Before the United States Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789, it had been vigorously debated for months. Of course, this debate hasn’t ended, as many jurists, scholars, lawyers, and politicians vehemently disagree about exactly how we are “to form a more perfect Union,” as the Constitution’s Preamble establishes.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once pointed out that the Constitution is “revolutionary” and that “what continues to inspire the world today, is that the Constitution put governance in the hands of the people.” That notion may indeed inspire the world, and rightly so, but it means nothing to Donald Trump.

In fact, it means less than nothing to Trump. If something interferes with Trump’s, then it’s time for that thing to go. Since the Constitution was the legal framework for the presidential election of 2020, which Joe Biden handily won, it’s apparently now time for its “termination,” Trump bellowed to whomever might listen on Truth Social.

In response, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates issued a statement reminding us that the Constitution “is a sacrosanct document that for over 200 years has guaranteed that freedom and the rule of law prevail in our great country.” He then pointed out that it brings all Americans together “and elected leaders swear to uphold it.”

It is shocking that a former President of the United States, of all people, would call for the termination of the Constitution, and when such a thing happens, it is indeed a sad day for this nation. However, in Trump’s world, nothing is sacrosanct other than the person and name of Trump. So, of course even something as venerated as the Constitution winds up falling into the same category as an unsuspecting tennis court equipment box did a few decades ago.

When reporter Mark Bowden visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago to profile him for Playboy in 1996, he observed Trump questioning a man who was helping redesign the tennis court area about a “little metal box about two feet high and a foot wide with wires and tubes sticking out of it,” where he envisioned a table to go instead. When the man explained the small box is the chiller for the nearby water coolers, Trump proceeded to kick and shove the box until the main ruptured, spraying water and flooding the newly manicured tennis courts.

Whether it’s an equipment box to ensure his water coolers work or the Constitution to ensure his country works, Trump will turn against it if it threatens to oppose his personal plans and desires. Republicans should feel free to ride the escalator down this man-child’s latest rabbit hole at their own risk. Let’s see how many elections it will win them.

The post Donald Trump once “terminated” a water main appeared first on Palmer Report.

It’s time to flip the script. For decades, Republicans have been normalizing corruption. Norms such as presidential candidates releasing tax returns, and the peaceful transition of power, have been brazenly flouted. They commit crimes in plain sight mocking our legal system. Villains like Steve Bannon, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Lauren Boebert are not an anomaly, they’re the new GOP normal, installed to push the limits. These are tactics of dictators, even installing a collaborator to run a propaganda machine via Twitter.

But Democratic legislators have limited the damage, mostly preserving our institutions, ingeniously, by simply behaving as our founding fathers intended. If Democrats had been as reckless with our Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches, our democracy would have been ripped asunder by now. If you doubt what Democrats have done, here is a list of recent things we can be grateful for. Democrats are normalizing integrity.

Not only did the January 6th Select Committee lay out in riveting detail how Donald Trump incited the insurrection, but now Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel and declared Trump, and anyone involved with the peaceful transfer of power, are being investigated. Those likely include GOP members of Congress who requested a pardon from Trump: Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert, and Paul Gosart. They may include Mark Meadows, Mike Lee, Ginni Thomas, Ronny Jackson, and Cleta Mitchell, some who have testified to the J6 Committee.

There is already precedent for conviction. George W. Bush appointee Judge Reggie Walton sentenced insurrectionist Dustin Thompson, who blamed Trump for the insurrection, to 3 years in prison, comparing right-wing extremists to Nazis. But most compelling, this week newly appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith argued to the 11th Circuit Court that they should immediately shut down the Special Master process created by Judge Aileen Cannon. Former Federal Prosecutor Mitchell Epner wrote, “If the 11th Circuit rules against Trump, I expect Jack Smith will indict Trump on multiple counts…related to the removal and retention of national security documents in violation of the Espionage Act arguably committed when Trump removed them from the White House, making D.C. a possible venue for an indictment on those charges.”

Last, but not least, Democrats have launched a rapid-response counter offensive against an “expected investigative onslaught” against Democrats by the new House GOP majority. That should be fun. Republicans may have tried to normalize corruption under the false claim of “balance of power.” But justice is the new balance of power. Justice is the new normal.

The post Time to flip the script appeared first on Palmer Report.

Residents of a central North Carolina county faced a second night of freezing weather without power on Sunday after vandals opened fire on two electric substations in what authorities called a “targeted attack.”

A motive for the Saturday night damage spree wasn’t clear, said Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields. Due to outages, schools will be closed Monday and potentially longer. Sunday church services and a well-known golf resort were disrupted.

The incidents were being investigated by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Fields said. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Twitter that she had been in contact with Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N), which owns the substations, and the Department of Energy was working with other agencies to investigate and respond.

“FBI Charlotte is investigating the willful damage to power facilities in Moore County,” the federal law enforcement agency said, referring to its offices in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We are in regular contact with local law enforcement and private sector partners.”

About 64% of Moore County’s electric customers remained without power on Sunday night in the largely rural area about 90 miles (145 km) east of Charlotte, according to tracking site poweroutage.us.

