By Jon Rappoport

In several recent articles (all here under category: socialism), I’ve exposed the myth that socialism is a revolution of and for the people.

I’ve presented evidence that socialism is actually a movement owned, operated, and funded by ultra-wealthy elites.

Dupes, foot soldiers, blind idealists, indoctrinated students, and low-level thugs are recruited through cutouts to serve the agenda of Rockefeller Globalists, for example, who are determined to bring about worldwide socialism.

Socialism, in a nutshell, equals ultra-rich elites (represented by the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg, etc.) owning the free market, cutting out competition, and creating more powerful, overarching, central governments.

Hidden in the plan is the granting of greater dominion to mega-corporations. This is a key fact.

The US Constitution was a document that established extremely limited central government. Regardless of the motives of the authors and the state legislatures that ratified it, the ideas contained in the Constitution were, and are, extremely oppressive toward large centralized structures controlling the people.

But there was another factor present at the beginning of the American Republic.

At the dawn of the United States, corporations were chartered and thus allowed to operate by the individual states. If a corporation, in the eyes of a state legislature, violated a basic trust by harming the people, committing offenses against the citizenry, the legislature could summarily cancel their charter and literally exile them from the state.

This power followed, in part, from the fact that corporations were not and are not individuals. They do not have the rights and freedoms of individuals. Corporations were not granted the rights of citizens in the Constitution.

Richard Grossman, an activist and scholar of US corporate history, unearthed and made lucid these facts.

At the birth of the American Republic, therefore, there was a double limitation on power. Central government and corporations were both strapped and shackled.

Of course, just as the federal government has been allowed to expand like an unchecked fungus, so has corporate power.

Under socialism (aka Globalism), mega-corporate power is the prow of a ship that sails on and on and conquers the economies of the world.

Corporate crimes go unpunished.

Contrary to popular belief, the real agenda of socialism has nothing to do with prosecuting those crimes.

The idea, for example, that greater socialism in America would defeat Monsanto is ludicrous in the extreme.

Monsanto is one of the components of actual socialism—the real, not the fake, version.

Again, socialism is by, for, and of the ultra-wealthy elites. It is not a movement on behalf of the downtrodden.

As Gary Allen puts it in his 1971 classic, None Dare call It Conspiracy: “…pressure from above and pressure from below… The pressure from above comes from secret, ostensibly respectable Comrades in the government and [elite Globalist] Establishment, forming, with the radicalized mobs in the streets below, a giant pincer around middle-class society. The street rioters are pawns, shills, puppets, and dupes for an oligarchy of elitist conspirators working above to turn America’s limited government into an unlimited government with total control over our lives and property.”

“The American middle class is being squeezed to death by a vise. In the streets we have avowed revolutionary groups… Virtually all members of these groups sincerely believe that they are fighting the Establishment. In reality they are an indispensable ally of the Establishment in fastening Socialism on all of us. The naive radicals think that under Socialism the ‘people’ will run everything. Actually, it will be a clique of Insiders in total control, consolidating and controlling all wealth. That is why these schoolboy Lenins and teenage Trotskys are allowed to roam free and are practically never arrested or prosecuted. They are protected. If the Establishment wanted the revolutionaries stopped, how long do you think they would be tolerated?”

Gary Allen wrote that passage in 1971. Does it ring a familiar bell now?

As philosopher George Santayana famously wrote in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Equally famous is the prescription for all advertising: repeat the same message over and over, so it sinks into the mind and forms a false impression of truth.

Thus it has been with the basic message of socialism. “This is a form of government that finally serves the people. It is the people rising up to take the reins of power.”

Once that notion is rigidly fixed in consciousness, it is impossible to believe socialism is actually emanating from the elite of the elite.

Fortunately, more and more people are waking up to the basic con of fake news, which doesn’t only broadcast distorted current events spooling out through screens, day by day.

Basic themes of fake news also span decades and even centuries.

What will happen when enough young people, who want to tear down the structures of the monopolists, realize those same men are bankrolling them in the streets?

What will happen when these young people realize their teachers and mentors and handlers and professors have been feeding them the precise reverse of the truth?

As long as independent media continue to proliferate, that day is coming.

(Jon Rappoport is the author of three explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed, Exit From The Matrix, and Power Outside The Matrix).

Los empresarios afirman que el modelo corporativista “se agotó” y apoyan un cambio en el Gobierno

por Carlos Salinas

Entre los cambios que ha generado la inédita rebelión popular en Nicaragua, que desde hace 43 días exige en las calles la salida del presidente Daniel Ortega del Gobierno, está el fin del modelo corporativista que durante diez años fue uno de los principales pilares que le daban estabilidad al régimen.

