August 7, 2019

"Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed by polling at 1% in the Democrat Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement - & be quiet!"

Tweeted Trump late last night.

He was reacting to something Beto O'Rourke said, that Trump should not visit El Paso: "He helped to create what we saw in El Paso on Saturday. He's helped to produce the suffering that we are experiencing right now. This community needs to heal."

And here's Beto's Instagrammed proof that "Beto" is not a phony name (found via WaPo, at "‘Be quiet!’: Trump claims Beto O’Rourke uses a ‘phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage’"):

149 comments:

Dave Begley said...

That solves that!

Irrefutable evidence. Case closed.

Dave Begley said...

And Beto's shoes are untied. Compare that picture to the picture of Ann Althouse in kindergarten. The children were well dressed and put together.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Maybe Master Beto would poll better if he killed a feral hog with a knife.

rcocean said...

B.O. ROURKE is a complete fraud and he should shut up. The amount of pure HATE these D Candidates have assaulted Trump with is incredible. I've never seen anything like it. Its NOT in response to Trump's remarks, its just pure bile.

Trump is President and he's trying to unify and comfort the nation. That's what Presidents do. And he gets attacked and slandered. And told to "Stay away".

bleh said...

That's an awfully white group of kids for El Paso.

Drago said...

Beto is totally hispanic!! It says so right on his shirt!!

Li'l Tomahawk Lizzie Warren can only dream of the possibilities were she to have had a glossy taken of her when she was a "yute" with "Native American" or "Hiawatha" on her shirt!!!

rcocean said...

B.O ROURKE has always stated America was built on White Supremacy and should pay for its sins. And he's in favor of open borders, Amnesty, and Free Everything. The only thing is against is taxing Billionaires.

Nonapod said...

Beto has been attempting to arrest his fast slide into irrelevancy with his recent behavior. Trump's thrown him a bit of a life line here, but ultimately it still won't matter.

Lyle Smith said...

No Hispanic kids in that picture.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The biggest problem with living in a bubble is that you can be sucker-punched relentlessly, endlessly, by anyone that doesn't respect the bubble.

bbkingfish said...

I thought this topic was off limits. No?

Fernandinande said...

"My ideology has not changed for several years. My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I['m] putting this here because some people will blame the President or certain presidential candidates for the attack. This is not the case. I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump’s rhetoric."

mccullough said...

Trump just tweets at Beto like he’s a child.

And Beto comes back with a photo of himself as a child.

Another “that child was me” moment of idiocy.

Perfect

gilbar said...

Serious Question:
Beta Rourke would have NO problem with the Trump campaign releasing
names
addresses
phone numbers

of his immediate family, would he?
of his campaign contributors?

What about Joaquin Castro, and his brother Raul?
Would THEY have any problems with the Trump campaign releasing this information about theirs?

readering said...

Cute kids. Few nicknames can match The Donald.

traditionalguy said...

The parents mis-spelled Beneto. Beto will win the nomination for certain now. But if not, then he will continue acting out his Beneto the Il Duce traveling act on his wife's money.

Mr. Forward said...

Is America ready for an emoji on the White House?

John henry said...

I would have reworded that Tweet.

It makes it look like the "Beto" is a phony name when it clearly is not. They guy has been called Beto since childhood. If he is to be believed.

I would have said


"Beto (nickname he uses to indicate phony Hispanic heritage)

Or better, since "hispanic" is such a bullshit word, "phony Mexican heritage"

John Henry

gilbar said...

So, Beta Rourke posted a pic (supposedly) of him as a child, surrounded by ALL White Cis Children?
And he did That to 'prove' the idea that he's not really Hispanic?
Case Closed!

mccullough said...

The Fake Hispanic and The Fake Indian.

Trump loves this stuff.

John henry said...

Blogger The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The biggest problem with living in a bubble is that you can be sucker-punched relentlessly, endlessly, by anyone that doesn't respect the bubble.

You mean like Kamala Harris?

According to Quinnipiac College polling she was in double digits with blacks prior to the debate. Now under 1% after Tulsi's takedown.

John Henry

Lars Porsena said...

Beto is the president that Mexico needs.

tim maguire said...

Nationally, I doubt Beto works to falsely indicate Hispanic origin. It's just a nickname.

John henry said...

Blogger tim maguire said...

Nationally, I doubt Beto works to falsely indicate Hispanic origin. It's just a nickname.

Wrong, Tim. When he first came on the scene in the Senatorial campaign most Americans thought he was of Mexican (hispanic if you must) origin.

I suspect that a lot still do.

John Henry

YoungHegelian said...

The Luck O' the Irish seems to have deserted poor Beto!

tim maguire said...

John henry said...According to Quinnipiac College polling she was in double digits with blacks prior to the debate. Now under 1% after Tulsi's takedown.

I just looked that up. Amazing! In 1 month she went from 27% to 1%.


