Uncle Sam is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

Figuratively, and literally.

John Russell in 1853, in the run up to the Crimean War, quoted Nicholas I of Russia describing the Ottoman Empire as “a sick man — a very sick man”, a “man” who “has fallen into a state of decrepitude”, or a “sick man … gravely ill”.

By Bernard Partridge, 1915

America is the new Ottoman Empire; the sick man of the Americas. Like the Ottoman Empire in the medieval, renaissance, and early modern era, the United States used to be the dominant world power technologically , militarily, economically, culturally, and so on. Now though, we’ve begun to be passed up by other countries. Our healthcare and standard of living lags behind every major developed nation on earth. Business Insider projects that in 2020, China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy.¹

Only in two regards (3 regards if you count the USA leading the world in Coronavirus infections) can America be regarded as leading the world : The dominance of Silicon valley Big-tech, and our vast military empire, strangling the life out of any regime that dares to challenge American hegemony. But even in these areas, the cracks are beginning to show.

The unquestionable effect that social media has on our elections, the revelations that mega-corporations are logging our data for their own profit, and an ever growing distrust in the public towards companies like Facebook… the list goes on. Only a decade ago, Facebook was just a fun way to keep in touch with your family and play Farmville. Now its regarded as a boomer-hellscape, lorded over by Mark Zuckerberg, a technocratic psychopath so corrupt that even the US Senate investigated him. His behavior is so in-human that he has been characterized as a reptilian body snatcher, or an android. When in the company of the decrepit ghouls in congress, it is a remarkable achievement to somehow be the most robotically-callous ‘human being’ in the room.

In regards to the military. Just a decade ago, Barrack Obama was able to successfully manage the military industrial complex, and expand our endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan to Yemen, Niger, Syria, Libya and Somalia. Trump, as despicable as he may be, has proven to be totally inept in this respect. Throughout his administration, he has attempted to provoke regime change war in Venezuela (multiple times), the DPRK, Hong Kong, Syria and Iran. In all cases, America was left an embarrassed failure on the world diplomatic and military stage alike.

Like the Ottomans by the time of the First World War, we’re only regarded as a great power because of the prestige of our historical legacy. Has anyone ever seen the devastation from Katrina in N.O., that will never be rebuilt. Has anyone ever been to Detroit, or literally any part of the rust belt? We’re a nation on life support. The fact of the matter is that parts of America look, for all intents and purposes “third world”². And every day, more Americans are thrust into “third world” living standards.

Cuba is a supposed “second world state” (according to the Cold War definition), who’s economy has always faced extreme pressure historically. Whether it’s been imperial domination from the Spanish, the American colonial domination and embargo, or their reliance on the USSR. Cuba by no means has the worlds strongest economy. But despite the US’s state-sponsored-terrorism, biological warfare, invasion, embargo, and more than 600 failed assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, the Cuban People soldier on. Despite the “Special period” of the ‘90s, when the Cuban economy had to adapt itself to no longer having the support of the Soviet Union, the Cuban People soldier on. Despite every adversity its northern neighbor could throw at it, Cuba has a higher life expectancy rate, higher literacy rate and lower infant mortality rate than the USA. Cuban medicine is so prolific, they send doctors to dozens of countries in Africa and Latin America to serve the poor, free of charge. While the United States clings to a 250 year old constitution authored by slave-master aristocrats, Cuban democracy thrives in its adoption of a brand-new constitution in 2019, which all Cubans were able to vote on in a referendum. In the last two weeks alone, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment was nearly equivalent to the entire population of Cuba!

Everyone in Cuba has the guarantee of housing, free healthcare, free education, and food. Cuba consistently experiences the least economic and infrastructural damage from hurricanes in the entire Caribbean. They even tried to send us aid during Katrina but Bush refused it while people died.

