Don’t call it a comeback.
I’ve been here for years.
And my war against the Democratic Party’s unacceptable corruption is just beginning.
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Shahid Buttar (find me on Substack)
@ShahidForChange
Advocate, artist, lawyer, organizer, won 81k votes in 2020 to serve in Congress. shahidbuttar.substack.com Music
Shahid Buttar (find me on Substack)’s Tweets
This is America summed up in a tweet.
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One of the people injured in a mass shooting this week told @GavinNewsom he was trying to get out of the hospital ASAP because he couldn't afford the medical bill.
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“Sen. Josh Hawley introduced…legislation to address…conflicts of interest that pervade Congress. [H]is proposal to prohibit insider trading by policymakers is plagued by crucial deficiencies, [but] remains important….” shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-gop-capi /3
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The post is also available as a podcast for those who prefer audio over text. shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-gop-capi /2
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My latest writing on addresses congressional ethics, sustained failures by Dems that created an attack surface for opportunistic Republicans, and crucial gaps in Sen. Hawley’s proposal to finally end congressional insider trading. /1
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"The corporate-backed establishment would rather buy elections than let working-class progressives even run. They will do everything in their power to make themselves richer at the expense of robbing poor and working-class Americans." -
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Few events could illustrate the connections among MLK’s “intersecting evils” better than police murdering a climate activist of color for resisting a domestic paramilitary training center.
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Our relatives at @defendATLforest are asking groups to sign on to this letter. Share with your networks please
forms.gle/HebwXinWamrV97
Major corporate donors to the Atlanta Police Foundation: littlesis.org/org/173655-Atl
SF-based Wells Fargo is among them
#StopCopCity
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Absolute must watch to get clear about what we can do by "recentering our base." One of the best podcast episodes I've listened to thus far in 2023.
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This is coming from a figure at risk of being detained in any other country for crimes against humanity, including a role in CIA torture and the *continuing* cover up.
America’s betrayals of human rights and press freedom should shame every citizen.
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Americans are safer because we didn’t label Saudi Arabia a pariah state. I never let the media bully me. Just b/c someone is a part-time stringer for WaPo doesn’t make their life more important than our military serving in dangerous places protecting us all. I never forgot that. twitter.com/WashPostPR/sta…
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White families make up 67% of the population but claim 92% of the benefits. And these aren’t just white families. They’re rich white families.
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I wouldn’t call it a “debate” but this discussion with & hosted by was certainly fascinating and covered a lot of ground.
Voices like their’s give me hope for the future.
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Debate: Kshama Sawant, Shahid Buttar, Imani Oakley on 2024/Marriane youtu.be/nkDFvUGe4io via @YouTube @briebriejoy @cmkshama @ShahidForChange @ImaniOakleyNJ10
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FLASH SALE! 🚨 60% OFF select titles, this week only!
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The bias and racism routinely exhibited by editors poisons the public well.
They infect not only the experience of journalists, but also the writing they produce and ultimately play a key role in reducing journalism to propaganda supporting capital.
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I had some wonderful friends and allies at @FiveThirtyEight. But Nate Silver was a terrible boss, especially to women and people of color. Someone should do a bit of data journalism on how long women lasted on average there. And that made the journalism worse. twitter.com/thedailybeast/…
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‼️What's Left? 2024(w/ )‼️
"At the FTV moment...AOC does not not withhold support...Who got the assignment to the House energy & commerce committee?...a right wing Democrat who opposed Pelosi."
patreon.com/badfaithpodcast
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“San Fran” is trending again, b/c a team in a league committed to suppressing player speech won a game and continues toward a championship.
It’s fun to see good football but ’s experience suggests the NFL is more like Nazi propaganda than most realize.
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13 years ago, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to dark money with Citizens United.
Republican justices decided unlimited corporate spending wouldn’t corrupt our politics. They have been proven badly wrong.
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Journalists have so abandoned their role that insider trading oligarchs get away with lies, making false statements about supposed commitments that they already violated in public w/o apology.
Pelosi has blocked pro-choice progressives for years. Eg
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We refuse to consign our daughters and granddaughters to a world where they have fewer freedoms than we did.
On the 50th anniversary of #RoeVWade, we affirm a woman’s right to choose the size and timing of her family and won't rest until that freedom is enshrined in law. -NP
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BREAKING: At least 5 protesters arrested, Atlanta cop car set on fire at Cop City protests. Protests occurring after police shot and killed beloved protester Manuel Teran—aka “Tortuguita." Protests have gone on in the woods for over a year against proposed $90 mill police center.
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“Support the troops,” my ass.
Ever increasing military budgets don’t find their way to our troops or their families.
“Defense” spending is a corporate welfare racket.
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Raytheon is set to make $2 billion in contracts to replace supplies sent to Ukraine. The CEOs of miliary contractors are thriving while thousands of military families struggle to put food on the table.
bit.ly/3wcYrnP
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There are ways in which this country is going backwards.
No, you're not supposed to call the police on someone and the police get to come and simply decide to kill that person.
That is not the way it works in a free society...
#PoliceReformNow
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It’s fascinating when even the CEO of a major company in a regulated industry observes the complete abdication of federal regulators.
