Sunday song

 

“The parasite has become the host” 😳

Nothing but the truth spoken here.  

It’s now known that the strikes kicked off just as Iran appeared to be making major concessions during the talks with the US, with announcements of a potential deal coming just hours prior. This has led to the logical conclusion that the attack was launched in order to kill the deal which appeared to be close to fruition. 

Our trip to Cambodia

 Gio visits Angkor Wat. I add photos to the album. Apple decides music and presentation. Music isn’t right but I don’t know how to change it. 🤣MB (two clicks may be necessary)

MB and I have just returned from six weeks in Cambodia where we visited my son Julian's family - we were excited to see his new son Giovanni (Gio). We came for his July 1 birth and returned to spend more time with the growing boy.

Walking Gio with mom Lai

 

We spent a couple weeks in Phnom Penh (capital city) before moving on to Angkor Wat near Siem Reap. That is the video at the top. 

Phnom Penh (PP) is a huge city with massive traffic and air pollution. Each of the three times I've come to PP there are more bigger expensive cars and trucks in the city. Someone here has lots of money while the vast majority of people appear to be the working folks riding scooters. We understand that many workers earn around $250 a month.

Siem Reap is much less crowded with less traffic and pollution. It's really an international tourist city due to its proximity to the amazing temples at Angkor Wat.

The mastermind behind Angkor Wat was King Suryavarman II, a ruler known for consolidating the empire’s territory and power. His reign (c. 1113–1150 CE) saw a surge in monumental architecture, with Angkor Wat serving as his personal state temple and eventual mausoleum. 

The vast religious complex comprises more than a thousand structures, and it is one of the great cultural wonders of the world. Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious shrine, covering some 400 acres (160 hectares), and marks the high point of Khmer architecture. All of the original religious motifs derived from Hinduism, and the temple was dedicated to the god Vishnu.

By the 14th century, the Khmer Empire was in decline, and a major religious transformation was underway. As Theravāda Buddhism spread across Southeast Asia, it gradually replaced Hinduism and Mahāyāna Buddhism as the dominant faith in Cambodia. Angkor Wat, though originally built as a Hindu shrine, was not abandoned instead, it was repurposed and absorbed into the new Buddhist religious landscape.

Over the centuries, Buddhist monks took residence in the temple, caring for the grounds and incorporating their own rituals. Hindu deities and bas-reliefs were retained, but Buddhist statues, stupas, and murals were added, reflecting a gentle yet profound religious evolution. Today, Angkor Wat functions primarily as a Buddhist pilgrimage site, visited by both monks and laypeople who offer prayers and perform ceremonies within its ancient corridors.

See much more on this rich history here 

We moved on from Siem Reap to an inland farm which is Lai's home town. There we spent time with her extended family for a couple days.  Their farm has fields of sugarcane, coconut and fruit trees. Gio was the star as everyone got in line to hold and play with him.

 Gio goes home to the farm

Over the course of our trip we had lots of opportunities to eat local foods and experience more of the culture. Everyone was so friendly and we learned that even when going out to a restaurant it was common for the staff to want to hold or even play with Gio. 

At this Mexican restaurant in PP a waitress took charge of Gio while we ate. 

Gio was emptying the napkin container

Before we arrived in Cambodia Julian's mom had also come over from the US. They visited Hanoi in Vietnam and there they also experienced people wanting to hold Gio. It's really a beautiful thing to witness - such loving cultures.  

It's tragic the way the US has long demonized other nations around the world. Sadly so many Americans never get to witness for themselves the other side of the story.

I did my best to keep up with posting on this blog during the trip. It has been frightening to see the development of the insane war threats from US-Israel against Iran on a daily basis. We had no idea if things would explode into a major disaster before we got home.

But yesterday (the day after we got home) we witnessed Trump vainly declaring war on Iran fulfilling the predictions that he would do so because Israel had the goods on him after years of his sexually molesting young girls. There must be some real bad stuff of Trump on those Epstein tapes for the so-called 'president' to take us into WW3.

I became an activist largely in order to protect the future generations. Now I see that Trump's 'war department' bombed three girls schools in Iran killing over 160 and likely more. 

Trump must be forced to resign immediately but most Democrats in Congress actually support this war. Our government is a war government. The American people must speak up in outrage. 

It was a great visit to Cambodia. We saw and learned so much. It reminded us how important family is to all of us.

