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Cake day: June 6th, 2023

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  • s_s@lemmy.oneto196@lemmy.blahaj.zone📄 rule
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    2 months ago

    We have a fee-free bank-to-bank transfer system that is based on pre-digital technology that takes 2-3 business days. We often call it “direct deposit” or automated clearing house (ACH). It’s often used for payroll and paying bills.

    Now, we could probably make this payment system instantaneous relatively effortlessly (and thus useful for regular in-store purchases), but the banks lobby against this so they can continue to charge us fees and interest to over-use credit cards. (Interestingly enough, credit and debit cards all use direct deposit on the backend to actual transfer funds between parties).

    This is all fine and dandy for most people because they simply can’t imagine doing things a more consumer-friendly way.


  • Republican energy policy is to let oil barons do whatever they want, destroy whatever they want for new drilling and pay as little taxes as possible.

    Democrat energy strategy is to regulate oil, preserve delicate ecosystems by banning oil/gas exploration wells and fracking in those areas and investing in expanded green energy policy.

    The political problem for Dems is that ballooning prices at the gas pump are very unpopular with moderate/undecided voters (reality is that almost everyone in this country has to fill up their car tank regularly) and the oil barons can manipulate their output, control the messaging and change these people’s votes (especially in an election year).

    Dumping some of our strategic reserves when prices get too high is a strategy that counters this machination.

    And if the world supply is in a high producing state, dumping some of these reserves can sink prices low enough we can refill those reserves for cheaper than we initially bought the reserves that we dumped.

    Republicans then get on the horn and claim this is risky, helps nobody but democrat politics, etc, etc. They’re not wrong, but the entire thing is political brinkmanship, so… who cares? 😄





  • Ancient Levant, including ancient Israel, was obsessed with being hospitable hosts to visitors. This was an important cultural marker left over from when proto-Israelite culture was bedouin and on the fringes of society in the Levant.

    This practice had become slightly more hostile during Roman occupation, but Jesus’s teachings on the matter were profoundly conservative–instructing his followers to never waiver from their ancient obligations.