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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: October 19th, 2023

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  • Historically, when a party is defeated electorally over and over again, its members either form a new party or they rebel against leadership and the party lurches left or right in the direction of the voters. This happened to the Republican Party after they lost five presidential elections in a row (four of which were won by Franklin Roosevelt). The next Republican president in office was Dwight Eisenhower, who by today’s standards would be a moderate liberal.

    You can also see it happen in other countries. After being stuck on the left side of the room for 14 years the British Labour Party elected a… moderate conservative as leader and then subsequently won the next election.

    Generally speaking, when a party keeps losing elections over and over again, picking a more extreme candidate is usually catastrophic to their electoral chances—see what happened in Canada and Australia.

    Before anyone comments with objections or observations of this dynamic in modern American politics, do note that no party has lost 3 elections in a row in five decades.



  • The last time the Democrats won control of Congress, they tried to pass a very large electoral reform law.

    This bill bans partisan gerrymandering, requires Congressional constituency lines to be drawn by independent boundary commissions, introduces new limits on campaign finance, requires polls to be open for at least two weeks, introduces an automatic voter registration scheme, makes the final day of voting a federal holiday, expands postal voting, makes obstructing voter registration a federal crime, restores voting rights to felons when they leave prison, bans lying to voters about when or where to vote, introduces public financing of elections, limits the amount of money that political parties can spend on an election, requires candidates for president or vice-president to disclose their tax returns, imposes a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, and bans companies from making big donations to inaugural committees.

    This bill did not pass because the Senate was evenly divided and the Democrats suffered a backbench rebellion from two “centrist” senators.



  • WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump died tonight at the age of 79 after suffering a stroke, the White House announced in a statement. While having dinner with his family, a White House staffer noticed Trump suddenly began slurring his speech before collapsing on the ground. The president was rushed by ambulance to nearby George Washington University Hospital, where despite emergency treatment, he was pronounced dead. The time of death was recorded as 11:57 PM. J.D. Vance was notified of the president’s demise shortly thereafter and was immediately administered the oath of office. In a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, President Vance stated:

    It is with great sorrow and a heavy heart that I announce the passing of President Donald J. Trump tonight. President Trump was a gallant and brave warrior who fought for the American people and the MAGA movement until his last breath. Today, I step into the enormous shoes left by the late President and gave an oath to defend and uphold the principles of our Nation as your next President. I swear to serve faithfully the American people as did President Trump. I will pray for President Trump, and our hearts go out to his family in this difficult time. Thank you, and may God bless our beautiful nation.

    President Vance further announced that a state funeral would be held with full military honors for Trump in the coming weeks, with details to be announced. Flags were ordered to be lowered to half-mast until January as the nation enters a period of national mourning. Mourners will have the opportunity to view Trump’s coffin in the Capitol Rotunda, with ticket sales expected to begin Monday.

    News of the Trump’s death comes as his approval ratings hit their lowest point yet, with 54% of Americans disapproving of his performance, according to a recently-released YouGov poll. Immediately after news of his passing broke, spontaneous demonstrations erupted in several major cities, with cheering residents filling the streets of New York and Chicago in a jubilant atmosphere amid chants of “The fascist is dead!”.

    President Vance strongly condemned the celebrations in a post on X, stating the gatherings show “a complete lack of respect to the family of President Trump, regardless of what you thought of his America First policies.” Vance has called for order to be restored and has threatened to re-deploy the National Guard to halt the celebrations.

    Congress will meet in emergency session tomorrow to discuss the implications of President Trump’s passing. President Vance is expected to address the nation during a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives tomorrow.










  • I can’t comment on the situation in other countries, but in the US, in the majority of cases, it’s cheaper for businesses to take cash. In the US, the first few thousand dollars of cash deposits are typically free every month. Beyond that, pricing varies. My bank charges 0.35% on cash deposits, which is considered quite high, though it works out to only $42 per week in my example above. The credit union I have my personal accounts with charges 0.15%, which would be $18 a week.

    The cost of labour has already been factored in and it still results in savings. The cost of security is comparatively negligible. A $300 safe is a one-off purchase that pays for itself in a fortnight.






  • It is definitely not true that Discover interchange rates are significantly higher than Visa or Mastercard.

    I’ve put below a list of the actual interchange rates for various personal Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cards types.

    Debit:

    • Visa Debit Regulated: 0.05% + 22¢
    • Discover Debit Regulated: 0.05% + 22¢
    • Mastercard Debit Regulated: 0.05% + 22¢
    • Visa Debit: 0.8% + 15¢
    • Mastercard Debit: 1.05% + 15¢
    • Discover Debit: 1.1% + 16¢
    • Visa Debit Prepaid: 1.15% + 15¢
    • Mastercard Debit Prepaid: 1.15% + 15¢

    Base credit tiers:

    • Visa CPS Retail: 1.51% + 10¢
    • Discover Consumer: 1.56% +10¢
    • Mastercard Consumer: 1.65% + 10¢
    • Mastercard Enhanced: 1.8% + 10¢

    Rewards cards:

    • Visa Rewards Traditional: 1.65% + 10¢
    • Visa Rewards Signature: 1.65% + 10¢
    • Discover Rewards: 1.71% + 10¢
    • Discover Rewards Premium: 1.71% + 10¢
    • Mastercard World: 1.9% + 10¢

    Premium cards:

    • Visa Rewards Signature Preferred: 2.1% + 10¢
    • Discover Rewards Premium Plus: 2.15% + 10¢
    • Mastercard World Elite: 2.3% + 10¢

    You can plainly see that Discover tends to be more expensive than Visa but is cheaper than Mastercard. The only reason I could see that someone might refuse Discover is because Discover cards are all rewards credit cards that go into the higher tiers, whereas many Visa and Mastercard cards are debit cards which go into the lowest tier.