This catastrophically poor job performance should disqualify Buttigieg from further office.
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NEWS: United's CEO just admitted the airline ticket scam that @SecretaryPete has refused to crack down on.
State AGs demanded Buttigieg prohibit airlines from selling seats for flights they know they may not be able to staff & operate.
He's refused. levernews.com/airline-ceo-ad4
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and engage in a rare substantive debate regarding their critiques of the Twitter Files. youtube.com/watch?v=DDL9X0
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My first podcast explains how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy includes specific warnings that, had they been heeded at the time, could have prevented the mounting global climate catastrophe.
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Get rid of it. It's dumb. The Australians got rid of it. Let's do it too. And then leave Denmark as the only country in the world with a dumb debt ceiling.
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Breaking News: The U.S. has hit its debt limit, raising economic fears and setting the stage for months of entrenched partisan warfare. nyti.ms/3IVmmQp
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Journalists demonstrate an ignorance of MLK’s legacy every day.
Every time one quotes a PMC voice without either offering balance from a real leftist or observing King’s analysis of “the white moderate,” they embody that role themselves.
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If more Americans came to recognize the continuing relevance of Dr. King’s voice—not to history, but to current events—we might finally make some progress on the underlying goals of his movement that were never satisfied. #ReclaimMLK shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/reclaiming-t
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Biden Democrats: We can't tell the difference between left-wing criticism and right-wing criticism!
The difference:
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Defending for-profit “healthcare” despite its dismal record during the pandemic is to abandon public health altogether
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During the pandemic, US life expectancy dropped. Life expectancy in China rose, and is now higher than in the US
Excellent discussion of the difference between the US for-profit health system and China's people-centered system, with @t_ings & @RaniaKhalek
youtu.be/XZcUjeyC-zM
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And Kaepernick couldn't even take a knee. Nauseating double standard about what politics are permissible in NFL-world. Troubling that Coach Dungy can be an anti-LGBTQ, bigot spreading mendacious rumors about kids using litter boxes in school and no one in NFL-world blinks.
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Tomorrow Lauren and I will be in Washington DC attending the 2023 March For Life. It will be my first time at the March and I’m looking forward to joining my friend @BenjaminSWatson and thousands of others who will be there to support those unborn babies who don’t have a voice.
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"Racist Democrats thrive in fascism."
on Nancy Pelosi and corporate dems using racist attacks to bury progressive opponents of color.
Full interview: open.substack.com/pub/usefulidio
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The same conflicts of interest observed here by recur across every example of public policymaking, because members of Congress who invest in stocks routinely prioritize their portfolios before the public interest.
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House Dems when asked generally questioned whether candidates who got large amounts amounts of $$ from crypto interests could serve impartially on Financial Services.
“I think that it’s a conflict of interest,” said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), when asked generally
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President Biden and AG Garland can make it right and make clear that the US is a beacon for the free press by dropping the charges against Assange immediately. There is no Free Press without a #FreeAssange
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Has anyone ever heard a good answer to this question?
You might alternatively call it SF, or Frisco, or the home of racist tech capital and performative progressivism.
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Why do people call it San Fran??! Like Bay Area people don’t refer to LA as Los Ange 
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This was a great interview.
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"The Democratic Party has no conception of ethics."
@ShahidForChange on the body of insider-trading millionaires that pretends to care about the working class
@kthalps @aaronjmate
Full interview: open.substack.com/pub/usefulidio
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To ensure #justiceforkeenananderson policymakers have to #endqualifiedimmunity.
The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in 2020 after pressure from the streets to the ballot—but in a DCCC vote since then, Pelosi declined to stand by her previous vote to end QI.
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We must not look away. And we must not shrink from the need for justice for Keenan Anderson.
Police must never respond with such force to a potential mental health crisis. Resources and care are the answer.
Accountability must be transparent and swift.
twitter.com/JonnyPeltz/sta
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"The Democratic Party has no conception of ethics."
on the body of insider-trading millionaires that pretends to care about the working class
Full interview: open.substack.com/pub/usefulidio
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The FTC has taken great strides in recent years in restoring long abandoned enforcement of antitrust laws crafted to protect the marketplace and consumers from unaccountable corporate power.
This proposed rule would represent be a substantial step forward for workers.
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While we were fixated on Kevin McCarthy’s travails last week, the FTC proposed a sweeping new rule that would ban non-compete agreements.
These clauses trap 30 million Americans in their jobs and keep them from getting better pay.
This is a very big deal.robertreich.substack.com/p/a-victory-fo
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“The evils of Capitalism are as real as the evils of Militarism and the evils of Racism.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1967)
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If more Americans came to recognize the continuing relevance of Dr. King’s voice—not to history, but to current events—we might finally make some progress on the underlying goals of his movement that were never satisfied. #ReclaimMLK
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Martin Luther King, Jr. famously fought long and hard for racial equality. So perhaps it’s fitting that it took the efforts of several Americans more than 30 years to establish a holiday in his honor.
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Every elected official praising MLK today should probably do the respectful thing and keep his name out of their damned mouths.
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All the Democrats tweeting about MLK today belong to a party that took $1 billion from Michael Bloomberg whose "Stop and Frisk" policy was so racist it was overturned by the courts.
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