Americans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings. https://t.co/nkmRr0xTaY
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 19, 2023
… While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America’s often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. And still others have remarked at the strangeness of celebrating a federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation while many Americans are trying to stop parts of that history from being taught in public schools.
“Is #Juneteenth the only federal holiday that some states have banned the teaching of its history and significance?” Author Michelle Duster asked on Twitter this weekend, referring to measures in Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama prohibiting an Advancement Placement African American studies course or the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism…
The holiday observance continues Monday with Vice President Kamala Harris appearing on a CNN special with musical guests including Miguel and Charlie Wilson.
Schools and federal buildings will be closed Monday.
Don’t miss one of the biggest concerts of the summer—celebrating a special holiday! Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom. Live – Monday at 7 p.m. ET on CNN pic.twitter.com/838fk8TKwq
— CNN (@CNN) June 18, 2023
A beginner's guide to Juneteenth: How can all Americans celebrate? https://t.co/nYPNVmzXJ7
— WOKV News (@WOKVNews) June 17, 2023
…IS JUNETEENTH A SOLEMN DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OR MORE OF A PARTY?
It just depends on what you want. Juneteenth festivities are rooted in cookouts and barbecues. In the beginnings of the holiday celebrated as Black Americans’ true Independence Day, the outdoors allowed for large, raucous reunions among formerly enslaved family, many of whom had been separated. The gatherings were especially revolutionary because they were free of restrictive measures, known as “Black Codes,” enforced in Confederate states, controlling whether liberated slaves could vote, buy property, gather for worship and other aspects of daily life.
Alan Freeman, 60, grew up celebrating Juneteenth every year in Houston, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Galveston. A comedian who is producing Galveston’s first ever Juneteenth Comedy Festival on Saturday, he has vivid memories of smoke permeating his entire neighborhood because so many people were using their barbecue pits for celebratory cookouts. You could go to anyone’s house and be welcomed to join in the feast, which could include grilled chicken and beef and other regional cuisines — jerk meats, fried fish, Jamaican plantains…
Others may choose to treat Juneteenth as a day of rest and remembrance. That can mean doing community service, attending an education panel or taking time off.
The important thing is to make people feel they have options on how to observe the occasion, said Dr. David Anderson, a Black pastor and CEO of Gracism Global, a consulting firm helping leaders navigate conversations bridging divides across race and culture.
“Just like the Martin Luther King holiday, we say it’s a day of service and a lot of people will do things. There are a lot of other people who are just ‘I appreciate Dr. King, I’ll watch what’s on the television, and I’m gonna rest,’” Anderson said. “I don’t want to make people feel guilty about that. What I want to do is give everyday people a choice.”…
DOES HOW YOU CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH MATTER IF YOU AREN’T BLACK?
Dr. Karida Brown, a sociology professor at Emory University whose research focuses on race, said there’s no reason to feel awkward about wanting to recognize Juneteenth because you have no personal ties or you’re not Black. In fact, embrace it.
“I would reframe that and challenge my non-Black folks who want to lean into Juneteenth and celebrate,” Brown said. “It absolutely is your history. It absolutely is a part of your experience. … Isn’t this all of our history? The good, the bad, the ugly, the story of emancipation and freedom for for your Black brothers and sisters under the Constitution of the law.”…
IS THERE A PROPER JUNETEENTH GREETING?
It’s typical to wish people a “Happy Juneteenth” or “Happy Teenth,” said Freeman, the comedian.
“You know how at Christmas people will say ‘Merry Christmas’ to each other and not even know each other? You can get a ‘Merry Christmas’ from everybody. This is the same way,” Freeman said.
No matter what race you are, you will “absolutely” elicit a smile if you utter either greeting, he said.
“I believe that a non-Black person who celebrates Juneteenth … it’s their one time to have a voice, to participate.”
Analysis: As the nation celebrates Juneteenth, it's time to get rid of these three myths about slavery | CNN https://t.co/f7pjTQLFJL
— John K. Blake (@JohnBlakeCNN) June 18, 2023
#Juneteenth
Not only a historic day for America, but also a historic day for the @USArmy. On this day in 1865, Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, informing the people of Texas that "all slaves are free." pic.twitter.com/A7Sw2hr163— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) June 19, 2022
satby
Happy Juneteenth everyone! Black History is American History.
Baud
What @satby said.
satby
@Baud: that gives me digby flashbacks.
satby
Torn between making gumbo or jambalaya today. If it’s gumbo, I have to go get okra. Based on that… probably making jambalaya.
Suzanne
Happy, happy Juneteenth, everyone! I hope y’all get to celebrate!
Baud
Not me. It’s Happy Holidays because I still believe in the War on Christmas.
HinTN
Happy Teenth, @Baud:, you curmudgeon you.
kalakal
Happy Juneteenth everybody!
@Baud: And a Bah! Humbug! to you
p.a.
Happy Juneteenth!
BeautifulPlumage
Happy Juneteenth from a wet, cool PNW. The 1619 Project pissed off a lot of racist idiots.
