Bill of Particulars against Donald Trump

Bill of Particulars against Donald Trump

 

Written January, 2017

 

 

Whereas:

 

A. Donald Trump is a conman.

B. Donald Trump is a misogynist.

C. Donald Trump is a bigot.

D. Donald Trump is a racist.

E. Donald Trump is a swindler.

F. Donald Trump is a pathological liar.

G. Donald Trump is a double-dealing crook.

H. Donald Trump is a serial bankrupt.

I. Donald Trump is a serial sexual assailant.

J. Donald Trump is a braggart and a bully.

K. Donald Trump is a vindictive loser and a sore winner.

L. Donald Trump is a functional illiterate with a short attention span.

M. Donald Trump breaks deals, fakes deals, botches deals and self-deals.

N. Donald Trump meets the diagnostic criteria for narcissism.

O. Donald Trump meets the diagnostic criteria for sociopathy.

P. Donald Trump displays contempt for facts and reason.

Q. Donald Trump lies to himself, to better lie to you.

R. Donald Trump has no honor. His word is worthless.

S. Donald Trump is arrogant, impulsive and incompetent.

T. Donald Trump spreads failure and chaos.

U. Donald Trump is unprincipled, autocratic and a friend of autocrats.

V. Donald Trump is deep in debt, and in thrall, to foreign powers.

W. Donald Trump conspired with a foreign autocrat to subvert a Presidential election.

X. Donald Trump owns a global business empire, run by his children in a transparently unblind trust; so since taking office, he has had conflicts of interest that span the globe.

Y. Donald Trump has refused to end his Trump Old Post Office Hotel lease; so since taking office, he has been in violation of Federal law.

Z. Donald Trump is openly receiving financial favors from foreign leaders; so since taking office, he has been in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8.)

 

 

Therefore be it resolved:

 

That Donald J. Trump is unfit to be President of the United States, and must be removed from that office.

 

 

 

 

Post-script, written 2022:

 

Five years have passed since then, and he got impeached, twice! But it took a pandemic, plus his incompetence, to remove him from office. This did not happen peacefully, and even now he denies that he lost.

 

We can add new charges to this alphabet of particulars, such as: multiple cruel and stupid oppressions of the poor and powerless; looting the Treasury for the richest of the rich; alienating allies and courting dictators; multiple flagrant abuses of power; catastrophic incompetence when confronted with a pandemic; seditious conspiracy and insurrection; treasonous theft of government secrets.

 

Trump 20 to life, no pardon, no parole.

 

Shot by the Arrow

Shot by the Arrow

 

I doubt that perfect government is possible. Consider Kenneth Arrow’s “Impossibility Theorem”. It is a mathematical proof that no social choice function can always have all four of these virtues:

1) it is fair; it divides power equally,

2) it is decisive; it answers all question set to it,

3) it is linear; it has no illogical preference loops A>B>C>A,

4) it is responsive; it never defies a consensus.

 

Or in other words: any society, however constructed, must at times be unfair, or indecisive, or illogical, or perverse. Cruelty, weakness, folly, and perversity are political evils; so Arrow’s Theorem proves the inevitability of political evil.

The proof is mathematical; it has nothing to do with sin, or sex, or money, or power, or human nature, or what two kids stole from a fruit tree long ago. The theorem is cold, not hot; its diagnosis is impersonal. You can no more practice perfect government than you can draw a round square. It would apply even to a society of saints and angels.

In a way this is comforting: political evil isn’t necessarily anyone’s fault. But it’s also disturbing: political evil is necessarily everyone’s problem.

 

The Fool Paradox, biblicized

The Fool Paradox, biblicized

 

The Fool Paradox:

“I am a fool.”

The Fool is as wise as he is foolish. This is like the jest by Socrates of Athens, “I know only that I know nothing.”

The Liar Paradox:

“I am lying.”

The Liar is as honest as he is crooked. This is like the jest by Epimenides of Crete, “All Cretans are liars.”

The Fool replaces the Liar’s deceit with folly. Therefore the Fool is better intended than the Liar, but perhaps more dangerous.

The Fool Paradox, biblicized:

The fool saith in his heart, I know not God; thus the fool is as wise as he is foolish.

In the original verse, the fool was an atheist; in this commentary, he’s an agnostic, and therefore half-wise. I too am an agnostic half-wit, and this is my half-witticism.

Riddle me this: what is the difference between a mystic and an agnostic? Answer: a mystic is a believer who does not believe, but an agnostic is an unbeliever who does believe.