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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

#141
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee you all private companies will make it a day off.

Very unlikely. Even large corporate employers don't give time off for most federal holidays. I have a cushy tech job and still have to work on MLK day, President's Day, Veteran's Day, Columbus Day.

Why does your labor union allow that?

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

#142
post #40

As long as slavery is still legal and well and alive and kicking in US prison system (thanks to 13th amendment) gestures like this won't mean much.

> thanks to 13th amendment Same with housing segregation and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act's exceptions: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1691 Just like the 13th still allows slavery for prisoners, the ECOA still allows discrimination if the person can't afford the home, incentivizing the system to make housing as expensive as possible: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OEHRENWBSHNO

> the ECOA still allows discrimination if the person can't afford the home, incentivizing the system to make housing as expensive as possible

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Are you saying that you will sell your house to someone who can't afford it, possibly for a much reduced price?

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

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technically correct term is "approved by unanimous consent", which makes perfect sense. Just the media changing it.

But how is it unanimous? It literally is whoever was there (which is not all senators) and they did not actively approve of the motion (just didn't disapprove). I realise this is semantics but it seemed strange to me.

Seeing as the initial sanity check before going to a vote is “do nays and ayes both shout at the same volume?”, bills are often unanimously approved because “nobody shouted nay” rather than forcing a lengthy vote for every single motion.

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

#144
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very unlikely. Even large corporate employers don't give time off for most federal holidays. I have a cushy tech job and still have to work on MLK day, President's Day, Veteran's Day, Columbus Day.

Well, check my prediction 1-2 years from now. Your company will give you a day off on both MLK and Juneteenth. On Juneteenth 2023 you'll have a day off (this and next year it falls on the weekend) The only exception to this would be companies (and schools) that will use Juneteenth as an education day instead of giving the day off. (I hope companies don't do that. If I want to get educated I have books and the Interne…

My company decided to give Juneteenth off this year as a change to the calendar effective from January. Its treated exactly the same as every other federal holiday, if it falls on a Saturday we get Friday off and if it falls on a Sunday we get Monday.

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

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews. And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too. I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is…

>such as people who have to work on Saturdays

A segment which comprises, by simple math, a full 15% of retail, customer service, and hospitality workers, who in turn make up a very large portion of the working poor, one of the least-well-represented interest groups in the US.

Which is why that early and postal voting is so important.

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

#146
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's largely because increased voting overwhelmingly (and almost exclusively) benefits one side in the US. While it's obviously good to have increased participation in democracy, the side that's going to more or less cease to exist if we ever get even 80% citizen participation obviously has an incentive to make voting harder.

I'm not sure how you rationalise that with the fact that Australia consistently votes in a right-wing government. UK (which doesn't have compulsory voting) also reelected a right-wing government.

They were talking about the US specifically.

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

#147
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a feature, not a bug. No one cares about Juneteenth just like no one cares about Kwanza, so there's no disagreement, so it sails through. When people care, there's disagreement and deadlock. Change to things that actually matter is supposed to be slow and difficult in Government. Otherwise there would be constant change as either side managed to seize power, and our legal system would be completely unpredictab…

People care about Juneteenth like they care about MLK day, there's no cultural significance to Kwanzaa.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=j...

Looks like Kwanzaa was bigger until 2018 when Juneteenth first started getting promoted.

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews. And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too. I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is…

Saturday is a potential issue for people who observe Sabbath and any attempt to move elections to Saturday would be seen as a potentially discriminatory act in the US.

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

#149
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's largely because increased voting overwhelmingly (and almost exclusively) benefits one side in the US. While it's obviously good to have increased participation in democracy, the side that's going to more or less cease to exist if we ever get even 80% citizen participation obviously has an incentive to make voting harder.

I'm not sure how you rationalise that with the fact that Australia consistently votes in a right-wing government. UK (which doesn't have compulsory voting) also reelected a right-wing government.

Here's a recent article about the special electoral conditions in the US:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/advantage-gop/

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

#150
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews. And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too. I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is…

It's largely because increased voting overwhelmingly (and almost exclusively) benefits one side in the US. While it's obviously good to have increased participation in democracy, the side that's going to more or less cease to exist if we ever get even 80% citizen participation obviously has an incentive to make voting harder.

"we can't have democracy because then the anti-democratic party would have to change" is my favorite talking point
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