Final Word from Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Euro magazine wrote on its cover this week that "Mordor is attacking." The dark bloc of nationalist and pro-Russian parties is scraping its way to power, the magazine wrote. Because of its print deadline, Euro wasn't able to register the dramatic shift since last week. An updated Tolkien reference could be Smaug the dragon. He's the "most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm" from The Hobbit who is sitting on a pile of gold he stole 171 years earlier. Recapturing the treasure seems almost impossible because of the security precautions Smaug has taken, but Bilbo Baggins and his party of Dwarves find a soft spot. In the modern version of the tale, it's Blažek the Hobbit who finds the key to the gold. He gets inside Smaug's darknet lair through trickery and cunning but can't escape, because the walls fall down around him. He has his fingers on the gold and can admire it gratifyingly, but he's sentenced to never sharing its luster or abundance with anyone on the outside. He's in his own Mount Doom. [ Czech Republic Pavel justice minister J.R.R. Lord of the Rings bitcoin scandal ]