Bug#934965:
I'll add a final bit of information. I discovered that the thing that I did while troubleshooting that caused my problem was installing xfce4 but I am not sure which dependency causes the problem. One of the dependencies causes the mate screensaver to start misbehaving. With xfce4 installed, it takes 5 seconds to suspend (this is with me logged into Mate not xfce). When resuming, I am prompted to enter my password. After that a few seconds later, my screen reader stops talking. I incorrectly thought my sessionwas crashing. By switching away with CTRL+ALT+F5 and then CTRL+ALT+F7 to switch back, I am presented with another unlock dialog and after entering my password in that one, I can use the system again. All that was required here was installing XFCE, I didn't launch the session even once on this new install.
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