La noche del martes el Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (COSEP), la principal cámara empresarial del país, demandó a sus miembros a renunciar de “forma inmediata” a cualquier relación que mantuvieran con el Ejecutivo de Ortega, mientras que dos de los más poderosos empresarios del país, Carlos Pellas y Piero Coen, afirmaron que ese modelo corporativista “se agotó” y que es necesario un cambio de Gobierno.

El COSEP afirmó en un comunicado hecho público la noche del martes que a partir del 18 de abril –cuando Ortega desató una feroz opresión contra las manifestaciones que se oponían a una reforma a la Seguridad Social impuesta sin consenso– suspendió su participación “en cualquier reunión con las autoridades del Gobierno como consecuencia de nuestro rechazo a la represión y nuestro compromiso con la justicia y la democracia de Nicaragua”. Muchos miembros de la cámara, sin embargo, mantenían cargos en comisiones, comités o justas directivas de instituciones públicas, dentro del modelo de alianza entre el sector privado y el Gobierno desarrollado por Ortega. Desde ayer esa relación quedó rota.

Los empresarios criticaron la represión y los actos de violencia desatados desde el Ejecutivo, que no ha implementado las recomendaciones hechas por la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), que exigió el fin de toda forma de represión, el respeto al derecho de los nicaragüenses de protestar de forma pacífica, la protección de los manifestantes y la creación de un mecanismo internacional, autónomo, para investigar y esclarecer las violaciones a los derechos humanos en del país desde abril.

El lunes, Nicaragua vivió una de las jornadas más violentas desde abril, después de que huestes del Frente Sandinista, grupos parapoliciales y oficiales antidisturbios atacaran el campus de la Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (UNI), donde se habían atrincherado un centenar de estudiantes que exigía el fin del Gobierno sandinista. Las imágenes retransmitidas en vivo por la televisión mostraban a los oficiales disparando a mansalva en el que es el corazón comercial y financiero de Managua.

La violencia dejó dos muertos, más de 40 heridos, una veintena de jóvenes apresados, comercios atacados, quemada la fachada de una radio progubernamental y periodistas agredidos.

Familiares de esos detenidos se presentaron el martes a la sede de la Dirección de Auxilio Judicial, en Managua, popularmente conocida como “El Chipote” y denunciada como centro de torturas. Las madres de estas personas exigían su liberación y tras varias horas de presión un grupo de sacerdotes pudo acceder al edificio. Tras una rápida negociación lograron la promesa de las autoridades de liberar a 22 jóvenes capturados el lunes. Fueron entregados en la Catedral Metropolitana de la capital nicaragüense, pero otras madres informaron de que en la lista no estaban sus hijos, a quienes dan por “desaparecidos”.

“Demandamos la inmediata liberación de los jóvenes y ciudadanos que todavía continúan ilegalmente detenidos”, dijeron los empresarios en su comunicado.
Los empresarios del sector turístico de Nicaragua –uno de los pilares de la economía de este país– también se pronunciaron la noche del martes. Este gremio ha sido duramente golpeado por la crisis. Hay hoteles en las ciudades coloniales de Granada y León –postales de presentación de este país frente al mundo– que no cuentan con huéspedes, otros que funcionan al 20 por ciento de su capacidad, mientras los restaurantes informaron de pérdidas de hasta el 50 por ciento.

En su comunicado la Cámara del Turismo responsabilizó al Gobierno de la violencia e instó a todos sus miembros a participar en una manifestación nacional que se realizará este miércoles, Día de las Madres en Nicaragua, que sería encabezada por las madres de los muertos por la represión. La manifestación, a la que se unirían todas las cámaras empresariales, los universitarios, campesinos y organizaciones de la sociedad civil prometió ser gigantesca.

“Reiteramos nuestra posición firme y clara al lado del pueblo que lucha para alcanza justicia para los asesinados, heridos, torturados, desaparecidos y detenidos ilegalmente”, dijeron los empresarios. “El turismo, algún día, cuando la paz brille en nuestro suelo patrio, podremos recuperarlo, pero las vidas de más de 90 hermanos nicaragüenses, en su gran mayoría estudiantes en la flor de la juventud, no podremos recuperarlas jamás. Por eso y por ellos exigimos justicia”.

Las declaraciones más sintomáticas de la ruptura con el Gobierno vinieron, sin embargo, de dos de los principales empresarios de del país.