Betty
I had to think about Tom Levensen’s post from yesterday when I saw that the winner of the US Open is named Wyndham Clark. Totally fits with the image of golf as a wealthy man’s game. At the same time, I have to note that my golf-loving nephew is not wealthy and is a great young man.
ETA: Happy Juneteenth!
Subsole
Happy Juneteeth, folks!!!
Ken
Don’t forget the mattress sales.
Seriously, that’s a question that can be asked of many holidays. In my experience, the ones that become parties (Memorial Day and Fourth of July) are the ones that people observe, and they may even remember why between bratwursts. The others (Veterans Day) are mostly reduced to “damn why is the bank closed — oh right” days.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Baud:
Never Surrender! This is just a short reprieve!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Happy Juneteenth✊🏾
Betty Cracker
@Ken: Could also correspond with people besides federal employees getting the day off.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Ken
@Betty Cracker: That is an excellent point. My employer’s recognized holidays are New Years, ML King Jr, Memorial, Independence, Labor, Thanksgiving+day after, Christmas. No Juneteenth, and no Veterans.
Anyway
@satby:
Yes, Black History is American History. Happy Juneteenth! We don’t get the day off but it’s great to have the day commemorated.
mrmoshpotato
Launch the (current) Rethuglican shitstains into deep space! (Sorry to the Universe!)
prostratedragon
Ray Charles and the Raylettes rock “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ken: Or Columbus probably, since you didn’t even mention it.
I get them all off because I’m a fed. The two my wife doesn’t get off are Columbus and Juneteenth. The management at Children’s National Medical Center, AKA DC Children’s Hospital, told them last year that they would “likely be getting it as a holiday this year” but then they didn’t. I think the majority of the staff are African American so hopefully the management is hearing some things today. Frickin place has a huge endowment and very successful charitable fundraising apparatus but still for some reason has to nickel and dime employees even though they’re a “non profit” organization.
Kay
They’re launching a group here to try to get younger lawyers to either come work in the rural NW counties of Ohio or return to the rural counties after law school. They’re talking about help with student loans as an incentive – this is what the hospital had to do to attract MDs, PAs and RNs. I’m not getting involved partly because I’m winding down my own role in the local legal scene but also because I think this is a problem the “leaders” in these places, all Republicans, created themselves with this extreme wingnuttiness. They did it. Let them fix it.
Ken
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Right, we don’t get Columbus. And also right, that it’s not even on my mental radar as a federal holiday. I used to know these better, but that was when I was in grade school and I got the day off.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: I retired from federal service in 2017 but am also fuzzy on the whole list. Here’s the official list
Baud
@Kay:
Maybe they can attract young female lawyers by offering reduced sentences for having abortions.
lowtechcyclist
@Ken:
Also no Washington’s Birthday/Presidents’ Day, and (as others have mentioned) no Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day.
As a Federal employee, I get all the holidays. But there does seem to be a hierarchy. Everyone who gets holidays at all gets Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Some people get none of the others, and some people get some but not all of them.
Kay
@Baud:
Lol. They’re like “is it affordable housing?” Yeah, that’s it. Sure. Their own grown children leave! Just among the children of judges there are three law school grads. None of them live and work here.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: I also think it’s interesting that some of the holidays we regard as most culturally significant aren’t work holidays at all. Nobody gets Valentine’s Day off though it tends to be sometime around President’s Day. And the really big one, especially these days when its cultural power seems to have exploded, is Halloween.
A holiday called “Evacuation Day” that conveniently coincides with St. Patrick’s Day, ostensibly celebrating the expulsion of the British from Boston during the Revolutionary War, is often observed in Massachusetts. State institutions also get off “Patriot’s Day” around April 19th, which is when the Boston Marathon happens.
Easter is a Sunday so it’s kind of moot. School spring breaks will often be scheduled around then, but the movable nature of the day makes it a chancy thing. For sector-specific historical reasons, the financial industry tends to get Good Friday off, but nobody else does.
Anonymous At Work
Thank you for this. From teh CNN article on “Myths of Slavery”, I found this: https://www.history.com/news/smallpox-vaccine-onesimus-slave-cotton-mather
I do lectures on Jenner and the early efforts of smallpox control (first vaccine mandate in US was George Washington in Valley Forge). This is useful. I tended to emphasize Mary Montagu (a 18th century polymath/diplomat’s wife who brought variolation from Ottoman Empire to England, only for British chirurgeons to *uck it all up) to include women’s contributions but this will make it in my next lecture as well.
Kay
My daughter wants someone to ask RFK Jr about the HPV vaccine- it’s the primary way to reduce cervical cancer. It will save millions of womens lives – fewer lives in anti vaxx GOP states because fewer people get it.
Ask RFK Jr and Elon Musk and Joe Rogan and the rest of the anti -vaxx millionaires and billionaires about the cancer vaccine.
sab
@Kay: A shortage of lawyers? I would laugh except that I have used lawyers myself and I was grateful. Kind of like people sneering at tax accountants. You really want to do your own taxes every year even when complicated?
