The Almost-Agenda
As a matter of Policy, we only have an Agenda, which may change from time to time, and as the need arises, and as the wind blows in certain directions, for our convenience . . .
Foreign Relations: Wing it. Make tentative plans, and let the world lead the way. Soon, a superintelligence will be running almost everything anyway, so why sweat it.
Fiscal Spending: Spend if you have to, but mostly just tie up the money in gobbledygook, unless something really important comes along. (For sandwiches and the like, for the party meetings. Regarding the national spending, that should be done by the party that actually WINS the election, not us).
Employment: Make as many jobs as possible into dumbed-down, cheap-labor McJobs, . . . with an eye to "almost-full employment." (That way, if someone is out sick, they are more easily replaced for just that day . . . for everyone's convenience).
Education: It's not possible for anyone to be entirely or completely educated, but people can be taught and educated in the direction of appropriate "work-related" subject areas.
Housing: Almost-kill the suburbs (by moving the cheap-labor in). In other words, move the people to where the jobs arn't (different zoning). (Don't worry, the robots can just stay AT THEIR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT!!! No houses for them.)
Dumbing-Down as an almost-art almost-form: Laverne & Shirley, Friends, Streaming Sports, Meow books, Easter egg hunts, software "solutions" that waste your time, unnecessary meetings, fill the classrooms with people that don't speak the language, making the video take longer than necessary. Etc.
Healthcare: Eat healthy, and keep fit. Don't worry. Be happy.
Energy: This is always in high demand, and we are mostly for it in whatever form ("all of the above" types). (Of course, there must be exceptions for: oil because of A, natural gas because of B, nuclear because of C, wind because of D, solar because of E, and geothermal because of F. Also, NIMBY.)
Fraud/Crime/Illegal anything/Terrorism/Tourism/Government Programs/Small Business/Post-Secondary Education: This section intentionally left almost-blank (succinct), because anything said here could possibly be construed as extending beyond mere agenda items, and might be taken as being politically incorrect, or at least possibly offensive to someone somewhere.
The Internet/"Anti-Social" Media/Surveillance/Identity Theft/Big Tech/Cyber stuff/Electronics/Gadgets: Hey, it keeps people off the streets. What do you want, perfection?
Robots: Dang. We hope they stay nice, and friendly, and subservient.
Autonomous Recursive Self-Improvement: As long as it doesn't affect us.
South Pole of the Moon: Water (probably pretty clean). We might want to build a pipeline from there to here if there is enough of it.
Abortion: Too bad that the interest of some parents to not have a child are often diametrically opposed with the interest of society in seeing that children are born and raised with love, care, and skill to maturity. Therefore, "the keepers" (the good ones) could be gestated and raised by the state (somewhere). No offense to any fetus not chosen, but some will be rejected twice (two thumbs down, as it were). Unless we don't need them at all in a world full of AIs and robots.
Two Party System: One on Friday night, and another on Saturday night. Nobody expects a third party candidate to actually win (we're counting on it).
Congressional gridlock: This is good for a business environment that needs predictability!!! . . . and also bad for a nation competing in a dynamic international environment (Boo-hiss!!!). So, both Yes and No. A bit. Would you settle for a compromise?
Promises: There are so many things going on, so many people and organizations with an agenda, and so many time constraints, and budget constrains (not to mention that Murphy's Law and the Peter Principle are always at play), that we must limit any almost-promises (mere wishful thinking at best) to the very vague and conditional equivocations that we present with appopriate moderately-ernest furvor here.
That's almost-it.
* * *
