Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos
WEAC Weighs in Early
It was a fair bet that the quiet Wisconsin gubernatorial race would get a little louder after the spring elections. And sure enough this week the big teachers union, WEAC, surprised a lot of people by endorsing Madison’s State Senator Kelda Roys. That was surprising to me mostly for the timing of it and, to…
Redistricting Gamesmanship
Somebody’s playing politics with gerrymandering. Actually, I suspect everybody’s playing politics with gerrymandering. After long and winding court fights, for the first time in a decade and a half Wisconsin conducted legislative races in 2024 under fair maps. The result was what was predicted by the experts: a slightly red state now has a Legislature…
Good Riddance, Chris McIntosh
Chris McIntosh said that leaving his job as UW Athletic Director was “bitter-sweet” for him. It certainly was for the fans. It was bitter to watch him operate in his job and sweet to see him go. McIntosh took a program that Barry Alvarez and Pat Richter built into a great success and ran the…
The Masters and Immortality
I spent a lot of last weekend watching the Masters golf tournament, the most pretentious spectacle in all of sports. The fans are “patrons” and the golf course is “the property.” “Stuffy” doesn’t begin to describe either the event itself or the broadcast. The property was referred to more than once as “the sacred sod,”…
The Rothman Paradox
The Rothman Affair may be running its course. That’s fine by me. After all, we’ve got a significant UW leader leaving every other day. We’ll write about Chris McIntosh some other time. Last week two senior members of the Board of Regents appeared before a Senate Committee and, despite believing that they were constrained in…
A Better, Fairer, Simpler Tax System
I just filed my taxes. It took me all afternoon. And there’s nothing exotic about our situation. No fancy investments, no foreign income, no capital gains… Just straight income and the standard deduction. So, why should it be this hard? And why should I be sitting here thinking that I missed something, got it wrong…
A Bad Day For Good Government
Yesterday, despite it being a glorious brisk and bright April day in Wisconsin, was a tough one for good government in a state that once prided itself on it. But before we get to that let’s talk about the good news. These days the very definition of good government is one without Donald Trump in…
Did They Make the Grade?
The State Journal sports page carried a story the other day that caught my eye for what was missing. The story was about how the Badger football program has been snapping up the best talent from Wisconsin high schools. My first reaction was, ‘good for them!’ The Badgers once prided themselves on building a recruiting…
Dyngus Day
My father grew up in South Bend, Indiana. In 1968, when I was nine-years old, we were in South Bend visiting my grandparents for Easter. Bobby Kennedy was in town as well. RFK was there because the Indiana primary was less than a month away and his political future depended on the result. The Monday…
What’s the Deal With Rothman?
Here’s a little intrigue to warm up a gloomy spring. University System President Jay Rothman has been invited to fall on his sword or, alternatively, to hand over his sword, surrender his university-provided housing and darken the doorstep of the Board of Regents no more. The Regents have asked Rothman to resign immediately or announce…
Conversion Therapy Ruling More Evidence for Appointed Courts
Chris Taylor will be the next Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. The political stars just align that way. But she won’t do it with my vote. Nor will I vote for the conservative on offer, Maria Lazar. The system isn’t giving me a choice I want. I want to vote for a respected lawyer or judge,…
A Good Obit is Worth 400 Words
Most people reach a point in their lives when they start reading obituaries. This happens because we all want to cull our Christmas card lists. As we age and we find ourselves on fixed incomes just as the cost of postage continues to spiral out of control, it’s important to keep those lists current. I’ve…
I Want the Dems to Win… Why Again?