Piero Coen, presidente de un grupo de empresas con intereses en el sector agroindustrial, de finanzas y bienes raíces, criticó la feroz represión del Gobierno en una entrevista con el periodista Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director de la revista Confidencial.

Coen abogó por una salida “rápida, ordenada y pacífica” de la crisis y afirmo que el modelo corporativista era “insostenible”. Para Coen los empresarios “ya no marcamos la pauta”. En términos similares se expresó Carlos Pellas, el poderoso empresario que lidera el Grupo Pellas, productor del famoso Ron Flor de Caña, quien en una entrevista con el diario La Prensa dijo que “el modelo que traía el país se agotó” y que se necesita “de forma urgente” un cambio, lo que pasa por adelanto de elecciones y “profunda transformación institucional”.

Ortega había impuesto durante 10 años un modelo económico en el que las decisiones se tomaban entre él y la cúpula empresarial. El mandatario les garantizaba a los empresarios estabilidad y ventajas para hacer negocios, mientras estos no intervenían en las decisiones políticas de Ortega y su deriva autoritaria. Así, permitieron el secuestro de las instituciones, la reforma a la Constitución para que el exguerrillero sandinista se perpetuara en el poder y desarrollara un Gobierno dinástico, con su esposa como vicepresidenta, y con denuncias de graves violaciones a los derechos humanos y la libertad de prensa.

“A Ortega ahora se le ha configurado el peor escenario. Tiene a la gente en las calles, la demanda ciudadana que exige que se vaya del poder y ahora se le ha caído el modelo que era uno de sus pilares, la relación con el capital”, explica a El País, Azahaléa Solís, jurista participante en la mesa del Diálogo Nacional que pretende hallar una solución a la profunda crisis política que sufre el país.

“Este escenario es más sombrío para Ortega”, agrega. Solís añade que ahora no puede haber “aterrizaje suave”, es decir, una solución a largo plazo a través de un acuerdo configurado con la OEA, que apostaba a que Ortega terminara su mandato en 2021.

“Ese acuerdo queda desfasado y es anacrónico”, ha dicho la analista. Aunque es difícil prever cuál será la respuesta de Ortega frente a la ruptura de los empresarios, una acción simbólica del mandatario demuestra su debilidad: ordenó construir más barricadas con enormes piedras alrededor de su casa, en el capitalino barrio del El Carmen, y aumentó el perímetro de seguridad, con decenas de oficiales armados en la zona.

Challenge is based on the claim that tariffs violate international trade rules

by Mexico News Daily

Mexico will challenge the United States’ metal tariffs at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the grounds that they violate international trade rules, the government said today.

“In response to the measures the United States applied to Mexican steel and aluminum exports, Mexico announces that it will initiate a dispute settlement process under the World Trade Organization,” the Secretariat of Economy (SE) said in a statement.

The U.S. government imposed the respective 25 percent and 10 percent duties on Mexican, Canadian and European Union steel and aluminum from June 1 on national security grounds, although in the case of its North American neighbors United States Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the decision was based on a lack of progress in NAFTA talks.

The SE statement said “Mexico considers that the measures imposed by the US under section 232 of its legislation, arguing threats to its national security, violate the WTO’s Agreement on Safeguards by not having been adopted in accordance with the provided procedures.”

The tariffs also violate the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it added.

The announcement that Mexico will seek the intervention of the WTO in the dispute follows the government’s swift response last Thursday that it would “impose equivalent measures” on its northern neighbor.

The retaliatory tariffs target products from exporters in states that are politically important to United States President Donald Trump and include steel flats, pork and a variety of fruits and cheeses.

The tariff tit-for-tat further complicates the already contentious and drawn-out NAFTA renegotiation process but both Mexico and Canada say they remain committed to reaching a new deal that is beneficial for all three countries involved.

Trump, meanwhile, suggested Friday that NAFTA could be replaced by two separate trade accords, one with Mexico and another with Canada.

Today’s statement said that the Mexican government’s actions will continue to comply with the rules of international trade law and “will be proportional to the damage that Mexico unfortunately receives.”

Both Canada and the European Union have already filed challenges against the tariffs with the WTO.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Model indicates 92 percent probability that AMLO will win election

Second-place Ricardo Anaya has just 7 percent, the PRI’s Meade 1 percent

There is a 92 percent probability that leading presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador will win the July 1 election, according to an electoral model developed by the newspaper El País.

The prediction is based on a simulation of 20,000 elections in which the four candidates face off against each other and takes into account a collation of opinion poll results.

