First They Came for the Monuments...

...because nobody stood up for the monuments. Russo-imperialism just took down a monument to that dangerous, fire-breathing radical... Steve Jobs. Can't. Make. This. War-mongering. Insanity. Up.

Round 2 of Putinism's monstrous, evil colonial war is about to begin. About 10,000 Russian army soldiers have gathered during the ceasefire in a tiny sliver of Donbass, with hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces and heavy anti-air missile systems. They will be launching an offensive very, very soon against what the Russo-imperialists, completely drunk on their own imperial dementia, deride as a bunch of drum-beating African tribes -- the subhuman Ukro-menschen who must be exterminated for glorious rule of Oil Czar, Greatest of All Czars, Master of Pipelines Which Enrich Czar's Plutocrats.

43 million Ukrainians will resist tooth and nail, and when the shock troops are driven back, a full-scale Russian invasion will begin.

War is coming. It will be terrible and bloody.

It will end with the abysmal failure and fall of Eurasia's Bonaparte, just like France's far savvier and more cosmopolitan historical original. But I shudder to think of the price tag.

All I can say to ordinary Ukrainians is that we citizens of the democracies of the world (two-thirds of the world's population) as well as almost all the remaining citizens who live in transitional governments (because most have bitter memories of colonial invasions, and know exactly what you are fighting for) -- will support you. We will lobby our governments to provide you with the weapons and ammunition you need to defend yourselves, as well as the expertise and advice you need to help improve your democracy.

All I can say to ordinary Russian citizens is that there is no crime in refusing to carry out the orders of a criminal. The Ukrainians are your Slavic brothers and sisters, and killing them for the sake of an aging gangster's bruised ego is the most terrible sin.

There was a brief shining moment, during the annexation of Crimea, where things could have gone differently. The Ukrainians did not use force to stop the Russian invaders, but chose civil disobedience, the rule of law, and free and fair national elections. As is typical with autocratic regimes, Putinism learned the wrong lesson from its quick triumph, and assumed that the Ukrainians would never fight for their autonomy. The Russo-imperialists mistook $110 per barrel for an economic policy, and the imperial past for the postcolonial present.

Ironically, Putinism is now in a desperate race with time. In the short term, the Russian economy is going to melt, along with those formerly sky-high oil prices, which will stumble along at $70-$80 for the next few years. But in just three short years, solar grid parity will be here for 80% of the planet, and whatever else happens, the hydrocarbon age will come to an end.

Bye-bye, Eurasian petro-colonialisms. You will not be missed.