John henry said...When he first came on the scene in the Senatorial campaign most Americans thought he was of Mexican (hispanic if you must) origin.

A senate campaign is not national. If most people thought he was Hispanic (Mexican, if you must), was that because of his name or because of how the media talked about him?

n.n said...

First, husband and wife have been productive. We are far and away from catastrophic anthropogenic overpopulation of the Earth. Encore!

That said, no color judgments, please. Hispanics vary over the diversity spectrum from black to brown to white to yellow, even orange.

narciso said...

Its dubious I've never heard a Robert refereened that way robertico like pancho is francisco. But there was a lot the mash notes for o'Rourke left out.

John henry said...

Looking at that picture again, it strikes me that "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things isn't the same."

All of the kids are dressed similarly, as if for school back when kids used to dress for school. All are, sort of, smiling. All are leaning towards the camera.

Except Beto. Not badly dressed but not dressed up like the others. As someone else mentioned, doesn't even have his shoes tied. Leaning away from the camera. Not smiling, has a look of WTF am I doing here?

Not claiming it is a photoshop. It is probably real. But it has that photoshop look about it.

Photoshopping "BETO" on a white shirt would be really easy, too. Someone like Bernie should photoshop the BETO out and send the pic around claiming he is lying. Or maybe just send both ans ask "One of these is photoshopped. Can you tell which one?" Confusion to the enemy!

If I was PDJT I would Tweet out an apology and include the picture. It is truly a HORRIBLE picture for a candidate.

John Henry

Drago said...

Tim: "A senate campaign is not national."

Not usually "national".

Robert Francis O'Rourke vs Cruz most certainly was.

gilbar said...

i'd have to agree with tim, not many americans know enough spanglish to think of the word Beto ethnically

Rick said...

This tweet is not nearly as good as Mitch McConnell's here:

McConnell’s statement on this OWNS:

“Team Mitch in no way condones any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life sized cardboard cut outs of any gender in a manner similar to what we saw from President Obama's speechwriting staff several years ago.”

I think someone who works for Mitch might get it.

John henry said...

Blogger tim maguire said...

A senate campaign is not national.

Depends on the campaign. Because he was running against Ted Cruz it got a lot of national attention, even if it was strictly a state campaign.

was that because of his name or because of how the media talked about him?

It was a combination of a number of things. He never, I don't think, claimed to be Mexican. But he certainly seemed to imply that he was. The key is that most people thought he was Mexican and he never disabused them.

The name alone would not be enough. But combined with the other things it helps.

John Henry

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Another sign of Ttum's hatred of latinos, no doubt.

I remember when Dems touted Beto as the beaner who could defeat evil that whitey Rafael Cruz, but now that they don't want or need him, he's just a Bobby.

John henry said...

n.n said...

That said, no color judgments, please. Hispanics vary over the diversity spectrum from black to brown to white to yellow, even orange.

Amen, n.n.

And at the risk of getting off topic here, would you care to define "Hispanic" for us?

And to Tim, When speaking about a large group of people, for example, residents of south and central America Hispanic may be a convenient, if flawed, generic grouping.

When speaking of a single person, where we know the specific ethnicity, we should use that. Mexican, not Hispanic, in O'Rourke's case.

Though he is neither one, actually. But cultivates the impression he is Mexican.

John Henry

rehajm said...

Hey- just be glad your President knows who you are. Voters sure don’t

tim maguire said...

Drago said...
Tim: "A senate campaign is not national."

Not usually "national".

Robert Francis O'Rourke vs Cruz most certainly was.


People who follow politics often fall into the trap of thinking their level of interest is normal. I doubt that, on election day, even 5% of American voters could tell you who Ted Cruz's opponent was, let alone his ethnicity.

Wince said...

Maybe Kramer didn't get his big idea of "levels" from "ancient Egypt"after all?

Next we'll see Beto inside the I Dream of Jeannie bottle.

KRAMER: I'm completely changing the configuration of the apartment. You're not gonna believe it when you see it. A whole new lifestyle.

JERRY: What are you doing?

KRAMER: Levels.

JERRY: Levels?

KRAMER: Yeah, I'm getting rid of all my furniture. All of it. And I'm going to build these different levels, with steps, and it'll all be carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ancient Egypt.

JERRY: You drew up plans for this?

KRAMER: No, no. It's all in my head.

MORTY: I don't know how you're going to be comfortable like that.

KRAMER: Oh, I'll be comfortable.

JERRY: When do you intend to do this?

KRAMER: Ohh.. should be done by the end of the month.

JERRY: You're doing this yourself?

KRAMER: It's a simple job. Why, you don't think I can?

JERRY: Oh, no. It's not that I don't think you can. I know that you can't, and I'm positive that you won't.

KRAMER: Well, I got the tools. I got the pillows. All I need is the lumber.

MORTY: Hey, that's some big job.

JERRY: I don't see it happening.

tim maguire said...

