Podcast appearances and mentions of Charlotte Clymer

Friday, May 9th, 2025Today, Dr Robert Prevost of Chicago becomes the first American Pope in history; three former Memphis police officers have been acquitted of state charges by a jury for the murder of Tyre Nichols; Trump is pushing nations facing tariffs to approve Musk's Starlink; Some ‘Les Mis' cast members plan to boycott Trump's attendance at a Kennedy Center performance next month; MAGA friendly website Public Square backfires as people use it to learn what businesses to avoid; Ed Martin is out for US attorney in DC as Trump weighs Fox anchor Jeanine Pirro for the job; Senator Fetterman raises alarms after an outburst at meeting with union officials; Judge Boasberg orders briefing on discovery in the Alien Enemies Act case; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.Thank You, PiqueLifeGet 20% off on the Radiant Skin Duo, plus a FREE starter kit at Piquelife.com/dailybeansAllison is going LIVE with Charlotte Clymer on Substack Friday, May 09 at 630 PM ET - substack.com/live-stream/27686MSW Media, Blue Wave California Victory Fund | ActBlueGuest: Rachel FeldmanLilly Movie - Opening May 9, LILLY (@lillymovie) - Instagram; LILLY (@lillymovie2025) - TikTok; LILLY - FacebookRachelFeldman.comRachel Feldman - (@womencallaction) - BlueSky; @womencallaction - Instagram; @WomenCallAction - TwitterGuest: John FugelsangTell Me Everything — John FugelsangThe John Fugelsang PodcastSiriusXM ProgressJohn Fugelsang (@johnfugelsang) - BlueskyPre-order Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds by John FugelsangStories:'Miscarriage of justice': Family 'devastated' after ex-officers acquitted in beating death | Raw StoryExclusive: Some ‘Les Mis' cast members plan to boycott Trump's attendance at Kennedy Center performance next month | CNN PoliticsSen. John Fetterman raises alarms with outburst at meeting with union officials, AP sources say | AP NewsGood Trouble:Website For MAGA-Friendly Businesses Backfires As People Use It For BoycottsCheck out public square and find out which of your local businesses support the Trump regime. - Public SquareFind Upcoming Demonstrations And Actions:50501 MovementJune 14th Nationwide Demonstrations - NoKings.orgIndivisible.orgShare your Good News or Good Trouble:dailybeanspod.com/goodFrom The Good NewsNational Flute AssociationDIFFADesigners (and Friends) Hold Gala to Help AIDS Charities - The New York TimesReminder - you can see the pod pics if you become a Patron. The good news pics are at the bottom of the show notes of each Patreon episode! That's just one of the perks of subscribing! Federal workers - feel free to email me at fedoath@pm.me and let me know what you're going to do, or just vent. I'm always here to listen.Share your Good News or Good Trouble:https://www.dailybeanspod.com/good/ Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.comFollow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Substack|Muellershewrote, BlueSky|@muellershewrote , Threads|@muellershewrote, TikTok|@muellershewrote, IG|muellershewrote, Twitter|@MuellerSheWrote,Dana GoldbergTwitter|@DGComedy, IG|dgcomedy, facebook|dgcomedy, IG|dgcomedy, danagoldberg.com, BlueSky|@dgcomedyHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/Patreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

Charlotte Clymer! Writer! Activist! Friend! Delight! More! Charlotte is a writer, activist, communications consultant, and military veteran. She writes about politics, religion, and culture in the award-winning Substack newsletter "Charlotte's Web Thoughts," which was recognized in 2024 with Best News/Political Blog by Editor & Publisher Magazine and for Excellence in Blogging by the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association. She has been widely published and quoted by numerous national and international outlets on topics ranging from foreign policy to gun reform to trans rights. She serves on several non-profit boards, including Voices for Progress and Victory Fund. In 2023, she became the first openly-transgender person elected to membership in the Council on Foreign Relations. You can find her work at charlotteclymer.substack.com and most social media sites. She is a proud graduate of Georgetown University and resides in Washington, D.C. Charlotte and I had a great talk. You can have a great listen! And this is only the first HALF of our chat.  For part two, just subscribe via Apple Podcasts OR click on over here to Patreon!

Hour 1 Segment 1 Tony starts the show by talking about President Donald Trump speaking with El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele as they talk about illegal immigration. Hour 1 Segment 2 Tony talks about the latest in the stock market. Tony also talks about Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro, had his house set on fire. Later, Tony talks about the Blue Origin all-female space flight featuring Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez among others. Hour 1 Segment 3 Tony talks more about President Trump’s meeting with Bukele, speaking on trans athletes. Tony also talks about the gender affirming care bills going on in Colorado from Charlotte Clymer. Hour 1 Segment 4 Tony wraps up the first hour of the show talking about the media getting questions into President Trump and Bukele. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour 1 Segment 1 Tony starts the show by talking about President Donald Trump speaking with El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele as they talk about illegal immigration. Hour 1 Segment 2 Tony talks about the latest in the stock market. Tony also talks about Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro, had his house set on fire. Later, Tony talks about the Blue Origin all-female space flight featuring Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez among others. Hour 1 Segment 3 Tony talks more about President Trump’s meeting with Bukele, speaking on trans athletes. Tony also talks about the gender affirming care bills going on in Colorado from Charlotte Clymer. Hour 1 Segment 4 Tony wraps up the first hour of the show talking about the media getting questions into President Trump and Bukele. Hour 2 Segment 1 Tony starts the second hour of the show talking about Bernie Sanders making a cameo at Coachella and urging the crowd to stand up to the U.S. oligarchy. Tony also talks about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez going on Seeing America with Megan Rapinoe. Hour 2 Segment 2 Tony talks about a 5.2 magnitude earthquake strike near San Diego. Hour 2 Segment 3 Tony talks about CNN responding to President Donald Trump saying CNN hates the U.S. Tony also talks about a judge ruling that Mahmoud Khalil can be deported. Later, Tony talks about central Indiana schools switching to e-learning days today as teachers rally at the statehouse. Tony later talks about Cory Booker going on Meet the Press. Hour 2 Segment 4 Tony wraps up the second hour of the show talking more about an arsonist setting fire to Governor Josh Shapiro’s house. Hour 3 Segment 1 Tony starts the final hour of the show talking about Nvidia to mass produce AI supercomputers in Texas as part of a $500 billion U.S. push. Hour 3 Segment 2 Tony talks a Russian missile killing 34 in Ukraine. Hour 3 Segment 3 Tony talks about Bill Maher meeting with President Donald Trump for dinner, and Maher enjoying the time with him. Hour 3 Segment 4 Tony wraps up another edition of the show talking about The Breakfast Club 40-year reunion and talks about a possible remake of the movie. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Friday, March 24th, 2023In the Hot Notes; more delays for the Manhattan DA Grand Jury as Alvin Bragg claps back at Jim Jordan; a judge rules that E. Jean Carroll jurors can remain anonymous for security reasons; Kari Lake loses Arizona again; Trump's lawyers make an appearance in the Pence subpoena case; Ray Epps has sent a letter to Tucker Carlson demanding a retraction; and abortion is legal again in Wyoming; plus AG and Dana deliver your Good News.Charlotte Clymerhttps://charlotteclymer.substack.com/  Federal workers - feel free to email me at fedoath@pm.me and let me know what you're going to do, or just vent. I'm always here to listen.Share your Good News or Good Trouble:https://www.dailybeanspod.com/good/ Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.comFollow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Substack|Muellershewrote, Twitter|@MuellerSheWrote, Threads|@muellershewrote, TikTok|@muellershewrote, IG|muellershewrote, BlueSky|@muellershewroteDana GoldbergTwitter|@DGComedy, IG|dgcomedy, facebook|dgcomedy, IG|dgcomedy, danagoldberg.com, BlueSky|@dgcomedyHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/Patreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

Chuck Schumer is in hot water with progressives after supporting a GOP stopgap funding bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown. Many on the left see this as a strategic blunder, arguing that he surrendered leverage to Trump. Progressive groups like Indivisible have publicly called for Schumer's resignation, and moderate Democrats, such as Charlotte Clymer, have led donor boycotts, amassing over 25,000 signatures.Schumer's defense? He argues that preventing a shutdown was the "lesser of two evils," protecting the party from greater damage under Trump. However, his attempts to quell the outrage — including appearances on CBS Morning News and The View — have done little to shift the narrative. His decision to cancel book tour events amid protests underscores just how serious the backlash has become.Politics Politics Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The biggest problem? His critics don't appear to have a clear plan for what comes next. If Democrats truly want Schumer out, they must follow through — otherwise, they risk looking weak and divided at a critical political moment.Polling numbers paint a bleak picture for Democrats. Both CNN and NBC report that the party's approval rating sits between 27% and 29%, a stark decline from previous cycles. With about 40% of the country identifying as Democrats, that means at least 11-13% of them are unhappy with their own party.Data analyst David Shor's research further complicates the narrative. His analysis of the 2024 election challenges the idea that low voter turnout hurt Democrats. Instead, Shor suggests that even with maximum turnout, Trump still would have won by nearly five points — a sobering reality for the left.The party's problems are multifaceted: Independents aren't sold on the Democratic agenda, progressives feel sidelined, and moderates are frustrated with leadership. Right now, the party's best hope appears to be waiting for Trump to wear out his welcome with the American public. But that's not a strategy — it's wishful thinking.The most surprising shift in this political moment? Donald Trump's growing appeal to economic progressives. Recent discussions in leftist circles highlight Trump's stances on issues like the carried interest loophole (a tax policy long criticized by progressives), trade protectionism and tariffs, and economic populism.Journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon even went on Bill Maher to declare herself a “MAGA leftist,” arguing that Trump has done more for the progressive economic agenda than Democratic politicians have. While many on the left may dismiss this claim, the fact remains: Trump is successfully appealing to disaffected progressives, a major threat to Democrats who rely on that voter base.Meanwhile, JD Vance, a key figure in Trump's political circle, is emerging as an heir apparent, pushing an even more economically populist agenda. If Democrats don't reclaim these issues, they risk ceding major ground in 2026 and beyond.At the heart of this moment is a clear message: Democrats must decide whether they are serious about their internal fights. Whether it's Schumer's leadership or a broader strategic pivot, they can't afford half-measures. If they challenge Schumer, they must see it through. If they oppose Trump's growing influence, they must present a compelling alternative — not just react to him.Every second spent in an intra-party squabble is a moment not spent rallying the country behind a clear vision. And as Democrats bicker, the house is on fire.Chapters00:00:00 - Intro00:02:03 - Schumer Facing Backlash and the Future of the Democratic Party00:03:55 - Interview with Isaac Saul00:50:53 - Update00:53:16 - Justice Roberts' Comments on Trump00:56:00 - Trump and Putin's Meeting01:01:00 - JFK Files To Be Released01:02:55 - Interview with Tara Palmeri01:25:53 - Wrap-up This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/subscribe

Today I spoke with Charlotte Clymer about the state of activism and politics in America, how we got here, why it can change quickly, and ways everyday citizens can force their elected leaders to fight back against fascism … NOW. Mentioned in this conversation is my Substack piece on the ways we can put public pressure on Democrats.And be sure you're following Charlotte's Substack, Charlotte's Web Thoughts, for politics, religion, culture, and humor. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe

Jan 25, 2021Trump attempted to install an ally as Attorney General to overturn the results of the election; seven Senators have filed an ethics complaint against Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley; we learn the Trump campaign funded leaders of the insurrection; Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agrees to postpone the Senate impeachment trial to February 8th; the Biden Administration prepares to overturn Trump abortion rules and reinstate transgender people serving openly in the military; the House Ways and Means Committee re-ups the Trump tax subpoena; plus Dana Goldberg (@DGComedy) and AG hit the Hot Notes and deliver your Good News.Follow our guest on Twitter:Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer)http://charlotteclymer.substack.comActivist, Military Veteran, Writer Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.comFollow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Substack|Muellershewrote, Twitter|@MuellerSheWrote, Threads|@muellershewrote, TikTok|@muellershewrote, IG|muellershewrote, BlueSky|@muellershewroteDana GoldbergTwitter|@DGComedy, IG|dgcomedy, facebook|dgcomedy, IG|dgcomedy, danagoldberg.com, BlueSky|@dgcomedyHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/Patreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

On the occasion of the paperback release of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, historian Heather Cox Richardson shares an urgent call to action about the precarious state of American democracy, charting its historical challenges and current threats. In conversation with Charlotte Clymer, a writer, communications consultant, transgender activist, and author of the Charlotte's Web Thoughts newsletter on Substack.  This program was held on October 31, 2024 in partnership with Politics and Prose.

