Tag Archives: Juneteenth

national news

Who are the slackers, Congress?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The idiotic notion that federal employees do not need more time off from a federal holiday is laughable on its face.

It comes from Republicans in Congress who contend that the Juneteenth federal holiday signed into law this week by President Biden is just another excuse for federal employees to loaf instead of working on behalf of Americans.

Really? Who are the real slackers here? Congress is about to take a whole month off from legislating, debating and hammering out laws on our behalf. They’ll be back home or perhaps vacationing in posh locations abroad. They will contend they are doing their constituents’ work while at home, that they don’t really ever take time off.

Get real, jerks!

Juneteenth commemorates the day that Union soldiers informed blacks in Galveston that President Lincoln had issued a proclamation more than two years earlier that freed them from enslavement. Juneteenth is a holiday more than worthy of national recognition and honor.

Members of Congress are among the biggest slackers of any demographic group in the United States. So for the GOP caucus to rely on a moronic notion that granting more time off for federal employees makes me want to hurl.

local news

GOP chumps choke on doing the right thing

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas is among the 14 Republican congressional chumps who voted against establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday.

The 13th Congressional District lawmaker issued the following statement “explaining” his no vote:

“Juneteenth is an important part of our history, especially in Texas. I support Texas’ Juneteenth holiday and I support all Americans who celebrate it. However, I do not support more days off for federal employees. Many Americans feel like the federal government is not doing a good job for them as it is. For example, over 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Congress’ job performance. I do not know of any other organization that would reward employees with additional days off with that poor of a job evaluation. We need to create jobs, grow our economy and combat global threats like China, not create more days off for people who have been totally inadequate at delivering for the American people.”

Congressman Ronny Jackson votes against Juneteenth bill (amarillo.com)

There you go. The federal government, according to Jackson, comprises oafs, goofs and buffoons who are failing the people they serve. What is astonishing is that he projects Congress’s own disapproval rating among voters to the work being done in the trenches by federal employees.

It’s been nearly 40 years since Congress created a national holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the date — June 19, 1865 — when Union soldiers informed African-Americans in Galveston that they were freed from enslavement.

To think, therefore, that Ronny Jackson — along with his fellow GOP knuckleheads — believes it’s wrong to give federal employees another day off from work because Americans are angry with the job Congress is doing.

Astonishing.

national news

Juneteenth receives deserved honor

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas has celebrated this glorious day for decades.

Now it’s time for the rest of the nation to join us.

Juneteenth will become the nation’s latest national holiday once President Biden puts his name on the legislation that sailed through the Senate unanimously and through the House in overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion.

It becomes the first national holiday since Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday was declared such in 1983.

I am delighted as a Texas resident to see this state take a front-and-center place in this discussion. June 19, 1865 was the day that African-Americans were informed in Galveston that they were, indeed, free from enslavement; the announcement came two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. News didn’t travel nearly as fast as it should have in those days … you know?

Cornyn calls GOP lawmaker’s position against Juneteenth ‘kooky’ (msn.com)

And so, with the exception of 14 GOP knuckleheads in the House, virtually the entire legislative branch of government is on board in that rare bipartisan event.

This day deserves the honor it is about to receive, as do the descendants of those who were declared finally free of humanity’s greatest sin.

national news

Juneteenth rushes to the fore!

Americans are getting a major wake-up call on a matter of profound historical significance.

It was brought to us by the deaths of African-American men who died in police custody. It has evolved into demonstrations, peaceful protests and, yes, into terrible riots. Set aside the violence for a moment and let’s look at the event that has been thrust into our consciousness.

Juneteenth is celebrated every June 19 by the African-American community. It marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston to tell blacks they had been emancipated, freed from enslavement. They were free men, women and children.

Many millions of Americans knew of Juneteenth, they knew about the event that some of us celebrate every year. We now are being educated. Juneteenth represents a seminal moment in American history.

Accordingly, we now are hearing from members of Congress — yes, from both major political parties — who are calling for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday. I am not usually a fan of legislative remedies of this sort, matters brought to us through tragedy. They too often seem like an overreaction.

Not this time! Juneteenth is as significant an event as any that have occurred. It brought an end — finally! — to the curse of enslavement. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution wiped slavery off the books at the end of 1865.

I am heartened to see Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas present legislation seeking to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday. He no doubt will have plenty of Democratic support among his Senate colleagues.

