology.

Another problem is that the player's union has not agreed to the new rules. The owners are allowing the players to remain in the locker rooms during the anthem, but the NFL Players Association has said:

Harley-Davidson workers say plant closure after tax cut is like a bad dream

The Trump tax cut is benefiting corporations and stockholders, not workers

Harley-Davidson plans job cuts in Kansas City and will add
positions in York County. (Photo: Keith Srakocic, AP)

Candy Woodall, USA Today, York (Pa.) Daily Record, May 27, 2018

YORK, Pa. — Harley-Davidson workers across the USA are reeling from the planned closure of the motorcycle maker's Kansas City plant, yet it is expected to reap huge financial benefits from the federal corporate tax cut.

The Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer benefited from the tax cuts enacted Jan. 1, then announced cuts of 350 jobs across the company in late January. On Feb. 5 , it approved a half-cent dividend increase and buyback of up to 15 million shares.

Harley’s U.S. sales have been sinking in recent years as Boomers decide they are becoming too old to continue riding and fewer younger people step up to take their place. As a result, Harley said it was forced to cut excess factory capacity.

“Unfortunately there is nothing that could have been done to address the pressure of excess capacity we have in the U.S. market,” Harley said in a statement.

The company maintains that the dividend increase and stock buyback are unrelated to the tax savings.

► May 21: Loud Harleys: Is motorcycle noise sweet harmony or out-of-control din?
► May 11: Harley-Davidson to ship work to Thailand from U.S. plant, union says
► May 10: Shareholders ask questions, but media kept out of annual meeting

Workers say they are dismayed.

“We did everything Harley-Davidson asked us to do,” welder Tim Primeaux said in an NBC News interview that aired last week. "To have it all blow up in your face is kind of disappointing.”

When Harley-Davidson announced in January that it would slash 800 jobs upon closing the Kansas City plant by fall 2019, Primeaux said he and other workers were in a state of "shock and awe."

“It was like I was in a bad dream, just stuck in it," Primeaux told the network.

Second Class Citizens

After the recent passage of WISCONSIN ACT 248, "involving a boycott of Israel," and a City of Madison Mayoral Proclamation (below) declaring an "Israel Day," I thought we might benefit from some facts on the legal status of non-Jewish citizens of Israel.

Americans are too willing to assume that the only democracy in the Middle East has a written Constitution and Bill of Rights like theirs. The examples below are legal discrimination by the Israeli government. This unequal treatment under the law applies to over 1.7 million Israeli citizens in Israel, more than 21% of the population.¹ By comparison, African Americans are 13% of the U.S. population.¹²

A 2005 letter to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger Herald argued that Israel was not South Africa:

The divestment campaign in South Africa was appropriate and legitimate because it garnered international recognition of apartheid, an internal system of exploitation and segregation forced upon a black majority by a white minority. Divestment legitimately targeted corporations that profited from this egregious situation. While some have argued that Israel is conducting apartheid policies against the Palestinian people and Arab-Israeli citizens, this comparison is absurd. Arab-Israeli citizens retain the same civil and political rights that any Jew possesses in Israel, with the ability to vote in elections and serve their constituents as elected officials. (emphasis added)

Unfortunately, this is not true. Israeli laws, and the civil and political rights they define, are different for different Israeli citizens. Israel's purpose in this is to maintain its status as a Jewish state, as Roland Nikles commented:

Dissecting Paul Ryan on deficits and spending

He doesn't add up



Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, April 15, 2018

“That was going to happen — the baby boomers retiring was going do that. These deficit — trillion-dollar projections have been out there for a long, long time. Why? Because of mandatory spending, which we call entitlements. Discretionary spending under the CBO baseline is going about $300 billion over the next 10 years. Tax revenues are still rising, income tax revenues are still rising, corporate income tax revenues — corporate rate got dropped 30 percent, still rising. Mandatory spending, which is entitlements, that grows $2 trillion over the next decade. Why does it grow $2 trillion? Because the boomer generation is retiring and we have not prepared these programs.”
— House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), in remarks on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” April 15, 2018

Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who has announced his retirement, made these comments in response to a jab by host Chuck Todd at the longtime fiscal hawk: “You walk away with trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.”

