Category Archives: Uncategorized

Let’s play a few rounds of reasonable/unreasonable. In Tennessee, Democratic State Representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were expelled from the Legislature for participating in a takeover of the House floor by protestors angry over the body’s refusal to pass gun control legislation. In Montana, Rep. Zoey Zephyr was banned from her House floor forContinue reading “Reasonable/Unreasonable”

Below you will find a picture of my entire yield in the inaugural edition of Dave’s Watersweet Maple Syrup, a product of Watersmeet, Michigan. That’s right, that’s one mason jar. And you’re also correct in noting that it’s about two-thirds full (generously interpreted). That’s all there is. That’s all she wrote. That’s all I got.Continue reading “Midwest: Yield”

A couple of weeks ago Dane County Executive Joe Parisi appointed former Supervisor and current State Rep. Shelia Stubbs to lead the county’s human services agency. On paper, Stubbs looked like a good choice, but she has managed to disqualify herself with her actions since the appointment. The whole thing started out weird. For someContinue reading “Stubbs Disqualifies Herself”

Stop the presses! (Okay, there are no presses. Don’t press “publish”!) Yesterday we witnessed an example of bipartisan cooperation on an important issue. At a press conference in Milwaukee Republican legislative leaders Robin Vos and Devin LaMehieu joined the Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee, Cavalier Johnson, and the Milwaukee County Executive, David Crowley, to announce aContinue reading “Is Shared Revenue Deal About Brewers Stadium?”

Yesterday Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s House passed a bill that — at least in the broad strokes, it’s a 320 page document and God knows what lurks within — isn’t all that unreasonable. In exchange for raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion into 2024, the bill would roll back overall federal spending and: So, threeContinue reading “McCarthy’s Offer”

How is it that the two parties are likely to nominate candidates that about two-thirds of Americans don’t want? About 70% of Americans don’t want Pres. Joe Biden to run for a second term and 60% of them don’t want to see Donald Trump on the ballot again. And yet, if Biden can just rememberContinue reading “I’d Rather Have Buttigieg V. Haley”

We like to cast ourselves here at YSDA as the sane, sensible, left-center, hanging on to the Democratic Party because we don’t have an alternative. But truth be told, we are the majority. So, why doesn’t it feel that way? Why aren’t we running the party? About 51% of people who identify as Democrats areContinue reading “Mod Dems Are the Majority”

Yesterday I attended a lovely celebration of the life of Gov. Tony Earl at Monona Terrace. I guess there were about 200 or more people there, most of them, as you’d expect, Democrats. But there was a fair sprinkling of prominent Republicans too, including Tommy Thompson, former Senate majority leader Mary Panzer, and retired SupremeContinue reading “Vos Missed An Easy Chance”

The news shouldn’t have been surprising, but in fact I was surprised that it was this bad. A study by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum concludes that state financial support for the UW System, when measured per student, ranks 43rd in the nation. The good news is that support for the state’s technical colleges ranksContinue reading “UW Must Reconnect”

I used to be a more pure environmentalist than I am now. Still, I think Republicans were dead wrong to block purchase of an easement on land that would become the Pelican River State Forest. Here’s what happened. A national nonprofit purchased somewhere between 55,000 and 70,000 acres (reports conflict, but it can be fairlyContinue reading “Odd Way To Celebrate Earth Day”