Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos
A safe place for moderates in a polarized world
Latest from the blog
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…
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