Avery
German language original version of "Silent Night".
The original was written and first performed in 1818 in a small village in the alps near Salzburg in Austria.
Back then the region was devastated by war and mice had actually destroyed the billows of the church organ.
The assistant priest assigned to this parish was desperate when he found out on Christmas Eve and went to his friend, the local teacher and organ player with the text of the poem "Silent Night" he had written some years earlier.
With in a few hours, just in time for the Christmas Evening church service, they wrote the melody - for tenor and bass with a single guitar as the only instrument available to them.
The simplicity and beauty of the arrangement ensured, it would go on to become the most popular Christmas Song in the world. Today there are translations in pretty much every language in the world where even a few Christian people are living, more than 300 by now (for comparison, there are slightly less than 200 countries in the world).
Just chatting
so christmas dinner is really a danger, i have had the feeling several times that my belt is about to burst. anyone had similar experiences? 
Americans, of course, think all the world is interested in our politics. At about 2AM last night, after 15 rounds of voting, the 435 members of the US House Of Representatives elected a new Speaker (the House leader). Usually it takes 1 round.
At one point someone nominated Donald Trump. Trump, of course, currently holds no elective office, but it seems that the US Constitution does not require the Speaker to actually be a member of the House. Guess no one thought it would ever happen.
What the Constitution does say is that whoever is Speaker is 2nd in line to the Presidency, after the Vice President. So, if President Biden should pass away or become incapacitated, not unlikely given his age and general frailness, and something should happen to Vice President Kamala Harris, then Trump would again be president despite not having been re-elected by the people. What a great country (irony)!
I followed the "drama" a bit. i'm really surprised that someone who isn't a member could become a speaker and i thought there are two speakers (one for the democrats, one for the republicans)? then there should actually be two people at number 3 on the presidential list, or can only the majority party provide a speaker?
Angelina i'm really surprised that someone who isn't a member could become a speaker
So was I. I bet the founding fathers never imagined such a person would be nominated.
Angelina or can only the majority party provide a speaker?
Yes, for all practical purposes. The entire House votes for Speaker, but no one would ever "cross the aisle" and vote for someone of the other party. Therefore the majority party really gets to pick the Speaker.
Angelina i thought there are two speakers (one for the democrats, one for the republicans)
After the Speaker is chosen by the full House the parties get together separately and each chooses a leader. These two would be called House Majority Leader and House Minority Leader. They are subordinate to the Speaker, tho the Speaker and Majority Leader would usually work closely together, being of the same party.
Angelina
Speaker is the equivalent to the Bundestagspräsident in German parliament. And rules are actually very similar.
When a new Parliament is constituted, in Germany the oldest member automatically is given the right to preside over the first session, until the Bundestagspräsident is elected. And usually the biggest party can put forward the candidate for that.
The leaders of each party in the house of representatives are the equivalent of the Fraktionsvorsitzende in Germany.
curious There are some key differences in two regards: One, the US two-party system means that the largest party automatically has a full majority. Second, the office plays a much more partisan role. I am not too familiar with the formal rules and responsibilities for either office, but the way I understand it, both are primarily tasked with guarding procedure, but the Speaker is a lot more likely to wield his powers in a partisan way than the president of the Bundestag is. That makes the party affiliation of the president of the Bundestag mostly a formality, whereas the Speaker's can affect the way the House is run. For an even more non-partisan parliamentary head, see the Speaker of the House of Commons in Britain, who upon election renounces his party membership and only votes according to a predefined formula.
In Germany, there have been several cases where the largest party was not part of the majority coalition, but still had the office of Bundestagspräsident.
youdontknowme the US two-party system means that the largest party automatically has a full majority
No it doesn't. Google "how many us senators are independents" You will find there are 49 republicans, 48 democrats and 3 independents. For some reason I can't easily find how many, if any, independent us representatives there are.
But using the senate data, if all three independents caucus with the democrats, and they do, the democrats have a 51-49 majority. If 2 caucus with the democrats and 1 with the republicans it is tied 50-50 which gives the democrats the majority as the vice president breaks the tie and she is a democrat. If 2 or all 3 caucused with the republicans they would have the majority.
Theoretically the same could happen in the house but the vice president would not be involved.
