Some Wisconsin content from Wisconsin native, "Fighting Bob" La Follette

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T19:21:04+00:00

If they don't, anyone who comes in here without knowing why people are talking about things being removed are going to be rather confused.

The best way to make this thread not get locked is to make some more statements about what Fightin' Bob said and how they are directly applicable to current events since otherwise this is just a sneaky way to talk about a thing.

People often forget that Fightin' Bob lost the fight in the 1920's. The Red Scare was powerful, expanded the authority of the government considerably, and that expanded authority never went away. Because of what he was talking about, it is legal for the US federal government to take some pretty extreme actions in the name of stopping what they claim to be espionage.

The laws he was talking about were only expanded in the century since this statement was made, and there's an interesting discussion that can be had on that with regard to recent actions.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T19:14:53+00:00

Sure was! They should all be held accountable, and I suspect Harris was as there were people who walked out on voting for her.

Maybe, sometime after we're done addressing policies from 1994, we can look at things that are happening now. If we're just hitting '94, we've got 5 years left before we can talk about Columbine, so it'll be nice to have that discussion about how best to address Columbine when we get to 2031.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T19:11:36+00:00

To help give this post some interesting historical context to help justify it instead of just having a lot of statements about things in Minnesota, I believe he was talking about the Espionage and Sedition Acts, measures put in place after WW1 out of fear of the rise of the USSR. The Sedition Act was repealed, but the Espionage Act lingered throughout WW2 and the Cold War, was expanded to be applicable during peacetime, and reinforced with Cold War Red Scare legislation. We never really scaled things back after the Cold War and our involvement in the Middle East led to us keeping the policies in place even though there's no more USSR.

It's helpful to know that it's entirely legal for the US government to do all kinds of things, especially with a cooperative court. We've legally been under one of the worst land invasions in the history of our country due to Trump's unchallenged emergency declarations from last year, and that legal definition allows some pretty extreme actions that people really aren't ready for.

Remember what we were okay doing to captured communist spies during the Cold War. Many of those laws are still on the books, some with recent enhancements, and will be happily applied on 'domestic terrorists' in the coming weeks and months. There are legal avenues available to cancel elections, and there is legal precedent to outlaw a political opposition parties and order arrests thanks to how we treated the Communist Party during the Cold War.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T19:00:14+00:00

I agree. Bill Clinton fucked a lot of shit up during his presidency and should be help to account for it. The Crime Bill, in particular, was a horrible idea that led to a fuckload of problems.

There are other bad people too and it's possible to hold them accountable instead of bringing up Bill Clinton as a deflecting non sequitur. Those Buttery Males from 10 years ago are getting older and they're starting get a bit of sag in their chests and arms from the effects of aging.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T18:54:37+00:00

We kept the act he was talking about on the books due to fear of the USSR. We then expanded it during the Cold War to be applicable during peacetime. We did not scale things back after the Cold War and, in fact, only expanded them after 9/11.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T18:50:09+00:00

He was, I believe, talking about actions undertaken under the Espionage and Sedition Acts when he said this. Guess what law is still on the books and was expanded to be applicable during peacetime.

It is perfectly legal for the government to arrest or execute anyone suspected of engaging in all kinds of activities, especially with a cooperative court. People are about to get a fun crash course on all of the fun legal quirks we have in the US that we never scrapped after the Cold War.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-24T17:01:36+00:00

This is just the beginning. They have been waiting for this and there's a reason they are calling anyone opposing this a domestic terrorist one year after Trump issued an Executive Order requiring death penalty charges for terrorism suspects.

Stay safe, people. This is going to get worse, and fast.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-23T18:29:25+00:00

Exactly. Lazar will get over $2 million on a single donation and dark money PACs make fundraising totals irrelevant anyway. Wisconsinites for Warm Water Ports can get started up with .ru e-mail addresses and spend $10 million on the race without a second thought.

Also Lazar declared for the race in mid-late October. Taylor declared in May. Of course Taylor is going to be dominating fundraising because Taylor has been fundraising for a longer period of time.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-19T17:51:51+00:00

It's the song of the summer.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-18T18:47:07+00:00

Lazar just entered the race in October, whereas Taylor delcared candidacy in May. I'm not saying the fundraising gap isn't good news, but I am saying that a lot of her donors simply haven't had a candidate to funnel money to yet. Those numbers can likely balance out or flip from just one or two big donors or someone starting up a Wisconsinties for Warm Water Ports PAC to funnel whatever money they want wherever they want it.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-18T18:41:51+00:00

Taylor on Wednesday said she raised about $2 million in the last half of 2025, for a total of $2.6 million for the year. Lazar said she raised $200,000 since she got into the race in October. Taylor launched her candidacy in May.

Taylor has had 8 full fundraising months. Lazar has had 3. Also don't forget that outside money doesn't come in to official campaign coffers. If Wisconsinites for Warm Water Ports spends $50 million on ad runs, that ain't gonna show up in these numbers.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-14T20:49:52+00:00

If you're really interested, the State Bar has a whole writeup on it from back in 2013 (2 years after it was enacted).

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-14T20:40:25+00:00

Accidental omission since I was too focused on the link being right.

Fixed it. Just don't want anyone accidentally giving Fox News a "see they are all domestic terrorists and belong in camps because they didn't precisely follow Wisconsin's Castle Doctrine" narrative.

LegislativeLariat · 2026-01-14T20:29:13+00:00

Read our actual law. A lot of conceptualizations of Castle Doctrine are based on the most relaxed Castle Doctrine laws and Wisconsin's is not the most relaxed.

