Disqus - Latest Comments for danhughes

Re: Nancy Pelosi Announces Plan for Another Impeachment of Donald Trump

Dan Hughes — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:02:18 -0000

https://t.co/GDlBs1Gvea?cI2...

Re: Semplicemente

Dan Hughes — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:02:11 -0000

https://t.co/2j2WQ5150B?pMV...

Re: Nancy Pelosi Announces Plan for Another Impeachment of Donald Trump

Dan Hughes — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:02:06 -0000

https://t.co/ZabzPPfD7P?Hxu...

Re: Former Democratic senator: Biden Justice Department may investigate Jan. 6 rally speakers for incitement

Dan Hughes — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:02:01 -0000

https://t.co/PgezomIMG7?d4n...

Re: WATCH: Antifa in Riot Gear, BLM March in NYC, Female Journalist Attacked

Dan Hughes — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:01:54 -0000

https://t.co/yV5skUHEP8?a19QQH

Re: Facebook fact-checks satirical cartoon posted by Lone Conservative

Dan Hughes — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 20:03:43 -0000

Satire has always been taken seriously and is highly persuasive. It takes facts (or at last tropes) and ridicules them. That's where the humour is. It usually has some form social conscious or perspective. If the seed fact is fake but being presented as real, it's fake news. Blurring it is heavy handed but it should be flagged in some way.

Re: If Beijing pulls back its underwriting of American debt, U.S. politicians might be persuaded to curb

Dan Hughes — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 02:09:00 -0000

Hi Cal Thomas. I'm just swinging by to correct the huge number of factual inaccuracies in this story. Difference of opinion is fine (and most welcome) but many of your statements are demonstrably false.
1) We invaded Afghanistan in response to 9/11. The direct costs for that are around $600 billion. We Invaded Iraq for any number of reasons... none of which were associated with 9/11. Direct costs of Iraqi invasion are around $2 trillion. Additionally, Bush broke with every other President in history (including his dad) and refused to fund the war with tax. In fact, he cut tax.
2) Bush came to power with a $236 billion surplus. Obama came to power $1.2 trillion dollar deficit on the year. Moreover, Obama had to pay for the recession (arguably caused Reagan, or Clinton or Congress or a combination thereof). In addition to the costs of bailing out Wall Street, the economy shrank which reduced the amount of tax revenue.
3) Debt that is never fully paid off grows exponentially. That, plus inflation, plus ongoing commitments (an unfunded war, for example), means the dollar amount of debt is largely meaningless. Instead, look at the percentage growth of debt. Obama grew the debt by ~65%. G.W. Bush grew it by ~80%. Reagan grew the debt by about 180%
4) China - They don't buy Treasury bills out of charity. USD is the world's reserve currency. Nothing is more stable (in a large enough liquid supply). By buying US debt, China hedges against a collapse in their own currency. That, in turn, stabilizes their currency.
5) China's economy would collapse without US spending in China. Spending made possible by the money they lend.
6) In addition to requiring our spending, China's stability is based on the stability of the treasury bills it holds. If it were to stop buying or sell our debt, then their assets would reduce in value.
7) Inflation means that, every day, all US debts grow smaller. Often, our growth out strips the interst we pay. In other words, the US makes money by borrowing money.
8) Selling debt of the world's reserve currency, a fiat currency, is the modern day equivalent of Nuclear proliferation. Countries cannot attack each other without Mutually Assured Destruction.
7) Ostensibly, so long as the US economy grows reasonably (2-3% per year) the US can print as much money as it wants.

Re: US Marshals Plan to Auction $52M Worth of Seized Bitcoins

Dan Hughes — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 18:52:21 -0000

Seized drugs are destroyed after testing. In no circumstance are street drug anywhere near USP grade. Moreover, the DEA mandates the amounts manufactures are allowed to buy / store / make years in advance. So if somehow they was an entirely pure seizure, there’s no one that could accept them without screwing with their allowance. I think some authorities are allowed to keep a small amounts to train drug sniffing dogs.

Re: A Tool for Making Sense of the Cryptocurrency Markets

Dan Hughes — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:28:39 -0000

Currency hasn't reflected debt since Brenton Wood. The IMF essentially confirmed this in '69 with the introduction of XDR. As for monetary policy being democratic... that's boarding on hilarious. It's intentionally apolitical (as possible). I also highly doubt democratic monetary policy would be possible. We'd have a lot more debt / corruption / inequality than now.
It's also super odd to hear someone defending hard working individuals in the same breath as defending banks. The two views are exclusive of one another.
Any given month or year in crypto may well be a bubble. But inflated or not, this is an entirely new asset class.