The lights went dark at about 7 p.m. Saturday for 40,000 homes and businesses in Moore County. It was “a targeted attack. It wasn’t random,” Fields said. Utility workers found gates broken and evidence of gunfire damage to equipment.

The outages could stretch through Thursday, said Jeff Brooks, spokesperson for Duke Energy, because of the extent of the damage.

Church services were canceled at the Pinehurst United Methodist Church. At the famed Pinehurst Resort, managers scrambled Sunday to make sure golfers could still tee off.

A curfew was in effect for Sunday night and a shelter that can hold up to 250 people was opened, officials said.

Fields dismissed online rumors that the incident was connected to a drag show.

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The U.S. plans to work closely with Israel’s new government, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a left-leaning Jewish group in Washington on Sunday, and continues to support a two-state solution to end the decades-long conflict with Palestinians.

The U.S. administration expects “the new Israeli Government to continue to work with us to advance our shared values, just as we have previous governments,” Blinken told the nonprofit J Street liberal advocacy group. “We will gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than individual personalities,” he said.

“Security assistance to Israel is sacrosanct,” Blinken said, noting the more than $3 billion the U.S. provides to Israel in foreign military funding.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu reached a coalition deal with the far-right Religious Zionism party, which opposes Palestinian statehood and supports extending Israeli sovereignty into the West Bank.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing a group considered by Israel and the United States to be a terrorist organization, is Israel’s new security minister, with responsibility for Border Police in the occupied West Bank.

President Joe Biden remains committed to “realizing the enduring goal of two states,” Blinken said. “We believe Palestinians and Israelis, like people everywhere, are entitled to the same rights and the same opportunities.”

The U.S. “will also continue to unequivocally oppose any acts that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution,” Blinken said, including settlement expansion, moves toward annexation of the West Bank, disruption to the historic status quo at holy sites, demolitions and evictions, and incitement to violence.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to be patient and strong in resisting the rigours of winter, as officials pressed ahead with efforts to restore power and other services knocked out by Russian air strikes.

Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power infrastructure since early October, causing blackouts and leaving millions without heating as temperatures plummet.

“To get through this winter, we must be even more resilient and even more united than ever,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Sunday.

“We cannot allow any kind of internal conflicts and strike that can weaken us all, even if someone out there thinks that it will somehow strengthen him personally.”

Western nations have condemned waves of Russian air strikes on civilian and power infrastructure.

U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking the war to a new level of “barbarism” by trying to turn off the lights of civilians.

Russia says the assaults do not target civilians and are meant to reduce Ukraine’s ability to fight and push it to negotiate – though Kyiv says such attacks are a war crime.

Western pressure on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine culminated in the imposition of a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil that came into force on Monday.

Russia’s deputy prime minister said Moscow was working on ways to prohibit the use of a price cap.

“We will sell oil and petroleum products only to those countries that will work with us under market conditions, even if we have to reduce production a little,” Alexander Novak said.

Zelenskiy said on Saturday that the world had shown weakness by setting the cap at $60.

In Ukraine, officials have been resorting to scheduled blackouts as they race to restore power.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on Telegram that blackouts would be confined from Monday to planned “stabilisation” power cutoffs to get the grid working again, but added the situation remained “difficult”.

The country’s largest power supplier, DTEK, said blackouts were planned for three other regions – Odesa, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine’s south and east.

In Kherson, left largely without power when Russian forces abandoned the southern city last month, the regional governor said 85% of customers now had electricity.

But the offer by local authorities in Kherson to allow residents to cross the Dnipro to join relatives had little effect. The local council said a woman was killed while trying to make the crossing and no other attempts were recorded.

On the battlefront, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were holding positions along the front line, including near Bakhmut, viewed as Russia’s next target in their advance through Donetsk.

In its evening report, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces pressed for improved tactical positions to advance on Bakhmut and on the town of Avdiivka, just inside Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Russian forces trained tank and artillery fire on both cities and about eight other centres.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said on Telegram that five volunteers from the ex-Soviet state of Georgia were among those killed near Bakhmut.

Russian forces also shelled 25 settlements along front lines in the south, including the city of Kherson and Nikopol – on the Ukrainian-held side of the Kakhovka reservoir, opposite the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The mayor of Nikopol, Yevhen Yevtushenko, said one resident had died and urged residents to remain in underground shelters.

In a stark reminder of the human cost of the invasion, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said more than 2.8 million Ukrainians had been deported to Russian territory since the invasion in February.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted on Sunday that he would testify before the House Financial Services Committee after he finished “learning and reviewing” the events that led to the spectacular collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate the collapse of FTX and expects to hear from the companies and individuals involved, including founder and CEO Bankman-Fried.

Committee Chair Maxine Waters last week invited Bankman-Fried to participate in the panel’s hearing on Dec. 13.

“Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain,” the founder and former FTX CEO wrote in a reply to Waters.

Bankman-Fried added that he was unsure if that would happen before Dec. 13.

He rejected suggestions of fraud in a range of interviews last week after his company’s collapse stunned investors and left creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November after a week in which a possible merger with rival crypto exchange Binance failed, Bankman-Fried was accused funneling customer deposits to FTX’s affiliated trading firm Alameda Research, and the exchange experienced withdrawals of about $6 billion in just 72 hours.