"Delaware is a strange state. Delaware is the first state, but it also is a state that was a slave state, by great shame. But it fought on the side of the North, and it didn't get to the South like Maryland and two other states. And so even when the when we did Juneteenth, didn't affect people in Delaware because they weren't they weren't in the Confederacy nor the Confederate. Wasn't until the Emancipation Proclamation was occurred. What I'm trying to say is that uh I uh I I just learned a lot in the community and uh that's where I worked on East Side that's why I worked as a lawyer and that's why I got involved in public life...."
The actual fact he didn't even approach is that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't abolish slavery in Delaware. It took the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in Delaware, so on Juneteenth — June 19, 1865 — the Delaware slaves were still slaves. The Thirteenth Amendment was not ratified until December 6, 1865.
But here's Joe Biden in Galveston on Juneteenth, talking about Delaware, calling it a strange state, and not getting anywhere near what's so strange about Delaware that relates to Juneteenth.
Meanwhile, President Trump "celebrated" Juneteenth by writing this on Truth Social: "Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
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83 comments:
It's a dumb federal Holiday. Where I live, they decided the town will celebrate it today, so our garbage was picked up yesterday, but we got no mail. Just pick whatever day suits you, since it doesn't affect me, except for taking more money out of our taxes to pay federal workers for ANOTHER day off with pay.
Trump should have spent a huge wad of holiday pay on ICE to do a gigantic photo-op raid, then said "I'm celebrating the end of slavery by ending the modern-day slavery of illegal alien trafficked labor. Every one of these guys was taking up a job that could have gone to an American Black Man. Sad! MABA!!!"
Ravishing Regards,
JSM
Saw a humorous photo yesterday about holidays. Asked about what holiday was more legitimate, Juneteenth and Kwanzaa each came in at roughly 10% each, and Toyotathon at 82%.
Sharp as a tack, baby!
Delaware ratified the 13th Amendment February 12, 1901. Given that grim history, it should not celebrate Juneteenth until mid-February, because for its thousands of slaves, Juneteenth meant nothing. Like other border states, it had to be dragged by others to a new freedom.
If I had to order the Federal Holidays in order of importance I feel for them being observed it would probably be Christmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Memorial Day, and then finally New Year's Day. All the rest I don't think should be observed. Sorry Labor unions but the union break is over.
They keep trotting Biden out, as if he’s a respected political figure. He is not.
@Bruce Hayden
Yes, that was posted as the first comment in the previous post. It's very cheap humor. Obviously, when you structure a poll like that, you know what result you will get. To ask is to state the answer and you prolong your "joke" by having people vote. I don't think Juneteenth should be an occasion for making black people feel bad. This post is making fun of 2 Presidents reacting to the presidential move of creating a national holiday.
Joe Biden is, and has always been, a tosser.
Slavery is as much a part of US history as any other event. It should be acknowledged in some fashion. How do you celebrate Juneteenth, though? Two presidents are cringe because we have no framework for the day.
Yes, Donald, people really hate getting an extra day off in summer.
If I were in charge, every new federal holiday would be created by getting rid of an existing one. I favor a constitutional amendment limiting the total number of holidays.
Mark said…
“Yes, Donald, people really hate getting an extra day off in summer.”
A wise economist once pointed out that government can’t change your total pay, but it can change the form of payment. In the long run, you are getting more time off and less money.
It took the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in Delaware, so on Juneteenth — June 19, 1865 — the Delaware slaves were still slaves. The Thirteenth Amendment was not ratified until December 6, 1865.
Absolutely right. Note to Fritz Schrank, once the requisite number of states ratified the amendment it took effect immediately everywhere, including Delaware.
FWIW I agree with President Trump regarding there being too man federal holidays. Back when I was a government contractor we had to keep track of when we could or could not schedule meetings with our federal clients because of the number of holidays they had.
Slavery was a positive good, just an obsolete one. That's why it existed everywhere. In a "hit the guy on the head and take his stuff" economy, it's a win/win to enslave the enemy than to kill him. The downside is that that structure is inefficient because all your capital (i.e. savings) goes into defense.
It was made obsolete in the West with the free market and enforceable contracts. A slave contributed more working in his own interest than as a slave, and slavery became obsolete. Culturally it hang on but only supported by invalid reasons ("naturally subservient race") now. So it ended variously, in a whimper.
