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mineshaftgap

290 karma · joined October 15, 2014

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mineshaftgap··on Classism in America
Trump is considered racist for wanting to secure the borders. Both parties leadership, made up of out of touch elites, have decided that illegal immigration is good for their interests, voters be damned. Dems need to have more people on gov assistance and the GOP wants cheap labor with no rights. I dislike Trump but if both sides are demonizing him then he is probably on the right track.
mineshaftgap··on Profits are too high. America needs a giant dose of competition
"By the way, it cost us more — the S&L crisis cost the taxpayers more than the TARP did in 2008. So, I don’t know why he would cite that. In fact, the failure of a very large number of smaller institutions turned out to be much more expensive to the taxpayers. In fact, as far as the bailout of 2008 was concerned, we made money on that in the money that was extended to financial institutions.

And, by the way, it wasn’t just to big ones then. It was to small ones as well. The only institutions that weren’t able to pay us back were the auto companies. And I don’t think — I thought it was a good idea to pay them.

As to size, the question is not just to the size, but what would happen if they couldn’t pay their debts. And that’s what people ignore. We did two things in the legislation to deal with that. First of all, we made it much, much less likely that they would get so indebted that they couldn’t pay them back.

It’s not their overall size. It’s the indebtedness that’s the threat. You could not now have an AIG, which got itself $170 billion beyond what it could pay off in derivatives, because we do not allow institutions under the law now to get so indebted without the capital to back it up.

Secondly and most importantly, what we said is this: If a large institution can’t pay its debts, it fails. It is not too big to fail. It is put out of business, by law. No federal official can advance any money to pay its debts under the law until it is dissolved.

What then happens is this: It may be that we would have to borrow from the taxpayers to pay some of the debts, not all, as the previous law required, but if we have to pay some of the debts to prevent the failure of a large institution from having serious economic consequences, the treasury secretary is mandated by law to recover every penny from large — other large financial institutions.

And, again, it’s not the size of the institution, but the size of the unpaid indebtedness. Well, we have dealt with that by reducing the indebtedness and requiring that the institution will be dissolved if it fails."

Barney Frank on PBS NewsHour.

mineshaftgap··on Why energy storage sucks
"to get the amount of energy stored in a single AA battery, we would have to lift 100 kg (220 lb) 10 m (33 ft) to match it. To match the energy contained in a gallon of gasoline, we would have to lift 13 tons of water (3500 gallons) one kilometer high (3,280 feet). It is clear that the energy density of gravitational storage is severely disadvantaged."

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/pump-up-the-stor...

mineshaftgap··on If you hate telemarketers, you’ll love this robot designed to waste their time
I just put them on hold, but people in the office are always 'who is on line three?'. If you don't cost them real money they will keep calling.
mineshaftgap··on A visit with Apple’s chief chipmaker
I understand people hate apple, but saying they are creating their own chips for marketing purposes is just delusional.
mineshaftgap··on Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
Just because you don't like something doesn't make it extrajudicial, and maybe you should take it up with the governments of Europe.
mineshaftgap··on How Much Power Does the Volkswagen TDI Lose in “Cheater” Mode?
I seriously doubt Germany would let VW go bankrupt, the government owns twenty percent of the company and they are too big too fail.
mineshaftgap··on Two HN Announcements
Not very many comments on lobsters, good stories but I kind of rely on the comments to choose my reading.
mineshaftgap··on The “Hitler at Home” stories of the pre-WWII American press
Europeans have a cartoon understanding of the US, which is why they actually worry that they will be carjacked when they visit.
mineshaftgap··on The “Hitler at Home” stories of the pre-WWII American press
A mere 70 years ago Jews were being chased through Europe and killed like dogs. My only point was that there are bigger problems than racism. The roots may be from Jim Crow and such but the lack of progress is disheartening and seemingly intractable.
mineshaftgap··on The “Hitler at Home” stories of the pre-WWII American press
There are plenty of other groups in the lower class with much better outcomes, but any discussion of cultural issues is strictly verboten.
mineshaftgap··on The “Hitler at Home” stories of the pre-WWII American press
Do Europeans actually believe that the main problem with Blacks in the US is racism?
mineshaftgap··on The “Hitler at Home” stories of the pre-WWII American press
"The Germans were bad for sending the Jews to the gas chambers but the Americans were bad too for running articles about Hitler's homes" is pretty weak sauce.
mineshaftgap··on A 22-year-old anti-Nazi song tops German charts again – to welcome refugees
Holy fuck people get confused. Exactly how are Americans stopping you from voting? You don't think Europe and the US are aligned? Hate can be blinding. Has a there ever been even a single EU candidate that ran on an anti-US platform? If not why not?
mineshaftgap··on A 22-year-old anti-Nazi song tops German charts again – to welcome refugees
I hope you get your wish.
mineshaftgap··on A 22-year-old anti-Nazi song tops German charts again – to welcome refugees
You do realize that Europe is part of the US aligned world and the only thing preventing Europe from becoming Putin's playground is NATO?
mineshaftgap··on Der Spiegel Targeted by US Intelligence
Some day the people of Germany will rise up.
mineshaftgap··on Iceland makes blasphemy legal
They are coming along, soon you will be able to name your child whatever you like.
mineshaftgap··on Safari isn’t the problem, but the lack of browser choice in iOS is
>we all know they are culturally dominant

And the reason they are is because they put user experience before developers or dogma.

mineshaftgap··on Safari isn’t the problem, but the lack of browser choice in iOS is
Apple will never let iOS become the janky malware fest that is Android. You can run FF and Chrome on iOS you just have to run executable code in Webkit.
mineshaftgap··on [dead]
It is really sad that a clown like Assange is considered a hero around here. There are much better people, you would be better off picking someone at random.
mineshaftgap··on 1/999999999999999999999998999999999999999999999999
This explains it well.

http://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-Fibonacci-inverse-number

mineshaftgap··on How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask Its True Debt (2010)
Everyone knows what the problem is and has the entire time.
mineshaftgap··on How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask Its True Debt (2010)
In what way?
mineshaftgap··on New Horizons Will Have Little Time to Measure Pluto’s Atmosphere
Sadly even if there is intelligent life out there around other stars we are terminally absolutely alone in the sense that we will never have anything even remotely resembling a conversation.
mineshaftgap··on Mass snooping fake mobile towers 'uncovered in UK'
People in the UK do jail time for offensive tweets, that is quite a bit different.
mineshaftgap··on Mass snooping fake mobile towers 'uncovered in UK'
Let them believe what they want. Europeans come to the US and are worried they will be carjacked. Seriously.
mineshaftgap··on China’s New Silk Road: Implications for the US
>The US's post-WWII global dominance is dead.

Holy moly can people get confused. It is almost as if Europeans don't realize that the West operates together. The only possible threat to US power is a split with Europe. But that would require a lot of effort and cause massive needless suffering for Europeans.

mineshaftgap··on Policing, Mass Imprisonment, and the Failure of American Lawyers
Is it your contention that the black cops in Baltimore are racist against black people?
mineshaftgap··on Many of the NSA’s Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors
You are attempting to handwave away the fact that virtually all policies have majority support. You can argue they were tricked, you can argue they are wrong, but you cannot argue that long standing policies are not supported by the majority. That may not jive with your world view but too bad, it is on the minority to convince the majority.
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