lgbtq

Ideas to help the USA by Quinton Mitchell. From a Loving Day, Participatory Budgeting, a Space Force Academy, Popping the Tuition Bubble, and Operation Gerbil?

About me: Everyday guy. US Air Force veteran (honorable discharge). AmeriCorps alumus. BA in Business, Associates in Applied Science in Contracts Management, and Master of Science in Management with Operations Management focus. I’m black American, but supposedly with some Muskogee Creek heritage (allegedly) but my last name is Scottish (crazy story). I was raised a US Army military brat having lived in Florida, Kansas, Germany, Washington State, and Georgia. My grandads fought in World War II and Korea. I’m a pro-military, patriotic, Progessive who enjoys Left Wing thought but I’m more of a 3rd way thinker, i.e., I see capitalism as a tool rather than something to worship. My socialist sympathies actually comes from being raised in the military. I used to be in the Young Democrats but grew up in Ronald Reagan suburbia (interesting upbringing). I was raised all over from truck driving, gun owning Georgians to Seattle or Olympia Hippies to Washington DC civil servants. I was born “poor” or “lower middle class” but my parents worked hard to make it upper middle class.

Cheers.

Read the full list since there’s no order to it.

Be a little weird and think outside the box.

Participatory Budgeting where citizens vote on what percentage they want their taxes going, everyone’s submissions are averaged out, but then legislators do the same thing. Both are averaged and used as a baseline for Budgeting.

Merge the census with tax returns to cut costs if not by law then by executive order

Review federal acquisition procedures to ensure procurement practices are optimal

Better publicize what the federal government does in fun commercials such as what’s going on in science, agriculture, historic preservation, national parks, environmental efforts like the restoring animals on the Endagered Species List, Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)

Instill a spirit of customer service amongst public (civil) servants so the general public improves their perception of government

The possibility of using Enterprise Resource Planning system tools like SAP in government agencies to better coordinate finance (as to comply with rules such as the bona fide need rule, Misappropriation Act, colors-of-money), procurement offices, auditors, senior leadership, etc. One government, one language as far as ERP, SaaS (Software as a Service), Asset Management Tools, freight carrier guides with 3PLs (third party logistics).

Establish a Loving Day based on the Loving Supreme Court case to celebrate multiracial families where celebrities of biracial or multiracial heritage talk about their lives such as Derek Jeter, Pete Wentz, Patrick Mahomes, Mariah Carey, Halle Barry, Blake Griffin, Zach LaVine, The Rock, Meghan Markle, Cameron Champ, etc. See article: https://andscape.com/features/black-pga-golfer-cameron-champ-is-going-places-his-grandfather-wasnt-allowed

More inclusion of white men into progressive politics such as showing abolitionists history, discrimination against Italians and Irish etc. See my past article: https://mitchellrg.com/2021/07/14/helping-save-white-men-from-radicalization-progressive-notes/

Law limiting the amount of homes that foreigners can buy to ensure domestic buyers, especially first time homeowners can buy homes

Repeal the Faircloth Amendment so the federal government has the option to build public housing especially in emergencies. Inspired by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s idea: https://nurseledcare.phmc.org/advocacy/policy-blog/item/838-faircloth-amendment.html

Encourage telework and refurbish commercial space into residential space

Deflate the College Cost Bubble by using the Department of Labor to challenge hiring criteria of businesses where many require expensive advanced degrees when jobs might require less costly education, i.e., increasing the value of a high school diploma again, etc; requiring schools getting federal assistance or whom have had past substantial federal assistance on financial brink to consolidate to cut costs

Allow negotiation of Medicare drug costs

Establish a federal corporation that invests in prescription drug stocks because by doing so this agency can better negotiate by buying or selling shares

Medicare Now! Let people use thru Medicare earlier before retirement

Lay the ground work for single-payer Healthcare by flipping the FICA formula so out of the 7.65% where 6.20% goes to Social Security and the rest, 1.45%, towards Medicare/Medicaid (where your employes matches your contribution), you flip it but you do it slowly so those who paid into Social Security and are near retirement can get their full benefits (unless they opt for more Medicare). Raise the overall 7.65% to 8-10%.

