Beto a Hacker? Oops.
Welp, I don’t like it, but Beto’s campaign probably ended today before it even started. Reuters has published a story that he was involved as a teenager with a computer hacking group, Cult of the Dead Cow, which was selling tools to hack into Microsoft Windows machines. Members of the group kept his involvement secret during his Senate run, but have now spilled the beans. Beto acknowledged the truth of the story today, admitting that his involvement “…was not anything that I’m proud of today.” Dems will instantly throw him overboard by Monday.
I know, I know, he was a teenager, blah, blah, but I can see the RNC commercials now, and all I can hear right now is Ol’ Dandy Don:
Don’t turn off the lights yet. The CDC was a “hacker” group in the meaning of writing code and exploring non-open systems. The modern meaning of hacker is closer to what us techno-weenies called “crackers”, people who broke into systems, generally for nefarious purposes. Although in the 1980s, “nefarious” generally meant to throw up a splash screen that said something like “you have been owned by the CDC”, before letting you continue your work unmolested.
And until the DMCA, generally even “breaking into” systems was not illegal, unless you caused permanent damage.
I’m a professor of CS (although both my old friends and current colleagues ask “how the hell did that happen?”), and can guarantee that Beto picked up even more credibility from this news, at least among college students.
Let’s not run in fear of what the RNC commercials on Fox News might be. The drooling knuckle-draggers won’t be any further convinced that Beto is Satan’s personal assistant, since he already is a member of the Democratic party. And let’s keep in mind that the current occupying forces in the White House are there thanks in large part to concerted, illegal, and downright evil hacking (in the modern sense) from an advesarial country.
All this will do is add the Scientologists to the forces (mis)aligned against the guy. And I’m willing to bet that once that is known, he’ll pick up support from the many more people who think Scientology is both scummy and a scam.
1This should be an interesting weekend.
2We’ll find out whether America has a greater fear of someone who can write computer code, than someone who can’t write in complete sentence. Or spell.
Be it Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Booker, Harris or any of the droves of Democratic presidential hopefuls, and now, Beto, its seems the first job of the media is to drag them through the mud. Perhaps the intent is to get the bad stuff out there, so it can’t be used later on, and the candidates have a chance to either explain it or just get past it. At least this isn’t sprung on Beto in the last days of the campaign. We’re still almost a year from the first primaries. If this is the worst he, and all the rest, have to endure, we learn something about them, and they are stronger for it. Any of them will have far harder challenges as president and we have to know they can handle the bad stuff. Just ask Barack Obama. We know he did just fine.
3My dears, if you knew the things I did before I became the fine upstanding citizen I am today you wouldn’t elect me dog catcher. Well, maybe dog catcher, because I do have a long history of rescuing dogs and cats.
I am unimpressed by Beto’s sins of youth.
4And Steve Jobs started out making Blue Boxes for cheating the phone company out of long distance charges before he started Apple.
5If you want a serious Beto scandal, check this out.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/beto-orourke-rocked-by-scandal-as-high-school-mixtape-appears-to-include-reo-speedwagon
6And my dears, the boy *inhaled*….! (clutches vegan pearls)
7I sure do miss ole dandy Don…
8Did you read the original Reuters link? Forget the hacking, forget REO, it’s the “Psychadelic Warlord” essay, written when he was 15, a piece of short fiction from the point of view of a killer who runs over two children with a car, that is of concern. “As I neared the young ones, I put all my weight on my right foot, keeping the accelerator pedal on the floor until I heard the crashing of the two children on the hood, and then the sharp cry of pain from one of the two,” the story reads. “I was so fascinated for a moment, that when after I had stopped my vehicle, I just sat in a daze, sweet visions filling my head.”
That’s a hard one to explain away, and you can see what “they” would do with that. Hello?
9It’s a plus as far as I’m concerned.
10GeneB:
11I was thinking along the same lines yesterday when WAPO did the story about Beto taking money from big business/real estate developers/repugnantcan donors early in his political career. Among other things, to revitalize parts of downtown El Paso by relocating low-income families to make room for lucrative developments.
