L.A. Kauffman

Disability accommodations are a rare thing that actually trickles down. You like curb cutouts? Auto-opening doors? Jar openers? Ramps? Hand rails? YOU’RE WELCOME

Even as an abled person you use disability accommodations every single day.

Supporting accommodations actually helps everyone.

A screenshot of an article from the New York Times, dated November 23 1997: EAST VILLAGE; Fax Attack Puts Garden Defender in Legal Paper Jam by Jesse McKinley

(Okay, it was a LOT of faxes. The district attorney declined to prosecute.)
www.nytimes.com/1997/11/23/n...

I was arrested at home by NYPD detectives and charged under a stalking law for sending faxes to New York City's chamber of commerce

went to this community organizing thing a bit ago and ended up on a variety of signal chats and like. wow. how does one keep up with all this while being employed? i’m glad there are folks who can do all that, but man. i burn all my energy just getting through the day. there is nothing left.

Don't go searching for OP, leave them alone. I just think that what they uplift is important and explains why many people simply cannot engage in activism and organizing regularly. And the truth is that it's hard to figure out actual ways around this because organizing in fact a labor.

Yes -- this. And what paid organizing jobs exist are almost all entry-level and poorly compensated.

The more senior level jobs in progressive nonprofits rarely involve direct organizing.

Agree. In some circles people even refer to organizing as "the work," but it's work that people are somehow expected to do, indefinitely, without compensation, benefits, or support.

In my neighborhood, they loaded corpses by forklift into a refrigerator truck ... parked alongside my kids' favorite play area in our local park.

Millions died, and many millions more have become disabled. And yet the media and ruling consensus has been to shrug and bury the scale of the harm.

Appreciate this lifting up of Giuffre's courage. But real justice and accountability for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor would include accountability for his part in her tragic death.

This Machine Quells Fascists All across the nation, there's a new vibration, spreading from Minneapolis and traveling at the speed of song.

I'm back from a week of vacation with a report on the next wave of the Defiance: The Singing Resistance. It's easy to join; it's addictive once you do it; and it converts rage into loving action. Link below: open.substack.com/pub/theconne...

Fantastic - congratulations!

He gives a special mention this week to ten dogs who were rescued by a neighbor from empty apartments "after their humans were disappeared by ICE"

Rep. Joaquin Castro meets with the 5-year-old boy held with his father at a Texas detention facility | CNN US Rep. Joaquin Castro met Wednesday with Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old Minnesota boy taken from his family’s suburban Minneapolis driveway last week after federal agents apprehended his father, t...

I know this is a small thing compared to the cold-blooded murders, but they TOOK HIS LITTLE HAT

“He keeps asking about that hat and that backpack that are in the picture,” the congressman said. “I think they took that from him.”
www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/u...

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

List of Minnesota businesses closing for Jan. 23 anti-ICE strike First announced by faith leaders and unions on Jan. 13, Minnesota businesses have begun announcing plans to join the action.

A truly impressive list of Minnesota businesses and organizations that will be closing for tomorrow's anti-ICE strike >
bringmethenews.com/minnesota-li...

An ad reading "THURS 1/22 ON LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT - MARIA J. STEPAHN" at 1:35/10:35c on CBS|Paramount"

A remarkable sign of the times: Legendary nonviolent resistance scholar and trainer @mariajstephan.bsky.social will be on @colbertlateshow.bsky.social tonight to discuss "what nonviolent action is, why it works, and how to take part in this growing broad-front pro-democracy movement."

I know people keep saying this but it’s hard to communicate the depth of active resistance here. Like, I’m on random cafes and people are checking in for observation shifts. Signs everywhere. Folks in visibility vests on the corners. It’s wild. Absolutely wild.

An ad reading "THURS 1/22 ON LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT - MARIA J. STEPAHN" at 1:35/10:35c on CBS|Paramount"

A remarkable sign of the times: Legendary nonviolent resistance scholar and trainer @mariajstephan.bsky.social will be on @colbertlateshow.bsky.social tonight to discuss "what nonviolent action is, why it works, and how to take part in this growing broad-front pro-democracy movement."

Minnesota’s coalition is demanding:

1: ICE must leave Minnesota now.
2: Renee Good’s killer, Jonathan Ross, must be held legally accountable.
3: No additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming budget.

“These are moral common sense for a state that values truth, freedom, and life.”

A major coalition is launching a general strike in Minnesota tomorrow, aimed at pushing out ICE.

It includes:

-Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005
-The MN AFL-CIO
-SEIU Local 26
-UNITE HERE Local 17
-CWA Local 7250
-Saint Paul and Minneapolis Federations of Educators
-Faith leaders

And more. 🧵

It's genuinely a leaderless (or leaderful) movement, decentralized in a way that the state is absolutely unequipped to handle. There are a few basic skills involved, and so people teach each other those skills, and people are collectively refining them.

Half the street corners around here have people--from every walk of life, including republicans--standing guard to watch for suspicious vehicles, which are reported to a robust and entirely decentralized network that tracks ICE vehicles and mobilizes responders.

So far this morning, I have swept the Lowe’s and harbor Freight for ICE and stood in the freezing cold trying to get my /Democratic /senator to prevent funding ICE. Lotta ICE this morning!

Why do so many Democratic officeholders, candidates and political operatives keep following the same playbook, the one that says that if they want to win elections they have to raise tons of money, spend nearly all of it on targeted media... (1/n)

DE ICER
ICE OUT OF MN

Powderhorn Art Sled Rally
Minneapolis

I'LL TAKE MY HORCHATA WARM
CUZ FUCK ICE

Powderhorn Art Sled Rally
Minneapolis

Preaching to The Choir, by Rebecca Solnit

I believe this wonderful essay by Rebecca Solnit is the preaching-to-the-choir reference you're looking for
harpers.org/archive/2017...

On Dreams and Pillars What would it take to bring this nightmare to an end?

Take a moment to enjoy the joyous dream some of us spun out seven years ago, when we went to the White House and handed out an edition of the Washington Post depicting T's downfall after a massive popular uprising. It's a dream with real lessons for today:
lakauffman.substack.com/p/on-dreams-...

A reproduction of a parody edition of the Washington Post, featuring the top headline: UNPRESIDENTED: TRUMP HASTILY DEPARTS WHITE HOUSE, ENDING CRISIS and beneath it, a photo of a grim looking Trump exiting a building

Three people dressed in winter coats and hats stand in front of the White House on January 16, 2019, distributing copies of the UNPRESIDENTED Washington Post

🧵 Seven years ago today, a small team and I fanned out in front of the White House and distributed copies of the Washington Post with a dramatic headline:

UNPRESIDENTED - TRUMP HASTILY DEPARTS WHITE HOUSE, ENDING CRISIS

The paper was a work of fiction, created with @theyesmen.bsky.social

If you'd like to enjoy the dream we spun out in 2019, you can still find a PDF of the paper online ... theyesmen.org/sites/defaul...

On Dreams and Pillars What would it take to bring this nightmare to an end?

What turned the tide, in our story, was when protesters focused their energies not on Trump but on do-nothing Democrats, viewing them as a key "pillar of support" for the regime. The paper was a fantasy, but the strategy behind it is more relevant than ever: lakauffman.substack.com/p/on-dreams-...