One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan

Self-portrait and calligraphy by Ryōkan

With no-mind, blossoms invite the butterfly;
With no-mind, the butterfly visits the blossoms.
When the flower blooms, the butterfly comes;
When the butterfly comes, the flower blooms.
I do not "know" others,
Others do not "know" me.
Not-knowing each other we naturally follow the Way. ¹

In the introductory analysis of John Stevens' One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan, we are told that the 18th century hermit monk was a living example of a Zen bodhisattva, teaching without preaching and going beyond mindfulness to a mind free from attachment (Japanese: mushin).² Ryokan writes that we follow Buddha's teachings (the Way) by experiencing life without study and analysis, just as nature does.

His poetry is filled with nature, reflecting both joy and sadness in his remote and rural surroundings. But this description of the interdependence of flower and insect life also expresses the teaching (Pali: Dhamma, Sanskrit: Dharma) of dependent origination (Pali: paticca samuppada), held by Buddhadasa to be "a complete description of nature" and "the very heart of Buddhism." ³

In the Shadow of Statues

A White Southerner Confronts History

"It’s essential if we really want to move forward that we do so together. We cannot do that unless we deal forthrightly with the issue of race."

Sonny Figueroa (The New York Times)

John Williams, The New York Times, March 25, 2018

New Orleans is a great American city, but it’s not often that its mayor becomes well-known on a national scale. That happened in May 2017, when Mayor Mitch Landrieu delivered a speech about the removal of the last four Confederate monuments in the city. “These monuments celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy,” Mr. Landrieu said, “ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, ignoring the terror that it actually stood for.” The speech was widely shared while arguments about how best to remember and commemorate history continued across the country.

In his new book, “In the Shadow of Statues,” Mr. Landrieu surveys Southern history and its lingering divides in deeper detail, and also shares details about his childhood, when he was harassed and threatened because of the progressive racial politics of his father, Moon Landrieu, who was then mayor of New Orleans. Below, Mr. Landrieu discusses the differences between writing a book and writing a speech, how musical theater helped shape his view of the world and more.

No, Tariffs Will Not Bring Back the Good Old Days

 

As the Republican Tax Cuts Take Effect

Well, the effects of the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are starting to be felt, and whether you're surprised depends on who you've been listening to. As Paul Krugman has frequent reason to say, "Facts Have a Well-Known Liberal Bias."

• The punch list of errors in the rapidly passed and little read bill is getting longer. Politico says "One snafu, which could potentially affect President Donald Trump’s real estate business, prevents people making various types of improvements to non-residential real estate from immediately deducting their entire cost, as lawmakers intended. An apparent typo means they have to instead take those breaks piecemeal over the next 39 years. That is already squeezing some companies’ finances, said Rachelle Bernstein, tax counsel at the National Retail Federation. “There are real economic implications right now,” she said."
 
• As of today the Americans for Tax Reform website says "4,000,000 Americans (and counting) will receive Trump Tax Reform bonuses," but that's less than 3% of total nonfarm employees in January (148 million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). And the use of one-time bonuses rather than pay increases has brought comment: "Something more permanent like increasing wages or increasing the 401(k) match is a better way to "boost the long-term savings" of employees," says Garrett Oakley, a certified financial planner at Betterment.
 
• Paul Krugman tells us that a Treasury Department technical paper from 2012 on the distribution of corporate tax changes in the economy "reached the inconvenient conclusion" that most of the tax effect is on the owners of corporate capital, and only a small share on workers. And those effects will take decades to appear. "So yes, this is a huge tax cut not just for the 1 percent, but for the 0.1%"
 
• Now a New York Times editorial, "Well-Heeled Investors Reap the Republican Tax Cut Bonanza," says we told you so.
  

  . . . the President and Republican lawmakers' claim[ed] that a corporate tax cut would "boost workers’ incomes even as it added $1.5 trillion to the debt that future generations would have to pay off.

