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Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
@KeeangaYamahtta
Co-founder , contributing writer , finalist 2020, #MacFellow 2021
Philadelphia, PAkeeangataylor.comJoined May 2010

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s Tweets

If you don’t care about MLK’s democratic socialist politics, his anti-imperialist politics or his condemnation of US hypocrisy then no one gives a damn about your thoughts concerning his philosophy on nonviolence.
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This guy is an emergency room doctor as well as a state senator in Ohio. This is why this revolt is not only about police abuse and racism. It’s about all of it.
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Ohio lawmaker asks if "colored population" is hit hard by coronavirus because they don't wash their hands as well' hill.cm/6QFnqQv
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Unpopular post...Only in America could anyone think that a prison sentence for more than twenty years is not harsh enough. If you know anything about prison, its utterly life destroying. I hope that we can move beyond the relentless desire for punishment. We need so much more.
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Just a note: Mayor Rahm Emanuel has literally never said this much abt a single documented case of police brutality during his reign of terror. Chicago has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle cases of police abuse & murder while this coward hides behind his desk.
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Chicago mayor slams Jussie Smollett after charges dropped: "Whitewash of justice" hill.cm/5PiOhkb
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ok. The lack of movement in the arrest of Breona Taylor's murderers just got a whole lot of clarity.
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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron slams Joe Biden in his remarks during #RNC2020: "Mr. Vice President, look at me. I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you can't tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin."
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The police embrace their brutality. They are proud of themselves.
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Brooklyn center police are flying a blue line flag outside the station right now
Readers added context
I am by not condoning the acts of the police in this situation, but it is important to note that the Thin Blue Line flag was flying before this incident in their town, and isn't a response to antagonize, from at least as early as 9/2019 as shown in the google maps image: google.com/maps/@45.07700…
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What Obama always fails to grasp is that people did it his way. they sat at his big table & listened. & then we all sat there & watched that cop snuff the life out of George Floyd. So he no longer gets to advise this movement on how to achieve its goals of ending police terror.
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Obama: You lose people with "snappy" slogans like "defund the police" hill.cm/ZPEYKLW
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It’s a coup in their minds but not in real life. The United States government cannot be sacked by a mob of angry white dudes. If the police or the military wanted to flex and end this right now, they could. They’ve decided to let them blow off steam
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Where is the rest of the labor mov’t? We need a general strike against racism & injustice. We need the labor mov’t to act. We don’t have time for bills that never arrive & reforms that never work. In Kenosha the racists are the police & they collaborate w the militias. Enough
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Millions of young ppl flooded the streets in 2020 to end racism & police brutality: not much has changed. Biden pledges to give cops $32mil; no movt on student loans & debt; no mov't on decriminalizing weed; no mov't on climate; upholding the status quo..
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Biden's collapse with young voters is kind of mysterious. I've heard a lot of theories, but I'm not sure any one of them is all that convincing.
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The eviction apocalypse is here. This is the richest country on earth and watch it destroy people’s lives over a lack of money.
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a man being evicted is asked by the judge if he has evidentiary issues with the argument that he owes rent. tenant says he doesn’t know what that means but his wife died and he hasn’t gotten his covid payments. judge asks again if he has evidentiary concerns, grants the eviction.
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When you create a war under false pretenses—lies—and then are awarded for working with the soldiers maimed by your policies. This is why the phrase “historical amnesia” never quite fits. The forgetting is organized and strategic.
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George W. and Laura Bush honored for their work with returning veterans dlvr.it/Qr1Krq
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Growing up in the projects does not make you self-made, it makes you the recipient of public aid.
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Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: "I've also been criticized for being a billionaire. Let's talk about that: I'm self-made. I grew up in the projects in Brooklyn, New York. I thought that was the American dream. The aspiration of America." on.msnbc.com/2GaTlQe
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It’s not just “poverty” that makes Black people predisposed to the worst effects of COVID...it’s also the way Black patients are less likely to be believed, are seen as uncooperative & whose pain is not taken seriously. The cumulative consequences of being seen as undeserving.
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What's so disturbing is this man went to the hospital twice & was sent home, even though he was clearly ill, according to his wife: "I said, “Well, what about the oxygen?” His fingertips were blue. They said that there was no reason to do anything." time.com/collection/cor
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Symbolic firsts are no substitute for substantive gains. We have been celebrating firsts for fifty years but the gains for the few almost never translate into a better life for the many. Check out Lightfoot in Chicago. These celebrations are old and our people are dying. Enough.
