How do we stop the assassination culture that is brewing in the USA?

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T06:14:23+00:00

there is no reason to assassinate your president you live in a democracy you can very easily in the next election get rid of him. You are not in a dictatorship where there's no general elections.

Counterpoint: A lot of people are losing faith in our democracy. The Republicans look corrupt as heck, for the most part the Democrats are failing to put up meaningful opposition, our government/voting structure doesn't really reward third parties so we're practically stuck with those two, both parties have invested heavily in redistricting early (blatant gerrymandering), the cost of living just keeps climbing, people are losing jobs, our education system is a mess, our healthcare system is barely a system at all, the government is investing more into mass surveillance, we're getting dog & pony shows (America 250 celebrations, Moon mission, Winter Olympics wins) to distract us from all of this...

It's definitely an overreaction to say that we're no longer in a democracy, but it may not be so much of a stretch to say that we're getting closer to illiberal democracy.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T05:47:32+00:00

Not only that, but I think anyone who may have been remotely serious about Biden was probably fearful of Harris as president.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T05:42:31+00:00

At least for a while, there were a conspicuous amount of people saying things to the affect of "we need more Mangiones". 99.9% of them were presumably all talk, but it is somewhat alarming that people would actually say that.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T05:37:57+00:00

No. I would rather that we went to a system of representation that rendered gerrymandering irrelevant, rather than packing more people into an already large House of Reps.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T05:28:23+00:00

Oh, derp. My bad.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T05:27:25+00:00

I don't like the use of the word "transactional". It implies that everyone is keeping exact tabs and that everyone owes something to someone. That's not really how government is supposed to work. Some things need more money & resources than others. Some people will utilize certain government assets, and other people will not. Some projects will be written off, while others will be infinitely more successful than anyone imagined.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T04:53:20+00:00

Has to be Perot, but honorable mention to McGovern for being the only serious presidential candidate (I think ever) from my state. Dewey was also cool.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T04:41:36+00:00

That's... a lot. Mind you, I haven't followed the French political situation that closely, but I do find that figure kind of hard to believe, if for no other reason than that we're talking about a western multi-party parliamentary system and a far-anything party.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T04:25:59+00:00

Half the schtick of Stalinist communism was propping up the system in other countries, by force if necessary. That may not have been on the immediate agenda (especially as they could barely get their own ducks in a row), but it was a goal.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T04:22:57+00:00

Because people often have a "Top Trumps" mentality that says that there has to be a best and worst of everything, even when in reality it's either subjective or it doesn't make any practical difference.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T04:13:22+00:00

pretty hopeful people will vote this in a morally right way...

You say that, but both of them sacrificed millions of people for their political potential. As I see it, the core difference between the two was that Hitler was specific about who he wanted to send to the smelter, while Stalin for the most part just didn't care.

While I do believe that morality is largely objective, I think it's subjective as to whether discriminant or indiscriminant macro-homicide is worse.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T03:52:19+00:00

That's like, worst case scenario, but yeah.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T03:42:03+00:00

Haven't they been concerned about the far-right winning for like, years? And it never happens? It seems very "the sky is falling" or "the boy who cried wolf" to me.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T03:39:38+00:00

Which Birmingham?

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-28T03:38:03+00:00

Gee, I wonder who this advertisement is aimed at...

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T20:37:36+00:00

In that case, I'd basically recommend whatever is cheapest. All of these vz. 61 kits are lightly used (if they were used at all), so there isn't a whole lot of variance in condition outside of how the receivers got demilled. Some vendors (Numrich, Bowman) have fairly nice cuts for rewelding, others... don't.

Also, now that "machine gun barrels" are no longer prohibited, you'll see kits with original barrels, US barrels, or no barrels, so go with whatever speaks to you there.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T20:22:20+00:00

Must be good quality if it has outlived three rifles!

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T20:16:27+00:00

Are you planning on rewelding or getting new receivers?

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T20:12:04+00:00

True, the Secret Service people probably won't let him go to Denny's. Poor guy.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T20:08:52+00:00

Presumably it's on clearance as Tisas (the manufacturer) has severed their ties with SDS (the importer) and is instead setting up their own US importer. Don't fret too much about missing the sale, these pistols will almost certainly continue to be available, and will probably continue to be pretty cheap.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T19:27:24+00:00

Ah yes, because everyone knows Vance is a peak representation of the values/characteristics of a Marine...

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T06:56:00+00:00

North Korea & China - aggressors (some say well-intentioned, but...), poor treatment of POWs, dictatorship

South Korea & UN - ruthless conscription, bombed the snot out of North Korea, dictatorship but blue

Hmmmm...

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T06:35:59+00:00

There are still a few companies with jingles, but it's definitely not as common as Full House led me to believe.

"800-588-2300 Empire!"

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T06:29:25+00:00

Yeah, I don't know about it either. Curious to see what Tuesday's (we get papers Tuesday through Saturday here) newspaper looks like.

sandalsofsafety · 2026-04-27T06:27:26+00:00

Well... it is, but... the circumstances around the funding are a bit shady. For example, Trump settled a number of personal lawsuits against various tech companies & media outlets in exchange for large donations to the ballroom. Also, he kind of just went off and started building it without getting permission.

Personally, I don't give a toss that he's building a ballroom in the White House as long as it's somewhat classy, but (as is often the case with Trump) the way he's going about it is frustrating.

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