Don't talk about guns after a massacre. Or climate change after storms. Or austerity after firetrap buildings burn. Talk when no one listens
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Naomi Klein
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I’ve written about my preferences but I have never formally endorsed a candidate for President in my life - never mind spoken at a campaign rally.
That ends today in #Iowa.
The world is on fire and our most credible hope of beating the arsonists is #Bernie2020 #NotMeUs
Folks, real talk: we are now the edge of a global economic crisis. The last time this happened, the Biden wing of the Dem party handed trillions to the banks who created the crisis, did not prosecute, and let workers, students and homeowners pay the price. Do not do it again.
It's not too late for everyone to come to their goddamned senses and support Bernie Sanders for President.
A true mensch who has spent his entire life fighting for the precise policies that would be saving lives right now on a truly staggering scale.
Not too late.
People claim Trump said not one word about climate change but that's false. He celebrated the US being the world's "No. 1" oil and gas producer. And the house cheered - they cheered for the knowing destabilization of the planet. Don't call them deniers, they are arsonists.
No Joe, there is no "middle ground" on climate breakdown - there is bold, transformative action or there is sinking ground, burning ground and churning ground. "Presidential hopeful Biden looking for ‘middle ground’ climate policy"
Incredible people's victory in Bolivia! twitter.com/PrensaCamila/s
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As we watch the Amazon burn, remember: 's presidency is itself a crime scene. He is only in power because of a series of illegal coups - first against Dilma, then Lula, who would have easily defeated Bolsonaro at the polls. Before Brazil burned, it was stolen.
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The world is on fire and in country after country the arsonists are ascending to the highest office. This is utter madness. We need a global #GreenNewDeal. We all need to ask ourselves: who do we trust to lead that and how will we help them? twitter.com/Reuters/status…
Since Andrew Cuomo has now openly announced that he plans to "reimagine" New York as a high-tech surveillance state, maybe it's time for CNN to ask someone to interview him who isn't a close relative. Just a thought.
In 1955, Edward Murrow asked Jonas Salk who owned his patent for the polio vaccine. Salk's response:
"Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”
Life saving vaccines should be free. Not "affordable."
This is absolutely unreal. Last time: no strings attached bail out money. This time: the public doesn't even get to know which multinational, multibillion dollar companies got its money. Looting with masks on.
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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.
This generation of Chileans is so determined.
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Always remember this. twitter.com/OmanReagan/sta
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This is so important. is a powerful moral voice at time when very few (even progressive) Democrats speak clearly and knowledgeably on foreign policy. She deserves unreserved support. #IStandWithIlhan
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Replying to @jeremyscahill
What @IlhanMN is doing--taking on major, destructive US foreign policy with refreshing honestly and clarity--is dangerous in Washington DC. She is going to face the full force of both parties because of this. She is a rare voice and deserves our defense. It is going to be ugly.
If your progressive candidate is running to be Joe Biden's vice president then maybe it's time for a rethink. Like, before Tuesday.
Between this and the disgraceful smearing of Corbyn, it's pretty clear that for liberals on both sides of the Atlantic, the true Machiavellian passion is saved for knifing the left, not slaying actual right wing monsters.
Which is unfortunate, and not just for the knifed left.
THREAD about last night's #IowaCaucuses:
1. Bernie is the national frontrunner and there is no reason for this debacle to slow him down.
2. Our campaign expands when it focusses on the issues that matter most to people and harnesses the loving power of #NotMeUs.
This is the President I want in a crisis.
Resisting disaster capitalism. Solving the underlying crises.
#RealityEndorsesBernie twitter.com/sunraysunray/s
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It takes deep courage to go to Davos and tell the masters-of-the-universe *to their faces* that they knowingly torched the planet in order get filthy rich. did that. She's 15.
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I was given the opportunity to speak at a lunch in Davos today... On the panel was Bono, Christiana Figueres, Jane Goodall, Will.i.am and Kengo Sakurada. #wef
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Whatever happens, it's time to bury neoliberalism. We need genuine wealth + power redistribution. Only a real left can fight fascism.
$700-billion on top of the $1.5-trillion announced 3 days ago. Remember this when they tell you Bernie's plans to provide health care to all and battle climate chaos are too expensive.
Protesting lethal police violence and impunity during a pandemic isn't irresponsible. It's brave.
Indiscriminate firing of chemical weapons designed to make mucous membranes freak out during a pandemic that is spread through aerosolized droplets of mucus? That's bio warfare.
Anyone else feeling pummeled by the triple whammy of the IPCC climate report, Brazil's election results + the f-u of the Kavanaugh's appointment? It all feels connected somehow: greed cooking our planet, elites pitting us against each other, while wrapping themselves in impunity.