So it's slavery wimper day.
Making a regional holiday like Juneteenth a national federal holiday (with paid time off) is like making Buca di Beppo the national Italian restaurant.
And taking Kwanzaa seriously is like taking Jane Austen’s Mafia! seriously as an exploration of Mafia culture.
It's good marketing.
Making April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15 federal holidays would give you four extra days to pay taxes.
Juneteenth snuck up. It's a good idea to bid for Treasury auctions an extra day in advance of the auction for just that situation. A hidden holiday moving the auction up a day.
This Juneteenth nonsense, MLK Day, the month of February - all to appease an ungrateful 13%. And still they're not appeased.
When Juneteenth was made a national federal holiday, I was on a conference call when the topic of the history of Juneteenth came up. None of the African American on the call were from Texas, so I had to explain what the history of the holiday was.
I knew about the holiday for 3 reasons:
- My high school history class on the Civil War briefly mentioned Juneteenth as an example of the celebration of the end of slavery.
- Many of the blues/rock musicians from Texas would play at blues and Juneteenth events. Stevie Ray Vaughan made his name at a Juneteenth event. I believe ZZ Top may have played at Juneteenth events as well.
- I had just finished reading a biography of Texas Ranger Frank Hamer(*), which mentioned Juneteenth events.
(*) - Screw the ahistorical Bonnie and Clyde” movie, which tried to make reprehensible people somewhat romantic.
Mark said...
Yes, Donald, people really hate getting an extra day off in summer.
This is a make work mentality. Progressives are used to being in jobs that don't produce anything positive for society or provide and purpose or honor so a day off for them is awesome.
Progressives like working for government and for HR departments. When these jobs disappear it creates more wealth for everyone as a whole so we should give them all of the holidays.
Meanwhile the United States is a wealthy country because people want to work. Most people take pride in the job they have and they see a positive benefit to society that they create.
This kind of purpose is alien to the progressive. They take pride in nothing. They have no honor. Their world view is centered around taking other people's stuff using government force.
Rocco,
Was that "Texas ranger" by bossenecker?
Excellent book. I read it last year.
I
Ann Althouse said...
@Bruce Hayden
Yes, that was posted as the first comment in the previous post. It's very cheap humor. Obviously, when you structure a poll like that, you know what result you will get. To ask is to state the answer and you prolong your "joke" by having people vote. I don't think Juneteenth should be an occasion for making black people feel bad. This post is making fun of 2 Presidents reacting to the presidential move of creating a national holiday.
What is a better path for a country:
1. The people in the country want to work and want to be productive.
2. The people of a country want more days off and find work meaningless.
I suggest that group #2 moves to a different country where the standard of living and average level of wealth reflects the outcomes of their world view.
Somewhere like Afghanistan.
How about how teh Ayatollah spent his Juneteenth holiday?… hiding in a cave, hasn’t had a shower in 3 weeks…
"I don't think Juneteenth should be an occasion for making black people feel bad.
Juneteenth should be a federal holiday, frankly, embraced by every Republican.
It's when WE freed the Democrat's slaves. Republicans removed their shackles and confiscated the Democrat's whips.
They need to be reminded every year of who enslaved them and who free'd them.
Republicans deserve every single black vote in the country and the Democrats need to pay reparations to those people.
"Delaware is a strange state. Delaware is the first state, but it also is a state that was a slave state, by great shame. But it fought on the side of the North, and it didn't get to the South like Maryland and two other states. And so even when the when we did Juneteenth, didn't affect people in Delaware because they weren't they weren't in the Confederacy nor the Confederate. Wasn't until the Emancipation Proclamation was occurred. “
I think that is the first time I have seen a triple negative, but I am not quite sure about it. And I would like to have more details about how Maryland got to the south, I think it stayed where it always was. But Maryland did not succeed from the Union.
Achilles would like to abolish all paid holidays, so as to boost our productivity.
Those moochers who want Christmas or Memorial Day need to relocate to Afghanistan, he says.
"wendybar said...
It's a dumb federal Holiday. Where I live, they decided the town will celebrate it today, so our garbage was picked up yesterday, but we got no mail. Just pick whatever day suits you, since it doesn't affect me, except for taking more money out of our taxes to pay federal workers for ANOTHER day off with pay."
