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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

#161

Post by awb »

tinyhouse wrote: post #31
verst wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume they are making it a federal holiday not unlike Columbus Day or Veterans Day. If you work in the private sector the chance you have those days off is fairly low. [Edit: I am not saying that Juneteeth won't get special treatment. See my nested commented in this thread.] State governments may or may not recognize a given federal public holiday.

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

Maybe some high profile companies or leading startups, but the average SMB isn’t going to give paid time off unless mandated.

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

#162

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

nielsbot wrote: post #120
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Election reform seems like a meaningful issue to tackle: what could be more fundamental to our Democracy? Democrats seem poised to make their best effort, but it's extremely difficult to do with 50+1 votes in the Senate. I wouldn't characterize D's as not doing anything on this specific issue.

Their "best effort" would be to change the filibuster and get it done. You're talking about the current voting reform bill(s)? Manchin is taking the heat for holding this up, but the problem is broader than that: There are a handful of Dems (at least) whose sponsors also don't want this bill to pass, so I'm not holding my breath for any reform happening in this area. And where are Biden and Schumer? They are pretty q…

Biden and Schumer can't unilaterally decide Manchin's vote for him. This is a democracy, after all. Conversations are likely happening behind closed doors. So we shouldn't critique Democratic leadership just yet.

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

#163

Post by lotsofpulp »

ILMostro7 wrote: post #118
paxys wrote: post #7

What does making it a public holiday mean? I assume federal government offices will be shut on that day. What about state offices? Banks, other services? Private companies?

I've always wondered why many other countries shut down for Christmas entirely yet have relatively low or no compulsory religious language in public institutions, or purity tests in politics and government. It might be too easy to blame capitalism for a moral decline in the general public, were it not unpatriotic and therefore not aligned with the political party that most religious people tend to associate with.

Maybe it is fun?

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

#164

Post by shusaku »

lupire wrote: 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?

I imagine the non-Americans in this comment section have to be snickering after seeing the Americans ask “what’s a public holiday?”

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

#165

Post by trhway »

madeofpalk wrote: post #134
caslon wrote: 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.

Australia has 83%+ (with 67% being of British ancestry) and UK has 86% white population while US has 60% non-hispanic white population (with no such single major ancestry inside it like the British ancestry of the AU and UK white populations). Thus there are huge sources of racist/xenophobic voting power drivers that the right-wings in AU and UK can tap into while doing so in US causes blowback of similar scale and which grows with voting participation increase.

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

#166

Post by mastax »

madeofpalk wrote: post #134
caslon wrote: 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.

The "wings" are not very comparable between countries. They are influenced by their environment. I can confidently say that an alternate universe where those countries had US-style elections would have very different parties, though not necessarily more US-like.

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

#167

Post by newhotelowner »

throwkeep wrote: post #128
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.

Make it a holiday and move the election to the day after tax day: "Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders." - Thomas Sowell

> "Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders."

This is the reason why we have to file tax papers. State & federal can calculate taxes for majority of the people but don't because a group "" want people to suffer and revolt against income tax.

All politicians wants to cut spending but just not for the area they represent.

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

#168

Post by andy_ppp »

orf wrote: post #143
andy_ppp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So if you were told the board of a company Unanimously Approved something, would it be secretly understood by you to mean there might be only a handful of board members present and that they didn’t actively agree to the motion, they were just playing with their phones or something and ignored it?

All I was trying to say was I’m fine with it if this is understood to be how things are done in the US, but it’s not correct use of the terms unanimous or approved, certainly in the way they are used in day to day English.

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

#169

Post by awb »

chmod600 wrote: post #136
Seattle3503 wrote: post #67

If anything the last few years showed me, it is that gestures do matter. Giving public recognition seems shallower cheap until you have a leader that refuses to observe even basic decencies. Of course the work doesn't stop with public gestures, but what we publicly celebrate shows us what we collectively value.

I'm not convinced. Memorial Day and Labor Day are just three-day weekends to most people. There's not a lot of somber and thoughtful observance. I hope that popular culture uses the opportunity to discuss Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. What a great moment (right in the middle of a lot of terrible moments).

My kids ask about it when they have the day off school so it’s a conversation starter.

They also usually learn about holidays in school.

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

#170

Post by NamTaf »

jolux wrote: post #131
skissane wrote: post #112

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…

Voting is also compulsory in Australia.

And that’s fantastic. It provides impetus to the government to make it as frictionless as possible. It means I can be in and out within 5 minutes.
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