Just another dimension to a really interesting picture.
Rep. Beto O’Rourke
Beto O’Rourke’s time as a musician is one of the more well-trodden parts of his bio. And it makes sense. As O’Rourke worked to introduce himself to 28 million Texans who had scarcely heard of the young congressman from a corner of the state that had never elected anyone to statewide office before, the punk rock was an easy shorthand for “not your daddy’s Senate hopeful.”
That could be why Texas musicians have lined up behind O’Rourke in a way that we’ve rarely seen with previous candidates. During her 2014 gubernatorial campaign, Wendy Davis was also a rising national star, but Willie Nelson never played a major public rally to drive support for her candidacy (but he did perform at a private fundraiser on her behalf). And it’s not just Willie—at events around the state, heavy hitters are performing at rallies in Austin, Houston, and Dallas for (and with!) the candidate.
Willie’s event in Austin this Saturday kicks off the lineup of performances. He’ll be joined by Bridges, his sons in Lukas and Micah, Carrie Rodriguez, Tameca Jones, and Joe Ely—as well as O’Rourke himself, who’ll be speaking in a pre-headliner slot at 10 p.m. From there, O’Rourke will be co-headlining a festival in Dallas on October 7, where he’ll be joined by indie rockers Spoon, the Polyphonic Spree, Sparta, and more. The following day, in Houston, Bun B and former Texans running back Arian Foster are hosting a voter registration drive and concert at which Bun, Shakey Graves, Willie D, the Ton Tons, and others will be performing. (There’s no word yet if O’Rourke will make an appearance at that event.)
The Willie Nelson event was this past Saturday, and as I understand it there were some 25K people in attendance. Here’s a report from Texas Monthly from a reporter who attended. Kinky Friedman had his share of support from the music scene, but this is another yet another example from this year for which the phrase “we’ve never seen anything quite like this” applies. My way of looking at it is this: Musicians have the capability to reach audiences that are harder for political campaigns to communicate with. There’s a lot of young people, and a lot of people who aren’t terribly engaged, at concerts. Maybe these particular events will mostly draw in a crowd that’s already all about Beto, but it seems to me if you wanted to get your less-engaged friend fired up, this would be a great opportunity for you to do that. I think we all learned a lesson a couple of years ago not to underestimate a politician who can draw crowds.
Beto’s running these fluffy, can’t we all get along, we are the world ads, but that sharply conflicts with reality. Reality is, what’s happening with Kavanaugh and no doubt, the fire and fury that will be inflicted on Amy Coney Barrett when Trump nominates her to replace RBG sometime in the next six years. Americans have watched a good man get assassinated by a coordinated national Dem smear campaign, and Beto willl join that madness, if elected.
As much as he’d like to pretend that’s not what is going on nationally, voters know different, and I think sympathy for Kavanaugh is going to steer voters away from Beto. After all, even women have sons, fathers, brothers, and husbands. The accusers’ stories are all devolving into dumpster fires, making Kavanaugh look even more sympathetic, and the party line vote on him will impress on Texas voters what this is really all about.
I think state and local level candidates will be evaluated differently than anyone running for Congress, though. Don’t expect Willie to save Beto. Those less engaged folks have radios and televisions. They can see what’s happened to Kavanaugh and can all see that that could be them someday….a scary proposition. And the thing that’s going to hang the Ford accuser out to dry is her getting caught in lies about the lie detector test, based on the statement of her years long ex boyfriend.
The bottom line is, it’s not about musicians, or even about Beto or Ted.
Here’s a guy who sounds a whole lot like Beto. It doesn’t matter whether Kav is innocent or guilty, we need to destroy him.
I give you Cory Booker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=OGGUQjSi1TQ
Kavanaugh is not a good man.
He represents the lying GOP. His lies to the Senate are on the record.
His time on Ken Starr’s smear commission shows that he was a Republican operative and Clinton Derangement Syndrome conspiracy theorist which he managed to work into his hysterical breakdown in the Senate hearing.
Sympathy for the real victims, women assaulted by drunken frat boys, will drive turnout.
I know crowd sizes are estimates but the estimates I saw for the Austin Beto and Willie rally start at 50,000, 55,000 which the venue provided, and go higher.
“Vote ’Em Out – The ballot box is the biggest power we got.”
https://www.newsweek.com/beto-orourke-rally-willie-nelson-attendance-austin-texas-ted-cruz-trump-rally-1145429
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/willie-nelson-rallies-for-beto-austin-concert-review-731251/
Yes, Cory Booker will have to answer for that but he admits in his youth he had roaming hands and doesn’t try to lie like Kavanaugh.
