#or maybe railroad workers

[hustlerose]

a group of late 1800s miners singing a working song while hammering a massive dildo into my ass

[oveliagirlhaditright]

This whole train derailment thing in East Palestine, Ohio is so horrific.

And those toxic chemicals got into the Ohio River!

And I heard people saying that there was danger that it could possibly get into another body of water?

Apparently, this is going to affect 10% of the country's water supply, as things are? (According to one comment I saw, anyway.)

The place really has become the next Chernobyl, and everything has been handled so badly! (I feel if this had happened in a bigger state, that wouldn't have happened. And I strongly feel they should have evacuated everyone on day one.)

And no one's talking about it! In fact, at first they were covering it up and tried to arrest at least one reporter on the job of reporting the truth (finally more people are starting to discuss all of this, but still not as many as you would think. Especially with the massive ramifications this could have for so many!)

And why hasn't the president or any of the big wigs talked about this or done anything about it? Why didn't people in hazmat suits knock on the people in East Palestine's doors to tell them to evacuate when they finally did give them that order, instead of acting so blasé? You know if it was a place that people actually cared about, people would do so much more. I'm disgusted with my country.

[timpaxew]

I love when the the hall of justice shows up in stuff Bc I’m always clapping pointing at the screen and saying ‘that’s my museum!!” Like a proud mom

[cdrch]

A lot of people are concerned about the pain they might go through because of this. Me included! My life is dependent on stuff that comes through the mail - that is, a long enough rail strike could put my life at risk if the government doesn't react well.

The problem, of course, is that they aren't reacting well now, either. And that's purely if you care only about how it affects you as an individual.

Forcing the striking employees to take the deal by force of law is, at best, kicking the can down the road. The employees are just going to get stretched thinner and thinner, and at some point, things will break. These companies are, like most companies, trying to maximize profit at all costs. They're spending the lives of employees - remember that high stress, the best case scenario for employees here, tends to shorten your life - to prop up their profits. They're reducing backups and redundancies that could help in times of crisis. And they are going to produce a crisis themselves if one doesn't appear out of nowhere - good employees don't grow on trees, and everyone has their breaking point.

When a crisis hits? The effects of the rail strike would have been much better. People can and were preparing for a strike. It still would've hurt, but a could predict it. But I can't say I know when things are going to start falling apart. And that means my life-saving medical supplies probably won't have a planned alternative route to get to me. Even if I survive...how many people won't?

The railroad executives will likely be fine regardless, of course.

(Psst. You notice how when certain companies decide to be stubborn, our lives get put at risk? How the whims of a few people can change everything for some of us? This is where Adam Smith, father of capitalism, suggested markets just won't work. Maybe we could do something about that?)

"ooooh nooooo but a rail strike around the holidays could cripple the economy" damn sounds like their labor is really really important and you should give them what they fucking want

[laufire]

the idea that bruce and alfred are a father and son pair is far more modern than a lot of people seem to realise; pre-crisis, alfred and bruce met as adults, and the process of integrating him in bruce's childhood wasn't all or nothing at first. I have the suspicion the nolanverse was a big part in changing the shape of the perception of their relationship and maybe even influenced comics canon.

I personally only embrace the idea of alfred becoming bruce's primary caretaker and pseudo-parental figure if leslie remains involved as a foster parent at some point (my personal headcanon is that bruce's custody was An Issue because even if it was in the will that bruce would go with alfred because he was fucking the waynes, why would the kane family just accept it?).

but even embracing that pseudo father-son bond... approaching their dynamic as if this is the only or even the most prominent aspect of it leads to a faulty analysis of it, from what I've seen. especially because it misattributes the power in the relationship, which is not alfred's.

in my mind (and to a few mutuals lol) I've often compared bruce with the roman figure of the pater familias, beyond the idea of a modern patriarch (though this remains influenced by it). he's the only truly-independent citizen of the household, possessing authority and controlling all the goods and people belonging to the family: those under his patria potestas: children, wife, and the household's workers/slaves.

alfred is very much subsummed into that structure. he is bruce's subordinate and it looks like this was a feature of their relationship in comics canon even if/when bruce was the child in his care (which, again, I headcanon as being Complicated). as if, probably, alfred never thought it was his "place" to be anything but a employee first. that shaped the dynamic into what it became with bruce as an unchecked adult who... definitely didn't listen to alfred if he didn't want to listen to what alfred had to say. examples abound in new earth (my personal playground) of times where alfred tries to sway bruce in the opposite direction of where he wants to go, and he miserably fails as he's railroaded in the way.

a lot of people seem to think alfred is to bruce what bruce is to dick, or jason, or or or, and this is a false equivalence because alfred, neither doylist nor watsonian-wise, was never The Patriarch in bruce's life. whatever authority he could've had over bruce as a child was clearly flimsy and likely not acted upon out of deference of the expectations -both internal and external- of their relationship, and is absolutely non-existent with bruce as an adult.

