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

reuters.com

261–270 of 400 posts

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

#261

My initial thought is this is quite provocative in the realm of federal political campaigns. I can imagine some interesting one liners during his future campaign, especially from the opposition, that will likely rile us all up. I enjoyed the story, and if any of it is legitimate and honest insight into O'Rourke's inclinations then I'm interested to see more of his policy proposals. Furthermore, I think the article's…

Unfortunately, he doesn't appear to have any actual policy platform related to the presidential run; at least, the other day when I visited the site I saw only merchandising.

To be fair, this is true of many of the candidates. Bernie's got a store, a donate button, and a big animated gif of Bernie looking cheerful. Gillibrand explains what she cares about, but doesn't have any serious policy platform. Etc.

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

#262

Isn't this the guy who wants to dissolve the border between Texas and Mexico? Jesus. Here's the difference borders make: check out Nogales Mexico vs. Nogales Arizona - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/travel/nogales-arizona-me... It's not race or genetics or even culture. It's the institutions separated by country borders that let almost otherwise identical cities have radically different outcomes.

Hey, I may have missed something -- do you have a cite for the claim that he wants to dissolve the border?

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

#263
post #259
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also pretty easy to have a few beers and not drive

I wouldn’t call it very easy. You drive to a place and have some beers. Then you have the choice of leaving your car or drive above the BAC. Most people choose the latter.

> I wouldn’t call it very easy

Yes it is.

> You drive to a place and have some beers.

It's quite easy to decide not to drive to a place if you are going to have a few beers over too short of a time to safely and legally drive home, or to choose not to have too many beers if you need to drive to and from the place.

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

#264
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

IANAL, but pretty sure that this is not true. There is not a blanket ban on prior-restraint for national security reasons, but New York Times Co. v. United States did establish limits on it.

One takeaway from that case could be that it did at least partly imply that the burden of proof is on the government, not the press. However, since all 9 justices had differing opinions, there's a lot of uncertainty over what is and isn't legal.

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

#265
post #46

He named his BBS "TacoLand". He should definitely play up this angle...maybe campaign on a taco cart on every corner. I know people who will vote for him for that alone. This piece is a disaster. It's an excerpt from a soon to be released book, it's light on facts about O'Rourke and is at least equally about Cult of the Dead Cow, it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the gui…

This feels like someone trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill and link connections that really don't exist.

According to the article O'Rourke left the CDC boards turned 18 and went to college. He's 46, so we are talking 1989 or 1990.

The article then talks up all the Back Orifice/Hacktavism stuff which was a solid decade after he left. It's not like Beto's helping Virus and Sir Dystic write SMBRelay...

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

#267
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.

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

#268
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

~80/90s hackers aren't really the same thing as most post 00 hackers. A lot of people were in it because they were curious about this new thing and the opportunities to explore something and express themselves. The same way you would in other emerging cultures. Those aren't bad qualities.

> ~80/90s hackers aren't really the same thing as most post 00 hackers. Yeah, no hackers from the 80s and 90s ever had any bad intents. /sarcasm

The meaning of the word has changed somewhat; it was mostly about curiosity and exploration in the 80s/90s. Less of the economy was reliant on computers so there wasn't much crime to commit beyond mere unauthorized access. Heck, "2600: The Hacker Quarterly" could be found on the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble back then.

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

#269
post #13

I hope nobody uncovers the naruto fan fiction I wrote in my teens when I run for political office.

You joke about it, but it is kind of scary that some obscure tweet or facebook post one did in their teens might be used against them when running for (whatever) public office...

That's why I built https://github.com/Nick-Gottschlich/Social-Amnesia

Sure as hell ain't perfect but can potentially clean up some of what you have out there.

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

#270
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think their style is as new as it appears. Yes, they are more active on social media, but most Americans are not on Twitter directly; there is a whole genre of news story now that revolve around things politicians say on Twitter. AOC didn't really have a national brand until after she won, and she got there mostly through traditional retail politics. Trump had a media brand to begin with so he was able to cre…

The difference is that AOC/Trump use social media to drive the news, bottom up. Old-school politicians use the news to try and drive social media and public sentiment, top down. Right now Beto seems a lot like Hillary, using the traditional approach of PR driven puff pieces to try and capture attention. Meanwhile the AOC/Trump populists use a direct channel (Twitter) to bypass the media and have a conversation direct…

I see what you mean. I thought you meant they were able to bypass the media as gatekeepers, rather than just using the media in a different way.

I'd also add that AOC is able to use social media now to build national support, but she won her primary with old-fashioned shoe leather politics. Even local NYC press didn't run a lot of stories until after she won the primary (I was closely tracking a race in a neighboring district so I think I saw most of what was out there.)

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