American Strategic Deception Bureau

　With the rapid collapse of the housing system, state legislatures swiftly convened to legislate the new crime of "vagrancy," requiring police to chain homeless people together and drag them to farms like slaves for forced labor. However, the police, also underpaid, were less enthusiastic about this unprofitable work. Consequently, homeless tent villages in major cities continued to grow and expand at an alarming rate, like mushrooms after rain.

　Of course, there are many more losers who simply cannot endure such a painful life and would rather choose to end their own lives...

　-

　Los Angeles, Pasadena

　The weather in Los Angeles in April was already very hot. Even at night, the evening breeze was barely cool enough to cool down.

　But for many unfortunate people in this city, they feel like they are in an ice cellar, cold from the soles of their feet to their bones.

　"Jump! Jump! Coward! Jump!"

　"Leaving this filthy world and ending this failed life is such a wonderful thing! Why are you still hesitating?"

　"Jump! How long have you been standing on the roof? You've been dawdling for so long. How much of my time have you wasted?"

　"Hurry up and jump! Can't you see there's someone lined up behind you? Only if you jump can he jump!"

　"If you don't want to jump, get out of the way. There's someone waiting for you behind you!"

　Fili sat in an outdoor cafe on the street, grinning foolishly at the overweight man on the rooftop across the street who had climbed over the railing and was hesitating on the edge of the rooftop. The man wore glasses and was well-dressed, but his face was as grim as a corpse. He looked like someone who had failed in investment and was burdened with debt, otherwise he wouldn't be standing there. However, when he actually stood on the rooftop, for some reason, he suddenly became timid and didn't dare to jump.

　How can this be possible? There are so many people on the street waiting to see you perform a free fall!

　Everyone craned their necks to look at you, and their necks became sore!

　As a result, not only did the bloodthirsty spectators downstairs who were craning their necks to watch the excitement curse and sneer at him unhappily, but even another thin man on the rooftop who was about to jump off the building became a little impatient and even went to the edge of the roof and pushed him.

　Immediately afterwards, accompanied by a "bang" sound, the fat man on the rooftop was kicked down by the thin man and fell to the middle of the street.

　Then, the thin man let out a sad and desolate laugh, and jumped down from the roof, knocking over a newsstand on the street. Then, he slid along the canvas roof of the newsstand and slid into the women's clothing store next to it, his body covered in blood, causing the female clerks and customers to scream.

　Well, by the way, no matter whether it was a fat person or a thin person, they did not die immediately after jumping off the building.

　After his trapeze act, the fat man lay bloodied on the street, howling in agony, likely from a broken spine. The thin man, after falling into the women's clothing store, barely wailed before a gunshot rang out. Immediately, two pale-faced female employees dragged the thin man's body out and dumped it on the street. Then, weeping and retching, they wiped the blood-spattered glass windows...

　Oh, even death will cause trouble to others.

　In view of this, Fili gave both of them a failing grade for their jumping posture, and lamented: "They are both idiots. They didn't even know to find a higher place to jump! Jumping from the fourth floor roof like this is not going to kill you!"

　At this moment, a sharp cry of "Woo-wah, woo-wah" suddenly came from not far away.

　Immediately afterwards, several red fire trucks rushed past the street with sirens blaring.

　Where did the fire start?

　Fili stood up curiously, looking in the direction the fire truck was heading. He saw a high-end apartment building a few hundred meters away, already billowing with black smoke. Orange flames engulfed the entire top floor, and sirens wailed piercingly. As firefighters dragged hoses up the stairs, the fire scene was crowded with onlookers. From time to time, residents rushed out of the building, rescued by firefighters, and stood in the street, stunned.

　Next, a gust of wind blew from the direction of the burning apartment, accompanied by a pungent smell, which made it almost impossible for Fili to open his eyes.

　He had no choice but to take out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose, coughing a few times, then turned around and sat down in a corner where he would not be affected by the smoke.

　"Ahem, could it be some unlucky idiot who's in huge debt after a failed investment set the house on fire? Such a lack of public morality!"