[glassbirdfeather]

Mohg's Brain

(This is an essay on Mohg, Lord of Blood, from hit video game Elden Ring. It just takes a bit to get there.)

There is a story often repeated in Psychology classes, Physiology classes, pop psych media like YouTube, podcasts, and garbage daytime television on channels that used to be scientifically rigorous: about a man with an incredible brain injury. For those of you who haven't heard the story or are not yet sick of hearing it, I've included it from memory below, because I have heard it just that many times.

If you've heard this story already, you can skip to the subtitle: "Can We Even Learn Anything From Gage?"

If you already know the controversies about Phineas Gage or just want to jump to the part about the video game character, you can skip to the subtitle: "Let's FINALLY talk about Video Game"

----

"The Curious Case of Phineas Gage"

Phineas Gage was a railroad worker who would help clear land with explosives. The dubious and definitely wouldn't-have-been-OSHA-approved method of laying these explosives was to chip a hole into the mountainside, place the explosives, and then tamp it down using some sort of implement like a railroad spike. What happened next was predictable and it's surprising this didn't happen much more often--when packing the explosives, they detonated in Gage's face. Specifically, this launched the spike underneath his left eye and out of the top of his head. Less predictably, Phineas stood up afterwards. When a doctor arrived, said doctor did not believe what had occurred until Gage vomited approximately a "teacupful of brain matter" onto the street.

Due to lack of effective sterilization and antibiotics at the time, poor Phineas Gage was bedridden for several months, where he continued to lose further brain matter to infection. Eventually, he did recover, although he would continue to experience migraines and seizures for the rest of his life. While he lost his job for the railroad service, he went on to work in a sideshow attraction, carrying around the very railroad spike that went through his head. Eventually, he got a job and worked as a taxi driver and lived for several more years before dying of a seizure.

Phineas Gage was never the same after this life-altering injury: he was belligerent, drunk, lied frequently, and lost his job for the railroad company because of his new personality. And I do say NEW personality--Phineas had become like a completely different person and was, in essence, "no longer Gage" (they love quoting that). The damage to regions of the prefrontal cortex made him unable to make moral judgements, and impaired his impulse control.

OR MAYBE THAT LAST PART ISN'T TRUE.

Phineas Gage was NOT much changed by this life-altering injury. Though he lost his job at the railway company, the cause of this job loss is unknown. He MAY have had severe alterations to his personality due to this injury, but whether these changes were due to physical damage or emotional trauma--or whether personality changes ACTUALLY occurred at all--are disputed.

----

Can We Even Learn Anything From Gage?

Though I am uncertain if we have exact data on which parts of his brain he was left with when accounting for what was later lost to infection, the trajectory and angle of the injury suggests he initially lost much of his prefrontal cortex. Which of the previous versions of the story are told or over/under-emphasized is dependent on the point the teller is trying to make in the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture.

Some psychologists argue that Gage's personality change demonstrates the Global Workspace Model, where different parts of the brain are responsible for different parts of consciousness, and that by changing or removing parts of the brain, you change consciousness.

Other psychologists will argue that the LACK of change is evidence of the brain's incredible plasticity--its ability to adapt and compensate for missing parts by shifting the functions of those parts to be performed by different regions.

Most reasonably, he probably experienced some cognitive differences while still being effectively the same person and is an example of both points of view. But we don't have concrete enough evidence to say.

Any class in which a teacher or textbook needs evidence to support whatever point they're trying to make about how changes to the brain affects personality, addiction, emotional regulation, decision making, etc., they'll use Gage to make that point, no matter what stance they take. So really, Gage isn't a useful case study beyond what we could actually observe: he lost some of his brain and lived, while also experiencing migraines and seizures for the rest of his life.