As Wisconsin’s two-year legislative session raced to a close this month the Democrats had some leverage. They didn’t use it well. The Republicans still control both houses, but by much narrower margins since fair maps went into effect for the last election. The GOP runs the Senate, but by a thin 18-15 margin. That means…
The Quote & Quiz for 3/28/26
This week’s quote comes to us from none other than the Wall Street Journal editorial page. In opining against the massive taxpayer handouts being bandied about as the Chicago Bears play Illinois off against Indiana for their new stadium, the paper quoted a study on the value of these subsidies: “Nearly all empirical studies find…
The Dems’ Self-Loathing
Here’s a paradox. Democrats are likely to win the April Wisconsin Supreme Court race easily and then take the majority in the state Senate, retain the governor’s office and pick up the Third Congressional District seat in the fall. And yet, with all that potential winning, the party is less popular than Luke Fickell. This…
Taylor’s a Lock, Hong is For Real
It’s Christmas morning for Wisconsin bloggers. That’s right. There’s a new Marquette poll out. Let’s unwrap our gift from Uncle Charles and see what we’ve got. Taylor is a lock. Yeah, I know. Democratic operatives will hit the panic button to motivate voters, but Chris Taylor will win the Supreme Court race by a comfortable…
Public Broadcasting Survives
Last summer on my favorite public radio station, Rhinelander’s WXPR, I kept hearing how the impending elimination of federal funding was going to be “devastating” and how “life saving” alerts were at risk. And here we are several months since the money went away and yet good ol’ XPR is still going strong. As far…
Four Problems With the Environmental Movement
Wisconsin enviromentalists wouldn’t compromise, so the state’s premiere conservation program, the Stewardship Fund, will die this summer. It’s an old, sad story and it’s one reason that green policies, once widely popular and bipartisan, are now on the ropes. Refusal to compromise is just one of four problems plaguing a movement I was once very…
The Quote & Quiz for 3/21/26
This week’s quote comes to us from none other than the Wall Street Journal. Here’s the lede paragraph from a story about progressive Democratic senators plotting to unseat their minority leader, Chuck Schumer: Sen. Chris Murphy was dining with progressive activists at a French restaurant in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood when the conversation about how to advance their…
Police Monitor Circus Goes On and On
A few years ago the circus came to town. And it just won’t go away. In 2020, and for no apparent reason, the Madison City Council created the Madison Police Civilian Oversight Board and the Office of the Independent Police Monitor at an annual cost to taxpayers of around $500,000. They did so even though…
Roys Right on Bucky Bailout
I emailed my State Senator, Kelda Roys, this morning to thank her for her vote the other day against Assembly Bill 1034, the Bucky bailout bill. I got a reply a little while later and, while it was a form reply, I thought it was excellent, so I’m going to share it with you here.…
Don’t Name Schools After People
People are flawed and history is relentless. Yesterday’s heroes are today’s oppressors. And activists are unforgiving. Taking a person’s full contributions into account and balancing those against his mistakes and even outright misdeeds is not something that’s in fashion in today’s hyper-polarized society. I wrote about that a few years ago when Madison’s James Madison…
The Fix Was In on the Badger Bailout
Bipartisanship isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Take Assembly Bill 1034, the legislation that would hand over almost $15 million in taxpayer money every year to the UW Athletic Department. The bill passed yesterday on a “bipartisan” vote, but there’s nothing good about this cross aisle cooperation. Here’s what happened. The bill was a…
Fight the NIL Give Away
Do you want your tax dollars to help pay Luke Fickell’s salary? That’s essentially the question before the state Senate this week. A couple weeks ago I wrote about an awful bill in the Legislature which would hand over $14.6 million in our tax dollars to fix a hole in the UW Athletic Department’s budget…
Barnes’ PSC Idea Should Spark Debate
Mandela Barnes has hit on a good issue, even if he did so in a clumsy sort of way. Last week, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said that he would only appoint Public Service Commission members who would pledge never to increase utility rates. That specific proposal is a bad idea because sometimes rate increases are…
Little Choice for Madison School Board
I’m grateful to have any choice at all. Usually, members of the Madison school board run for reelection unopposed. But this cycle both incumbents who are up for reelection have opponents. That’s the good news. There is some additional good news in that each of the challengers seems smart, capable and committed. But while I’m…
The Proper Uses of Alcohol
Several years ago I recognized that I had a drinking problem. To be specific my problem was that I was an average Wisconsinite. From what I could tell from my observations of family, friends and the Badger nation at large, I was actually on the light side of local consumption. But it’s all relative and…
More of the Same Coming to Supreme Court
I have amazing powers of prediction. I can tell you who the next two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices will be. Next month Chris Taylor will defeat Maria Lazar by about ten points. Then a year from now Clark County Circuit Court Judge Lyndsey Brunette will replace Annette Ziegler, who announced her retirement yesterday. Here’s how…
This is How Democrats Win
As a center-left Democrat, I don’t often look to Texas for good news. Mostly what we get out of the Lone Star State are hard-right gun and God (in that order) worshiping cowboys. But even the Democrats aren’t often my cup of tea. Rep. Al Green, who has made it his signature move to yell…
The Wrong Investigation
Maia Pearson, the chair of Madison’s police oversight board and a Madison school board member, has been charged with criminal misdemeanors related to her resisting arrest in an incident in downtown Madison in December. In a criminal complaint, it is alleged that she and her friend, Urban Triage executive director Brandi Grayson, verbally abused staff…
Evers’ Good Idea is DOA
The other day Gov. Tony Evers introduced a state constitutional amendment that would ban partisan gerrymandering. That was a curious thing in a variety of ways. First off, why now? The Assembly has already gone home to campaign for reelection and the Senate has only one more day of session planned. This isn’t going anywhere.…
Why Not Ignore Social Media?
