Figure that a mayor who calls himself Tank of Gas will be kind of corny in his fake persona social media campaigns.
You can reasonably bet that it will be a matter of “state security” to cover up this fraud
by Eric Jackson
Take an environmentally preposterous proposal to turn the waterfront along the Cinta Costera into a beach that will attract tourists. It’s a non-starter, first because of the low water quality in Panama Bay. Second because waves come crashing over the seawall onto the Cinta Costera with some frequency, world sea levels are rising, and the plan is to build up the beach with trucked-in sand that is likely to be washed away.
Journalists and wags are betting that it will never happen, and that if it does it will be a huge expenditure on Panama’s thuggish construction companies, which normally pay kickbacks to the politicians on their public works contracts.
But let’s get out of the realm of “IF.” Money is already being spent, from which accounts is an interesting side question, to run a #SiALaPlaya social media blitz. The people running it are undisclosed. The mayor and vice mayor of Panama City would know. Probably some low-level young low-life from a PRD campaign, whose age leads to a presumption that she or he is good with computers. But the string of recently created Twitter personas deployed to plug the mayor’s latest plan does not meet the standards of Moscow’s troll farms. Not even those of gringo neo-nazis.
It becomes slightly more of a concern given that instead of proper public hearings, Mayor Tank of Gas got an environmental impact study by contriving a non-existent consultation. He’s revived the zombie cable car project from the dead and proposes an “online public consultation” for that, too. It becomes even more of a concern when you see some of the racist Facebook trolling coming out of Zulay’s faction of the PRD.
And NOW we are told that the Electoral Tribunal is setting aside $1.5 million, in effect for the “Yes” campaign in a referendum where the legislature’s constitutional manipulations will be considered. (“How DARE you say that,” they may protest. “WE didn’t announce that!” But we have already seen the public funds spent by the legislature to publicize the “consultations” for the constitutional mess and all the extraneous promises those ads made. We know the public record of Gerardo Solís, whom the deputies are putting in charge of approving government checks, as an electoral magistrate the last time Panama had a referendum, the whole ‘if the president spends public funds to boost the Yes side only, he’s the president to it’s OK’ routine. We know from their actions the Electoral Tribunal to be the instrument of the political parties. They can protest all they want. Only fools are being fooled.)
Anyway, back to the main subject at hand.
Just WHO might “Alberto507pty” be? It’s a photo ripped off from an ad in an odd website out of Wisconsin, USA. Did THAT website pay the model? Interesting question. Did Mayor Tank of Gas pay the model? Betcha not, but I might lose that one. Don’t think I would.
By all appearances, the mayor of Panama City is engaged in identity theft.
WOW! Fake Internet trolls, just like Donald Trump’s! Or something.
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