Losing time

I woke up Saturday morning at about 5 AM, which is definitely pretty unusual for me.  I mean, it's not uncommon that I wake up early in the morning and need to go to the bathroom, but then I'm groggy, still mostly asleep, and don't have any trouble going back to sleep for a few more hours.  This time I woke up and felt quite awake, which I thought was pretty weird.  I stayed in bed and figured I would fall back to sleep this time too, but after about 90 minutes of rolling over a couple times and not sleeping soundly, I woke back up again with the distinct feeling that I was going to get sick.  Sure enough, I got up, went into the bathroom, and proceeded to throw up a few times, discharging into the toilet the remains of the apple, salad, crackers, cheese, and wine that had been the last things I had eaten the night before.  Coming 36 hours after the heavy meat meal I wrote about in my last post, with my concern that it wasn't good for me, my first thought was that I was right, and/or that something in that meal had caused a little food poisoning that was now causing the vomiting.  But the delay seemed longer than it should be for food poisoning, so I wondered if something in the tap water that I had washed the apple in the night before was the cause.  I went back to bed confused and surprised -- I mean, I've got a very strong stomach and never throw up!  I can remember only one two other times in my adult life I've done so, and the cause on those occasions was pretty obvious.  :)

It wasn't long before I was up again, wretching a few more times, and then one more episode almost to the point of dry heaves, all with some diarrhea mixed in.  After all that was done, my whole body was aching, I felt miserable, and could do nothing but lay back down in bed.  All day long I would sleep a bit, try to get up, feel like crap, couldn't think, didn't want to be awake (or alive!), so I'd lay back down for awhile to sleep a little more.  By the time night came, my system was nearly empty, I had no energy, I was feeling really hungry but no way wanted to eat anything (I started in on an apple, thinking it would be easy enough on my stomach, but that came back up pretty quickly), so I just stayed in bed and was able to sleep most of the way through the night.  For someone who most of the time has a hard time staying in bed for more than about seven hours at a time, the fact that I had been prone and sleeping for nearly 24 hours seemed kind of remarkable. 

By Sunday morning I was feeling a little better, the rest and a number of aspirin the day before having taken away most of the body ache.  Being a little more alert, I was remembering that Jack had the flu when we had dinner on Thursday, so it occurred to me that that was the source of what was happening to me.  Around midday I shot an email to Yungnane to inquire about Jack's symptoms, and learned that his wife had also come down with the flu, and that Yungnane himself on Saturday had had some vomiting and diarrhea as well, so deduced that that must be what was going on.  By evening, now about 40 hours without any food, totally famished, I walked over to 7-11 to buy some instant noodles, hoping that would take away the pangs and give me a little energy.  I finished about half the cup, felt a little better, and it stayed in my stomach, so that seemed to be a positive sign.  I got another 12 hours sleep that night, and woke up Monday morning feeling considerably better, if not entirely back to normal.

I was desperate for some food but not at all sure what to eat.  Fruit still seemed like the best choice, and since I had been able to drink some OJ even right away on Saturday, I was thinking liquid form would be good and what sounded most enticing was some kind of fruit smoothie.  Yungnane's assistant Charmaine had emailed me that morning to see if I needed anything, and I told her about my hope for a smoothie and she offered to either bring me one or come over and walk with me to a fruit stand to get one.  I felt good enough to go out and thought the fresh air would be good for me too, plus I figured it would be useful for the longer term to figure out how to get a smoothie at the fruit stand, so we went over there together and I got a tasty mix of bananas, strawberries, papaya, a little milk and honey that they blended up for me.  I also bought a little walnut bread at a nearby store where I'd bought bread and rolls on previous occasions, as well as a funky, jelly-like energy drink ("a special drink to supply carbohydrates equivalent to a rice ball," it said on the package!) at the 7-11 that I thought could be an easy source of some calories (haven't actually finished that yet -- not sure I will!). 

Communicating with Yungnane I learned that 2-3 days seemed to be the lifespan of the bug we had apparently contracted, so was optimistic that I was well on the way to being over it.  (He also said that 80 people around the country had died from this round of the flu, although Charmaine said these were mostly elderly folks and babies.)  By late Monday I was feeling better, although as I tried to imagine eating solid food, nothing yet sounded too good.  Still very hungry that night, I decided to go over to a nearby restaurant to order some noodles, since every time I tell someone I eat the instant noodles they tell me they're not good for me, so I decided to try some real ones instead.  I got halfway through the bowl and had to run upstairs to the bathroom where I threw up one more time.  I left the rest of the noodles sitting there and went back to my place, but now felt like that last vomit had removed the bug from my system completely, and pretty much felt back to normal.  I didn't stay up much longer, got a good night sleep, and felt fine Tuesday morning, ready to go to a meeting with Yungnane.  It was time to get back to work, since needless to say I had accomplished very little that was productive during the weekend I lost.

