And in the Darkness Bind Them

by: Rusty1776

Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 03:47:23 AM EDT

There are still orcs in every agency of the federal government, uruk-hai still infest the Pentagon and the NSA, Congress is still filled to the rafters with Wormtongues and there are still five Nazgul on the Supreme Court.  

I don't even want to talk about the Catfood Commission . . .

Nothing has changed in Mordor because Obama put the Ring of Power on his finger before Rick Warren even finished the Inaugural Invocation.  We've all seen the consequences.  The power of Mordor has not been broken, it hasn't even been seriously challenged.

Moria . . .

There is evil there that does not sleep.  

The Dwarves of Capitalism delved too greedily and too deep.  We know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum . . . shadow and flame . . .

The Shadow and Flame of Economic Collapse

There is no precedence for the panic and chaos that will occur.  The global food supply/demand picture has NEVER been so out of balance. The food crisis will rearrange economic, financial, and political order of the world, and those who aren't prepared will suffer terrible losses.  As the dollar loses most of its value, America's savings will be wiped out.  

The US service economy will disintegrate as consumer spending in real terms (ie: gold or other stable currencies) drops like a rock, bringing unemployment to levels exceeding the great depression. Public health services/programs will be cut back, as individuals will have no savings/credit/income to pay for medical care. Value of most investments will be wiped out.

The US debt markets will freeze again, this time permanently. There will be no buyers except at the most drastic of firesale prices, and inflation will wipe away value before credit markets have any chance at recovery. The panic will see the majority of derivatives end up worthless. Since global derivatives markets operate on the assumption of the continued stable value of the dollar and short term US debt, using derivatives to bet against the dollar is NOT a good idea. The panic will see the majority of derivatives end up worthless. The dollar's collapse will rob US consumers of all purchasing power, and any investment depend on US consumption will lose most of its value.

The Shadow and Flame of Catastrophic Climate Change

As the Arctic's sea-ice cover decreases, less and less sunlight will be reflected back into space. And as tundras heat up, more and more of their carbon dioxide and methane content will be released into the atmosphere. Thus each added ton of carbon will trigger greater rises in temperature as the years progress. The result will be massive ice cap melting and sea-level rises of several meters: enough to devastate most of the world's major cities.

The Shadow and Flame of Resource Wars

As famine, disease, and weather-related disasters strike due to abrupt climate change," a Pentagon report notes, "many countries' needs will exceed their carrying capacity"--that is, their ability to provide the minimum requirements for human survival.  This "will create a sense of desperation, which is likely to lead to offensive aggression" against countries with a greater stock of vital resources.

Thank you, Dwarves of Capitalism.  You've always believed Wall Street is a source of wealth to be mined.  But it's not a mine.  

It's a tomb.  

Can we win?  I don't know.  We're just hobbits from the Shire.  But we can do this much at least--we can walk right into Mordor on October 2nd, we can walk right into that dark land of orcs and uruk-hai and Wormtongues and Nazgul and bring the truth along with us.  We can call them what they are, we can call them all what they are, up to and including that grinning idiot with the Ring of Power on his finger and his head up his ass.

Some of us won't want to go, some of us don't have the money, some will say its a waste of time, and too many will be content to just clap louder for "Democrats", even if all we ever get from them is lower catfood prices.  They'll call it the Expanded Entitlements Act.  They'll have a big signing ceremony, high-five each other, and call it the greatest legislative achievement of all time.    

But many others will go, they'll go because we didn't vote for this.  We didn't knock on doors for this, we didn't volunteer and phone bank and contribute our last dollar just so Obama could put that Ring of Power on his finger instead of McCain.

By rights we shouldn't even be here.  But we are.  It's like in the great stories.  The ones that really mattered.  Full of darkness and danger, they were.  And sometimes you didn't want to know the end.  Because how could the end be happy?  How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?  

Folk in those stories had lots of chances to turn back, but they didn't.  They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.  Those were the stories that stayed with you.  That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.

What were they holding onto?

That there was some good in their world.  And it was worth fighting for.

There's some good in our world too . . .

And it's worth fighting for.  Economic justice is worth fighting for, middle class families are worth fighting for, seniors who worked hard all of their lives and just want their Social Security benefits are worth fighting for, the restoration of American democracy is worth worth fighting for.  Today.  Tomorrow.  On October 2nd within the walls of Mordor, and every day after that.

I see millions of people losing their jobs and their homes, while bankers and corporate criminals hoard trillions of dollars.  They won't lend.  They won't hire.   They're inflicting nationwide suffering while "Democrats" do nothing.  In the eyes of those who have been hit the hardest, I see nothing but despair.  Despair that even worse days lie ahead, despair that no one will care, that no one will help them.  

Well the time may finally come when the courage of progressives fails, when we forsake those who need our help and break all bonds of fellowship with them.  But it will not come this day, it will not come this year, we will not let it come.  A final hour of woes and shattered shields may lie ahead of us, but we will not forsake those who need our help.  Not on October 2nd, not on any other day, not as long as the heart of the one progressive is still beating.  

We're in a great story, full of darkness and danger.  We are the story, we will decide how it ends, we will decide if American democracy, the rule of law, and economic justice are restored.  It's our story, so let the truth be told in the heart of Mordor on October 2nd, let it be told every day on every progressive blog, until it rings out across this land and the walls of Mordor crumble.  

A Day of Reckoning is coming, the Lords of the Black Land will be summoned to answer for their crimes, they will be judged, and justice will be done upon them in the courtrooms of this reawakened country.  Until then, send them a message on October 2nd, send them a message from the jury, send them a message from the middle class, from the poor, from every American they've lied to, cheated, and betrayed.

If enough of us do that, if enough of us keep doing it, We the People will reclaim the power that's been stolen from us, and a New Age will begin . . .