Joan of Arc is one of the most famous women of French, European, and World History. The lesson? Among others, never underestimate the power of even a single woman. Indeed, any one person is capable of being inspired to change the world. Says leftist Wikipedia, “Joan of Arc, nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans” or “Maid of Lorraine”, is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War, and was canonized as a saint.” Born into “a peasant family,” she helped inspire and lead and recovery of “France from English domination late in the Hundred Years’ War.” Which is an oblique way of introducing what one woman, and one man -author Ilana Mercer and Justice Clarence Thomas – each have to say to our nation in general, and how it may apply to our industry in particular.
Mercer calls out the threat of “Deep Tech.” She uses that phrase to denote the deep ties between Big Tech to big government. Mercer explains why the reasoning of certain libertarians and others offer in a de facto defense of the tech giants is demonstrably untrue. Without explicitly saying so in her news/analysis article below, Mercer is making a parallel argument to WMAL pundit Chris Plante. Plante – who Wikipedia says “worked at CNN for 17 years, mostly covering The Pentagon and U.S. Military” – periodically calls out the tech giants ability to limit “…freedom of speech and freedom of reach.”
Mercer desires that too, in her own unique way.
That is what Justice Clarence Thomas has also signaled, per left-leaning Time Magazine. On April 9, 2021, Time said that: “Millions of Americans are deeply concerned about the power and reach of America’s largest tech companies (Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon…”
So the issue and concern spans left-center-right.
It isn’t a physical romance that Mercer has, but an intellectual ‘love affair’ with Thomas’ recent opinion on a case. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a suit because President Trump was no longer in office, Thomas concurred on technical grounds, but added his own commentary that rounded out an issue that Mercer dives into. Her column appeared on the World Net Daily (WND) news site, and is reproduced below with permission. Note Mercer uses a mix of facts, wit, and hyperbole to drive home here contentions. Her rationale will be followed by our headlines in review and our postscript for today that deals with the challenges of “Deep Tech” and the steady monopolization of America more broadly.
THE PALEOLIBERTARIAN
Justice Thomas’ solution to Big Tech’s social and financial excommunication
By Ilana Mercer
Published August 12, 2021 at 7:45pm.
Note: This column is Part 2 of a 3-part series. Read Part 1, “Big Tech’s financial terrorism and social excommunication.”
PayPal Holdings Inc. is an indispensable, American, global corporation, without whose services financially transacting online is difficult. The company is worth $16.929 billion.
The worthless Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is a meddlesome shakedown operation, in the mold of the Southern Poverty Law Center, that has taken it upon itself to decide who lives and who dies socially and financially. People like Pat Buchanan and Tucker Carlson the ADL deems to be mired in white supremacism. What’s next?
The ADL and PayPal have conspired to ferret out “bigotry and extremism” from the financial industry, by which they mean ban thought crimes.
“Racism – systemic or other – remains nothing but thought crime: impolite and impolitic thoughts, spoken, written or preached. Thought crimes are nobody’s business in free societies.”
In response to this particular collusion against thought crimes, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has vowed to stay chipper. This is not sufficient a solution from so powerful a persona as Mr. Carlson.
Justice Clarence Thomas’ Solution
The requisite and fitting noblesse oblige comes from Justice Clarence Thomas.
As one of the few public intellectuals to grasp the gravity of social and financial excommunication by Deep Tech (to denote Big Tech’s enmeshment with The State), and for proposing a way to prohibit the wicked social and financial ouster of innocents – Justice Thomas is my hero.
To blabber on about simply finding alternative outlets to Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, PayPal and other banking facilities is asinine verging on the criminal. Coming from political representatives, such advice ought to guarantee loss of face, even political expulsion.
The ordinary guy or girl (check) is told to go up against economic and political entities whose revenues exceed the GDP of quite a number of G20 nations combined.
“It changes nothing that these platforms are not the sole means for distributing speech or information,” inveighs Justice Thomas. “A person could always choose to avoid the toll bridge or train and instead swim the Charles River or hike the Oregon Trail. But in assessing whether a company exercises substantial market power, what matters is whether the alternatives are comparable. For many of today’s digital platforms, nothing is.”
I’d go further. It would hardly be hyperbole, in driving home Justice Thomas’ brilliant point, to put it thus:
With respect to financial de-platforming, barring someone from PayPal is like prohibiting a passenger from crossing the English Channel by high-speed train, via ferry and by means of 90% of airplanes.
“Sure, some options remain for you to explore, you hapless loser. Go to it!”
