Paraguay fears dictatorship as president moves to amend constitution
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/paraguay-reelection-amend-constitution-horacio-cartes
After months of behind-the-scenes preparations, a senator steamrolled through the changes that could allow Horacio Cartes to be re-elected in 2018
Horacio Cartes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacio_Cartes
Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara (born 5 July 1956) is a Paraguayan businessman, and current President of Paraguay, as of the Paraguayan general election, 2013. He is a member of the Colorado Party.
Cartes owns about two dozen businesses in his Grupo Cartes conglomerate including tobacco, soft drinks, meat production, and banking. He was president of Club Libertad football club from 2001 until 2012, and had been the president of the national team department of the Paraguayan Football Association during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacio_Cartes
Quick Facts
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/horacio-cartes-6018.php
Horacio Cartes: Millionaire. Criminal. Business titan. Homophobe. The next president of Paraguay?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/horacio-cartes-millionaire-criminal-business-titan-homophobe-the-next-president-of-paraguay-8580851.html
Horacio Cartes leads in the polls for Sunday’s presidential elections in Paraguay. Campaign posters in the landlocked nation’s capital, Asuncion, show his beaming face above a slogan declaring “a new direction” for the country. But detractors of the millionaire Colorado Party candidate offer a different vision: a man mixed up in a host of illicit activities, including drug trafficking. A man who represents big business and corruption.
Mr Cartes is one of Paraguay’s most influential figures. Over the past two decades the businessman has built up a powerful empire. He owns some 25 companies, spanning the drinks industry, meat production and tobacco, employing thousands. Since 2001, he has also been president of Libertad football club. But damning allegations continue to swirl.
Paraguay fears dictatorship as president moves to amend constitution
http://www.epa.eu/politics-photos/elections-citizens-initiative-recall-photos/paraguay-fears-dictatorship-as-president-moves-to-amend-constitution-photos-53430130
Paraguay 'coup': death of activist threatens to reignite protests
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/01/paraguay-coup-death-of-activist-threatens-to-reignite-protests
https://flipboard.com/topic/coupd%2527%25C3%25A9tat
Paraguay: protestors set Congress on fire following secret vote allowing presidential reelection
http://en.mercopress.com/2017/04/01/paraguay-protestors-set-congress-on-fire-following-secret-vote-allowing-presidential-reelection
Matthew Hedges new British Ambassador to Paraguay
http://en.mercopress.com/2017/02/17/matthew-hedges-new-british-ambassador-to-paraguay
Mr Matthew Hedges has been appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Paraguay in succession to Dr Jeremy Hobbs, who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Mr. Hedges will take up his appointment in August 2017.
Mathew James Hedges has a Master in Public Policy, International Relations from Princeton University and joined the FCO in 1999. According to his CV, between 2012 and 2015, he was deputy head of the Mission in Rangoon, Burma. From 2009 to 2012
Mr. Hedges was head of political section in Tokyo and before that, 2008/09 head of Turks & Caicos Islands Governor's office. In 2006 House of Commons International Development and 2008, Senior Clerk Select Committee. In 2005, Head of Chancery, Basra. 2005/06, FCO team leader EU constitutional treaty/future of Europe, EU Directorate. From 2001 to 2005, Second Secretary Political in Rabat, and in 2000, adviser to the UK mission to the UN in New York. And in 1999/2000, Desk Officer Nato Enlargement and Security Policy Department.
The UK embassy to Paraguay was reopened in 2013 as part of the UK government’s plan to recover lost ground in Latin-America. The British embassy in Asunción was closed in 2005 and had since had a non resident ambassador based in Buenos Aires.
Outgoing Dr. Jeremy Hobbs is an expert in Latin-American affairs and has held several posts in the region, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico, before his appointment to Paraguay.
