Former Secretary of State and presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Clinton believes economic sanctions – essentially an act of war – should be “tightened and widened.”

“I think Russia will pay a big price for this,” Clinton said. “But that is an endpoint that we’ve got to get to as peacefully as possible without seeing the total disintegration of Ukraine as a country with territorial integrity and opportunity to have the relationship it wants with the West.”

Approximately half of the population of Ukraine has expressed disapproval of the junta in Kyiv and believe the country should align itself with the Russian Federation, not the European Union.

The charts below, taken from survey results posted on Forbes, reveal the sharp divide in Ukraine by region:

Join NATO:

Are you ready to live through some economic difficulties now (e.g. higher tariffs and prices) if it makes your life better in long term?

Do you approve of disapprove of the job the Cabinet of Minister of Ukraine under Prime Minister Yatsenyuk is doing?

 Download excel file here

However, if we listen to Hillary and her successor, Secretary of State John Kerry, we come away with the idea that a plurality of Ukrainians want to join NATO, the EU, and oppose Russia. This misrepresentation of reality is echoed by the corporate media.

Clinton’s expanding and widening of sanctions will naturally include broad measures against Russia as a whole due to the fact limited action against Russian leaders so far have produced little tangible results. Only economy-wide sanctions will produce the effect Clinton and the ruling class want.

Clinton is calling for sanctions not only against the Russian people, but also against the American people.

“It is important to begin by understanding that, when one government initiates sanctions against another, it is actually doing little more than initiating force against its own people,” writes Chris Bassil. “Since the idea of a nation is itself an (admittedly useful) abstraction, and since all economic action takes place only at the level of the individual, it is helpful to view economic sanctions as a phenomenon in which a nation’s ruling or political class forcibly prevents its productive class from trading with the productive class of another nation. Although it should be obvious already that a description of sanctions as ‘peaceful,’ ‘diplomatic,’ and ‘the right thing to do’ is utterly absurd, there are even greater realizations to be had here.”

The establishment political class is cranking up the rhetoric as the ruling elite prepare for World War III. “The greatest immediate threat to the people of Ukraine realizing a better future is the external threat of Russia,” the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Corker, said on Wednesday.

Corker employed the Cold War tactic of a Red Bear menace threatening Europe. “The stakes are very high. This situation is not just about Ukraine; it’s also about other vulnerable places like Moldova and ultimately – if not addressed – other countries in Europe and the former Soviet Union,” he said.

On Thursday Obama employed a golf metaphor when he said new sanctions are in the works. He said additional sanctions are “teed up” following a warning earlier this week by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov that his country will respond if the junta in Kyiv rolls into eastern Ukraine and moves against pro-Russian citizens there.