With all of that said, if we assume that Gage experienced no changes to cognitive function or personality, I just typed out a story I am very sick of hearing for no reason. So let's assume that at least some of those observations were true.

----

Let's FINALLY Talk About Video Game

Her are some potentially useful images to reference if you want. Left: general brain regions and their functions. Right: paranasal sinus cavities.

Unlike a nice, straight tamping iron, Mohg's horns curl in unpredictable directions. Some assumptions must be made about length, depth, and diameter to determine what region and volume of his skull is occupied by his horn. The minimum I expect is that the horn occupies the region of his frontal lobe in any scenario. Let's also set a maximum limit: I believe it is reasonable to assume it has not reached the primary motor cortex, where it would disrupt body control and physical movement... unless one wants to suggest he is puppetting himself in his boss fight like a bloodbender. Which, let's be real, IS a really badass concept, someone should write that fanfiction.

Though I argue that Gage is a bad example to use given our lack of reliable data on his personality and lived experiences, we DO know that disrupting the function of the prefrontal cortex can affect judgment, planning, concentration, and any type of higher processing you might call a uniquely 'human' mental ability (I acknowledge the mental abilities of birds and primates but they are beyond the scope of this essay). It may be safe to assume that, in Mohg's case, these mental processes are harmed regardless of any further extrapolation I make. One other brain region of note is the motor speech (Broca) area, located on the left side directly behind the prefrontal cortex and controls muscle movements for speech.

On the topic of pain, migraines, and seizures: He has a horn in his head, it probably hurts. Obstructions (like cysts) can cause buildup of cerebrospinal fluid, which can cause pain and is a common cause of seizures. It is difficult to say how many people have benign brain tumors, but there is speculation that benign tumors in the brain are unexpectedly common. People only typically get brain scans when they've already noticed a problem, but there have been cases of perfectly healthy people having (non-cancerous) brain tumors, so a mass being present in the brain does NOT guarantee seizures will occur. This being said, that horn is significantly larger than a typical benign brain tumor. Migraines and seizures are very reasonable to assume.

I don't know what to say about illness and disease. In theory, if the horn grew at any point after birth, I would say he should have died from any pathogens that were introduced during its corkscrewing into his skull. Phineas Gage was bedridden for months due to infection, was under the care of a doctor, and he wasn't living in a sewer. Do the Lands Between understand the germ theory of disease? It may at least know that poop in the brain is bad, but I listen to Sawbones, so I know that isn't something we can just assume. It's possible he's lost some impossible-to-estimate amount of brain matter to infection. Feel free to speculate about Omen resistance to pathogens, but I don't feel that is the point of this essay. I'll say it's safe to assume his body has healed closed around it, but anything else I won't try to extrapolate.

----

Specificity from Horn Trajectory

Possibility 1:

If we estimate the continued trajectory from the visible part of the horn, it actually continues medially, towards the center of the body, and curls downward. This might even miss most of the brain and instead disrupt the frontal, ethmoidal, and maxillary sinus cavities of the skull.

It may possibly even pierce the roof of the mouth, if we roughly estimate the rate at which the horn tapers and where it likely ends. I argue that this is the most optimistic scenario in terms of his health, because although the horn almost certainly penetrates the prefrontal cortex, it may not be as deep as other possibilities.

In this horn trajectory case, he probably experiences constant sinus pressure similar to a permanent head cold, obstruction to his sense of smell, and by extension his sense of taste. Even if the horn does not completely block his nasal cavity, it may have damaged his olfactory nerve and thus disabled his sense of smell anyway. Should the horn obstruct his mouth he may experience physical difficulties eating and speaking.

Possibility 2:

A worse scenario may be to assume this horn instead extends directly backwards. This would likely pass through the motor speech area, and may have caused him to lose the ability to talk, forcing him to relearn how to speak by having another part of the brain learn to do this function (similar to how anyone learns a second language after very early childhood). It may also reach the LEFT temporal lobe, which processes hearing and smell for the RIGHT side of the body, and therefore he could be deaf in his right ear. Again, the olfactory nerve is potentially in the path of the horn, and loss of sense of smell is frequently considered a symptom of brain damage, so regardless of the angle of the horn this is a high possibility.

