2135: THE END OF THE UNITED STATES

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(Excerpt of the personnal log of the Vice-Emperor of the United States of America, in audio form, as filed in the ship's log, Star Date 20356, in the first month of the year of Our Great Lord 2135, somewhere between Terra and Mars.)

Ah, there, now I have time to add a few notes on my log, in preparation to the speech I have to give, three days hence, at the National Congress Center in the three-domed main base of Washington-on-Mars, capital of the New American Republic.

I am happy to say that I was very busy in the last five days to complete ma documentation about the events leading to the inaugural feast and celebration that will happen in a few days. Now, I am ready to start writing the first part of my speech, But first, let's recapitulate the main features of that part, about the unfolding of everything that happenned in the last two centuries or so, and that explain the inauguration that I will be honored to preside.

Let's see, let's see, where to start? So much matter to cover and so few words to put it in.. It's difficult to digest, process and regurgitate such momentous things in a few sentences. But let's try, anyway. In the beginning was the word, some says, well, what could be the word that signal the beginning of the decline of the American Empire?

Maybe the word of god, our sometimes vengeful God, like His message to mankind, womankind and humankind, in 1945, with the setting of atomic hellfire above the city of Hiroshima, first, and above the city of Nagasaki, second. Yes, that's good, that's very good, I like it. Death from above, it sound appropriate. A bomb-message, to buy the life of possibly millions of Americans and Japanese soldiers, at the cost of the life of some hundred of thousands of Japanese civilians, men, women, and children. A Faustian bargain, some would say. An acceptable price, the more cynical would pretend. I never was sure about the whole thing, even though it was way before my time. What would Antigone have thought of that kind of alternative: Duty First or Family First?

Yes, let's start with 1945. It marked the apex of the American Century, aka the XXth century, that was followed by the Chinese Century, aka the XXIth century, and what may be prove to be either the Indian Century of the Africanians Century, in the course of this present XXIIth Century, something that will get more precise in the coming years, I will suppose.

1945 was followed by the Korean war, an indecisive conflict, and then by the Vietnam war, a very painful and traumatic event for our dear country. After that, came the critical time of Watergate, and the Crooked President Richard Mildiew Nixon, that brought the beginning of a great divide between the Senate and the People of Rome, I mean the governement and the citizenry of America, a growing rift that never healed properly. Then came the time of the Fall of the Twin Towers, and the Muslim wars that followed, accompanied at the same time by the gradual rise of our greatest nemesis, Red China, now the People's Republic of Great China, and it's Afro-Eurasian Sphere of Common Prosperity, an all-encompassing and mind-boggling three-continents wide economie empire and political alliance.

When the chinese threat became clear for all to see, just after the first mandate of the Great Satan, Donald Trump, aka the Abominable President, it was already too late. It was already not possible to avert what was to follow. We tried, with the help of our allies of the Anglosphere, the four british kingdoms, to intervene, but in vain, alas. A first conflict came when the Chicoms suddenly invaded the island of Formosa and when we had to go help our allies, and the whole thing evolved to be a catastrophe. In the end, China kept the island, it's then-too-long-gone Lost Province of Taiwan, and was glad to reintegrate it inside its social body, like a family recovering one of its children. As for us, to get back our one houndred thousands soldiers made prisonners, we had to gave up Guam and all the islands and chains of islands that used to be ours to the west of Hawaii.

Soon after, came the Second Chinese war, bigger than the other one, when Japan intervene on our behalf. It ended badly for us, again. Because Russia was a bit lukewarm in the whole thing, China asked for Outer Manchuria, and got it. It compensated Russia for that loss by giving it Hokkaido. China kept the Ryukus archipelago for itself, and all the other outer islands that used to be Japanese. As for us, we had to let go of what used to be the great State of Hawaii. Australia got the worse ot it. That british kingdom was invaded, and is now half settled by Chinese families. It is now a three-layered cake, with the Aboriginals in the desertic middle, a lot of Old Australians relegated to the borderlands around the center, and most ot the new Chinese population in the cities and the coastal areas. The other british kingdom of the Pacific Ocean, New-Zealand, a country more peaceful that the other one, it is true, got away from the carnage, but, still, its anglo-saxon portion of its citizenry is down now to around forty percent of the total population, concentrated mainly in the South Island, with asomewhat slight presence in the North Island, while the Maoris tribes have grown stronger and more numerous, complemented by hundreds of thousands of Polynesian that have comes to live there in the last centuries, from all around the Pacific.