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Here in Maryland, the schools are always closed on ‘Easter Monday,’ the day after Easter. I’ve never understood this custom.
It’s not a big travel day at least with respect to air travel, and when was the last time you heard the traffic reporter on the radio saying anything like, “it’s the day after Easter, the highways are going to be crowded today”?
Which is what you’d expect: most people observing Easter go to church on Sunday morning, have a big meal shortly afterwards, and that’s it. If they’ve traveled for Easter, they’ve got the rest of Sunday to get back home. So there’s no need to set aside that day for travel purposes.
And there’s no religious reason to observe Easter Monday: there’s exactly zero Biblical events that are said to have happened on the day after Jesus’ resurrection.
So the purpose of the Easter Monday holiday eludes me.
Tony G
@Kay: Right-wing areas of the country are going to have (maybe already are having) a very hard time attracting and retaining educated professionals of any kind — especially, but not exclusively, women. A lot of those states are already being effectively subsidized by “blue states”, and that will only get worse. Actions have consequences
sab
@Kay: RFK is male, so he won’t care about that vaccine saving those lives.
Kay
Someone has to confront the fact that the FBI has been radicalized and some of them work against the interests of the country. I don’t know how long we plan on pretending this isn’t happening. I mean, some of them have been arrested at this point. Far Right radicals. The call is coming from inside the house.
Anonymous At Work
@sab: As opposed to some places with the county prosecutor and the town sheriff as the sole source of law expertise? No one to do wills & trusts? Help with the paperwork on a million little things that they teach lawyers how to navigate/research? I went to a law school that focused on small town lawyering and got a strong dose of required curriculum to enable me to be a One-Person Legal Army.
And you’d be surprised what bringing the right type of person to that setting can do to a community. They can become a leader there easily.
Ben Cisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Happy Juneteenth everyone!!
One of the perks of working in FINTECH is that all federal holidays get observed. No ambiguity at all. Love it.
Kay
@sab:
She believes a whole new set of cancer vaccines will be coming in the next decade and she wants to pin them all down as opposed. Big Pharma are developing them! People like Dr Fauci will be promoting them! I don’t think any of RFK jrs or Joe Rogans or Elon Musks followers can take them based on what they’re being told by these millionaires and billionaire.
Tony G
@Kay: I’ve listened to some of RFK Junior’s gibberish. My guess is that he would say that cancer is being CAUSED by vaccines, and that if people stop being vaccinated then there would be no cancer.
Kay
@sab:
There really is a shortage. There are now three, total, who do criminal defense. We all got an email from the court, begging. It’s the baby boomers retiring. A lot of them have had a really profitable past ten years and they’re getting out. I just hired a new person but he hasn’t graduated or taken the bar yet. We’re paying him to intern – I hope it works out for us (I know it works out for him) because obviously he could take the paid training and then leave. The prosecutor was joking with him that she was going to steal him but he replied that he has no interest in that side- I was relieved.
sab
@Anonymous At Work: I said I had used lawyers and was grateful. The non-lawyer response is usually “first, kill all the lawyers” until we realize oops we need them.
I used a lawyer to get divorced. I used a lawyer to help me fight a bank and then buy real estate to help a friend have a roof over his head. I used a lawyer to settle my mother’s estate. I used a lawyer to do my own will. I used a lawyer when my stepkids got themselves in legal trouble with drug use.
Tony G
@lowtechcyclist: I’m all in favor of extra days off for everybody! I once worked at a place (Carpenter Technology, in Reading, Pennsylvania) where we got the Friday AND the Monday after Thanksgiving off! I was happy to get that extra day off. A co-worker explained to me that in Pennsylvania the Monday after Thanksgiving is the beginning of deer hunting season — and that years ago the company had been seeing so many guys calling in sick that day that they decided to just make it a day off.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kay: Yes there’s already a Pfizer melanoma vaccine in clinical trials. Uses their mRNA tech. I think early results were pretty impressive but honestly haven’t seen much in the news about it.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: In hindsight, I guess we should have seen the right-wing opposition to the HPV vaccine as a harbinger of things to come, though it had more to do with reactionary sexual morality (we can’t do anything that acknowledges in any way that young women might be having sex) than with vaccines.
sab
@Tony G: RFK went to a different high school every year because he kept getting kicked out. He has always been a problem child. We need to forget that he is a Kennedy and just agree that he has always been a phuck-up.
Kay
@sab:
Is your license still active? :)
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lowtechcyclist: when I was a kid in the 70s we got Good Friday off. Don’t remember Easter Monday being a holiday though. I would be down with either or both of Expulsion and Patriots Day becoming holidays. It’s a long slog from Presidents Day to Memorial Day. And with Juneteenth March, April and August are the only months without a holiday.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: The only people I knew that died of cervical cancer were infected by their promiscuous scumbag husbands.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I may do a post later about how Rogan, Musk and assorted other wealthy cranks piled on to harass vaccine expert Peter Hotez, MD with demands that he appear on Rogan’s podcast to debate RFK Jr. What a bunch of entitled jerks.