----

What Time of Horn Growth Could Tell Us

Children are more likely to recover well from brain damage. The older he was when the horn entered his brain, the more likely he would be to experience cognitive impairment.

Should Mohg's horn have developed that way before birth, his brain may have formed around it without issue, or obstructed regions may have simply remained underdeveloped. His skull would also have developed to more 'comfortably' accommodate this horn, rather than having to break and re-heal around a later intrusion. If the horn is shallow enough and its growth occurred during fetal development or very early childhood before the fusing of the bones in the skull, it is possible that left eye blindness and mild discomfort are the only effects. The timing of the horn's growth being before birth or in early infancy is supported by the Regal Omen Bairn, which shows Morgott with seemingly all of his horns, suggesting that omens horns are largely present upon birth and that those horns grow in proportion with them.

However, given the themes associated with the Formless Mother, here is another--vastly more speculative--hypothesis: Mohg's horn was grown deliberately into his skull by the influence of the Formless Mother, perhaps with or without his consent. I find it hard to believe that a force claimed to be the "mother of truth" which "desires a wound" would be unaware of the possible effects of this type of wound.

I posit that the Formless Mother intended to compromise Mohg's consciousness and sense of reason to make him easier to manipulate. If we assume that they were not working together (debatable), the abduction of Miquella and potential interruption and sabotage of his ascension puts an empyrean under the Formless Mother's control, and works counter to the dynasty Mohg desires. Damage to his ability to plan, make rational decisions, and his sense of morality could explain how Mohg seems to want a place for outcast and hated people, likely seeing a kinship with Miquella, but has created something that is the antithesis to the Haligtree.

Furthermore, should we assume that Mohg and Miquella met previously and Miquella had the opportunity to do so, the power Miquella purportedly has to compel adoration in others may have interacted poorly with Mohg's potentially impaired emotional processing, and could have caused an obsessive outcome that the Formless Mother did not predict.

Of course, I don't believe every awful and cruel decision someone makes is the result of brain damage, but this may explain the incongruity between what Mohg seems to want and what he has made. Whether Mohg is "the reigning lord and hierarch of the coming dynasty of Mohgwyn" or "a raving lunatic" may not be an incompatible dichotomy. It may be sequential.

----

Glassbirdfeather you're so wrong, why did you say ___?

I am not a doctor. I am a chemistry student with a biology lean (clinical laboratory science) and am drawing my conclusions from what I've learned in Anatomy, Physiology, and Psychology classes at an introductory level, and I glanced back at my anatomy and psychology textbooks as my sole academic sources. Please don't take this as a well-researched essay, none of the claims I make about mental or physical health are properly cited. This is just fandom theorizing; it's as academically rigorous as fanfiction. Any doctor/member of the medical profession who would like to correct me is invited to do so, I would love to hear more accurate and informed observations.

----

Bibliography

(literally just 2 references, man)

Grison, Sarah and Michael S. Gazzaniga. Psychology in Your Life. Third Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.

McKinley, Michael P. and Valerie Dean O'Loughlin. Human Anatomy. Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2017.

[robertreich]

Why Do We Have Weekends?

Ladies and gentlemen…the weekend. Why do we have it? 

The short answer: unions!

In the late nineteenth century, many workers labored 7 days a week, sometimes up to a grueling 100 hours in poor conditions.

Workers were fed up. Many began to unionize and take to the streets in protest.

Violence against them at the hands of corporate union busters and law enforcement was common. Many lost their lives. But they didn’t relent. 

Organized labor kept up the pressure. Workers in the mining, printing, and railroad industries eventually won 8-hour-work days. Major corporations, most notably Ford Motor Company, began to heed calls to institute 5-day work weeks.

But most workers across the country were not guaranteed these benefits. 

Then came Frances Perkins — President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Labor Secretary and the first woman cabinet secretary.

Before agreeing to the position, Perkins met with FDR to secure a guarantee that he would support her pro-labor agenda.To her surprise, FDR backed her.

In 1938, thanks to her advocacy and the momentum built by organized labor, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act — which among many things ultimately established a 40-hour work week by forcing employers to pay time and a half for any hours worked beyond this limit.

And thus, created the weekend. 

 While many workers now enjoy weekends won by organized labor, the fight continues for those who don’t. 

A rising number of contract employees, sometimes known as “gig workers,” are putting in backbreaking hours without the protections afforded to full-time workers.