John henry said...When speaking of a single person, where we know the specific ethnicity, we should use that. Mexican, not Hispanic, in O'Rourke's case.

No, Irish in O'Rourke's case. He's not Mexican.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

A senate race is only of wide national interest when it is, as was the case with Rafael v. Beto

John henry said...

gilbar said...

i'd have to agree with tim, not many americans know enough spanglish to think of the word Beto ethnically

I am fluent in Spanish (and Spanglish) and have lived in Puerto Rico nearly 50 years. As Narciso (Can I call you Nacho?) points out, Beto and a diminutive for Roberto is not common here. I don't think I've ever heard it.

It may be in Mexico since Spanish is a bit different there.

But if all I knew about him was that his nickname was "Beto" I am not sure I would assume Mexican.

Re Nacho, I hope you did not take offense Narciso. I know half a dozen Narciso's and all answer to Nacho as a nickname. Pronounced more like Nasho.

John Henry

Kevin said...

I want to know who among my countrymen look at the field of Dem candidates and proclaim: Beto's the one!

John henry said...

I know he is not Mexican, Tim. That was the whole point of my comments.

But he pretends to be Mexican. We should point out that he, as an individual, is a fake Mexican, not a fake Hispanic.

John Henry

narciso said...

His name is Robert Francis o'rourke, it's not like bill richardon.

Skippy Tisdale said...

So he's using both children and cultural appropriation for political purposes. What a POS.

narciso said...

His mother was related to fred korth a high official in the Kennedy adminstration

Bay Area Guy said...

Roberto Rourke sounds Hispanic to me.

Growing up, I guess his housekeeper was Hispanic, so that must mean he was Hispanic.

Fernandinande said...

"Beano" is Spanish, not Beto.

bagoh20 said...

I have a shirt that says "Superman", so...

Even back then he was way out on the left from everybody else.

Fernandinande said...

Growing up, I guess his housekeeper was Hispanic, so that must mean he was Hispanic.

If your father is the pool boy, then you're half-Hispanic.

Kevin said...

Roberto Rourke sounds Hispanic to me.

Mr. Rourke sounds very Hispanic.

But also that he needs to have a very small person dressed exactly like him nearby.

Nichevo said...

I see an unhappy blond child, apart from the others. Something wrong with that kid. Way to cut your own throat. Smooth move, Ex-Lax!

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"I see an unhappy blond child, apart from the others."

Yes. He could have been a school shooter, and may yet become one.

Ray - SoCal said...

The Beto I know is from Mexico, he’s a painter.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Didn't Beto write some scatological poetry, and appear in drag as part of a punk rock band, and doesn't he espouse leftwing ideology? That seems so Dayton.

Aggie said...

So in other words, the picture is proof that Bobby-Frank has always been a phony. Thank goodness he's cleared that up.

chuck said...

> And at the risk of getting off topic here, would you care to define "Hispanic" for us?

Interesting problem. I knew a woman from Chile who would bristle at being called "Hispanic". Her parents came from Germany and Croatia respectively. I suspect one of those interesting WWII stories. Anyway, my impression was that there were significant differences between North and South Chile...

narciso said...

He was a hacker so he was like Johnny Lee Miller or matthew Willard in hackers

Martin said...

Of course "Beto" is "made up" in teh sense of trying to imply Hispanic background to some oen who has none.

But, what if anything does Trump mean when saying he "trounced" O'Rourke? They never ran against each other.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"To be, or not Beto, that is the question"

it's juicier to pronounce it the NPR way,
in a hushed, reverential tone: "Beyh-TEAU

Bay Area Guy said...

Remember the Alamo?

Politically, Texas is our modern day Alamo.

In 2016, California (once a reliable Red State under Reagan and Nixon) voted for Hillary: 61% to 31%

In 2016, Texas voted for Trump, 52% to 43%

Much of all this "open borders" push by the Left is simply to turn Texas blue, in a similar way they turned California blue.

If NY, Cal and now Texas are blue, boy, the Dems got a lock on the electoral college for a few cycles.

And, once the Left gets a grip, well, it's like the Brezhnev doctrine: once you go Commie, you never go back.

Will Detroit or Chicago ever go GOP? Are there any GOP voters left in those two cities?

So, the Left gave Beto a big push to oust Cruz in Texas, and he came close.

And, without the big push now, well, he's just a goofy skateboarder, who married well.

Remember the Alamo! Remember Texas! Don't let them to do Texas what they've done to my home state of Sunny California!

stevew said...

Cheech and Chong, "Santa Claus and his Old Lady":

No, no, it wasn't a snowmobile
It was a sled, you know
One of those big sleds, you know
And he used to have it
Pulled by some reindeers
You know, like, reindeers

Some what, man

Some reindeers, you know
He used to hook them onto the sled
And then he used to
Stand up inside the sled
And hold on to the reins
And then call out their names
Like, on, Donner, on, Blitzen
On, Chewy, on, Tavo, come on, Beto
And the reindeers used to
Take off into the sky and
Fly across the sky, man

bagoh20 said...

