David Atkins

Today brings news that Donald Trump literally gave German chancellor Angela Merkel a $300 billion bill for NATO expenses last weekend: Donald Trump handed the German chancellor Angela Merkel a bill — thought to be for more than £300bn — for money her country “owed” Nato for defending it when they met last weekend, German […]

It’s midnight here on the West Coast, my power is out due to a scheduled outage until 9amPST that I forgot about, my laptop has only 30 minutes of battery, and I’m running my Internet on my mobile hotspot, so this post won’t be long or detailed–but I wanted to get the post up and […]

After much intense debate, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer finally declared that Democrats will indeed filibuster Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch. The decision still rankles many, however, who feel that Democrats should have held their fire over this nominee in order to prevent a more unqualified, even more extreme justice later on. The argument against filibustering […]

As dawn breaks over the wreckage of the GOP’s failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, one thing is abundantly clear: the Republican Party is not ready to govern. Its chief executive is uninterested in policy details, and far too many of its Congressmembers are too beholden to AM radio platitudes to […]

It’s turn-the-clock-forward day again, the annual ritual when Americans lose an hour of sleep for no good reason at all. Contrary to popular belief, Daylight Savings Time does nothing to help farmers and was not enacted on their behalf. It was started in World War I in order to conserve energy and candle wax for the […]

This could get interesting: The House intelligence committee asked the executive branch to provide by Monday any evidence to support President Donald Trump’s claim that his phones were tapped at Trump Tower during the election, a senior congressional aide said Saturday. Here’s how this went down. Some unnamed aide stuck a typically baloney Breitbart article […]

Two days ago the Trump Administration demanded the resignations of all remaining Obama-appointed federal prosecutors–including some of those pursuing Wall Street crimes and Russian mobsters–much to the consternation of anti-corruption advocates. Attorney Preet Bharara, who handles financial sector crimes, refused to resign and was fired instead. Why the sudden demand for all these attorneys to […]

Republicans never thought they would be in this position. The AHCA, The Republican plan to repeal and replace the the Affordable Care Act, is in trouble. The far-right hates the bill because it doesn’t go far enough to eliminate government subsidized health insurance for those who can’t afford it. Endangered Senate Republicans don’t like it […]

Whenever the Trump team is caught in another act of hypocrisy or lying, it has become a common refrain to throw one’s hands up in the air and say “nothing matters anymore.” That’s partly on account of the pundits who assumed that Trump’s campaign gaffes and lies would doom his chances–and when they didn’t, rather […]