Milwaukee does their own pick-up, and did celebrate yesterday, and since my garbage day is currently Friday, it's now Monday, so no pick-up this week.
And it's not just Federal workers but all government workers, and days off with pay is not exclusive to holidays, even dumb ones.
@ John Henry
Yes, it was Boessenecker’s book.
I also watched The Highwaymen on Netflix when it came out in 2019. Kevin Costner plays Frank Hamer, and Woody Harrelson plays another Texas Ranger, Maney Gault, as they track Bonnie & Clyde.
Iman said...
“How about how the Ayatollah spent his Juneteenth holiday?… hiding in a cave, hasn’t had a shower in 3 weeks…”
Football coach Jerry Glanville famously left tickets for Elvis Presley at the “will call” window. Maybe the Israelis should leave “will call” tickets for the Ayatollah at a Persepolis FC soccer match.
It was "Joenteenth".
Best arrangement for federal holidays I remember was at one of the companies where I worked where everyone got 11 paid holidays per year, but some were fixed (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, No Kings day in July, etc) and some were floating and selected by the employee (MLK birthday, Presidents day, Veterans day, etc.) That way if anyone wanted to take a specific day they could as long as the total number wasn't violated. Worked well.
they let that shambling oaf, who caucused with Eastland and Byrd out again,
To paraphrase Obama: Juneteenth and another holiday to commemorate emancipation, Delaware wasn't on the list.
This is a make work mentality. Progressives are used to being in jobs that don't produce anything positive for society or provide and purpose or honor so a day off for them is awesome.
Progressives like working for government and for HR departments. When these jobs disappear it creates more wealth for everyone as a whole so we should give them all of the holidays.
For many of us, a "paid day off" does not really result in a day off, it merely shifts the work of that day to other days around it. Jobs that are measured by work done rather than time served.
Juneteenth used to be a genial Texas holiday until the Wokesheviks got their hands on it and turned it into another National Bash Whitey Day.
2. The people of a country want more days off and find work meaningless…I suggest that group #2 moves to a different country where the standard of living and average level of wealth reflects the outcomes of their world view.
Switzerland?
2 holidays for blacks - 13% of the population.
1 holiday for Italians - 7%. (fun fact: first federal Columbus Day was declared in part in reaction to a mass lynching of Italians in the South!)
No federal von Steuben Day for German-Americans - 18% of the population.
No federal Padraic's Day for Irish-Americans - 15%.
No holiday for Latinos - nearly 20% of the population. (which day would you pick? Glom onto Columbus/Colon Day? Maybe Cesar Chavez Day - March 31? We don't have a federal holiday in March. Plus it would be a chance to publicize some of Chavez's suppressed doctrines, eg his dislike of illegals)
The Romans had all kinds of feast days, and they lasted a while. Catholic Europe had just as many (usually they replaced the pagan god/goddess with a saint, sometimes of shaky historicity, and kept the traditions) and also lasted a while. We could survive a few more holidays.
Ravishing Regards,
JSM
The only place that Juneteenth carries any historical meaning is in Texas, where it happened. It has long been a day of celebration here, I think for pretty good reasons. But to apply it as a broad brush to the country, and establish it as a national holiday is too tenuous for anybody to defend - and those that do, seem to inevitably attach a sense of shame to it. That makes it wrong, and a bad idea. Just my opinion.
Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri are in the same boat as Delaware.
I wish someone would explain why all the DC Republicans voted for this ridiculous holiday that no one outside of Texas ever heard of until a few years ago. I assume the DC Democrats decided to ram it through, the DC Republicans decided to pander and cave - like always. The only time they fight against something is when their Republican voters want it.
We already have a holiday for black people - MLK day. We didn't need another. If they wanted to pander to minorities they should have made cinqo de mayo a holiday. Of course all the hispanics, not from Mexico, wouldn't have cared. But then I doubt any black person cares about "Juneteenth" either.
And I just want everyone to know, that gosh darn it, I don't like slavery! Why, I wish I could go back in time and punch Jeff Davis in the nose.
Hold your applause, please.
I know my brave stance against slavery may shock some, given the millions of pro-slavery advocates in the USA. But I just had to tell the truth, no matter what the cost.
the last time they let him out, on memorial day, it was nearly as embarassing,
You had slavery because the rich and powerful didn't want to do their own manual labor and pick their own crops. Eventually, due to the influence of Christianity in Europe and the growth of the population, the rich and powerful switched over to peaonage and serfdom.
