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

reuters.com

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

#291

Post by chadlavi »

pizlonator wrote: post #271
js2 wrote: 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…

The fact that this is coming out so early in the presidential cycle is a good thing for him though. Lots of time for it to become old news. Lots of time for him to spin it. He seems to be good at spin. Anyway this makes me respect him more. Anyone know his handle btw?

Hah same for me. Though a politician who actually knows how to use a computer can probably do a lot more for democracy in the Senate than the oval office.

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

#292

Post by pizza »

cbsks wrote: post #200
mikeash wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re in a weird transition period where all this information is now available but we’re not used to it yet. The illusion that people had a clean past is still prevalent. I suspect that in another decade or two, we’ll finally internalize the fact that everybody does stupid crap and nobody will care about it anymore.

Or people will realize that the internet is forever and will stop posting even slightly controversially things publicly, unless under a pseudonym. My generation may be the first and last to publicly post all of their stupid teenage thoughts on the internet for anyone to dig up later.

I feel like it's more likely that someone will just automate private intelligence gathering and sell it as "generating a reputation score for job/relationship/political candidates". Like the social credit system in China.

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

#295

Post by writepub »

nabla9 wrote: post #167

- Was member of a punk band - Arrested when sneaking into private property. - Member of cDc - Co founded a small Internet services and software company. - published an tiny online newspaper, Any hacker born in 70's can relate.

Except for the actual hacking part. When everyone is a hacker, no one is. But let's put facts aside, for Beto makes us all feel really good with the inaccurate "hacker" moniker attached for political mileage.

I personally would love to anoint him with the "Doctor" moniker, for his active contributions to WebMD.

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

#296

Post by dragonwriter »

ams6110 wrote: post #288
akiselev wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gives him at least a touch of credibility in a time where the Democratic primary voters increasingly turn on CSPAN to watch Congressional Committee hearings and watch as a vast majority of their 535 representatives butcher basic facts about technology that they internalized since teenagers. Given the rapid pace of technological development, I don't see this as a negative, assuming he didn't do anything more nefari…

And he's just somebody new. Parties seem to have a tendency to wheel out old candidates who have tried and failed to get past the primaries multiple times already (thinking of Biden, in particular here, but that's just one example). Not sure why that is.

> Parties seem to have a tendency to wheel out old candidates

Parties don't wheel out candidates, candidates seek the party nomination. Candidates who have done so in the past and whose on-paper qualifications and public esteem have increased since then often remain inclined to do so and have a basis for expecting they might do better.

Many party voters are also inclined to vote for these candidates; some of these are long time supporters.

I'm more surprised that candidates whose resume includes only some local politics, a few terms in the House, and a failed Senate bid throw their hat in to the Presidential ring than that those that spent 36 years in the Senate and run for President twice before, serving for eight years as Vice President after his most recent Presidential run, do so.

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

#297

Post by ChuckMcM »

sophacles wrote: post #169
eli wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This will be an interesting conversation (tech savvy vs tech dumb) to play out this round.

The current president argued during his campaign that the problems with the country arose from "bad deals" and his experience and expertise at "deal making" was the solution to this problem.

Beto might argue during his campaign that the problems with the country arise from unacknowledged cyber warfare in both social media and voting systems. He could then argue that he is uniquely qualified to lead the government to a more solid footing in that regard and protect the democracy.

Both are simplistic arguments of the form problem is X, I'm an expert in X, I can lead a group to fix X.

Opponents will of course spin up the fear of X and especially if X can be used to achieve the goals of the proponent, try to paint them as being part of the problem not the solution.

Unlike the current administrations "Space" force, I could see a justification for a "Cyber" force if such a force provided protection against, and options for maneuver in an algorithmically generated battlefield.

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

#298

Post by krapp »

malvosenior wrote: post #76
js2 wrote: 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…

I agree the piece isn't very informative and is very scattered. That being said, this is definitely the most questionable thing: > "When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges" That will follow him into the campaign far more than his CDC membership.

>> "When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges"

>That will follow him into the campaign far more than his CDC membership.

Will it? It didn't hurt George W. Bush.

Admitting to smoking pot didn't hurt Obama.

And Donald Trump... Jesus wept, Donald Trump.

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

#299

Post by JoblessWonder »

js2 wrote: 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…

Taco Trucks on every corner. God I loved that quote. https://youtu.be/PzbusRK7YKM?t=360

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

#300

Post by JamesBarney »

kodablah wrote: post #252
gaze wrote: 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?

This is why he lost in Texas IMO. While from the outside looking in it can feel like it was unwinnable due to party-politics, from what I've gathered a lack of focus on issues also hurt (that and general disagreement with issues he did reference). One can imagine at a national level his stance on issues would be more accepted, but he'll need to harp on them much more than focusing on who he's not. That "contrary imag…

He lost in Texas because he ran as a democrat in Texas. I doubt talking about issues would have made much of a difference.

Issues make a much larger difference in the primaries than the general elections for two reasons. The policy gap between Cruz and Beto are vast compared to differences between any two democratic candidates. And independents tend to be less driven by issues and more by character and charisma.

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