Now is the time to renew the historic call of unions to make sure ALL workers are afforded the dignity — and time off from work — they deserve. 

And who knows — maybe one day we’ll move to a three day weekend? 

[zenaidamacrouras1]

No no no!

Yes yay for wins but this characterization of how it happens irks me. You push hard on targets who can get things done. You scream online (and in the streets) until they do it.

Literally the title of this press release is "We never stopped applying pressure" because PRESSURE MATTERS.

You pick a target who can get you what you want and pressure them to do it.

I have been campaigning for [redacted] (okay over 20 years now jfc yes I was an activist under Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden send me a fucking sedative) at one point had a big campaign against the Obama administration where we got arrested in front of the agency building multiple times while screaming at the Obama administration and the Obama staffers would wave out the window and give us thumbs up.

They want you to make them do their jobs. Sometimes we'd be in calls with agency folks and they would mention protests or online campaigns or particular news articles that they had seen and thank us.

I was just LAST MONTH in a meeting with a Biden agency person on a campaign that I thought was going well and the agency person was frustrated.

They were like, "Look, don't tell anyone I said this (sorry I just did) but maybe you could do a report card on our work saying how some things are going well but this aspect isn't going fast enough?"

To be clear: I (the strident shrill activist) was happy with the pace the Biden administration was going. The Biden administration staffer in the fancy suit was like "Can you talk trash on our pace to up the pressure?"

"We're thankful that the Biden administration played the long game on sick days and stuck with us for months after Congress imposed our updated national agreement. Without making a big show of it, Joe Biden and members of his administration in the Transportation and Labor departments have been working continuously to get guaranteed paid sick days for all railroad workers."

Yeah, I AM gonna point this out, and be blunt and annoying about it: remember how the Online Leftists have spent MONTHS screaming about Biden Selling Out The Working Class and heaping vitriol on him for proposing the compromise agreement to Congress that stopped the rail strike, but didn't include sick days, and this was the Biggest Betrayal Ever To Betrayal? And showed that he was terrible and a corporate sellout and anti-labor and whatever else?

Well, guess what: now the rail workers have paid sick days! Biden and the Department of Labor/Transportation worked nonstop to get it done, didn't brag about it or blather on endlessly, and then got it done! Because it turns out that it was better to take the partial agreement, keep things moving, and continue to work in good faith and make progress, thus resulting in what they wanted without just blowing everything up and calling that a good plan! Shocking!

[hoofpeet]

ouuguuh … it would be cool if lik (going off the tags of this post) … there was a story reason as for why all the pokemon are attracted to the gear station :3 maybe theres a super ancient pokemon beneath (or somethinng similar IDK ! THEY GOT XURXITREE HOOKED UP TO THE WIRES annd its lik ghost stories lik Oooh theres emptty trains ! and spice is lik Thats not me doing it .) like its SOMETHING tahts drawing them there , whether it be another pokemon or some sort of life force or energy

THOUGHTS .... Okay giratina specifically loves trains for whatever reason and starts hanging around railyards as soon as they get invented and protects the trains from harm, seeing them as part of it's 'hoard.' Even though it's ??? weird at first the railroad workers eventually just accept Giratina's presence since it's not harming the rails or anything and it eventually becomes kindof the patron saint of trains, later becoming an influence for the design of some trains and Giratinism kindof just becomes a slightly ironic tradition for railway workers .

--> Giratina eventually hibernates in an abandoned tunnel in gear station (possibly unbeknownst to Ingo & Emmet) which attracts a lot of various types of pokemon to the area . Some of which start working at the station

[dragons-and-magic]

TTTE has so many possibilities for really good villains besides the usual snooty bully type or devious diesel. It's awesome. Here's some ideas I had!

What about an engine (Any type) that hates humans for what they did to their kind? All the scrapping and stuff? And he wants to hurt/kill as many humans as possible for payback, completely passing over the fact that engines and humans have a symbiotic relationship and need each other. And that not all humans are bad. Especially the ones on Sodor. It could also be a good gateway for addressing the trauma some engines have from the 1960s scrapping period.

Or how about a driver and engines villain team? Where they team up to do some huge crime that effects both humans and sentient machines?

ELECTRIC ENGINES. They're very under used! Have the diesels and steam engines come together to fight a new supposed enemy, only to find out that it's just one in particular that's villainous and the rest are rather nice. The engine types are usually competing against each other for the humans good graces, so this could be eye opening for them.

