The General Political Thread

[Piercee]

Current pope is garbo

[Edwin]

Tommy Robinson has been granted bail. "At the Court of Appeal, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett ruled the case be reheard as there had been technical flaws by the judge who jailed him."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-45029755

Safe to say I didn't see this coming.

[Furrnox]

So you're free to 3d print guns in the US again.. yay?
"Realistically" speaking as the technology gets better, soon you could probably pass a metal detector and shoot up an airport (or hijack a plane) before your weapon breaks.
Obviously you'd be limited in the size of the gun you can use since I don't think it could pass the x-ray but still.

[Nero_]

 

[Furrnox]

You can already print a complete plastic gun but it generally brakes after one shot or a few shots.

[Kore]

I mean what Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on the 3-D printed guns is idiotic and delusional.

[Furrnox]

I mean yeah if you want to shoot up a school or theatre it's much easier to go through legal channels than build your own shitty plastic gun at home.
But for an airport? Oh boy.

Also plastic guns could become a problem in other countries but it all dependent on how it develops obviously.
But yeah the big news as of now is it's legal in the US again.

In other news Trump called on Sessions to end the Mueller investigation..

Spoiler

[close]

[Duuring]

He gon' do it.

[Edwin]

I mean yeah if you want to shoot up a school or theatre it's much easier to go through legal channels than build your own shitty plastic gun at home.
But for an airport? Oh boy.

Also plastic guns could become a problem in other countries but it all dependent on how it develops obviously.
But yeah the big news as of now is it's legal in the US again.

Spoiler

[close]

[Toffee]

So despite their profits rising, Amazon have managed to reduce their tax bill by increasing the amount that they pay their employees in shares. Is it time for the government to get tough on these companies?

[Furrnox]

With Trump and Republicans in power? Nice meme dude.
Have there been any closures of tax loopholes like Trump promised or no?
I'd assume no.

[Kore]

@furrnox but the guns aren't completely plastic and even if they were, you still have detectable metal ammo.

[Furrnox]

It is possible to make a completely 3d printed plastic gun but it's shit and is probably more dangerous for the maker/user than the general public, you're right about the ammo though but it's probably easier to sneak some ammo through than an actual gun.

[Toffee]

With Trump and Republicans in power? Nice meme dude.
Have there been any closures of tax loopholes like Trump promised or no?
I'd assume no.

I mean I was talking about in the UK but it's the same kind of deal here tbh

[StevenChilton]

With Trump and Republicans in power? Nice meme dude.
Have there been any closures of tax loopholes like Trump promised or no?
I'd assume no.

I mean I was talking about in the UK but it's the same kind of deal here tbh

To answer your question it's extremely difficult as all these tax loopholes are legal. Close one down and another ten open. Oh and all the best tax lawyers work in the City rather than for HMRC so Amazon, Apple, Google etc will outgun any government that comes after them. You could have a Sales Tax but that'd probably cause a lot of unintended consequences...

The problem goes beyond tax to their behaviour in general (anti-monopoly laws and the like). I don't know what the answer is but bashing tech firms with high regulation and fines is probably the wrong approach. There's a reason the EU has so few big tech companies (and will have even fewer post-Brexit).