JCJ
@lowtechcyclist: Ostermontag is a holiday in Germany, perhaps elsewhere. Having the Monday after Easter as a holiday would most likely be related to German immigrants having established this many moons ago.
Kay
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
She’s excited about it. Thinks there will be a big pay off from the covid research and investment. Sadly though, our friends in the dumb n fashionable anti vaxx “movement” will just have to die from cancer rather than let physicians be the boss of them. “Bill Gates! George Soros! I’ll let my daughter die from cervical cancer because I’m a fucking moron!”
sab
@Kay: God no. Let it die decades ago. The law is a jealous mistress and if you don’t keep up you get really incompetent really fast.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@sab: That quote about killing the lawyers is from one of Shakespeare’s Henry plays and is spoken by a rebel named Dick the Butcher. It’s one of those “consider the source” sayings.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Oh thank you. But no pressure. I know how much work posting here is and I really appreciate all of you.
It upset me. My youngest is home from college and he listened to the Rogan RFK episode. We had a tense conversation about it. He’s young and genuinely open minded, which is good, but also makes him vulnerable to sleazebag grifters. I used his own experience with medical people as a defense of them. He was born with a bad left eye and had this really miraculous surgery and treatment at U of M childrens that allows him to drive and have a normal life (although his eyesight in that eye is still very poor).
Anyway
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Try New Years Day to Memorial day without any holidays in between. We don’t get MLK or Presidents — nothing until the end of May. Some years are tough getting through to MemorialDay. I took the day off for Biden’s inauguration and enjoyed it so much that I decided to take off every D POTUS inauguration…
H.E.Wolf
Happy Juneteenth! And thank you to President Biden for declaring it a federal holiday in 2021.
NotMax
Just so long as the stores don’t start in by advertising Juneteenth white sales. //
Not according to Fox. //
Matt McIrvin
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Hmm… March, April and August are also months when many people (who have the ability) end up taking an extended vacation, because of the timing of school vacations.
This was, incidentally, a source of culture shock when I moved to New England. In Virginia, as in much of the country, I was used to the schools closing for a single spring break in late March or early April. Here, the kids get TWO week-long breaks during the spring semester: one in February (typically the week of President’s Day) that I guess was intended for ski vacations, and a second one that tends to be around the third week of April, Boston Marathon week, later than most spring breaks elsewhere. If we plan on traveling then I always have to get our taxes done a bit early.
The February break is a time when few other districts elsewhere in the country have a break, and some years, that April week is pretty sparse too. So they can actually be good opportunities to go to places that would otherwise be mobbed by families with kids. Once we went to Universal Orlando on the April break and it seemed like the only people there were from Massachusetts.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kay: I’ve been wondering if they’ll find that it can prevent occurrence. My understanding of melanoma is that most cases develop from “pre melanoma” mutations so if one could get a vaccine that would make one’s immune system kill those off then in theory it could keep the person from getting cancer in the first place. So far they’re studying it in patients that already have melanoma but it could be that people at higher risk might benefit from getting it before they even get cancer. Could be that a whole series of vaccines could act as a preventative for a bunch of different types of cancer which would be really great.
JML
@sab: not a lie. I let mine go too. When you’re not in active practice the CLE requirements to keep it going get expensive and burdensome.
sab
@Kay: Seconding your comment about how much work the front pagers do.
Ken
@Betty Cracker: Well bless their hearts, and most sincerely hope they don’t step on any rusty nails, since tetanus is incurable and a nasty way to die.
Bill Arnold
The Wikipedia article on the Black Codes is long, verging on scholarly.
Worth a read (at least a skim), and dives into some of the references.
sab
@JML: Aside from the expense, I just didn’t know what I was doing. I kept it alive for a few years to burnish my resume for accounting until I had a boss who thought he could use it. And I knew I had become incompetent.
raven
I’m going to post this again just because I didn’t know about it until our trip a few weeks back.
NotMax
@Ken
Ah, but if you happen to be punctured by a radioactive rusty nail….
(N.B.: Marvel already has claim to a super-hero named Lockjaw.)
;)
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow. I knew it was Shakespeare. I didn’t know which play.
raven
@NotMax: I get a radioactive injection Thursday!
Nora
@Anonymous At Work: Curious: what law school was that? I went to Harvard and I wish I had been more practical and gone for a school that taught the stuff I was likely to use in a small town practice.
Mai Naem mobile
@Matt McIrvin: my old employer used to consider Easter a holiday precisely because it was a Sunday so he had the fewest people to pay but it was one of the holidays he could put as a holiday in the HR package. At the same time he didn’t consider New Years(or New Years Eve), MLK day, Columbus Day or Labor Day as holidays. He probably would have taken off Memorial Day and Veterans Day as holidays if he didn’t have a contract with the VA.
NotMax
@raven
How do you look in Lycra? Spare an occasional thought for us plebs when you’re off saving the universe thereafter.
As for a super moniker, DC already has a Raven, so that’s out.