Re: The End of Ownership - by Calum Marsh

Dan Hughes — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:28:30 -0000

The article seems to ignore the fact that none of the EULAs are legally binding until they are upheld by a court. Undue Influence, Informed Consent, Exchange of Value (and other) laws potentially offer significant legal protection. Far from being "progressive", Riot (and other developers) "address these concerns" to avoid potential lawsuits and prolong the legal ambiguity. At some point people will start suing and some of the plaintiffs will probably win.

Re: http://downdetector.com/status/google-fiber

Dan Hughes — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 20:11:37 -0000

Wow. 12 hours to fix a cable? Are you digging the holes barehanded?

Re: http://downdetector.com/status/google-fiber

Dan Hughes — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 20:09:02 -0000

The outage is not their issue but 10 hour fix is. In 15 years of cable internet I had less downtime than 10 months of Google Fiber.

Re: Remember When Republicans Were Conservative?

Dan Hughes — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 20:17:33 -0000

Senator Paul seems to have conveniently forgotten that fiscal conservatives balanced the budget with appropriate (higher) taxation in addition to thrifty spending. If he want's the spenders of 30 years ago then he is also going to need the taxers as well.

Re: Backlash Against the New Netflix Rating System Shows That People Want and Miss Nuance

Dan Hughes — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 21:50:52 -0000

The 5 Star System was based on what Netflix thought you would rate it, not a direct aggregate of what all others rated it.

Re: Backlash Against the New Netflix Rating System Shows That People Want and Miss Nuance

Dan Hughes — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 21:47:56 -0000

The issue with the 5 Star system was it's inability to differentiate between genre and quality (likability). If you rate a bad Spy movie 2 stars Netflix would think you like all spy movies a little less. If you rated an awesome Boxing movie 5 stars, all of a sudden your screen fills with sports movies.
They need to do something. But this has made it worse, not better.

Re: Parent concerned about note found in school

Dan Hughes — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 11:58:30 -0000

Each Durham County Sheriff call for service costs $769.
FBI is harder to figure out. Total budget divided by total employees is $115 per hour. I don't know how many agents would respond. Guessing 2 agents, drive time and talk time is maybe 2 hour each. That's $460. I'd bet that at least 3 teachers spent an additional hour reinvestigating. That's probably another $100. That's a total of $1329. In comparison charter schools get just $7.30 per student per hour. $1300 is about 182 hours of education.

Re: Parent concerned about note found in school

Dan Hughes — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:46:13 -0000

He is more than welcome to be concerned. More than welcome to call the cops (though should expect ribbing). But calling local news because 3 professional bodies (school, local cops and FBI) told him it was nothing... that's just ridiculous. He wasn't trying to protect kids... he was trying to feel validated. That's a lot of tax money we just spent on his personal insecurities.

Re: Parent concerned about note found in school

Dan Hughes — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:37:36 -0000

lol

Re: Parent concerned about note found in school

Dan Hughes — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:37:27 -0000

How is this even a story? "Paranoid parent whining about random stuff - MORE AT 11"
Thank god they had the helicopter handy. That overhead shot really captured the turmoiled angst of... the parking lot?

Re: Obama Signs New Law Giving Protection To Atheists

Dan Hughes — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 12:34:29 -0000

Sadly this also codifies the Genital Mutilation of boys as always legal. Rather amusingly, it does so on the same line that it protects Animal Slaughter.
“persecution of lawyers, politicians, or other human rights advocates seeking to defend the rights of members of religious groups or highlight religious freedom violations, prohibitions on ritual animal slaughter or male infant circumcision,” after “entire religions,”

Re: Can You Figure Out the Mystery Inside This Remarkable Ad About High School Love?

Dan Hughes — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 13:11:22 -0000

Evan's red hair definitely helped force your focus.

Re: WATCH: Alex Jones crashes ‘Young Turks’ RNC show — and chaos ensues

Dan Hughes — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 23:51:23 -0000

Technically it's Crazy... but Jones speaks a local dialect called Holyshithesbatshitinsane

Re: WATCH: Alex Jones crashes ‘Young Turks’ RNC show — and chaos ensues

Dan Hughes — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 22:57:53 -0000

Uygur is an extremist? What planet are you from?

Re: The Reaction to Brexit Is the Reason Brexit Happened

Dan Hughes — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 03:07:59 -0000

Hush now Jimmy... the adults are talking here... go play outside with your sisters.

Re: The Reaction to Brexit Is the Reason Brexit Happened

Dan Hughes — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 20:27:37 -0000

You are confusing Populism with Democracy. Populism leads to shoplifters being executed. Democracy leads to freedom from the tyranny of black and white thinking. Referendums are bad. There is never a good reason for them.They are the politics of weak politicians. There are no important questions that can be answered Yes or No. Questions easy enough to answer Yes or No are self evident to reasonable people.