Super NATURAL ENGINES. Give Lady a rival that's not Diesel 10 and is instead an entirely new super natural engine to fight! And you don't have to stop there! Add more engines to the Pantheon and really flesh out The Magic Railroad in Lady's Realm!

More human villains. So far we've only had Sailor John. WE NEED MORE! (EDIT: And Baz and Bernie. I forgot about them.😅)

Bounty hunter engines that chase down runaway engines, like the diesels that chased Oliver and his crew! And make them REAL bounty hunters. Pull out all the stops. And have their crews involved as well! Maybe some of them are scrap yard workers!

[sea-lanterns]

Oooooh… Cowgirl AU got me feeling things…

Clorinde as the sheriff who cuffs you and tosses you in a dark little cell in the town jail so she breed you in private…

Lynette and/or Arlecchino as wild bandits, bringing you back to their camp in the middle of the desert to fuck you by the campfire… the town thinks you’re an innocent maiden who’s been kidnapped just as she was due to be happily (unwillingly) wedded to a good (horrible) man, but you were actually seduced by their roguish charm…

Maybe Beidou is one of the Chinese workers the rail company imported as cheap labor to work on the new rail line coming though*, and she sneaks into your fancy house at night so she can fuck you nice and good before you shoo her out at dawn so your father doesn’t learn you’ve fallen in love with one of those ‘damn [insert slur typical of the 19th Century here]’…

*per the Smithsonian, 1/6 of Chinese immigrants in the 1860s ended up working on railroad construction, and the Guardian puts a more specific number of Chinese working on railroad construction at roughly 15,000.

Ohmygod this is all really cool! Sheriff Clorinde and Arlecchino + Lynette as bandits?? That’s so hot jaidjsjdn 💕

I will say though, despite how cool it is that you know so much about the historical accuracy of the cowboy times, I’m going to leave out any racial/discriminatory topics since it can be really sensitive/triggering for my readers.

If I choose to write an AU based on historic times (Ex. Empress AU, Pirate AU, Cowboy AU, etc.) there will be little to no mention of discrimination even if it’s historically accurate. This blog is safe space for all sapphics 💘

[foggyfanfic]

Did you guys hear Disneyland Cast Members voted to strike?

It was nearly unanimous too, 99% of the unionized cast members voted in favor of the strike. This doesn't necessarily mean they will strike, more that when the union rep shows up to the negotiation table on Monday they'll have that extra bit of leverage. Hopefully that'll be enough to win them living wages and such. I don't have anything intelligent to say, I just feel a kind of way about this subject, I'm going to put my opinions under the cut.

Ok, look, I love Disneyland. Love it with a passion. You know what reminded me this was happening and prompted me to look up the story? I was thinking of updating this card I made for one of the many games I've come up with to play in Disneyland because I have a weird variety of hyper-fixation when it comes to that park specifically.

So I am not speaking an ounce of hyperbole when I say Disneyland is my favorite place in the world.

But! Whoever the hell is making the big decisions around there needs to get their head out of their ass. I don't know if I should be blaming Bob Iger or Josh D'Amaro for the way the parks have been since the pandemic, but I'm going to blame both. I can deal with them experimenting with Genie Plus (I hate it but I'm used to capitalism), and I can sort of deal with the prices (I can't afford them easily but I'm saving up), but Disneyland has very clearly been trying to cut labor costs for a while now and it's incredibly baffling to watch. It feels like the parks are being run by somebody with a business degree from a sketchy "college" and zero experience with the real world.

They're cutting back on shows, overworking their existing staff, and skipping regular maintenance so they can operate the park with a smaller maintenance team. Overall it results in a worse experience for the customer, making it less likely that they'll convert new guests into returning fans like myself. While Disney World is a major tourist attraction that most people consider a once in a life time experience, Disneyland has always had a steady revenue from local Californians that return again and again. If you frequent forums about the parks you hear all about folks who live in SoCal that buy their annual pass (I know that's not what it's currently called, but that's what it is) and use it to get into the parks just to have dinner or rove around and maybe grab a churro. They might not be paying for Iger's next yacht, but those folks are providing a reliable revenue stream, and they go back again and again because for decades Disneyland has maintained a "magical" atmosphere.