The other day I heard from a reader who noted that he had been abused on Facebook for writing things similar to a recent blog of mine about the antics of a Madison school board member and nonprofit director. I suppose I may have taken some of the same criticism, but I wouldn’t know. I…
The Waste of the Line 5 Fight
It’s pretty much over now. After seven years of legal battles, the Enbridge pipeline, known as Line 5, is finally under construction. It’s a tragedy, but not for the reasons those who fought it think it is. In fact, it’s an environmental tragedy created by environmentalists. This is an issue that at least tangentially connects…
The Disease of Tribalism
In my view, Alex Pretti should not have brought a gun to a protest. But if you disagree and believe Pretti was well within his right to bring a loaded concealed firearm to that fateful protest in Minneapolis where he was killed by ICE agents, then do you also think that the January 6th insurrectionists…
Bucky’s Dark Money
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department wants taxpayer money while keeping the public in the dark on how they’ll spend it. And the Legislature is rushing to give them both the money and the cover of darkness. In the 2023 state budget the Republicans cut the UW system’s budget by $32 million. To get the…
Could Tiffany Win?
I asked an influential Democrat up here in the north woods (where the skiing has been amazing, by the way) who he liked for governor. Before he answered he told me something I hadn’t even thought to ask: he said he thought Tom Tiffany, the Republican Congressman from this part of the state, could win…
Dems Stoop to Trump’s Level
I watched as much of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as I could stomach, which is to say about 20 minutes of it. I caught up by reading about it this morning. My overall take is that Trump was Trump, which is to say that he revealed yet again what a — to…
A Strange Silence
Paul Skidmore was a long-time Madison alder from the west side. At an online City Council meeting in September, 2020 somebody mutttered an ugly word directed at a Black woman who was speaking before the Council. It was so muted and subtle that nobody even noticed it in the moment, but it came to light…
More Sleaze in Wis Supremes Race
I got a helpful mailer the other day. It’s my “Nonpartisan Voter Guide for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.” This even-handed, strictly fact-based document provided me with valuable, nonpartisan and unbiased data on candidates Chris Taylor and Maira Lazar. It pointed out, for example, that Taylor had worked for Planned Parenthood and was a long-time supporter…
Let’s Nix Newsom and Pritzker
It’s astonishing to me that governors Gavin Newsom and JB Pritzker are presumptive front runners for the Democratic nomination in 2028. Their records in California and Illinois are horrible and they’d be easy prey for whoever the Republican nominee is post-Trump. The other day in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, an old-fashioned center-right Republican…
Dems: Take the Money and Run
I guess the Democrats just want an issue for the fall. That’s the only way I can explain their opposition to a Republican bill that would keep the Stewardship Fund land acquisition and management program alive for another couple of years. To be sure the Republican bill is inadequate. It would reauthorize the program at…
The Souter Society
Chances are I did something yesterday that you didn’t. I voted in the spring primary. Only about one-in-ten eligible voters bothered to show up and I can’t really blame those that stayed home. There was only one race on my ballot, a quiet affair to eliminate one of three candidates for a Dane County circuit…
More Reason to Appoint Justices
This one won’t be as awful as the last two, but it’s still pretty bad. I refer to the latest contest for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Because the previous contests in 2024 and 2025 were battles for ideological control of the Court, they attracted national attention and truckloads of money from outside…
Why Are We Subsidizing Data Centers?