E.U. style data protection for US consumers

Regulate crypto currency such as requiring exhanges to obtain private insurance and to get rated by rating agencies, apply Glass Steagall Act like regulations such as Banning a merging of crypto exchanges with hedge funds or banks, but ban federal insurance or bailouts altogether.

Also require digital currencies be backed by some sort of convertible asset like gold or silver

Issue a Defense Production Act edict to gold miners to mine more gold and silver to continue increasing our vault reserves

Presidential Council of Elders where ex Presidents convene yearly to show unity across political lines and for them to consult and come to consensus where they feel laws should go or issues to address. More of an opinion panel.

Not to Exceed Age Limits for Justices such as 70 or 80 as opposed to term limits so we don’t get activist judges who constantly flip on laws as one judge takes over from the other, etc. Yet, we don’t get judges who are always in the hospital once very old

Support police but reform police. See my past article: https://mitchellrg.com/2021/12/27/how-the-system-helped-curtail-police-reform-by-quinton-mitchell/

A Total Energy Policy that includes both green and fossil fuels including converting nuclear weapons into energy fuel for reactors, while handing over fuselages to the aerospace industry such as to send satellites into in orbit

Full Legalization of Cannabis and help with military recruitment by disallowing the asking about prior or post service (in the case of re-entry) Marijuana usage.

See my past article about Cannabis and the military: https://mitchellrg.com/2021/05/23/i-wrote-a-letter-to-congress-that-was-ignored-revising-forms-relating-to-questions-involving-cannabis-and-how-cannabis-is-a-force-multiplier-for-national-security-by-quinton-mitchell/

End the Cuban Trade Embargo, allow remittance payments thru Western Union, allow travel, etc., but with conditions such as distancing themselves from China and Russia

See my past article on Cuba: https://mitchellrg.com/2021/07/16/supporting-the-cuban-revolution-through-software-as-a-service-saas-erp-and-decision-support-systems-power-to-the-people-by-cybernetics-systems-theory-and-the-dika-model-by-quinton-mitchell

The possible establishment of a US Space Force Academy in a place like Cape Canaveral or Daytona Beach (near Embry Riddle Aeronautical University), Houston, Hunstville AL, or Santa Barbara (even if it has to still fall under the guidance of the USAFA and Air Education Training Command). Even if the school has to start off as a two year school for junior and seniors who do their first two years at the USAFA. An academy size comparable to smaller academies such as US Coast Guard Academy or US Merchant Marine Academy. Name facilities after famous astronauts.

Operation Gerbil or Gerbil Maze with NASA and companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, Astra, etc. Replace nodes on the International Space Station with new sections but send the old ones to the Moon so we have materials to establish a small research facility. Scrap junk missions to land materials on the moon such as wiring, aluminum, etc.

More research into oxidation of moon rocks for air on moon facilities. See: https://youtu.be/-HGm2SSRaDs

Re-establish mental asylums with funds and grants to states via DHHS to help with the mentally ill homeless population.

Separate mental asylums, drug rehab, and jail where in many cases these are merge to cut costs especially as jails become more privatized

Fund clean needle exchanges and promote one-time use needles.

Urge cities that have lax policies on homeless peoples to encourage these people to clean their areas, aka, you can stay here if you clean the streets. This can be done by coordinating with non profit organizations, local police, etc.

Urge ISP service providers to require adult sites have Two Factor Authentication to prevent minors from accessing pornography

Reform federal sugar subsidies

Transition After Training (TAT) for Transgender service people where recruits after basic training, completing trade school and upon reaching a rank that permits off base living or single quarters will have the ability to transition.

Department of Justice mandate to protect Trans people if jailed be it local, state, or federal such as solitary confinement or protective custody to prevent them being abused or harassed

Artic Defense Pact as an extension of NATO, NORAD, and AFNORTH with Canada, US, Denmark, UK, Japan and Nordic countries to exercise and coordinate defense of the arctic especially as climate change opens waterways

Audit State Defense Forces for extremist elements. See: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xdsrAAAAIBAJ&pg=6030%2C1692394

Expand the early commissioning program at Junior Military Colleges but also schools like Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Expand the pay out for Enlisted College Loan Repayment Plans

Expand the Segal Education Award for the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach America

House arrests for petty crimes as opposed to jailing

Policies to end racial segregation in jails such as isolating violent criminals from inmates capable of rehab.

