So this is just a quick, friendly reminder while all this Ukraine stuff is happening that the burden of proof is always on the party making the claim, and that any claim that has been presented without evidence may be dismissed without evidence. This applies to individuals, and it most certainly applies to untrustworthy governments as well.

Reading by Tim Foley.

What Has Been Asserted Without Evidence May Be Dismissed Without Evidence

Sources say the system's working great,
and the government is your friend.
Commerce is the same as freedom
and wealth is the same as happiness,
according to sources familiar with the matter.
Sources say you should hate the Russians,
and also you should hate the Chinese,
and also you should hate Iran,
and also you should hate anti-vaxxers,
and also you should hate disobedient podcasters,
and really just hate anyone but your owners.

Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, say we would never lie to you.
We've been speaking to you since you were young.
You can trust us with your mind.
If we were lying to everyone
everything would be a mess,
and the system would be a failure,
but it isn't,
so we can't be,
sources say,
sources say.
Sources say that you are finite,
and that a better world is impossible.
Sources say there is no magic coursing through your veins,
no miracles lurking in the great unknown,
no potentiality crackling within our species,
no leviathans swimming in our inner oceans, 
no dragons soaring through our mind's sky.
Sources say you are your body,
and you are your thoughts and your labels
and what you've been told you are since birth.
Sources say that small child's voice within you
whispering your primordial name
is a liar
and you should drown it in a bowl of Netflix and whiskey.
Sources say sources say sources say
look at this shiny thing over here,
look how interesting it is,
keep looking at this,
don't look within,
don't look without,
pay no attention to the gasping biosphere,
pay no attention to our nuclear Russian roulette,
pay no attention to that man starving from sanctions,
pay no attention to that man shivering on the street,
pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,
pay no attention to those angels in the attic,
pay no attention to the swelling music of the forgotten gods,
just look over here,
just stare at this vapid celebrity wankface nothingman,
look look,
he is doing a thing,
ha ha ha ha he is so interesting and so relevant to our present situation.
Sources say don't trust your own Sources.
Trust our sources; they are official and authorized.
The world is predictable and revolution impossible;
stomp down that light that's been emanating from your chest cave.
Your Source is a liar.
Your Source can't take care of you.
Your Source probably doesn't even own any aircraft carriers.

Our sources say no one else will ever love you.
Shut up and get back to work,
sources say.
Ignore your Source
and keep cranking that gear
for as long as your worthless body will let you,
and then get out of the way
and get into the hole
with the rest of the corpses
in our thriving corpse economy
on our spinning corpse planet
as we exterminate our way into paradise,
sources say.
______________________

______________________

______________________

Reading by Tim Foley.

Sources Say

The Associated Press has published yet another article based on unevidenced assertions by anonymous government officials about the scary horrifying frightening Russian menace, this time to accuse another media outlet of promoting propaganda. Without a trace of irony.

"U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies," AP reports. "The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia."

"The officials briefed The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence sources," AP adds, repeating the refrain we're all familiar with now which is always used to justify a complete absence of evidence or accountability for incendiary claims about governments the United States doesn't like.

Article with relevant hyperlinks: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/russian-propaganda-means-disputing

Reading by Tim Foley.

"Russian Propaganda" Means Disputing US Propaganda

It's not that the US elects incompetent leaders who make bad decisions that kill millions of people with warfare, it's that the global US empire is held together with military violence and the threat thereof. It's an intrinsically evil institution and you should always oppose it.

It's not that the US government has done evil, it's that the US government is itself evil. The very way it has set itself up to operate in the world necessarily means it must exert endless violence and oppression to keep populations functioning in its interests. That's evil.

The Mafia hasn't happened to make bad decisions throughout its history that resulted in the unfortunate demise of certain individuals, it's an institution explicitly set up to reap profits by exerting and threatening violent force. The US empire is exactly the same. Same evil.

It's not that the American people keep accidentally electing warmongering thugs, anymore than it's an accident that the Mafia is always led by men who are willing to bully and kill. The US empire is an intrinsically thuggish and violent institution, and needs that kind of leader.

The US empire is just a rich man's mafia. And you should want it gone for the exact same reason you don't want your neighborhood to be tyrannized by violent mobsters.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The US Empire Is Evil And You Should Want It To Fail

It's not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the US is pouring weapons into a foreign nation to defend freedom and democracy.

It's not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe serious military conflicts consist of Good Guys fighting Bad Guys like a children's cartoon show.

It's not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe a war is being fought between an evil monster who is the same as Hitler and a virtuous sexy comedian of surpassing bravery and wisdom.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It's Not Okay For Grown Adults To Think This Way About Ukraine

Samples used: https://freesound.org/s/403312/ by Marco Luzi (under CC BY 3.0) and some other CC0 public domain samples.  
**************************************************
More on this 536th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Metaphor Play (The Assignment: Take a favorite figure of speech as a creative prompt) — at: https://disquiet.com/0536/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0536-metaphor-play/

Blossom [ disquiet0536 ]

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters a new phase, former Swiss intelligence officer, senior United Nations official, and NATO advisor Jacques Baud analyzes the conflict and argues that the US and its allies are exploiting Ukraine in a longstanding campaign to bleed its Russian neighbor.   

Guest: Jacques Baud. Former intelligence officer with the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service who has served in a number of senior security and advisory positions at NATO, the United Nations, and with the Swiss military.   

Jacques Baud's article on the Ukraine war: https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/


Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to 'weaken Russia': fmr. NATO adviser

Ghost Structures

Transformateur destiné à utiliser les petites énergies gaspillées

These are some beats that developed from me playing around with loops and my piano on garageband :) DM if you want to use a song.

Rūnnīn <3

As a Nashville-born transplant to Rochester, New York, Taylor Wray has found short-form poetry to be the perfect antidote to the long, cold winters. Taylor is the author of two collections of haiku and senryū: WAITING FOR THE MOON and SINKING AND RESURFACING (both from Inspirebytes Omni Media).

For more of Taylor’s poetry, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @inthreelines, or visit https://linktr.ee/inthreelines.

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

Deadline: 31st August 2022

haiku by Taylor Wray https://linktr.ee/inthreelines.

picture by Jakub Kriz https://unsplash.com/@jakubkriz\

Dream light [naviarhaiku451 - first light]

I rarely listen to music in bed, because the struggle between my body wanting to shut off and my brain listening to interesting bits keeps me awake. So I wanted to dumb things down a it and use a long volume fade to drift away. 

I used a new generative base track for a session with Lucid Grain, thinned it out gradually, let it run in a very long delay (Augustus Loop) and then... zzzzzzzz.

Placideque Quiescas [disquiet563]

Readings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.