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I couldn’t get my four year old to nap but my book Race for Profit was nominated as a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in history....and I’m completely gobsmacked!
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Huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists for the 2020 Pulitzer Prizes @PulitzerPrizes, including @jerichobrown @GregGrandin @colsonwhitehead @KeeangaYamahtta Mary Ruefle and Albert J. Woodfox #Pulitzer pulitzer.org/prize-winners-
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For those who ask "how can we afford Sanders's programs", the better question is "how can we not afford them?" The decades of starving the public sector is going to come back to bite poor & working class people the hardest; but many of us will pay the price.
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Analysts say Europe's social programs and protective labor rules could serve as a powerful counter against the coronavirus's feared economic toll nyti.ms/2PWHyt4
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There is no good US capitalism. The so called golden age of capitalism relied on shackling women to the home, bolting LGBT people in the closet, restricting immigration to Europeans, & segregating Black people into resource starved enclaves. Capitalism has always been the problem
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“ The fluidity with which rights can be bequeathed and taken away, in fact, reduces rights to privileges. In a truly democratic society, civil rights should not be contingent on a fortuitous combination of Supreme Court Justices.”
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No one *has* to be a landlord; it is not a moral calling. But everyone needs somewhere to live; it is essential to human life. someone’s right to live is not mitigated by yr right to own property & potentially profit. those invested in capital embrace risk until it becomes risky. t.co/RF4lR54ilY
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Look at this guy walking right into Trump’s trap...like a rat to peanut butter, helping Trump change the subject by changing the subject.
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“I want to make it absolutely clear … Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting — it’s lawlessness. Plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted,” Joe Biden says. cnn.it/32Ffi3K
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This is a disgusting display of the abuse of identity politics. bell hooks spent almost the entirety of her adult life fighting capitalism & to invoke her work, just months after her death when she can no longer command you to stop, in yr efforts to break this strike, is gross.
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UPDATE ON THE NEW SCHOOL STRIKE The Provost who only 5 days ago wrote the whole university implicitly threatening undergraduates with academic punishment and signaling an intention to hire scab graders is now invoking bell hooks on the paradise of learning.
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The average wealth of a US Senator is over 3 million dollars. They sneer at the American working class and tell them to eat cake. With the last unemployment check received, these workers should go buy a pitchfork.
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It happened. The Senate left town knowing that failed negotiations would ensure the expiration of enhanced jobless benefits for millions of Americans laid off and furloughed amid the coronavirus pandemic. politico.com/newsletters/hu
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What a mouthful. Extraordinary racism and ethnocentrism on the mainstream news. It’s not just the “civilized” bit, but the notion that in Iraq and Afghanistan war is just a normal part of life and not a vicious imposition from places like the so-called civilized West.
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“This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan. [Kyiv] is a relatively civilized city where you wouldn’t expect this to happen.” This isn’t even OANN or Fox. This overt white supremacy is on CBS. Absolutely disgusting dehumanization of people of color. twitter.com/Elevatedquid/s
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A stunning screed where the concerns and fears of Black parents merit not a single mention. It is a pattern in these scorched earth hate screeds against teachers: they ignore that most Black parents don’t want to return their children to antiquated schools in a
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Readers, many of us got involved in the Black Lives Matter marches last summer. Do Black lives matter to you only when they serve your political purpose? Shouldn’t we be marching to get Black and brown children back safely into schools right now? nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opi
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If this is the “normal” everyone wants to get back to, you can have it. The cynicism of the millionaire class’s low expectations and their embrace of the status quo got us into this mess. We don’t want “purity”; we want to seize the chance to remake the world for the better.
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Fmr. President Barack Obama: "This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're politically woke, and all that stuff -- you should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."
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Why should we pay for any healthcare? Why should you be charged money to treat asthma, diabetes, cancer or any of the underlying conditions that make COVID-19 deadly? How can anyone at this moment in human history suggest paying for healthcare as a rational or just?
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Let me be clear: No one should have to pay for coronavirus testing or treatment.
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Democrats want it both ways...they want to curry favor with the mov’t by decrying “systemic racism” while Biden claims no one is racist and Harris says the US is not a racist country...someone smarter than me please explain how all of this can be true???