And I feel like it's fairly obvious that the front line workers are the ones that make Disneyland what it is. Right? Like I'm not crazy, we all agree Disneyland would be nothing without the hard work of these cast members, right?

Why are they-? You need front line workers, why wouldn't you-? Do they not have years of research and experience backing up how beneficial a well paid staff is? I love the Incredicoaster but if all I wanted was thrill rides, Six Flags is an hour closer and a whole lot cheaper. I'm going for the complicated rides that require their own pit crew like Mickey's Runaway Railroad. Why are we even still having this conversation? I get that people like Bob Iger are a bit insulated from the rest of us, but the relationship between a happy staff and profit is well documented. Why wouldn't they just...? In the Disneyland subreddit a retired cast member post the Benefits Binder he got back when he worked for Disneyland and this thing was thick, it included health, retirement, and stock options. Somebody somewhere must have known that whittling down benefits while stagnating pay was not sustainable. Right?!

Like I said, I don't have anything intelligent to add to this conversation, but to be honest, I think everything intelligent to add has already been added. I'm just annoyed for my own sake and downright pissed for the sake of the cast members. I hope they get everything they ask for on Monday, and if they don't, I hope the strike knocks some sense into everybody it needs to.

[yunamedkostobot]

I just can't do with them

This person speaks like the Grievous POV in Labyrinth of Evil, when he speaks a lot about this events, is non-existent and this book directly preceeded Revenge of the Sith in Legends continuity. So, only magazine article, you know, it does not mean anything, and Jedi are completely innocent about it!

While I do not condone Grievous methods neither in Canon, nor in Legends, the Kaleesh invasion on Huk would not happen if not the Yam'Ree did not attack Kalee first and did not attempt to enslave his population. Where was the Jedi than? Where were they after it, when Kalee outright started to starve?

And it is not the first time when Jedi in Legends failed to help those who were in need.

There was Jabiim. This page when Stratus clearly sums up everything went wrong with the planet.

The planet used to be faithful Republic world, but neither Republic, nor Jedi helped them when they needed it the most. The result? Total majority of people of Jabiim supporting Stratus and CIS. Yep, maybe Stratus is pushing revanshist propaganda, but it would not have made the same impact of people of Jabiim, if there were not quite an objective conditions.

There was Findar with his population being enslaved by criminal overlords for more than ten years. Add the fact, the same overlords who conducted the experiments with memory wiping on people, and only the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi (who were heading to another mission) crash-landed here saved the findians from future nightmare.

The probability theory says that when one thing happens is the accident, coincidence, when it happens twice, and sistem when it happens thrice. So, make you own conclusions.

And even the argument about it no longer being canon doesn't really works. In Canon, Jedi outright ignored Czerka corporation literally enslaving its workers(what she by this time did not do in Legends). This exchange between Qui-Gon Jinn and Yoda really sums up what is wrong with Order right now.

«Qui-Gon had been too young to see the cracks in the bravado—the pain that all Dooku’s guidance and all Rael’s accomplishments had never been able to erase. “That he would effectively sell citizens into slavery—” “Grievous, this is,” Yoda agreed. Into Qui-Gon’s mind came the echo of Rahara Wick: What’s the point of having a Republic in the first place? “We should put an end to it,” he said. Yoda shook his head. “Not ours to decide, the fate of the treaty is—” “Not the treaty. Slavery.” Qui-Gon folded his hands in front of him, allowing the robes to obscure them—the most formal way in which a Jedi could address another. “Why do we allow this barbarism to flourish? The Republic could use its influence to promote abolition in countless systems where the practice flourishes. How can we fail to do this?” <.....> Qui-Gon’s patience began to wear thin. “This isn’t about imposing human ethics on nonhuman species. This is something humans do to one another, an atrocity we should put an end to.” “We? Not the chancellor, not the Galactic Senate, not even the people of the Republic, but the Jedi?” Yoda thumped his gimer stick on the floor. “Want to rule, do you? Dangerous this is, in one who would join the Council. Dangerous it is in any Jedi.” Qui-Gon knew all of this. On one level, he accepted the truth of it. On the other—“If we don’t stand for the right, what do we do? Why do we exist?”»