　While complaining like this, Fili looked at the fat man in the middle of the road who had failed to jump from the building and was unwilling to die... Well, he finally stopped wailing now. He must have bled to death and lost consciousness, right?

　However, just as he was drinking coffee and admiring the chaos on the street, a voice with a reproachful tone sounded from beside him.

　"Mr. Director, you really gave me a hard time looking for you! Today is not a day off! It's a workday!"

　Colonel Alexander Haig, Deputy Director of the Strategic Deception Bureau, stood beside Firi with a grim expression and said, "You didn't even tell us and just hid here drinking coffee and lazing around. Isn't that outrageous?"

　What other jobs are available? Where can I find work?

　At a small round table in an open-air cafe, Major General Ferry King, the first director of the Strategic Deception Bureau, looked up at the dusty and sullen-faced Deputy Director, Colonel Alexander Haig, smiled bitterly, sighed, put down his coffee cup, and retorted bluntly, "

　How many documents and files from the bureau were salvaged from the fire? The phone and fax machine must have been destroyed, right? What would we do if we went back now? Stay in the rubble while the police investigate? Or be hounded for compensation by the owner of the Planet Cafe downstairs?

　After hearing Fili's complaints, Colonel Haig's face darkened. After a long silence, he muttered in a muffled voice, "But even so, what can you do here? Is it really that fun to watch people commit suicide by jumping off buildings or setting themselves on fire?"

　"Of course it's interesting, Colonel Haig. In the past, in western towns, if you wanted to see criminals being hanged on the gallows, you had to pay!

　Witnessing such a horrific death scene with my own eyes can at least remind me to never end up in such a miserable state.

　Even if it is suicide, it is better to do it in a decent way and not cause trouble to others. Look at this guy, he died in such an undignified way! "

　Fili pointed at the guy in the middle of the street who'd jumped from a building in the wrong spot, only to lose half his life after landing because he jumped too low. The fat man, now lying in a pool of blood and wailing again, curled his lips and then looked at the apartment building in the distance, smoking and burning. "Besides, sitting on the street and watching someone else's house burn is much better than watching your own office burn and laughing foolishly, right?"

　He winked at Colonel Haig and said this, choking Colonel Haig so much that he was speechless for a moment.

　——The reason why Firi stayed on the street and didn't go to work was because he had no place to work at the moment: the Strategic Deception Bureau and the Federal Space Force Command had just been set on fire by the adjutant of Deputy Director Colonel Alexander Haig last night, and burned down along with him.

　Well, just like the countless bankrupt unlucky people who are now flooding across the United States, Colonel Haig, an adjutant with insufficient financial knowledge, was deceived by an investment manager. His personal financial investment was liquidated and he owed the bank a huge sum of more than one million US dollars!

　What's even more terrifying is that he discovered that his wife had secretly borrowed money from the underworld before, and then lost all her money in stock speculation!

　If nothing unexpected happens, she will probably be lying down and selling her body in underground bars or secret clubs soon!

　Under such heavy debt, the adjutant, who was not mentally strong enough, immediately suffered a mental breakdown and decided to leave this miserable world.

　Uh, why did he go to his workplace, the Strategic Deception Bureau, and set himself on fire instead of killing himself in his rented apartment?

　It was simple: his landlord had beaten him to it. Before the lieutenant could make up his mind to commit suicide, his landlord had already doused the house with gasoline, set the entire apartment on fire with cigar smoke, and committed suicide. His suicide note read: This is the house his grandfather passed down to him. He had lived here all his life. He would rather burn it to ashes than let a greedy banker vampire take it away!

　It has to be said that although the wind fanned the flames, causing half of the street to burn down in one go, the landlord's last wish was at least fulfilled.

　He succeeded in having his property buried with him—and in doing so, he also burned the belongings of dozens of his tenants, including the adjutant.