Wisconsin taxpayers have spent $70 million in the last couple of years to subsidize the construction and operation of data centers. That’s because a provision in the 2023-2025 state budget created a sales and use tax exemption for these things. The exemption is broad, covering everything from computer hardware and software to office furniture. And…
Warning Signs From Jersey
This week Analilia Mejia won an upset victory in the Democratic primary to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. She defeated former moderate Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski and nine other candidates. She ran well to the left of the field, gaining the endorsements of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and…
Social Issues Can’t Save the GOP This Time
Republicans want to change the subject. So, the other day they passed a series of bills in the Wisconsin Legislature aimed at reviving transgender issues where they hold mostly popular positions. The bills would ban the participation of transgender females in girl’s and women’s sports, prevent minors from getting gender-affirming treatments and require parents to…
Taxpayers Shouldn’t Bail Out UW Athletics
It’s possible that taxpayers will be on the line for most of a $20 million loan given to the UW Athletic Department in 2020. As a rule, UW athletics pays for itself. Football and men’s basketball produce enough revenue to pay for themselves and everything else. But when the pandemic shut everything down the campus…
Law Forward Could Take Us Backward
Madison takes enough incoming from the hard-right. We don’t need the left to pile on. I’m referring to the liberal law firm Law Forward’s civil suit against the city and its former clerks over the mishandling of 193 ballots in the November, 2024 election. These were absentee ballots that were misplaced and not counted. They…
A New Kind of Diversity
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling disallowing the use of race in admissions something surprising (although it should have been predictable) is happening. While admissions of Black students to Ivy League schools is down, admissions to state schools is up. The New York Times reported this week that Black admissions to the nation’s…
Trump in Retreat
Let’s start with the photo below. These are, of course, ICE agents training their loaded weapons on a driver in the Twin Cities. But why? Have they tracked down a dangerous criminal? Is this a drug dealer? Has the person brandished a weapon or tried to impede their work? No. None of the above. The…
Link Pay to Performance
Last June UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin received $150,000 just for hanging around. She was scheduled to get another $250,000 had she stayed into June of this year, but instead she’s leaving for Columbia University. Her last day at the UW will be sometime around commencement in May. By most accounts Mnookin did a good job.…
Senate Dems Know How to De-ICE
After a couple of false starts, Senate Democrats seem to have figured out how to work a potential government shutdown. House Dems should go along. Last fall Democrats forced a 43-day partial shutdown. They did so over the price of health care. While they didn’t get the extension of Obamacare tax subsidies that they wanted,…
Does Paranoia Strike This Deep?
I go back and forth on this one. Sometimes I think I’m being paranoid. Other times I believe I’m right. Today I believe I’ve got a justified concern. My worry is that Donald Trump will try to steal the mid-term elections in November and then try to run again and stay in power after 2028.…
The Quote & Quiz For 1/31/26
I know, it’s becoming tiresome. But when you have a quote factory like Donald J. Trump it gets hard not to go there, especially during slow weeks when nobody else is saying things that are more stupid, crude, outrageous or all three at once. This week Trump picked Kevin Warsh to be the new Fed…
Stability
It’s morning and I’m in mourning. One of my favorite columnists of all time, David Brooks, is leaving the New York Times after 22 years. He’ll move over full time to the Atlantic and he’ll do something vague at Yale. So, I can still find his writing if I look for it, but I’ll miss…
Guv Race Hits the Drop Out Phase
Looks like we’re entering the middle innings now. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the race for Wisconsin governor was in the third inning. The first three frames were the preliminary moves: putting together a campaign, carving out an identity, choosing issues to emphasize and, crucially, raising money. The campaign finance reports, which…
Pretti’s Death Creates a Chance for Sanity
Alex Pretti may not have died in vain. While the videos of Renee Good’s death were open to interpretation, Pretti’s killing looks like a flat out murder. It was so clear that even MAGA and Republican-leaning news outlets, like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, are decrying it and calling for a real investigation…
In Defense of Failure
When it comes to my understanding of the Madison school district’s new grading system put me down as “emerging.” MMSD will expand its “standards-based” system to all of its regular high schools next year after a trial period at East. Instead of letter grades, students will receive words: advanced, proficient, developing and emerging. Here’s a…
The Quote & Quiz For 1/24/26
This week’s quote comes to us from none other than Donald J. Trump, who said near the end of a nearly two hour rant before the White House press corps summing up his first year back in office: “I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done.” A) “Is he freaking nuts? I…
Chilly Today
The forecast was for “life-threatening” cold. So yesterday I drove north. Here in Watersmeet this morning I woke up to -23 with a windchill of -37 thanks to a cooling breeze from the northwest. Actually, it’s not all that much colder than it is in Madison where it’s -17. The dog stayed down there with…
Flash: College Football Not Destroyed!