If the Washington Post has it, it’s a story. Which means ferdamnsure somebody else woulda found it. Probably already have. But WAPO breaking it days after he announced gives Beto a chance to get ahead of it. As you said, better now than 2 days before a debate.
But also, having a story potentially damaging to a liberal candidate exposed by the “liberal” media can help restore faith somewhat in the ACTUAL Fourth Estate. I hope.
And I really hope Beto gets past this. Even if he doesn’t get the nomination, his energy, message, and drawing power will help define and push the narrative in a direction I think is good for liberals, and therefore everybody else.
He’s really in the game now.
Go Beto!
Is it really easier to type “welp” as opposed to “well?”
12Test of a candidate, but nothing too serious depending on how Beto handles it. If iirc our man Senator Sanders had 1 – 3 ‘scandals’ dropped on him. Something about his wife and a school’s finances, that he divorced once, and a somewhat racy science fiction fantasy story written by Bernie. And, fwiw, our gal Sec/Sen Clinton didn’t lose because of all the muck thrown in her direction for thirty years. If muck was the gold standard, Dotard45 would have never made it out of Iowa or NH.
13I do it just to irritate you.
14The same folks that would castigate Beto for indiscretions from years ago, turn a blind eye to the long term criminal conduct perpetuated by the narcissist currently occupying the white House. Hypocrisy has no meaning for right wingers!
15Gotta admit, he was a pretty interesting kid.
16My brother hung out with those guys. They were a bunch of pre-puber morons thinking they were big shots.
17The irony in his 15 year old psychodrama is that his father, Pat O’Rourke was run over by a car on his bicycle.
18The Republicon concern trolling began before Democratic candidates announced their presidential campaigns. Apparently Beto “passing as Hispanic” didn’t have the traction of a Kenyan birth certificate, so now they’ve “discovered” Beto’s early writings. If memory serves that tactic didn’t work against Senator Sanders who wrote a fairly spicy science fiction piece. Thus far their cutest piece of concern trolling was the one aimed to throw shade at Kamala Harris for being “too young.” That was thrown last year when the Senator was 53.
Their concern trolling doesn’t worry me. But their obvious attempts to choose our candidate does annoy. Fortunately Michael Bloomberg had the sense to reconsider to not running. Hopefully Howie Schultz will reevaluate soon. Word, Howie. “Centrist” isn’t a good place to be, after we’ve been dragged through the far right swamp since before Nixon.
19Why did nobody dig all this up when he ran for Congress? I thought Texas Republicans were better (meaning sleazier) than that.
20I’ll support Beto if he is part of the ticket; I just think we have better and more-qualified candidates.
21Yawn.
Wake us up when he is exposed as refusing to accompany an elderly woman across a busy street…
22Yeah, yeah yeah, but personally, I find it consoling that he actually knows how to write code and how to break into whatever so that THEREFORE he would REALLY understand how to keep certain entities out of our electoral process.
23I find it refreshing that we might have a presidential candidate who actually knows a thing or two about cyber-security. And we can pretty much guarantee that if Beto was such a nerd in school, there won’t be a sex scandal that comes back to bite him.
24This reminds me of what French PM Georges Clemenceau said on being told his son had joined the Communist Party
“My son is 22 years old. If he had not become a Communist at 22, I would have disowned him. If he is still a Communist at 30, I will do it then.”
Beto was young then he has matured since. Something a Republican would have trouble understanding.
25thatotherjean (24): let’s explore “sleaze” … face it, sex sells. O’Rourke’s landmark success at coding/hacking and writing fantasy stories will never appeal to the right wing christian voter as much as Trump’s serving the country by not getting VD while servicing all those women during VietNam. I don’t see a single “deplorable” woman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned “Beto can hack into me” like they wore those “Trump can grab my pussy”.
BTB, Kirsten Gillibrand has finally thrown her hat in the ring with a perfectly strategic video. No grandstanding, just common sense.