As RH stated, the other reason for Ancient slavery was to use enemies captured in battle. You couldn't feed them or keep them in prison. You either had to kill them, let them go, or enslave them.
Outside of western Europe slavery lasted much longer. I was shocked to learn that during the Greek war of Independence, the Ottoman Turks would take cities, and those they didn't kill were sent off to the slave markets of Istanbul. This is the 1830s.
I think the net effect of 6/19 is negative for those of a "liberal" mindset. It tends to make non-blacks feel like blacks and their role in U.S. history are being overly recognized; and it adds to the impression that government workers are unnecessary and can therefore miss yet another day of work without any noticeable loss of productivity.
Whats weird about deleware is you had over 110,000 people in 1860 and only 2,000 or so slaves. That's like 2 percent. Why they just didn't get rid of it, is beyond me. The slaveowners must have had a lot of influence in the state legislature.
yes the Royal African Company was founded to mine gold in Ghana of all places, now we can't deny the damage that Jim Crow did after the sacrifices of the Civil War, but Slo Jo is not the one to bring it up,
nor anybody who wears the kente cloth of the Ashanti slave traders who Baden Powell finally suppressed, yet he is the villain,
And yes Deleware is a weird state. They elected Joe Biden to office for 40 years.
There are 11 federal holidays this year and who knows how many state holidays... we really don't need that many but.. I can see we surely don't need ANY MORE!
It's great that slaves In Texas - were the last frontier to find out about their freedom..
but yeah - as others have noted - it really is not a date that signifies the actual freeing of the salves.
I'm cool celebrating the freedom from slavery... whatever day.
If you listen to rich white Whoopie Karen Goldberg(D) talk - she complains that the US is worse than IRAN, and we still live in a massive slave state. That this idiot is allowed a platform, is one of many reasons why many TV-viewing Americans are so dumb.
Fake news! Working families are suffering from having too many holidays." ~ President Trump responds from the back nine at Bedminster
Trump is dropping the bunker buster —on working families’ bank accounts.
yes karyn johnson is a laugh riot isn't she,
He looks so lifelike.
Government holidays - are just about every week now.
In terms of functional holidays and the value of time off, Veterans Day on November 11 is easily the worst. While the sentiment may be appropriate ("let's double up on Memorial Day"), no one wants Nov 11 off. The season is wrong for most tourism, and most would prefer to work but take off the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Juneteenth was an obvious sop to the de facto Party leader from 2021 to 2025, James Clyburn. Biden's autopen eagerly 'agreed' to every single CBC policy fantasy. As with Thanksgiving, why not move Juneteenth to July 3 or 5 so people already taking off July 4 WEEK can save their flex time?
Lets just get rid of Juneteeth and make the day after Thanksgiving "Thank God for Black people day". Birds killed, one stone.
November 11th celebrates a true holiday. The end of WW 1 and a celebration of vets. If you're upset about getting a day off in November, then how do you feel about MLK and Presidents day?
I really wish that people would study more history in school. I saw so many posts yesterday proclaiming that Juneteenth was the day that slavery was abolished in the United States....
@RCOCEAN II:
I addressed function and utility. MLK and Presidents days are not much better than Nov 11 on the utility hierarchy. Still, Nov 11 (as a date) serves to draw attention to the frustrating Friday after Thanksgiving. Juneteenth now draws attention to July 4 week.
My favorite employer policy of all time allowed me to bank many holidays. I had to take off a few -- like Christmas, Thanksgiving, July 4, Memorial Day and Veterans Day -- but I could work and keep others for planned vacations.
It's mostly a holiday for government workers. Is it good or bad that they are working (or "working) one day less?
Do workers really object to all the holidays? Doubtful. The ones where you go to sales or you stay at work and other people come to you to buy things seem pretty popular. So are the big holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Some of the others are sort of orphans. Juneteenth will be as well unless somebody figures out a major way to mark the day.
Juneteenth would have made more sense as a state holiday, one of the many that make for a "beautiful mosaic" of "diversity." As a national holiday it's just "meh, who really cares?"
