It’s hard to know who is the most tone deaf senator. Ted Cruz has pretty much held the crown, especially after his Cancun stunt, but today Ron Johnson might have one upped Cruz, when he appeared at a Milwaukee Juneteenth rally after blocking the passage of the bill making Juneteenth a holiday. His constituents let him know what they thought, loud and clear.
@SenRonJohnson This is the response you get when you put a hold on #Juneteenth from becoming a holiday and then have the audacity to show up at a #Juneteenth festival. pic.twitter.com/AvjOQ1MWkz
— Chris Walton (@ChrisWaltonMKE) June 19, 2021
Johnson had done nothing but oppose Juneteenth, before backing down at the last minute. Roll Call:
Last year, in the wake of millions marching under the Black Lives Matters banner following the killing of George Floyd, a bipartisan group tried to get Congress to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, introduced the measure in the House, while Edward Markey, D-Mass., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, made the push in the Senate.
But their effort was thwarted by Johnson, who objected to a unanimous consent motion in the Senate, arguing that adding a 12th federal holiday (including inauguration) to the calendar was a waste of taxpayer money.
In a press release Tuesday, Johnson backed down, saying he would not oppose another unanimous consent motion. “While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “Therefore, I do not intend to object.”
Cheer up, Ron. A lot of employers simply ignore some of the federal holidays, because they’re cheap, Veterans Day and Columbus Day among them. May Juneteenth will end up on that heap.
Ron Johnson, (R-Russia).
Some people where I worked had a slightly different set of holidays – they were union members. They had one the non-union people didn’t get, and the non-union people had one they didn’t get. So the same number.
I’ve never gotten Veteran’s Day off or Columbus Day which is now Indigenous People’s Day where I live. I had a job where only veterans got Veterans Day off. I didn’t mind that. They earned it.
Not trying to be snarky but how do you KNOW those “veterans” earned the day off? Everyone has this idea that all veterans served in combat, on the front lines, facing hostile fire on a daily basis but the reality is that the word “veteran” also applies to ANY military person who spent their entire term of duty stateside, at a desk, doing paperwork. My dad was a “veteran” but he never regaled me with any stories of “fighting the enemy”–not in his service before I was born and not in his service after I was born. After my birth, he was stationed in Alaska (and mom and I were with him), in Texas (on a couple of occasions with the family), in Germany (a couple of times, and with the family for at least one fairly lengthy time), in South Korea (the fam was in Pennsylvania but we could’ve ended up with him there) and his final tour was in Greece.
And the ONLY “war” stories he ever told me about was his year in Korea when he said the guys basically had few “entertainment” options beyond booze and women (so he chose booze). Oh, and about his being in charge of training some of the Saudi princes (he never told me which ones).
BUT, he’s a “veteran.”
And many of the “veterans” with whom I work at the Post Office never saw a day in combat but they get little special “veterans” tokens and “commendation letters” every year. I know this may come off as “bitter” but it seems very strange to me that we in the US give “veterans” far more due than many of them truly deserve. Yes, the folks who served in combat deserve the recognition and honor but we rarely ask every veteran to detail their service. (I will admit to a little bitterness that “veterans” get special consideration when applying for various government and government-related jobs, including “points” on tests, no matter what they did to merit that “veteran” status. That’s a kind of “affirmative action” that GOPers have absolutely no problem with.)
In a perfect world he would have been tarred and feathered on the spot.
RoJo the Clown is whining about taxpayer money being wasted (the irony of that statement is not wasted certainly). I have regularly worked in the public service sector (Municipal, State, and federal) and I can tell you IF taxpayer money is being wasted, it damned sure isn’t very much give the wages we’re paid.
He forgets something most people know: government workers get a few small perks for giving up the much larger wages they would receive in the private sector. Those few holidays are the perks. Anymore that’s about the only ones public sector workers still retain.
Why is Columbus Day even a holiday? Italian guy, working for the French, gets lost and lands in the wrong content Decades WTF call the indigenous people “Indians” anyway and takes their natural resources. Sorry Chris, you can’t claim that you discovered someplace when there are already people living there.
I agree , and then they took the country from the Indians and tried to kill them . They were the rightful owners .