Stephen King on Donald Trump: ‘How do such men rise? First as a joke’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/01/stephen-king-on-donald-trump-fictional-voters-truth-about-us-election
He’s written novels with eerily similar plotlines – but how did Trump become president? The only way to find out: inject a panel of fictional voters with truth serum...
by Stephen King
I started thinking Donald Trump might win the presidency in September of 2016. By the end of October, I was almost sure. Thus, when the election night upset happened, I was dismayed, but not particularly surprised. I didn’t even think it was much of an upset, in spite of the Huffington Post aggregate poll, which gave Hillary Clinton a 98% chance of winning – an example of wishful thinking if ever there were one.
Some of my belief arose from the signage I was seeing. I’m from northern New England, and in the run-up to the election I saw hundreds of Trump-Pence signs and bumper stickers, but almost none for Clinton-Kaine. To me this didn’t mean there were no Clinton supporters in the houses I passed or the cars ahead of me on Route 302; what it did seem to mean was that the Clinton supporters weren’t particularly invested. This was not the case with the Trump people, who tended to have billboard-sized signage in their yards and sometimes two stickers on their cars (TRUMP-PENCE on the left; HILLARY IS A CRIMINAL on the right).
Brexit also troubled me. Most of the commentators brushed its importance aside, saying that the issue of whether or not Britain should leave the EU was very different from that of who should become the American president, and besides, British and American voters were very different animals. I agreed with neither assessment, because there was a vibe in the air during most of 2016, a feeling that people were both frightened of the status quo and sick of it. Voters saw a vast and overloaded apple cart lumbering past them. They wanted to upset the motherfucker, and would worry about picking up those spilled apples later. Or just leave them to rot.
Clinton voters were convinced she’d win, even if they saw her as a ho-hum candidate at best. Many did not even bother going to the polls, which was a large (and largely unstated) factor in her loss. Trump voters, on the other hand, could not wait to pull those levers. They didn’t just want change; they wanted a man on horseback. Trump filled the bill.
I had written about such men before. In The Dead Zone, Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins. He is laughed at when he runs for the House of Representatives (part of his platform is a promise to rocket America’s trash into outer space), but he wins again. When Johnny Smith, the novel’s precognitive hero, shakes his hand, he realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.
Big Jim Rennie in Under The Dome is cut from the same cloth. He’s a car salesman (selling being a key requirement for the successful politician), who is the head selectman in the small town of Chester’s Mill, when a dome comes down and cuts the community off from the world. He’s a crook, a cozener and a sociopath, the worst possible choice in a time of crisis, but he’s got a folksy, straight-from-the-shoulder delivery that people relate to. The fact that he’s incompetent at best and downright malevolent at worst doesn’t matter.
Both these stories were written years ago, but Stillson and Rennie bear enough of a resemblance to the current resident of the White House for me to flatter myself I have a country-fair understanding of how such men rise: first as a joke, then as a viable alternative to the status quo, and finally as elected officials who are headstrong, self-centered and inexperienced. Such men do not succeed to high office often, but when they do, the times are always troubled, the candidates in question charismatic, their proposed solutions to complex problems simple, straightforward and impractical. The baggage that should weigh these hucksters down becomes magically light, lifting them over the competition like Carl Fredricksen in the Pixar film Up. Trump’s negatives didn’t drag him down; on the contrary, they helped get him elected.
I decided to convene six Trump voters to discover how and why all this happened. Because I selected them from the scores of make-believe people always bouncing around in my head (sometimes their chatter is enough to drive me bugshit), I felt perfectly OK feeding them powerful truth serum before officially convening the round table. And because they are fictional – my creatures – they all agreed to this. They gulped the serum down in Snapple iced tea, and half an hour later we began. My panelists were:
Gary Barker, a construction worker from – how fitting – Gary, Indiana. Gary from Gary is 41, married with two kids, currently unemployed. Graduated high school, never went to college.
William Russell, from Delray Beach, Florida. William spent his working life as a banker in Albany, New York, and is now retired and living in a gated community. He’s 67, a good amateur golfer, physically fit and mentally sharp. Has been married for more than 40 years, with three grown children and six grandchildren. Holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a graduate degree (in accounting) from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Felicia Gagnon, from Castle Rock, Maine. Felicia is 25 and the sole employee of the Castle Rock Washateria, where she washes, dries, folds and sometimes delivers. She also serves as the janitor. She is unmarried, no children. Graduated high school, never went to college.
