Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

@The Smiling Pony  
Well, there’s also the problem that for years Trump has been dependent on foreign money for his businesses investments, so for more than a decade now, most of Trump’s money has either had Russian fingerprints on it, or has gone through foreign banks that have been caught laundering money for Russian oligarchs.
 
Even though Trump counter-sued Deutsche Bank for $3 Billion when they called for his $40 Million personal guarantee on a loan to build one of his hotels, he now owes them somewhere between $130 Million and $300 Million, depending on who you ask. [sauce]
 
Now, just after the Deutsche Bank reached a settlement with the DOJ in the Russian money-laundering investigation, in January, that same bank has agreed to pay $7.2 Billion for misleading investors, and just this month was fined another $70 Million for manipulating financial instruments
 
With so much of his businesses’s financial practices tied to banks that specialize in hiding Russian money, and are at the heart of numerous DOJ investigations into global fraud and manipulation, it’s really no wonder that Trump is nervous about what might get exposed and would be interested in getting all of those investigations quieted down.
 
It’s just good business.

@The Smiling Pony  
I am satisfied. Carry on mortal.

@The Smiling Pony  
And that culture you wont be able to change for 1 intrisnsic reason its codified as one of our rights. The right to bare arms has been held sacrosanct for over 200 years. Europe is a group of nations that have had dictatorships at one time or another. We havent and we intend to keep it that way. The only way to do that is to have at least SOME means to protect ourselves from a potential tyrant if he/she comes to power. It has happened before in history. It WILL happen again. That being said i will NOT be told to roll over and die just because these people want the government to have a monopoly on power.

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
Unless you want to legalize the ownership of tanks and fighter jets for private citizens, that’s not gonna work.

@Darth Sonic  
both are actually legal to buy if you can afford them, and like I said before I wont roll over and die just because they want me to.

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
… Source?

I have arrived in Malaysia. I honestly had a good sleep in the plane, which is rare for me.
 
Also, both Democrats and Republicans alike are against the idea of arming teachers, and are bringing the issue directly to Congress and Washington. Everyone knew this was a bad idea. Why did Congress go through with it?

@Darth Sonic  
Cracked of all places has you covered!

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
The government has a monopoly on power. No amount of AK-47s is going to stop an Abrams or a drone strike. As you said, it’s a 200 year old code; it made sense 200 years ago, it doesn’t now. You may as well be trying to regulate the internet with the Magna Carta.

@The Smiling Pony  
So just roll over and die? Fuck that!

@Ainz Ooal Gown  

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
If it ever comes to it, you won’t need to roll over because you’ll already be dead. All these weapons are just an illusion; the only chance at any sort of stopping a “rogue” tyrannical government would be a coup from within the military, not any romanticised militia fantasy.
 
Reality sucks, but it is what it is.

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
I mean, the weapons are still deactivated, and activating them is illegal. For the 2nd Amendment to truly be effective as a measure against government tyranny, those laws would need to be rescinded.
 
And what happened to the man potable laser guns?

@The Smiling Pony  
So you would go “oh well nothing I can do.” if the country you were living in was a dystopia?

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
I’d have to defer to your judgement, being you’re the one living in a far more dystopic country than I. How’s that legal weapon ownership helping out with rampant legal political bribery going?

@The Smiling Pony  
You know what I mean by dystopic. Don’t be obtuse.

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
To anyone living in most of the EU, the US is dystopic. The concept of, say, cataracts surgery costing 20k USD is both horrifying and absurd, as is the fear that you could be killed by an armed home invader, or killed by the police for calling about a home invader. Meanwhile, our politicians are regularly deposed or imprisoned for so much as favouring former friends in any sort of public auction, while in the US corporations outright openly pay politicians to vote for legislation they wrote to their exclusive benefit.
 
You really should take a sabbatical outside the US over to some other western country, pull the wool off your eyes.

@The Smiling Pony  
The government’s best chance at ideally winning is scare tactics and propaganda. It would easily win a formal, total war… not a war based on guerrilla tactics and one where the United States doesn’t want to destroy its own people and infrastructure. Just ask Iraq or Afghanistan.

@The Smiling Pony  
… Why in the name of God do you think name dropping the fucking EU means jack shit in a thread like this? Nobody likes them here, nor cares for their opinion.
 
Yet, for all of my severe and I do mean SEVERE misgivings with the EU (as severe as any misgivings any in the EU may have for the US), I would never in a million years call it a dystopic land. That would be fucking absurd.

@Ainz Ooal Gown  

 
>implying that the only two choices are getting guns to oppose a government with a military industrial complex, with thousands of, if not millions of well-trained soldiers who have access to equipment like tanks, fighter jets and ships that essentially act as airports for said fighter jets or rolling over and die
 
>not knowing that it’s possible to campaign for government reform by marching and protesting
 
@Ainz Ooal Gown  

 

 
Key word: Afford.
 
Even if you have the cash to buy some kind of army equipment to arm yourself against the government with (Let’s not kid ourselves here, the cost isn’t pocket change), how are you going to maintain it? It takes even more money than what you used to buy it with, and skilled labourers are needed.
 
What, do you think any small, hillbilly town can just buy a tank or fighter jet and then say, “Well, this is enough to tell the ’Murican government to fuck off with”?

@Crystalis  
I don’t think they are innocent at all, I just don’t give a shit
 
This is what we call Karma
 
Here’s a list of US backed regimes, where most of them were there because the US intervened in there in them
 
The US complaining about rigged elections is like a Serial Killer complaining someone tried to kill him

@Violet Rose in The Rain  
You go out to protest an get killed for your troubles. Now what smart guy? You can’t do anything now since you just got killed by the government.

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
If you fight the government you’ll be about as effective as communist guerrillas in South America, a nuisance at best

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
OR you can get aid from Russia like the Ukrainian rebels and bring death, misery, and pain to innocent people while you desperately hold on to what little ground you have

@Ainz Ooal Gown  
You won’t be able to do jack, the only ones who’d be most effective are military defectors who form their own faction and use a coup to seize power…afterwards they’ll be just as bad as the guys they replaced or even worse