Belated Friday Five: A bit of everything

[jack]

1. If you were President of the United States, what would be your top 3 things that you would like to change?

Jesus fuck. I don't know where to start. High on my list would be:

* Stop invading foreign countries on spurious pretexts
* Fix the electoral system. Most importantly, elections shouldn't be under the control of partisan officials, and there shouldn't be so many loopholes allowing dodgy money to buy elections. Hand count ballots instead of paying swinging sums of money for "scan all the ballots and then say the party who bought the machine won" machines. Have, enough voting stations there aren't queues, have them at times people can get to them.
* Abolish the death penalty, bring murderous police to account.
* Invest in non-fossil-fuel energy with the same fervour previous pursued in wars and moon landings.
* Fund public transit enough people want to actually use it.
* Free healthcare for everyone, whatever you want to call it. Yes, food and housing too. I'm honestly right there with internet access too.
* The constitution is a pretty good idea! I like the rights! But there's some pretty good rights we have in Europe, maybe you'd like those as well?
* While we're abolishing whole industries, maybe the IRS should just work out how much tax you have to pay and then take that much automatically rather than forcing you to guess, taking twice as much, and then fining you. If you absolutely have to have them take 10% more and then refund it, make it optional.
* This doesn't rise to the level of the others, but maybe be a bit less creepily cultish about the flag?
* And I mean, things like open borders, but that applies to every country.

But I'm not sure how to pick three. Do they have to be ones congress will allow, or can I just do them? That would probably determine it, which ones I can do as president.

Of course, right now, just "not being Trump" would be incredibly good even if I didn't achieve anything at all.

2. If you had to survive off of one specific type of food, what would it be and why?

I really don't know! I used to be completely content to just eat one thing for ages, but now I find myself seeking at least some variety. I need some carbs, but 100% carbs is too much. A fair bit of protein. I often make "rice with veg heavy sauce and cheese", if that's one thing, that's probably ok.

3. If your life were a play, what would it be (tragedy, comedy, drama, etc.)?

Wow, I don't know. I kind of screwed up a lot of things but muddled through somehow. It doesn't seem funny enough for a comedy. Or a tragedy. It's not dramatic enough for a drama. It's just life.

4. What community is your favorite and why?

Don't have room for this one as well!

5. When did you realize you were finally an adult and how did it make you feel?

...When? It feels more like a process. I never really felt "ready" for life. But at some point I realised I'd picked up enough adulting competence compared to 20 year olds it was ridiculous to deny. But I still feel behind a lot of people.

Comments

[mathcathy]

Number 1: Ban guns! (Or limit them seriously)

[conuly]

Oh, man, that's a toughie.

I guess tackling climate change as though it was the next WWII would have to be top of the list - because it freaking is.

And so many other things that I'd like done can kind of be folded into that - I'd like to increase public transportation and bike/pedestrian safety, well, focusing on reducing gas consumption will make that a priority all by itself. Clean air and water? Not so much garbage? Let's reduce our greenhouse gases and the rest will take care of itself! Want free birth control? Listen, buddy, less kids = less mouths to create greenhouse gases! No more blood for oil? Damn straight!

Then yes, I guess free healthcare (including more paid sick days and mandatory paid parental leave) for everybody.

But number three? Gosh, I don't know. Improving the public schools, starting with free daycare, free school break camps, smaller classes, universal free lunch, free college? That's my first instinct, but is that the best place to spend this money?

[ilanin]

For reference, on 1:
* Stop invading foreign countries on spurious pretexts

President is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (sort of). Done! Though the US hasn't actually done this for, like, 16 years now (for sensible definitions of the word "invade", anyway)! That's progress, right.....

* Fix the electoral system. Most importantly, elections shouldn't be under the control of partisan officials, and there shouldn't be so many loopholes allowing dodgy money to buy elections. Hand count ballots instead of paying swinging sums of money for "scan all the ballots and then say the party who bought the machine won" machines. Have, enough voting stations there aren't queues, have them at times people can get to them.

This isn't even Congress, mostly - they can allocate money for it, but elections are the responsibility of state governments.

* Abolish the death penalty, bring murderous police to account.

Abolishing the death penalty is some combination of state governments, Congress and the Supreme Court. Not the President at any rate (though you could grant clemency to prisoners on Federal death row, all 62 of them. The US federal government has executed three people since 1963). Police accountability is...complicated. You could (and Obama did) have the Department of Justice investigate police departments for systematic failings, but actions against specific people run into the problem that shooting somebody isn't (usually) a federal crime. What you totally could do is stop equipping police departments with endless amounts of military equipment to stop giving them the impression they're in a war.

* Invest in non-fossil-fuel energy with the same fervour previous pursued in wars and moon landings.

Congress allocates money.

* Fund public transit enough people want to actually use it.

Congress allocates money.

* Free healthcare for everyone, whatever you want to call it. Yes, food and housing too. I'm honestly right there with internet access too.

Congress allocates money. Also "free food for everyone" sounds like it'd be hard to do without collectivizing agriculture, a policy that's killed more people than anything else humans have ever done I think.

* The constitution is a pretty good idea! I like the rights! But there's some pretty good rights we have in Europe, maybe you'd like those as well?

Amending the constitution is hilariously impossible.

* While we're abolishing whole industries, maybe the IRS should just work out how much tax you have to pay and then take that much automatically rather than forcing you to guess, taking twice as much, and then fining you. If you absolutely have to have them take 10% more and then refund it, make it optional.

You can do this one, the IRS works for you. In theory. It would probably be a nightmare to actually implement without trying to do the sort of proper tax reform Paul Ryan had a go at last Congress and then gave up when he realised he'd never actually get it through.

* This doesn't rise to the level of the others, but maybe be a bit less creepily cultish about the flag?

Presidents sometimes succeed in changing public opinion. But I doubt this would work, it's too ingrained.

* And I mean, things like open borders, but that applies to every country.

The Obama administration's approach suggests you might theoretically get away with this, but the constitution says you're supposed to "take care the laws are faithfully executed" and obviously not prosecuting anyone for entering the country illegally is not doing this (and naturally you need Congress to change the law).

So, um, some of them?

[edrith.co.uk]

2. Potatoes!