Progressive Outcomes: Homeless death rate exceeds peak Vietnam War deaths

Unrelated ramblings of news and history

The Oregonian’s database of Vietnam Deaths totals 818 entries.

the years 1968-69 show the heaviest toll -- nearly 400 names -- for Oregon casualties. More than 3 million Americans served and more than 58,000 died, along with 3 million Vietnamese and 1.5 million Cambodians and Laotians.

Across the state in (at the time of writing) there have been 527 homeless deaths YTD from January to October 2023 according to the Oregon Health Authority. Meanwhile, the official report of just Multnomah County show 315 deaths in 2022, so we’ll likely cross 600+ homeless deaths across the state by years end.

Obviously a war of conscripted young men is pretty different than a bunch of junkies.

But why make the comparison? I think it’s an interesting way to help people contextualize these abstract numbers like 500 people a year dying. What does that compare to? What sort of urgency did we have to protect the lives of Americans when the Vietnam war was raging? Is there a homeless Tet Offensive that could change public opinion and help the public understand what is really going on?

I was born in the 1980’s, when I returned home from the GWOT all of my mentors were Vietnam vets. I really came to appreciate how divided our country became after the Vietnam conflict, how galvanizing the whole thing was. People living completely disconnected from reality. IMHO, this conflict broke our country and created the fractured political divide that we dealt with until Obama got elected. Now what party is the party of the War Hawks?

Warfare it’s self is an interesting ideological topic that a lot of people have a hard time grasping. The rhetoric for warfare has virtually never changed in all of human history: we’re in the right, we need to defend ourselves and our way of life. Dupes fall for it every time. Yet the reality is “War is a racket”.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

Anyways, homeless people are dying in unprecedented droves. And it’s obviously not going to slow down because the bumblefucks running everything still want to double down on the systems and ideology that got us here.

Everything is going according to the plan I guess. Applause for everyone, all around.

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On a unrelated topic, I’m reminded of the history of the Burnside Bridge. I was thinking what a goddamn sham this whole earthquake ready Burnside bridge is shaping up to be, especially the absolute horseshit 5-year closure (which we’re all supposed to believe is NOT the byproduct of the city’s overt anti-car ideology, but our devote appreciation for Salmon). I’m putting $1 that “delays” will keep this bridge closed for as long as possible, all the while the City will circlejerk about restarting downtown Portland’s business economy.

Wikipedia does a concise job explaining the colorful history of the bridge’s original construction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_Bridge

The replacement was part of a $4.5 million bond that also included the construction of the Ross Island and Sellwood bridges. The public would later learn that the 1924 contract was given for $500,000 more than the lowest bid. Having moved the bridge location to profit by selling their land, three Multnomah County commissioners were recalled as a result of the scandal, and a new engineering company assumed control of the project. The Ku Klux Klan had backed the commissioners and enabled their system of kickbacks and grafts; the ensuing "rotten bridge scandal" removed much of their clout even by 1924.

The Klan in Oregon is easily one of the most misunderstood political movements in Oregon history. Ben Bruce’s paper The Rise and Fall of The Ku Klux Klan in Oregon During the 1920s is an absolutely fascinating read because it turns out the Oregon Klan really had nothing at all to do with the Klan in the East which was HQ’d in Atlanta - it was basically a local ponzi scheme, they even went out of their way to avoid bigotry.

On December 22, 1921, local pastor and Klan organizer, Rueben H. Sawyer, gave a speech entitled “The Truth About the Ku Klux Klan” at the Portland Municipal Auditorium in front of 6,000 people, including the mayor of Portland, George L. Baker. Local and state papers advertised the speech as the new Klan’s official introduction to the people of Oregon. To begin his lecture, Sawyer accused the American news media of gravely misrepresenting the Klan as “a wild dangerous mob, committing deeds of violence and lawlessness.” Sawyer assured the crowd that the Klan was truly “an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, Justice, and Patriotism.” Law-abiding citizens would be respected, “irrespective of race, religion or color so long as they make an honest effort to be Americans, and Americans only.”

In another section of his lecture titled “What of the Jew?” Sawyer insisted that the Klan did not consider all Jews enemies, only those that rejected Jesus as their teacher or sought to maintain a “government within our government.”

…. Sawyer insisted that, like Jews or Catholics, “law abiding Negros” had nothing to fear. In fact, according to Sawyer, some Negroes looked to the Klan for protection from “the lawless element of their own race.”

As the paper outlines, the Oregon-based Klan explicitly tried to not appear racist against Jewish communities or Black folks. All of this was just a public ruse of course, this group was willing to say or do whatever it needed to for the organizers to enrich themselves. If in the path of enriching yourself the “law abiding Negros” wanted to give money to the Klan, the Klan wouldn’t say no.

For the Klan their numbers were relatively small at their peak, 15,000 in Portland, 35,000 across the state.

But a secret society of people focused on enriching themselves enables all sorts of graft and corruption.

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When I look at our homeless strategy, our transportation strategy, hell even just our public school spending - it really does feel like there’s a tiny cabal of corrupt interests still running the City, County, and State. Saying whatever is necessary to enrich themselves.

Which reminds me, the corrupt “Klan Governor” of Oregon, Walter Pierce was a Progressive. Yeah, as Oregon History Project describes:

Pierce espoused progressive beliefs, meaning that he supported government reform, women’s suffrage, labor unions, prison reform, and prohibition.

We had progressives doing civic projects back in the 1920’s, we’ve got progressives running homeless policies in 2023.

Looking at the results, it’s hard to tell these groups apart.

Well, on the positive side, I understand the Feds will be poking around some of Oregon’s top leadership, chasing down leads on the whole Fagan ordeal, looking for tips on if the profits from the illicit interstate trafficking of marijuana have been used to provide envelopes of cash for political bribes. Everyone with their head screwed on knows that corruption is rampant in Portland, Multnomah, and Oregon politics - we’ll see what hard evidence the Feds can find. If I was in Fagan or Cazares’s situation I’d immediately offer to go state’s witness and offer the biggest fish, the most Progressive, Governor Kotek herself. Lord knows she’s dirty as fuck, and for an FBI/DOJ/IRS investigator you’ll certainly get that promotion if you knock down a Governor.