Great spirit help us all.

Bruce  

               Gio's favorite thing to do. Knock these toy sculptures down!

Countries Bombed by the United States Since 1945 💣

The US and Israel are like two drunks sitting at the bar - always needing another drink. In the present case the US imperial war economy always needs another enemy and another war. That is what has long sustained this evil empire.

But those days are done and the pirates running the 'ship of state' in Washington know that their time in the sun is over. They are beyond desperate.

So they are rolling the dice and going full bore terrorist in hopes of scaring the world and forcing nations back onto their knees as was the case for the last 500 years of white western colonial control of the globe.

But it ain't going to work and Iran is helping to break the backs of these devils.

The massive killing of school girls in Iran by US bombing their three schools is evidence that the zionists monsters cannot win. I saw a short video of one father holding a piece of his daughter and crying and pleading to understand why she had to die.

She had to die, according to the chairman of the new Board of Peace, because Iran's leaders refused to take a knee before the zionist terrorists. Simple as that.

Most Americans are starting to come around on Palestine, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. The public is learning more about zionist 'plans' for Greater Israel. The US Ambassador to Israel told Tucker Carlson that it was fine for Israel to take control of the region. 

The arrogance is other worldly.

The US has killed millions around the world since the end of WW2 when Washington (run by the CIA) decided to play king of the mountain. It's been a bloodlust ever since.

And now we face the crucial moment. Will the world rise up to stop this futile but deadly US-Israel attempt to hang onto power? If we don't do so then we will all likely go down in a red hot flash.

And don't think that just getting rid of Trump by putting the weak complicit Democrats back in power will be a quick fix. It won't.

It's time to clean house of the tech boys, the pedophiles, the corporate agents in Washington - AIPAC, the military industrial complex lobby, Wall Street and the like.

Let's not allow these ugly pirates to destroy the world. Take the toys away from the boys now - before it is too late.

Bruce

1. China → 1945–1946

2. China → 1950–1953

3. North Korea → 1950–1953

4. Guatemala → 1954

5. Indonesia → 1958

6. Laos → 1964–1973

7. Vietnam → 1965–1973

8. Cambodia → 1969–1973

9. Lebanon → 1983–1984

10. Libya → 1986

11. Iran → 1987–1988

12. Nicaragua → 1980s

13. Iraq → 1991

14. Kuwait → 1991

15. Iraq → 1993

16. Somalia → 1993

17. Bosnia and Herzegovina → 1995

18. Iraq → 1996

19. Sudan → 1998

20. Afghanistan → 1998

21. Iraq → 1998

22. Yugoslavia / Serbia → 1999

23. Afghanistan → 2001–2021+

24. Pakistan → 2004–2018

25. Somalia → 2007+

26. Iraq → 2003–2011

27. Yemen → 2002+

28. Iraq → 2014+

29. Syria → 2014+

30. Libya → 2011

31. Yemen → 2024–2025

32. Iran → 2025

33. Somalia → 2025

34. Syria → 2025

35. Nigeria → 2025

36. Venezuela → 2026

37. Iran → 2026

Note: The list includes direct U.S. bombing, airstrikes, drone strikes, and missile attacks. NATO or coalition operations are included only when the United States played a primary or leading role.

Source: William Blum (Rogue State, Killing Hope), Maurer. ca US Bombing List, Wikispooks (US bombing campaigns), ACLED (2025), Al Jazeera, Reuters, Antiwar. com, Newsweek

US & Israel begin bombing Iran

'Board of Peace' launches its first war!

Iran is under attack in what will likely be a massive regional war that cannot be contained. 

Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at Tehran University and a former advisor to Iran's Nuclear Negotiation Team.

Marandi calls it the 'Epstein regime' undertaking this war.

It is obvious that Israel has the 'Trump team' fully under its control.

The first attack on Tehran was carried out with Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. ships in the Gulf of Oman.

Iran is striking. It’s clear that Iran is following on it’s promise of attacking regional allies or USA bases:  

• Al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar is under attack.
• The U.S. Naval Base in Bahrain was struck by Iranian ballistic missiles – several impacts.
• Explosions in Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates – Al Dafra Air Base hosting US troops.
• Iranian ballistic missiles target the U.S. base in Kuwait
• Jordan has been hit where U.S. bases warplanes
• Explosions in the Saudi capital Riyadh

Ansarallah (Houthis) joined with targeted missiles – unclear at the moment where and when but it looks like they’re aiming at the occupied city of Jaffa, called Tel Aviv. This was a joint attack with Iraqi Kataeb Hezbollah.

