As the creation finally settled into shape, a faint windows 95 login chime could be heard softly in the distance.

Rock on.

Still no disagreement. My only response to this point is that people use this particular observation mainly against Democrats as well. "Both parties suck so why should I bother." True enough except one of those parties will do the bare minimum to keep things roughly how they are while the other one will literally turn back all progress made in the last 200+ years. I'll still stick up for the Democrats then, while urging people for more, because we have a better chance to actually progress one day from where we are now rather than from a degrading society caused by Republican control.

Voting is for sure important but it's the bare minimum to get the bare minimum results. Without massive change in driving progressive policies at a very wide grass-roots level we will eventually be lost. Bernie was one person who pushed the Democrats wildly left compared to where they were, but he isn't enough and we won't just stumble into two or three more of him by luck alone.

You aren't wrong, it just hasn't worked super well in the past. Tell me if I am wrong - they would need a full majority in the Senate. If everything was included in one bill, it would have met the same fate as the second bill with sick days. This isn't one of the kinds that can be passed with a simple majority?

So then the bill fails to pass and everyone piles it on the Democrats. Whenever that's happened in the past, like Obama era debt ceiling bullshit, it didn't really turn out how logical people would have expected it should have. Republicans then won't budge because they'd rather destroy America then give hard-working people their due, then don't have any actual platform so they're immune to criticism anyway, and Democrats are accused of failing to govern. Meanwhile the economic fallout is supposedly catastrophic.

In a functioning democracy, Democrats should be able to full court press this and grind the fucking rich overlords into the ground. But they can barely get a little aggressive before popular opinion shifts against them, because for some reason a huge percent of our population expects them to be honorable and act like adults, the Republicans are absolutely never held to task for their bullshit stunts, and then the Democrats get slammed (while also doing their own damn best go crush the progressive wing, thanks JJ). And the dumbass outrage voters sit out the election cycle and then we have an overwhelmingly illegitimate supreme court that fucks us even harder for an entire generation.

I personally would love nothing more than to see the Democrats rake the railway over the fucking coals and give the workers everything they asked for and then 100% more that they didn't even have the hope to imagine much less request.

Edit: the same fate, not the same "'date."

Biden and the Democrats completely fucked this up - but what of the Republicans that would have essentially given them nothing at all? I can't pretend to understand the Democrat strategy here - I don't understand why they didn't force more favorable conditions on the railways if they have the power to do so in this limited situation.

But if they did nothing - then they really got nothing done right? And even if they did nothing (thus paving the way for the strike), can you imagine the attacks by Republicans when the country started losing billions of dollars caused by lost transportation?

I won't say they did right, but they got something done, and more than what the opposition was going to do. Which makes zero sense when you think of how much of their rich backers would lose of the strike did happen.

The wizard Odiul paused, taking a moment to collect himself.

Far too easy for him, to forget how drastically different his frame of reference was from that of these short-lived creatures. Centuries had passed for him, enveloped by the vast mystic powers that permeated this universe, seeping so deeply into every fold of his existence – compressed thousands upon thousands of times until his very essence was little different than the hardest-packed stone. If, for just a moment, he were to allow that essence to unfold, it felt as if it would expand to fall upon the world, and drag it down to the deepest depths.

And so, though human, it was impossible for Odiul to experience this reality as did these frail dandelion seeds that drifted upon the wind, winking into and out of existence much as sparks flew from the flint. Their short lives filled with spikes of experience and emotion that they could never truly comprehend. Immersed entirely in their slight lives, they lived as waterfalls pouring over the edge of a high cliff, lacking the ability to truly observe any single moment.

“And what is it, Princess, that you perceive as love?” The wizard’s voice was solid, yet soft, a boulder rolling slowly down a distant grassy mountainside.

The Princess stared blankly, her azure eyes not seemingly focused on anything, wrinkles knitting her brow. Odiul considered, realizing that such a fundamental question asked at this moment must seem to the Princess to carry some unforeseen meaning. Again, just too easy to forget, how this moment must be completely beyond her experience; an oddity that, once come upon, was difficult to quickly comprehend.

