War

Crimea declares independence from Ukraine, and Ukraine's chief of the Navy goes with it. Populism is great for America's rulers when serfs do what they want, but not when they don't.

For all of history, Russia has controlled Crimea. Kiev is considered the source of Russian culture. Until a week ago, all of Ukraine including Kiev and Crimea was aligned with Russia. Then the US initiated a coup. Suddenly, we're supposed to be scared that Crimea sides with Russia, and that Russian troops are defending Crimea. That doesn't scare me in the least.

"A day after Russia captured the Crimean Peninsula without firing a shot, fears grew in the Ukrainian capital and beyond that Russia might seek to expand its control by seizing other parts of eastern Ukraine."

Captured. That's funny.

Explanation of events in Ukraine and Crimea.

"While Western headline-writers are telling us Russian troops are moving into Ukraine, in reality they are moving into Crimea – which is not the same thing. While Crimea is officially an autonomous region formally within Ukraine, it has its own Parliament and, up until 1995, its own President. The majority of Crimeans are Russian-speakers, and they have voted repeatedly for close relations with Russia. "

Libertarians have a hard time with stuff like this. We hate votes because they are almost always acts of oppression.

"Crimea’s post-Soviet history is a rocky one. Unilaterally handed over to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 – in a move of dubious legality – Crimea was caught between Russia and Ukraine as the old USSR collapsed. In 1991, the Movement for a Republic of Crimea gathered 180,000 signatures on a petition calling for a popular referendum on Crimean independence, an informal "opinion poll" was held in which the modified demand for close relations with Russia passed overwhelmingly, and the elected Parliament adopted a resolution declaring Crimean sovereignty. "

It's not sovereignty of one, but it's smaller, so less illegitimate.

John Kerry sticks his foot in our mouths by warning Putin he can't just invade a country on false pretext. Upside-down world again.

Putin is unlikely to cave to western aggression, and he's called Kerry's bluff.

Eighty years of US aggression has set the world on fire.

"Geopolitically speaking, when it comes to war and the imperial principle, we may be in uncharted territory. Take a look around and you’ll see a world at the boiling point. From Ukraine to Syria, South Sudan to Thailand, Libya to Bosnia, Turkey to Venezuela, citizen protest (left and right) is sparking not just disorganization, but what looks like, to coin a word, de-organization at a global level. Increasingly, the unitary status of states, large and small, old and new, is being called into question. Civil war, violence, and internecine struggles of various sorts are visibly on the rise."

This is a bad thing for the people, but our rulers profit from it. The waning power of the US superpower would not be a bad thing if managed to benefit the American people, but our rulers never care about us.