The model indicates that there is a 7 percent probability that right-left coalition candidate Ricardo Anaya will triumph and just a 1 percent chance that the ruling party candidate, José Antonio Meade, will become Mexico’s next president.

The newspaper said the model has a 3.5 percent margin of error for each candidate.

Based on 16 surveys collated by El País, the Morena party leader widely known as AMLO has an average of 48.2 percent voter support, while the For Mexico in Front candidate, Anaya, has 27.5 percent backing.

Meade is in third place with 19.5 percent support and an average of 2 percent of those polled said they would vote for independent Jaime “El Bronco” Rodríguez.

In Bloomberg’s May 30 poll tracker — which also collates surveys — López Obrador’s advantage over Anaya is even larger at 27 points, while the latest poll by the newspaper Reforma, published last week, showed a similar result, with AMLO outpolling his nearest rival by a rate of two to one.

In predicting a likely victory by the Together We Will Make History candidate, El País noted that an electoral upset in which the frontrunner gave up a 20-point advantage would not be “normal.”

López Obrador losing the election from his current position would be rarer than Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo missing a penalty kick, the newspaper said.

It also pointed out that AMLO didn’t drop in the polls after either of the two presidential debates despite such forums not being the third-time candidate’s strongest suit.

The four most recent surveys included in the newspaper’s average — Parametria, Reforma, Ipsos and Demotecnia — all showed the frontrunner with more than 50 percent support.

However, a López Obrador victory is not an out-and-out certainty because “the polls could still move and up to the final day there will be room for a surprise,” El País said.

On the other hand, support for the former Mexico City mayor has consistently trended upwards and his probability of winning has increased by 13 points compared to the newspaper’s March 31 prediction when it said he had a 79 percent chance of electoral success.

Meade, who is heading a coalition led by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has struggled to throw off the shackles of being associated with a government that has been plagued by corruption scandals and is led by a deeply unpopular president.

The recent Reforma poll showed that just 20 percent of respondents approved of Enrique Peña Nieto’s performance.

Meade served as a secretary in three different cabinet posts during the current administration, most recently as secretary of finance.

A strong performance in the second debate in Tijuana two weeks ago failed to lift him out of the doldrums of third place in most polls.

After making up some ground on López Obrador in the previous Reforma poll, Anaya ceded his gain by losing four points in last week’s Reforma poll while AMLO gained four.

Both he and Meade have charged that the election result is not a foregone conclusion because of the number of voters who have indicated that they haven’t yet decided who they will vote for on July 1.

But El País said that abstention rates are high among undecided voters, meaning that the possibility of that cohort harming López Obrador’s chances are less than polls may suggest.

One factor in Anaya’s favor, however, is the support of the business elite, which has largely thrown its support behind the former National Action Party (PAN) president.

Several large businesses, including two that are directed and owned by Mexico’s second and third richest men, have also warned their employees against voting for the leftist frontrunner.

There is also the so-called voto útil — or strategic vote — factor that some analysts believe will boost Anaya’s support because those who would otherwise support Meade may choose to vote for the second-place candidate because they consider him the only candidate capable of defeating López Obrador.

But El País cited a poll by Demotecnia that showed that in a head-to-head contest between Anaya and AMLO, Meade’s votes were shared almost equally between the two candidates.

“In other words, there is a part of the PRI who feels more comfortable with a López Obrador victory than a triumph by the ex-president of the PAN,” the newspaper said.

A large voto útil for Anaya, considering current poll figures, wouldn’t be enough to ensure his victory in any case, El País said.

With that in mind, the prediction by a warlock may be cold comfort for the youngest candidate in the field.

Enrique Marthé Bertón, the Brujo Mayor, or the Grand Warlock, has predicted that Anaya will prevail on July 1. He cited a previous correct prediction — that former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte would be arrested — as evidence that his latest prophecy is foolproof.

Source: El País (sp), La Voz de la Nación (sp)

‘It is not easy, we don’t think we will have it by Thursday’

by Mexico News Daily

Reaching an updated NAFTA deal before Thursday’s deadline is looking unlikely, Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo said today.

United States House Speaker Paul Ryan set the cut-off date last Wednesday amid some optimism that Mexico, the U.S. and Canada could soon reach an agreement in principle as a result of meetings attended last week by the chief trade representatives in Washington.

However, ultimately no new deal was forthcoming and talks this week also look set to fall short of reaching a definitive outcome, which would allow the U.S. Congress a chance to approve it before the end of the year.