Charlotte Clymer & Rachel BitecoferSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Rude Pundit, Charlotte Clymer, and Cliff Schecter

Charlotte Clymer (Trans and Veterans Activist)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob Cesca, Charlotte Clymer, Malcolm Nance, and Carlos Alazraqui

Live from the DNC week, it's Sen. Debbie Stabenow and a panel of badasses: Jojo from Jerz, Charlotte Clymer, and Allison Gill.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Caissie is talking to Charlotte Clymer, noted military veteran, press secretary, writer and activist who appeared on Fortune Magazine's 40 Under 40 list in the “Government and Politics” category, and is also Caissie's sweet friend. They discuss the swift rise of Vice President Kamala Harris' Presidential campaign over just the past few weeks and they offer theories on who she might choose as her running mate, even though they knew we'd probably know who it actually is by now and WE DO! They also discuss the massive success of the various Zoom calls for Kamala, plus Caissie reveals what once happened when Busy was stuck in a live TV interview that made her a few minutes late for this podcast's interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren! SPONSORS: http://BollAndBranch.com CODE: BUSY for 15% off plus free shipping on your first set of luxury sheets. Exclusions apply. See site for details! http://Seed.com/BEST CODE: 25BEST for 25% off your first month of Seed's DS-01 daily synbiotic http://CBDistillery.com CODE: BUSY for 20% off pure, effective CBD solutions http://Wildgrain.com/BUSY PROMO CODE: BUSY for $30 off your first box of bake from frozen artisanal breads, pastries and pastas. PLUS FREE CROISSANTS! http://DrinkLMNT.com/BEST for a free 8 flavor sample pack of LMNT electrolyte drink mix with any order http://HiyaHealth.com/BUSY for 50% off your first order of pediatrician approved superpowered chewable children's vitamins!

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And if this is too big of a commitment, I'm always thankful for a simple cup of coffee.]Last night, I was honored and delighted to join a phenomenal group of brilliant leaders and hundreds of thousands of women across the country in support of the Vice President on the first Women for Harris National Organizing Call.You can watch the organizing call in its entirety right here, and I strongly recommend doing so. Speakers included Women for Harris Director Rhonda Foxx, Sen. Laphonza Butler, Chelsea Clinton, Min Jin Lee, Yvette Nicole Brown, Shannon Watts, Ai-Jen Poo, Glynda Carr, and so many more.I honestly did not expect to cry so much, but when Ms. Lee began telling her story and teared up, I completely lost it. By the time Ms. Clinton reminded us all of the history of women seeking the White House, I was a mess.It was a bad night for mascara and a great night for democracy.Below are my remarks:Good evening!My name is Charlotte Clymer, my pronouns are she/her, I'm a writer and activist, and I am so excited to be part of this historic gathering of women across the country.Now, look, I'm not gonna repeat to y'all what the brilliant and eloquent women who spoke before me stated, nor do I have the eloquence and brilliance of the women who will speak over the remainder of this evening.I'm just gonna tell y'all a quick story about why I proudly support Vice President Harris.I am a proud American, a proud Texan, a proud military veteran, a proud trans woman, and a proud Democrat.And I have found that there a lot of folks, including Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who want to place me in a specific box.They say I'm too queer to be a proud military veteran.They say a trans woman like me can't be a Christian and a strong person of faith as I am.They say women like me don't belong in America.Well, here's what I have to say to that: thank goodness our leader, Vice President Harris, has common sense and believes no American, no human being, belongs in a box.A little over four years ago, a number of rightwing extremists took a picture of me from a public event and attempted to harass me online. They wanted me to be ashamed of how I look as a trans woman.Now, just like the women I admire—women like my grandmother, women like Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from my home state of Texas, women like Vice President Harris—am I going to give these sad and insecure people that kinda power over me?No. I don't have time for that. I love how I look. I know I'm beautiful. So, I wrote a thread explaining that, and I offered an open hope that these sad and insecure people will someday have the kind of peace and comfort in their own skin as I have in mine.One of the first public figures to respond to that thread was then-Senator Kamala Harris.She gave me support. She gave me encouragement. She made me feel seen. And in that moment, she sent a clear message that supporting her means supporting the basic concept that all of us are worthy to be who we are authentically.I want to be clear: there were no incentives for her here. I hadn't endorsed her. I hadn't talked with her campaign. It wasn't like she was gonna fundraise off this moment.She did it because Vice President Harris is the kind of leader who fights for every American. She fights for the military veteran who comes back from war with horrific wounds. She fights for the woman turned away from life-saving abortion access. She fights for the public school teacher who's overworked and underpaid. She fights for every child, every senior, every single American. She fights for all of us.Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are gonna throw everything they got at her—every cruel remark, every disgusting sexist and racist trope, every bit of vile—and they're gonna find out the hard way that it just isn't enough.And why is that? Because we have a clear strategy here. All we have to do is follow the example of Vice President Harris. She is a leader who builds bridges, who invites tough conversations, who always embraces discomfort as a gift for growth.If we follow her example, if we make every phone call, if we knock on every door, if we invite tough conversations with our friends and family and neighbors who are on the fence in this election, I guarantee you, on everything I hold dear, that Kamala Harris will be the 47th President of the United States.Thank god this is our leader. Let's follow her example. Let's go win this thing.To find out how to volunteer and elect our first woman president and save democracy from Trump and Vance and Project 2025, text WOMEN to 30330.And donate to the historic and exciting campaign of Vice President Harris right here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/charlotteforharrisCharlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And if this is too big of a commitment, I'm always thankful for a simple cup of coffee.]I spent this weekend in El Paso at the 2024 Texas Democratic Convention, and it was a breath of fresh air just to be around Texas Democrats. The excitement, the passion, the values, the pride, and the unyielding commitment were on full display. It felt so good to be home.When I was invited to speak at this year's convention, there was no doubt in my mind what I wanted to say. I wanted to offer a love letter to what it means to be a Texan, and specifically, the Texas Democrats who have guided my path in life and continue to do so.The original speech I wrote was a bit long, and after a kind and very reasonable request from convention staff, I trimmed a few minutes off it, but I want to include here the text that I had to cut, so the remarks that are italicized indicate they were in the original speech but not what folks saw at the convention.I implore folks to support Texas Democrats this year. I've rarely seen such energy as I saw this weekend. Folks are putting in the work, and it shows. I am optimistic about November.Please consider donating to Texas Democrats right here, Annie's List (supporting women candidates) right here, and Find Out PAC, a project started by the legendary Gina Ortiz Jones to beat extremist Republicans on the Texas Supreme Court, right here.I'm including the video of the speech below for those who'd like to watch it, and below that will be the full text of my remarks:FULL REMARKS (italicized text in original speech but not during delivery):My name is Charlotte Clymer, my pronouns are she/her, and I am proud to be from the Great State of Texas.I currently live in our nation's capital, and often, when I meet someone for the first time and they ask where I'm from and I tell them, they'll have a look of sympathy on their face and say something like: “Oh, I'm sorry. That sounds terrible.” And they mean it.And when that happens, I respond that I'm actually very proud to be from Texas. I love Texas.And the sympathetic look on their face will vanish and, in its place, will be confusion and incredulity.They'll say to me: “But Charlotte, you're a Democrat. You're pro-choice. You support abortion access. You're a trans woman. How can you be proud to be from Texas?”And I realize, in that moment, they truly don't get it. So, I gotta tell them.I tell them that I am from the home of Barbara Jordan, and that during the Watergate scandal, when Americans felt so alarmed and uncertain about our country's leadership, the conscience of our nation was a Black queer woman from Texas.I tell them that I'm from the home of Gov. Ann Richards and that long before these extremist male politicians were so threatened by women controlling their own destiny, Gov. Richards was making it look easy, backwards and in high heels.I tell them that I am from the home of Wendy Davis and Molly Cook and Julian Castro and Joaquin Castro and Gina Ortiz Jones and Molly Ivins. I'm from the home of Celia Israel and Beto O'Rourke and Gene Wu and Monique Alcala and Becca DeFelice.I tell that them that if they listen to Willie Nelson and Beyoncé and Selena, they are listening to Texas music.I tell them that when they watch Simone Biles dominate the Paris Olympics this summer, they are watching a Texas woman do that.I tell them that I'm from the home of Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvia Garcia and Lizzie Fletcher and Greg Casar. I'm from the home of Veronica Escobar and Al Green and Marc Veasey and Vicente Gonzalez and Lloyd Doggett.I tell them that I am from the home of Jasmine Crockett.I tell them that I am from the home of Sarah Weddington and Cecile Richards and Ilyse Hogue and Kate Cox and millions of Texas women who refuse to be told what they can and cannot do with their own health care. These women terrify the leadership of the Republican Party for a very simple reason: because they know what every Texan knows, regardless of party or ideology or religion or race: they know that there is nothing as powerful as a Texas woman with a plan.I'm from the home of Colin Allred, the son of a single mother and public school teacher, who will be the next senator from the great State of Texas. And it's not because he has embodied a high standard of excellence his entire life (although he has). I's not because he's a beloved and respected Member of Congress (although he is). It's because Texans know, deep down, that Colin Allred is not the kind of man who's gonna fly off to Cancun in the middle of a natural disaster.I'm from the home of Dr. Kristin Hook. She's a former public school teacher and scientist and labor organizer. And when she saw that Chip Roy might be reelected by default, despite his obstruction, despite his irresponsibility, despite his lack of care and attention to the needs of working-class families, she thought to herself: “I can do better than this.” She is now the Democratic nominee for the 21st congressional district of Texas. And folks, she's gonna win.I'm from the home of Lauren Ashley Simmons, a brilliant union organizer and mom who showed up to her local school board meeting in the face of a cowardly and cynical effort by Greg Abbott to take over her children's school district. She looked at the absolute nonsense occurring in front of her and thought: “You know what, I can do better than this.” She came to that