Seeing folks say that we should be happy/satisfied the Dem Party is moving left.
Look, the party often moves left during elections. And then they lurch right once in power.
Bill Clinton did it. Obama did it.
That's why who is paying for these campaigns matters. #DemDebate
Some folks seem to be looking at Biden like a comfortable old sweater they can put on to recover after the trauma of trump.
Here's the trouble: the house is on fire. And that old sweater is soaked in fracked gas.
So get out of your comfort zone and vote #Bernie2020.
Speak up. Risk position and privilege. Doesn't have to be on social media but it has to be somewhere. Write the letter. Sign the petition. Do it at work. Do it at home. War crime after war crime. #SaveSheikhJarrah #GazaUnderAttack
I'm just going to keep saying this unpopular thing: lots of the prominent feminists now telling us patriarchy gives them no good choices are leaving out an important choice they had. After Warren was done, they were all asked to stand with Feminists for Bernie. Most refused.
A shameful day for Canada, which has marketed itself as a progressive leader on climate and Indigenous rights. It has just invaded unceded Wet'suwet'en territory and arrested land defenders, all for a gas pipeline that is entirely incompatible with a safe climate.
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The moment RCMP came over the gates and started making arrests to enforce the Coastal GasLink injunction.
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Exactly 10 years ago, Evo Morales's negotiators went to a U.N. climate summit and called for a "Marshall Plan for Planet Earth" and "rights for Mother Earth."
The idea was what is now being called a #GreenNewDeal.
If we had listened then, the world might not be in flames.
On that population control question:
Emission growth has far more to do with the consumption behavior of the rich than the procreation behaviour of the poor.
70% of emissions come from the richest 20% ppl in the world.
Let's get our own house in order.
#ClimateTownHall
A big march can be tolerated. But there is no form of protest, expressing real rage and demanding real change, that will not be smeared and dismissed. For being too disruptive or too destructive; too incoherent or too orchestrated. It's a power struggle and power fights back.
A Chilean friend told me that that the popular movements there have a slogan, which I may be butchering (please correct me!)
"We may be the children and grandchildren of neoliberalism but we will be the parents of a new world."
Can we make globalize that pls?
If you are a prominent political commentator and you seriously don't know what a neoliberal is at the ass-end of 2017, then chances are, you are one.
Now tour some oil and gas wells in people's backyards and announce that you are suspending all new fossil fuel leases and banning fracking. For a start.
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"Observe it with your own eyes." Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state of California is now facing the reality of the threat from climate change as he toured the destruction from the #NorthComplexFire in Butte County. abc7ne.ws/32m8k4H
Actually we are going to make him do it, to borrow a phrase from FDR. Just like movements made Obama-Biden stop KXL and DAPL. It's too bad we have to waste energy on it when we should be focussed on a Green New Deal but we'll make them do both, because there is no choice.
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.@JoeBiden will not ban fracking. That is a fact.
Why are so many news orgs, including , not splashing this story on their front pages? NYC declared war on the richest industry on earth today, in the financial capital of the world. That's a tad more significant than Bannon's crashing career!
I'm going to be really blunt here: our planet may not be able to take 4 more years of Trump and leave us with a chance at a habitable future. However, it also can't afford a return to the Obama era one-step-forward-two-steps back (banning coal, unleashing a fracking free for all)
At least my grandfather Philip Klein isn't alive to see this nonsense. Walt Disney fired him for co-organizing the first animators' strike in 1941. Disney testified against his own workers before the House Un-American Activities Committee, claiming they were communists.
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After 2 decades of studying the Shock Doctrine, the most important lesson I have learned is this: when they declare a state of emergency, when they say we don't have the right to protest, that is the moment to flood the streets. It's the only thing that has ever worked.
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Three years ago, we hosted a conversation with Michelle Alexander, Naomi Klein, and @KeeangaYamahtta in Chicago.
Here’s @NaomiAKlein’s concluding remark on what we should expect from a Trump Administration during a moment of deep crisis, and how we should respond.
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Some years ago I wrote a book about how the ultra rich systematically exploit states of emergencies to destroy democracy and further enrich themselves.
FYI: Trump is the state of emergency and Bloomberg is the Shock Doctrine.
Don't fall for it. #NotMeUs
We need to talk about how deeply liberals, even "progressive" ones, hate the left. My grandfather was fired and blacklisted for union organizing. My parents had to leave this country because they opposed the Vietnam war. And yet even I underestimate the depths of the hatred.
