Mike's Story Part 14: Spinning Out of Control

By Jenna Orkin

   After leaving the US in rage, sealing the deal by writing his Burning Bridge article, Mike was forced to face the possibility that he'd made a mistake. Owning up to mistakes was not new to him.  AA had taught him that to do so was honorable so he apologized more frequently and fully than most people, whether for an editorial inaccuracy or an explosion of temper.

   But Venezuela was different.  He couldn't just slink back home with his tail between his legs, as anyone else might who was doing so out of public view.  He needed a  "valid" reason that his followers would accept.  (Actually, it was none of their business and being aware of that, they would have accepted anything.  It was his enemies who needed to be neutralized.  The prospect of their gleeful taunts in cyberspace was unacceptable.)

   One of his enormous gifts which should not be underestimated, much less belittled, was for PR.  Presidential candidate Ross Perot knew what he was doing when he hired Mike to manage his press campaign in LA.  Mike had an innate sense of how to spin a story; not lie, but simply present it as vividly as possible so the audience would be captivated.  This was the charisma factor and it's a large part of how he got as far as he did.  It wasn't just what he was saying (others may have borne the same message) but how he was saying it: Cutting to the heart of the issue; encompassing the length of world history and the breadth of world geography to reveal the contours of the big picture.  This is a vital ability if the average person is to understand your message.  A little P.T. Barnum helps the medicine go down.

   So when he complained of illness in Venezuela, I sensed this was to be the platform of his Mike-Ruppert-Returns campaign.  But it wouldn't be simple.  For Mike was like one of those people who don't allow themselves a vacation unless they're truly incapacitated.  Somehow they get into real accidents or have genuine breakdowns which allow them some respite.  (A friend of a friend said in wonderment, when she received a diagnosis of cancer, "I did this so I wouldn't have to move to Baltimore.")

   Thus, as usual, Mike was playing with fire - his health - driving himself to death’s door so he could leave Venezuela honorably.

Email to Mike undated:
 ...your foremost moral decision is to survive. aristotle  said the prerequisite to the good life is just life period ... the excellent is the enemy of the good... on airplanes they tell mothers to put the oxygen mask over your own mouth before you put one over your baby's. if your best (or even equal) shot at survival were the u.s., (i wish) and if someone made fun of you for it, fuck em. HAPPINESS PROMOTES LONG LIFE.   

Email to Mike undated:
   there's a bi-polar aspect to recent events, from chavez' potential new best friend to writer-in-self-imposed-strait-jacket-living-out-his-retirement-in-obscurity, a living-on-the-edge, 'the world loves me; it loves me not' aspect that's got to be wearing on the nerves. do you pace yourself? maybe that's what you're starting to do but i'm skeptical. it sounds more like balancing being on top of the world with being in the pits....  must it be the gold ring or nothing?

   But there was still another complication:  Evidence from his test results that he was being poisoned.

   [Note that the typos in the following emails are partly a result of his growing cataract.)

10-25-2006  Thanks to a referral from an well respected activist who served with Allende I got to a Cuban clinic today. What an amazing difference from US medicine. I was treated like a... human being. All tests done in one day but more are needed.    I will be filming a testimonial for Cuban film makers tomorrow... gladly. My friend Carlos and xxxx traded off babysitting for me all day. The kindness of the Cubans was just amazing. ¨You´re a human being? You´re sick?... Let us help.    Preliminary results:   Kindney stones in both kidneys. Not ready to pass yet.Heavy calcification of an enlarged prostate gland.Low blood pressure and hypoglycemia. (That´s right). I almost collapsed walking back from the clinic to the doc´s office. Heavy blood toxicity from known and unknown sources. There´s a lot of toxic backup from the calcification that may have affected a lot of things throughout my body.Elavated cholesterol and triglicerides.   I will be referred to a urologist tomorrow for discussion about how to treat the stones. (Please God, I have already had third degree burns and peritonitis. Can I miss passing kidney stones?) We still have to do a chest X Ray.    All treatment and prescriptions will be free of charge and an appointment for the worsening cataract. This is medcicine as it should  have always been. I start a massive cleansing and detox program with prescriptions and natural remedies. No cost.    I may be almost extinct in the US but I guess I am about to be famous in Cuba. Go figure.   The doc said, you have not been well for a while. We can see this.   Am saving all the paerwork for the day whenI write a story about it. Hopefully on FTW... 

10-27-2006   I am writing these detailed updates because I want an historical record, just in case.

Today didn´t go that well. Carlos took me to Bolivarian Univeristy for a chest x-ray. On the supercrowded morning subway my camera was stolen out of my backpack. I´ll live.

   After a not too long walk, maybe 3/4 mile to the clinic I nearly collapsed again. Walked thru the doors sweating like a stuck pig and it wasn´t that hot. The docs gave me 2 liters of dextrose IV for very low blood pressure (90/65) and put me on oxygen. They wouldn´t let me move for two hours. That threw everything else off. The chest X'-Ray showed some damage from smoking (I have had little else to do here) and I have agreed to taper off and quit. the Cuban doc says not to go cold turkey.

   Carlos Ruiz, my roomi and great angel is photographing my visits to clinics and some of the great Cuban medicos.

   There´s also something else wrong with my blood and they want more tests on Monday. There´s some kind of chemical thing they cannot identify. Only Ray Kohlman will remember the infamous ¨chemical toxicity of unknown etiology¨ from the Al Carone case. Too soon to tell. -- Search for that phrase onthe web site if interested. [A well-informed friend] has confirmed my burundanga experience and given me some much needed grounding there.

   I have a writing assignment for a prestigious local magazine.

   I will spend the weekend working on that, 

several things for FTW and resting.  

Mike's autobiography states: "I was poisoned twice. Once with a native drug called burundanga, the root drug of scopolamine and also – according to an intelligence source – with a form of methyl mercury, which was causing all of my glandular and lymph systems to shut down."