The bottom line is I almost shot coffee out of my nose when I laughed out loud reading the above.
Always enjoy a good laugh in the morning to start the day. Thanks.
Austin Public Works says 55K at Auditorium Shores for Beto and Willie. That’s pretty big but believable based on other events there.
@Bill… How well do YOU know Brett Kavanaugh ?
Kavanaugh isn’t qualified for SCOTUS, but it has nothing to do with the current dumpster fire and everything to do with his bad interpretation of the Constitution.
If upstanding men (sons, fathers, husbands) are concerned about being falsely accused of sexual assault, maybe they should just stay at home and not put themselves in dangerous situations where they could be vulnerable. These things wouldn’t happen if they didn’t drink or go out to bars or stay out late at night. They might also want to dress more conservatively so they don’t appear threatening.
Ross:
Wrong, and the big surprise here is, I’m going to use Lindsey Grahamnesty to make my point. Lindsey noted that he voted for Kagen and Sotomayor, even though we can all be sure they were not to his RINO Pub liking, ideologically. They met the qualifications, a president nominated them, and that’s it.
Kavanaugh is qualified, nobody threw a conniption when Bush appointed him to his current lifetime appointment position. So what’s different? Politics. Hey, I don’t really care for Kav’s 4th Amendment views, but that doesn’t mean he is not qualified for the position. If the ‘Wise Latina’ was qualified, then so is Kav, and what has been done to him has really pissed off anyone with a modicum of fair play.
@C.L.:
Ford’s whole child-like victim character is literally falling apart in front of our eyes, starting with that ‘fear of flying’ and the two front door narrative. Now we hear from her ex she in fact DID coach her friend, now ex FBI agent, on how to beat the polygraph. Coincidentally, she was with that same ex FBI friend when the letter was written, the letter she supposedly wrote all by her big girl self. All these lies (AKA perjury), combined with her professionally scrubbed online presence should be enough to let you know this was a put up job, and that’s not including the fact that she’s a pussy hat resister. I don’t think she was ever intended to go public and testify. Kav was supposed to fold or Trump was supposed to pull him, but that didn’t happen. The good guys don’t run.
Your narrative is that Kav was a serial rapist/dick exposer for his high school and college years, then suddenly turned into a choir boy. C’mon, man. Use some common sense.
This is going to fire up both Dems and Pubs, but it’s also going to fire up moderates who have a sense of fair play, which Kav did not get.
@Bill.. so that would be a “I don’t” and/or “I know him as well as I know her” ?
@C.L.:
I’m going to refrain from answering, for fear that Sheila Jackson Lee’s staffer will doxx me…..after he gets out of jail on bail after being arrested for doxxing those Republican Senators.
Whatever. Bottom line is, one or more of them is lying, and the only persons who truly know the truth is them – the Doctor, the Judge, and/or the guy named Judge. History is rife with individuals who presented themselves as completely normal to neighbors and co-workers, yet had a dark side that was only exposed to their victims.
This defense of, how could he be this bad guy if this alleged incident occurred in the 80s and we’ve heard no accusations of instances occurring since, is just bunk. Point is, you can be a sexual molester then, even if you’re not one now.
C.L.:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-finds-no-corroboration-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-kavanaugh-in-fbi-report-1538625927
The FBI report is out, Team Trump got the first copy, and it looks like they found no corroboration for Ford’s allegation. Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, Kavanaugh didn’t do what he was accused of? What do you want done here? No proof, lots of questions about Ford’s veracity, though. Kavanaugh already has a lifetime appointment judgeship. Do you want him fired from that? Do you want protestors to shame him and his family at church? At the softball games he coaches?
Are you really saying that a mere accusation, even if it’s false, should cost someone his or her career? Think about that. How about I come to your job and start shouting that you molested me when I was a kid. Should you be fired for that? You can’t prove that you did NOT molest me, even though there’s no other corroboration or evidence that you did. I make an accusation, and you lose your job, maybe your wife leaves you, and your kids now think you are a monster, all because I don’t like your politics and want to hurt Hillary by hurting you.
Is this really the America you want to live in?
I think that regardless of the accusation, this ass clown doesn’t have the temperament to be a Supreme Court Justice, and any appointment is going to be a shitshow of judicial protests for a decade.
C.L.:
Does he have the temperament to keep his current lifetime judgeship? How, exactly, do you want to have him fired? There’s no evidence you did anything wrong, it’s more likely you were the victim of a coordinated smear campaign, but we still find you not suited to do the job you’ve done successfully for years, so you’ve gotta go, Judge.