　Just like that, because the rented house had been burned down by the landlord, the adjutant had to return to the Strategic Deception Bureau. He first found his colleague who was on night shift that day, and with some sweet talk and pretending to be pitiful, he said that his house had been burned down and he had nowhere to go for a while, and successfully exchanged positions with his colleague.

　Then, while the other night watchmen had gone out to the bar or sleep, leaving him alone in the bureau, he stole gasoline from the backyard parking lot, doused the rooms in the bureau with gasoline, and then set them on fire.

　By the time someone nearby saw the Strategic Deception Bureau engulfed in flames, it was too late!

　Because the lieutenant set the fire late at night, nearing dawn, and the Los Angeles Fire Department was late arriving, the fire at the Strategic Deception Bureau continued to burn until the morning shift arrived. Director Fieri and Deputy Director Haig, escorted by several agents, were on their way to work from the hotel where they were staying during their classified mission. Some passersby, noticing the excitement, even watched the fire from afar with great interest.

　It was not until he took a closer look that Colonel Haig realized that it was his own office that was on fire...

　Now, not only was the Strategic Deception Bureau, which also served as the Space Force Headquarters, completely gutted, leaving almost nothing behind, but the Planet Café, located on the ground floor below the Strategic Deception Bureau, was also reduced to a smoking ruin by the fire from above.

　The chubby German owner of the "Planet" Cafe, after discovering that his cafe had burned down, threw a tantrum and demanded a huge amount of compensation from the two directors. He even wanted a million dollars!

　In response to this, Ferry immediately ran away irresponsibly, leaving all the troubles in the bureau to Deputy Director Haig. He then leisurely sat in an open-air cafe across the street, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper while watching people jump off buildings and scoring their aerial acrobatic moves.

　Well, by the way

　He used the mini magic crystal ball hanging around his neck to have a "magic chat" with Marita who was far away in the San Fernando Valley.

　Deputy Chief Colonel Haig was harassed by the fire department and the café owner, and argued with the landlady who had rushed over after hearing the news for a while before he barely managed to get away. But when he turned around and saw Fili leisurely sipping coffee here, he was naturally furious.

　But then, after listening to Ferry's sophistry, Colonel Haig had to admit that there was really nothing to do in the bureau at the moment.

　After all, the files were burned, the office was gone, but the code books and portable radio equipment were still there. But their unit was not a traditional spy agency, but more like an advertising agency - without the previously collected documents and materials, it would be difficult to fabricate fake news and rumors!

　Moreover, according to confidentiality regulations, they couldn't just run to the library to write like poor students...

　If you think about it carefully, there is really nothing that can be done in the short term except calling Washington to report the latest situation.

　Thinking of this, Colonel Haig simply sat down and drank his coffee, and at the same time began to worry about his future.

　——Not only did his adjutant choose to commit suicide when something went wrong, but he also burned down his workplace before dying to retaliate against the country, paralyzing the department's work... Colonel Haig had to take the blame even if he didn't want to.

　So, because of this stain, after the matter is over, can he still be transferred back to the Pentagon or the White House as originally planned?

　"Don't worry, this little thing is really nothing. There's been a lot of chaos in various states across the country lately, and our company isn't the only one that's been burned down."

　Ferry comforted Colonel Haig while unfolding several newspapers in his hand. "Look, in Seattle, someone set fire to the courthouse. In San Francisco, someone rammed a truckload of explosives into a police station. In Kansas City, someone flew a plane into the IRS. There was even a gunfight in the Louisiana State Capitol, with more than a dozen bodies carried out. In Nevada, a prison guard poisoned the food, killing half of his colleagues and a third of the prisoners.

　Compared with these unfortunate colleagues, our office was just burned down, and the office location was rented, which is really nothing.

　I believe that with your connections in the Pentagon and Dr. Kissinger speaking well of you in front of the president, after this African invasion against France is over, you will definitely be rewarded, given a star, and transferred back to Washington to rise to a high position!

　"Please have some confidence in your abilities, family background, and achievements, Colonel Haig. If Dr. Kissinger brings you back to the White House, I think you'll likely become the President's military advisor. Even if you're sent abroad, there should be lucrative positions in the US military in Europe or Japan for you to choose from, right?"

