Sanctions against North Korea are nothing new, not a big deal, and known to be ineffective. Even mainstream newspapers say this. I view them as a sign of Obama’s weakness and as propaganda. They show his weakness because they respond to the more extreme warmongers and fearmongers that inhabit the Senate, like John McCain. Obama makes moves like this to deflect and defuse criticism that he’s not doing enough against “enemies”. They are propaganda when someone like Treasury Secretary Lew makes statements like these:
“Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said in a statement that Washington had a ‘commitment to hold North Korea accountable for its destructive and destabilising conduct.’
“Lew said that even as a probe by the FBI continued ‘these steps underscore that we will employ a broad set of tools to defend U.S. businesses and citizens, and to respond to attempts to undermine our values or threaten the national security of the United States.'”
The prime emotional purpose of Washington’s propaganda is to KEEP FEAR ALIVE in Americans, so that they will accept the role of the state as their ardent defender. Behind every aggression of the state, from minimum wage to social security to Obamacare to drone warfare, there is the same method. Raise and exaggerate a fear so as to appear the knight on a white horse. The number of possible fears is large and the tendency of human beings to be fearful is enormous, starting with the fear of death. The desire of libertarians to reduce aggression faces the barrier of human fear. This barrier is continually renewed by Washington and by media.
6:14 am on January 3, 2015
