The too week president

Bran had been sitting at the cafe table for only around five minutes before his friend Rog walked in. Rog was not looking at all happy as he stomped up to the table. “This is a fracking disaster” he said, waving a letter in his hand. A fracking disaster indicating?the letter.

“Happy to see you too” Bran smiled. “Are you well?” he asked with a smirk. Rog sat down in a huff. The wooden chair complained slightly as his weight hit it. “Tea?” Bran asked. Rog nodded. Bran made the request to the lady behind the counter, held up two fingers and then made a T sign with his hands. The lady nodded, turned and began to sort out mugs in which to pour out their tea. After a few minutes silence Bran asked “Feeling calmer?”?

Rog looked up from his feet and at Bron. “Yes, a little, but then I remember the letter and I lose it again. How dare they do that to me?” he growled. The lady came from behind the counter and brought over the two mugs of tea. She moved to the empty table next to them and started to wipe it. She was doing it rather slowly Bran noticed. He could only assume she was curious as to what had made his friend so angry. “Ok, I’ll bite” Bran submitted. “What's in the letter?” “A disaster” Rog replied. He handed the letter to Bran and watched and waited for the reaction from his friend. Bran unfolded the letter. At first his face had a solemn look of curiosity and concentration. However, that broke a few seconds later as his face broke into a smile and he began to laugh. The cafe lady? was still wiping the next table and now looked as if she would explode if she didn’t learn what the letter had said. Bran noticed this and began to summarize the letter out loud. “Dear Mr Nyles, We hope this letter finds you well, blah blah blah. Pursuant to federal law blah blah blah”. Bran continued to read until he came to the crucial part of the letter. “Ah, here it is” Bran said. “You are required to take on the role of the US president for a period of two weeks.” “Disaster!” Rog shouted. “Absolute disaster. You couldn’t make this up.” Bran added. “Hey it’s not so bad. They do give you a couple of options for when you need to take the two weeks for the duty.” “I don’t want to be the US President!” Rog exclaimed. Bran smirked. “Ah, you see, that is your big problem. You don’t want to be president which makes you perfect to be the president.” He then took a slurp of his tea. “The last people you want to give power to are the people who want it!” “That make no sense” Rog said. “Why do you think we have the system we have?” Bran asked. “After three hundred years of the old system and the effects it had. Now, that was a disaster.?Give me the new system any day of the week.” The cafe lady had been listening and now made her presence known. “Stupid system if you ask me. Having these computers running the country and with just one person to accept their decisions . Don’t know how they can keep up?” She finished wiping the table and feeling disgruntled at the boring nature of the letter, she skulked back to the safety behind the counter. “It’s because the old system was made up of people with their subjective ways and emotional responses. Computer decisions are based on logic and unscrutable reasoning” Bran replied to the lady.

“Not sure why you are complaining. You get paid really well I heard” said Bran as he slurped his tea. “Maybe so, but have you asked yourself why the job pays so well?” Rog said. “Ok, tell me please Mr President-to-be” Bran smiled. “It’s because after two weeks of being constantly wired up to that presidential AI system, you end up a slobbering drooling wreck” Rog shouted. “Your brain is fried after dealing with all the interfaces and the data and decision making. Most US presidents come out of their term a blithering idiot!” “What decisions do you need to make?” said Bran. “You just look over the decisions made by the AI computer system. How hard is that?” Rog looked at Bran with an amazed incredulous look “Those decisions may not be hard but there are around a million decisions a day to think over. All day, every day.” “Can you understand why US presidents are only allowed a two week term?” Rog asked “It is relentless. The access to all that power does something to your brain. It corrupts you. Do you remember the 110th president? He was the first to do two terms. The effects on his brain were horrible. He ended up working as a traffic warden, in a car park” Bran took another sip of his tea. “You haven’t touched your drink”

Rog drank some of the tea and was visibly more relaxed.

The two of them sat there in silence which was broken when Bran asked. “Feeling better?”? Rog nodded?

?“So, what are you going to do? Bran asked

“Nothing I can do” Rog submitted.” I will have to do the duty otherwise it is a five year jail term working for the civil service”?

Rog took a drink of tea before continuing “At least I can vent my anger. I guess I will do the time around March next year. “Well this calls for a celebration” Bran looked over to the lady behind the counter “Two pieces of Harris-Trump cake please” Bran picked up his mug of tea and held it up in front of Rog?

“All hail Rog,”he commanded “ the 1520th US president!”