meeting as a concerned parent and left as a leader ready to change things. She is now the Democratic nominee for Texas House District 146. And folks, she's gonna win.I tell folks that I am from the home of nearly 400,000 Texas public school teachers and professional support staff who are overworked and underpaid and under-resourced and yet still come to schools every day ready to fight for the future of every young person. Did you what I said? Every young person, regardless of their religion or their race or their economic background or whether or not they are transgender.I tell folks that no matter what I accomplish in this lifetime, every bit of success I have ever achieved would not be possible without my Texas public school education and the teachers who never gave up on me.And I have a message for transgender and nonbinary youth in Texas: you are loved, you are important, you deserve happiness and authenticity, and we will never stop fighting for you.And I tell them that I come from the home of Carolyn Wilson. That's my grandmother. I know what it means to be a Texan because of my grandmother. She taught me that being a Texan means community. It means helping your neighbor. It means lending a hand to the most vulnerable. Being a Texan means no one gets left behind.My grandmother is an atheist, but when I became a Christian at 19, she didn't hesitate to show up to my baptism and tell me that she's proud of me. When I enlisted in the Army, my grandmother wrote me at basic training every week with encouragement, challenging me to reach a higher standard. When I came out as a trans woman, my grandmother told me how proud she is to have me as her granddaughter.The leadership of the Republican Party lives in fear of people like my grandmother because she is closer to the love and grace and empathy of God than they care to understand.They live in fear of meeting a reasonable adult who disagrees with them and defies being put in a box. I'm a progressive, pro-choice trans woman, and I am a Christian military veteran from Texas. They can't stand me because I make it impossible for them to place me in a box. I make it harder for them to divide people and pit Americans against each other.And I'm a Democrat because the Democratic Party has no time for that. Texas Democrats have no time for that. There are working class families to support, homeless veterans to house, minimum wage workers to be helped, gun reform to be achieved, health care to be expanded, children to be fed and educated, civil rights to advance, democracy to be defended, and a country, a proud country, to believe in.Folks, I wanna be very clear about this: we're gonna win in November. President Biden and Vice President Harris will be reelected, Colin Allred will be in the Senate, and we will take back the House.And Texas Democrats are going to lead the way.God bless America. God bless Texas.Thank you.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I am available for Pride Month speaking engagements. And if all this is too big a commitment, I'm always thankful for a simple cup of coffee.]This past weekend, I was invited to deliver the keynote speech at the Bonneville County Democratic Party's annual Truman Dinner in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It was my first time visiting the Gem State, and I was captivated by both the gorgeous scenery and the warmth of Idahoans. When I was invited to the Truman Dinner a few months ago by Chairwoman Miranda Marquit, I accepted immediately. And I'll tell you why.Idaho is a deeply conservative state. It has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964; that year, Lyndon B. Johnson, despite trouncing Barry Goldwater—winning 44 states (and D.C.), 486 electoral votes, 61 percent of the popular vote—won Idaho by less than two percent.Idaho has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1974, a Democratic governor since 1990, and with the exception of a single term served by Mr. Walt Minnick in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), it has not otherwise elected a Democrat to the U.S. House since 1994.Idaho is among those states that actually increased their support for Trump from 2016 to 2020, despite his loss to President Biden.Abortion was formally banned in the state two months after the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling (except in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother during the first trimester), and LGBTQ rights in the state are abysmal, although public polling of Idahoans illustrates a more complicated picture (about 70 percent of Idahoans support LGBTQ non-discrimination laws).So, yes, it is accurate to say that Idaho is deeply conservative.But I spent the entire weekend with Idaho Democrats, and I found myself in awe of their dedication, kindness, and unyielding pride in Democratic values. They did not feel sorry for themselves. They did not make excuses. They had no time for pity.I was in the company of so many wonderful people who get up every day and fight the good fight for their families, their neighbors, and their state. I wish that so many Democrats living in solidly progressive areas of this country had a tenth of the courage and commitment demonstrated by the Democrats I met in Idaho.I am so tired of some Democrats living in solid blue parts of the country looking down their noses at folks putting in the work in conservative swaths of our nation, questioning their sanity in living where they do, as though uprooting one's family from the only home they've ever known is a feasible option for most people.The unflappable worth ethic of these Idaho Democrats reminded me of how proud I am to be a progressive from Texas and how much I bristle when someone who lives in a solidly blue state condescends to Democrats living in conservative areas.Anyway, the full remarks of my speech are below, and if you would be so kind, I highly encourage donating to the Bonneville County Democratic Party. Please help them build the future of Democratic politics in the state.FULL REMARKSGood evening!My name is Charlotte Clymer, and I am proud to be a member of the Democratic Party.It's an honor to join y'all tonight. When your chair Miranda Marquit extended an invitation to me a few months ago, I immediately agreed. You see, I've never been to Idaho, and every person I've ever met from Idaho has said to me: “Oh, don't come here. You'd hate it. Nothing to see at all. No gorgeous scenery. No nature. It's so boring. And tell your friends not to come here, either!”Idaho is a wonderfully kept secret. So, I knew I had to come for that reason, alone.But I also accepted the Chairwoman's invitation because I know what it's like to be a proud Democrat in an area of the country where Democrats aren't so plentiful. Because let's face it: I know that there are a lot of folks in this county, maybe even some folks in this room, who look at me and only see a trans woman, a progressive trans woman, who has flown in from Washington, D.C.What could I possibly know about what it's like to live in a conservative area? What could I possibly know about having a lot of conservative friends and neighbors and constantly being in spaces with people who are not gonna see the world as I do?This is what I call box thinking. It's become one of the biggest problems for our country: this relentless need to place everyone we know in a box and call it a day. There are a lot of folks who live their lives believing there are only two boxes and you need to belong to only one of those two boxes and it had better be their box.And if you chose to place me in a box before getting to know me, you'd miss out on a lot.You'd never find out that I served in the U.S. Army for six years and I am very proud of my service. You'd never find out that my Christian faith is one of the most important things to me and that I go to church every Sunday. You'd never find out that I'm very proud to be from the South, that I come from two lines of family raised in the South. You'd never find out that I played high school football, that I grew up around firearms, that I was raised on country music, and I am proud of all these aspects of who I am.I know what it's like to be from a part of the country that people living in more progressive areas look at and say: “Oh gosh, I'm so sorry,” as though I've just told them my dog died.Actually, that's not entirely true. If I told them my dog had died, they would probably have asked about South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's whereabouts.But it's true. We live in a nation of people who insist that there are only two boxes. And I'm not just talking about people on the right. I'm talking about people on the far-left, too. So much of the far-left can't stand me because I defy their box theory. They believe that I, as a trans woman, am not supposed to be proud of our military, that I am not supposed to go to church, that I am not supposed to disagree with them.That's the thing they still don't realize. The brutal truth is that the far-right and far-left have one thing in common: they both live in fear of talking with a reasonable adult who disagrees with them.Well, folks, here's my message to them: this country is a whole lot damn bigger than two boxes.I have not come this far in life to allow myself to be defined by strangers who are scared of reasonable disagreement. Who I am is between me and God, and no one else gets a say in that.And this goes for geography, too. I'm from the great state of Texas, and if all you knew about Texas were our state's political leadership and their incessant irresponsibility and selfishness and cruelty—if that's all you knew about Texas—you probably wouldn't want to visit.But you see, I'm very proud to be from Texas, probably for the same reasons that all of you here are proud to be from Idaho. And you should be. Because this is home. This is where you first learned about community. It's where you first understood what it means to live alongside others and take care of your neighbors and work hard to ensure that no one gets left behind.It hasn't surprised me one bit to find out that folks in Idaho are kind, hardworking, empathetic, and resilient. And I think that goes double for Idaho Democrats. It takes guts to walk up to door after door and knock on it, knowing that the person behind that door is more than likely going to be resistant to your message, knowing that you're going to have to do the thankless work of communicating a vision of solidarity and progress with your neighbor, who may have been fed a lot of disinformation and hateful propaganda.I hope you'll hear what I'm saying: it takes courage to be an outspoken Democrat in a place where few exist, but more than that, in states like Idaho and Texas, it takes courage to swallow your pride and meet people where they are and get them to see how the Democratic Party has their best interests at mind. It takes courage to do the hard and necessary work of constantly extending a hand to folks who don't agree with you on most things.But it is necessary. It is absolutely necessary. You are doing the work that needs to be done, and thank god for that.I think it's quite appropriate that we're gathered this evening at a dinner named for a president who understood, better than most presidential candidates of the 20th century, what it means to be the underdog.Harry Truman was not supposed to win the 1948 presidential election. The winner that year was supposed to be New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who was very popular with his base and very charismatic. Of the 500 newspapers in the country at that time, nearly 80 percent endorsed Dewey. One famous pundit said two months before Election Day that the race was basically over.Most of that campaign can be summed up this way: the press thought Dewey was going to win, the pollsters and pundits thought Dewey was going to win, and Dewey thought Dewey was going to win. In fact, even President Truman's closest aides and his wife Bess privately thought Dewey was likely to win. So, it was clear that Dewey was going to win. It seems the only person who thought Truman could win was Truman.You see, President