I like to compare my trip to San Francisco with my trip to Cuba. In San Francisco, the technological epicenter of the predominant imperial power in the world, everywhere you look, you see vast sprawling seas of homeless tent camps. Heroin needles, garbage, human feces, and urine line the streets. I saw none of this in Cuba. Even in the poorest of poor neighborhoods. And I looked. I am not arguing that Cuba has a more powerful economy than the USA. But I know one thing for sure, I would rather be a poor man in Havana than in any major US city.

I think that we, as a species, but especially as Americans need to redefine what “economic prosperity” means, and I think we all need to prepare for a world where vast amounts of the population are thrust into third world living standards due to climate change. I’m not even making this argument in the sense of “capitalism vs communism”. I’m merely discussing the realpolitik aspect of Cuba as an island under siege and how it’s people have managed to do so much with so little. This success has more to do with Cuban patriotism than it does with socialism, if I’m being honest.

THE SICKNESS

Tuesday, March 30th saw a record 500 dead Americans in a single day. Wednesday, April 1st doubled this record with 1000 dead Americans in a single day, a daily death toll more than twice that of two of America’s most deadly illnesses — lung cancer and the flu

At the current rate, the USA will be essentially experiencing a 9/11-death toll every 72 hours for the foreseeable future. And that’s assuming that the deaths-per-day does not continue to increase as it has. So far, COVID-19 has killed more Americans than Pearl Harbor, Katrina and 9/11 combined. Low estimates from the White House project 200,000–240,000 deaths³ total when all is said and done. I think this is extremely wishful thinking. Virtually nothing has been done to slow the spread of the virus, and when it has, its been too late. Some states have instituted versions of mandatory lock-downs, but for as long as a single state refuses to adopt measures like this (and most have refused), it is the policy equivalent of having a section of the pool that you are allowed to pee in.

Plague Inc. IRL

Notice how the US government, state and federal, have waited weeks to even begin to take action to slow the spread of the virus. But when the stock market suffered its greatest single day drop in history, the Federal Reserve was able to IMMEDIATELY inject $1.5 trillion into the economy in order to “stabilize the economy”. This stabilization lasted just 15 minutes. They might as well have just lit $1.5 trillion on fire. Its impossible for our ape-brains to even rationalize numbers as high as the billions, let alone the TRILLIONS, but just for a frame of reference, with that $1.5 trillion, every single American could have gotten a check for $4,500. With this, the vicious cruelty of America is revealed with complete transparency. Wage-slaves like you and I are expendable. The Market is not. The ruling class would sacrifice all of us at the altar of capital, as long as the shareholders are satisfied.

Two months ago, the entire western media was lambasting China’s “authoritarian” over-reaction to the outbreak, and condemning the “human rights violations” of a mandatory quarantine. China’s containment policy has proven successful, people are returning to work, doctors are returning home, and life is returning to normal. Now that America leads the world in number of confirmed infections, it accuses China of under-reporting its number of cases and lying to the world. For the record, China invited a delegation from the World Health Organization to Wuhan on January 21st to raise the alarm on the severity of the crisis⁴. The same administration that until mid-March was calling the virus a hoax, has the nerve to accuse China of lying. To the western media, China was too authoritarian and failed to contain the outbreak, AND they were too reckless and have resorted to covering up the severity of the outbreak. They can’t have it both ways.

While New York City reports 1,000 deaths in a single day, while New York City Morgues are literally overflowing with dead bodies, while Rikers Island prisoners are being paid $6 an hour to dig mass graves, China takes its place as the leader of the world. The sun has begun to set on the American Century.

Most of this data is from the first 3 weeks of March only. It was difficult to find more recent data or articles because of the impossibility of reporting daily during such a monumental global crisis. As such, you can expect the Death tolls in Europe and ESPECIALLY America to rise rapidly by the time you’ve read this.

Sources:

1: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-economy-to-fall-behind-china-within-a-year-standard-chartered-says-2019-1

2: “Third world” in the colloquial sense, as opposed to the Cold War outlook on the term.

3: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/31/coronavirus-latest-news/

4: https://www.who.int/china/news/detail/22-01-2020-field-visit-wuhan-china-jan-2020