The worst people in the world are in charge of everything. It's time for this to change. That's my sophisticated political analysis of disaster capitalism pandemic style.
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Whole Foods CEO suggests employees who are not sick "donate" their vacation time to employees who are sick: vice.com/en_us/article/
The fall of tyrants must be celebrated, it's a human right! Profound thanks to all the grassroots groups who did deep organizing to make this happen and who will be pushing hard every day for the new admin to do whatever it takes to get us all to safety.
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Amazon VP, @timbray resigns over #covid firings of me, @marencosta and others.
Says Amazon “firing whistleblowers” is “evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison.”
Thank you, Tim.
tbray.org/ongoing/When/2
This is gorgeous.
The people are declaring a rolling emergency, all around the world.
A truly historic day.
#ClimateStrike
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Cry no tears for these death profiteers.
Let this sink in. Understand that all of us in the Sanders campaign are seen as nothing but trespassers on their party property and they absolutely cannot wait to call the cops. #DemDebate
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Surprising post-debate comment from Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn: “It’s safe to say Vice President Biden showed up to a debate tonight and for two hours graciously [dealt] with a kind of protester who often shows up at campaign events, on live television.”
Can we all just take a minute to admire 's moral clarity, unshakable courage and sense of humor in the midst of... everything?!!??
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This from a man facing indictments for bribery and other crimes in three separate public corruption affairs.
Next! twitter.com/SherylNYT/stat…So happy to hear link funding for #GreenNewDeal to cuts in military spending because we won't be fighting oil wars around the world.
In his first answer.
#ClimateTownHall
I've been critical of poisonous Twitter culture. But if this oligarch can spend unlimited $ trying to buy a primary so he can lose to Trump, you'd better believe we are going to use the hell out of this platform to try and stop him.
Quit crying about the one thing you can't buy
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We need to unite to defeat Trump in November. This type of "energy" is not going to get us there. twitter.com/BernieSanders/…
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NO. Do not tell yourself that a 2nd Trump term would be a seamless continuation of the 1st. Authoritarians interpret reelection as permission to take the gloves off. Immediately after reelection, Modi locked down Kashmir and moved to strip citizenship from millions of muslims.
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Replying to @NaomiAKlein
That seems a bit over stating Trump’s presidency. I think we might say that the planet will be on fire, our poverty will spike, hate crimes will rise and so on. But true fascism is probably not happening because basically that happened in 1980-1988 with Reagan.
Men calling on Bernie to control his women: one of the most beautiful and feminist things about this campaign is that has MANY powerful women representing him on the trail and he doesn't even try to control us. We all try not to go negative, but we are human. Move on.
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Bernie must speak out today against his surrogates
Like clockwork every election cycle: Krugman forgets everything he wrote about inequality and legalized corruption in Washington, sides w/ the candidate most likely to give him a power job, and screams at the left for doing what primaries are supposed to do: vet the candidates.
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This is a really bad look. It illustrates everything that makes many Democrats distrust the Sanders team — and the buck stops with the candidate twitter.com/mmurraypolitic…
9th richest man musing about how to cut the funds poor elderly people depend on to survive. How very electable! twitter.com/OrganizingPowe
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What do you call it when you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results? Oh yeah: the Democratic Party. #DNCChair
Anyone promising safety by casting a ballot in 2020 is lying.
We are living in such dangerous times that safety is something we all have to earn together - by being active participants in bold transformations like Medicare For All + a #GreenNewDeal.
No shortcuts. #BernieSurge
So this guy has been in power for 5 yrs and is still wasting political capital on oil pipelines.
Advice for : Don't get sucked in. Don't be that guy.
Change the subject ASAP to a massive job-creating, justice-generating, emission-reducing green infrastructure program
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Police. Military. White militias. All marching now. twitter.com/jpegjoshua/sta
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If you have a cultural platform and you haven't used it yet to help Bernie, now is the time to use it shift the balance of power back to decency. Lord knows our opponents use every platforms they have. Don't wait for an invitation.
Cancel student debt. Then launch a massive FDR-style youth jobs program (CCC+NYA) addressing the crises of unemployment, mental health, racial injustice and climate all at once.
For the young people I teach, the best thing that happened today was Bernie's mittens. Not enough.
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BREAKING: Biden’s secretary of education had paused student loan payments and put interest rate at 0%
My British friends, pls ask yourself: does care? You know he cares. His life had been devoted to caring. Vote Labour, kick out these cold hearted bastards. Then forge a new path, for people and planet.
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Everyone should read this candid interview with from start to finish. There is a huge amount of insight in it, but it's too heartbreaking that someone with such brilliance and super-human commitment feels this disparaged by her own colleagues.
