The left-of-center USA Today recently and then the left-of-center Associated Press (AP) did Americans a favor last week. They aptly reported that there are two competing narratives for Americans to ponder this election cycle. More on that after noting that several news outlets are reporting a looming antitrust case against a major U.S. company that impacts our industry and others. More antitrust – or anti-monopolistic behavior – federal efforts are likely, according to government records obtained by MHProNews. Let us mention that Americans for Limited Government (ALG) plan to spotlight the origins of pro-Chinese policies that undermined and continue to threaten American investors, businesses and thus jobs. More on those after USA Today’s and AP’s snapshot of the competing American narratives.
USA Today said: “The Republican and Democratic conventions didn’t present only competing political parties to voters. They also reflected clashing visions of reality in the nation Donald Trump and Joe Biden are battling to lead.”
“In Trump’s America, the coronavirus is no longer the looming threat; the president accepted the GOP nomination with an address cheered by the sort of big crowd that has been outlawed in the District of Columbia for fears of spreading the disease. In Biden’s America, the virus remains a deadly menace; he accepted the Democratic nomination on a stark stage in his Delaware hometown with only a handful of reporters as his audience.” So said USA Today on August 29, 2020.
Last week, AP reported on September 4, 2020 the following. “NEW YORK (AP) — On the campaign trail with President Donald Trump, the pandemic is largely over, the economy is roaring back, and murderous mobs are infiltrating America’s suburbs.
With Democrat Joe Biden, the pandemic is raging, the economy isn’t lifting the working class, and systemic racism threatens Black lives across America.
The first week of the fall sprint to Election Day crystallized dizzyingly different versions of reality as the Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger trekked from Washington and Delaware to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and back, each man on an urgent mission to sell his particular message to anxious voters….”
Regular and detail-attentive readers of MHProNews won’t find those competing narratives surprising at all. They are mentioned to underscore the reality of our day-by-day reports and analysis on key issues that impact our profession and/or the broader nation.
Weighing in on those competing visions of reality are various groups and their endorsements. With ‘law and order’ vs. ‘defunding the police’ two more competing narratives, it is worth noting that unions representing hundreds of thousands of police officers have strongly backed the Trump-Pence ticket. While some in media call them protests – and indeed, there are some peaceful protests – there are also routine cases of violence that are often tied to Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and others that had their organizations documented to be getting funding from left-wing billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and George Soros. Something like 1.4 million hits have been amassed on the ‘read hot’ report linked below since it was first published.
When scores of anti-Trump journalists, pundits, educators, entertainers, and others have signed onto various statements ripping mainstream media for their lack of objective reporting in favor of spoon-feeding their readers a ‘narrative’ that hits and misses on aspects of reality, those AP and USA Today reports serve to clarify that reality – one that MHProNews has reported on for years. But now, it is ever harder to deny what this media outlet was in the vanguard in trade media reporting and analysis stating years ago; namely, that the ‘news reports’ about our industry and others too is routinely flawed.
Indeed, the case can be made that one reason that manufactured housing is underperforming in part precisely because of a lack of objectivity in much of mainstream media. While there are clear ties between that sad reality and industry insiders – which are among the topics covered in our Sunday week in review further below – it is important for three distinctive groups to be informed and reminded about these trends in news media reports.
Those three groups?
- Those who believe the Democratic Biden-Harris version of reality hook, line, and sinker.
- Those who believe the Trump-Pence led segment of the GOP (Grand Old Party, or Republican Party) that seeks to challenge the status quo and much of the mainstream media reporting.
- Those independents and others who reason before casting ballots in an election season that is already upon us.
More on those shortly.
Flashback and Fast Forward
In the 1950s when television as a medium of communications was young, among the favorite programs was Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy, and Bishop Fulton Sheen’s prime time program. In accepting his Emmy Award, Bishop Sheen’s characteristic wit shone through. Per Wikipedia, “In 1952 Sheen won an Emmy Award for his efforts, accepting the acknowledgment by saying, “I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
While a Catholic, people of all religious backgrounds watched Sheen by the millions to learn why “Life Is Worth Living.” He would weave quotes from the greatest secular, biblical and other religious sources into his talks that were done live without a teleprompter.
Among Sheen’s routine themes were dire warnings against communism. Truth is truth, regardless of the source.
Fast forward to today, and some of Sheen’s comments might be flagged on Twitter, Facebook, or could be shadow-banned on Google’s parent company Alphabet-owned YouTube. Not because Sheen’s words weren’t as true now as then. But rather because today several of his comments would be seen as ‘politically incorrect.’ The cancel culture censors for what right-of-center Breitbart calls the “Masters of the Universe” in Big Tech would step in and seek to shut him down.