"Beto" is short for "Veronica".

RichardJohnson said...

Yes, Beto O'Rourke had that nickname from an early age.

Tim Maguire, most Texans were quite aware that in Spanish, Beto was a nickname for Roberto, which is Robert in English. Especially Hispanic voters.

Yes, when running for the Senate against the Hispanic Ted Cruz, Robert Francis O'Rourke's using Beto instead of Robert was an attempt to connect with Hispanic voters. (As he did when running for Congress in El Paso.) It was a successful attempt. I doubt he would have gotten as many Hispanic votes had he run as Robert Francis O'Rourke. He was just playing the American politics game.

From the 1960s, Bob Dylan sang about the American politics game in "I Shall be Free." (Dylan from Zimmerman- another example of rebranding in America.


Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote
He’s a-runnin’ for office on the ballot note
He’s out there preachin’ in front of the steeple
Tellin’ me he loves all kinds-a people
(He’s eatin’ bagels
He’s eatin’ pizza
He’s eatin’ chitlins
He’s eatin’ bullshit!)


Though the "bullshit" I do not recall hearing from the album.

Moreover, Robert Francis O'Rourke is not the first "Anglo" Texan to use Beto as a nickname. Consider jazz pianist Robert Skiles from San Antonio, who for four decades has been the leader of
Beto and the Fairlanes a.k.a. Beto y los Fairlanes.

John henry said...

Blogger chuck said...

Her parents came from Germany and Croatia respectively.

My granddaughter, 15, just came back from an invitational vollyball tournament in Santiago. While there, she kept talking about playing the "Croatian team" and I thought she meant a team from Croatia.

Turns out that there are 400,000 Chileans of Croatian descent and they apparently identify as much as Croatian as Chilean.

Argentina had 100,000 Germans immigrate there before WWI. 3.5mm Argentines have German ancestry.

Wikipedia says that 25 million or 62.5% of Argentina’s population have at least one Italian immigrant ancestor. 1861 to 1920 saw 2.2mm Italians emigrate to Argentina.

One of my objections to the term Hispanic is that there jut were not all that many people from Spain, as a proportion of total population including natives.

Lots of Japanese emigrated to Peru. Fujimori, the PM, was descended from immigrants. Is he "Hispanic"

As I say, a bullshit term.

John Henry

Lurker21 said...

The picture just means Beto is a second generation phony.

His dad used him as a prop to get the Chicano vote.

Roost on the Moon said...

This is obviously in bad faith: remember when Barrack "Barry" Obama failed to use his nickname in perpetuity, and that also proved his inauthenticity? America's Internet Conservatives agree: only phonies have ever had a nickname.

But, the bad faith is still illustrative; as Matt Yglesias puts it: There's "something telling about the inability to conceive of a white person growing up in a majority Latino border town and picking up a Spanish nickname."

You people carping about how Beto has "no Hispanic background" or is perpetrating some kind of fraud should be aware that outside of a racialist worldview, it just doesn't seem that way.

h said...

The internet has a photo of Ruth Beto Ginsburg wearing the same sweater. Hmmmm.

MacMacConnell said...

It's obvious where Beto got his nick name, from his parents' illegal Mexican house servants who could barely speak English.

narciso said...

It's an cultural ethnic affiliation, but there is no latino in him, it's less likely than if I was to identify myself as Basque, which I guess I am, but that language bears no relation to any other on earth.

Known Unknown said...

I almost want to call bullshit on the shirt.

RichardJohnson said...

Lurker:
The picture just means Beto is a second generation phony.

Not second generation at all. Rather,he had ancestors who came to the US centuries ago.Beto O’Rourke discloses that he’s descended from slave owners.
O’Rourke revealed the information in a post on Medium and in an email to supporters around the same time The Guardian posted a story saying it informed O’Rourke that “abundant documentation exists of his and his wife Amy’s ancestors’ slave-owning and their support for the Confederacy.” O’Rourke told the newspaper that his family knew nothing about the ties until The Guardian contacted him.

In the email, he revealed that he was given documents showing that his paternal great-great-great-grandfather had two women, Rose and Eliza, listed as possessions.

O’Rourke’s ancestors “were able to build wealth on the backs and off the sweat of others, wealth that they would then be able to pass down to their children and their children’s children,” he wrote. “In some way, and in some form, that advantage would pass through to me and my children.”

He added, “Something that we’ve been thinking about and talking about in town hall meetings and out on the campaign — the legacy of slavery in the United States — now has a much more personal connection.”

In addition to his paternal great-great-great-grandfather, he said that it was likely that a maternal great-great-great-grandfather owned slaves in the 1860s. He also wrote that his wife, Amy O’Rourke, had an ancestor who owned slaves and another who was a member of the Confederate army.