“I do not ask to make sport of you,” he offered.

She hesitated a moment longer, gaining her composure. She turned a discerning gaze upon Odiul for the first time, seeming to finally overcome her initial disbelief. “True love, wizard, is a most powerful feeling – there is none stronger. It is sum total of the strength of our entire being, to so cherish another, that you would give anything for their smile, their warm embrace, their tender regard.”

Odiul grimaced. This was as he should have expected; it was the way of these creatures, to build pedestals upon which to place those things that they never fully understood.

“Have you ever felt that you truly loved someone, Princess?” The slight shift in her gaze told the wizard what he needed to know. “Surely, then, you have known someone that professed true love for someone else?”

She replied, anger contorting her face, the skin darkening in a slight red hue – angered, likely, at being so easily understood. “Of course I have. Do I not exist? Have I not a father and mother? Are there not many such lovers in this kingdom?”

“Yes, Princess, it is as you have said. Your kingdom, with its gentle hills and vast plains, has slightly over twenty thousand landed citizens. Many of them are married; many of them have felt what they believe to be true love; many of them have sired children. And, for some of them, it may indeed be the truest of love; for many more, it is likely the after echoes of passion that flamed brightly and faded quickly.”

Odiul continued, his unrelenting voice bearing down upon the Princess, “but also, there are over eight thousand serfs. And it has been thus for generations – the numbers have changed as the years have gone by, but ever has it been that your citizenry has been divided. Your royal lineage has been unbroken for a great many years. And so, allow me to explain in a way that you might understand. Yes, it is true, there has been the occasional discontent. Parents who have had to watch their children starve; lovers that have had the light stolen from their lives.”

Odiul went on, “the seeds of discontent sown as effectively in these people as crops have been in your farmlands. Discontent that has grown, and discontent that has withered and died on the vine. For, here you are, Princess to the realm, with your Lord Father and Lady Mother. An uninterrupted royal family held up by the ignorant masses, unaware of their own power. You say to me that love is the strongest feeling? I tell you now that it is not. Raw hatred is the strongest emotion, and yet, even those who are subject to the direst of circumstances rarely ever taste the water upon the furthest shore of that darkest of desires. Raw hatred inspires the masses to revolt; to kill without reason; to burn everything around it to ash.”

“How do you think it is, that your royal family, with its royal treasury, and its royal burdenless lifestyle, still exists to this day? It is because, despite the tyranny that your family has imposed, people are ever slow to fall into true hatred. As I said before, again and again, discontent simply dies on the vine, or simmers without heat. Rarely, it may become something more. Rarely, it may spur the listless into action. But true hatred…” Odiul trailed off. It was difficult to put into words, beyond her – or any – comprehension.

The Princess did not understand this juxtaposition – before her, the most evil and ancient of Wizards, and he was reflecting on issues of injustice and fairness. It made no sense to her. Why was this mystic force here, now, and why was he reflecting on matters of such little concern to him? She growled, “what game are you playing at here, Wizard?”

Odiul turned away from the Princess, looking back over his shoulder. “I have thus cursed you Princess. You, your family, and your legacy. From this point forward, you are cursed. You will ever find true love. You shall be healthy and successful. Your family wealth shall grow and your people will sweep over the land. Your armies will be bloodthirsty and your enemies will fall upon their swords. You shall conquer lands one and all. And you shall know no death from mortal cause.”

“And the world shall finally learn to hate. To hate you; to hate your family; to hate your legacy; to hate that you have ever, and will ever, have all that they cannot; to know the truest flames of the most powerful hatred imaginable. They will finally rise up against you and, in so doing, will tear this world asunder. And in those moments, those dazzlingly bright moments before this world is forever destroyed, their truest hate will break this curse. And I will be waiting for you in the end, to savor the exquisite delight of your final breaths.”