You’re 100% correct. And getting removal via the 25th is the longest longshot ever. But it’s kinda wild that we all could die in WWIII while Vance waits for the halfway point, so he’s eligible to be elected twice, even though he’s so uncharismatic he’s never getting elected once.
It will be like the before times when memes were passed by photocopiers
I thought Epstein introduced them?
There is no annual fee. I only use it at places where there is no surcharge for using a credit card. And this is only worthwhile if you pay it off every month so you aren’t paying interest.
You’re right that there is no free money and it is a cut of the merchant fees. It’s kinda fucked because places that charge the same for cash and credit have to charge more to cover the merchant fees and then people with good credit and good credit cards get a kickback while everyone else pays the inflated prices or even worse, get hit with ripoff fees and interest.
I try to use cash or debit at small local businesses so they aren’t getting slammed with fees, but places like that are usually pretty quick to add surcharges for credit cards.
Side note, in the US the CC companies used to be able to refuse to do business with anyone who charged a different price for cash vs credit. Since losing the ability to take payments via Visa or Master Card would be super detrimental to most businesses, only the most under the radar mom and pop shops added CC surcharges. There was a recent court case where this was basically struck down so now we’re seeing CC surcharges getting added on at all kinds of places. We seem to be in a weird transition but I think this will eventually get us away from this situation where poor people end up subsidizing the credit card rewards for rich people.
IDK if it’s available in Canada but you might want to check out the Fidelity rewards card. It shoves 2% into your Fidelity investment account each quarter. No fees, no fuss, no faffing around with points and tiers and other bullshit.
I’m a gen Xer in the US. I and most of my peer group have our own places. The ones with good careers and stable relationships generally have houses in more desirable areas, but even folks with more blue collar or less fancy jobs have a place further out in the suburbs or have a small condo. The only younger people I know who own are either in a situation where they both make serious money (like doctors or do well tech), come from money or occasionally just make it happen with just serious hustle and grit (and even then, I’m amazed they can do it).
To be clear, I’m not trying to “put this on the working poor”. I 100% get why most people aren’t in a position to act. Most people live paycheck to paycheck. This is not a safe place to risk your job, doing so is often risking your life (or your kids lives).
The GOP, the political donor class and their supporters are absolutely awful and deserve the blame. However, we can’t pretend that we are 100% helpless to stop them. When we think about Nazi Germany, do we think “well, the average German didn’t really have control over the situation?”
Yes, and no. Yes the GOP is pushing for all of this madness and obstructing any efforts to reign it in. But as much as it pains me to admit, most people in the US bear some culpability. In theory, if everyone old enough and well enough to do so unsupervised, traveled to their state capital or major city and basically flooded the streets with protesters, effectively halting all traffic and commerce, and refused to move until Trump was gone and the war was stopped, this shit would probably stop. Similarly, if everyone refused to work or spend any money, aside from the absolute bare minimum, this shit would stop. Of course there are a million reasons why this won’t happen. It weighs heavily on me that I’m still paying taxes and generally behaving despite the clear need for drastic action.
Yeah, although W is like a million times more charming than Vance. And I say this as someone who HATES W.
Also, he barely got in the 1st time (you could argue that he didn’t actually win) and then 911 happened in his 1st term, so at that point, we were cooked. I would still argue that even a 911 type event wouldn’t be enough to get Vance elected cuz he’s just so deeply unlikeable.