David Allen is a roadie-for-hire in Nashville, almost always employed. Last year he toured with both Little Big Town and Trisha Yearwood. He is 29, divorced, with one child. He makes his support payments regularly. Graduated high school, has two years of college (no degree).
Andrea Sparks is a successful restaurant owner in Flint City, Oklahoma. She is 42, twice divorced, with three children. She has a degree in business administration from the University of Oklahoma. Next year she will be president of the Flint City Chamber of Commerce.
Helen Wiggins is a single mother who lives in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and works as a nail technician (she prefers this to manicurist). She is 28 years old. Graduated high school, no college.
Although they come from varying walks of life and have attained varying degrees of education, none of these participants was stupid, venal or evil. The reader would do well to remember that they were loaded with potent truth serum, which forced them to say what they actually believe, rather than what they thought might be most palatable to their interlocutor. If you, gentle reader, should be inclined to view any of them with contempt or feel outraged about their comments, you’d do well first to look inward and ask what you might say if compelled to give the truth of your feelings, the whole truth, the absolute truth, and nothing but the truth.
And, with that caveat, the discussion.
Stephen King Thank you all for coming, and agreeing to participate.
Helen Wiggins You could use a manicure. Your nails are too long. But at least it doesn’t look as if you chew them.
William Russell I started one of your books but didn’t finish it. I’ll never try another one. You’re an awful writer.
King Many critics would agree, but today’s subject is politics rather than fiction. To begin, I’d like to go around the table and ask each of you when you decided you were going to vote for Donald Trump.
Gary Barker After a couple of debates I knew who I was going for. He [Trump] had nicknames for the other guys that really put them in their places. Lyin’ Ted, for instance. I hated that guy. He always looked like he wanted to yell, “Come to Jesus!” And Little Marco. That was my favorite. He [Trump] nailed that sucker. He [Rubio] looked like he was about 13 fuckin’ years old.
Wiggins Don’t forget Crooked Hillary. That was the cutest nickname.
David Allen Right. When they all started yelling, “Lock her up!” at the convention. I knew then it was going to be a whole new ballgame, and I decided to vote for Trump. But I didn’t shoot my mouth off about it. Nashville is in the south, but in the music business there are plenty of bleeding hearts. Not like Hollywood, thank God, but you still have to be careful. I started off saying I hadn’t made up my mind when people asked me, then I started saying, “Probably Clinton.” I never told anyone I was going to vote for Trump. Especially not my ex. She would have torn my balls off.
Russell Trump’s a businessman who understands business. He’s going to make them sit on the minimum wage, and he’ll take off a lot of those stupid banking, business and pollution regulations. It’s working already. Just look at the stock market.
Felicia Gagnon Most of my customers at the Washateria were for him, so I decided I was, too. It wasn’t just going along with the crowd, either. He always had an answer for everything, and he took no shit. Also, he wants to keep the illegals out. My job isn’t much, but it pays the rent. What if some illegal comes along and tells Mr Griffin – he’s the owner – that she’ll do my job for half the salary? Would that be fair?
Andrea Sparks It wouldn’t, it absolutely wouldn’t. And I admired him for a comeback he made to Clinton in, I think it was their first debate. She said he paid no taxes, and Trump came right back, said: “That makes me smart.” I knew right then I was going to vote for him, because taxes are killers. That’s why no one from the middle class can really get ahead. They tax you to death. I am making a little bit of money, but I’d be making a lot more if they didn’t tax me so badly, and why do they do it? To pay welfare for the illegals Felicia was talking about. The beaners, the darkies and the camel-jockeys. I would never say that if I wasn’t full of this truth serum stuff, but I’m glad I did. It’s a relief. I don’t want to be a racist, it’s not how I was raised, but they make you be one. I work hard for what I’ve got, from nine in the morning until midnight, sometimes until one in the morning. And what happens? The government takes the sweat from my brow and gives it to the foreigners. Who shoot it into their arms with dope the drug mules bring up from Mexico.
