Voices from the political and media left and right in the U.S. have made a similar argument as the one presented below by historian Hanne Nabintu Herland. For an example from the political left, the announcement by Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s formal presidential campaign proclaimed that a key to his bid and potential administration was summed up by him like this. “My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and…throughout my presidency will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now…to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country.” On the political right, former award-winning 17-year CNN correspondent Chris Plante, now an award-winning satirical radio pundit on Washington, D.C.’s WMAL, has said that fascism is rising in the U.S. Plante cites Benito Mussolini’s purported definition: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” Among the reasons why this matters to manufactured housing should be made clear. If this creeping “fascism” and “totalitarianism” fully takes root in the U.S.A., then the American Dream is over. To the extent that a new feudalism is rising in America (and elsewhere in the world), the America Dream is already significantly limited. Given that Warren Buffett has explained that his rich class has “waged class warfare” for decades in the U.S., and that “my class won” it should not be thought that this is mere hyperbole.
Buffett has all but said that the truth about class warfare in the U.S. is hiding in plain sight.
Ironically, numbers of those illegally crossing the southern border into the U.S. are coming from nations that have already further down the road of socialism, communism, and totalitarianism. Venezuelans, people from Cuba, and Communist China are among those who have reportedly been intercepted at the border with Mexico.
- Part I of today’s report is provided by the WND News Center to MHProNews entitled: “Is America the USSR yet? We’re getting closer.”
- Part II is additional information with more MHProNews Analysis and Commentary in Brief.
- Part III is our Daily Business News on MHProNews manufactured housing connected stocks and macro U.S. markets graphics at a glance report.
Part I.
Is America the USSR yet? We’re getting closer
Exclusive: Hanne Nabintu Herland explains Marxist strategy that replaces freedom with fear
By Hanne Nabintu Herland
Published May 10, 2023 at 7:08pm
Read Hanne’s The Herland Report.
It is the fruits of Marxism that over time change the population from being independent thinkers with individual rights protected by a conservative Constitution to becoming subordinate, groupthink, indoctrinated communities full of fear of the government.
Hannah Arendt came to the conclusion in her famous book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” that precisely because modern democracies have such well-developed, strong institutions and hierarchical organized structures, the massive power exerted when such a state demands of its citizens to follow orders – regardless of legitimacy or legal basis – the people as a socially tight-knit group are inclined to obey orders without reflecting sufficiently on individual ethic responsibilities. Indifference, complacency, lack of empathy anda willingness to obey the status quo created the perfect opportunity for totalitarian forces to take control.
As tyranny and its sheer terror grips the heart of its citizens, the change within the population goes from actively participating in local governments, speaking their minds, always looking for the abuse of power, addressing these topics publicly – to becoming a repressed group in which “everyone publicly has the same left-wing opinion,” completely in line with one-sided media propaganda that only tells the government narrative.
In such a system, the people become the tyranny of the mob, effectively turning each other over to “the state Gestapo,” in a system of active informants reporting and surveilling one another, in accordance with the will of the elites. Precisely this development was the fear of Alexis de Tocqueville, as he examined in “Democracy in America” the dangers of democracy becoming a tyrannical mob, where fear instead of freedom becomes a driving force.
When studying the effects of Marxism implemented in nations, the system introduced was one where a new, atheist Marxist elite replaced the existing elite, controlling the working class just as their predecessors did before them. The oppression implemented by intolerant communist lords of the state, whereby millions were sent to concentration camps and millions killed by their own leaders, defined totalitarian horror in the 20th century.
As a necessity of totalitarian states comes the concentration camps and the gulags where those who do not obey the orders are placed under terrorizing inhuman conditions and often killed. The dual purpose of the camps are, for one, to remove from society those who do not comply with the socialist groupthink, and two, the terrorizing of individuals – often with public slander, belittling, accusations, presenting lies to taint their reputation – this is necessary to discourage others from attempting to voice an opinion outside of the mainstream narrative dictate.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi summed this strategy up as she on tape explained how Democrats smear their opponents with falsehood and lies. She states: “You demonize, it is called the Wrap Up Smear. You smear somebody, with falsehoods and all the rest. Then you merchandize it, you write it and say, ‘It is reported in the press’ this and this, so you have the validation that the press reported the smear. That’s what’s called a Wrap Up Smear. So, we merchandize what the press has reported on the smear that we made. It is a tactic.” Pelosi is among the long lines of Americans who fell for the neo-Marxist deception, and to use Vladimir Lenin’s often attributed term, have become very “useful idiots.”