Around that time, Great China grew to its present size, with the addition of the old soviet republics of Central Asia, Taiwan, the Ryukus, Mongolia, Hawaii, Singapore, the ex-vietnamese island of Poulo-Condore, and the northern Borneo coast (Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan, and Sabah), along with some small parts ot the Philippines (Palawan, Sulu, etc.). The worst was yet to come, for us, I must say. We were still quite rich, and strong, but more and more isolated, and politically weak. Our military was getting weaker and weaker, especially the US Navy, whose back was decisively broken in the great naval battles around Hawaii. The European Union was shifting its allegiances more and more toward China, as was Africa, and the Chinese bloc was growing in influence and getting stronger.

The worst was the financial situation, with the national budget out of control since the beginning of the XXIth century. I must say that the second and third presidential mandates of that fiendish evil, Trump-the-Mafia-Don, made things irreversible in that domain. Financial difficulties became worse and worse with time, so much so that, at one point, we had to sell Alaska back to the Russian Federation, with the exception of the panhandle. At the very end of the negociations, we were able to keep that area, and then sell it to the Kanatians, in order to provide them a better access to the Pacific Ocean. I must say that the inhabitants of that subartic republic were exemplary in their support, at that time, especially the english-speaking part of that population.

These days, the Kanatian Republic is strong and free, despite the change of its status, from british kingdom to post-Queen entity. Now, it is composed of the provinces of Western Canuckia, the République autonome du Québec, and the eastern canukian provinces. I must not forgot two more administrative units, Inuitia, in the north, recently augmented to the east by the adhesion of Greenland to the confederation, and the People's Republic of Vermont. That commie Bernie Sanders must be happy in his grave, at the thought of the Green Mountains boys being co-citizens with those socialistic-leaning Kanatians. Vermont, of course, is still the only communist-elected political body in the whole North American continent. So, as I said, it had decided, at that time, to join the harsh land of minus 40 degrees winters, and I hope it good will.

Our problems were not over, of course, and our debts grew still, instead of diminishing. We had to do something. But first, by a series of referendums, the Mexicans-Americans living in southern California, southern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and eastern Colorado had choosen  to become part of the Mexico-Central American federation, and we could not, as a true democray, refuse their wish to them, since they have become, and still are, a huge majority in these parts.

Around that time, the Mormon Church saw what was going on, all around it, and being not stupid, start pushing for a kingdom of its own, along the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Deseret, now, is the name of a new theocracy going from northen Arizona to Idaho, eastern Oregon, Nevada, and western Colorado, with its beating heart firmly in Utah. With the declining birthrate among the white population all over white America, Mormon settlers have been busy putting fields back in production in their new possessions, for some time, helped with the arrival of a growing numbers of old- and new-converts from all around the world.

At that point, people from Northern California, western Oregon and Washington, decided to struck a deal with Great China. Along with much-needed financial help and the establishment of a series of well-situated military bases, they created a kind of half autonomous, half independant entity, in the orbit of what had then become simply an Eurasian bloc, instead of a AfroEurasian one. Black Africans and people from India have chosen that moment to create links between them, and start to push back the surrounding chinese influence. I think Great China is now a bit afraid of their combined and growing political and military power.

Still, the European Union is on the side of China, protected by a buffer created by the intervening presence of Russia and the Iranian bloc, between them. The Euro-Union has become so strong that Scotland has joined it, followed by Greater Iberia, created by the addition of  the Irish Republic, Ulster, Wales, the isle of Man, and the two bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernesey. Seeing that, the people of New England, minus Vermont, of course, got the idea of joining that alliance too. always in exchange of money to pay their debts.

Then, everyting seemed to happen at the same time, slowly at first. New York and New Jersey start to be willing to join the Dutch-Flemish republic, part of the European Union, while Cuba and Puerto Rico choose to join Cuba and the Dominican republic, creating in that way a strong spanish-speaking power to the south-east of our continent. Meanwhile, the south-eastern part of what used to be the continguous states started to entertain the idea of a bi-racial entity going from Arkansas and Missouri to Georgia and Virginia. Again, the birthrate effect has now created consequences, here a growing majority for black people in that vast territory. Something new, these days, is emerging in New Dixie, as a result. An interesting footnote, is that southern Louisiana, under the name Acadiana, has detached from New Dixie and decided to sail on its own, with growing links with the Acadian population of Eastern Kanata and the aforesaid french-canadian-based République autonome.