That de facto big corporate censorship is possible because big government has for too long failed to do its job. That job of government includes protecting its citizens from harm both foreign and domestic.
Several media outlets are reporting that the Department of Justice’s antitrust division will hit giant Google with an antitrust suit sometime in September. MHProNews began reporting on that in 2018. Dozens of states are probing Google and Facebook too. But beyond those probes, there have been numerous inquiries cited in the official records of the 116th Congress, which is the current session that runs in 2019 and 2020.
Here are some of the hearings, bills and resolutions related to a search for antitrust and monopolistic issues in America at the Congressional level. A close reading of some of these will reveal touch-points with manufactured housing connected challenges.
ANTITRUST POLICY related term(s) Monopolies
ANTITRUST POLICY related term(s) Monopolies
Bills and resolutions
Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act: repeal sunset provision (see S. 3377), S1297 [3MR] (see S. 4346), S4544 [28JY] (see H.R. 7036), H2321 [27MY] (see H.R. 7882), H4189 [30JY]
Business and industry: deter anticompetitive exclusionary conduct that harms competition and consumers and enhance ability of Dept. of Justice and FTC to enforce antitrust laws (see S. 3426), S1672 [10MR]
FTC: impose moratorium on certain corporate mergers and acquisitions during coronavirus disease pandemic (see S. 4013), S3101 [18JN] (see H.R. 6989), H2276 [22MY]
——— increase penalties during coronavirus emergency (see S. 3862), S2649 [2JN]
Remarks in House
Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act: repeal sunset provision (H.R. 7036), H2439 [25JN]
FTC: prohibit anticompetitive use of patents by drug product manufacturers, H1601 [11MR], H3629, H3632, H3635 [22JY]
Remarks in Senate
Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act: repeal sunset provision (S. 3377), S3625, S3626 [25JN]
——— repeal sunset provision (S. 4346), S4550 [28JY]
FTC: prohibit anticompetitive use of patents by drug product manufacturers (S. 1416), S71 [8JA], S1099 [24FE]
Texts of
H.R. 7036, Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Permanent Extension Act, H2439 [25JN]
- 3377, Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Permanent Extension Act, S3625 [25JN]
- 4346, Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Permanent Extension Act, S4547, S4550 [28JY]
##
While this brief video ends with some cornpone, it does give a quick definition of the Clayton Anti-Trust act.
Depending on who wins in 2020 will likely have a significant impact on antitrust in America, or not.
MHProNews routinely cites sources from left-of-center media for various reasons. Balance is one, and evidence from leftists for leftists is another. Frankly, there are topics that some left-wing media reports more accurately than their counterparts on the right.
That said, from the center-right side of the media spectrum, Breitbart News is a source worth checking daily. Whatever the left’s talking points happen to be, Breitbart routinely pulls back the veil in focused, often short and evidence laden reports and analysis. They use some satire, often starting with the headline, but their facts are routinely well presented. They break some stories, because they do radio and other interviews. But more often Breitbart will wryly present insights in a manner that say right-of-center Fox News would handle differently or at times will miss entirely. It is worth noting that Breitbart’s founder earlier in his career was with the left-of-center Huffington Post.
Left-of-Center The Atlantic and POTUS Trump 2018 Military Cemetery Flap
While much of the media is focused on the ‘controversy’ of President Trump’s alleged snide remarks about World War II veterans in a ceremony reportedly skipped due to weather related issues, Breitbart made several pithy individual reports that beyond the president and First Lady Melania Trump’s denials of the ‘fake news’ claim, or those of others now or previously in the Trump Adminstration at the time, dispatched the concerns in three different ways.
- Former White House adviser John Bolton, who has published an anti-Trump tome, flatly said that he was there in the room and never heard those purported snarky comments from President Trump.
- Nearly 700 veterans have signed onto a letter thanking the 45th President for having the backs of the military, which they say was badly neglicated in the Obama-Biden Adminstration.
- Perhaps most important, Breitbart followed the money trail. The billionaire majority owner of The Atlantic reportedly has donated some $1.2 million dollars to Joe Biden’s campaign and that of other Democratic candidates in the 2019-2020 election cycle.
