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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

#201

Post by Jedd »

LordDragonfang wrote: post #145
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…

>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.

> 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.

Questions around the math aside, in Australia for federal elections the polling booths are open from 08:00 through to 18:00 - and the process to hop in and vote is typically fast, at least compared to what we see on the news for USA elections.

In either case, it means the number of people who can't get to a polling booth during those 10 hours on the Saturday is relatively tiny. And, as you and parent noted, early / postal voting is a convenient, non-contentious, trusted option.

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

#204

Post by solipsism »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #54
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you really need to put your idea in perspective. Christmas is barely the last hold out for holidays where the people who need time off to vote (retail, food service, other low wage high hour jobs) get at-least a bit of time off and that is being eaten into each year. Do you really think a federal holiday for voting would do anything but start a whole new round of election day door busters that make it even ha…

I don't think any of your reasoning makes sense here. It's weirdly aggressive and is sort of a think of the children, but with poor people. But your conclusion feels like the right call. A weird 180 imo.

Weirdly aggressive? What's aggressive about it? The thin skin around here is ridiculous.

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

#205

Post by NamTaf »

jolux wrote: post #174
NamTaf wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It provides impetus to the government to make it as frictionless as possible. Ahahahaha. Have you tried dealing with American bureaucracy? None of it is frictionless, it’s all horribly inefficient and fragmented, and one party is steadfastly committed to keeping it that way, and the other party only vaguely recognizes how big of a problem it is. Voting needs to be made easier, but making it compulsory would not aut…

I was talking about Australian voting, given the post to which I replied talked about Australian voting. Specifically, I was pointing out that in Australia, compulsory voting is great.

I don’t really know about the US’s ghoulish pantomime that is government, but at least here, the understanding that one can be fined for not voting comes with the societal expectation that the roadblocks to doing so will be cleared as much as possible by them, across the board, to everyone. That way, people who fail to vote fail to do so by their own choice and thus the fine is not farcical. Australia’s government understands and honours that.

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

#206

Post by jollybean »

mikedilger wrote: post #111
baggy_trough wrote: post #5

"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.

[I was going to post this independently, but as I've found your comment down the page I'll post this in reply to your comment.] NPR is usually a more balanced news source, but that last paragraph takes a definite one-sided stance in the phrase "a historically accurate picture" in reference to critical race theory. Critical race theory is not about historic accuracy (non-normative fact), it's a very normative activist…

NPR really isn't very balanced.

It's good, but not balanced.

There are very few places that are, and everyone is covering 'different things' it's like there is no accepted version of reality anymore.

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

#207

Post by Jedd »

technion wrote: post #189
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…

Also Australian here. Unironically the whole family looks forward to voting day for the snags. I've seen kids ask why voting day so far away. Is that sort of environment all the US is missing that makes this controversial?

In some states in the USA recently there's been legislation passed that makes it illegal to provide even water to people waiting to vote.

For us Australians, I suspect that invites a huge range of questions, including how long are people normally waiting that they need water, and why would a nominally capitalist society legislate against selling libations and comestibles under these very specific conditions.

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

#208

Post by sidlls »

jolux wrote: post #174
NamTaf wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It provides impetus to the government to make it as frictionless as possible. Ahahahaha. Have you tried dealing with American bureaucracy? None of it is frictionless, it’s all horribly inefficient and fragmented, and one party is steadfastly committed to keeping it that way, and the other party only vaguely recognizes how big of a problem it is. Voting needs to be made easier, but making it compulsory would not aut…

> one party is steadfastly committed to keeping it that way, and the other party only vaguely recognizes how big of a problem it is.

Not quite: the other party is committed to keeping it that way, too, but is also content to let the first party be the fall-guy for its efforts.

The two parties both play for the same team. They're in a big club you might say, and we're not in it (apologies to Carlin for my poor rendition of his skit).

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

#209

Post by ralusek »

verst wrote: post #55
tinyhouse wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Replying to my sibling comment from @paxys: True, though Juneteenth may be different here. It could be considered the most basic signal of whether a company cares about Diversity & Inclusion. Of course this itself would be meaningless, but perhaps eventually the lack of this holiday may say something about that employer. P.S.: The big tech company I work for has more federal holidays off, but Columbus Day and Veteran…

If I had a private company, I would put 0 emphasis on diversity and inclusion beyond "if you discriminate on the basis of sex or race, you are fired." I would, however, have Juneteenth off as a holiday.

So, please consider me a data point of 1 which does not fit your paradigm.

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

#210

Post by mbg721 »

yifanl wrote: post #195
mbg721 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Requiring ID to vote always hurts " has always seemed to me like an admission that is innately anti-democratic, and I don't know how people ever spin it otherwise.

I don't follow how flipping the point from "more voting" to "less voting" while not flipping the "anti-democratic" clause tracks.

If 8 of my dead great-grandparents vote for Mayor Daley, but I vote against, his 8-1 victory isn't democracy.
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