Of course, even during the worst of it on Saturday, and then over the next two days, I managed to get online and check news periodically to see what was happening in the world.  The stories coming across the wire were incredible, and despite my own anguish it was exciting to read about all the developments happening in hotspots around the world.  It's amazing to see that the populist uprising is spreading quickly -- from Tunisia and Egypt into Bahrain and Libya, with protests in Palestine and Yemen and Morocco, and now maybe beginning in Saudi Arabia, and strikes of various sorts going on in all sorts of other countries.  What's also remarkable is that the cabals in these places have decided to respond with force and violence and resistance, in the face of throngs of their citizens who have essentially mobilized in peace and simply expressed their collective desires.  But I guess it's really not all that remarkable that this has been their response.  The dark forces have only one arrow in their quiver, one tool in their shed, and that is through efforts to exert control.  It is in their nature to use violence, to cause pain, to put up resistance, to create chaos.  That's what they do, that is their essence.  Those with power in the world who use violence -- often, repeatedly, on a grand scale -- are the root of the dark forces as personified here on planet Earth.  Darkness works through fear, the primal instinct it naturally produces that leads to all other evils.  Look for those who chose to operate this way, and you will find the heart of darkness on the planet.

The leaders (I use the term loosely) in these countries have relied primarily on fear to keep their people under control, but now the people have had enough, they have overcome their fear and have stood up en masse to proclaim "no more!"   You can bet that TPTB in those countries now have their own fear to deal with, as they realize that ultimately and inevitably they will not be able to withstand the on-rush of the masses, knowing especially that the military personnel they hope will protect them are just as likely to join the citizenry instead.  I've loved seeing stories about soldiers refusing to shoot, pilots defecting to Malta, warship crews choosing to mutiny, diplomats resigning, and cabinet members proclaiming their alliance with the peoples' movement!  The leaders can't decide between running for their lives or sticking around in an effort to maintain control one more time.  Ben Ali high-tailed it out of Tunisia fairly quickly, and Mubarak put up a stoic delay before realizing he really had no option either.  Gaddafi, the crazy one, or maybe the only one with cajones, decides to stick around and fight awhile longer, saying he'd rather die as a martyr, now apparently ready to set his oil fields on fire.  (Ooh, price of gas is gonna go UUUPP!!  Of course, that's good for the oil companies, one of the dark's primary weapons.)  The folks in Bahrain also had a quick first reaction to use violent repression, and we'll see how that works out for them -- I'd say it's not lookin' good at the moment. 

These guys are pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place.  They only know one way to respond, yet their response is making the problem worse.  Every act of resistance on their parts adds fuel to the fire of the demand for change -- it just exposes their true nature now for the whole world to see.  How can anyone really expect to stay in power after they out themselves to the whole world as ruthless thugs indifferent to the humanity of the people they rule?  Nope, way too many of us now, way too few of them. The fire is spreading, and it's already out of control.  So they're all faced with the fight-or-flight choice that fear invariably confronts us with.  The longer they stick around, the more they apparently believe they can maintain control, or that they'd rather cause chaos then abdicate as Gaddafi is being reported as saying.  But just as darkness is all an illusion, simply the absence of light, they are deceiving themselves to think that they can withstand the power of the people!

The president of Iceland was facing his own little dilemma of a different sort and found a clever solution.  The parliament passed a bill (for a second time now) that would repay some of the big European banksters who had lost money when Iceland's economy collapsed.  But rather than signing the bill into law, he decided (again) to offer it as a referendum to the people.  The people there are very clear that they don't want the banksters to be repaid at their expense, so it is sure not to pass (93% voted against it last time).  He is wisely letting the voice of the people dictate this decision, probably knowing that if he passed the bill he would have his own uprising on his hands.  You can bet the banksters aren't happy about this, so now they're threatening to "downgrade" Iceland's credit ratings, i.e., raise their interest rates instead.  But I think this is another battle the bad guys have lost in this war, as the Icelandic people have made it clear they're not giving in.  I'm sure the dark would love to see that volcano blow as a little payback...

Obama's also got his own dilemma now -- Ray Davis -- that has him rather stuck in a situation he'd rather not be in.  So good ol' boy Ray gets arrested in Pakistan and charged with the murder of two Pakistanis, with him claiming they were trying to rob him and he killed them in self-defense.  The US government claims diplomatic immunity since he worked for the US embassy there, and has demanded that he be released and returned.  But now all sorts of information is coming out about Davis that is not telling a pretty story.  I can't vouch for what is and isn't true in all this, but the word out on the street is that Davis is a black-ops CIA agent, or maybe just a Blackwater (oh sorry, XE -- they changed their name so you won't know who they are) contractor, that the two guys he killed were Pakistani ISI agents who were following him because they were concerned about all his contacts with "the enemy," and that documents found in his possession indicated he was working to provide nuclear material and biological agents to the Taliban and/or Al-Qaeda.  If that is true, you can be damn sure that our intelligence folks don't want their intelligence folks subjecting him to the same kind of "enhanced interrogation" (a favorite tactic of the dark) they've gotten really good at during all these years of the "war on/for terror."  But there's no way that the Pakistani officials are gonna release him, 'cause they know that doing that will instigate a rebellion in their country.  The people there are gonna go NUTS if the Pakistan government lets him go, and the last thing the US government wants is any kind of major instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan.  So we'll see how hard Obama fights to get his spy back -- reports are they're considering some kind of rescue mission.  God, it's a real life Bond movie -- can't wait for the exciting finish!