Israelis are sitting in shelters. The sirens have not stopped ringing in Israel.

Iran absorbed the first attacks and moved to counter.

the funnies (with bonus)

Necropolitics, defined as eliminating 'superfluous populations', must be exposed

There's a word for what we are watching. Political thinker Achille Mbembe calls it "Necropolitics" ... the tactics a state deploys to end certain populations with minimal resistance, reducing human beings to bare life, to bodies that exist only as tools for someone else's benefit. 

Within this framework, he names "Death Worlds": entire spaces dedicated to death, to the stripping of meaning from human existence.

In this video, Tokata Iron Eyes, spokesperson for the Lakota People's Law Project, breaks down Necropolitics and Death Worlds ... and why this framework is essential to understanding the intersections of everything happening right now: the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the systemic erasure of Native women and girls, children in ICE detention facilities writing letters to the world begging for help, and the Epstein files and the girls taken from war-torn countries and sold to the powerful.

The complete degradation of our quality of life is not a result of a lack of effort or hard work. It is the result of decisions made by very powerful people ... the billionaire class, political officials ... who have deemed certain bodies expendable.

Name what we are seeing. 

Postcard from New Orleans: Building resilient community

Thrift Store. Clinic. Roller Rink. Center Becomes ‘Radical’ Lifeline Amid Homelessness, Drug Crises.

By Aneri Pattani

New Orleans — From the outside, the abandoned Family Dollar store in the Lower 9th Ward looks intimidating. It’s covered in graffiti, with aluminum cans and trash dotting the parking lot. It sits on a street with other empty lots and decayed buildings — symbols of the lasting devastation this neighborhood, one of the city’s poorest, has endured since Hurricane Katrina.

But inside, the store is a welcoming oasis. Twinkly string lights adorn racks of donated clothing. Shelves and bins overflow with children’s books, allergy medications, and toiletries. Curtains cordon off one side of the room, where there’s a stage for musicians and a neon sign depicting roller skates for weekly free skate nights.

The space is part free thrift store, part over-the-counter pharmacy, part punk show venue — and wholly “a radical community center,” said Dan Bingler, who runs the place.

Bingler is a waiter and bartender in the city who founded a mutual-aid organization called the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective. He said the building owners allow him to use the space as long as he pays the water, electricity, and trash bills.

On Monday evenings, volunteers from other community organizations show up — some used to set up in the parking lot before Bingler opened the store. They offer free testing for sexually transmitted infections, basic medical care, hot meals, and sterile syringes and other supplies for people who use drugs.

The purpose of the space is simple, Bingler said: “We’re going to make sure we provide for the community.”

Although it’s been open for a few years now, the space has become even more crucial to this community in recent months, with the Trump administration slashing funding for many social service organizations and taking an aggressive approach to homelessness and drug use. In Washington, D.C., the administration has bulldozed tents to push people living on the street to leave the city. Nationally, it has called for people who use drugs to be forced into treatment. It has decried harm reduction — practices that public health experts say keep people who use drugs safe and alive but that critics say promote illegal drug use.

The community space in New Orleans — named the Fred Hampton Free Store after the famous Black Panther activist known for bringing together diverse groups to fight for social reforms — aims to be a haven among this sea of changes.

It doesn’t receive federal funding, state or local grants, or money from foundations, Bingler said. It’s simply neighbors helping neighbors, he said, tearing up and adding, “It’s a really beautiful thing to be able to share all this space.”

All items inside are provided by people or organizations in the community. Bingler said one time a local hotel undergoing renovations donated 50 flat-screen TVs.

On nights the store is open, often more than 100 people visit, Bingler said.

One fall evening, dozens of people browsed for free clothing and over-the-counter medications. Others sat on the grass outside, chatting while keeping an eye on their bicycles or grocery carts full of possessions.

James Beshears stopped by the harm reduction group in the parking lot to get sterile supplies he uses to inject heroin and fentanyl. He said he’d been in treatment for years but relapsed after his doctor moved away and he was referred to a clinic that charged $250 a day. Street drugs were cheaper than treatment, he said.