Does Anyone Remember the Marshall Plan?

Unilateral	Multilateral
"We'll save a lot" by cutting aid to countries that oppose American positions, President Trump said in his first State of the Union address. "We don't care." 1	The United States has always given aid to promote American interests, as all countries do. Trump’s idea of the national interest is narrower than his predecessors.1
In a 2015 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average respondent thought that 26 percent of the federal budget went to foreign aid. More than half the respondents thought the United States was spending too much on foreign aid.1	Only 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget goes to foreign aid — and about 40 percent of that is security assistance, rather than economic or humanitarian.1 It's the size of the U.S GDP, $19 trillion in 2016, that makes us the world's largest largest donor at $190 billion.2 And $76 billion of that is for American security interests.
Offended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s criticism of the Jerusalem move, Mr. Trump ordered that $65 million in American aid be withheld from the United Nations refugee agency that serves the Palestinians.1 U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told Republican legislators that she was “taking names," adding: “I can’t tell you how helpful it is to have a Congress that backs us up. When y’all play the heavy, it makes it so much easier for me to play the bad cop with a smile.” 1	At least 11 countries, including Russia, Belgium and Norway, have rushed to fill the gap. The European Union held an emergency session to seek contributions to the refugee agency. The Israeli government has criticized the cut, which provides much of the schooling and health care in Gaza and the West Bank, relieving Israel of that cost. Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister and foreign minister, said Israel should cope with the fallout of the aid cut. “Why should we jump in there? It is the responsibility of the occupying country.” Israel is lobbying in Washington against the cutbacks.1
In 1947 U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall began the Marshall Plan to rebuild European economies after the devastation of World War II, and establish institutions supporting transatlantic security and prosperity for the next 70 years.3 The goals of the United States were to rebuild, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous, and prevent the spread of Communism. The United States gave over $13 billion ($140 billion in 2017 dollars) through the Plan. Public opinion polls in 1947 showed strong support for the Marshall plan among Americans.4	The German Marshall Fund of the United States is founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to the Marshall Plan. On the 70th anniversary of the Marshall Plan in 2017, German Marshall Fund President Karen Donfried said, “Among its many achievements, the Marshall Plan is remembered as one of the most successful examples of a foreign assistance program.” 3

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¹ "Trump Wants to Aid Only ‘America’s Friends.’ If Only It Were That Easy," Steven Erlanger, New York Times, February 3, 2018
² "GDP (current US$)". World Development Indicators. World Bank. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
³ Merkel, Kissinger Stress Lasting Power of Transatlantic Partnership at German Marshall Fund Event, German Marshall Fund, June 21, 2017
⁴ "Marshall Plan," Wikipedia, retrieved February 4, 2018.
 

Buying Paul Ryans

Did the Kochs Contribute $500,000 to Paul Ryan After the GOP Tax Plan Was Passed?

Charles and Elizabeth Koch gave nearly half a million dollars to the House Speaker's fundraising committee after passage of the Republican tax bill.

Fleeing Wisconsin

Shutterstock

 
The U.S. States People Are Fleeing (And The Ones They Are Moving To)
Karsten Strauss, Forbes, Jan 18, 2018

10. Wisconsin

• Total Moves: 3,285
• Percentage Moving Out: 54.5%

Madison was #10 loser last year, according to Forbes and United Van Lines, with a net - 4.5%. Maybe this is why Republican Governor Scott Walker is spending $7 million on a national ad campaign to attract workers.

According to another Forbes article on state business climate, Wisconsin's Labor Supply ranking is lower than any nearby state but Michigan. The ranking considers college or high school grade levels, net migration, projected population growth, union workforce, and population between 25 and 34.

According to a Forbes source, “Finding highly-educated millennials is top of mind for all of our clients.” Wisconsin's college attendance and net migration in 2016 were worse than Minnesota's. More people are going to college in Minnesota, and voting for Minnesota with their feet.
 