“It is not easy, we don’t think we will have it by Thursday,” Guajardo told broadcaster Televisa.

“We will keep negotiating, and in the moment that we have a good negotiation, we can close the deal . . . independent of which Congress [the current or new one] that will vote on it,” he said.

The United States will hold midterm elections in November and a new Congress will first sit in January. Under the U.S. “fast track” trade negotiation law, there are lengthy notification periods before Congress could start considering a new NAFTA, precipitating the establishment of this Thursday’s deadline.

Mexico’s presidential election is also now less than seven weeks away, further complicating talks.

The lingering uncertainty over the future of the 24-year-old trade pact, coupled with the upcoming election, has placed pressure on the Mexican peso, Guajardo said.

The currency fell to its lowest level in more than a year yesterday and some analysts believe that it will continue to decline in the lead-up to the election, which according to opinion polls, Andrés Manuel López Obrador is likely to win.

The economy secretary, who said last month that there was an 80% chance that a new agreement would be struck in the first week of May, now believes that there are “different moments to close the negotiation.”

“It could be before the Mexican election on July 1, it could be just after,” he said.

A push to conclude a deal by the end of the week came yesterday in the form of a telephone conversation between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and United States President Donald Trump.

A report in Canadian media said Trudeau make a direct appeal to Trump to keep momentum alive at the negotiating table.

Guajardo’s successor, should López Obrador become Mexico’s next president, said last month that an incoming AMLO administration would be willing to accept a new NAFTA deal that was struck before July 1.

However, if that doesn’t happen, Graciela Márquez said, it would be preferable to complete the negotiations after the new president is sworn in in December.

In the five-month period between election day and the swearing-in ceremony, Guajardo said, the next government’s team would need to be involved in any ongoing trilateral trade talks.

Guajardo said that negotiators were close to reaching agreement on rules of origin for the auto sector.

However, U.S. demands for a so-called sunset clause that would see NAFTA automatically expire if the agreement is not renegotiated every five years as well as the elimination of settlement panels for trade disputes remain sticking points.

The United States and Canada are also pushing Mexico to increase wages in its automotive sector.

Guajardo added that more flexibility was needed in order to reach a deal.

Kenneth Smith, the head of Mexico’s technical negotiating team, reiterated in a radio interview that from Mexico’s perspective there are no fixed deadlines it is working towards.

“Mexico’s position since the start of the negotiation has been that we’re not going to sacrifice the quality of the deal to conclude quickly,” he said, although he added that there is still time to reach a conclusion before the end of the year.

“There’s no question the possibility exists, we’re interested and I think the United States and Canada share this view,” he said.

Source: Reuters (en)

In other non-related news:

It’s no longer just about drugs: pipeline thieves move into Sinaloa
Pemex has detected an average of three new illegal taps per day

Violent crime in Sinaloa is not the exclusive domain of drug cartels: gangs of fuel thieves known as huachicoleros have taken their fight into the northern state.

This year, state oil company Pemex has detected on average three new illegal taps on its pipelines per day in Sinaloa, which is now one of eight Mexican states where 80% of the crime is concentrated.

Last month, turf wars between rival gangs over the control of the illicit fuel market in the state triggered a wave of violence, mainly in state capital Culiacán and the town of Mocorito, located about 120 kilometers to the north.

The Topolobampo-Culiacán pipeline runs through both municipalities and, according to Pemex data, there were 252 illegal taps on the duct in the first three months of the year, almost double the number detected in the first quarter of 2017.

In Culiacán and Mocorito, state security authorities have reported gun battles and cars being set alight in connection with the crime and schools have been closed due to the fear generated by the feuding, between heavily-armed groups.

On April 15, 10 people were kidnapped in Culiacancito, located just outside the capital, and the following day a shootout in El Limón de los Ramos — also in the municipality of Culiacán — left an innocent passerby wounded.

Authorities subsequently seized a burned-out car with several bullet holes from the scene of the confrontation.

Two days later on April 18, another car was set alight at a home in the community of El Tamarindo, Culiacán, leading to an air and ground-based police operation and the suspension of classes in the area.

The same day, state Public Security Secretary Genaro Robles attributed the incident to fuel thieves.

In response to the rising levels of fuel theft, the state Public Security Secretariat has launched a joint operation with the army and navy.

It has also called on residents not to buy stolen fuel in order to discourage its sale and in turn reduce the prevalence of the crime.

Pemex CEO Carlos Treviño said last month that fuel theft costs the state oil company 30 billion pesos (US $1.5 billion) a year.

Source: Reforma (sp)