This is what the Orthodox Christian philosopher and Nobel laureate Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) wrote is the consequence of communism: The need to remove completely those who in any way oppose the state ruled system as they are “the obstacle to total unity” and to the perfect communist paradise.
Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the USSR in 1975 for speaking about matters the Soviet leaders disliked, and finally ended up in the United States. He died in 2008. Arrested in 1945 for writing critical comments about “the mustache” – Stalin – in private letters, he was sentenced to eight years in a concentration camp. His story serves as a brutally horrifying example of the inhumane clamp-down against any form of intellectual critical thinking that existed during the atheistic communist system in the Soviet Union.
Currently, it looks like the United States is closely following in its footsteps. ##
Part II. Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary in Brief
Hanne Nabintu Herland cited in the above what she called “Hannah Arendt famous book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism…”” Amazon’s summary of that tome by Arendt says the following.
The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.”
Corporatism
How this rise of corporate-government convergence is described differs between writers, experts, politicos and pundits.
For instance, some may describe it as the “deep state” or the “rigged system.” Others may think of it as authoritarianism. Or what the Modular Home Builders Association’s (MHBA) Tom Hardiman called “political payoffs” that is ‘turning the American Dream into the American nightmare.’
MHProNews is among those news, tips, and views information sources that has long stated what should be obvious. “Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left.” Despite left-leaning Wikipedia and others wrongly claiming that Nazi Germany is on the ‘far right,’ the very name of the Nazi Party in German makes that plainly false. “German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP)” says Britannica, is translated as “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.” Emphasis is added on the word “socialist.”
So, what Herland is describing is in some ways not unique. She is amplifying what others have described and have been warning about.
Approaching two years ago, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger openly said during a CNBC video interview that politicians and the rich both want more power. That’s certainly an apt description of rising totalitarianism. Without saying fascism or corporatism, isn’t that what they were describing?
There can be millions of employees of organizations – including those which are governmental, nonprofits, corporate, etc. – that are doing the bidding of their bosses with little or no understanding of the role that they are playing in fueling the rise of fascist behavior in the U.S. Again, fascism has been described as the nexus of corporate and governmental power. While knocked by some for some ‘technical’ points of his argument, Adam McKay interestingly noted that Webster’s Dictionary changed their definition of the term.
In terms of Herland’s pointing to the use of fear and terror, consider the role that COVID19 has purportedly played in this transformation of what were considered inviolable constitutional rights guaranteed to all Americans.
Shortly after COVID19 ‘officially’ hit the U.S., the Masthead blog on MHProNews soberly pronounced that the party is over.
June 27, 2021 MHProNews published this.
Months before inflation became an acknowledged reality by the White House and others in the federal government, MHProNews was reporting on its reality and the impacts that it would have on millions of Americans. Certainly, others in mainstream media did similarly, as various linked and referenced reports exemplifies. That said, there are those in corporate mainstream media that essentially carried the government’s official stance until that stance became too difficult to believe. For instance, when then House Majority Whip James Clyburn (SC-D) made his admission on MSNBC, where was the obviously needed follow up questions?
When a government borrows vast sums of money, what is commonly called “inflation” is bound to follow.
Fascinatingly, at times, someone in a position of power will make a surprising admission. A compelling example is from then House Majority Whip Clyburn (SC-D) who admitted mere days before the 2022 election day that Democrats knew that their spending policies would result in inflation. The video of Clyburn saying that on left-leaning, Democratically friendly MSNBC is in the report posted below.
Part of the point of this brief recap of select articles from the past few years is this. Once someone understands enough of the truth of what is occurring in America, then the ability to separate paltering, propaganda, and related manipulation methods from reality grows.
There are thinkers and writers that are willing to share the truth, or at least as much of the truth as they grasp at that moment in time. Once someone accepts that there has been massive amounts of misinformation spread for years, some of which is obviously contradicted by common sense, then the ability to awaken to a fuller understanding of ‘reality’ is possible.