I've been working with my publishers to get The Shock Doctrine available for free or almost free. Here is my UK publisher offering the ebook for 99p. I'll be donating any royalties from this to mutual aid projects.
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Activist and author @NaomiAKlein's The Shock Doctrine — about the rise of disaster capitalism — is as relevant today as it was upon publication, over a decade ago.
This April, the @KindleUK version is available for only 99p. Don't miss out: amzn.to/2JvlVw6
Biden just confirmed he opposes banning fracking on the state and national level. A measure Germany and France introduced long ago.
The fact that his fundraiser tomorrow night is put on by an executive up to his eyeballs in fracked gas is totally unrelated.
#ClimateTownHall
You left thousands of poor New Yorkers in public housing in the cold dark for weeks. A volunteer army called Occupy Sandy had to do your job after the storm. Stop using crisis to play the big daddy.
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The coronavirus is spreading. Concern is growing. The economy has taken a hit.
Tonight, I’m addressing the nation because Donald Trump has yet again failed to lead.
I’ve led in crises before. As president, I’ll trust the science and let the experts do their jobs.
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The best proof that Bernie can win is that Bernie keeps winning. Pass it on.
#BernieBeatsTrump #NevadaCaucus
Judicial coup. These people deserve no one's respect. No one's deference. No one's loyalty. Take them at their actions. They will burn it all down to serve the corporate interests that put them there.
Footnote: reached out to me in 2007 after reading the Shock Doctrine. He shared that he had been at University of Chicago when Friedman et al were training the "Chicago Boys" to impose brutal shock therapy under dictatorships across LatAm. He opposition runs deep
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I am very concerned about what appears to be a coup in Bolivia, where the military, after weeks of political unrest, intervened to remove President Evo Morales. The U.S. must call for an end to violence and support Bolivia’s democratic institutions.
Lethal stupidity, as everyone who has been to an overcrowded school knows. When you double classroom size, so many kids get lost and left behind - and great teachers have their spirits broken because they know they can't do their jobs. We have to stop this man.
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Bloomberg said: “Double the class size, with a better teacher, is a good deal for the students.” This is wrong. And dangerous. twitter.com/organizetheppl
Paul, you did everything you could to sink Bernie. How dare you blame others for this debacle.
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Btw, Jill Stein has managed to play Ralph Nader. Without her Florida might have been saved
Every Democrat should be screaming this. It's possible to beat this kind of thing, but not if you don't try.
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McConnell is now refusing to pass ANY stimulus bill that doesn't include TOTAL LEGAL IMMUNITY for corporations that get people sick w/ the coronavirus.
It's abhorrent.
It's also totally impractical.
How can we reopen the economy if companies have no incentive to keep us safe?
To summarize. We've got out-of-control wildfires thanks to:
- Rampant carbon pollution
- The systematic suppression of Indigenous knowledge about controlled burns
- Covid ravaging prisons, which limits the number of prisoners available to fight fires for an abusive $1-hr... 1/3
Please read from :"Once you have done your homework, you realize that we need new politics. We need a new economics, where everything is based on our rapidly declining and extremely limited carbon budget.
But that is not enough. We need a whole new way of thinking."
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Over 1,5 million students on school strike 15/3. We proved that it does matter what you do and that no one is too small to make a difference.
Here is my response to the people who wants us to go back to school:
facebook.com/73284649708317
#FridayForFuture #SchoolStrike4Climate
I find it deeply moving that chose to endorse at the lowest point in his campaign.
It's the opposite of the careerist logic that led some supposed enemies of economic inequality to endorse Clinton over Sanders in 2016, despite their records.
Just sayin.
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Sen. @BernieSanders is getting a major boost to his presidential campaign after his heart attack nearly three weeks ago. Congresswoman @AOC endorsed him in front of more than 25,000 people at a weekend rally in New York City.
@NikolenDC sat down with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.
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The richest man in the world has fired Amazon tech workers who used their relative privilege to stand up for the health and safety of more vulnerable warehouse workers. In other words, he fired them for doing what we should all be doing right now. It is truly monstrous. twitter.com/kateconger/sta
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The precise opposite of every word below.
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I’m be watching @neeratanden’s confirmation hearing today with a great deal of confidence in our country’s future. Neera Tanden has always fought for vulnerable communities and working class families. She’s a wonderful leader. Excited to see what she does as OMB Director. twitter.com/politico/statu…
It's a disgrace that they don't go live. There are leaders in this country, and they certainly aren't in the White House.
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No major network went live on him but about 40,000 people tuned in at peak concurrence
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Thread.