Thomas has argued in favor of the “two legal doctrines” that “limit the right of a private company to exclude”:
The first doctrine, he explained, involves “common carriers,” such as railroads and telegraphs, which have historically been required “to serve all comers.” The second involves “places of public accommodation” or amusement, such as inns, restaurants, and theaters, which have generally been forbidden from denying service to certain categories of people. “The similarities between some digital platforms and common carriers or places of accommodation,” Thomas wrote, “may give legislators strong arguments for similarly regulating digital platforms.” (Via Reason.)
Republicans, especially the tenured motormouths on TV, have refused so much as to grapple with Justice Thomas’ ingenious assessment of Big Tech and his attendant legal recommendation.
Too complex?
Next week: Part 3, “Mercer & Mystery Man’s Big Tech solutions.” ##
###
Don’t miss today’s postscript, which will tie in elements of Mercer and Justice Thomas into possible applications into American society in general, and affordable manufactured homes in particular.
That noted, with no further adieu, let’s dive into the headlines that link to the reports from the platforms shown during the week that was between 8.8.2021 and 8.15.2021.
What’s New and Recent on MHLivingNews
What’s New and Recent in Washington, D.C. from MHARR
What’s New and Recent on the Masthead
The Hottest Article from the Words of Wisdom
The Headlines for the Week on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 8.14.2021
Friday 8.13.2021
Thursday 8.12.2021
Wednesday 8.11.2021
Tuesday 8.10.2021
Monday 8.9.2021
Sunday 8.8.2021
Postscript
Money is morally neutral. Money is neither good nor bad in and of itself. Politics can be used in good or evil ways. The same can routinely be said for the legal system, economics, business, media, social media, entertainment, whatever. What is bad is when money becomes a de facto idol, because idolatry is forbidden by God.
The Ten Commandments are found in Deuteronomy 5:6–21. Per the Berean Study Bible, per BibleHub, says the following (typo in the original).
1And God spoke all these words:
2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3You shall have no other gods before Me.a
4You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but showing loving devotion to a thousand generationsb of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Note the context of that commandment? God had freed the Israelites from slavery. In centuries gone by, some argued that the Scriptures do not condemn slavery. That’s a false notion. The Bible describes the practice of slavery without always directly commenting on its nature. But early in the revealed Word of God is this rather direct condemnation. God freed his people, and if his people want to avoid future slavery, then they will have “no other gods” other than the one true God.
To underscore that point from the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. the Old Testament or the Original Covenant),
From the New International Version, per Bible Hub is this at 1 Timothy 6:10
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
One need not look beyond Warren Buffett, who is a self-professed atheist, to see the truth of that statement and how it applies to America in general, and manufactured housing in particular. But to further clarify the issue, let’s look at Jesus and the dramatic cleansing of the Temple. From the Berean Study Bible at Bible Hub is the following translation of John 2:14-16.
Those ‘money changers’ were using what was called “unjust weights and measures,” trading in an immoral fashion. So, not only was Jesus illustrating how some people “eager for money” have “wandered from the faith,” but he directly tied it to the ancient Temple where people went to worship the one, eternal, and true God.
There is a case to be made that at the base of much that has gone wrong in America is the failure of politicians and bureaucrats to enforce existing laws. That is true in our profession on the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA), it is true for the failure to properly implement the Duty to Serve Manufactured Housing, Rural, and Underserved Markets that should require FHFA regulated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to implement lower cost personal property lending on manufactured homes.
But no less important are the ways that various antitrust, RICO, Hobbs Act and other laws and regulations are being subverted. What is the subversion tied to, if not money? When there is a revolving door that is part of the Iron Triangle, isn’t it obvious that those who willingly engage in those practices doing it for the money?
Rephrased, there is a moral component and a legal component to what has gone wrong in America. It thus comes back to what President George Washington was explaining in his farewell address. Only a moral nation can stay a free nation.
It is possible to separate that moral and legal component. One can compartmentalize them. But why would someone voluntarily reduce the power of the arguments against what is going wrong in our nation and others?
There are branches of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and all sorts of other religions. While our legal system quite understandably does not establish a state religion, that does not mean that all religious beliefs are equally true. For example. Satanism is growing in America. Surely, only the Satanist, the morally or intellectually confused would want to see Satanic practices thrive. Ironically, the Satanist believes in God, but opts to worship a mere creature, the prince or leader of the fallen angels, Lucifer or Satan “the devil.”
For those who care deeply about what has gone wrong in manufactured housing specifically, or more generally in America, there are an array of tools that can be brought to bear to fight the pernicious effects of a free market system that has been twisted, manipulated and has gone awry. Who did that twisting? Certainly, it was more than just Warren Buffett. But Buffett’s pal, nonprofit ally, political and investing fellow traveler – Bill Gates – who got near the heart of the matter.