;)
James E Powell
@Kay:
This is true of law enforcement generally. The fact that active and retired FBI personnel put Trump in the White House – and thus Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett on the Supreme Court – should have alarmed everyone who is not a wing-nut.
But all over the country, in small towns and big cities, even those in deep blue areas, the police departments are filled with radical right-wingers.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
A lot of law enforcement agencies are riddled with MAGAts, RWNJs and authoritarian dickweeds. I used to think (hope) that the feds were (slightly) better than that, but the FBI and, Jesus, even the Secret Service have blown that myth to hell. Please don’t tell me the postal inspectors are corrupt—they’re my last hope.
raven
@NotMax: As my former tenant said “old man nobody gives a shit what you look like”!!
sab
@Kay: Which license? I let both lapse but I keep up on the tax.
Pointless under Republicans because they change everything at the last minute so CPE is pointless. A few years back we had to amend all the corporate tax returns because Congress changed the tax laws retroactively March 30 when corporate tax returns were due March 15. Made us look like idiots when we had done nothing wrong.
I am so old that I remember when tax legislation had a two year cycle and tax professionals had time to learn and prepare and advise.
Sanjeevs
This part isn’t on the FBI though.
This is on Garland.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
My elder son is a young(ish) lawyer. He ain’t leavin’ the big city for rural Ohio, no way, no how. You’re right that they’re going to have to change conditions A LOT to lure young people back, which I think is improbable in the near future at least.
Ohio Mom
@lowtechcyclist: Most teachers are women, in most families, women are responsible for all the shopping and cooking for big holiday meals, plus the cleaning (before and after), plus all the emotional labor (“No son, you can not wear that ratty tee-shirt,” “Let’s not sit Uncle Joe and Jim anywhere near eachothe, they get on one another’s nerves,” etc.).
Teachers need a day off after all that!
Matt McIrvin
@James E Powell: I’ve wondered for a while if, under a fascist-leaning federal government, some big police organization like the Fraternal Order of Police could organize a simultaneous coup to overthrow all the blue state and city governments and convert the US to a centralized one-party dictatorship.
sab
@Steeplejack: My little city Akron Ohio is dealing with this. Jayland Walker killing was beyond senseless. But his neighborhood needs police because kids with guns everywhere.
Juneteenth protests are scaring the locals who just need to get to their jobs. And traffic is a mess. Kids in cars screwing things up, in protest.
Kids are alright mostly, but these kids are playing into the cops psyops projection.
Tony G
@NotMax: “The War on Christmas” — the war that can never end! When I saw people pretending to take that nonsense seriously about 20 years ago, I knew that we were doomed as a society. It’s pretty simple to me: My immediate and extended family celebrates Christmas because that’s our Italian-American culture (although I’m an agnostic myself) — so we say “Merry Christmas” to each other. If I run into a friend or acquaintance who I know shares the same culture as me I’ll say “Merry Christmas” to them. If the friend or acquaintance is from a non-Christian culture I’ll say “Have a Good Holiday”. If I talk to an employee at a store I’ll say “Have a Good Holiday” because I don’t know the person from Adam or Eve. It’s simple. The fact that this non-issue ever gained traction is an illustration of the stupidity of large segments of the American people.
prostratedragon
@Sanjeevs: The initial decision was made in February. Garland arrived in March. And it might or might not have been wise strategy to start with Roger Stone; as it is, the earlier convictions cleared out a lot of problems before this year’s big indictments.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m curious what you imagine would happen next after they succeeded.
Wyatt Salamanca
While recognizing the importance of Juneteenth, we also need to call out the racism that’s alive and well in the Republican party:
h/t https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-america-celebrates-juneteenth-ron-234022376.html
Reporters should not let DeSantis and Pence off the hook for endorsing white supremacy and they should ask dumbasses Tim Scott and Nikki Haley if they agree with these racist comments.
Speaking of Republican assholes, don’t forget Greg Abbott:
h/t https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/16/texas-heat-wave-water-break-construction-workers/
Baud
@prostratedragon:
You should know by now linear time is no excuse when it comes to criticizing Democratic administration officials.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Joe Rogan et al.: “Sure, Dick the Butcher has a bad reputation thanks to mainstream Globe Theatre, but I think some of his ideas make sense. Let’s open up the lines and talk about the issues. First up, Guy Fawkes . . .”
James E Powell
@Baud:
Fertile ground for novelists and screenwriters.
prostratedragon
Yes, silly me!
Tony G
@O. Felix Culpa: Yup. Politics aside, a rural area has very little to offer a young person. Young people have been leaving rural areas for cities for generations, with very few of the young people moving back. The accelerating trend toward bigoted, theocratic politics in rural areas will only exacerbate that trend.
.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Me too. Happy Holidays Motherfucker
Edit: Saying this about Xmas Season, not Juneteeth!
SFAW
@Kay:
Disclaimer: have not read the article thoroughly, but …
One of the takeaways I got was that Garland, Wray, and Garland’s deputy were, to use WaPo’s characterization, “cautious.”
Another item therein:
Yeah, yeah, I know; I “just don’t understand that these things take time” etc. etc.