Consider this insight: “Censorship no longer works by hiding information from you; censorship works by flooding you with immense amounts of misinformation, of irrelevant information, of funny cat videos, until you’re just unable to focus.” – Yuval Noah Harari, per Brainy Quote. Frankly, the name of that person quoted may be the first time that this MHProNews writer has seen it. The quality of the rest of his thinking is unknown. But on that specific remark, it is insightful and significant to understanding the sobering reality that has been foisted upon Americans of all backgrounds. It is deception and misdirection hiding in plain sight.
“This country has always been run by elite, and it’s an elitist democracy. And that’s not a radical concept. It’s elitist democracy.” So said Danny Glover, per Brainy Quote. What is an elitist democracy? “The definition of an elite democracy is a democratic institution in which a small number of the citizenry holds and influences political power,” says SmarterStudy.us. The National Institute for Health says in “Introduction. Elite Theory” posted on 2.10.2022 that Democratic elitism accepts the main premise of elite theory: “no societies are governed by the people, by a majority; all societies, including societies called democratic, are ruled by a minority’ (Burnham 1943, p. 184).” While elements of that claim that this nation has always been run by an elite are debatable, an evidence based case can be made that it has more or less been true in recent decades.
To the extent that the public may be deceived or misinformed about the truth of a topic, be it manufactured housing or anything else, to that same extent democratic institutions have been, and being, undermined and thwarted.
When the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) recently made the case that HUD had an obligation to not only properly regulate manufactured housing, but also had a statutory obligation to essentially promote manufactured housing, those evidence-based remarks may have been surprising even to some in our industry.
That report by MHARR, with additional analysis and commentary by MHProNews, begged an obvious question. Why isn’t the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) pushing a similar message? As or more to the point, why isn’t MHI joining MHARR to push that message jointly? Why is it that MHI is willing to work with the competitors of factory built manufactured homes? Why has MHI largely turned its back on MHARR? For those who recall the late 1990s and early 2000s in MHVille, MHARR and MHI for a time worked together on key issues, such as the enactment of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA). Today, thousands are working in manufactured housing who have little or no connection to the industry during that late 1990s through early 2000s timeframe. When MHI is taking positions that literally appear to side with conventional housing essentially against the interests of manufactured housing independents, that harms not only those (and numbers of prior) independents. A detailed look at that was done with the issue of manufactured housing finance in the deep dive linked below.
There are good reasons for MHI leaders, and their dominating corporate powers (see above and here) to avoid answering questions from MHProNews. Those reasons are illuminated in part by what the MHI insider said in the quoted remarks referenced below.
Through a combination of fear and other tactics of manipulation raised by Herland, Glover, and others Americans are being ‘headed’ toward an outcome that a relatively few powerful elites have determined that they desire. This isn’t mere speculation. The World Economic Forum (WEF), where the global elites and their political front people meet and discuss plans, said during the COVID19 pandemic period that you will own nothing and you will be happy. That’s potently blunt propaganda. It’s not a conspiracy theory, here is their tweet.
The richest of the rich and perhaps a few corporate elites may not all be entirely on board with that agenda. But some are not openly opposed to it either. Look again at the repeatedly cited remarks by Buffett and Glover.
Slick propaganda is part of how this brazen agenda is accomplished.
Pivoting back to manufactured housing. There are reportedly fewer Clayton Homes owned retail stores today than there were about a dozen years ago when Warren Buffett per Kevin Clayton said that he could have all the capital he needed to accomplish his corporate goals. Every word below is insightful. But notice the not so subtle conclusion in the final quoted paragraph. Clayton openly said on video that they plan to make things difficult for the competitors, after saying that Warren Buffett doesn’t like competition at all.
Not only are there fewer manufactured home retailers owned by Clayton, but there are THOUSANDs of fewer manufactured housng independents. Who said? Kevin Clayton to Congress, in what was arguably a cagily worded piece of paltering.
Employees of Clayton Homes and their sister brands under the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella are impacted by these trends, even if they may not see it right away. Once it is understood that paltering is part of the game – with paltering understood as a mixture of clever half-truths, omission of key insights, and perhaps even some subtle to bold lies – then it becomes all the more clear that only a tiny fraction of the population will benefit from these trends in the end. The so-called 99 percent are being herded toward a new era of feudalism. As the WEF put it, you will own nothing and you better be happy about it.