In the High Plains area, something a bit similar was happening, with the growing emergence of a political agglomeration of many different Amerindian tribes, caused by the burgeoning Red Indian population, while the white population was growing thinner and even more more conservative. An odd mixture of Christian fondamentalism and Sioux spirituality is presently forming and spreading rapidly, over there, as a kind of glue between parties. I must add that, around the same time, Tennessee and Kentucky went their own way, with a Booneland confederation.

What's left of us, then, at the present time? My God, not much! A territory going from Minnesota to Pennsylvania, essentially, still independant, still calling itself America, but going from poor to poorer. So poor that it was decided, not very long ago, in fact , to finally sell the remnant of our once-proud coutnry to the United Koreans, against a huge sum of money and important informations about a new fuel, just discovered, that may open the doors to long range space travel.

Oh, I forgot to add that we're still a democracy, despite the terms Vice-Emperor and Emperor. It's simply that we sold the rights of the old names (President and Vice-President of the USA) to an entrepreneur willing to build a string of colonies on Mars. He screwed us and disappeared somewhere. We had to call on the Musk Group to bought the colonies, and prepared the Great Migration, the Star Trek, as we liked to call it, in order to start anew, with those willing to make the transition from Terra to Mars, on the First Frontier of space, which is to say the Moon and Mars. The Inner Frontier (Mercury and Venus) and the Outer Frontier (everything on the Solar System, from beyond Mars to the last piece of rock orbiting Sol) can't accept a large population, only small scientific, military and mining bases.

So we now want to start from scratch, in space. We already have about two millions persons on the southern hemisphere of Mars, even though Great China has thirty millions in the northern (mainly) and the southern (a bit less) hemispheres. Russia, Iran, India and the black African countries are there too. On the Moon, on the other hand, there is less room, and has not a great potential for terraformation. The European Union is there, as the Hisparno-American confederation. There's even s small string of bases from the Québécoisie autonome, sort of small francophones, mainly Franco-African, domed villages with funny names, like Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan-Béninois, Notre-Dame-de-Védoko, Saint-Cotonou-du-Lac-Nokoué, Les-Hautes-Mamelles-de-Savèh, etc. There's even one base-dome called Ganvié-en-Québec, despite the total absence of water. Right in the middle of these bases, there's a food stop called Restaurant Cadjehoun, with apparently the best poutines on the Moon, with fries made of yam instead of potatoes... You get the picture.

(...Ten-minutes interruption...)

I'm sorry, I had to go the the bathroom. So, where was I? Oh yes, the colonization ot Mars. So,  when we arrived, there will be the dedication ceremonies for the official cration of the new American Republic, now based on Mars. As for the old one, the terrestrial one, it's all gone, or in the process of going. It's sad, in a way, but then, such is life. It never stand still, life always go on, one way or the other.

Aniway, on Mars, I will cease to be Vice-Emperor of the USA and will become Emperor of the new American Space Republic. A bit like that guy Pakinawatik, in old Kanata, of whom I heard a few things, somehow, I'm not sure where. He led a little and forlorn Algonquin band on a trip, quite a long time ago, from the land of Two-Mountains to the land of the Garden-River, first by way of the Ottawa river, going west, then by way of the Gastineau river, going north, up to present-day Nouvelle-Jérusalem. He too, was Second chief of his small community, when the band started on its trek to its new land, and he too became First chief on its arrival. I feel some sense of similtude.

(...Fifteen minutes interruption in the recording...)

I was just inform by my crew that there's what seemed to be a derelict ship on orbit around Mars. We will investigate. It will take a few hours to approach, so I will finish reading the last novel of Jackie de Ripley, about strange adventures in outer space. Tales about life deep in space. Alien life, that is. Alien. Humm... Alien. Who knows... I'm sure it's nothing risky or dangerous. The rest ot this trip, this American trek, will surely be uneventul and boring, I'm sure of it. Quiet and nice. No problem at all.

I will sign out now, as the first Haitian and voodoo priest to attain such a high office as Vice-Emperor.

Monsieur Jacques Tibère de l'Église

- Current Vice-Emperor of the United Sated of America and future Emperor of New-America

- Captain of the starship USS Enterp..., euh, sorry, the USS Nostromo

(This recorded file, part of the personal log, stops here, and no additional material have been found.)

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