He wants to stop. But until he can find affordable care, places like the free store keep him going. Without it, he said, he’d have “one foot in the grave.”

Another man in the parking lot was waiting for the arrival of Aquil Bey, a paramedic and former Green Beret well known for helping people overcome obstacles to getting health care. As soon as the man spotted Bey’s black Jeep, he ran up.

“I’ve got stage 4 kidney disease,” the man said, adding that he was scheduled for treatments at a hospital but was struggling to get there.

“Do me a favor,” Bey said as he unloaded folding tables and medical equipment from his car. “When our team gets here, come and see us. Maybe we can get you transportation.”

Bey is the founder of Freestanding Communities, a volunteer-run organization that provides free basic medical care and referrals for people who are homeless, using drugs, or part of other vulnerable communities. The group has a steady presence at the free store.

That day, Bey and his team connected the man needing kidney disease treatment to reduced-cost transit programs. They also did blood pressure and blood sugar checks for anyone who wanted them, cleaned infected wounds, and called clinics to make appointments for patients without phones.

A man with a leg injury mentioned he was sleeping on the concrete floor of an abandoned naval base. Bey noticed the free store’s furniture section had a mattress. He and another volunteer hauled it out, strapped it to the top of a car, and delivered it to where the man was sleeping.

“We’re just trying to find all these barriers” that people face and “find ways to fix them,” Bey said.

The clinic at the free store helped Stephen Wiltz connect with addiction care. He grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and had been using drugs since he was 10.

Fed up with discrimination from doctors who blamed him for his addiction, Wiltz said, he was reluctant to go to any treatment facility. But after years of knowing the volunteers at the free store, he trusted them to point him in the right direction.

At 56, Wiltz was in sustained recovery for the first time in his life, he said during a phone interview.

Those volunteers “cared for people who didn’t have nobody to care for them,” he said.

As the sun went down that evening at the store, a punk band started setting up for a show across the room from the medical clinic. Lights dimmed and music blared — a reminder that this was not your everyday clinic or community center.

Bey continued consulting with a patient who had gout.

“I get used to the sound,” Bey said of the rapid drums and loud power chords. “I like it sometimes.”

Shut Down Drone Warfare Spring Action

Spring 2025 Action: Photo by Scott Thompson

April 5-11, 2026

Holloman Air Force Base, Southern New Mexico

(The largest drone training base in the U.S. - graduates 700+ drone operators & pilots annually)

Find out more here: www.ShutDownDroneWarfare.org

WHY JOIN US?

Military drones are one of the most essential tools of Imperialist Aggression and Oppression of the 21st Century.

US drones continue to terrorize communities globally, commit illegal targeted assassinations, violate inherent right to privacy, and kill and destroy from afar with impunity, from Gaza to Afghanistan, Iraq to Venezuela, Pakistan to Somalia.

US/Israeli Military Drones have been used to target and kill doctors, journalists, students, teachers, and thousands of women & children in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

U.S. Drones have murdered over 100 people on boats off the coast of Venezuela, alleged "drug smugglers.” Execution without trial? For possible drug smuggling. Really?

US drones have played a critical role in illegal regime changes, most recently in the unlawful abduction of the Venezuelan president, Nikolas Maduro and his wife.

The absolute lawlessness of the use of U.S. militarized drones began with George W. Bush, expanded under Presidents Obama and Biden and is now insanely out of control with President Trump.

Help us demand a world free from war by first demanding a world free from drone terror!

Support the self determination of the people of Palestine, Venezuela, Somalia, Sudan and people all around the world.

This spring Venezuela and Palestine will be highlighted in our daily vigil themes.

US Hands Off Venezuela, Palestine and EVERYWHERE!

Encourage GI Resistance to Illegal Orders,,... Just as some Congress members did!

Note: In 16 years of peaceful drone resistance at Creech AFB, Nevada, including dozens of blockades, activists have never spent more than one night in jail. In 3 years of drone resistance at Holloman AFB, NM, activists have only been detained and never taken to jail! We ARE on the right side of justice!

The Shut Down Drone Warfare Team,
Toby, Nick, Virginia, Scott, Bill, Greg, Charles, Fred, and Edwina

Special Invitation:

We would like a HUGE presence of Veterans to stand with us at Holloman this spring.

Veterans For Peace, About Face, and all others. We welcome your ideas! Please contact us!