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Biden: "I don't think the American people are racist" hill.cm/0h3doMP
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Whatever happens w this verdict, nothing has changed the underlying conditions allowing for the murder of Floyd in the first place. The killing of Wright & Toledo within the last month assure that without the annihilation of the criminal punishment system, we will be here again.
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The jury said it has reached a verdict on its second day of deliberations in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder and manslaughter after kneeling on the neck of a dying George Floyd reut.rs/3glB9Wh
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I'm so confused. Its the most important election of our lifetime because fascism is on the ticket...and here is your Democratic candidate offering to invite fascists into his cabinet? Or is it that Trump is a fascist alone but the GOP is just fine? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE???
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Joe Biden’s transition team is vetting a handful of Republicans for potential Cabinet positions — despite doubts it will win him new support from the right and the risk it will enrage the left politico.com/news/2020/10/2
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These politicians all over television acting like concerned citizens and not powerful figures who control the resources, dictate public policy, but rarely use these powers when it comes to controlling or disciplining the police. They can do something about this but they don’t.
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Rodney King. Abner Louima. Amadou Diallo. Sean Bell. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Laquan McDonald. Freddie Gray. Antwon Rose Jr. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Say Their Names.
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Unbelievable. Millions falling into poverty, millions on the edge of eviction, millions going hungry, millions losing their healthcare & this megalomaniac dime store dictator puts his knee of the neck of a nation. We need more than an election; we need a revolution.
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Trump pulls plug on coronavirus stimulus talks until after election yhoo.it/34otK0A
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Obviously there is a market for this kind of stuff, but the notion that we will end racism one workshop at a time, one white person at a time really undermines what structural racism really is. Racism in real estate, housing, employment and beyond isn't because
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In an interview with @IChotiner, Robin DiAngelo discusses systemic racism, and what it feels like to have her work at the center of so many conversations about it. nyer.cm/VBjIl7h
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But why are they calling the public “consumers”?
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.@SenWarren and I have a message for Congress: $1,200 isn't enough to keep Americans afloat. We need comprehensive relief for consumers in the next coronavirus stimulus package. You can read our six proposals here👇 medium.com/@SenWarren/con
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Does the punditry ever have to explain what they mean by “wokeness” or are they just allowed to dribble it out as an informed talking point that they never have to define even as they claim it is unraveling the Democratic Party??
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Why is it so fucking hard to say that every human being DESERVES healthcare. You don't need to be old or young to have good healthcare, you just need to be alive. Healthcare should be a RIGHT!
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We have to do more to ease the economic burden on working people. So today, I'm adopting two new policies to help deliver relief. As president, I will: - Lower Medicare eligibility to age 60 - Forgive student debt for low-income and middle class families medium.com/@JoeBiden/joe-
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No person is "qualified" for a lifetime appointment to make decisions affecting the lives of millions with absolutely no accountability to the public. The SCOTUS is an affront to democracy & we shouldn't forget that, no matter how awful the GOP behaves.
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My first day officially as a full professor of African American Studies at Princeton. Grateful for inspiring friends & colleagues & excited for new projects. Also very happy to have seen my dad for the first time since before the panini. Lol, I shall now board the plane!
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The dude with the zip tie cuffs who came to kidnap and kill...gets sent home with a promise to be good. This is truly astounding. Try to overthrow the government on Wednesday back at home by for the long King weekend by Friday. The most racist country on earth.
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Larry Rendall Brock Jr., Capitol rioter seen with zip ties, freed by judge newsweek.com/larry-rendall-
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Thank god we have police that can stop people from stealing books from the “free” little libraries…whose entire purpose is to provide free books to the public.
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After some thefts from little libraries in our city, officers and staff came together to donate a bunch of books to the libraries. Now people can use and enjoy them again! 📚📖
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This the normal they are racing to return to??
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A teacher posted this. It’s a room w/ COVID accommodations for 28 students. Watch what the student’s experience when the teacher sits in a student’s seat. When bureaucrats make decisions without stakeholders they miss the mark. Can’t put students first if you put teachers last! twitter.com/bhrenton/statu…
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Reality is endorsing Bernie Sanders...
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The hospital in Philly that Sanders and other progressives rallied to prevent from closing last summer might now be reopened. Austerity not looking so good in the midst of a public health crisis. inquirer.com/health/coronav
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This is just a sophisticated version of Trump”s “Chinese virus”. Whipping up anti-Chinese racism doesn’t tell us anything about the US’s homegrown incompetence in mitigating or suppressing this virus. This is the real issue to be discussed...not this tripe.
