Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos
A safe place for moderates in a polarized world
Latest from the blog
Upshot of the Gerrymander Wars
Your head might be spinning with all the action from states and courts over redrawing Congressional districts — frantically in order to get them in place for November’s elections. Here from a story in the New York Times on Saturday is the best bottom line analysis I’ve seen : At the end of April, the…
The Act Blue Blues
Any fellow Democrats out there have this experience? You hear a ding on your cell phone. You think it might be a friend. And it is, in fact, someone posing as a friend. “Hi, Dave. This is Ron Smith. I’m running for an obscure House seat in rural Oregon. A Democrat hasn’t won here in…
We Can Still Mess This Up
I’m still in mourning over the whole Graham Platner thing. Last week, Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the Democratic primary to take on the squishy, spineless Republican Sen. Susan Collins. That makes Platner the presumptive nominee in November. God help us. Collins is the annual winner of the Senate’s Talks a Good Game…
Indiana Still Wants Him
Yesterday was another tough one for American democracy. At least five of seven Indiana State Senators, who had the courage to defy Donald Trump over his demand that they gerrymander the state to his liking, lost their primaries to Trump yes men. This is bad on at least two levels, but possibly not so bad…
Voting Rights Ruling Could Help Dems
In support of last week’s Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act, I’m tempted to run the image below and just drop the mic. The red area above is Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District and the one that was struck down by the Court. It is the very definition of a gerrymander, which was a…
Who Leaked the Hong Memo?
Last week the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a fawning piece on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong. The big news in that glowing profile was that the paper had obtained a copy of a memo written by a consultant for presumptive Republican nominee Tom Tiffany. In that memo the consultants tell their client that Hong is…
Buy Stuff Today
The hard-left is demanding that we not work or spend money today. So, I’d work overtime if I had a job. As it is, I’m counting writing today’s blog as work, which it is unless you define work as gainful employment. And I’m going to spend my brains out. It won’t matter one way or…
The Data Center Tax Ripoff Conspiracy
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog questioning why Wisconsin has a sales tax exemption for data centers. At the time I thought maybe the state was forgoing as much as a $100 million in taxes. It turns out it’s much more. A recent Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis estimates that it’s more like $2…
See Ya, Alan. I’m Still a Dem.
Alan Dershowitz needs attention. That’s why the Harvard law school professor and one-time liberal icon announced last week on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal that he had forsaken the Democratic Party to become a registered Republican. Let’s leave aside the central question of why anybody cares anymore and pretend that we do.…
Let MTI Protest on its Own Time
Hardly a week goes by when the Madison school district doesn’t demonstrate its contempt for its own taxpayers. Shortly after those taxpayers voted to pony up a record $607 million in school spending increases, the district blew $100,000 on a new marketing campaign including a new MMSD logo — to add insult to injury that…
Roys Responds to WEAC Post
Last week I posted a blog about the state teachers union’s early endorsement of Sen. Kelda Roys in the Democratic primary to be held in August. Roys responded to that post, which was, in part, critical of both her and WEAC. I hope readers will join me in appreciating the time she took to do…
The Q&Q For 4/25/26
This week’s quote comes to us from none other than Jesus Christ. That’s right. This week, speaking with an AP reporter, an AI bot representing the Son of God was asked about His views on, well, AI bots. His thoughtful reply: “I see AI as a tool that can help people explore Scripture,” the AI…
Make UW Admissions Transparent
Getting admitted into the UW Madison is something of a crap shoot. The process is a secret as closely guarded as the nuclear codes. Let’s make it totally transparent. It appears that right now there are only two ways to have 100% assurance that you’ll get into the UW. By state law you have to…
Environmentalism Is The Establishment
On the fifty-something anniversary of Earth Day it’s time for the environmental movement to grow up. More accurately, it’s important to admit that we have grown up and grown into the establishment. Today, environmentalism isn’t some scrappy, radical movement. Environmentalists are no longer banging at the castle walls. They run the castle. The Environmental Protection…
A Project 2028 For the Dems
What on earth will my party do when we don’t have Donald Trump to kick around any more? Every day it looks like the Democrats will do better in November. It had already been a given that the Blues would take back the House, including Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, and the Wisconsin State Senate. But…
New Badger AD Has to Get It
If Chris McIntosh’s entire tenure as UW Madison’s Athletic Director wasn’t disappointing enough, his exit was even worse. Not only did McIntosh jump a ship that he had steered onto the rocks, but he left for a newly created, cushy and insular job at the Big Ten: Deputy Commissioner of Strategy. Strategy for what? Will…
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,”…
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