From the same book we know that Czerka corporation acts even worse, than IRL Russian nobility up to 1649 or American slave-owners. Their property can not be considered free unless they buy themselves out of it, no matter how long they were absent from Czerka's control(as Rahara case clearly indicates). Up to ratification of Council Code of 1649, Russian serfs who ran away from their masters can be declared as "wanted" only for 10 years and were considered free after that. The black slaves could use the Underground Railroad and get to the North or another country when slavery was illegal.

It's not a case for Czerka. They will never let their former property go, no matter how many time passed since the escape, or where their former subject had gone.

And Jedi stand and allow it to happen. Doing their part in Republic, yep, Yoda?

"Many ways there are of serving the right,” Yoda replied. “We work within our mandates, and there do as much good as we can. To do otherwise, to substitute our judgment for that of the Republic, is to repeat the mistakes of the past.” So instead we make different mistakes in the present? Qui-Gon kept this to himself."

And also, to what mistakes of the past Yoda is referring to? What mistakes are deemed worse than allowing slavery to exist? Even in the Legends the Jedi having closest ties and basically control of Republic(to some level that it can be considered religios teocracy) allowed them to defeat Siths and practically destroy them except one. And even then, after the victory they stepped down(too far IMO). What thing could be called mistake here?

I am gonna specify: the Republic had a lot of problems that have a need to be fixed, but there was one thing that made this state more durable or competent is having Jedi, but not as the «Galactic therapists»(therapy can not be forced onto living being without his desire, if it is not a conversion therapy), but as the protection from arbitariness and exploitation. If some planet was endangered, they could have contacted Jedi and ask for help. The main problem of Order in this case is the fact they did not do enough for the people they should have protected, blindly trusted some reports and never attempted to search for the truth beyond it(Kalee, Galidraan and Pijal to lesser extent) and also hadn't seemed to have their own outposts for survelliance or interference, or some rapid reaction forces since Ruusan reform in Legends(1000 years)/«Starlight Beacon»'s destruction in Canon(200 years). I can not call it anything else but shooting yourself in the foot.

The Jedi should have been more autonomous, should have had their own information information service, outposts in the Galaxy and forces of reaction. It was not necassary to cut their ties with Republic entirely, but distance themselves from Senate, so people wouldn't think that Jedi «blindly serve the corrupt Senate».

Jedi Uncrits: «But the Jedi are only 10.000 for all of Galaxy, they could not do it!»

Well, in this case it's better to drop your practice to recruit children under five(as Rael Aveross's case indicates), abandoning tons of kids and youths elder than this age(like Caris in Legends). Or what, they will not blindly accept everything Council says? Sorry for the Council.

[sovietpostcards]

Do you have much on Soviet trains/railroads (I'm a big railroad fan!)? Maybe a tag in your blog? Thank you!

Hi! Here you go - #trains

You can also search for 'railroad' and 'railway' for things like workers and stations.

[reallynotwelcomed]

An interesting thing about Hadestown animatics is how the above world (basically act 1) is generally portrayed as very rural, forest-like. The only consolidated building is the bar and things relating to the train

I think it's done mostly to contrast the underworld, and maybe it gathers some inspiration from the NYTW/Edmonton tree and also previous animatics with the same background

And, while surely there's a lot of vegetation there (Eurydice's part in Chant I where she's looking for firewood, as an example), I think it would be fun to imagine a more urbanized setting

The railroad station would make a small town appear around it (if not already constructed in one), at first improvised houses for the ones who built the tracks and the station. Since it takes an enormous amount of work to do it, a lot of people stood there, both to maintain the tracks and station and also for the land. These workers were most likely miserable people to accept the amount of bullshit it takes to build train tracks

During the musical itself, the town fills up with people from nearby places looking to ride the train, especially in the winter. It also has a spike in activities when Persephone shows up there for some time

The urbanization gets harsher the nearer you get to the wall, from those who can't really afford to actually live there but are still trying to make money. I can't imagine a ticket to Hadestown would be an easy thing to acquire, considering possible documentation surrounding actually getting there and the financial state of most people looking for it. It makes people desperate enough to do anything, from working in terrible conditions, to falsifying documents and even to trying to bypass the wall. And hey, if you catch those people, you can throw them into prisons so they can work for you for free!!

In conclusion, I think it would be easier to draw parallels to our current situation in the Real World™ with this setting, regarding global warming and such. Also why am I yapping again I should be writing other stuff