So I've slept on the #DemDebate and here's what I think.
Biden lied, a lot. When he could not lie, he took no responsibility for his mistakes, just blamed different times.
That's a problem b/c now he is asking us to trust him that he has changed his positions...
This explosive investigation shows that Brazil's elections were rigged - there was a conspiracy to exclude the leading candidate, Lula da Silva. And the man at the heart of it is now justice minister. Lula should be released and Brazilians deserve new elections, nothing less
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Brazil’s Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, while serving as a judge in a corruption case that upended Brazilian politics, took to private chats to mock the defense of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and direct prosecutors’ media strategy. interc.pt/2XlKsMK
Said it.
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.@NaomiAKlein says it was a "tremendous lost opportunity" that Elizabeth Warren didn't back Bernie Sanders, given their shared political goals. "She doesn't owe anything to Bernie Sanders. I do believe … that she owes it to those issues." bit.ly/2VZLuwZ
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There is such genuine gratitude and respect being expressed for from Sanders, his staff and his most prominent surrogates. This has been consistent through the campaign. Rail against emojis and combative supporters all you want, but pls don't erase these basic facts.
We launched exactly 24 hours ago + are closing in on 5 million views. We've heard from so many of you that it made you cry, both for what's lost and what could still be won. Maybe we don't have to sleepwalk off the climate cliff. Maybe we can change ourselves and the world too.
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Watch the video that’s been viewed more than 4.6 million times in 24 hours, a message from a post-#GreenNewDeal future from @AOC, @NaomiAKlein, and @mollycrabapple. interc.pt/2UktTeE
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Capitalism sure knows how to make a girl feel special. #HumanCapitalStock
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White House adviser Kevin Hassett: "Our human capital stock is ready to go back to work." #HumanCapitalStock
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Pls watch. No other candidate can reach into the Fox audience and pull voters away from Trump like Bernie. This is why #BernieBeatsTrump.
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Even a Fox News audience agrees that our progressive ideas are not radical. These are the ideas we need to bring to the general election to defeat Trump.
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The first step to reducing *our* emissions is to sue and re-nationalize you, wind down your extractive projects and divert your last remaining profits to pay for a global #GreenNewDeal. We already know where we stand.
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Biden is now claiming we found out that climate change and extinction were serious crises only after he and Obama left office.
This is the most cowardly nonsense.
#ClimateTownHall
plu·toc·ra·cy
Government by the wealthy.
plu·to·crat
A person whose power derives from their wealth.
e.g. "He had long been an oligarch but he longed to be a true plutocrat. So he dipped into his billions to buy an election."
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The results from Iowa underscore that we need a candidate who can build a coalition broad enough to unite the party — and strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump and beat him.
That’s the coalition we’re building, and that’s the candidate I’ll be.
As Milan reopens, it is giving more of its previously traffic-choked streets to pedestrians and cyclists - for good. This is a small glimpse of what the recovery stage should look like. We don't need to go back to "normal" when normal was a crisis.
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The revolution will not be televised, will be live.
Today Milan has started the implementation of the #StradeAperte #OpenStreets project for low-cost temporary bike lanes and widened sidewalks.
Stay tuned.
As I've been saying... this is my feminist president. #Bernie2020
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Caring for children in America is so outrageously expensive that having children is a leading cause of poverty in the United States.
That ends when we are in the White House.
We are going to guarantee free, high-quality child care and pre-k for all. berniesanders.com/issues/free-ch
And it's in the hands of sociopathic arsonists.
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What is happening in Bolivia is terrifying and part of a much larger resurgence of the far right, with violence against indigenous people at its center. This is bigger than one politician: it's about overthrowing people power and clearing the path for unfettered extraction
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Masked armed men are rounding up Bolivian leftists. They are burning Wiphala indigenous flags. The military is ripping those flags from their uniforms. The settler oligarchy is ramping up its revanchist violence. This is a lesson Indigenous socialists must heed. We are targets.
#OurPresidentBernie is obsessed with improving life for working people and enraged by the greed of billionaires who profit off of illness, exploitation, pollution and disaster.
He was made for this moment.
🔥🚨
Your morning reminder that the world is on fire and the arsonists are in charge.
Which means we all have be like the Chileans and find our *own* fire.
A fire to burn away the debris of the deniers, distractors, doomers and dividers.
No one is coming to save us.
This is important. It represents a real cultural shift.
That this profoundly decent man gets called radical and divisive all day long will stand an eternal indictment of the U.S. ruling class.
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This is the richest country on Earth.
Everyone should have health care.
Everyone should live in dignity.
No exceptions.
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