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Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

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Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#161
post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

>> what he really intends to do

Doesn't matter to his voting base. See e.g. Obama. Obama did very little of what he promised in the first term, got re-elected anyway (heck, even I voted for the guy). But unlike Obama, Beto is not going to be the president, not after losing the race to one of the least likeable candidates in his own state, and not with a DWI on his criminal record.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#162
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately however, he may be too white and male to appease his party's intersectional hierarchy. Given that the top two Democratic candidates for 2020 by current polling are Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, I don't think there's much reason to think that being white or male is a huge disadvantage. His thin resume, OTOH...

Sanders was the frontrunner last time and they kneecapped him.

Front-runner in what sense? I don't think he ever led in the polls, did he? e.g. https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-...

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do texts that contain bomb-making information really fall under the first amendment in the US?

Yes, except possibly when containing classified information.

Publishing and/or otherwise mishandling classified information isn't a crime unless you have (or had) a security clearance.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#165
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately however, he may be too white and male to appease his party's intersectional hierarchy. Given that the top two Democratic candidates for 2020 by current polling are Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, I don't think there's much reason to think that being white or male is a huge disadvantage. His thin resume, OTOH...

Sanders was the frontrunner last time and they kneecapped him.

> Sanders was the frontrunner last time

No, he wasn't. Ever. Clinton was, consistently, and at a similar point to where we are now with respect to 2020, Biden was (slightly, but pretty consistently across polls) in the number 2 spot. And both Biden and Sanders were somewhere around 50 points behind Clinton.

> and they kneecapped him.

The “they” that did (the Clinton-allied team that was in control of the DNC leadership in the years before and through the 2016 primaries, and had a fanatical commitment to assuring her nomination) isn't around any more, nor is a parallel group committed to any other candidate in a similar position.

Nor are many of the rules which facilitated they and their media allies efforts to do that, in no small part because of the substantial influence of Sanders allies in the DNC since the 2016 election; most notably, superdelegate voting privileges have been curtailed.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#166
post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

It's how the establishment pushes new politicians on you. Why should this person receive any coverage at all?

> Why should this person receive any coverage at all?

In most polling (see https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/democr...), if the poll includes O'Rourke he consistently pulls about the same amount of support as Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, and more than Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar or Kirsten Gillibrand. So there's definitely enough demand for him out there to make him worth covering.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#168
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's in the UK. Such a law would run afoul of the First Amendment in the US.

Do texts that contain bomb-making information really fall under the first amendment in the US?

Of course they do.

It's horrifying to me that there's places where that isn't allowed.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#169
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the guilt by association card Are we reading the same article? If anything this article seems like a submarine PR puff piece to me, made to increase the image of Beto by making him seem "cool" and "hip" by associating him with the typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene. This article is very similar to the pro-Beto stuff that was all over…

We are in a world where the exact same video of Beto skateboarding was posted by both opponents and supporters and each saw what they wanted in it. I would challenge the idea that being a “hacker” polls well for a presidential candidate. Recall that “hacking” was a bit of a problem in 2016.

There's another side of that "hacking was a bit of a problem in 2016" - namely that tech savvy politicians are in short supply[1]. Associating Beto with a well known hacker group boosts his credibility wrt tech.

[1] particularly when combined with tonedeaf and heavy handed legislation/regulation about the internet.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#170
post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

For real. Dude sided with republicans against his own party even though he was in a solidly blue district. Even campaigned all over the state for a republican! I love what he did for downballot dems in 2016 and he had that great speech on youtube. But c'mon. Mr GOP Lovefest is not who we need in 2020.

I didn't know much about his voting record, so I searched a bit and found this: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/21/18150359/...

That indicates O'Rourke votes slightly conservative for a Democrat, but is still far more liberal than any Republican. The data cited there shows him pretty squarely in the "slightly conservative Democrat" range: https://voteview.com/person/21361/beto-o-rourke

Is that an inaccurate assessment? I'm wondering where "Mr GOP Lovefest" comes from.

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