Truman was an incredibly capable commander-in-chief. He had successfully led the United States out of World War II and began the process of rebuilding Europe. He had common sense and stood up for working class families. He was a great chief executive.But he wasn't flashy. Many folks didn't find him very exciting. Around this time that year, in mid-May, his approval rating was 36 percent. He was challenged by people in his own party. He was doubted by the press. There were some folks who openly wondered if it wouldn't be a bad idea for Mr. Truman to drop out of the race and give another Democrat a shot.There were third party candidates like vicious racist Strom Thurmond, who threatened to take votes from President Truman and weaken him against Dewey.And meanwhile, Thomas Dewey was saying nothing much at all. He wasn't articulating any new or interesting policy ideas. He wasn't laying out a vision for all Americans. He was pandering to his base and playing it safe otherwise.So, an incumbent who's a great leader but isn't considered very exciting, a challenger who isn't saying anything new but is considered by many to be charismatic, a bunch of third party clowns mucking up the process, and a political press that seems to be asleep at the wheel.Does any of this sound familiar?President Truman went on aggressive whistle stop tours of the country, giving speeches at train stations all over, hammering the GOP and Dewey, refusing to back down, refusing to give up, and absolutely certain he was gonna win.I want to read you a quote from a speech President Truman delivered by radio in St. Paul, Minnesota about three weeks before the election:“Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing. They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage--the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them. ...They think the American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.”You could take that quote and put it in a speech by President Biden now, and you wouldn't miss a beat. Mr. Truman didn't play it safe. He didn't hesitate to fight for his values. He didn't try to pander to zealots and clowns. He was a warrior for democracy and working families.Three weeks after that speech, President Truman won. The pundits were apoplectic. All night, radio announcers told the public that Truman's lead in the national vote was temporary. There's no way he could win. Political reporters said he couldn't win, so how could this happen?The day after the election, President Truman held up the front page of the Chicago Tribune that had been printed and distributed erroneously, with that iconic headline in big bold letters:DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMANAnd he didn't just win. He got two million more votes than Dewey and trounced him in the Electoral College.I want to be very clear about something tonight. If you walk away with anything from this event, I want you to walk away with this: Joe Biden is going to be reelected President of the United States. We are gonna win in November. And it's not just because our party has ideas that actually help working class families. It's not just because President Biden's policies have saved our economy. It's not just because Republicans don't have any new ideas or new solutions.No, here's why President Biden is going to win: because he trusts the American people to understand what's at stake.We don't want to live in a country where any elected official believes he's above the law and should be treated like a king. We don't want to live in a country where the state gets to decide what women do with their bodies. We don't want to live in a country where politicians get to tell parents what health care they're allowed to provide their children. We don't want to live in a country where the richest people still get unfair tax breaks while working families struggle to provide for their children. We don't want to live in a country where those in power turn their backs on the labor movement and working class families.We don't want to live in a country in which life-saving and comprehensive health care is only accessible to those earning six figures or more.That's it. That's all that matters. And the leadership of the Republican Party lives every day in fear that more and more working families are gonna realize that.The polls don't matter. Listen, y'all, I've been following politics all my life and working in politics for most of my career, and I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt that polls don't worry me.What did the pollsters say in 2018? That Democrats were right to be anxious. What happened? Democrats took back control of Congress in an enormously embarrassing defeat for Trump.What did the pollsters say in 2020? That Democrats were headed for a catastrophic defeat at the polls. What happened? President Biden was elected, and Democrats took back control of Congress.What did the pollsters say in 2022? Do y'all remember? They said a “red wave” was coming and Democrats were about to be wiped out in Congress. What happened? President Biden had the best midterms performance of any first term Democratic president in six decades. The red wave turned out to be a red trickle.Folks, I say again: there is no doubt in my mind that we are going to win in November. President Biden and Vice President Harris will be reelected, we will take back the House, and you know what? I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that we'll hold the Senate, too.And when this all happens, the pundits and pollsters will make excuses like they always do. And the Republican Party will make excuses like they always do. And the press will make excuses like they always do.Let it be known right now: the Democratic Party ain't got time for excuses.There are working families to support, homeless veterans to house, minimum wage workers to be helped, children to be fed and educated, and a country, a proud country, to believe in.That starts right here in places like Bonneville County. It starts in places like my home state of Texas. It starts in the places in this country most in need of building bridges by folks like yourselves who are doing that thankless work because it needs to be done.I am grateful for you, and I want you to know there are Democrats all across this country who are grateful for you.Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your hospitality. Have a wonderful evening.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I am available for speaking engagements.]I'm afraid the rumor is true: Taylor Alison Swift, the 34 year-old singer-songwriter who was recently named TIME's Person of the Year and won her fourth Album of the Year gramophone yesterday, is, in fact, a highly successful psyop chiefly created by the Central Intelligence Agency.It turns out that President Biden has deftly and secretly marshaled the full resources of the federal government and the global intelligence community toward the specific aim of weaponizing Ms. Swift into an unstoppable political force that will ensure his reelection against the quadrice-indicted Donald Trump. Ms. Swift's global popularity has actually very little to do with her preternatural gift for storytelling, exceptional discipline for her craft, uncommonly precise awareness of how her audience connects with her art, extraordinary sense for marketing and personal brand, hall-of-fame business savvy, sheer potency of the projects with her colleagues, career longevity combined with a remarkable consistency for artistic excellence, and an authentic and unapologetic joy expressed through what she creates. None of those factors, you see, account for her current level of unprecedented, stratospheric global fame, which is solely the result of a joint effort by the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. Department of Defense, the United Kingdom's MI6, Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst, and the Disney legal team.These agencies have been working in close connection with each other since the release of Ms. Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006, carefully shaping her career trajectory and global influence as their most imperative, top secret national security project, codenamed Operation Reputation.This all may defy conventional thinking, the idea that literally tens of thousands of intelligence professionals and political operatives have seamlessly worked together in cross-country collaboration over the past two decades in service to the vision of a highly-collaborative crossover country star, rigging album sales and award shows, uncannily deciphering what two separate generations of young people would find appealing in their musical tastes, engineering a complex history of interpersonal drama that connects most A-list music luminaries of this century in a manner that satiates the masses' appetite for celebrity gossip whilst leaving Ms. Swift unblemished in public perception, all doing so without so much as a single person leaking the details of said master plan.I mean, sure, with all this apparent power President Biden has at his disposal, it would have been much easier for him to manipulate our media environment into focusing on, for example, the fact that the U.S. unemployment rate is basically the lowest it's been in five decades.Or that 15 million jobs have been added under President Biden's tenure, more than any president in American history by a country mile, in just three years.Or that he became the first sitting president to join a picket line when he stood in solidarity with the United Auto Workers last year. (The UAW won that fight and endorsed the President last month.)Or that he signed into law the first significant gun reform legislation in three decades and the first bill guaranteeing federal protection of marriage equality and the massive Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for which many House Republicans now take credit when talking to their constituents despite voting against it and the American Rescue Act that led our country out of the worst consequences of the pandemic and the PACT Act that ensures health benefits for veterans suffering from service-connected toxic exposures, etc.Or that he successfully appointed the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, along with more than 170 federal judges, most of whom are women and people of color, dramatically moving the federal judiciary closer to how America really looks.Or that he pardoned all prior federal offenses for simple marijuana possession and initiated the process to reevaluate how marijuana is scheduled under federal law, finally applying much-needed common sense to the catastrophically inept “War on Drugs.”Or that he's signed Executive Orders to protect life-saving abortion access and made it clear he will not back down in fighting for reproductive health care, one of the most critical civil rights issues of our time.Or that he had the best midterms performance of any first-term Democratic president since Kennedy.Or… well… you get the picture. President Biden could be using this unimaginably potent global media and intelligence apparatus he apparently has at his disposal to place, front-and-center, the many, many, many accomplishments of his Administration in the past three years.But instead, he has clearly chosen to invest the bulk of his time and power toward ensuring that Taylor Swift remains the most popular non-head-of-state in the world, all while keeping such a project airtight secret.Yes, I'm sure that's what's really going on. The same man who is daily criticized for his age has somehow ingeniously and nimbly forged into the popular imagination a pop star who is practically deified by young people and will serve as the long-planned saving grace of democracy and global stability.Sure.Or hey, hear me out: maybe it's reasonable to believe that a young woman can achieve as much as Taylor Swift has done while prioritizing a proactive empathy for others that smoothly aligns with the President's vision for our country.That actually makes a lot more sense.