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jon stewart
AOC: Democrats Must Be 'Brawlers for the Working Class' to Counter Trumpism
"One of the things that we need to do is to talk to people directly," said the congresswoman. "There need to be Democrats who walk the walk and talk the talk."
Jan 24, 2025
As Democratic lawmakers grappled with the reality of President Donald Trump's second term this week, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday urged the party to see the president's devotion to billionaires and corporations—after he campaigned as a champion for the forgotten working class—as an opportunity to make clear that Democrats, not Republicans, will fight for the interests of "everyday people."
First, the New York Democratic congresswoman said in an interview with Jon Stewart on his podcast, "The Weekly Show," the party must abandon its own allegiances to the billionaire class.
Trump, his close ties with tech billionaires like Tesla founder Elon Musk, his plans to extend the 2017 tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy, and his promises of deregulation to oil executives ahead of the election all highlight "ways that we can fight back," said Ocasio-Cortez.
"One of the things that we need to do is to talk to people directly," said the congresswoman. "There need to be Democrats who walk the walk and talk the talk. There is an insane amount of hypocrisy, and the hypocrisy is what gets exploited [by Republicans]."
Ocasio-Cortez pointed to the example of "insider trading" by lawmakers, with members of Congress who receive briefings on the defense industry, pharmaceuticals, and other businesses able to use information not available to the public to predict future stock prices. As Common Dreamsreported in December, dozens of members of Congress bought or sold up to $113 million worth of shares in Pentagon contractors last year, with three Democrats—Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Suzan Delbene (D-Wash.)—trading the most.
Pelosi, the former House speaker, is among the lawmakers who have vehemently defended stock trading by lawmakers, while Ocasio-Cortez has frequently spoken out against the practice.
"People think that everyday people are stupid," Ocasio-Cortez told Stewart on Thursday. "Do you really think that people don't see this shit? ...And then we're supposed to act like money only corrupts Republicans? Give me a fucking break."
Trump won the support of working class people across the country, increasing his support among voters who earn less than $100,000 per year despite the fact, as Ocasio-Cortez said, "that he has a Supreme Court that guts labor rights, that [Republicans] are overwhelmingly opposed to raising a minimum wage, that they are really gutting the civil rights around working people and organizing."
Wealthier voters shifted toward the Democratic Party in the election, supporting Democratic candidate former Vice President Kamala Harris.
To respond to Trump's victory, Ocasio-Cortez said, "we need to be a party of brawlers for the working class."
"We've been chasing this affluent group and making all of these little concessions and hoping that working people don't notice," she added.
The congresswoman—who campaigned for a top House Oversight Committee seat in recent weeks but lost to a more senior Democrat—has been a leading proponent of the Green New Deal, which would fight the climate emergency while creating millions of green energy jobs over a decade; the push to expand Medicare coverage to every American; and a supporter of tuition-free public college, which was offered to students across the U.S. until at least the 1970s.
Her interview with Stewart came as Semaforreported that Democratic leaders are "wrestling with how much resistance to mount to Trump's Cabinet."
"We're obviously in a bit of disarray," one Democratic senator told the outlet. "I don't think people are really completely sure about what lesson is to be learned in this election."
Jesse Brenneman, an editor for the podcast "Know Your Enemy," commented that "the fact Democrats don't know what to do tells you everything about their priorities."
In an email to supporters the day after Trump was inaugurated this week, Ocasio-Cortez stuck to the same message she shared with Stewart.
Pointing to the tech billionaires who attended the inauguration, with many elected officials "kicked to the curb," the congresswoman told supporters: "You're getting ripped off. All of us are going to be getting ripped off for the next four years, but what do we do about it?"
"The Trump trifecta has taken hold, and so have their billionaire right-wing donors," she said. "Our movement for real progress will have to push harder than ever these next four years."
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Jon Stewart: Labour Banning Leftist Candidate 'Dumbest Thing' Since UK Elected Boris Johnson
Leftist economist Faiza Shaheen said the party "has an ingrained culture of bullying, a palpable problem with Black and brown people, and thinks nothing of dragging a person's good name through the mud."
May 30, 2024
Faiza Shaheen is formally challenging the U.K. Labour leadership's Wednesday decision to block her from running for Parliament as the party's candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green, and speaking out about "a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia, and bullying from some within the party" that she has endured.
Shaheen discussed the move by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) to exclude her ahead of the July 4 general elections in an on-camera interview with the BBC late Wednesday. The leftist—an economist and visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)—described being in a state of shock.
Labour leadership emailed Shaheen about the decision, she said, after privately confronting her about a series of social media posts—including one she "liked" that features a famous clip of American comedian Jon Stewart, who is of Jewish heritage, highlighting how criticism of Israel is often met with backlash.
The full ten minutes of @faizashaheen on #newsnight.
Faiza gave this interview only an hour after being told her candidacy had been blocked for liking a tweet.
The people of Chingford and Woodford Green have been done a terrible disservice. pic.twitter.com/tYZ4ybr4xg
— Michael Walker (@michaeljswalker) May 29, 2024
The post that included the Stewart clip was written by Philippe Lemoine of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, who used the video as an example of how the Israel lobby works. In a series of comments reacting to Shaheen being barred from the election, Lemoine on Thursday said: "I guess I should thank the Labour's [NEC] and the people who complained about Faiza Shaheen for illustrating my point."
After journalist Mehdi Hasan brought the "madness" of Labour targeting Shaheen to Stewart's attention, the comedian said that "this is the dumbest thing the U.K. has done since electing Boris Johnson," the former Conservative prime minister. He added, "What the actual fuck."