![DidntWantToMeetWarren[Buffett]BecauseGuyBuysSellsFoundImperfectMarketNotValueAddSocietyZeroSumGameParasiticBillGatesPhotoMicrosoftLogoGatesFoundationLogoQuoteQuotableQuoteMHproNews](http://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/DidntWantToMeetWarrenBuffettBecauseGuyBuysSellsFoundImperfectMarketNotValueAddSocietyZeroSumGameParasiticBillGatesPhotoMicrosoftLogoGatesFoundationLogoQuoteQuotableQuoteMHproNews.jpg)
That brief Gates quote speaks volumes.
Gates said at first, that the thinking and behavior by Buffett kept Bill from even wanting to meet Warren.
But obviously, that changed. Did Buffett’s methods change? No, at least not if you believe what self-proclaimed longtime Buffett admirer Robin Harding said in the Financial Times.
So, that Gates quote obliquely makes clear that Bill admitted to being persuaded to be more Buffett like.
If Americans will not tolerate a king, then we should not tolerate petty kings in various industries. It remains to be seen if writer’s such as —- and Justice Thomas will forge an argument that may include this point. The CIA, a government agency, reportedly provided seed capital to some of the Deep Tech giants. Per former CBS correspondent —-, there has been an ongoing relationship between several of these big tech platforms, the CIA, and other state actors. It points to a serous
If there is no God, then Stalin, Hitler, or Mao Zedong and George Washington, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, or St. Francis of Assisi will all meet the exact same fate. Extinction.
If there is no God, then all we have is this world. If that is the case, it is quite understandable that some will want the most money, the most power, the most sex and all other human pleasures that they could possible get.
But if there is a God, then all of those temporal goods are transitory. The wealthiest person on earth and the poorest person will all die and then face judgment, as the Scriptures teach.
Only clarity of thought on the true causes and true cures will cause our profession and our nation to break free from the status quo that has reversed the good what was being accomplished in post-World War II America. For some years, there was a decrease in poverty. Racial justice moved to the point during the struggles of the 1950s and 1960s to create the civil rights and voter rights acts.
But what many forget or have never learned is that for years, a working person could feed his family without his spouse having to work. The gains of the post-WWII era shifted during the 1970s and since. There were ebbs and flows up and down. Sometimes the rate of home earnings and home ownership increased, as during the Trump Presidency. But at other times, those factors dropped during Democratic and Republican terms of office.
President Trump never was, nor will he ever be, a perfect person, much less a perfect leader. But to be fair, for the mistakes he made, he arguably did far more correctly than incorrectly. The evidence is found in a more stable world where peace treaties were being forged by Middle Eastern nations and Israel. Or the more secure southern border, and the list can go on. What’s ironic, is that Trump – perhaps mildly like Presidents Kennedy and Reagan – all three of whom were Democrats during their lifetime. Trump, a pragmatist, was willing and able to rip President George W. Bush for entering into those Middle Eastern conflicts precisely because he was not a pure party ideologue. It is why there is an element among the Republic Party, the Bush Republicans, that hate Trump. It is also why numbers of Democrats hate Trump.
Trump can mildly be compared to David. David did some terrible things. Nevertheless, God used David to help accomplish the Divine Will through the mystery of human free will.
Thomas, Mercer, Plante, and others who are willing to intellectually challenge the status quo will be correct on certain things, and as humans, they will be incorrect on others. As we have stressed, in all matters and from all sources, the wise will separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. That includes this source and writer too. We beg forgiveness for typos or phrasing that may be less than elegant. But we at MHProNews press forward on the fight for what is right, true, and just. We may not get there, but on the other hand, some amazing figures in human history have accomplished amazing things simply by inspiring someone else to do the amazing.
There are limited numbers of people anyone can (or should) couple with physically. But there are far more than can be intellectually encountered and learned from in a pure, noble, and salutatory fashion.
Once the issues are grasped, the solutions actually become quite clear. George Washington and Ben Franklin each made important points. We have a republic to defend, if we can keep it.
Strap on your combat boots. Find a part of the fight for the true, the right, and the good to get involved in. In the meantime, support and follow those who are willing to challenge the big corporate-Deep Tech-Deep State. Because it is your rights that they, and hopefully we, are fighting to preserve and expand. ##
###
need to wait years for legislation that in the past has often led to little or no discernable benefit. https://www.wnd.com/2021/05/solution-big-tech-oligarchs/
The problems and solutions are outlined in 500 words in the WND snapshot linked above. That should be a brief, go to resource for those who want to press their elected officials into action.
###
Our thanks to you, our sources, and sponsors for making and keeping us 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.