Segregate based on crimes committed and character (not race) instead of bunching all types of criminals together.

STD testing for all inmates before entry, while incarcerated, and before exit (added 12/19/22)

Encourage the expansion of open stock market exchanges on Eastern Time to close on West Coast or Central (Chicago) Time so trading hours are extended a little bit

Include Mexico’s top universities into the Association of American Universities with the US and Canada to promote goodwill

Use Border Wall funding as leverage for increased gun control (not confiscation)

Return parts of federal land to Native Tribes and Native Hawaiians

Fly the flags of Native Tribes on federal property

Investigate Highway of Tears Native femicides with Canada

Free or very cheap HBCUs and 0% federally insured fixed rate mortgages as a reparations package for black Americans similar to the GI Bill and VA Home Loan

Require truck drivers submit DNA swabs since many unsolved crimes were submitted by truckers. Also, pilots such as those who use smaller off the radar air strips (added 12/19/22)

An everyday, beer drinking, straight guy’s reminder to himself about why liberalism and equality are important.

A photo of Jack Kerouac. A man on deep thought, reflection, and feeling. Part caveman, part saint. Part sinner, part savior.

I actually don’t drink much anymore. I’m just a man. I absorb information pretty quick but I was an OK student. I had to work for my grades. I served in the military. I enjoy sports, I used to drink a lot but decided to quit and/or slow down (been about 6 months and only 5 drinks), and I’m a sucker for women in shorts and boots (we’re all entitled to our fantasy). I grew up on Fred Flinstone and Homer Simpson, I’ll eat steak until the day I die (no offense to vegans) and suck the marrow out of the bone, and my hobbies include history about warfare, the Dark Ages, engineering, science, and, yes, sports. I’m not into fashion and I rarely listen to pop music. I’m a bit antisocial, but also self-motivating. I can probably list about 20 pornstars names from memory and grew up with 90s busty bombshells looking like superhero goddesses, but I respect women, and fantasy is just fantasy, not reality. Like many men, after heartbreak or perceived heartbreak I hit an existential crisis of purpose and being and feel into philosophy, only to find myself in the abyss of postmodern analysis, but I grew up. I prefer dogs, though I’m easing up on cats. I’m a man who was born in the last days of an older way of masculinity and I’ve adapted to the new but it’s a process. However, I feel empowered by this progress because it’s made me analyze masculinity but also be proud of being a man. Before me, there was my dad, his dad, his, and it goes all the way back to some ancient time when we were on some African savanna looking up at the stars and being one nature. Hell, a few were even getting rained on up in dreary ass Scotland (long story).

What unites us in the USA isn’t race or ethnicity, but a set of ideas that binds us. Constitutional protections, upward mobility, the pursuit of happiness, safety, security, peace, and prosperity. That’s what makes the US so powerful…we have diversity. “Ethno-states” have limitations after a certain point. They either stay insular, thus devouring their limited supply of resources and they establish a natural hierarchy that marginalizes the majority of that specific ethnicity, or they expand to acquire resources but through “Grand Origin stories” based on racism and ethnocentrism, which causes resentment among everyone else and this resentment can be inherited to their children, etc. The USA has the “multi-racial dynamism” to innovate. For example, in the USA we can find someone who can translate any language on Earth more so than a place like Russia. Though we have a proto-culture which defines how we interpret reality and the Constitution in this nation, e.g., an English, Christian – typically of a Protestant orientation, and a common-law based system with emphasis on property rights, federalism, and pluralism, the concept of America is an evolving concept. Yet, the foundation of the nation based on the things I’ve just listed, will always be a guiding and sacred force within American life. It’s a glue, not the entire slate. Instead of hate and lingering in the past to hold to a sense of supremacy, the goals is to share, transfer information, and stay dynamic. Only through cultural dynamism does the USA stay relevant. Going back to the past or inspiring old notions is only reflective of a nation in decline. This doesn’t mean that we must be so open that we can’t control society. It doesn’t mean we can’t be vigilant. What it means is, before we devolve into tribalism we have to always remember the set of ideas which binds us. Many people of all races, colors, creeds, orientations, etc., have died to the United States of America. So how are we honoring those people?