Many Democrats, so-called RINO Republicans, and others are part of the political pawns that the corporate elites have essentially bought off to slowly, steadily gain power over the population. Who says so? How about a once prominent Democrat who made a stunning series of admissions in an interview with a relatively modest publication. Former California Governor Jerry (D) was a two-time Democratic presidential contender back in his day. Having led the most populous state in the U.S., he certainly had insights that most Americans do not have. What makes this compelling is these are arguably ‘admissions against his own interests.’
How is this accomplished out in the open? Because much of the mainstream media has been consolidated into a very limited number of corporate hands. As former longtime CNN reporter Chris Plante often says, the political left in the U.S. has achieved information dominance. He said on his Washington, D.C. based WMAL radio program Friday that information dominance is a military term being applied to the U.S. media. A more complete truth is often more likely found in alternative media outlets, rather than from mainstream ones. And keep in mind, it isn’t that everything said by mainstream media (MSM) is a lie. It is routinely textbook paltering. A mixture of truth, spin, omissions, and deception. As Plante also explains, one of the most powerful aspects of modern media is its power to ignore. Ignore what? The full truth. Some news reports won’t be found in some media outlets because that news doesn’t fit their otherwise narrative. That’s how propaganda operates in the modern world.
Why do people across the political spectrum in our profession (and others) follow MHProNews/MHLivingNews? Because not many will lay out the facts, evidence, and logic in a cogent step by step fashion.
Jump back in time to the era of President John F. Kennedy (D). You don’t just snap your fingers and turn a patriotic America into a Soviet style dictatorship. It has to be done subtly and in stages. In the 1960s, there may have been differing visions of how the nation’s interests could best be advanced. But both major parties, both Republicans and Democrats were what today may be called “patriots.” As Plante has said, the late President Kennedy would likely not be welcomed in the Democratic Party, even though he became president. Why not? Because Kennedy’s view on a range of issues are not so far apart from what 45th President Donald J. Trump holds. For instance, Kennedy cut taxes, as Trump did. Kennedy reportedly wanted to wind down the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Trump wound down the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. After Kennedy’s assassination, which his nephew and fellow Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thinks may have had CIA involvement, his vice president, Lyndon Banes Johnson (LBJ) (D) took over as president. President Johnson (D) ramped up the war in Vietnam that President Kennedy wanted to wind down. Who benefited? The military industrial complex.
The steady rise of the top tier of American society has been possible in part because antitrust efforts have not been vigorously enforced for decades. Who says? Both Democrats and Republicans who are informed about the issues.
Again, this is not mere speculation. Consider what Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have said almost 2 years ago on CNBC.
White House Resident Joe Biden (D) has all but said as much. His White House Fact Sheet on Competition laid out the trends toward increasing consolidation of much of America’s professional sectors. But once again, this was apparently clever paltering. His remarks were true enough. But a year later, what actually occurred? Consolidation is continuing. Some of the highly touted ‘trust busters’ hired by the Biden Administration have turned out to be relatively tame in their results. It was utterly predictable. Why? Because Biden was put into office by those very people he was supposedly threatening with antitrust action.
Ironically, the truth can at times be found in left-leaning publications, which is why the principle of separating the wheat from the chaff must be applied. It is often left-leaning publications that admitted that Democrats are increasingly the party of the financially powerful. RINO Republicans and Democrats are more beholden to their corporate masters.
From the perspective of the ultra-wealthy, they want – as Buffett said – more money and more power. Constitutionally limited government is a bar against that happening. So what is done? The constitutional limitations are undermined from within. It isn’t just manufactured housing that has laws that are not being properly enforced. Other aspects of federal law are being ignored too. A fine example of that is the lack of proper enforcement of the U.S.-Mexican border. Under President Trump, it became increasingly difficult to cross illegally. But as soon as Biden took over, the U.S.-Mexican border was essentially ‘opened’ though Democrats in power often denied that reality repeatedly. That’s not an irrelevant issue. Illegal immigration hurts who? Often those with the lowest wage jobs. People crossing the southern border illegally may not be attorneys, doctors, rocket scientists, or highly skilled elites. They are routinely those seeking a better life than what they left behind. Who will the compete against for jobs? Wall Street stock brokers? Hardly. They may end up often end up doing labor-intensive tasks. Who does that harm? Working class Americans, including minorities.