　Author's words: PS: Another plane crashed in Arizona, USA. These air crashes are really one after another, quite like the style of the Americans in my previous book.

　But at that time, I only dared to assume that there would be air crashes in the United States every week, but now, planes crash every few days.

　Chapter 597: Bunkers are everywhere in the United States today!

　As Ferry had said to comfort Colonel Haig, the burning of the Strategic Deception Bureau in Los Angeles was not a big deal at the moment.

　After experiencing overseas wars, civil war, soaring prices, political turmoil, and a pandemic, American society was already rife with hostility and intense conflict. Now, with the added impact of the financial crisis, it's only natural that it has suddenly erupted into a scene of vibrant growth and development.

　There were frequent flyers in big cities, farmers committed suicide by burning charcoal, children dropped out of school and became pickpockets on the streets, and public opinion was as chaotic as the ravings of a madhouse.

　"Besides, compared to those who commit suicide, those who refuse to commit suicide are probably more troublesome."

　As Fili sipped his coffee, he complained mercilessly to Colonel Haig, "Once the first wave of suicides are over, the millions of homeless people that follow will be a real headache for the police and the National Guard! I guess all the states will have to put up barbed wire and build fortifications along the border, right?

　Look, some people in the newspapers are already recalling the horrors of the Great Depression forty years ago, reminding people of the disaster they are about to face!

　This poem is also well written... I have experienced the end of the world, more than one end of the world. I have seen the collapse of civilization and the destruction of order. I am like a traveler, living in someone else's world.

　Civilization is sometimes as fragile as a piece of paper, but in life, even in the darkest abyss, there will always be people who seek light..."

　It has to be said that the prosperity of capitalist society is indeed highly unstable, and every economic crisis is a catastrophe.

　Today, tens of millions of middle-class and even wealthy people have just gone bankrupt in the stock market crash, their assets have been wiped out, they are burdened with huge debts, they have been evicted from their homes by banks, they have lost their jobs, and are living on the streets - in the United States, if you lose your house, you lose your job - and then you can only rely on charity to survive.

　It is conceivable that they will soon turn from the backbone of society into a destabilizing factor in society.

　And the gears of economic collapse continue to turn:

　Do you think that because you didn't invest in stocks or buy financial products and didn't lose money in this stock market crash, you're safe? You're dreaming!

　If you are a dentist with a decent life, you will soon find that fewer and fewer patients come to see your dentist, and your income will drop accordingly - because everyone has become poorer and can't afford dental care. They would rather take painkillers or pull out bad teeth with pliers themselves, even if it means...

　I can't care about the extra bleeding.

　If you are a clerk selling luxury goods, you will also find that the business in the store is getting worse and worse, and the commissions and bonuses are getting smaller and smaller - the reason is the same as above, because people have become poorer and can no longer afford expensive goods and high-end services, so the commercial and service industries will inevitably shrink.

　Next, all kinds of travel agencies, high-end restaurants, luxury hotels, resorts, clubs... will collapse and close down one after another like dominoes, creating more unemployed people, further reducing the market's consumption power, and eventually causing a snowball-like total collapse.

　If you own a pawnshop, you might enjoy a period of prosperity at the beginning of an economic crisis, and you might suddenly receive a large number of high-quality pawned items, and you can lower the purchase price. But then, how to sell the collateral becomes an almost unsolvable problem.

　——During the economic crisis, pawnshops will only go bankrupt a little later.

　In short, the deterioration and collapse of the entire social order will be transmitted from one level to another, and no one can escape.

　Add to that the millions of veterans who have been withdrawn from the Asian and Middle Eastern battlefields, and the large number of defeated soldiers left over from the civil war...

　This is really like adding fuel to the fire, as if to make the United States of America prosperous enough!

　Well, the American public security for quite a long time to come will probably become a real-life version of "Grand Theft Auto GTA"!

