Mike Ruppert - his legacy

The main reason that I can be found to take issue with Mike's action that he is now going to be perpetually misunderstood - and interpreted.

The best tribute we can pay to Mike Ruppert, I believe, is to continue, as best we can, to continue in his footsteps.

To tell the truth as we know it and to look Reality in the eye without flinching

Thanks Jessy Re!

The Mike Ruppert I Knew...My Response to theVerge.com Article About Michael C. Ruppert -

by JessyRe

Collapse.net,

25 July, 2014

I would like to begin this response by saying that I did enjoy meeting with Matt Stroud when he visited Portland to interview Wesley Miller and me earlier this summer. I was burning inside to tell part of my story to someone, and gratefully eager to discuss anything that had to do with Mike at all. That said, I understand that the author did not have final say on what his editors at theVerge.com chose to leave in or out of the story. I also take some responsibility for any communication that was lacking on my part regarding the description of any details having to do with myself, as I was still heavily grieving and processing Mike’s death.

Aside from any personal clarifications, however, I found a lot of things unsettling about theVerge.com article. I found it to be, at the very least, an unfair representation of Mike and, at worst, what appears to be a deliberate smear against his reputation. The article takes a tone and direction that implies that Mike was a delusional, unstable, “doomer” who fabricated stories to fit his version of reality. This type of attitude towards Mike is the exact thing he was up against for so long; this is, in fact, was one of the very things that drove him at times to feelings of despair.

If you have, just once in your life, truly and deeply felt the uncomfortable emotion of really understanding the sheer magnitude of our present earth situation, or even just one little facet of it, then you can imagine the intensity that Mike felt from subjecting himself to it day after day, year after year, for nearly half of his lifetime. Couple that with co-existing in a world that is either ignorant of that truth, in denial of it, or flat out working against it. This left Mike with only a small but growing number of people who understood the complexity and depth of the trouble we are in. That in and of itself is isolating and takes immense bravery to challenge head on, as Mike did.

My disagreements with the article began with the subtitle, which read “…the notorious doomsayer finally found fame and recognition, then he shot himself”. Referring to Mike as a doomsayer diminishes his years of tireless efforts and contributions as an investigative journalist, author, public speaker, activist, and a whole host of other terms that more honorably represent his life long career in pursuing and revealing ‘the truth’ -- that capitalistic greed is killing the planet by using earth’s finite and rapidly dwindling resources to fuel an economy that is based on infinite growth - and that the monetary paradigm that is in place entraps us in that system. Calling him a “doomer” also flattens his very colorful personality, which could also be uplifting and inspiring and part of what drew people to him. Mike had a way of empowering those around him by helping us to see just how vital it is that we fight for what we love and stand up for what we believe in.

The second problem I have with the subtitle is that it suggests that Mike shot and killed himself as a direct result of his fame and recognition. While it is true that Mike was gaining more and more notoriety, he has been known in various circles for a long time. His name is, and has been, known by many long before the filming of Collapse. Collapse itself was filmed back in 2009, almost five years ago. Not entirely recent. Mike wrote a book upon which the movie Collapse was based, originally titled “A Presidential Energy Policy: Twenty-Five Points Addressing the Siamese Twins of Energy and Money,” and later re-edited and re-published as “Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World.”

The very first line in the article is inaccurate. Mike was not broke at the time of his death. Beginning the article with an explanation of how Mike asked for donations also felt unfair. Mike did very occasionally put out a call for help, but even when he did, he had more than earned it. I can’t speak for his previous years, but Mike lived modestly during the time I knew him in Colorado.

In discussing Mike’s relationship with Nordica Theodora D’Orsay, theVerge.com article appears to suggest that Mike merely concluded that she was a government plant after all the outlandish details he discovers about the situation. It should be pointed out that Mike was valedictorian of the police academy and graduated with honors from UCLA with a degree in Political Science. Mike was an incredibly smart human being, with no need to fabricate stories at the beginning of a career he had worked so hard for. Whether or not the facts were provable is another point to take note of. The article states that the US Department of Justice investigated the claims he had against Teddy, the CIA and the LAPD. Are we to blindly trust their findings and do we expect them to be truthful in exposing their fellow government organizations if he was correct in his accusations?

I feel it does injustice to refer to Crossing the Rubicon as a “cult hit”, when it is the blood sweat and tears of Michael C. Ruppert, who poured his heart into bringing truth to one of the most heinous crimes to take place on American soil in modern history. This book is a widely known masterpiece of dedicated hard work which is on the shelves of the Harvard Business Library. Mike didn’t just accept this challenge of investigating 9/11 because of mere interest or an attempt to create conspiracy - to him it was personal, as his ex-wife Mary was in a building across the street when the twin towers fell. When your loved one is at stake, you get to the bottom of the situation because you want to know who is responsible.

I find disfavor with the fact that the only things quoted by Mike’s friends are negative comments. I strongly doubt that interviews with either Jenna Orkin or Carolyn Baker - who were both friends and colleagues of Mike’s - failed to yield any positive comments about his life. So why quote only comments that slant his credibility? I find that to be biased.

The article suggests that Mike was moving into a sort of retirement and wanting to just play music and do his own thing. While Mike may have expressed the desire to step away from his work during times of intense pressure in his life, the reality was that his obsession for his work made any hiatus impossible. This is what I believe ultimately led to his suicide. Up until his death, he was still glued to the computer- reading, watching and learning all that he could, networking with everyone he could, and working his ass off to make change happen.

Mike didn’t really believe that we could necessarily forestall extinction either. Because he was a close follower of developments with climate collapse and Fukushima, a more accurate description would be that he felt we were on the line of ‘just in time’ and ‘too late’. There are already too many positive feedback loops in place. He did, however, believe that we were murdering our planet and that we should never give up the fight against that. He agreed with Guy McPherson that, unless there was an immediate drastic cessation of industrial civilization, there was little chance that earth could heal in time. In order to for that to happen, he believed that a complete change in human consciousness must occur to accept our responsibility, to shift our current paradigm, and to create one that would allow the earth to recover. If we couldn’t manage to do that or it was too late, we still had the chance to at least learn how to go out in peace.

I reject the statement made in quoting Cheri Roberts that Mike had gone into ‘full blown psychosis’ before his suicide. As a reporter I feel it is both unethical and in poor taste to attempt to give a medical diagnosis when she is not a doctor. I also feel it is inappropriate to make those speculations by comparison to her own mental health history. Furthermore, Cheri Roberts has never even met Michael Ruppert and only spoken to him very briefly by phone. The reality was that in the days before his death, he showed no signs of psychosis whatsoever, but rather the opposite. He made his decision calmly and clearly. Although I fully disagree with and am heartbroken by his choice, I truly believe that Mike knew what he was doing when he pulled the trigger.

While I could continue to refute the many injustices this article does to Mike’s reputation, I will end with this: Mike was much more than ’fun and cool’ to me. I drank in his intelligence and seemingly endless knowledge. I adored his quick wit and honest wisdom. And I stood in awe of his heart and soul that bore a warrior-like passion for wanting to rescue the planet and its people from a dire situation. I absolutely did not see him as someone who had ‘settled his scores and had served his purpose’! Mike was working hard up until his death. He knew that he would never be finished fulfilling his duties until his last breath. I didn’t simply see him ‘the way he wanted to be seen’ - I saw him and loved him for the brilliant and wonderful person that he WAS.

Read the original article The unbelievable life and death of Michael C. Ruppert