  1. Feminism is important. I admit as a male the shift to a more female-centric reality has had its ups and downs. However, regardless of my personal growth, the objective goal of feminism is important because empowered females translate into empowering half of our society, thus increasing prosperity, happiness, etc. As a guy, you can’t let personal things get the best of you and you must accept that females have their own realities, desires, ambitions, wants, and needs. Equality is important but both sides should always rely on etiquette when communicating with each other. A big part me, even as a guy, feels happy that women are happy and finally feeling empowered in unison to achieve. To a guy it seems like constant training or jabs, but it’s not that. A natural defensiveness comes up when it comes to equality because people feel that they’re being unfairly analyzed or even experimented on as another group gets rights. But we have to worry about the larger goal of equality.
  2. Black Lives Matter and it is not a racist movement, but a movement to make society reflect on how different groups are treated by law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Of course, all lives matter, but the goal is to focus on lives historically targeted by a system which considered non-whites as others. This is a movement that can unite everyone. It’s not about vengeance or shame.
  3. Anti-Police Brutality
  4. Protection of the Jewish community
  5. Combating Islamaphobia and making Muslim Americans feel American, such as respecting Ramadan, encouraging stores to stay open later during Ramadan if a specific market has that need.
  6. Criminal Justice Reform
  7. Healthcare is a basic human right
  8. LGBTQIA. I grew up extremely homophobic but one day it just stopped. I grew up. I learned the value of life to a certain degree. I support gay marriage, benefits to gay couples the same as heterosexual couples. If I had a kid and one day it came out that they were gay, I wouldn’t disown or hate on them, though, I hope I would’ve led a life by example of a loving relationship with his or her mother, in the traditional sense, so when they do come out, it feels more right. I would also reassert in their youth to treat all people the same regardless of how they identify, so it’s not a scary decision if they decide to come out one day. When it comes to Trans Rights, I admit, I have growing to do. I do believe in only two genders, because like most other animals, particularly mammals, there’s only two genders. This is a counter-stone of our species. Yet, I do support Trans people who want to switch their gender, but I do not support the claim that “Gender is Dead” or Gender is a spectrum. For a group that makes up less than 1% of the population, to say such a statement, indicates that it’s not just about rights of a discriminated group, but rather redefining everything for the benefit of one group. This isn’t right. I find gender to be beautiful. Mother Nature’s creation. A balance. We’re not ambiguous drones. Essentially, I feel you have to choose which way you go, and I feel that it is an adult decision, since children have no real worldview to compare the differences. Essentially, the decision to change your gender has more impact when you’ve had a life of experiences to draw from, yet, the decision should be made in a society which supports the decision. If you’re a man and want to be a woman, that’s fine. Or, vice versa, that’s fine. But you have to go somewhere. I suppose I support heteronormative trans rights. Special accommodations can be made accordingly. Yet, regardless of what a person identifies as, they still have human and constitutional rights.
  9. Climate Change is real, and I believe it’s exacerbated by human activity, though the Earth does go through cycles. In other words, we’re accelerating climate change which could have an irreversible ecological impact on humans, and likely not for the better.
  10. Pro-Life as a goal, not a mandate. I say not a mandate because women should have control over their reproduction and the courts have the rights to enforce punishments, yet, the goal when guiding such decisions should always focus on the preservation of life.
  11. Wealth inequality must be fixed by tapping into taxation on the wealthy; monopoly busting; unionism; higher wages; small business set-asides for federal or state contracts; unemployment benefits; reduced lunch programs, etc.
  12. Amnesty to immigrants
  13. The right to bear arms because an arm citizenry is a symbolic gesture of the separation of power between state and the people. Yet, I do support ideas such as mandatory insurance for all gun owners such as general liability insurance, increased standards for concealed carry or carry licenses, and regulation of private arms sales. The right to get a gun should never be taken away. I see additional laws on guns as being a community issue between the people, police departments, etc.  
  14. Freedom of religion. Christianity is important and should have a larger part in public life such as outreach and assistance. Yet, no religion should guide policy of the state since the state represents all people with equal regard, i.e., believers, non-believers, etc.
  15. Separation of Church and State
  16. Freedom of speech. You have the right to say whatever you want. But saying whatever you want has the right to be combated, protested, boycotted, cancelled, etc.
  17. Right to peaceful assembly