Every merchant you patronize has to charge more - or reduce quality, or both - in order to pay this #Danegeld to two of the largest, most profitable companies in the world. Visa/Mastercard have hiked their fees by *40 percent* since the pandemic's start. Forty. Fucking. *Percent*. Tell me again how #greedflation isn't real?

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@sinboy @JamesGleick
It is always a frustration in a sharp-divided nation
To hear the House’s Speaker up and say:
“We retook the House last year, and we find our debt too dear,
But we can’t agree on which parts not to pay.”

And that’s ’cause the Speaker’s been gelded,
And the people who did it explain
That without all the parts he once held, it
Is hopeless to keep them in rein!

#Kipling #Danegeld #USpolitics