26I look at it this way. He was an adolescent male with the usual adolescent male system throwing hormones in his way when he was least expecting it, such as “never”. I don’t see any crowded orphanages being set ablaze or nuns thrown under a bus by this guy at any point. Also note that when in college, Bill Gates and his buds were just about constantly at their computers doing things that a lot of us think they shouldn’t have, even if it was all in the line of eventually founding a company called Microsoft. I will admit that in Beto’s case, where the R’s already hate him for even daring to challenge an R Senator from (gasp) Texas and nearly winning, that this is gonna be a hardship for his campaign. I hope he recalls a certain Senator located in Virginia who wrote fiction that many saw as disgusting. He eventually went back home and stuck to a private life. It could just be that this is not the right time for such a charismatic, caring, intelligent former Congressman and also-ran to be throwing his youthful hat into the ring, especially not having already cleaned up what might from his past bite him in the butt.
27The most criminal thing is how bad the writing is in “Psychodelic Warlord”, even for a teenaged boy.
But I doubt that it sinks to the level of Sasquatch porn produced by an adult public official.
Yawn. Wake me when there’s a real story.
PS – El Jefe; rest assured that you don’t need to make any special effort to annoy us. On some topics, it’s a given. But on others, you’re rock-solid. So I cope, as do most others.
28My main thing is I don’t see how he stands out from all the other outstanding candidates. As in why he’s even running. I understand why he didn’t want to run for Senate again. It would look real bad if he lost twice. But President ? I’ve seen him, I like him, he’s charismatic. But that’s about it for me. On the national stage, he just doesn’t stand out. And that “I was born to do this” quote. Please. Even if that’s what you think, I’m not real sure about expressing it publicly, in your current position. Not that I don’t appreciate that he ran against Cruz, and had some great coattails. I am very appreciative. I just don’t think that makes him a national superstar. Not to mention I just saw a thing on I think it was CNN, but I would research it myself, about how far right he is compared to the other Democratic candidates. The only way I’m interested in that is if it looks like that’s the only way they can win against Trump. I’d take Republican light against Trump. I would take almost anything against Trump. But I’m hoping for better than just anything.
29I canvassed a lot of neighborhoods for Beto last summer and fall and was so disappointed when Cruz squeaked by to a win. I saved all my original Beto for Senate stuff hoping he’d run against Cornyn, but wondered if he could win that race, since Cornyn isn’t as hated as Cruz. I think others who have declared their candidacy for Prez are very good and I wonder if Beto is ready for prime time. I plan to watch and see what happens. People do foolish things when they are young. I discount all this stuff. However, I don’t know if he can survive the horrors of a presidential race. After Swiftboat and 2016, I don’t think that there is a bottom to the depths to which the opposition will sink to try to discredit the Democratic candidate. I’m so not mentally ready for this election marathon.
30While Beto seems sincere in his candidacy, we must remind ourselves that everyone who runs for President doesn’t necessarily want to BE President. Some of them may seek the Veep spot, which is where I think Beto would fit best. His youth and charisma could be an asset to an older, less likeable candidate, much as Tim Caine added some welcome warmth and affability to Hillary’s campaign.
Some of them want to advance their policy ideas and shape the platform. Or they’re angling for a place in the new Democratic administration. Regardless of who wins – and it had better be a Democrat, or we’re toast – we’ll need a lot of skilled, dedicated people to rebuild from the wreckage that the Trumpians are leaving in their wake. My own Governor Hickenlooper, for instance, isn’t what I consider presidential material. But he might be just the guy to head up Interior or BLM. And while Kamala Harris could be a great president, I think she’d also be a kickass Attorney General, given the very real possibility that our beloved nation still can’t get past that whole Woman Thing.
But mainly, I think anyone with an ounce of talent and/or ambition looks at the dog’s breakfast that the Orange Assclown has wrought, and thinks “Hell, I could do lots better than that!”. The main danger is that this very crowded race will get very personal and ugly, always abetted by the sensation-seeking media. But we have a bounty of real quality candidates. May the best one win. My personal choice would have been Sherrod Brown, but he decided not to run.
31As long as we’re talking about cows, one of Farmer/Congressman Devin Nunes’s bovines has been crapping all over him on Twitter and ol’ Dev is pissed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/19/this-was-an-orchestrated-effort-devin-nunes-sues-twitter-individual-accounts-defamation/?utm_term=.29a659b6c6cd
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