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]This morning, Pope Francis formally approved new guidance that allows priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples, an enormous step forward in welcoming LGBTQ families into the Catholic Church.There will be no shortage of critical takes on this, both from conservatives who feel it's a betrayal of Scripture (it is not) and progressives who believe it doesn't go far enough, the latter of which would be similar to finding suitable water in the middle of a desert and whining that it doesn't come with ice.To be clear, this in no way changes the Catholic Church's steadfast position that marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman. In fact, the Pope took great pains to emphasize that such blessings cannot be offered liturgically or otherwise take place within the typical ceremonial parameters for a marriage or a civil union.Without going into much detail, here's the long and short of it: Francis is essentially permitting priests to be more encouraging to LGBTQ couples in their joint walk with God, albeit without specifically endorsing that path.You've heard of same-sex weddings in which anti-LGBTQ relatives show up to offer their support to the happy couple, despite their own stated misgivings over same-sex marriages?This is basically the Vatican's policy version of that. Well… maybe it's more like the relative attending the reception with a gift and warm words after skipping the nuptials on principle.(Yes, that does happen, believe it or not.)And sure, if we leave it at that oversimplification, without any context, I can see how some would be unimpressed and even offended.But I want to encourage folks to observe this monumental sign of progress within the long arc of the Vatican's notorious history of hostility toward the queer community.Pope Francis, rather than follow his predecessors' strategy of broadly shaming and demonizing LGBTQ people, has spent his tenure trying a different approach, one that, yes, doesn't depart from the Vatican's anti-LGBTQ scriptural interpretations on big questions (marriage, sex, etc.) but does encourages love and understanding toward queer people.In 2013, mere months into his papacy, Francis famously remarked to reporters: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?”Again, this was not an endorsement of homosexuality or bisexuality but a simple gesture of kindness and good faith toward gay people. It was an act of spiritual leadership urging compassion in place of condemnation, the essence of Christ's teachings.The Pope has also expressed support for the legal affirmation (but not religious affirmation) of same-sex civil unions (though, again, not a scriptural endorsement of same-sex marriage), stating that LGBTQ people are entitled to families, however formed.He has also spoken out against the criminalization of same-sex activity or relationships, made clear that homosexuality is not an illness, urged Catholic families (really, all families) to love and include their LGBTQ relatives, and expressed unprecedented empathy for LGBTQ-led families.Do I love his overall history on trans folks like me? Not quite. In the past, he has made some unnecessarily inflammatory remarks on trans people, stating that gender-affirming health care is a sin, once comparing it to nuclear arms. That was eight years ago.Since then, Pope Francis, while not yielding from his basic view that trans people are misaligned with God's will (I firmly disagree, of course), has taken a far more loving view toward the community, including much publicized conversations with trans people in which he again encouraged love and empathy.Most notably, His Holiness offered substantial public support for Sister Mónica Astorga Cremona, an Argentinian Carmelite nun who started a safe home for trans women and has dedicated her life to ministering to trans folks in desperate circumstances.In a letter to her, Francis stated: “God, who didn't attend seminary and didn't study theology, will reward you generously. I pray for you and your daughters.”That was the first time in history that the Pope, spiritual leader to more than 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, including the current President of the United States, has affirmed the gender identity of a trans person.I'm a proud trans woman, and my Christian faith is very important to me. The most daunting aspect of my relationship with God—and, admittedly, the most difficult to master, an ongoing journey, to be sure—has been offering grace for others who may not fully affirm me but are taking steps toward me in good faith.It is the same grace I wish for myself when I make mistakes or cause harm or require further learning and humility. It is never tidy or simple. Swallowing past pain to encourage the growth of fellow travelers can be exhausting, and yet, if there are other, effective routes available, they are wholly unknown to me.Pope Francis has been an extraordinary blessing for LGBTQ people; even in my theological disagreements with him, I can see the forest through the trees and recognize that we are unlikely to see again in our lifetime a Bishop of Rome so dedicated to loving the queer community and reserving judgment to God.Some will dismiss these efforts as publicity-minded. That is entirely foolish to me.It would have been all-too-convenient for Pope Francis to eschew calls for LGBTQ affirmation during his papacy, hiding behind stale and cruel interpretations of God's word. In the past several years, as anti-LGBTQ extremism has grown substantially, the Holy Father, from a mass communications standpoint, could have stayed quiet or even leveraged endorsement of homophobia to mollify his conservative critics.But he has rejected that approach, choosing to proactively love LGBTQ people and recognize our entitlement to God's unconditional love and the earthly commission of clergy to express that love in their outreach.In the papal declaration today, Pope Francis said, in part, the following: “The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live. It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.”May we all give thanks for the Pope and our fellow children of God who choose to safeguard seeds of the Holy Spirit in grounds they may not fully recognize, leaving their growth unimpeded to Her warmth and light.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]This afternoon, Kevin McCarthy became the first Speaker of the House to be ousted from that position following a motion to vacate that was filed last night by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.Gaetz needed only six GOP votes to go against McCarthy, but he got eight, including a somewhat curious vote from Rep. Nancy Mace (SC-01), the anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ lawmaker who seems quite invested in convincing political media she's a moderate while she does things like this. (She is not a moderate.)It's hard to understate the history at play here. It's not just that McCarthy is the first Speaker to be removed, but that he was ousted less than nine months into his tenure, the shortest of any Speaker who didn't die in office. It is certainly not an overstatement to point out that this is a massive political failure.It's not just a failure for McCarthy but the entire Republican Party, who have been made to look disorganized, fractured, and clownish by a small number of GOP extremists. The GOP will undoubtedly suffer from this in the short-term, particularly with elections next month in Virginia and New Jersey.And it may spell significant trouble for 2024. Depending on how long this vote for the next Speaker is dragged out, Republicans could be losing hundreds of thousands of moderates across the country—if not millions—with each day this circus continues.In January, McCarthy needed 15 ballots to finally be elected Speaker, and he had to give the extremists everything they wanted, including the motion-to-vacate by an individual member, which Gaetz duly weaponized last night.Following the vote, one congresswoman was reportedly crying on the House floor, and dozens of Republicans supporting McCarthy lined up to console him.So many shocked faces being acquainted with a leopard.Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was not present; she's currently in San Francisco after traveling back with the body of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. There was no way she could have come back in time. The Speaker Emerita and McCarthy are not exactly fond of each other, so you can imagine she was disappointed to miss this vote.McCarthy served 270 days, the equivalent of 27 scaramuccis or 0.093 of a pelosi, after giving away his power—and his dignity—to man-toddlers who eventually stabbed him in the back.Nancy Patricia Pelosi, who served 2,290 days as Speaker of the House, won election to Speaker by her colleagues on the first ballot every time, deftly shepherded some of the most notable legislation in modern history, and successfully defied challenges to her leadership with uncommonly brilliant coalition skills, backwards and in high heels.Kevin McCarthy just found out in the hardest way possible that Nancy Pelosi only made it look easy.Tonight, the GOP will meet in private and then, supposedly, we'll get the first ballot vote for Speaker. I'll continue to cover it, of course, through here, Threads, and the website formerly known as Twitter.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]I don't remember the first time I saw Vivek Ramaswamy in one of the countless cable news hits he's done since the announcement of his presidential campaign just over six months ago, but I remember the first time he held my attention. It wasn't a cable news hit. It was some random video in my timeline.Mr. Ramaswamy was at a campaign event six weeks ago in Ottumwa, Iowa, a town of 25,000 that has seen five presidential visits, most recently with then-Pres. Obama in 2010. This small town hall was hosted by the local GOP. He was in the middle of a longer answer about “firing the managerial class of the Pentagon” over the accusation against top military leadership of engaging in “wokism” and so on—you've likely heard some version of these thoughts from one of the countless rightwing provocateurs who parrot it—when suddenly, he was interrupted by a shouting protestor.The protestor—whose name I ain't gonna put here in order to protect her privacy—was yelling at Mr. Ramaswamy: “Protect women! I am not having someone else's kid if they rape me!”He immediately (and curiously) said “Amen!” and attempted to pivot in some related direction (the audio is a bit muffled) when she responded: “Republicans are raping people! President Trump is a rapist!”There were overlapping interruptions until she was swarmed by campaign staff and volunteers, who motioned for her to leave, which she started to do for about 15 yards, when Mr. Ramaswamy asked for her to come back and speak. So, she walked back up, to in front of the stage, and did speak.She talked about abortion rights and the absolute terror of living in a country in which rape can be a death sentence because of unnecessary and clownish (my words) restrictions on abortion care.Mr. Ramaswamy waited for to say her piece and asked for her name and if she said she's a mother (yes, she said, and her kids are successful) and he replied: “I want to say you're doing one of the most important things...a mother raising more children in this world. Even if we have our disagreements, I want to say thank you for that. So thank you.”She started to walk back out—probably because this was all a bit overwhelming, she later told an NBC reporter she had no plans to interrupt or protest the event—when Mr. Ramaswamy then said this:“And part of what it means to live in this country is we have free speech, we get to speak our minds openly, even if we all don't agree on it. So, let's actually applaud her for the courage, coming into a room and asking a question even though we don't agree on everything, OK?”She nodded to acknowledge what he said, the audience applauded her as she was walking out, and that was it. Mr. Ramaswamy supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election and has steadfastly defended him in the public square against his various indictments and