Now that the college football season is over, let’s evaluate all the gloom and doom coming from those who said that paying the players and allowing them to transfer between programs would kill the sport. Here’s our official analysis: not. Turns out television ratings were never higher. If NIL and the portal obliterated fan interest…
Maybe It’s the Wisconsin Way
If this works out sports writers might start talking about “The Wisconsin Way.” I refer to our state’s reluctance to fire its football coaches. Most people expected Wisconsin to fire Luke Fickell late last season as his team struggled for the third year in a row. Fickell’s record at Wisconsin is a dismal 17-21 and…
State of Guv’s Race in the Third Inning
To put this in baseball terms (and let’s look ahead instead of looking back to an ugly end to the Packers’ season) it’s about the third inning in the Wisconsin governor’s race and there’s finally a score to look at. The bottom line is that it’s a close game with no clear favorite right now.…
Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, MPLS Street Protests Have Got To Go
Martin Luther King Day is a good time to reflect on the efficacy of street protests. My view has long been that these things are usually ineffective, often counterproductive and rarely successful. The movement King led is a case in point because it was the rare exception that, after he was killed, degenerated into the…
The Quote & Quiz For 1/17/26
For the past several weeks the researchers, writers and editors on the YSDA’s Q&Q Desk have been frustrated by the lack of material generated by news makers that meets our high standards. So, we’ve gone silent. And wouldn’t you know it. The last couple of weeks we’ve been flooded by candidates for the highly prized…
Trump Now Accepting All Trophies
Yesterday Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado stopped by the White House to drop off her Nobel Peace Prize for Donald Trump. The Nobel people said that the prize was non-transferable. What they didn’t say was what they meant: that they wish they had never given it to a nut like Machado in the first place.…
Trump’s Thugocracy
What’s going on in Minneapolis right now — and less dramatically across the rest of the country — is the very face of the Trump Administration. This is exactly who these people are. Masked men in fatigues carrying overpowered weapons dragging people from their cars. Demanding to see their papers like Gestapo agents at German…
More Redistribution Needed?
In my last blog I made the assertion, quoting the center-right columnist and editor Jonah Goldberg, that the rich were already paying their fair share in taxes. Goldberg claimed that the top 10% of income tax filers paid three-quarters of federal income taxes. An alert reader took issue with my overall assertion and provided data…
In Defense of Rugged Individualism
One line from Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address from a couple of weeks ago has been getting a lot of attention. It goes like this: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Does he mean the communal warmth of Stalin’s work camps in Siberia? Or maybe he means the literal…
Don’t Trust the FBI
I’m one of about three Americans who hasn’t rushed to judgement on the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. The other two are expected to emerge from their comas soon and will pass judgement some moments later. What I have are a lot of questions and zero faith that this Justice…
Some Choice For Madison School Board
I guess it’s better than nothing. I had expected that, per usual, the two incumbents up for reelection to the Madison School Board would face no opposition. So, I was pleasantly surprised that both Blair Mosner-Feltham and Nikki Vander Meulen will have opponents. The trouble is that their opponents are not raising the issues that…
Where’s the Moderate in Dem Primary?