Avery No it doesn't. Google "how many us senators are independents" You will find there are 49 republicans, 48 democrats and 3 independents. For some reason I can't easily find how many, if any, independent us representatives there are.
Yes, "automatically" was a bit of an exaggeration. It would certainly be possible that an independent congressperson would not be so firmly on one side of the two-party divide that he can essentially be considered a party member in all but title. I could not imagine Senator Sanders voting alongside the Republicans unless there is a major shift in the party landscape. Similarly, it would not be impossible for a third party candidate to make it to the House either, it just does not happen very often.
Contrast Germany, where independent candidates are not really much of a thing, if someone wants to run without an established party backing them the way to go it to form a small party. Since the adoption of our constitution back in 1949, there has been a grand total of one Bundestag (elections happen on roughly a four-year cycle, barring re-elections which have happened a grand total of twice so far) where a single group has had a full majority, and even that was technically not a single party, but a close alliance of two parties that are regionally separated and rarely compete with each other - in a way the closest equivalent to the independent senators caucusing with the democrats that Germany has.
Also, for the office of president of the Bundestag, those two parties are counted as one for "largest party" concerns - ultimately it is taken for granted that those two will be working together, whereas the coalitions that are used to form a majority are usually subject to open-ended negotiations after every election.
youdontknowme I could not imagine Senator Sanders voting alongside the Republicans
Nor Sinema either.
At least it will make it easy to spot the republicans on Putin's payroll.
Nah blackmail isn't it
youdontknowme One, the US two-party system means that the largest party automatically has a full majority
However nothing in the US constitution says that it has to be a two-party system.
In an imaginary world it could well happen that most conservative democrats and the non-trumpist and a bit more progressive republicans join into a new middle field party. Nothing would stand in the way of this happening.
With partisan rules you are right. The speaker of the house has the right to bring bills to the floor of the house for a vote (or not to do so, effectively blocking legislation). While many scholars and I would consider this an abuse of the position, it is within the power of the position and has been done over and over again, yes.
I was not trying to state that German and US political systems are completely the same with just different names. I was simply trying to help a young person to get a better (but admittedly still incomplete) understanding.
curious However nothing in the US constitution says that it has to be a two-party system.
You could say that the first-past-the-post system encourages a two-party system by making it difficult for new parties to establish themselves. In Britain the party landscape is somewhat more varied, but except for the Lib Dems, most of the significant third parties are regional players.
But no matter how much or how little the constitution encourages it, it is there, it is culturally entrenched, and I do not see it changing any time soon with all the tribalism going on at the moment.
curious In an imaginary world it could well happen that most conservative democrats and the non-trumpist and a bit more progressive republicans join into a new middle-field party. Nothing would stand in the way of this happening.
Very well might happen soon. If Ron DeSantis gets in with his Trump-like ideas (e.g. shipping illegal immigrants from his state to Martha's Vineyard in my state) I wouldn't be surprised at all if liberal-leaning Republicans and conservative Democrats banded against him to have more of a voice.
youdontknowme In Britain the party landscape is somewhat more varied, but except for the Lib Dems, most of the significant third parties are regional players.
The problem in the UK is that population numbers in a seat vary hugely, and the first past the post system gives us some very strange results. In the last election the SNP MPs won with on average 25000 votes. There are 59 SNP MPs in Westminster, they got about 1.3 million votes.
There is 1 Green Party MP, they got about 900,000 votes.
The current government has an 80 seat majority, which means they can do pretty much as they like. They had 43% of the vote.
- Edited
hanna_anders in the UK we might as well just have one party. With the SNP taking pretty much all the seats is scotland makes it practically impossible for Labour to be elected. Combine that with the effects northern ireland has with the unionist parties always supporting the Conservatives and sinn fein not taking their seats pretty much grantee a tory government.
ok, so the speaker is the american counterpart to Bärbel Bas in germany. i made a slight mistake and thought that the counterpart to the "Fraktionsvorsitzender" was meant.
youdontknowme In Germany, there have been several cases where the largest party was not part of the majority coalition, but still had the office of Bundestagspräsident.
like the later president Karl Carstens (CDU) during the time of Chancellor helmut schmidt