Not second generation.More like umpteenth generation.

narciso said...

Why is he the only one wearing a shirt like that, no label tag?

madAsHell said...

It's a personalized Mousketeer shirt from Disneyland!!

narciso said...

I call him skippy, like hes was adopted by the Kennedys

RichardJohnson said...

John Henry
Lots of Japanese emigrated to Peru. Fujimori, the PM, was descended from immigrants. Is he "Hispanic"

In addition, a lot of Chinese immigrated to Peru. Chinese restaurants, known as "Chifas" in Peru, are ubiquitous in Peru. I worked in the oil field with Peruvians of Italian, Chinese and mixed Spanish/Indian ancestry (Not just Incas in Peru before the Spanish arrived- Incas were the overlords.). A Peruvian boss informed me that his Spanish ancestry included a lot of Arab ancestry.

Francisco D said...

There's "something telling about the inability to conceive of a white person growing up in a majority Latino border town and picking up a Spanish nickname.

I see Roost on the Moon (Blogger profile blocked) is following in Inga's footsteps.

There is something telling about the inability to conceive of a white person growing up in a majority Latii border town and using a Spanish nickname to curry political favor among the locals.

FIFY.

Roost on the Moon said...

Are you mad about any politician who tries to "curry political favor", or just the ones whose nicknames don't match their blood?

eric said...

I'm curious to know how Trump helped create the El Paso shooting. Did Obama help create the mass shootings during his presidency?

How are presidential candidates comfortable with using this rediculous rhetoric?

If it's about the lack of gun laws, well, that's even worse.

Gun murders in the USA peaked in 1994 at just over 16,000 murders. This was when our population was around 270 million people. Gun murders we just under 11,000 in 2017 and that year is significant because gun murders blipped up during that year.

But also, in 2017, we had WAY MORE GUNS in the USA and about 70 million more people.

Maybe Beto is mad we don't have even more guns so murders can go down even more?

pacwest said...

So in Trump's tweets about the various Dem candidates does he have some kind of stategy in regards to who he wants to run against? Insult some 1%er just to piss enough Dems to back them just because? Force feed the division? Most of his tweets seem to have some underlying purpose. I'm not sure why he would attack a <1% candidate. Who really gives a rats ass about Beto. Could be he is just letting everyone know he will give as good as he gets. This one seemed pretty tame considering.

Chris M said...

Also don’t forget about the Mennonite groups in Bolivia. They don’t generally speak Spanish.

Art in LA said...

For my summer jobs in high school here in LA, I worked with guys from Mexico ... they called me Chinito. I'd go by that nickname if I were running for any public office!

YoungHegelian said...

@Roost,

Are you mad about any politician who tries to "curry political favor", or just the ones whose nicknames don't match their blood?

Is cultural appropriation to be overlooked & forgiven when one of the Left's favorite honkies does it?

Rabel said...

Lies by omission from the Texas Tribune.

Beto said a lot more than the Trib allows... white nationalist, Third Reich, Trump is actively encouraging the violence, etc.

Yancey Ward said...

For serious politics, you probably shouldn't be using childhood nicknames as your first name. The impression I get from this is someone too immature to be president of anything other than high school. There are exceptions for well recognized nicknames like "Bob", "Jack" "Jim/my, and "Bill/y"- they are, at least, connected to the underlying name itself- practically everyone will know the real name. I mean, it isn't like O'Rourke is actually named "Roberto"- though I imagine he did, at one time, consider going to court and changing "Robert" to "Roberto".

I am trying to think of any national politician that routinely used as a first name a nickname that couldn't immediately be recognized as a shorter, handier version of the first name. All I can come up with is Newt Gingrich, and even there, Newt is just a short version of the real name of "Newton". Trent Lott used his middle name in full (first name was Chester).

gadfly said...

Perhaps Trump could make all of this go away by paying El Paso the half-mil he owes from services at his December El Paso political rally?

YoungHegelian said...

@Art,

they called me Chinito

And let me guess --- you're East Asian of some sort, but not Chinese.

I've seen that, too, with my East Asian friends among the local Latino population. if you've got "almond eyes", you're "Chinito" to them.

As one of my wife's Vietnamese co-workers told her after she just witnessed him referred to publicly as "Chinito" by some hispanic cafeteria staff --- "Look, they don't owe me anything & I don't owe them anything. All that PC crap --- that's for you white people".

madAsHell said...

Who really gives a rats ass about Beto.

Reductio ad absurdum. Next time, Beto will need to say something even more outlandish to get attention, and Trump will point that out as well. Eventually, Beto is reduced to strawberries, and geometric logic.

Besides.......how much does a tweet cost??

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Char Char Binks said...
Didn't Beto write some scatological poetry, and appear in drag as part of a punk rock band, and doesn't he espouse leftwing ideology? That seems so Dayton.

Hey c'mon, I grew up in Dayton!

madAsHell said...