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This is the most devastating political ad I’ve seen in years. It reveals the truth about Trump and China, and that truth is ugly.
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What kind of demented place do we live in that would prevent kids from graduating because of a lunchroom tab? What kind of demented place do we live in that charges kids to eat food in the first place? What the hell??
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Philando Castile’s mom donates $8,000 to settle lunch debt preventing high school seniors from graduating becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/news/phi
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Right. But questioning Biden’s agenda does not mean one supports Trump. Biden authored the 94 Crime Bill, he trumpeted racist “welfare reform” legislation, he led the attack on Anita Hill. We have a right to ask questions and not be dismissed as Trumpers for doing so.
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Trump is super racist. His campaign & his appeal is built on the perpetuation of white supremacy & white privilege. He stokes white fragility. When a Black person supports him I question their relationship to their Blackness and the community. This is what Biden was alluding to.
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may we see the same level of hysteria around this looting as we did around the fires and trashed Targets. And they wonder why so many want to burn it all down. Unbelievable, audacious corruption in plain sight.
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BREAKING: Steven Mnuchin is now flat-out REFUSING to disclose the businesses receiving $500,000,000,000 in bailout funds, claiming the info is "confidential" 4.5 MILLION businesses received government funds. Zero transparency. Unconscionable, jaw-dropping corruption.
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Replying to
The SCOTUS has effectively created a new tier of citizenship and belonging to which it has consigned nearly half of the population. Without the right to control one's reproduction, the social, economic and political status of women will change
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The leadership of the Democratic Party is much more interested in ‘healing’ its rift with the GOP than its progressive flank that helped mobilize the vote. And to be sure, they are going in hard to discipline it’s left, using the CBC in the most cynical way to do it.
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James Clyburn: ‘defund the police’ slogan may have hurt Democrats at polls theguardian.com/us-news/2020/n
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I spent four months working on this story about India Walton's improbable run for mayor of Buffalo, the city I was born & where my dad still lives. A labor of love that I hope gives some insights into what's at stake not just there but across the country.
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It is hard to describe what it was like to stumble upon Sinead O’Connor as a queer high school student in the height of AIDS hysteria and the casual and violent homophobia of the late 1980s. Of course I was in the closet, as we all were...
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Replying to
It is a shocking display of double standards, the rot of the GOP, and the utter racism of American police and those who direct them. This is desperation, not an actual plan to take power. it’s frightening and appalling, but I don’t think the US govt is abt to collapse.
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There is no such thing as "just policing". There is not a single period in time in the US where the police were not a force of racist repression, violence and abuse. They do not stop crime; they do not protect communities. They continue to be a source of oppression and violence.
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In case anyone was wondering why people are so utterly cynical about the Democratic Party...
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As Republicans wrap up the Amy Coney Barrett hearing with plans to vote, Dianne Feinstein praises Lindsey Graham: "I just want to thank you. This has been one of the best set of hearings that I've participated in," she tells him. "Thank you so much for your leadership."
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for those newly interested in "systemic racism", yes put up your Black Lives Matter window sign, but stopping this wave of evictions where African Americans will be disproportionately affected is where the real fight against racism begins.
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A housing "apocalypse" is coming as coronavirus protections across the country expire. cnb.cx/3hhwItG
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When this is the political alternative taking to the streets during a deadly pandemic seems like a more fruitful endeavor. The Democratic Party is a national disgrace and embarrassment.
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Biden today on police training: "Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there's an unarmed person comin' at 'em with a knife or something to shoot 'em in the leg instead of the heart is a very different thing."
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The silence in this country while Israel literally shoots Palestinians engaged in civil protest is unreal. Yr strained conversation about literally anything while our tax dollars fund a massacre today is startling. Wake the hell up, say something and bear witness to this atrocity
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We literally have a government full of rich people making decisions about the lives of people in a country who regularly have to figure out how to make the ends meet each month. It’s not just a reflection of inequality; it is patently undemocratic.
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The median net worth of a U.S. Senator is $3.2 million. qz.com/1190595/the-ty
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If Mayor Keisha Bottoms had given the same kind of fiery speech to the gentrifying developers and private sector grifters that have been exploiting and displacing poor and working class Black people in Atlanta then there would be fewer fires and even less anger.
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"This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said condemning protests in the city. "You're throwing knives at our police officers. You are burning cars... go home." hill.cm/XBao3dj
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