Rephrased, another Democratic-favoring billionaire has used an anomously sourced story that is useful for Democrats in a ‘report’ that is disputed by people like John Bolton, who is no friend of President Trump. The Tennessee Star and the Daily Caller are among other media outlets who have published similar reports that undermine the credibility of that anti-Trump Altantic hit piece.
But with many in left-leaning, pro-Biden mainstream media running with the Atlantic’s debunked ‘report,’ is it any wonder if millions of Americans will be led to believe another piece of ‘fake news?’
Americans for Limited Government (ALG)…
ALG President Rick Manning told Breitbart News that an airplane will be “bringing attention to [Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe] Biden’s soft spot for China will be flying over Biden’s Rehoboth Beach home on Monday afternoon.”
“As [President Obama’s] vice president, Joe Biden brokered a sweetheart deal with China that could blow up the retirement accounts of millions of hard-working Americans by poisoning them with unaudited, risky Chinese assets. We want Joe to know his China collusion at the expense of Americans is coming to an end,” Manning said.
“In 2013, Biden orchestrated a deal with the Chinese Communist Party giving Chinese companies access to U.S. capital markets without having to comply with the same strict disclosure regulations required of U.S. companies. This puts the retirement accounts of millions of Americans at risk because investors have no way of knowing the true value of any of those Chinese investments,” says ALG, which has launched a website: DivestChinaNow.org.
That website says: “The Pentagon recently issued an alarming report about the Chinese Communist Party’s [CCP] ominous military build-up. The People’s Republic is amassing a vast array of warships, bombers and other aircraft, missiles, tanks, etc. as part of its bid to dominate the world. We are the intended target of these weapons and other techniques Chinese strategists call “unrestricted warfare.””
Not mentioned in that section of the website is the related hot topic examined by MHLivingNews.
Returning to the ALG backed site, it adds that “….Chinese corporations that are getting money from Wall Street can do so without having to conform to the same rules their American counterparts must play by. Our companies have to be transparent, properly audited and willing to disclose fully material risks. The CCP’s companies don’t. That’s outrageous.”
“Senior U.S. government officials have repeatedly warned that Chinese companies may defraud investors. Many are involved in human rights abuses and/or pose threats to our national security. The Labor Department says that twelve of these corporations actually use child- or slave-labor making investors in them effectively slave owners.” stated Divest China Now.
While unemployment has reportedly fell back into single digits, as one of our reports linked below details, there are millions that still need jobs following the Wuhan Virus/COVID-19 pandemic fallout. Getting those jobs back while protecting citizens from threats foreign and domestic are key issues in the 2020 campaign. ALG is clearly spotlighting their stance that the Biden-Harris ticket won’t be the ones to duke it out with China in a fashion that protects or expands American jobs, since they were involved in outsources millions of U.S. jobs in the first place. Due to numerous producers of affordable manufactured homes sourcing products from China, this is a far more important topic to our industry than many might think.
As the USA Today and AP stories cited at the top made clear, the November 3 2020 balloting will be a big choice election. There are two vastly different visions of America being portrayed.
For busy professionals, who still need to stay informed, there are several strategies that are useful to keep in mind and apply.
- Pick your news sources carefully.
- For those with time, source across left-and-right to get a better sense of what both sides are saying on the same topic.
- Do what thousands do daily. Don’t miss a single report published by MHProNews, which already sources across the left-and-right and provides evidence-based analysis and commentary.
Our nation and our industry are both at a crossroads. The major parties agree on that point, while they provide a vastly different view of what is right or wrong in America.
With no further adieu, let’s turn to the headlines from the week that was from August 30 to September 9.6.2020.
The Latest from Washington, D.C. from MHARR
The Latest from Manufactured Home Living News
What’s New on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 9.5.2020
Friday 9.4.2020
Thursday 9.3.2020
Wednesday 9.2.2020
Tuesday 9.1.2020
Monday 8.31.2020
Millions for “Swiftboating” Joe Biden, plus Manufactured Housing Investing, Stock Updates
Sunday 8.30.2020
Post Script
In an age of widespread deception, the need for carefully sourcing information is ever more important. Deception if not new in American media. As MHProNews’ flashback reports have relfected, there has been misinformation used in America and abroad for centuries. Propaganda is hardly new.
But when it is self-evident that there are two entirely different narratives, that alone should beg the question. Which version – which narrative – is closer to reality?
MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister site will strive to sort out such issues for our readers, while reporting on industry topics and other relevant issues that impact businesses, professionals, consumers, advocates, and others. We will fact-check and expose the bunk flowing from the Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington axis and their allies.
Stay tuned with the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, 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.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and 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.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.