I am trying to think of any national politician that routinely used as a first name a nickname that couldn't immediately be recognized as a shorter, handier version of the first name

I like Ike!!

TrespassersW said...

The nickname is dumb. His candidacy is even dumber. What is his resume? What are his accomplishments, either in or outside of government?

If Obama was the empty chair, Bobbie O'Rourke is the dents in the carpet that show where the chair used to be.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"You people carping about how Beto has "no Hispanic background" or is perpetrating some kind of fraud should be aware that outside of a racialist worldview, it just doesn't seem that way"

So appropiation is bullshit? Y'all need to get your story straight.

Anonymous said...

Why is the name on his shirt? Is he retarded?

Lurker21 said...

Politics changes things. If somebody who isn't Italian calls himself "Rocco" people aren't going to object. It's his right. It reflects his personality. A love of Italian music or cooking or culture. When a politician does it of course people are going to assume that it's done for votes. Even if that isn't literally true, people are going to have suspicions and chuckle or sneer.

Alvin O'Konski was an old-time Wisconsin Congressman. I don't know if he changed his Polish name to make it sound Irish or if it was something done before he was born, but if he tried to run for yet higher office, people would have whispered and snickered.

John Kerry didn't change his name, but he certainly benefited through the years from voters thinking that he was Irish. People grumbled about that too. Leftists will have a good laugh at Piyush Jindal and Nimrata Randhawa Haley if they try to run for president, and that would be true if their names were from some little-known European language, rather than an Asian one.

Phillip Spiwak, an unsuccessful Illinois politician, was on the ballot last year as Shannon O'Malley. He changed parties as well as names and ethnicities, and ought to win some kind of an award as the purest political type imaginable.

Bottom line: So much of US politics is just about old-time ethnicity. Don't assume that people object to somebody because of race or skin color (and don't assume that people voting for somebody with a similar background is racism, either).

narciso said...

heh, that's exactly what I thought, Robbie rist was very annoying,

Lurker21 said...

Yancey Ward said...

I am trying to think of any national politician that routinely used as a first name a nickname that couldn't immediately be recognized as a shorter, handier version of the first name.


Addison "Mitch" McConnell. Mitchell is his middle name. I wonder what his name would be in Spanish.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The left DID create the monster in Ohio.

walter said...

Warren Wilhelm Jr. has no comment...

Jack Klompus said...

Roost on the Moon quotes Matty Yglesias to give his point some real intellectual heft.

walter said...

"That Senate race — in which Beto lost to Republican incumbent Ted Cruz by less than 3 percentage points in deep red Texas after raising an astonishing $80 million in campaign funds — made Beto a national figure.

Manice said she realized that one day while in New York’s Central Park wearing a “Beto” T-shirt. A woman recognized the name and came up to her, saying, “Oh, Beto!”

However, the election defeat reportedly left Beto in a “funk” that prompted him to take a road trip on which he drew energy from the people he met and, according to the Post, on one stop in New Mexico “by eating New Mexican dirt said to have regenerative powers. (He brought some home for the family to eat, too.)”

Although the story doesn’t identify the source of the dirt, in a Jan. 25 blog post on his visit to Taos Pueblo, Beto wrote, “I left the Pueblo heading south toward Chimayo, aiming to be back in El Paso by bedtime.” Chimayó, of course, is home to El Santuario de Chimayó, where believers have long taken dirt supposed to have healing powers, though more often rubbing it on themselves than ingesting it."
From Santa Fe to the White House?

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

*Point of Privilege*

Who is the white kid sitting in the right hand corner?
His male-ness and his white-ness are very offensive.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

probably not too big of a step
from "Psychedelic Warlords" to the "Menstrual Munchies"

Red flag his ass.

Sebastian said...

Good to see Trump tweeting away.

But it's sad that he has to do it: which GOPer is going after the phony lefties? which "conservative" public official is speaking up loudly?

Douglas B. Levene said...

O’Rourke had a nickname as a child that he kept as an adult because it conveyed the false impression that he was Hispanic and was politically beneficial. Why isn’t that a pure case of cultural appropriation?

Roost on the Moon said...

Roost on the Moon quotes Matty Yglesias to give his point some real intellectual heft.

What is this, if not a contentless shibboleth meant to maintain this as a "safe space"? You're an intellectual toddler in a policeman hat, on patrol for a community of cloistered babies.

Comanche Voter said...

O'Rourke needs--and deserves--a wheelbarrow load of STFU. He'll get it in the primaries, if he even gets to that stage. He's got a rich wife and maybe they can get a little rancho out on the Llano Estacado and breed Shetland ponies. He might be equal to that task, but not much else.

For you non Beto speakers, the Llano Estacado is the Staked Plain in West Texas.

JaimeRoberto said...

I have a confession to make. My name isn't really Jaime. It's just a nickname that my sister gave me when she was learning Spanish in school. I'm basically your typical white guy, except that I'm as sub-Saharan African as Warren is Indian.