The other "dilemma" -- although I guess it really wasn't -- that Obama faced recently was the UN Security Council vote on a resolution to define the settlements in Palestine as illegal.  Even though the administration supposedly opposes Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and even though the resolution was sponsored by 122 member nations and supported by the other 14 members of the Security Council, he instructed Ambassador Susan Rice to veto the resolution.  Rice admitted that, despite our opposition to the settlements, it was a "political" decision to veto the resolution.  So what exactly does THAT mean?!  I think it's code for they know they can't afford to piss off the so-called Jewish (read: Zionist) lobby that badly -- as it is, some of them are whining that he didn't come out strongly enough in support of Israel, sohow ballistic would they have gone had he actually vetoed it? 

This kind of hypocrisy, this two-faced "say one thing and do another" is just another sign that dark forces are operating.  Darkness avoids the truth, and is very skilled at the use of lies and deception to convince people of that which isn't.  The truth is that the Jewish lobby -- and it's "we must support Israel regardless of anything it ever does wrong" (can you say The Marmara?) attitude -- calls the shots on the Hill, and every politician knows that if they challenge that lobby in any significant way, it could be a career-ending move.  Very few are ever willing to do so, and so the US keeps doing whatever Israel wants us to do, including giving away billions of dollars of taxpayer money to poor little old Israel.  (It's not like we need it at home or anything.)  Anyway, at a time when a significant undertone of the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East is anger at the Zionist domination of the region, it is telling that Obama chose to veto the resolution and essentially add insult to injury at a time when the whole region is already as volatile as it's ever been.  More fuel, expect bigger fire.

The most precious story I read over the weekend -- a sublime example of American hypocrisy in this world of illusion and untruth -- was about a speech Hillary Clinton gave at George Washington University last week.  While she was lecturing about freedom and condemning governments that arrest protestors and don't allow free expression, ex-Army officer and CIA veteran Ray McGovern stood and turned his back to her and didn't say a word.  While Hillary kept right on talking -- didn't blink an eye, didn't skip a beat -- McGovern was removed from the audience by police and subsequently beaten up and left in jail.  Man, you just gotta love the irony!  I guess it's "do as I say, not as I do" for the Amerikan regime.  But of course, it's really been that way for awhile.  Only now it is becoming more and more obvious to more and more people. 

So finally,  finally!, Americans have started their very own domestic uprising, joining the global protest of the people vs. the power.  How exciting -- I mean, you GO cheeseheads!!  Geez, you win the Super Bowl and the reward is you get to start the fire burning for the rest of the US of A, getting large numbers of people off their asses and away from their TV sets to start some serious pushback against the bankster powers that are trying to squeeze more and more of your lifeblood onto their greedy little vampire tongues.  Tell me again why human beings should be expected to make sacrifices while governments funnel their money into bankster coffers?  Here again, it looks like the game may be over, the people have figured it out, the fraud is too apparent, the banksters have been exposed for the criminals they are, and the question is now out there in the public discourse (thanks Matt Taibbi, among others), "Why isn't Wall Street in jail?"  The dam has burst, the tide has turned, the jig is up, the cat is out of the bag -- pick your metaphor, it's looking like Americans are reaching their tipping point too, and are no longer willing to keep getting screwed by the ruling class.  One blogger has suggested that World War III has arrived, a class war of the people vs. the "corpocracy."  It will be interesting now to see how governments in the US respond if/as the numbers swell, the anger mounts, and the demands increase.  Gov. Walker is already acting pretty much like the tyrants in other parts of the world in his refusal to back down or respond to the voice of the people, and his threats to call out the National Guard if the protest goes too far.  The president of a police union in Wisconsin has said the police would "absolutely" use force against their fellow Americans if given the order to do so.  Yeah, I wonder how well that would go over?  Think that'll mellow 'em out?  How would that be any different than Mubarak, or Gaddafi, or any of those other guys?  I for one don't think the American public would put up with it, and if Gov. Walker orders his troops to start shooting people, he may soon be "running for his life" just like the rest of 'em.

There's really to way to know how all this is going to play out, and maybe I'm wrong about the power of the people and the strength of the dark cabal.  Maybe this global uprising is just a brush fire that will soon be extinguished, maybe the controllers will find some clever way to appease and pacify the people enough to be able to maintain control.  But I think not.  I still think we're approaching end game, the collapse of the old system to make way for something new and different.  It really feels like, while I was sleeping so much over the weekend, the people of the world actually woke up. Things are different now than they were last week, and I'm betting that the momentum that is palpable will just continue to build.  The powers-that-be should be running scared, as it looks now like their time is finally running out!