Tony G
@Baud: It’s Biden’s fault for not inventing a Time Machine. Proof that both parties are the same!
sab
@Nora: I didn’t go to Harvard but I went to a nationally respected law school. I did great on the multistate test, but I knew nothing about nuts and bolts normal stuff.
Sanjeevs
@prostratedragon: Garland had the power to change that decision at any point in the last two years.
So far the strategy of going up the line hasn’t result in flipping anyone of note and no charges against the coup plotters.
Which is not surprising given the possibility of pardons/retribution if they return to power .
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Really? Does he talk like Jim Backus?
O. Felix Culpa
@SFAW:
As they should be. Just look at the reactions to the (seemingly) slam-dunk stolen documents indictment. The shrieking and fainting couches are getting quite the workout. Too many in this country are sadly not ready for equal application of the law to rich white men, especially former presidents. The dictum about coming after the king applies here in spades.
BellyCat
OOOOF!
(Also, too, supplementing child support payments for young male attorneys too zealously advocating after a local legal gathering.)
NotMax
@Tony G
Don’tcha know there’s one strategically placed in the basement of pizza parlors across the nation?
Baud
@Tony G:
Oh, I think the Dems have invented a time machine based on captured alien tech. It’s their fecklessness in using it which makes them so horrible.
JML
@sab: it’s why they call it “law school” not “lawyer school” right?
Having my license was useful when I was volunteering for election protection and doing recount work, but since then I was in a similar position: what was I doing and why did I need the licensure? the JD credential (and the training and education I got) was carrying the load anyways.
I have no regrets: it was one of the most intellectually stimulating periods of my life and trained my mind well. And for example, I’m a lot better at reading contracts (even though it was one of my worst subjects) than most of my colleagues whether it’s for my job or my union and it has made a difference.
snoey
@Matt McIrvin: My mom is 99 and remembers them as health weeks – 2 chances to break the chain of infectious disease transmission.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Linear time?! You mainstream liberals are SO conventional! //
NotMax
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
More canine. More Asner than Backus, IMHO. ;)
Had the opportunity to schmooze one-on-one over drinks for maybe 10 or 15 minutes with Jim Backus during an afterparty once. Helluva nice guy, with a wicked sense of humor, if that short encounter is any indication. And happy to report that recognizable Backus chuckle was not an affectation, it’s real.
snoey
@JML: I fortunately figured that out in time. I would have been good at law school but hopeless as a lawyer. With computers the manual is all you need to get the code correct.
sab
@sab: And our cops pretty much suck. Just scary people. Fortunately the Ohio Supreme Court years ago said they can live out of town. So they do and this is no longer their city. But also too they can no longer vote here.
Our cops hate us, and many of us hate them. Great way to run a police force. I actually like our police chief. I feel sorry for him. Good guy moved here from out of town not understanding how bad we were under our polite veneer. I hope he hangs on.
lee
@BeautifulPlumage:
The 1619 Project must have hit them were it really hurts. I’ve still got folks that periodically complain about it.
NotMax
@Baud
“And in this timeline Tsar Nicholas II becomes a vampire and re-seizes the throne.”
MattF
This Charlie Sykes piece notes that a new category of anti-MAGA ex-Trumpists has formed. Yes, as noted by Sykes, they challenge one’s gag reflex, and they generally tip-toe around the treason question— but there are enough of them to be a trend. Sykes provides a list.
Kayla Rudbek
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: yes, I vote for more federal holidays!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@sab: @Steeplejack: Dick “the Butcher” isn’t as bad as it sounds, since the guy actually was a butcher. But he was still a bad dude.
sab
@JML: Yes. It is good schooling for other stuff. Intellectually rigorous. Were you before or after Federalist Society inplanted itself? I was before. My niece who graduated coif and law review about seven years ago says Federalist Society is everywhere fucking up everything. Just idiots, but with munerative prospects.
NotMax
@raven
Ain’t it the truth. And ain’t it liberating too?
UncleEbeneezer
Happy Juneteenth Everyone!!
We went to The Bowl yesterday for Jazz Fest. It’s always such a wonderful experience being in a space of such unapologetic Blackness. The crowd is probably 80+% Black. The musical lineup is always super-Black as well. Arsenio Hall was the host. At one point he joked that the whole place smelled like weed and chicken, which got a ton of laughs/cheers. One lady had a tee shirt that said “Happy
Fourth of JulyJuneteenth.”Lots of great musical artists. Our favorite was Boukman Eksperyans a Haitian family band that absolutely delighted the crowd. Incredible world-beat music that had everyone dancing. And the daughter of the Beaubrun family absolutely stole the show with her singing, dancing and playful antics. She was absolutely adorable, and a hell of a performer. Her husband/partner was the only white dude in the band but he absolutely killed it on the congas and percussion. Very fun band.
We were rather disappointed that Big Freedia (who was listed independently on the schedule) actually only came out to do three songs with The Soul Rebels. It was great but we were expected a full, Freedia set.