Suffolk county (Boston) does give government workers a St. Patrick's Day holiday. It so happens that St. Patrick's Day is also Evacuation Day (the day the British left the city), a county holiday. Bunker Hill Day, another county holiday, coincides roughly with Juneteenth so the two holidays are now combined into one day off for city workers.
Illinois has Casimir Pulaski Day. Hawaii has King Kamehameha Day. Utah has Pioneer Day. California and some other states have Cesar Chavez Day, and I guess the Democrats will eventually make that national. States should have local holidays to commemorate their history. It's a problem, though, if you come from out of state on business and find offices closed.
wendybar said...
"It's a dumb federal Holiday."
That may well be, but I think it's a refreshing change from the gayness being foisted upon us.
Mark said...
Achilles would like to abolish all paid holidays, so as to boost our productivity.
Those moochers who want Christmas or Memorial Day need to relocate to Afghanistan, he says.
If I was as stupid as you I would say you want to make every day a paid holiday to make workers happy.
By I don't have to argue with absurdity.
Now why don't you try to make an actual argument?
Lazarus said...
It's mostly a holiday for government workers. Is it good or bad that they are working (or "working) one day less?
That is the central issue here.
None of those employees really do much that anyone else wants done.
That is why they work for the government.
Seems a bit early for Joe to kick of his 2028 campaign, but here we are...
As a worker I always objected to holidays because that meant the cafeteria was closed so lunch was from vending machines. I worked every day of the week, consequence of a play for pay job.
Holidays don't get deleted, only added, and of course that's not sustainable. I do think ending slavery should be a national holiday, it's that historically important, but we need to get rid of a few others that are not. No celebrations of people, only historical accomplishments or events. Likewise stop naming airports after politicians. In Vegas we have Harry Reid International now for Christ's sake. It should be Las Vegas International or maybe Good Luck Airport.
wendybar said...
"[Juneteenth is] a dumb federal Holiday.”
Rusty responded…
That may well be, but I think it's a refreshing change from the gayness being foisted upon us.
(A day not too far in the future)
…And Juneteenth commemorates the day General Stonewall rode Inn and freed all the gays of color.
"It's mostly a holiday for government workers."
So instead of staying at home and pretending to work, they just stay at home? Okay, I guess.
"I do think ending slavery should be a national holiday, it's that historically important, but we need to get rid of a few others that are not."
Yeah well - get rid of MLK day then. If your whole argument is "I'm glad the Left did X, but now they need to Y" - you might as well just give up. Because they have no intention of doing what you want.
Again, what a stupid name for a federal holiday.
"This is no joke! My dad was celebrating Juneteenth in the 1950s while watching men kiss each other in public."
Years ago I heard a young, black comedian puzzled by Arizona not adopting MLK Day. He said who is against a paid holiday. His punchline was I'd carry the flag in the Klan Parade if I got a day off with pay.
I'd say THAT is an 80:20 issue. And, while it's way down the relevancy list, Trump got this one wrong.
"RCOCEAN II said...
Lets just get rid of Juneteeth and make the day after Thanksgiving "Thank God for Black people day". Birds killed, one stone."
And it's already called Black Friday.
Was talking to a friend yesterday (African-American woman from Philly) who thought it was amusing that only her white friends mentioned "Juneteenth" to her. She said--and I have no reason to think this isn't true--that not a single black friend or family member had even heard of Juneteenth before it suddenly became a holiday.
That the Juneteenth holiday was created during the spastic mass-freakout of the "elites" in 2020-21 is reason enough to repeal the thing. BUT, it's nice to have a holiday when the days are the longest and the weather is usually good, and since a lot of people have wedding anniversaries in mid- to late-June, a day off is convenient. Since it's a made-up holiday, though, we should make it one of the moveable ones so that we always get a 3-day weekend.
(We should also ditch "President's Day" and go back to Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays. There are plenty of presidents who sucked and therefore don't deserve to be celebrated, and having days off for two of the deserving ones makes February a little more tolerable).
Juneteenth celebrates the freeing of slaves. But what about the economic interests of slave owners?
Until you understand the Left hates the rest of the USA, you'll never understand their comments. That's why you get these Liberal/leftists on this blog making snarky and irrelevant comments. Just understand their motive and objective, and everything makes sense.
But to all you all boomers who want to play crossfire. Go at it.
Rich.
Read Lincolns second inaugural address.
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