　In the past, in order to provide a safety net for society and prevent those desperate people from turning to violence after being starving, all sectors of the American society have always been generous in charity work. There are often food stalls on the streets of major cities, and some also distribute daily necessities such as clothes and soap.

　The upper class in the United States often holds charity dinners under various names. Guests who come to the dinner will generously sign a check to donate a decent amount of money to fight a certain disease, save certain refugees, or other causes that are in line with the white left's issues.

　Although generally speaking, most of the funds raised from these charity dinners are embezzled by those who pass through them and turned into perfumes, fashion, luxury cars, villas and world travel, but there is always a few percent that will turn into food and end up in the mouths of the homeless.

　As long as the relief stations still distribute free bread, it is enough to maintain the basic stability of the lower classes in the United States to a certain extent.

　--To be honest, given the vast territory and abundant resources of the United States, it is not easy to make people starve to death or rise up in rebellion.

　But now there are so many people in need of relief, far exceeding the supply capacity of charities in many places, and the amount of money they can raise has become less. Many people who were originally well-dressed have also squeezed into the queue to receive relief bread and hot porridge.

　Therefore, American charities like the Salvation Army can only take care of the locals first. Then they accuse poor outsiders of being vagrants and deport them like illegal immigrants. If the outsiders refuse to leave, not only will the police chase them with sticks, but they will also be fired at.

　Or they would select the strongest ones, chain them together with iron chains, and throw them into farms or mines for forced labor, where they would be exhausted to death within three to five years on average.

　It sounds cruel, right? But that's what the United States did to its citizens during the last global economic crisis in 1929.

　During the Great Depression, President Hoover pushed the responsibility of relief to local governments, saying that local autonomy must be respected and the federal government should not interfere in the internal affairs of states. Relief of the poor must rely on private donations and state government fundraising, otherwise it would cause a constitutional crisis. But the problem was that before New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt created the Department of Public Welfare, no state had ever had such a department responsible for relief of the poor. The gentlemen at the time believed that relief of the poor was the church's business, and they, the upper class, only needed to let the police, militia and bodyguards strike hard at the poor.

　But even so, the American people endured for three full years before being pushed to the brink of explosion, which shows how servile they are.

　Now, a new Great Depression seemed to be coming back, and the states naturally followed the example of the Hoover era and began to prepare to suppress it.

　The only trouble is that Americans in the 1970s are probably not as easy to suppress as they were during the last Great Depression.

　--During the Great Depression forty years ago, even without considering the problems of vacancies and ghost soldiers, the U.S. Army had only 130,000 troops, ranking 16th in the world in terms of military strength at the time, behind Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Spain, Romania, Poland and other countries.

　Not only were the troops few in number, but the equipment was also poor. At the time, the US Army had only one mechanized regiment, equipped with very few aircraft and tanks. These were mostly old biplanes and outdated World War I prototypes. Consequently, the general impression of the US Army was that of "panting, gaping men in ill-fitting uniforms, carrying rickety, outdated rifles, endlessly marching back and forth across the vast expanse of the country."

　How to say it, it is completely different from the American imperial army that punched Japan, kicked Germany, and spread its military power around the world more than ten years later!

　On paper, this small, light infantry army might be able to compete with the Poles. But if the two armies really faced each other, the United States would be completely defeated. Because among the 130,000 American troops, 100,000 were civilian office soldiers and patrolmen stationed at the border. The United States only had 30,000 field troops that could be mobilized.

　The number of "lobster soldiers" sent by King George of England to suppress the uprising in the North American colonies in 76 was still small.

　Given the small size of the US Army at the time, the pool of retired veterans was naturally limited. Even if unrest occurred, there weren't enough professional soldiers with combat experience in the civilian population to serve as the "nucleus" of armed conflict. While the US has always had numerous militias, militiamen who have never served in the military and have never fought in combat are completely different from those with combat experience.

　Those rednecks who are shouting around with two guns are actually just a group of older Boy Scouts, not much different from the extras in war movies.

　If a fight really breaks out, they may not have the courage to draw their guns when they meet the police!