AllenS said...

Kick the mother fucker in the nutz Trump!

Roost on the Moon said...

O’Rourke had a nickname as a child that he kept as an adult because it conveyed the false impression that he was Hispanic and was politically beneficial. Why isn’t that a pure case of cultural appropriation?

I admit that I don't really care about most accusations of cultural appropriation, so might not be the best one to get to the bottom of this. I suspect some of the people raising the issue here don't actually care about that topic, either, and are just being boring.

But, It sure seems like he never went by anything but Beto, including the period of his adulthood when he had no political aspirations. (See the liner notes from his infamous band's album, when he was in his twenties...) Which would mean he didn't cynically "keep" the name, and it's just what he has always been called.

Hopefully that eases your (obviously heartfelt) concerns about cultural appropriation. Or maybe it doesn't, and then you get to hunker down with your conviction that your political opponents are (gasp) hypocrites! And your new conviction about what kind of nicknames should disqualify people from public office.

gilbar said...

Seriously,
do we WANT an unhappy kid, that can't tie his shoes, as the President of the United States?

gilbar said...

In addition to his paternal great-great-great-grandfather, he said that it was likely that a maternal great-great-great-grandfather owned slaves in the 1860s. He also wrote that his wife, Amy O’Rourke, had an ancestor who owned slaves and another who was a member of the Confederate army.

So, Beta Rourke thinks that "we" (by which he means "ME") should be paying reparations because of what HIS ancestors did?
While HIS great-great-great-grandfather was Owning PEOPLE, as was his Wife's people....
MY Great-great-grandfather Oscar Clapper was in Texas with the 34th Iowa Infantry; FREEING THOSE PEOPLE

Lurker21 said...

Actually, though, Beto was "Robert" or "Rob" at Woodberry Forrest and at Columbia.

He played the game, being one person in prep school and the Ivy League and another back home. People do that.

But people are going to put somebody like that down and mock them. It's unavoidable.

And other people will stick up for him and attack the critics.

Circle of life.

narciso said...

Gah right John henry:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/puerto-rico-supreme-court-overturns-swearing-in-of-new-governor.amp

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Dems are phonies that pander. Panderphonia!

AOC is from an upscale neighborhood
Bernie has 3 homes
Warren isnt native American
Beto isnt Hispanic
Hillary isnt 'no-wise tarred' rtc.

typical Dem politician:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zcEQtG_Ugo

DLS said...

Just because his parents were in on it, doesn't mean the purpose behind calling him "Beto" wasn't to suggest Hispanic heritage. C'mon guys. He was born in El Paso, and his dad was an El Paso politician. Dad was just playing the long game, setting Beto up for political success in a border town. It's sort of impressive in a way. I won't get into the details but I've done similar things for my kids. Lol! Because I play the long game too. But yeah, "phony" is accurate. He can just document that the phony business started a long time ago.

Drago said...

Tim in Vermont: "I doubt that, on election day, even 5% of American voters could tell you who Ted Cruz's opponent was, let alone his ethnicity."

51% of American voters knowing a specific Senate candidate is irrelevant.

The O'Rourke/Cruz battle was nationalized in the ways that matter most: in the cultural and "news" media and amongst the major national fundraising sources.

Those factors combined with in-state voter recognition is what matters, not whether or not a large percentage of voters in other states knew who Robert Francis is.

narciso said...

did they know he was a hacker, did they know he had a dui, that he wasn't Hispanic, that he was married to the daughter of the wealthiest developer in texas, who has a material interest against the wall?

stever said...

When I was a kid they called me Stevie Wonder. So I guess its ok now?

Art in LA said...

@YoungHegelian ... I'm all Chinese. Born in L.A., so American. My kids are mixed. My great grandfather and grandfather both came to the U.S. when they were very young, 15-ish, but had their families back in China. My grandfather was more American than my dad was -- served in the US Army in WW2. But, as you mention, Chino is a catch all in Latin America, I think ... sort of like Kleenex! LOL.

Howard said...

Trump's desperation by kicking a never was a has been. You people eat it up, that's why the Cuck-in-Chief do it

Howard said...

What happened to Tim in Vermont?

madAsHell said...

Why is the name on his shirt?

It's a ticket home on the short bus!!

madAsHell said...

The teacher made him sit on his hands, and nailed a shoe lace to the floor.

Bay Area Guy said...

The latest Economist/YouGov poll has Beto at 2% -- the same as that horrid milk my wife makes me buy.

Two percent. Well done, Beto!

The guy had 15 mins of fame, his time is up.

Sayonara Sucker - you've had more action in this thread than in your entire campaign!

Tomcc said...

