The Political Discussion Thread

[Gatefan1976]

Merry Christmas US government workers.

[Coco Pops]

Merry Christmas US government workers.

They won't get paid it's not so merry.

[SoulReaver]

many women are pro-life

until they're the ones concerned

They won't get paid it's not so merry.

that's the point :/

[Chaka-Z0]

Hope you did your part Annoyed

https://ca.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall

[Annoyed]

They won't get paid it's not so merry.

Actually, they will get whatever is owed to them in a lump sum after the shutdown ends.

[Gatefan1976]

Actually, they will get whatever is owed to them in a lump sum after the shutdown ends.

Only if congress elects to do so for furloughed workers, it's not automatic. Also, any contractors are in a worse boat as congress historically has never back paid them.

[Annoyed]

I rather like this piece about the shutdown. Presents that all sides are better off standing pat on this, so it might be a long shutdown.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...nment-shutdown

[Coco Pops]

He's been talking about sacking the head of the Federal Reserve too. Is he just so incompetent he'd rather blame everyone else then wear his mistakes, I think he is.


https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/22/p...ike/index.html



Oh look he's blaming someone else

[jelgate]

He's been talking about sacking the head of the Federal Reserve too. Is he just so incompetent he'd rather blame everyone else then wear his mistakes, I think he is.


https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/22/p...ike/index.html



Oh look he's blaming someone else

Yes

[SoulReaver]

anyone else notice the irony of the US government shutdown coinciding with the darkest day (literally - winter solstice)
aint that a good omen

[Womble]

I'm able to assimilate as Jewish without conversion? I don't have to convert into Catholicism to become Italian.

Umm, you don't need to convert to Judaism to gain Israeli citizenship, either. My wife will be a full citizen in 5 to 7 years through naturalization process. The process is a lot of bureaucratic pain, but it does not require a 100 questions language and civics test that most natural-born citizens would fail, like in the USA.

Acquisition of Israeli Nationality

First...you do know I am American right? That I live on a side of the world where that is the only form of nationality. We do recognize ethnicities and they tend to be "German" and "Mexican"...but Mexican and American are both Ethnicities and Nationalities. This is my worldview. Ethnicities are also more complex but one needs not convert or be born off a convert to be a Mexican or an American. Religion doesn't play a role despite what some would want in both countries.

Yes, I know, and you are subject to American prejudices that come with it. In the USA and Western Europe, being Jewish is viewed as a religion-mostly or even religion-only due to historical quirks, but that is an outlier not a norm. In Russia and Eastern Europe, for example, being Jewish is seen as ethnicity-only with religion an entirely optional component. There are historic reasons for it that are quite recent - in Western Europe post- Enlightenment, secularization of societies led to Jews trying to fit into emerging new identities as Germans/French/Italians of Mosaic faith (prompting the new anti-Semitism that targeted the Jews by ethnic lineage in order to keep the assimilated ones in the crosshairs), thereby prompting Jews to de-emphasise the ethnic component of identity - whereas in the Russian Empire, the persecution was religion-centered (Pale of Settlements restrictions which could only be circumvented through conversion, attempts at forced conscription of all Jewish males from age 12 up into the 25 year military service where they would be forcibly converted etc. and later the USSR prohibition on practicing religions), thereby prompting Jews to de-emphasize religious component of identity in favor if the ethnic one. The inconvenience caused to Gatefan and other "critics", while enjoyable, was not intentional.

(Whether American is an ethnicity is an interesting question. Never thought about it before).

Enlighten me? I might...and hold I know it sounds crazy and radical, but I might actually learn something.

Pointing out that I am ignorant of something without bothering to educate me, what good is that? Most people that I have talked to (That is people from other countries) take the time to explain something that I don't understand. That's just something people do in discussions like this. But you seem to be using it as a "Shut up" tactic.

It's like the abortion debate. Pro-choicers use the "You're not a woman so shut up about it" which just sidesteps any and all points on the matter ignoring that many women are pro-life to shame a pro-lifer into submission.

I've tried before.

The full English translation of the law is freely available. This is ALL of it, and it's been Googlable since July. Most of it is restatement of stuff that's been on the books forever, in the Declaration of Independence and in previous basic laws, and the new law itself is little more than populistic tautology. Feel free to explain which part it is that gets your goat - or, for that matter, which part it is that's new and worthy of controversy - because my impression so far is that you are criticizing something you've never read.

[Coco Pops]

anyone else notice the irony of the US government shutdown coinciding with the darkest day (literally - winter solstice)
aint that a good omen

Winter is coming!


Will the USA slide down a fiscal cliff?

[jelgate]

Yes. Trump is a terrible driver

[Annoyed]

Hope you did your part Annoyed

https://ca.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall

Did you?

GoFundMe account looks to buy 'ladders' to scale Trump's border wall

[jelgate]

Lots of idiots gave away money