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Mike Hastie Photography & Words Posted on Facbook, by Jenika SharonGod, Guns, Bats, and Patriotism "I live in Portland, Oregon, where presently the state is suffering from the God, Guns, Bats, and Patriotism I live in Portland, Oregon, where presently the state is suffering from the worst wildfires in history. Eventually, these wildfires will be called what they really are: " Climate Fires." 500,000 Oregonians are on alert to evacuate. Whole towns have been completely destroyed. The city of Portland was so polluted from dark brown smoke yesterday that I had to hurry home after delivering lunches to the homeless in Old Town Portland. The poverty stricken people I gave lunches to earlier did not have that option. The toxic smoke was starting to affect my breathing, as I was getting anxious. Other than breathing tear gas at many demonstrations, I have never been in this kind of situation before where I was conscious of being enveloped in highly polluted air. I wanted to talk about something I experienced last week on Labor Day when I drove to Salem, Oregon. I decided to observe a Trump rally at the Oregon State Capitol Building. There were about three hundred hard-core Trump supporters who showed up. Many of them traveled there in pickup trucks with multiple Trump and American flags flying from the back. One flag had Trump's head on Sylvester Stallone's muscular body carrying a machine gun. On the flag was written in bold print: " No Man, No Woman, No Commie Can Stump Him." This is quite an aggressive statement about Trump, who had five military draft deferments to keep him out of the Viet Nam War. But, of course, all of this is down the memory hole for people who love him. Shortly after I got to the rally, at least 75 Trump supporters chased after a group of Black Lives Matter people who were across the street from the capitol building. Some of the BLM people were knocked to the ground, as Trump supporters were hitting them with their fists. Luckily, the Salem Police were there, so the fights were broken up. Two Trump supporters were arrested for assault. Many of the Trump supporters are members of either the " Proud Boys " or the " Patriot Prayer " group. A couple of weeks before, these two groups descended into downtown Portland and got into major fights with anti-fascists members. All kinds of weapons were used, except for guns with live ammunition, though one member of the " Proud Boys " pulled out a pistol and pointed it at several people dressed in all black. For some miraculous reason, this " Proud Boy " member did not pull the trigger. A picture of him pointing the pistol can be seen on the Internet. It is a very frightening image. A week after this happened, the " Proud Boys " and the " Patriot Prayer " group were back in Portland with a long caravan of pickup trucks driving through an area where the fights had been the week before. There were people in the back of the pickup trucks who were firing paintball guns at antifascist members. Some of the pickup trucks plowed into people who were wearing all black. That night a member of the " Proud Boys " was shot and killed at 3rd and Alder St., an area I know well from previous demonstrations. The person who shot and killed Aaron " Jay " Danielson was a self described member of Antifa, by the name of Michael Reinoehl from Portland. Six days later Michael Reinoehl was killed by the police in Lacey, Washington, which is located near Olympia, Washington. 30-40 rounds were fired at him by the police. The police said Michael Reinoehl was armed with a pistol. Some people say he did not have a gun, and that it was a police killing. Like so many things, the truth will be swept under the carpet. I mention all of this, because these events tie into my experience at the capital building in Salem. Mike Hastie Army Medic Viet Nam September 12, 2020 via S Brian Willson Portland, OR Demo 8-10-20, “A Cancer of Lies” Report by Mike Hastie, Army Medic, Viet Nam Me and John Wayne on Memorial Day When I look at that picture of me holding that John Wayne notebook, I realize just how far I have traveled in comprehending the unspeakable truth. Mike Hastie, Army Medic Viet Nam, May 25, 2020 Where there is truth, there is holy ground.
