I think someone else said the same, so those don't appear to be an option.
Visa appears to be the most common in the UK as far as I have seen. It is disappointing, but I guess it works for the banks etc kinda like the national grid for electricity.
I looked a little into open banking and Money Savings Expert say "Technically, banks share your information securely via technology called application programming interfaces (APIs). APIs simply allow two providers to 'talk' to each other and pass the information you've given permission to share, such as your bank balance and regular payments. " which doesn't sound like Visa or others are involved to me.
Banks do have systems to transfer money that doesn't involve Visa etc. It looks to me like open banking uses this or is a new system.
I had a look at Stripe also, this appears to be for businesses with customer's requiring to use debit or credit cards so that's ruled out!
Online banks: Starling bank uses MC but Revolut doesn't say what system they use with their cards.
There's Skrill, an e-wallet company. You can transfer in using open banking and can pay online without a card but I suspect the number of businesses that facilitate payment from them may be low. You can get a physical or virtual card, but that uses MC.
I found reference to a number of other e-wallet compnies but you'll have to do you're own research from here!
Re your 1st question: no, not strange (welcomecto banks and capitslism 101!), but I agree that it would be better to have more alternatives.
There's not any quick and easy alternatives as all UK banks use Visa as far as I'm aware, but here's some thoughts/possibilities.
Shops, cafes, pubs etc: cash
You could possibly use a cash card account rather than current account with debit card. I have seen that they don't have Visa on them, but maybe you can only use them to withdraw cash so it may not be an option beyound cash in hand.
Pay for bills: direct debit, bank transfer or at the bank with cash.
Online shops etc: Paypal, Apple, Google pay etc (though not really a better option given the likely reason for wanting to avoid Visa & MC)
Other online payment services such as Stripe, Venmo and digital wallet providers exist but I'm not sure how all of these work and I wouldn't be surprised if some are owned by or subsidiaries of Visa/MC so look into them first. There's also Gocardless which appears to use the open banking system.
Run for Something sounds good. We have a fairly healthy number of independent politicians in the UK I think but something like that can only help improve peoples involvement in local snd national government.
Assuming you're from the US by sharing that, I hope you have more than luck to help over there!
Oh I'm well aware that the Con govmnt has been an appalling dismantling of our country, but Labour are so far appearing to largely be following suit. Remember the Tory repetition about the need for austerity? It just feels like a repeat of that, to put it very breifly. I know 14 years can't be fixed overnight, but shitting on the poor and needy, who have been suffering the most already is just grotesque. There's plenty of condemnation by journalists and MPs alike for this as well as some calls to tax the rich instead.
I've never voted for either so I'm looking at what they do through neutral(ish!) eyes and I don't see politics so much an ever increasing pandering to the corporate economy (over decades).
I can't say I'm too knowledgable about Aus politics, but got glimpses of how bad your last govmnt was through the Guardian. Hope you have a better time than us with a new set of faces!
No, the discussion was not about whether different words were of equal or differing offensiveness. My discussion is about what saying 'it's a power thing' actually means and how it relates to abusive behaviour.
Put your two quotes together and you get: "let's issue a statement from the least likely person condemning Isreal so we don't look so bad over/distract from the welfare cuts."
Also, the money being made from arms sales has plateaued so it's time to call and end to at least one war. Small print: "No souls have been harmed in the making of this statement".
So no credit given from me! Just another day in politics.
One thing I agree with you on is that it isn't necessarily always abuse, however the original post is about that group of friend's chat, which I believe is abusive in nature from what has been shared (and hence why so many people have disowned them) and which you turned into (and are still rambling on about) some political somethingor another..
Again, this has nothing to do with politics.
You know nothing about my political beliefs so are shouting into thin air. (I'm not even from the US so can't even 'be' a Dem! Oh boy.)
This has nothing to do with politics, did I say that already?!
What have far left (or far right, or even centrist) politics got to do with it? This is about what's socially acceptable. Yes that feeds into politics and left/right/centre opinions, but I'm not discussing politics (nor was the person you replied to). Which ties in with my first comment that you're combining politics with social issues erroneously.
Ultimately abuse is, abuse, is abuse, no matter how you dress it up.
So, if you were to replace 'cocksucker' with 'towelhead', slut, Yid, or Nig*** would that still just be a power thing?
Not that it actually makes a difference. This 'power thing' you refer to is controlling abuse for self interest. Introducing a predudice is just a way of trying to justify and/or hide the abuse.
I think you're getting caught up in the state being abusive and controlling to it's citizens (as Dump is doing now) and society self-regulating itself for it's own benefit (something that happens in all social groups) as being one and the same. Just because someone calls out another person's bad behaviour, that does not equate to supporting a dictatorial, or similarly controlling, leadership.
Classic tune!