There was also a gospel/faith group that was excellent. And a troupe of dancers called the SC Divas who did a drumline dance routine on our way up to our seats that we had to stop and watch. They also danced with the gospel group and then later came out and twerked/danced with Big Freedia & The Soul Rebels.
We actually ended up catching the early shuttle bus home because we were pretty exhausted, I have to work early this morning and as much as we love the West Coast Get Down, they play pretty regularly in Los Angeles so we get to see them about once a year no matter what.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@lee: I get the dead tree edition of the Sunday FTFNYT (yeah, I know. What can I say? Inertia is a powerful thing). I remember when the magazine with the 1619 Project came. I read it, thought it was interesting, always happy to learn new history.
I was very surprised at all the backlash. Still am. So happy it won the Pulitzer.
NotMax
@Kayla Rudbek
if they aren’t also postal holidays, count me in. Otherwise sketchy about support for that many more. Mail erratic enough as it is without introducing additional enforced delay.
JML
@sab: I was during the Federalist invasion, I think. they were popping up a lot, but the students and faculty were still pushing back. Wouldn’t say they were completely embedded, and one prominent faculty member of their ilk decamped to a more fascist-friendly school shortly after I graduated after trying to bring in one of W’s torture lawyers into the faculty and causing a huge stink.
That said, my Crim Law prof was one of them, and used that status to get himself appointed as the least qualified State Supreme Court Justice post-WWII, and then leveraged it further to a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Federalist Society is a blight upon the land.
sab
@NotMax: You Hawaiians are so provincial. Who needs mail?
////
lee
@Tony G:
When driving to New Mexico from north Texas, I get a grim reminder of this process. There are 3 or 4 towns I drive thru that are now abandon with another 6 or so on the way out.
There are a couple of towns that have grown significantly (usually the county seats). My guess is the folks from those smaller towns moved to ‘the big city’ and made a small town into a medium town.
Scout211
Happy/solemn Juneteenth.
Also, I don’t know if this has been posted yet but,
Judge issues order that Trump keep quiet about disclosure of discovery material issued in classified documents case
Do you think TFIG will comply?
sab
@sab: I was pretty shocked about how angry my dad’s nurse’s aide was about Juneteenth. Kids in the street scared her when she was coming home from work. She was tired and then she was seriously frightened.
This isn’t a good look for Junteenth.
ETA: I have known her for eighteen years and if she wasn’t an employee she would be my best friend.
ETA I celebrate the day but please not let it be an excuse for uninformed kids to behave badly.
ETA But we are in Akron where the police slaughterd Jayland Walker. Hopefulky other cities Juneteenth goes better.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
No. He’s going to learn about witnesses he didn’t know about. And he will react. If his lawyers put him in a sealed room with 6 feet of shielding and surrounded by wifi and mobile phone jammers, he’ll still find a way to violate the order and sic the cult on the witnesses.
If somebody starts a pool on how long it will take him to violate the order, I’m putting my money on “12-24 hours”.
O. Felix Culpa
@lee:
Yeah, I think the small rural NJ town I grew up in has survived only because it’s the county seat. It was always conservative (read: John Birch territory). Most of the few classmates who remained are even more extreme (read: nasty) RWNJs. It’s a pretty town in a beautiful area, but you couldn’t pay me to live there. Nor would I have wanted to raise my kids in that culturally impoverished, politically benighted environment.
NotMax
@lee
The Rise and Fall of Bisbee, Arizona. Worth a glance.
Ken
It’s a one-use time machine, and they already used it to prevent the 1983 nuclear war.
MattF
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The cult has figured this out on its own. White supremacists, in particular, know that TFG is their ally, and don’t need prompting to go after his opponents.
Anyway
@sab:
is this a local thing? What juneteenth protests?
Baud
@Ken:
Thus guaranteeing that Reagan would serve two terms. Assholes.
Ken
@Scout211: @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Two questions that likely aren’t as closely related as they should be:
What happens if someone violates a court order like that?
What happens if Trump violates that order?
NotMax
@Ken
Pretty much (except for the one time thing) the premise of The Lazarus Project on TNT. (Review.)
kalakal
As a complete aside, if you’re on the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico coasts I’d keep an eye on the National Hurricane Center website.
Looks like there’s about to be the first hurricane of the season
Tropical depression 3 AL92
Mike in NC
@Scout211: Did Fat Bastard tweet out a Juneteeth message to the country on his stupid “Truth Social”? (What does that even mean in English?)
I’m guessing it would be something like “GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM!!!” That was a big crowd pleaser at his infamous hate rallies.
lee
@O. Felix Culpa:
I grew up in a medium sized town in west Texas (Midland) it is rabidly conservative. Many of my high school friends that stayed there cover the spectrum from QAnon crazy to just plain nasty RWNJ. Our 40th reunion is this October. I’m planning on attending.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Let them fix it.
I hear you, Kay.
rikyrah
@Kay: HPV has proven to be amazing
sab
@Anyway: Local thing apparently. Jayland Walker’s neighborhood. They are still angry, but his neighbors still need to get to and from work.