other legal controversies in recent months. He is absolutely a Trump supporter, but what he did at that event was not a very Trumpian move.His political idol—the inspiration for his entry into politics—would not have asked the woman to come back and speak her mind. He would have done some combination of talking over her, mocking her, and exploring sidebar topics that were halfway between adjacent to the discussion-at-hand and seemingly random.We all know this. But Mr. Ramaswamy invited her back and gave her the space to speak and then deftly defused the tension in the venue with praise for her, and by the time she was walking out of that event, he was looking pretty good to a lot of people. Was it sincere? Probably not. Was it very contrived retail politics? Yeah. But honestly, I don't think it really matters. I think debating his intentions in that moment is worthless, knowing that the folks who would debate something like that were not his intended audience. At no point did he admit that he or Trump are wrong. He just expressed a basic show of empathy on shared values that sounded really classy to his intended audience. It wasn't to convince the likes of me, I know that, because I am not who he has in mind in his broad messaging.He threaded the needle in that moment for Trump supporters, however cynically, in such a way that he got credit for both refusing to budge on his views and coming across as a decent man, the latter of which Trump has struggled to do most (all?) of his life, even when he's actually trying.So, now, Trump supporters can show this video to others and say: See? We're decent folks who respect each other in disagreement. It's the left who shows up to interrupt a conversation and stir up trouble.Again, I need to emphasize that whether or not this makes anti-Trump folks (like myself) feel anger or frustration or annoyance is completely besides the point because once again: we are not the intended audience for Mr. Ramaswamy's campaign comms strategy.Mr. Ramaswamy has one goal in mind: he wants to be the heir apparent for the Trump wing of the Republican Party (which is most of the GOP). He wants to succeed him as the leader of that faction, which has reliably kept Mr. Trump in place as the de facto leader of the Republican Party.The only thing that matters to Mr. Ramaswamy in this moment is positioning himself as the obvious choice to pick up that mantle, however far in the future. Maybe that includes angling for the bottom of the ticket, but even if he missed out on that, he's still building his brand solely in Trump's image for that handoff.Take last night's debate. Mr. Ramaswamy was widely criticized for his over-the-top, bombastic, uninformed, meandering, and non-sensical performance. He repeatedly talked over his opponents and the moderators. He seemed to relish embodying an intentional arrogance. Sound like anyone to you?Mr. Ramaswamy wasn't at the debate last night to court MSNBC commentators who have spent last night and this morning consistently praising (and rightly so) former U.N. Ambassador (and South Carolina governor) Nikki Haley for handing Mr. Ramaswamy's ass to himself with logic in a heated exchange.He wasn't there to court the minority of Republican voters who (rightly) believe his political hero is a traitor to American democracy or (correctly) sense that the Era of Trump will eventually end in disaster for the GOP. He wasn't there for social media pundits like myself who have found it all-to-easy to mock his manic performance. (I likened his general vibe last night to that of a youth pastor who taken's a bump of cocaine backstage before coming out to deliver a sermon.)No, he was there to audition for an audience of one: Donald John Trump, and it didn't take long for supporters of Mr. Trump to pick up on that. Mr. Ramaswamy declined to offer any support for accountability of Mr. Trump in the midst of his myriad indictments and other legal controversies. Whereas as every other candidate, to some degree, criticized Mr. Trump, he has stood steadfastly beside his political hero and defended him.This is not by accident. The party's frontrunner may not have been present last night, but the spirit of Trumpism was very much present in Mr. Ramaswamy's performance.All of the other candidates on that stage last night have been struggling with a common puzzle: how to attract Trump supporters without alienating them — with these added complexities: 1) the risk in turning off moderate voters in the general (as Trump does) and 2) the risk in attaching their integrity to a sinking sink (which Trump is).Unsurprisingly, none of these candidates have come close to figuring it out, probably because it's an impossible task. Mr. Trump's voters only want him. Prime example: look no further than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has a glittering resume and—until recently—had the wide backing of much of the Republican establishment.Mr. DeSantis' message to the Trump faction has been: I'm not saying my approach is morally better; I'm saying my approach is smarter, and we can go a lot further in conservative goals with my approach. Mr. DeSantis has attempted to run to the right of Mr. Trump, seeming to throw down a gauntlet: This guy is all talk; I am all action. Watch me go after Mickey Mouse. Watch me take over universities. Watch me ban books. Watch me not give a damn what my critics think, either, including Trump.The Governor of Florida has sought to present himself as the new and improved Donald Trump, with far greater discipline and actual legal and policy chops — Trump without the embarrassing gaffes, Trump without the raging narcissism, Trump without the self-destructive chaos.His efforts over the past several years in the direction of this goal have mostly failed because it turns out—surprise—that Trump supporters do not want an improved version of Mr. Trump. They don't see need for improvement. They want Mr. Trump in the original packaging, thank you very much.I firmly believe that every candidate on that stage last night understands this about Trump supporters, but none of them have been willing to do what Mr. Ramaswamy is clearly doing: unapologetically embracing everything about Mr. Trump, no matter how awful, in an attempt to be anointed as his successor someday.Mr. Ramaswamy is not actually running for president; he's running to be Mr. Trump's crown prince, and if Mr. Trump should, someday, find himself out of the running due to the overwhelming legal quagmire he's currently in, Mr. Ramaswamy is waiting there with open arms: your vision and your legacy are safe with me.And if Mr. Trump stays in the race, despite the very steep legal challenges, Mr. Ramaswamy is setting himself up as a strong Veep choice or, barring that, with an unconditional blessing and unparalleled favor from the leader of the GOP. That's the goal.To do that, Mr. Ramaswamy has clearly decided he must kill his own ego and shed any sense of shame. All that matters is being an especially devoted cover band for the twice-impeached, 4x-indicted, former president.It means pretending that he is not a Phi Beta Kappa graduate, summa cum laude, of Harvard College and earned his law degree from Yale with the assistance of a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a fact which was inexplicably removed from his Wikipedia article back in May.It means pretending that he is, somehow, the only millennial of his high intellectual curiosity who has not hunched over a computer at any point in the past two decades and typed the words “climate change” into the Google search box and pressed enter. It means pretending that he lacks the requisite legal education—let alone, the best legal education in the world—to clearly discern that Mr. Trump has repeatedly and flagrantly and shamelessly broken federal and state law many, many, many times over. It means pretending that the list of “truths” he has taken to parroting—an itemized ideology of Trumpism tenets, basically—are somehow not completely antithetical to basic critical thinking skills, let alone the whole of his elite education and life experience.It means pretending, to all the world, that he is somehow inferior to Mr. Trump, which everyone knows is completely false, including Mr. Trump himself. The point is not to acknowledge what's obvious to everyone; the point is the performative kneeling that is required to sell himself to Mr. Trump as eventual heir.And it all comes with enormous risk. Mr. Trump has managed to evade, for six years, substantial accountability for his numerous crimes and acts of cruelty. Now, in recent months, full accountability of Mr. Trump feels more real to the country than at any point in this era. It feels inevitable. Four active indictments, 91 total federal and state charges, ranging from obstruction to racketeering to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government to illegally hoarding highly classified documents pertaining to our national security, on record openly admitting to wrongdoing, legally screwed beyond imagination.If Mr. Ramaswamy makes his own future inextricably bound with the reputation of the person previously described, he certainly risks going down with the ship, even if he didn't break any laws.That's the gambit. All the other candidates in this race are trying to shape some kind of reasonable, post-Trump future, and wouldn't dare careening off the cliff with him — yet, Mr. Ramaswamy is doing exactly that and hoping it pays off with being anointed by Mr. Trump, one way or the other.He doesn't care about annoying or enraging the other candidates. He doesn't care about the lectures from pundits across the spectrum. He doesn't care about shame. He only cares about fully committing to this singular role. It would seem Trump supporters sense this. While most non-Trump folks were picking Mr. Ramaswamy apart last night, myself included, he was earning high marks from Trump folks who were watching. When CNN did a post-debate poll among a focus group of 15 Republican voters in Iowa, these were the results: seven for Mr. Ramaswamy, four for Ambassador Haley, two for Gov. DeSantis, and two abstentions. The cherry-on-top for Mr. Ramaswamy was the praise posted by Mr. Trump on his platform Truth Social: “This answer gave Vivek Ramaswamy a big WIN in the debate because of a thing called TRUTH. Thank you Vivek!”What answer had Mr. Ramaswamy given that so impressed Mr. Trump?“President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century.”Made in his own image, indeed.