(Way OT) In 1972, when I was a young teen, my hometown Steelers drafted a running back. I didn't read the sports pages, but I would listen to the games on the radio. This guy, Frank O'Harris turned out to be a really good player, and I was pleased that he was also Irish. It took a few months until I realized my error.

narciso said...

in other news:

https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/07/jeffery-mark-epstein-democratic-representatives/

CapitalistRoader said...

(Responding to a picture of Abe Lincoln wearing a MAGA hat):

Please tell me this is photoshopped. Please?
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) March 25, 2017

John henry said...

Yer a bunch pickers up there, Narciso. Only one governor to last 4 years?

We've had 3! All gloriously corrupt. We're right up there with Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and other great American entities.

And that's only so far. I wonder how long this one will last. They aren't actually saying she's a temporary seat warmer but she's a temporary seat warmer.

John Henry

madAsHell said...

Panderphonia

The Sounds of Reparations.

It's also a little known fact that this was the working title for a certain Simon and Garfunkel album.

John henry said...

Howard

President Trump isn't kicking O'Rourke because of his candidacy. He is kicking him because O'Rourke told him to stay out of el paso.

John Henry

tim in vermont said...

So Beto had an Hispanic maid who liked the cute little bugger. That makes him Hispanic! By the same token, my ex-wife is black!

rcocean said...

While President Trump was vising the Hospital Victims with No Pictures/No Press allowed -Beto Cuck was having a filmed public "Comforting session" with one of the Walmart survivors.

What a no class piece of shit. But then we already that Robert "Fucking" Francis - "American is a white supremacist nation" "Where's my skateboard" O'rourke had no class.

rcocean said...

Y'know I'm really beginning to hate the Democrats. They are such anti-American, worthless, racist, anything for power, fucks. Really, I'm through with them, and their never-trumper enablers like David French.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Wow some new rooster guy really REALLY wants to defend Beto, simply can’t ABIDE any slanderous remarks towards his little arm-waving circus act. BETO! is the new STELLA! I guess. Nothing screams authenticity like fleeing the scene of your own DUI right?

tim in vermont said...

Beto is trading on the nickname his Hispanic maid gave him, implying that he is somehow hep to the Hispanic community. I guess I didn’t make my contempt for him clear. He is also a gigolo, marrying into one of the largest fortunes in America.

If you knew your Looney Toons, you would know I am a chicken hawk.

Marcus Bressler said...

Maybe the Cruz-O'Rourke Senate race wasn't "national news" too much leading up to it, but when the early returns came in and it looked as if Beto would pull off an upset, EVERY MSM Dem-lovin' asslicker was orgasming as the results came in.

At the end, another disappointment for the Left and its bastard baby, the MSM.

THEOLDMAN

Drago said...

Howard: "Trump's desperation by kicking a never was a has been. You people eat it up, that's why the Cuck-in-Chief do it"

John henry: "Howard
President Trump isn't kicking O'Rourke because of his candidacy. He is kicking him because O'Rourke told him to stay out of el paso."

John Henry, Howard already knew that, but he has to play dumb to try and score an online point.

That's what makes Howard different from Inga. Inga was too stupid to know better. Howard knows better and does it anyway.

I'll leave it to you to determine which is worse.

Drago said...

Marcus: "Maybe the Cruz-O'Rourke Senate race wasn't "national news" too much leading up to it,..."

It was "national news", hyped by every MSM outfit, late night talk show host, the entire national network of lefty donors, etc.

It just didn't always register on voters in every state, not that that mattered a whit.

wildswan said...

What strikes me is that he is dressed very differently from the other kids who seem to be wearing fall-color clothes. O'Rourke's clothes feature his name and they are black and white like a political poster.

PS I definitely thought "Beto" had a Hispanic mother or grandparents based on his name. I'm sure that was intended.

narciso said...

Apparently wexner of Victoria secret said Epstein stole 46 million from his accounts.

Bob Boyd said...

The baby Beto pic only lends support to my theory that O'Rourke is a congenital phony.

Fen said...

Beto is Tropby Wife. Trump has vast experience dealing with such people. For the right price, I bet Beto would even let Trump grab him by the pussy.

Poor liberals. Remember the polite and civil Tea Party that you slimed as "Teabaggers" ?

LOL. Get fucked. Now you get Trump. Good and hard for 4 more years!

And David French wants to scissor with you too. Ha. Enjoy.

Fen said...

"which GOPer is going after the phony lefties? which "conservative" public official is speaking up loudly?"

GOPe: But but... if we go for the ball we might incur a (gasp!) FOUL!

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Betophilia is a disorder, but not widespread

Bob Boyd said...

Betophilia is a disorder

Beto himself has the worst case.

madAsHell said...

Apparently wexner of Victoria secret said Epstein stole 46 million from his accounts.

Yeah....it was only after 46 million were gone. I'll guess Wexner swings.....every ways.

Known Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Known Unknown said...

He rides a skateboard the way a Kennedy drives a car.

Jon Ericson said...

Bears repeating:

Phony Betomania has bitten the dust.