Shaheen told the BBC that some of the other social media posts from over the past decades that Labour leaders took issue with related to the Green Party and experiences with Islamophobia. She also said that she has concerns about Israel's assault on Gaza and has worked to bring people of various faiths together in her community.
"The deselection of Faiza Shaheen is unacceptable," the Labour Muslim Network said Wednesday. "To use her tweets accounting personal experiences of Islamophobia as evidence for deselection is utterly outrageous. Telling a Muslim woman she is not allowed to talk about her own experiences of racism is clear Islamophobia."
In a statement about the legal challenge to the NEC decision, Shaheen said that "I have come to the inescapable conclusion that Labour, far from being a broad church encompassing different views, has an ingrained culture of bullying, a palpable problem with Black and brown people, and thinks nothing of dragging a person's good name through the mud in pursuit of a factional agenda, with no thought of the impact on committed members' mental health and well-being."
"I have not experienced this level of relentless hostility in all my personal or professional life—not even from the Conservatives."
"I have not experienced this level of relentless hostility in all my personal or professional life—not even from the Conservatives," she continued. "I am just heartbroken at this decision—heartbroken for the loyal party members who have supported me, for the voters pledging their vote to me, and my friends and family who have helped me campaign through infertility treatment, a difficult pregnancy, and a complicated birth."
The new mother added that "I really wanted to win this seat—I grew up here, went to school here, and live here now. I wanted to win for my neighbors and my community because they deserve better. I am so desperately sorry that this has happened but would like to sincerely thank everyone who worked so hard for me and Labour in Chingford and Woodford Green."
The Guardianreported Thursday that "Shaheen had been expected to beat the Conservative candidate Iain Duncan Smith, who has represented the seat since it was created in 1997," despite her loss to the former Tory leader in 2019.
In addition to moving to exclude Shaheen, Labour on Wednesday suspended MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who said that "someone (who remains anonymous to me) has made what I believe to be a vexatious and politically motivated complaint about my behavior eight years ago. This is a false allegation that I dispute totally and I believe it was designed to disrupt this election."
"There isn't enough time to defend myself as these processes within the party take too long, so the party have told me that I will not be eligible to be a candidate at the next election," added Russell-Moyle.
The developments led to accusations that Labour is trying to purge the party of its left flank. In response to the Shaheen decision, MP Diane Abbott said: "Appalling. Whose clever idea has it been to have a cull of left-wingers?"
According toAl Jazeera:
On Wednesday, Abbott had herself claimed Labour had not allowed her to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat in the election despite lifting a suspension that was enacted last year due to her comments on racism.
The lawmaker had been reinstated as a Labour MP on Tuesday after the completion of a party investigation into comments she had made in a letter to The Observer newspaper, stating that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people "undoubtedly experience prejudice," but do not face racism "all their lives."
However, Labour Leader Keir Starmer later denied the claim, saying "no decision" had been taken to bar the left-winger, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn who led the party from 2015 to 2020.
Corbyn—who was suspended from Labour in 2020 due to a battle over allegations of antisemitism in the party—is running as an Independent this year, following an NEC vote last year on Starmer's motion to not endorse his candidacy.
Asked about candidate selection, Starmer toldSky News that "I want the highest-quality candidates."
Responding to Starmer's comment, writer Owen Jones pointed out in a series of social media posts that the party leader had previously described Shaheen as a "fabulous" and "fantastic candidate."
Noting Jones' posts, Shaheen wrote: "Please don't undermine my credentials Keir Starmer. I came from a family with a violent father and spent part of my childhood on benefits. I'm now a visiting professor and teach at LSE. Public services really helped me, and I had to work so hard to get to this point in my life."
"Haven't you hurt me enough already?" she added.
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Farm Sanctuary Gets Lift from Celebrity Couple Jon and Tracey Stewart
"We're going to build new advocates, new curious learners, and new leaders for this very important movement," says Tracey Stewart
Oct 27, 2015
Offering a boost to the animal rights movement and farm animals everywhere, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart and his wife, advocate and former veterinary technician Tracey, announced this weekend that their property in Middletown, New Jersey, will be the fourth outpost of the nation's largest and most effective farm rescue and protection organization.
"We bought a farm in New Jersey to start a farm sanctuary of our own with an educational center," Tracey Stewart told attendees of the Farm Sanctuary's 100%-vegan gala on Saturday evening, "but what I'm announcing tonight is that our farm is actually going to be the New Jersey branch of Farm Sanctuary. We will build new advocates, curious learners, and leaders for this very important movement."
The organization currently operates three shelters--a 175-acre sanctuary in upstate New York, a 300-acre sanctuary in Northern California, and a 26-acre sanctuary in Southern California--where they rescue, rehabilitate, and provide lifelong care for hundreds of animals who have been saved from stockyards, factory farms, and slaughterhouses. In addition, the nonprofit promotes "compassionate vegan living" through rescue, education, and advocacy efforts.
In August, Jon Stewart ended a 16-year run on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. "I'm a little uncomfortable," he announced at Farm Sanctuary's annual gala. "I've spent the last 20 years immersed in the world of Washington politics and the media landscape, so I don't know how to deal necessarily with people who have empathy."
As Farm Sanctuary pointed out in a press statement, "viewers of The Daily Show have undoubtedly noticed Stewart's increasingly frequent rants and barbs aimed at politicians who ignore the suffering of animals to further their agendas, including an 8-minute segment dedicated to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's refusal to sign a bill that would end the lifelong confinement of pigs in crates so small they can't even turn around."
Farm Sanctuary president and co-founder Gene Baur appeared on the show to discuss his new book, Living the Farm Sanctuary Life: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer and Feeling Better Every Day (Rodale Books), earlier this year:
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