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]On Monday, a photo of the Illinois State Fair Butter Cow — that is, a cow presented as “sculpted out of butter” — went viral after the shocking revelation that it's a wire-and-steel-mesh frame sculpted in the likeness of a cow that has simply been covered in slabs of yellow spread. I got serious beef with this, but I will admit that I accidentally shared this image with the caption that it's from the Iowa State Fair, which has been in the news a lot lately with the GOP presidential primary and the fact that the two overlap. I was wrong. My apologies, Iowa. To err is bovine.But I will not apologize for The Truth being accidentally revealed about the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair, which, it turns out, is also a wire-and-steel-mesh frame covered in “600 lbs. of low moisture, pure cream Iowa butter,” according to the Iowa State Fair website!So, what is going on here? Is nothing sacred? Apparently, most of us have just been walking around under the assumption that when our fellow Americans tell us they carved a statue of a cow out of butter, by god, they're telling us the truth. We salute the flag, and we give thanks for bovine providence.Well, no more. I have looked into all these claims of “butter cows” to figure out who's telling the truth and who's udderly shameless.First, I looked into the scope of state fairs. Three states (Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire) have no singular state fairs but rather various agricultural fairs, which was the original purpose of the state fair, anyway, so I'm counting these. Rhode Island does not have an event of these sizes, per se, but does host smaller fairs.Interestingly, Massachusetts annually hosts The Big E (Eastern States Exposition) in Springfield, which is intended to be more of a regional fair for the New England states, including the four aforementioned. So, based on how you look at it, you could say every state has a state-fair-of-sorts.The District of Columbia—which should absolutely be a state if we lived in a just world—also hosts a state fair annually.Additionally, while the U.S. territories—American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands—do not have “state fairs” in the sense of large primarily-livestock-and-agricultural gatherings, they do each have commensurate, popular fairs and/or festivals.For example, Puerto Rico hosts the San Sebastian Street Festival in Old San Juan, the U.S. Virgin Islands host Carnival, and Guam hosts the Guam Micronesia Island Fair.Also: the Navajo Nation annually hosts the Navajo Nation Fair in Arizona, drawing more than 100,000 visitors in 2016, larger than some state fairs. All told, there are close to a hundred big fairs of various varieties in the United States, and many states have multiple fairs beyond their primary state fair. Pennsylvania, alone, has five. Talk about really milking this concept.But there are only four state fairs that regularly feature a butter cow sculpture: Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Although Iowa's butter cow sculpture is probably the most legen-dairy, Ohio was the first to do it in 1903, eight years before Iowa.All four use a similar process: a frame of various materials, mostly wire-and-steel mesh, covered in layers of sculpted butter. Of course, the more you think about it, the more this makes sense. We're usually talking 600-800 lbs. of butter with the frame, alone, so a solid butter heffer would probably be cowed by the laws of physics.The Minnesota State Fair, in my humble opinion, is where things get a lot more interesting. They annually crown the “Princess Kay of the Milky Way” among ten young women finalists, each of whom has a likeness of their head sculpted, one per day, by famed butter sculptor Lisa Christensen.Christensen is said to be the only butter sculptor whom regularly works with live models, and the process usually takes between six and eight hours. The sculpted heads are displayed in a walk-in, refrigerated area over the duration of the fair.The winning young woman is crowned Princess Kay the day before the beginning of the fair, and she receives a scholarship and serves as the ambassador for the Minnesota dairy industry for a one-year term. Shout-out to incumbent Rachel Rynda, whose term cow-incidentally ends this evening when the 70th Princess Kay of the Milky Way is due to be crowned.There are no frames or any other non-butter materials used by Christensen when carving these likenesses, just ~90 pounds of butter and pure instinct. Even the thought of using a frame probably makes her curdle.All that said, as much as I joke, carving the likeness of a cow's body shell takes remarkable talent, even if it is margarinally less than the full-butter cow most of us perceived.And to be fair, none of these sculptors claim to be shaping livestock fully out of butter. All are quite transparent about their process. So, don't have a cow about it. I say “well done” to all you sculptors out there; when it comes to these cows, you butter believe I affirm all of them.[Like what you read? Subscribe below, or if you just wanna buy me coffee, I gratefully accept through Venmo.]Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]In a matter of hours, England's women's national football team—known affectionately as “The Lionesses”—will compete against Spain in the first World Cup Final that England has seen in nearly six decades. For those unaware, football (known to us Americans as “soccer”) is massively popular in England. In fact, it's where “association football” (as it's formally termed to differentiate from variants) was born and popularized. In fact, even “massively popular” feels like a bit of an understatement. Football is one of those things that is central to British identity, right up there with the Royal Family, the Beatles, subtle and self-deprecating comedy, colonialism, and unseasoned food. Unfortunately, since its victory against Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final, the English men's team has failed to recapture that glory. In the intervening six decades, the closest they've come were two semi-final flameouts. Something akin to a national crisis occurred when they failed to even qualify for the 1994 Men's World Cup.So, I want y'all to humor a hypothetical. Imagine if England's men's national football team had made it to the World Cup Final last year in Qatar. As Americans, the best comparison we have is probably the 1980 Winter Olympics, in which a young U.S. team upset the U.S.S.R. juggernaut on the way to the gold medal.I don't mean in terms of direct sport comparison but national fervor. Our U.S. Women's National Team has been enormously successful and deserves all the plaudits, but here, too, sexism is rampant. Our country didn't screech to a halt for the last World Cup Final we were in.So, take that comparison on steroids, and you'd have the likely response of England to its men's team being on the verge of greatness. The country would practically shut down for the event. British media would be in a frenzy of orgasmic patriotism. Maybe the Spice Girls would even finally announce a new world tour.And this is what's key: there is no doubt—not a single doubt—that King Charles III, Prince William, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would be attending the Men's World Cup Final in person. It is silly and childish to pretend otherwise. There is absolutely no way these three men miss that event.And yet, as of this writing—and it doesn't look as though things will change—neither King Charles nor Prince William nor Queen Camilla nor Princess Catherine nor any of the other British Royals nor Prime Minister Sunak will be attending the World Cup Final to cheer on The Lionesses.Literally all of the top British leadership are missing this historic event. But why? Is there a national crisis? Have they fallen ill? No. They're mostly “on vacation” and can't be bothered to attend. I'm not kidding.William & Kate and their young children are currently on holiday, though it's not especially clear why William can't get his happy ass on a plane ride to Sydney for a brief visit to celebrate this moment. Charles & Camilla didn't even bother to offer a reason, explaining through a press statement that they would be cheering on The Lionesses in front of a television at Buckingham Palace.PM Sunak has also failed to offer a reason, though it's almost understandable—almost but not quite—that a sitting prime minister may, in theory, have other factors to consider.Here's the kicker: Prince William has been the president of the Football Association—England's governing body for football—since 2006. He is the literal figurehead for English football, and though it may be mostly symbolic, that symbolism comes with a responsibility. As criticism of the Royals has ramped up, the Prince's press flacks have frantically and weakly attempted to float the absurd reasoning that William is missing the World Cup Final to reduce his carbon footprint. Yes, you read that right. Prince William is hiding behind climate change to avoid cheering on The Lionesses.Spain, on the other hand, didn't hesitate. Queen Letizia and her daughter Princess Sofia hopped on a plane and will be cheering on their women's team from a suite at Stadium Australia, along with 75,000 other spectators. It's quite embarrassing for the British Royals, and they should absolutely feel ashamed for the message this sends, not just to The Lionesses and their supporters but every woman and girl in the United Kingdom, who are being told, unequivocally, that women's sports are just not that important.William's advisors, sensing the growing public resentment could prove problematic, scrambled to have him film a 14 second video for the The Lionesses with Princess Charlotte, his 8 year-old daughter, sitting beside him. He said the following:“Lionesses, I want to send you a huge good luck for tomorrow, we're sorry we can't be there in person but we're so proud of everything you've achieved and the millions you've inspired here and around the world. So go out there tomorrow and really enjoy yourselves.”I do communications for a living, and sometimes, I have to explain to clients that the most important thing, bare minimum, is that your audience feels heard and you're making an effort. If nothing else, acknowledge the needs of your audience and that you care about those needs.Did anyone watch this video and really believe that William gives two s***s about The Lionesses? I don't. I think an exasperated advisor convinced him to sit down for a quick iPhone video and this is what we got. It's deeply underwhelming.I don't think I've ever seen a crisis comms response that is simultaneously aloof, cloying, weakly pandering, and vaguely annoyed. It's not only less than the bare minimum but so poorly attempted that it comes across as insulting. It feels as though William's teeth had to be pulled to make it.If you're gonna hinge your response on a video, why not make an effort? Talk about the importance of women's sports and what this World Cup Final must mean to girls across England. Talk about the growth of women's sports and why it makes England stronger.Get the entire family—William, Kate, George, Charlotte, and Louis—in the video, and have Kate talk about why their boys will be watching, too — why boys and young men have a responsibility to cheer on the girls and young women in their lives. I have to admit that even as an American, I feel angry over this. I feel angry for The Lionesses and women athletes in England generally and girls and women who know that if they bring up the clear disparity in support compared to male athletes, they'll be shouted down as “shrill feminists.”Enjoy your vacation, William. I know your job is so hard, after all. Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]About ten days ago, Oliver Anthony, a farmer and former factory worker in Virginia, uploaded a casual performance video of his new song “Rich Men North of Richmond” to YouTube. As of this morning, it's been viewed nearly 15 million times. Mr. Anthony, with no previous experience in the music industry, now has the #1 song on Apple's global music chart and may well top Billboard's Hot 100 by next week.It would be easy to claim this is the result of astroturfing (that's when a “grassroots” campaign is fabricated), and sure enough, some progressive commentators have been loud in their suspicions. The overnight groundswell of support in rightwing media for Mr. Anthony's debut—every far-right luminary from Kari Lake to Matt Walsh has spent the past week hyping the song—doesn't help in that vein.But there are two big things that undermine this theory. The first is that Mr. Anthony has a legitimately great voice and when set to a simple guitar accompaniment, there is an undeniable gravitas to his delivery. If some of the lyrics were different, it'd be easy to see this emerge as a mainstream, crossover chart-topper that appeals to folks across the political spectrum.The second thing is authenticity. Unlike Jason Aldean's hypocritical screed “Try That in a Small Town” (Mr. Aldean is neither from a small town nor has he ever lived in one, nor did he write the song), Mr. Anthony has plenty of blue collar credibility and penned his own lyrics.There's also the difference in aesthetics. Mr. Aldean's music video for “Try That in a Small Town” (which clumsily uses stock footage from protests in Canada) feels like a weak-ass, racist clone of any given bro country music video on CMT. Mr. Anthony's video, on the other hand, is just him and his guitar and a microphone set up with the Virginia countryside in the background.Where Mr. Aldean comes across as too corporate and pandering for his own good, Mr. Anthony, clad in a sweaty t-shirt, looks like he just told his buddy to set up a