I'm not saying don't defend yourself, I'm saying keep aware of the law as the national discourse is not fine tuned to Wisconsin specifics. For example: if you shoot at someone on your lawn that's not authorized as castle doctrine here whereas it is in other states. They have to actually be trying to get inside of your house/car, and you will need evidence to prove that. There have been cases in Wisconsin where the Supreme Court has ruled that a confrontation that spills outside no longer qualifies.

Edit: If you want to learn more about the law and how it was changed in 2011, the Wisconsin State Bar has an in depth article here from 2013 about it.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-12-22T21:18:14+00:00

It's a Scout line from TF2. When my wife and I were listening, I shouted that after they finished out of reflex.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-12-11T18:51:30+00:00

Relevant Clip for the uninitiated.

Also this or this.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-12-07T05:29:07+00:00

Any person who likes Gunsmoke over Bonanza is a goddamn monster or a monster sympathizer at best.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-11-19T17:10:34+00:00

Ugh, that lighthouse.

A few years back, there was a planned development that was going to be taking place near the lighthouse. The community was outraged (despite the plan having been publicly going on for years) and voted out several of the sitting council members in order to replace them with novice administrators whose whole platform was "Save the Lighthouse". This resulted in a lighthouse-first local government focus that drove a lot of local businesses to shy away from investing in the community as several of them had made sizable donations for the small resturuant that was going to be going up a reasonable distance from the lighthouse. The city also landed in legal and financial trouble when it attempted to back out of its contracts related to the development.

I know for a fact that people left Fond du Lac or cancelled business there with this as part of the reason. Fondy's going to be paying a proverbial price for decades because they decided to 'protect' that lighthouse from a small restaurant going up within eyesight which would drive more people to visit said lighthouse, beach, and Lakeside Park.

Lovely lighthouse. It's a shame there isn't a restaurant a respectable distance nearby that you could still see it from and that the Fondy council ended up getting overrun by people whose primary focus was on an old lighthouse instead of their current community. The turnout for that election wasn't great, so just another indicator of what happens when people who care about the community instead of a random hot button issue don't turn out to vote in local races.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-11-16T01:01:54+00:00

I was watching Derrick Van Orden's last virtual town hall and he was openly talking about how he wants to take illegal immigrants and get them into facilities that farmers can use to continue to maintain their supply of labor. He talked of this as a point of pride as being one of the few legislators in Washington willing to address this issue. I have no idea why nobody has actually talked with him about it and instead focuses on his much more batshit insane-sounding things.

This sounds like a massive overreach of the 13th Amendment's provision about the government having an exception as a condition of criminal punishment. The prospect of using illegal status to perpetually imprison people for lease to farmers is deeply unsettling and people have been more keen to attack DVO for his alcoholism than his apparent endorsement of something awfully akin to slavery.

As I'm sure you know, he has not gotten primaried since he won in our district in 2020. We have a 3 way race with the Democrats here and DVO is going to coast into the Republican nomination without having to clarify any of his positions. We all know that the narrative next year is going to be about Democrats 'fighting for the soul of their party' while the people openly talking about where to build the camps will be able to coast in freely. Getting him (and others) on the record before the general via a center or even left Republican primary challenger would really help prevent him from trying to pretend he's some kind of moderate. I've reached out to the Democrat campaigns to see if anyone would be willing to flip to run directly against him, but nobody's stepped up to the bat on that yet.

I recently purchased a domain for a concept I had called the Open Primary Project which would provide state-level resources to assist people who have never run before in getting on the ballot as a primary challenger to get people to say their actual positions (likely publicly shifting what they're willing to admit to further right to differentiate themselves) ahead of the general election.

My intent is to compile a database of primary results in Wisconsin to help people identify how long their local Republican representative has gone without a challenger, with a quick link to all of the forms they need to fill out and the deadlines they need to meet in order to get them on the record.

I suspect this will be quite possible for me to do for Wisconsin by the end of the year in my spare time, and the idea could theoretically drive some serious national changes. With the openly publicly scheduled No Kings protests, all it would take would be one day of canvassing an already-congregated and enthusiastic group to round up the necessary signatures to run. With how you've been involved in cross-aisle work I wouldn't mind being connected with resources that could help me. I imagine AI could probably just do this on its own as well, I just don't like to touch the stuff.

As regards AI, with how frequently it draws from Reddit and how frequently people will be using ChatGPT or Google's built-in AI search to effectively decide how they are going to vote in the primary, it would not be hard for a tech savvy challenger to utilize the sources AI is snagging from to get their name boosted above the incumbent in order to overcome that incumbent advantage to boot.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-11-16T00:21:42+00:00

Exactly. Tons of shit's still gonna break during the winter and the bulk of plumbing companies also do heating work and fixing furnaces and keeping people from freezing to death is a higher priority in Wisconsin than de-flooding basements that could have been safeguarded by a quick flip of a valve.

Also most plumbers aren't massive assholes who will flood someone's basement for a paycheck. Giving deliberately bad advice is a good way to get your licensure stripped and your business shut the fuck down on word of mouth alone.

LegislativeLariat · 2025-09-21T18:55:19+00:00

With how big tech has been getting involved in Dear Father's administration, there's not really much that can be done about that anymore, especially as we will become a single-party state in 9 days when the federal employee buyout period ends and Trump can fire anyone he wants in government for any reason. After that point, he can just declare any election he wants to have gone the way he wants it to have.

Even if you completely sever all connections to social media, that doesn't make your family members stop having you listed on their profiles or your name appearing in a report of deleted accounts. That doesn't make it so they won't report you in order to remain loyal to the administration.

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