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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

#151
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.

Why does your labor union allow that?

Most people would prefer an extra vacation day that they can take any day they want, or accumulate and take in a block, over a mandated holiday on a particular day.

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

#152
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#153
post #142
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Obviously not. That's why it's such an insidious and esoteric way of pulling up the ladder behind the chosen groups.

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

#154
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.

Make it a 1/2 day public holiday starting at 12pm. This way employees will be less likely to take Monday off and have a 4 day weekend. Make serving as as working the polls equivalent to jury duty. All employers must give the days off if employee wants to work the polls.

Or, just… spend more money on it. Here, polls are from 7am to 10pm, you don’t generally have to queue to vote for more than a few minutes, and unless you’re in an extremely rural area you can walk to your polling place.

Now, presumably American elections are cheaper per capita, but it’s not like the money isn’t available. Cut down on the f35 habit a bit and have some proper elections.

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

#155

"Republican legislation to limit teaching a historically accurate picture of U.S. history in public institutions has advanced in some half a dozen states." Mind-boggling propaganda.

It's a bit strange to throw this sentence in at the end--it's vague to the point of being useless and seems to throw the 50 Republican senators who didn't oppose in a generic "bad guys" light.

I haven’t read the article yet, so i’m going to bet now that there is no direct link in the article to the text of any bill they’re characterizing this way.

If i’m wrong, i’ll donate $10 to NPR.

ETA: unsurprisingly, my money was safe. But at least they linked to the Juneteenth bill. That’s rare enough. I think it should be considered a bare minimum in modern reporting to link to the original sources.

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

#156
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.

"More people voting always hurts , and helps their opponents" has always seemed to me like an admission that is innately anti-democratic, and I don't know how people ever spin it otherwise.

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

#157
post #83

Weak article I already know what Juneteenth is. What is a "public holiday", legally? Is is the same as "federal holiday"? What is a "federal holiday"? Is Flag Day a federal holiday? Public holiday?

> What is a "public holiday", legally? Days off for federal bureaucrats, and that's about it.

no ACH on Federal Holidays

Flag Day is a National Holiday but doesn't count as a Federal Holiday

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/6103

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

#158
post #150
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.

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

I'm not defending the anti-democratic party, I'm simply explaining why increasing voting access is so controversial in the US: because a party with outsized power does not want to lose their power. Fully for democracy over here.

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

#159
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.

"More people voting always hurts , and helps their opponents" has always seemed to me like an admission that is innately anti-democratic, and I don't know how people ever spin it otherwise.

Absolutely! That's...pretty much exactly what I said.

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The working class does get Christmas off, though. With limited exceptions. Which is my point. And the idea of making election day a national holiday is a baby step, one capable of getting the ball rolling on real change, like extended voting windows and unrestricted mailed ballots. Gotta start somewhere.

> And the idea of making election day a national holiday is a baby step, one capable of getting the ball rolling on real change, like extended voting windows and unrestricted mailed ballots. What will be enough? If you make Election Day a federal holiday as important as Christmas do you still need to have such a large voting window and unrestricted mail in ballots? Even now, as is, most people have a two week window…

> What will be enough? If you make Election Day a federal holiday as important as Christmas do you still need to have such a large voting window and unrestricted mail in ballots? Even now, as is, most people have a two week window to cast a ballot before Election Day. And plenty of options for mail in if they can’t vote in person.

No idea, honestly. But if we don't start taking any steps at all, we're stuck with a very ugly gremlin of a situation we're already keenly familiar with.

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