The field for the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor is set and it’s lacking a key ingredient. There is no one looking to occupy the moderate lane. What we’ve got are six candidates cramming into the main liberal-activist lane, one candidate looking to be the Badger Mamdani and one candidate who has a sailboat in…
Will Blue Collar Voters Be Back in Play?
Only fools try to predict the future. Okay, so let’s get started then. This should be a good year for Democrats. Not because anybody is excited about them (the party’s approval ratings are at an all-time low), but because it’s a mid-term election with an unpopular Republican in the White House. Moreover, people continue to…
These Words Must Be Destroyed
This year I was in despair. For the first time in years I couldn’t come up with enough material to fill my annual list of words and phrases that are so over-used or pretentious that I want them destroyed. But then I asked Isthmus staff for suggestions and associate editor Linda Falkenstein came through with…
Closing Out the Year in the Cold
I write this morning from a place I wasn’t supposed to be at. For the second time in about a month a blizzard tore through the Upper Peninsula, shut down the power to our cabin and threatened our plumbing. So, for the second time in a month I hopped in the car and drove the…
Homelessness & Personal Responsibility
For the seven plus years that we’ve lived here I’ve seen this same guy begging for money outside of our building. He stations himself outside of a grocery store, which occupies the ground floor of our building in the heart of the affluent, uber-liberal west side of Madison. And he does very well. I had…
And To All, A Good Night
It’s a holiday tradition here at YSDA. Our little gift for helping you end a get-together with friends or family that might have gone on just a little too long. You’re a delightful host and so, of course, your guests will want to stay into a night that is so deep. But you’re sleepy. What…
Nothin’ To See Here
After the 2024 debacle, the Democratic National Committee commissioned a post-mortem study. DNC Chair Ken Martin has just announced that we should all just forget about it. Everything’s fine. Let’s move on. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he’s got a point. Democrats have been winning elections or coming close in…
AI Will Be A-OK
The American left defines itself by what it’s against. Don’t knock it. Being against Donald Trump has been a godsend. There’s no need to deal with its own deep unpopularity, to abandon any of its eccentric causes or to develop any kind of sensible, centrist agenda for positive change. Just not be Trump. It works!…
Rename the Kennedy Center
When will they ever learn? When will they eeeee-ver learn? “Blowin’ in the Wind” is a liberal anthem, but liberals need to take its lesson. Donald Trump just keeps playing the same damn card and liberals keep falling for the same trick. So, yesterday when Trump’s handpicked board announced that it was renaming the Kennedy…
Dugan’s No Hero
Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is on trial this week for helping an illegal immigrant escape — briefly — arrest by ICE. I don’t know if she’ll be convicted or not and even if she is she’s likely to get a light sentence. That’s appropriate because Dugan should never have been criminally prosecuted in…
What’s College For?
An Associated Press story from the other day caught my eye. It was about a controversy stemming from a new policy limiting how much a student can borrow under federally supported student loan programs. The policy itself is sound. It limits how much a student can borrow based on their likely income once they graduate.…
Trump’s Derangement
Rob Reiner’s going to get the last laugh. The other day Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does. He was mean-spirited, cruel, vulgar, self-obsessed and wrong. That’s par for Trump’s course. On Monday Trump said that Reiner’s death was “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with…
‘Sensible Dane’ Still Makes Sense
A few weeks ago, former journalist, local pol and current blogger-provacateur David Blaska invited me for a cup of coffee. He wanted to run an idea by me. His idea was to create a new local party in Dane County. I thought it was a good idea, until I didn’t. Blaska, a Never Trump Republican…
Trump Fades Some More
The evidence of Donald Trump’s slipping hold on his party is growing. Yesterday, the Indiana State Senate overwhelmingly rejected Trump’s demand that they rig their congressional maps to provide Republicans with another seat. More Republican senators voted against Trump than with him. On the same day, four Republicans U.S. Senators voted with the Democrats to…
Brennan In, Conroy Out
Since the announced sale of Exact Sciences, which makes the colon cancer test kit, a few months ago, there’s been speculation that the company’s founder and CEO Kevin Conroy would get in the race for Wisconsin governor. It now comes down to this: how do you get along with your brother-in-law? Because yesterday Joel Brennan,…