Everything we love about Ponzi schemes

Some of the most skeptical folks about Bitcoin are experts in cryptography and computer security:

“A lab experiment that escaped into the wild.”
— Steven Bellovin, computer security expert and professor at Columbia University, saying the technology is still too buggy

"It’s hard to trust a currency that’s backed by the full faith and credit of software that has to be updated monthly."
— Steven Bellovin

“Cryptocurrency somehow combines everything we love about religious fanatics with everything we love about Ponzi schemes.”
— Security expert Matt Blaze tweet

"Investing in Bitcoin might make you rich, sure. But how much do you know about tulips? No bubble is too big to burst," John Schwartz, The New York Times, Jan. 12, 2018
 

Is Trump a Fourth-Grader?

Newsweek's "Trump Speaks At Fourth-Grade Level, Lowest Of Last 15 U.S. Presidents, New Analysis Finds" ¹ and its source, FactSquared's “'Stable Genius' – Let’s Go to the Data," ² are fun to read because everyone has been dumbfounded by one of Donald Trump's incoherent tweets. But no tweets were used in the making of this chart.

Continual and Fearless Sifting and Winnowing

University of Wisconsin President Charles Kendall Adams and economics Professor Richard T. Ely (Wikipedia)

Sifting and winnowing is a metaphor for the academic pursuit of truth associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, coined by University President Charles Kendall Adams.

Professor Richard T. Ely was known to be liberal and pro-union, having published a book on socialism. In 1894 Superintendent of Public Instruction Oliver Wells protested Ely's socialist beliefs, teaching, and public speaking to President Adams and the Board of Regents.¹

Madison's Confederate Memorials

This 1981 memorial at Forest Hill Cemetery was removed August 16, 2017. (Patrick Mack/Wisconsin State Journal)

A Timeline of Civil War Memorials
United States	Year	Madison
In Dred Scott v. Sanford the Supreme Court rules that a slave, or a descendant of slaves, is not an American citizen and has no standing to sue in federal court for freedom in a free state.6	1857	The City of Madison purchases land for Forest Hill Cemetery to replace the village cemetery in Block 180, now Orton Park.3

League of Women Voters on the Elections and Ethics Commissions

Republicans should call off the attack and restore cuts by Governor Walker

Erin Grunze, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Dec. 29, 2017

Wisconsin Capitol, Madison
(Photo: Journal Sentinel)

It is troubling to see the John Doe investigations and fallout back in the news as it has escalated to the point where legislative leaders are calling for Elections Commission Administrator Mike Haas and other officials to resign, despite no accusations of wrongdoing or any recommendation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice for their resignation.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin trusts the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission to be able to evaluate their staff and make decisions about their ability to maintain nonpartisanship of our elections.

Under Haas’ leadership, the Elections Commission has successfully administered the 2016 statewide presidential recount, implemented online voter registration, provided training for clerks across the state on changes in election law, and implemented a new statewide voter database and election administration system. The League has interfaced with Mr. Haas and other WEC staff in our voter service work and always found them to be helpful, nonpartisan and highly professional.

Heading into an election year our hope would be that lawmakers be concerned with how to support the Wisconsin Elections Commission in running accessible and fair elections. They can do that by restoring the needed staffing which the governor cut in the state budget. They certainly will not improve elections by stripping the agency of its leadership at a critical time. Bringing a partisan dispute to a bipartisan commission that has been functioning well harms the reputation of the Wisconsin Elections Commission in a time when it is working to address the real challenges with election security, how to implement new and evolving technology, and educating voters so they can understand and comply with the many changes in voting laws.

More Obfuscation

Secrets are lies.
Sharing is caring.
Privacy is theft.
— Dave Eggers, The Circle

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
― George Orwell, 1984

I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
― The earliest known print attribution is to U.S. State Department spokesman Robert McCloskey by CBS reporter Marvin Kalb (TV Guide, 31 March 1984), citing an unspecified press briefing during the Vietnam War. Ralph Keyes, The Quote Verifier (2006, p. 233)