Barker Amen to that, sister.
Wiggins You know, I was torn at first, but when he hired that guy Pence to be his vice-president, I got on board. He [Pence] was so smart at the debate he had with that other guy. He had an answer for everything.
Gagnon Also handsome, with that nice white hair.
Wiggins Yes, he takes care of himself. Nice haircut, good teeth, beautiful skin. I thought to myself, “Trump is on the fat side. If he has a heart attack and dies, Pence can take over.” And the guy who ran with Clinton, I can’t even remember his name, but he looked like one of those guys at the DMV who, when you finally get to the front of the line, says you filled out the paperwork wrong and sends you home.
[General laughter from the panel.] Russell Also, there’s the matter of the trademark slogans. Do you know what I’m talking about?
King Tell me.
Russell Candidates have certain codified positions, which form the basis of the so-called stump speech. In that speech, which is about the same whether it’s made in Portland, Maine or Portland, Oregon, they make their basic talking points over and over. But they also need a simple summation of what they stand for. That’s conveyed by the trademark slogan, something simple and catchy. Trump’s was MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and it was perfect. Contains two words of great power: America and great. Clinton’s was STRONGER TOGETHER. Vague. Wishy-washy. Forgettable. Stronger than what? Together with whom? It says nothing. The person who thought that up was an idiot, and she was an idiot for using it. Her slogan might as well have been WE’RE GOING TO DO SOME STUFF.
Sparks Trump was the boss. Clinton was just bossy, and take it from me, nobody likes a bossy woman. As a business person, I have to use a certain amount of tact. She didn’t have that.
Allen When she spoke, she kind of brayed.
Gagnon Because she was trying to sound like a man. That may work in New York, but not out where there are real people.
Sparks Whatever, it was like fingernails on a blackboard. If I talked to my waitstaff like that, half of them would quit.
King OK, since we’re on the subject of Clinton, I want to go around the table and have you give me one word or one short phrase that describes your impression of her. Gary, you haven’t had much to say, so let’s start with you.
Barker Before we get to that, I just want to say that I’ve always been attracted to young men on surfboards. This truth serum is… whoo.
King Good to know, and thank you for sharing, but how about a word or simple phrase describing your impression of…
Barker Bitch. I thought she was a bitch.
King OK. Felicia?
Gagnon Stuck-up. A stuck-up smartypants. She talked down to people.
King William?
Russell Felicia’s exactly right. Clinton projected arrogance and a sense of entitlement. Riding on Slick Willie’s coat-tails.
Allen I hated those pantsuits. Like she doesn’t think people can figure out she’s got a booty. And she’s starting to look really old.
Wiggins Is she a lesbian? I heard she was a lesbian.
Sparks I don’t care about that, but her bestie was one of those Muslims. You know, the one married to the guy always showing his junk on the internet. Huma Abba-Jabba, or something.
King I’d like to discuss two issues that dogged Hillary Clinton’s campaign…
Sparks Can I just say I ate a whole box of chocolate pinwheel cookies last night? I’d like to say that. Then I vomited them back up, because I have to stay thin.
King Thank you, Andrea. Now, if I could turn to Clinton’s involvement – if you choose to call it that – in the Benghazi attack, where four Americans, including US ambassador J Christopher Stevens, were killed. Did that play a part in your decision not to vote for Clinton?
Allen Is Benghazi in Africa or China?
Russell Actually, it’s in Libya. Which the Obama administration destabilized by not helping Gaddafi in his time of need. The man was an asshole, but he was our asshole. Pardon my French, ladies.
Barker Putting the bitch factor aside, I don’t think you can hold her responsible for what a bunch of ragheads do. They just want to kill Americans for Allah.
King So you don’t blame her?
Barker Not for that, Jesus no. Hey, you should see my collection of surfer mags. My wife thinks it’s the boards I’m interested in.
King Just to put a button on this, were any of you influenced by Benghazi when you stepped into the voting booth?