Demonstration in Portland, Oregon last night, June 5, 2020. They marched down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, then went across the Hawthorne Bridge. The energy of course was electrifying. Everyone finally gathered where the Blues Festival is held every year along the Willamette River, where speeches were given. The younger generation in the crowd were definitely catapulted into a realty that we saw in the 60s. There is where I saw the hope, in standing up to the Racist Virus all across America. The United States, which represents 4% of the world's population, has the most powerful Military Force ever known to mankind. What is wrong with this picture? Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the U.S. Government spending more money on military defense than on social programs across America. This is our government LOOTING its own people, especially the poor and working class. I help handout lunches to homeless encampments in Portland three days a week. I see the utter desperation on the faces of the forgotten, while their government continues to make millions of bombs and bullets to kill innocent people around the world. This is a massive sinkhole, and the swarming locust are coming home to America. This is what happens when profits come before people. I always tell young people who are thinking about going into the military to Google: "History of U.S. Military Interventions Around The World." It is country after country after country after country after country after country after country after country after country as far as the eye can see. Mike Hastie Army Medic Viet Nam June 6, 2020 "The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those who speak it." George Orwell
Yesterday I was driving in Portland, Oregon, when this homeless woman stepped in front of my car and just started to scream. I had my camera on the floor next to my legs, so I grabbed it real quick and took this picture. Being a photojournalist, I simply wanted proof of what I was witnessing. Sitting next to me was Brian Willson, who witnessed U.S. atrocities in Viet Nam. In the back seat was a Nicaraguan woman by the name of Ulda. She was visiting the U.S. for the first time. When she was a small child she remembers eating only banana roots, because her family didn't have food to eat because of the U.S. funded Ronald Reagan War. In the past two years, 200,000 people have moved to Portland from all over the country. Rents have gone sky high, just like other cities across the nation. Homelessness is an avalanche--tents popping up like wild flowers everywhere. Streets are littered with trash everywhere. Arguments on many street corners.You can feel the stress everywhere. Anyone reading my words knows exactly what I am talking about. In fact, I doubt if I could say anything in this post that people don't already know by heart. It's happening! You can't spend 50% of U.S. tax dollars on the violent military, without eventually turning this country into an economic war zone. So, Mike, what's your point? The world is finally getting even. Picture taken July 1, 2019 http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/hastie The Real Domino Theory Since the end of World War II, the U.S. Government has bombed 28 countries. These countries have become an ammo belt going into an M-60 machine gun. Short bursts over time, so it doesn't look like the U.S. is trying to take over the world over night. You don't want to pull the trigger non-stop, because that would give away America's cover. So, here we go again, with another country that America has deemed as a threat to our national security, our corporate interests, and the American way of life. If we don't stop ISIS in Syria, they will land on the Oregon Coast. When the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, approximately 3,000 citizens died. Americans were absolutely shocked, and the following month the U.S. Military started bombing Afghanistan. In March 2003, the U.S. Military started bombing Iraq again. Remember what Madeleine Albright said to Leslie Stahl about civilian deaths of Iraqi children on 60 Minutes on May 12, 1996? Google You Tube... During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Government conservatively murdered 3,000 innocent Vietnamese civilians every week. That's 12,000 every month. That's 144,000 every year. That's 1,152,000 civilians for the war, if we say the war lasted eight years. That is a very conservative estimate. Many people would triple that number. Many people would go beyond that. When I left Vietnam in 1971, American soldiers in my unit were shooting heroin, they were shooting fellow soldiers with their M-16s, and they were shooting themselves. Unzip a body bag and you see the madness. Mike Hastie Army Medic Vietnam September 13, 2014 Phillip Jones Griffiths, a famous combat photographer who covered the Vietnam War, had this to say about the discrepancy of Vietnamese killed versus Americans: " The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. is 150 yards long. It has the names of 58,000 American soldiers who were killed. If the same memorial was built for the Vietnamese that were killed, it would be 9 miles long." Photograph of a little girl at the " Wall " in Washington, D.C. Taken in September 1986 by Mike Hastie. Poetry by a close friend from Seattle, Washington. Obey
Living in America, If I can't do that, there is a selection
process waiting for me. Mike Hastie Army Medic Vietnam March 13, 2014
Always Cover Up The Madness
The United States Government did not
have concentration camps in Iraq.
The Pentagon did not need them.
They just killed 500,000 Iraqi children.
That's how you bring the enemy to the
peace table.
You just do the unbelievable.
Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
August 30, 2013
A U.S. Senate study acknowledged that by
1968, an estimated 300,000 Vietnamese
civilians had been killed or wounded in
free-fire zones.
Nick Turse
Kill Anything That Moves
Photo by Mike Hastie
An Khe, Vietnam
All American Limo Over There
There we are
There we are
Oh The Yanks are coming
The Yanks are coming
and it won't be over until
The Yanks completely control
the Middle East over there.
There we are
There we are
Oh The Yanks keep bombing
The Yanks keep bombing
and it won't be over until
The Yanks destroy innocent
people over there.
Now it's Syria
Now it's Syria
And the Yanks blame Assad for
using sarin gas
for using sarin gas
against his own people over there.
It's a lie
It's a lie
especially when The Yanks did nothing
when Hussein used poison gas against the
Iranians and the Kurds over there.
Or The Yanks spraying 19 million gallons of a
carcinogenic chemical called, "Agent Orange,"
on innocent people in Vietnam.
Or The Yanks using Depleted Uranium in Iraq
on innocent people over there.
The Yanks are lying
The Yanks are lying
And if the U.S. Government is not stopped
the world will be over over there.
Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
September 2, 2013
Photograph by Mike Hastie August 31, 2013
Portland, Oregon after a "Don't Attack Syria Rally."
Woman is wearing a shirt that reads:
W A R Wealthy Are Richer
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