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Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

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Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#101

Post by lupire »

mattigames wrote: post #49
subsaharancoder wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prison is meant to be a deterrent to crime, don't do the crime if you're not prepared to do the time. Last I checked no one is rounding up innocent people and sending them off to the gallows.

Then last time you didn't check very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdvy14fdjj8 Besides that, slavery its not one a valid punishments in civilized nations.

Why not? Slavery seems completely reasonable as a punishment. Many people choose it as an alternate to non-slave prison sentences. ("Community Service.")

It's the brutality and the length of sentence that may make it bad.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#102

Post by xmprt »

katbyte wrote: post #87
overlordalex wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In South Africa voting is always on a Wednesday, and I've always been told the logic is: Avoid Monday and Friday so that workers won't take a 3 day weekend. Similarly, avoid Tuesday and Thursday so that workers don't take a vacation day for a 4 day weekend - even though fewer workers would do this, it would still be a massive hit on productivity, and workers would more likely to travel and thus be outside their elect…

what is so bad about workers taking a 4 day weekend?

I don't think it's bad but if the purpose is to get people to vote but a lot of people are out vacationing in Yosemite then it defeats the purpose.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#103

Post by [deleted] »

katbyte wrote: post #87
overlordalex wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In South Africa voting is always on a Wednesday, and I've always been told the logic is: Avoid Monday and Friday so that workers won't take a 3 day weekend. Similarly, avoid Tuesday and Thursday so that workers don't take a vacation day for a 4 day weekend - even though fewer workers would do this, it would still be a massive hit on productivity, and workers would more likely to travel and thus be outside their elect…

what is so bad about workers taking a 4 day weekend?

[deleted]

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#104

Post by loeg »

katbyte wrote: post #87
overlordalex wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In South Africa voting is always on a Wednesday, and I've always been told the logic is: Avoid Monday and Friday so that workers won't take a 3 day weekend. Similarly, avoid Tuesday and Thursday so that workers don't take a vacation day for a 4 day weekend - even though fewer workers would do this, it would still be a massive hit on productivity, and workers would more likely to travel and thus be outside their elect…

what is so bad about workers taking a 4 day weekend?

Taking a 4-day vacation somewhere that doesn't have polling booths.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#105

Post by dtnewman »

eganist wrote: post #16

This is a good symbolic gesture, but making election day a federal holiday equivalent in standing with Christmas would have real and positive impact. But the latter never draws the votes in congress, so that should tell us how meaningless this vote truly was.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#106

Post by Covzire »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #85
Covzire wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a point though, every single US holiday is hell on low paid retail workers except for the few select stores that close on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why would Voting day be any different? "Election Sale, come in and vote for savings today only!" "We're open late, stop by after you cast your ballot for saaaaavings!"

... Are they though? That doesn't match my experience at all. People shop on the days after thanksgiving and before Christmas.

What's happening during Thanksgiving and Christmas? A lot of travel, which I suspect is about the only reason some stores like Costco are closed, not that they're necessarily just being nice to employees but because a lot of their employees are going to be out of town and people would definitely shop there on those days if they could.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#107

Post by ILMostro7 »

krapp wrote: post #89
lupire wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American system was intended to be torn up and redesigned by 1800 and every 20yrs afterward.

No it wasn't. Thomas Jefferson said he hoped the United States wouldn't be without a revolution like Shay's Rebellion every 20 years, but in the context of the letter in which he made that quote, he certainly didn't consider such an event to be legitimate. He was speaking to the spirit of revolution in the American people, not the intended design of the government. If the American system were actually intended to ope…

Maybe they couldn't get it ratified or just wanted to stay in politics for more than 20 years. All lame sarcasm aside, that's a great clarification. Thanks

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#108

Post by romwell »

dtnewman wrote: post #105
eganist wrote: post #16

This is a good symbolic gesture, but making election day a federal holiday equivalent in standing with Christmas would have real and positive impact. But the latter never draws the votes in congress, so that should tell us how meaningless this vote truly was.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

Um, why not both?

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#109

Post by kej »

SonicSoul wrote: post #81
Covzire wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a point though, every single US holiday is hell on low paid retail workers except for the few select stores that close on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why would Voting day be any different? "Election Sale, come in and vote for savings today only!" "We're open late, stop by after you cast your ballot for saaaaavings!"

there are like 10 federal holidays. most of them are not door-buster sales. what's leading you to believe election day would definitely be one?

That's just it, though. The working class doesn't get Memorial Day off. Businesses don't close for Flag Day. The people who have the hardest time voting on election day are the same people whose employers would still be open for business that day.

Things like early or mail in voting are far more effective ways to enable those people to vote.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#110

Post by knodi123 »

nopzor wrote: post #37
Alex3917 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MLK’s birthday should be changed to Election Day. No extra day off, and everyone goes into the polls reminded of his legacy.

do you mean election day should be changed to MLK's birthday?

Western cultures moved the date of Jesus's birth to late December for political reasons. So there's precedent.

Besides, I don't think MLK's birthday is that significant anyway. Nobody celebrates his birth, do they? Sure, celebrate the date of one of the Selma marches, or of the I Have A Dream speech, or the date of his death.... But in my opinion, it's sufficient to set aside a day to remember him - it doesn't have to be the one day he was statistically most likely to have eaten cake with his family.

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