3142

LOL that’s a hot take. Let’s not take the thing we want because the other side is agreeing to it! The only time we should be happy is when we can’t get what we want because Republicans don’t agree.

It all makes sense.

3143

And lets be honest, it’s not like the GOP needs any cover to be obstructionist.

3144

Easter is the rabbit’s name, right?

3145

Easter Bunny, Esq. if I recall. And I hear he didn’t pay taxes last year.

3146

Are you seriously this credulous?

Republicans: Obstruct literally everything unless it owns the libs or lines their pockets.
Democrats: Oh hey the Republicans are all voting for this new holiday. I guess they’ve changed!
Narrator: They hadn’t changed.

3147

I don’t see anyone here or in the Democratic party indicating they think the Republicans have changed. What are you talking about?

3148

So what are you suggesting? That Democrats should not have voted for a holiday they support just because it might be some sort of secret trap?

What do you think they should say to constituents if asked? “Sorry, voter, but I just couldn’t vote for this holiday because Republicans also wanted it.”

What kind of nonsense is this?

What do you think Republicans are going to do now that they weren’t going to do otherwise?

Let’s just be clear: The Juneteenth holiday is an issue that apparently splits Republicans, not Democrats. That congressional Republicans decided to vote for it is a delightful gift, not something to be scared of.

3149

The Republicans are going to start opposing everything the Democrats try to do!

Oh wait.

3150

Exactly. They’ve been obstructing everything since 2009. They don’t need Juneteenth as some sort of green light to block a federal voting day holiday. They were already opposing it and every single other thing Democrats have tried to do.

3151

PS - Have you at all considered that Democrats managed to trap Republicans and get a huge win at their expense?

3152

Kinda March, right?

3153

They’re old enough I’m kinda hoping for things to not go down that route. That said, longevity runs in the family.

3154

We know precisely:

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours , not mine . You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

A-freakin’-men.

3155

Man, Douglass spitting fire.

3156

More than 40 Republicans voted with all but one Dem to repeal the Iraq War Authorization today. Do you think that means Dems are being stupid and naive for voting for it?

3157

I hear he’s being recognized more and more.

3158

No? It’s a portmanteau of JUNE and niNETEENTH.

3159

My understanding is that it could have been anywhere from June 15th to 19th. Thus Juneteenth.

3160

Which is indistinguishable from a portmanteau of June and any “teenth” day.

That makes a lot more sense, and furthers my “we should leverage this to get a whole week off” idea.

3161

Maybe one of our Spanish comrades can chime in, but when I was in Madrid ages ago I remember a friend telling me about their concept of a… don’t remember the word, but translates literally into bridge. So if there’s a national holiday on Thursday, most people get the Friday off to bridge the gap to the weekend. I feel like if we can’t even “bridge” Black Friday, there’s no way we’re getting a week off for Juneteeth (as much as I’d love it). :)