Empires never surrender: they rot; there is no empire without an end. We have the rare opportunity to see the American empire turn into scum while it still retains enormous military power. But that power is of no use to it. Gangrene advances and eats away at the body that suffers from it. The signs of gangrene are Trump, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Russell Vought, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and their numerous ilk. Empires reveal their decay in the corruption of their ruling elites, in the inevitable erosion of the ideas that once generated consensus around them, in the crises and brutalities their economies inflict on the dominated societies, and in an inescapable fate: he who grasps at too much, holds nothing… Empires vehemently yearn to encompass, always encompassing more and more territories, societies, and wealth.
The Roman Empire ended with massive inflation, ever-increasing military spending, and a pressing need for more, always more, slaves. This power was weakened by the political division between the Eastern and Western Empires; it was weakened by civil wars and palace intrigues for the throne. The Spanish Empire ended in financial bankruptcy, rampant inflation caused by the wealth plundered from the American colonies, and its self-serving participation in wars like the Thirty Years’ War, which drained its coffers. It was also a parasitic economy that avoided creating its own industries, relying instead on the endless plundering of gold and silver from the colonies; and in the end, the goose that laid the golden eggs was lost: the colonies gained their independence. The British Empire died, suffocated by two world wars that were its total bankruptcy, alongside the decolonization movements, including that of India. While the empire was drowning, the United States and the USSR emerged as new powers, both radically opposed to the old territorial colonialism of the British Empire. This empire never ceased in its attempt to encompass more and more; it came to dominate and govern nearly a quarter of the planet: a lunatic attempt for an exhausted little island.
There goes the American empire. With the death of the USSR, it believed it could achieve, through economic and financial instruments—such as the international structure that maintains the dollar—absolute dominion over the entire planet. It believed that with unparalleled armed forces it could subdue any insubordinate force. It thought that Hollywood ideology, plus its industrial imprint and its great capacity for innovation, would dominate forever. It was completely wrong.
Hollywood ideology is despised by increasingly broad segments of the population across all continents. The power of bombs, with their ships, submarines, planes, and all their paraphernalia, is on its way to becoming scrap metal. The first major example of this trend is its impotent war with Iran. The billion-dollar cost of American bombing is utterly useless. Its military budget only continues to increase and increasingly impact the internal debt.
Currencies are decisive elements in the formation of states. They are based on complex institutional and legal structures. The currencies of empires play a central role in international trade and, therefore, a prominent role in the geopolitical game. The pound sterling continued as the main international currency years after the geopolitical apogee of Great Britain. Something similar may happen with the dollar. The 1974 agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia, under which oil would be traded internationally only in dollars, lasted 50 years. That agreement created the superdollar, and the Arab world did not renew it. The dollar entered a period of weakening, exacerbated by international distrust in Treasury bonds, due to a US federal debt equivalent to 122.5 percent of GDP. Industry, which propelled the United States to become the world’s leading economy, is in freefall. The value added of manufacturing as a percentage of GDP has followed a secular decline. In the 1950s, it represented between 21 and 28 percent of GDP. Today, this proportion has fallen to 9.5 percent.
Meanwhile, China is growing and shining. More than a third of global manufacturing output originates in China. Numerous cities, gleaming with cleanliness and modernity, stand in stark contrast to the decay and filth of American cities. For example: Shenzhen is a first-rate manufacturing and technological innovation center; it boasts its Shenzhen North Railway and Subway Station, which has the amazing appearance of a space station; New York, the most important city in the United States, has a subway that reeks of shit and weed.
The United States, to revive its waning existence, is preparing to eradicate communism: it will find what doesn’t exist. Rubio has been assigned to hunt down leftists everywhere because they are the devil. Kaput.
Original article by José Blanco, La Jornada, July 14th, 2026.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.