I don’t know if local kids or outside agitators. People locally are still understandably furious. Jayland Walker was a good person. I am surprised by how many people he knew that I know. We weren’t in the same circles .But everyone I know who knew him are shocked and angry about his death, and also about the police response.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I saw something about pancreatic cancer and stomach.
Lord, if they get something that can just help them detect it in stage 1 or 2… The lives that could be saved😢😢😢
NotMax
@kalakal
@kalakal
A bit more.
Slow moving at present, way early to determine any path. Could peter out over the sea.
Torrey
@Scout211:
What is “No way on God’s green earth!”?
Scout211
Yeah. We’ll see if loose Cannon will actually charge TIFG with contempt of court, sanction him or fine him.
It’s highly doubtful that he will comply with this order (even though his attorneys had no objections). And if Cannon actually does respond with more than
patslap on the wrist, he will likely file an appeal.We’ve seen this dance before.
NotMax
@Scout211
Does Guinness recognize a record for most attorneys lost during a year?
//
O. Felix Culpa
@lee:
I’m curious about why you plan to attend. My HS class is also having a major reunion this year. I do not plan to go, and not just for reasons of inconvenient timing and expense. :)
StringOnAStick
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: My husband has CLL, so far pretty quiet and his particular genetic profile is the best possible for it to remain that way, but having it means he has a higher risk of skin cancer (plus being a strawberry blonde with a huge mountaineering resume so tons of Sun exposure). He’s had a lentigo melanoma removed, basically the “lentigo” means stage zero. I would love it if he could get a vaccination to prevent melanoma.
kalakal
@NotMax:
definitely early to forecast but the here’s the latest 11am bulletin now that it’s a depression 3 and not just Invest 92L
KEY MESSAGES:
1. The depression is forecast to
strengthen and move across the
Lesser Antilles as a hurricane on
Thursday and Friday, bringing a
risk of flooding from heavy
rainfall,hurricane-force winds,
and dangerous storm surge and
waves.
2. Given the larger than usual
uncertainty in the track forecast,
it is too early to specify the
location and magnitude of where
these hazards could occur.
However,everyone in the Lesser
Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the
Virgin Islands should closely
monitor
updates to the forecast for this
system and have their hurricane
plan in place.
lee
@O. Felix Culpa:
There are a few friends from HS that I would like to reconnect with (they are not of the RWNJ variety). I also have a friend that is gay and is planning on attending with his spouse. He frequently goes back to Midland as his mom lived there until she died.
sab
OT This father’s day was amazing. My guy has two biological kids and one adoptee. Adoptee is his only daughter apple of his eye. In other words his daughter that he adores above everyone.
That seems quite normal. Dads are weird. And dads are loving.
OT This year she accepted me as her mother. I know how far she had to come to accept this and i am ecstatic that she made the jump.
Ruckus
@sab:
I think it might be because he seems to be an asshole.
A male asshole to be sure, but still, asshole seems to be his overriding personality trait. It’s possible that it’s just my take though.
NotMax
@kalakal
@kalakal
FYI.
Don? Oh my, how portentous.
NotMax
Dunno why FYWP keeps doubling up on kalakal’s citations in my replies. Should I consider it an omen? Just when I run short of chicken entrails, too.
;)
kalakal
@NotMax:
I’m so good they name me twice 😀
No idea, it’s rather odd.
Hurricane Don? Well he is a bag of wind
sab
My stepdaughter’s mother was amazing. She got MS in her early twenties. She had a daughter who got tossed into foster care when mom was so disabled that Childrens Services noticed.
Twelve years she was undermedicated and therefore paralyzed while her kid was in suboptimal fostercare. She never knew how bad that fostercare was. They murdered their own kid. And our Sarah lived with them.
I love our Sarah, and I am grateful everyday about whatever got her from wherever to us. But I know she came to us from a dark place, and periodically that will pop up.
O. Felix Culpa
@lee: Good for you for being an ally! I reconnected with the friends I wanted to see at a previous reunion 10 (or 15?) years ago, which satisfied that itch. But things have changed since then and the RWNJs have become really ugly. A male classmate who I would consider a centrist, but has challenged the wingers on FB with provocative things like facts and data, won’t attend because he thinks they could get violent. I have experienced them being threatening online too. Perhaps tempers have cooled down some lately, but these are not people I want to spend time with.
Ruckus
@sab:
When I owned my corporation I had a law firm that I used as necessary. They are a necessary part of business life, and often a part of modern human life. And when you need one, you NEED one.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Know someone whose business in incorporated. Since an incorporation requirement is for the officers of record (no fewer than three, IIRC) to meet a minimum of once annually he holds a meeting every year at Ruth’s Chris and writes the dinner off as a business expense.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
I closed my business almost 30 yrs ago, due to the Northridge earthquake. I don’t recall that I had to have a certain number of officers. But it was a wholly owned corp so that may have been the difference. Wholly owned meant one person held all the stock. Me.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Diff’rent states, diff’rent rules I reckon.
Sister Golden Bear
Happy Juneteenth!
Kayla Rudbek
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: where do I sign up for this trial?