The Elites Had This Coming
There’s a certain kind of liberal who doesn’t care much for democracy. When I became Mayor of Madison in 2003, my experience in government had been as an aide in the legislature and as a Dane County Supervisor. Those bodies operated pretty much as a political science major would have expected. Bills were introduced, powerful…
Give a Kid a House
One of the more intriguing — and one of the few positive — things to happen in the last few weeks is the announcement that Michael and Susan Dell will contribute $6.25 billion toward “Trump accounts” set up under the Big Beautiful Bill. Shameless self-promotion aside, this is one good thing that’s come out of…
Checking in on Dem Candidates
With Mandela Barnes’ unsurprising announcement that he’s joining the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, that field appears to be pretty well set. The only potential, but not yet announced candidate, out there is former state Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan. I would expect him to get in before Christmas and I’d be surprised…
Two Tales of Honduras
Trump pardons a notorious drug dealer while he deports a bright college student. The college student didn’t flatter him and hire Roger Stone. Her bad. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza is a 19-year old student at Babson College near Boston who has been in this country since she was seven. She has no criminal record. In…
Barnes’ Heavy Baggage
In what will compete for the least surprising story of 2025, Mandella Barnes officially entered the race for Wisconsin governor yesterday. There had been an effort to keep him out. The Black-owned Milwaukee Courier newspaper, which endorsed Barnes in his 2022 U.S. Senate bid, wrote an October editorial urging him against a gubernatorial run. “Mandela had his…
Burns Gets It Right
Okay, so I understand that I am required to gush over everything Ken Burns does. I may not so much as even mention his Moe Howard hair cut. The man’s a genius and who am I to raise so much as a dust speck of dissent? And yet… if I could just offer one little…
The Quote & Quiz, Thanksgiving Edition
Welcome to this week’s Quote & Quiz, which moves from its usual Saturday spot to today’s place of honor on Thanksgiving Day. This special quote comes to us from none other than Lanette Cook, education and engagement manager at the Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary in Erie, Colorado. Cook asked this of Gus, a farm raised…
Kelly’s a Hero
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and a handful of Congressional colleagues, who are service veterans, issued a video last week directed at active service personnel. Their message was simple and true: officers and soldiers need not follow illegal orders. They pledged loyalty to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump. In fact, their message was consistent with…
The Quote & Quiz for 11/22/25
This week’s quote comes to us from none other than Katie Wilson, mayor-elect of Seattle who said: “I will appoint a cabinet of exceptional leaders whose lived experiences reflect the diversity of Seattle’s Black, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latinx/Hispanic, and People of Color communities as well as that of women, immigrants and refugees, 2SLGBTQIA+…
What We Lost When We Lost Sharon’s Store
Sharon owned a small store in Rockbridge. For a few decades her store served as a deer registration station during the nine-day gun deer season, which begins again on Saturday. When you shot a deer in her neck of the woods you had to bring it to Sharon’s where she filled out some paper work…
The Tragedy of Tommy
At some point, when he’s long gone, people will look back on the Trump era and make a simple judgement: did you oppose or support the man who was the most corrupt president in history? A man who sought to destroy American democracy and replace it with an autocracy. A man who displayed nothing but…
Sunset of Trump?
That orange glow you see on the horizon may be Donald Trump setting in the west. God knows, we’ve been here before. I was sure of several things. Trump could not be elected in 2016. Trump could not be reelected in 2024. And along the way, on numerous occasions, I was absolutely certain that he…
Blame My Dog
Close readers of YSDA may have noticed that our production has fallen off in recent weeks. The other members of my household are to blame. I’ll explain. I usually write this blog early in the morning. I read something in the morning’s papers. My goat is gotten. I spout off. I post the spouting and…
Moderates Act Like Adults
Three weeks ago in this space we urged Democrats to do the responsible thing, be the adults in the room, and vote to end the government shutdown. Now, thanks to the sensible moderate Democrats in the Senate, that’s exactly what’s happening. Moreover, it’ll pay off politically for their party. Our argument back in October was…
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Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 