I realize fully that creating a new federal holiday will not assuage the concerns of Americans about the treatment of black citizens at the hands of some white-dominated law enforcement agencies. The work to right those wrongs must proceed. I also realize that not all police are evil, that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are men and women of high honor and integrity. The events of recent weeks have brought vivid clarity to the concerns raised for too long by African-Americans about the treatment they receive from police agencies.

That clarity now also includes an understanding of the significance of Juneteenth, not just to African-Americans, but also to the entire nation. Yes, it is past time to set that day aside as a national holiday.

national news

Juneteenth? Sure … I knew about it!

Donald Trump is taking a bizarre tack by taking credit for raising public awareness of Juneteenth, a day revered by the African-American community.

What a weirdo!

Trump was going to stage a political rally on Friday in Tulsa, Okla. That would be Juneteenth. African-Americans and other Americans raised hell about the timing of the rally, given Trump’s rather distant relationship with the African-American community, which has been heightened in recent weeks with the deaths of black men who were being detained by white police officers.

So, Trump postponed his rally by one day. It’s now going to be Saturday.

Then what did Trump do? He said few Americans knew about Juneteenth until he called attention to it. What? Huh? Are you kidding me? 

For the record, I knew about Juneteenth. It occurred on June 19, 1865 when African-Americans learned in Galveston that they were being freed from enslavement. The Civil War had ended a couple of months earlier, but the word about blacks’ emancipation was slow getting out to all Americans.

OK, but Trump has this goofy way of taking credit when he doesn’t deserve it. Thus, he is somehow trying to spin this dust-up over a political rally on Juneteenth, juxtaposed with the Black Lives Matter that’s been re-energized by the deaths of black men in police custody into a “positive”?

Weird.

national news

Smartest man in history fluffs it again

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Donald J. Trump professes to be the smartest man in human history, who studied at the best schools, who knows the best words, who surrounds himself with the best people.

Still, the dude cannot schedule a political rally without tripping all over himself. He had planned to resume his campaigning for re-election in Tulsa, Okla., this coming Friday. It’s Juneteenth, the day African-Americans learned in 1865 that they had been freed from slavery. Oh, and then he would stage the rally in the city that is the scene in May 1921 of the nation’s worst race riot, killing dozens of African-Americans.

As has been said: Oops! Trump now has moved the rally to Saturday. He says he is moving it “out of respect” for Juneteenth and the significance it holds for African-Americans.

Let’s get real here.

Donald Trump doesn’t “respect” anyone or anything other than himself. He moved the date because someone on his team told him he’d better do it or else he would inflict a potentially mortal wound to his re-election effort.

Still, that Trump would schedule a return to live campaigning in Tulsa, on Juneteenth without understanding the hideous juxtaposition of the location and the historical significance of the date is mind-boggling in the extreme.

There’s all of that, plus the notion of Trump bringing his devotees into a 19,000-seat arena, packing ’em in there like sardines. Not to worry, as the Trump team is demanding attendees sign an agreement that they won’t sue the Trump 2020 campaign if they are stricken by COVID-19.

This is the product of the smartest man on Earth? Hardly.

It’s the result of a man obsessed only with one thing … his political future. To think that Donald Trump began his presidential quest by declaring to the world that he is “not a politician.”

My a**!

national news

Divider in Chief shows his stuff … again!

Donald J. “Divider in Chief” Trump is going to make a splash — bigly! — when he resumes active campaigning for re-election.

He’s going to show up in Tulsa, Okla., on Juneteenth of all days. That’s June 19, the day African-Americans received word in 1865 that they had been freed from enslavement.

But … here’s the kick in the gut. Tulsa is the place where in May 1921 white supremacists massacred African-Americans in what became known as the nation’s most hideous racial confrontation.

It was far more than a riot. It was a full-scale assault on the black community in that city. It killed 36 people, 26 of whom were black.

And this is the place where Donald Trump wants to re-start his re-election campaign, which has been all but suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. Astonishing, man! And reprehensible. Also despicable. I’ll throw in repulsive to boot!

I don’t buy the notion that Trump is totally ignorant of U.S. history or what Juneteenth means to African-Americans or what Tulsa means to those who abhor racial violence. Instead, I am going to endorse the notion put forth by former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who said recently that Trump is the first president in Mattis’s memory who doesn’t seek to unify the nation, that he works deliberately to divide it.

As I watch Trump re-start his campaign, I will do so with utter disgust that he would deliberately inflame tensions that already are smoldering from the anger created by the death of George Floyd, who was suffocated while in police custody in Minneapolis.

Gen. Mattis appears to be so correct, that this president has no interest in unifying the country.

Sickening.