Manufactured housing is an obvious subset of the U.S. economy. Some in manufactured housing are willing to subvert their own industry in order to drive out competition. See what MHI member Andy Gedo said in what should be called ‘the great debate’ because MHI won’t do what Gedo did. Then, after looking at what Gedo said, look anew at what Kevin Clayton said. The two dovetail. Barriers of entry, persistence, and exit limit manufactured housing.
Again, it isn’t as if this is a secret. Pro-Buffett, pro-Berkshire author Bud Labitan in his book on “Moats” used Clayton Homes and their lending as an example of how the Buffett moat operates in the real world. See pages 77-81 of Labitan’s book for the chapter on Clayton and its moat.
If you as a reader are working for Clayton, this may seem to be good news. It might appear to be that you are on the ‘winning side’ of what’s happening in manufactured housing. Or if you are working for an ally at MHI of Clayton, you might think similarly. But in fact, there are good reasons to think that monopolization hurts even those employed by monopolists. Your income potential is being artificially limited, precisely because there are fewer competitors. Outside researcher Samuel “Sam” Strommen with Knudson Law connected the dots quite well.
An MHI member, after reading the new report linked below, emailed in to MHProNews to say: “I hear that’s a hell hole internally. No surprise.”
Manufactured housing is demonstrably being subverted from within. Those corporate board leaders and top staff at MHI could not be so incompetent as to keep making the same foolish mistakes, and failing to deliver on their same old, tired promises, years after year. How incompetent do you have to be to allow the industry to go into a 6 month slide? But this IS NOT garden-variety incompetence. Rather, it is a stealthy method for driving competitors out of business in a slow, steady fashion.
Manufactured housing (MH) industry underperformance leads to consolidation.
MH underperformance leads to consolidation.
Whistleblowers are needed to step forward. We have had several in the past. We need more now. Reportedly, Cavco whistleblowers were rewarded. MHProNews does not pay rewards, but when some are ‘nailed’ for their wrongdoing, there are some state and federal programs that reward whistleblowers upon conviction.
Per legal sources to MHProNews, while some might think that statues of limitations may have run on certain offenses, that may not be so. If the ‘crime’ or ‘conspiracy’ is ‘ongoing,’ then the statute of limitations has yet to start.
See the linked and related reports to learn more about these issues. You don’t have to try to do everything yourself. all that is needed is for you to operate effectively in your own sphere of influence. Because the future of our nation, and our profession – your future – is at stake. ###
Part III
Note: The headline function from left-leaning CNN and right-leaning Newmax from yesterday failed. We regret the error. However, the capture for the manufactured housing markets and macro markets are posted below.
2022 was a tough year for many stocks. Unfortunately, that pattern held true for manufactured home industry (MHVille) connected stocks too.
See the facts, linked below.
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Updated
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- NOTE 1: The 3rd chart above of manufactured housing connected equities includes the Canadian stock, ECN, which purchased Triad Financial Services, a manufactured home industry finance lender.
- NOTE 2: Drew changed its name and trading symbol at the end of 2016 to Lippert (LCII).
- NOTE 3: Deer Valley was largely taken private, say company insiders in a message to MHProNews on 12.15.2020, but there are still some outstanding shares of the stock from the days when it was a publicly traded firm. Thus, there is still periodic activity on DVLY.
- Note 4: some recent or related reports to the REITs, stocks, and other equities named above follow in the reports linked below.
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2023 …Berkshire Hathaway is the parent company to Clayton Homes, 21st Mortgage, Vanderbilt Mortgage and other factory-built housing industry suppliers.
· LCI Industries, Patrick, UFPI, and LP each are suppliers to the manufactured housing industry, among others.
· AMG, CG, and TAVFX have investments in manufactured housing related businesses. For insights from third-parties and clients about our publisher, click here.
Disclosure. MHProNews holds no positions in the stocks in this report.
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That’s a wrap on this installment of “News Through the Lens of Manufactured Homes and Factory-Built Housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, stock, investing, data, metrics, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship along with numerous awards in history. There have been several awards and honors and also recognition in manufactured housing. For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