Well, according to you, it’s a good thing these false accusations were made, so we can see that the judge is just like 99.9999% of the people on the planet who would be very upset at having his character assassinated and his family dragged through the mud. Perhaps this should be the new standard for any judge appointment? Accuse all of them of the most despicable, horrific things, to gauge their reactions? Root out any unsuitable temperment? Judge XXXXX, you’ve been credibly accused of bestiality and zoophilia. How do you respond to that?
Are you saying that after I and a few others have accused you very publicly of molesting us when we were kids, and mobs of conservative activists are calling you a pedo, you would not raise your voice at all when refuting the charges against you? You wouldn’t be just a little indignant? You would carefully ignore the obvious, that I and others had coordinated a hit job on you?
Show emotion: doesn’t have the temperament.
Don’t show emotion or state the obvious: must be lying.
Sorry, I just can’t go for that. But the real question is, what do those swing voters think about this, the non partisan folks who are also watching all this? Those are the folks that will decide the congressional races, including the Cruz/O’Roarke race.
Why didn’t DiFi take this credible allegation seriously? One of her campaign donors raped this lady.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A_Zg2phhLI
Does DiFi have the temperment to continue being a Senator?
At some point the bar has to be raised – we have a POTUS accused by a dozen plus women, have him on tape bragging about it, have had a GOP Senate candidate (R. Moore) who was banned from the local mall for chasing teenage girls down, a Dem Senator who voluntarily resigned (A. Franken) after accusations were made, etc. – especially if we’re talking about a lifetime appointment. Again, I don’t know if the accusation is true or false, but this fellow’s behavior… shoot, he spent the first week of hearings dancing around questions and answering nothing. Then comes the TV drama and his head explodes. Not who I’d want on the Supreme Court. Shit, even the ABA has pulled their endorsement after his made-for-TV hyper partisan tirade – the FBI investigation results should be made public prior to any Senate vote.
Fake news. The ABA did NOT pull their endorsement. The president of the ABA wrote a misleading letter on behalf of himself, not on behalf of the group. That right there is shady, don’t you think?
More generally, you seem to ha e bought into the ALL MEN BAD narrative. Trump isn’t going on the SC….Kav is. You feel like it’s great to pin the alleged sins of other men on Kavanaugh.
Bill, you must get off pushing so many falsehoods, why else would you seem to enjoy doing it so much?
Manny,
Don’t you EVER get tired of being wrong?
Read the actual letter from the ABA to the Senate Judiciary Committee:
https: //twitter.com/senjudiciary/status/1045791085598068737/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1045791085598068737&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2018%2F09%2F28%2Fwow-it-turns-out-the-american-bar-association-story-on-brett-kavanaugh-was-fake-news%2F
Close the space after https:
Even rapists don’t rape all women, Bill. Sometimes they have gotten off enough for the day on the lies or rapes.
Bye Bill, keep living in your fancy world, how is that gasoline increase effecting your business. Going to 100 a barrel courtesy of your president.
Manny,
Educate yourself. Ford wasn’t just some random bimbo dragged in from the trailer park. Look at what the FBI investigation turned up. Her bestie forever, the ex FBI lawyer McLean? McLean contacted Ford’s other BFF, the witness-who-never-met-Kavanaugh and didn’t go any party with them, Leyland Keyser, to try and get Leyland to change her story.
Now you may be asking why Bestie McLean needs an attorney to represent her in this, but, yes, she does have one……David Laufman, a DoJ National Security Division assistant Attorney General in charge of counterintelligence. Hmm, a guy who was there when the dodgy FISA warrants were being obtained against Team Trump.
Read between the lines. Ford was a set up, a patsy, recruited by her FBI handler and ‘beach friend,’ resistance member McLean. Guess where Ford was when she absolutely, positively wrote the letter to Feinstein all by her self? Yeah, with McLean.
When Kavanaugh testified, he was surrounded by his family and friends, for support. When Ford testified, she was surrounded by a team of liberal lawyers and her FBI handler who is now on record as having attempted witness tampering. Also note that Ford and her attorneys refused to turn over her therapist’s notes and documentation about the now infamous polygraph session. What truthful person refuses to turn over documentation that would bolster their allegations? Where were Ford’s family and friends when she testified? AWOL.
If you want Kavanaugh defeated because you don’t like his politics, just say so. If you, like C.L., think that he should be punished for the alleged sins of other men, just say that. But if you are still attempting to use the narrative that Kav is some kind of super rapist….that dog won’t hunt.
Admit you got played.