camera on the farm and get this all in one take. The visuals are simple and natural and powerful, which is, I strongly believe, partly what's making this song go mega viral. Hell, maybe we will find out that this is a particularly sophisticated campaign by the far-right to stir up nonsense, but I honestly don't think that's it. I think Mr. Anthony made an unusually compelling song with an unusually compelling video and it landed in the right hands at the right time. Nevertheless, it's unfortunate that Mr. Anthony's song could have been a broad call to unite against corporate corruption but instead, he settled for a confused, distracted, and unkind broadside against vulnerable people. The far-right appears to love this song not so much for its gorgeous melody and his voice but the dogwhistles strewn throughout the lyrics.The first 45 seconds or so are pretty straightforward and, on their own, could even be mistaken for a leftist anthem:I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all dayOvertime hours for b******t paySo I can sit out here and waste my life awayDrag back home and drown my troubles awayIt's a damn shame what the world's gotten toFor people like me and people like youWish I could just wake up and it not be trueBut it is, oh, it isLivin' in the new worldWith an old soulAnd then, things take a sudden turn:These rich men north of RichmondLord knows they all just wanna have total controlWanna know what you think, wanna know what you doAnd they don't think you know, but I know that you do'Cause your dollar ain't s**t and it's taxed to no end'Cause of rich men north of RichmondObviously, those are references to cancel culture, censorship, and taxation being promoted by politicians in D.C. (a few hours north of Richmond, Virginia). Still, even so, these are pretty garden variety conservative lyrics.But suddenly, without warning, things go off the rails:I wish politicians would look out for minersAnd not just minors on an island somewhereLord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eatAnd the obese milkin' welfareWell, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 poundsTaxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge roundsYoung men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them downYou caught all that, right? The “minors on an island somewhere” is referencing Jeffrey Epstein, the infamous, dead pedophile-rapist-trafficker whose name has become synonymous with the most shameless QAnon conspiracy theories. In fairness, the welfare bit could be an honest condemnation of all welfare by Mr. Anthony, but in a conservative context, it's almost always a dogwhistle referencing “welfare queens,” the term popularized by then-candidate Ronald Reagan to horribly, implicitly slander Black mothers.(Then again, if Mr. Anthony is condemning all welfare, how would that work out for folks in the street who ain't got nothin' to eat? Hmmm. Also: Republican-led states benefit the most from federal welfare programs, which is, curiously, an essential fact that's routinely left out of these conversations by conservatives.)Mr. Anthony then curiously attacks overweight folks, claiming our taxes are paying for their fudge, and then pairs this with a reference to the “War on Boys” or “War on Men” or “War on Masculinity” or whatever grifting, nonsense framing the far-right is using these days to claim masculinity is in trouble.After that second (and final) verse, Mr. Anthony finishes with his chorus, where, now, the words “people like me and people like you” hit a lot differently than they did at the beginning of the song.So, is this meant to be a rightwing anthem? Is Mr. Anthony a diehard Trump supporter? According to him, not the case, and I gotta say: I think he's being sincere when he says that. In a video commentary posted to his YouTube channel the day before the release of this song, Mr. Anthony states: “I sit pretty dead center down the aisle on politics and, always have. I remember as a kid the conservatives wanting war, and me not understanding that. And I remember a lot of the controversies when the left took office, and it seems like, you know, both sides serve the same master. And that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country.”Do I agree with all that? No, I don't. I think there are crooked politicians across the political spectrum but only one party is actively fighting to undermine working class and middle class families, and I think that's obvious to anyone willing to be honest with themselves.And yet, the rest of the video is unexpectedly disarming. Mr. Anthony genuinely comes across as reasonable, humble, and compassionate. I could definitely see myself sharing a beer with the guy in that video, and yet, it's hard to reconcile the guy in that video with the guy who wrote that song. They don't seem like the same person. In my most generous reading of all this, I think Mr. Anthony is a nice man with a good heart who wants to do right by others and has simply been exploited overnight by rightwing media who see a useful vehicle for their grifting. But then, I go back to those inflammatory lyrics. Those weren't written by accident. They're mean-spirited and unapologetically conspiracy-minded and definitely not middle-of-the-road politically. It's clear that the who's who among the far-right want to turn Mr. Anthony into the voice of their movement. They have latched on to him with a quickness. There is no doubt in my mind they'll soon claim his music is being censored or repressed by “liberal media” (contrary to the widespread coverage he's already received in mainstream media).Only time will tell if Mr. Anthony is his own man — and better than that: the man we saw in his introduction video. I pray that's the man who emerges from all this.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]I often feel old these days, though I know I'm not. I'm only 36, but don't try telling my body that. My back is often sore. My joints move like caramel popcorn being squeezed. I've reached the point in my life—probably earlier than what's healthy—in which, occasionally, taking a few ibuprofen has become an anticipatory action.But I have noticed—though I don't want to speak for anyone else here—that the most compelling proof I'm getting older is in watching those who built the world of my childhood pass on.There is something about that time, coming-of-age, the latter part of early childhood to adolescence, in which reality is simultaneously being crystallized and suspended, brought into sharper clarity but not-so-threatening. In youth, we experience the peak of a mindset in which the consequences of our actions seem highly plausible but still somehow unlikely. (By the way, this is one of the many reasons I do not wish to be a parent: I have, thus far, failed to fully grasp the careful art of understanding consequence without allowing it to hold me back in necessary moments, and I can't imagine being qualified to teach a child this essential life skill. Hats off to you parents who are capably doing so.)As a child, I understood death and appropriately feared it to a degree. I understood that I could die. Of course I could die. I was a little s**t effortlessly rendered helpless and swelling by a random bee sting. My mortality was not up for debate in my own mind.My failure as a child was understanding the mortality of others and the ensuing paradox that arose from that (again, in my own mind). Yes, I could die, but these adults in my life were much stronger and somehow less likely to die. When I was nine years old—and I think this is true for the vast majority of people—even the thought of making it to thirty felt on par with traveling to the Moon. Plausible, I guess, but justifiably too far away to put much thought into it.Because that perception of time is so cavernous, it felt like the reasonably healthy adults in my life might live forever. They would not, and I knew this, of course. But for a small part of me, it felt that way, and so long as they were perceived to be in relatively good health, there was no reason to adjust that perception. They had already traveled to the Moon. Who was I, with more fingers than years, to say they ever needed to stop traveling?I remember exactly where I was when Robin Williams died. I was sitting at a seafood restaurant's outdoor section in Bar Harbor, Maine. I was on a vacation with my ex-girlfriend. It had been a pleasant trip, full of fun and adventure. She had left to use the restroom, and I sat there at the table, briefly alone, basking in the comfort of our gorgeous surroundings.My phone buzzed, I picked it up, and the notification ruthlessly glared back at me. I don't remember if it was CNN or NYT or whatever, but my brain, refusing to accept it, quickly decided a sick joke was being played. A particularly successful hoax had been perpetrated. There was absolutely no way Robin Williams was dead. Impossible.I searched around and read what you might read in a few minutes from reputable sources, too many outlets with too many details for it to be wrong. I don't remember when she came back to the table, but at some point, she was again seated across from me and asking if I was okay. I recall looking up at her, not sure how to say it, and realized that most of these other folks seated around us probably hadn't heard the news yet, either. And I really, truly envied them.Robin Williams' death was the first time my brain seemingly wouldn't accept new information. It was the strangest damn thing. For six or seven months, I would occasionally forget he died and then be reminded and feel a bit shocked all over again, embarrassed by my unintentional childishness. If you grew up in the ‘90s, Robin Williams was Genie and Jack and Peter Pan and Prof. Brainard and Patch Adams and, hell, for those of us staying up way later than we should have been, we knew him as Mork on Nick-at-Nite, too.He was the Ultimate Fun Uncle to millennials, and yes, we knew he was mortal, but that was still no excuse to defy our childish expectations that he live forever. Someone as special as Robin Williams isn't supposed to die—not just early but at all—even though we know that's completely irrational. When Sinead O'Connor and Paul Reuben died within a week of each other, I wrote a small note of condolence for Gen-X on Twitter, believing that most of the folks of that generation were experiencing a bit too many reminders of our collective mortality in such a short span of time. When the celebrities that defined your youth die, it hurts a little more than usual. I don't believe every person of a certain age experiences this the same way, nor do I believe any person outside a particular generation isn't just as hurt by a particular person's death, if not moreso.But I do believe in generational grief, a specific type of pain that comes with notable deaths of those adults we revered in childhood. In fact, reverence isn't even required. Even the reminder of that person's presence in the world when you were a kid is enough to be poked in the side by Death's hand and told: someday, it will be you.I have never been good at grieving. I'm not even sure what “good” looks like. My mother died three years ago, and I would be lying if I said that I've moved past it. I know I haven't, and worst yet, I'm not sure how it would look to do so. In the time since, with the goal of better understanding it all, I have written something like 20,000 words about our relationship, which was quite unhealthy, to put it mildly. Sometimes, I think about publishing an essay on her and quickly throw away the idea. I wonder who needs to read it, and if no one, then aren't I just writing it for myself? And if so, who else needs to read it?I say again, I have never been good at grieving, whatever that's supposed to be.Along with most of my friends, who are around my age, I am entering a period of my life in which death, unexpected and otherwise, is increasingly becoming a far more prominent feature of living. In the past several years, alone, I have lost several friends and even more colleagues.That's life, I know. That's how it works. Grief, I guess, is the active process of feeling what needs to be felt, whatever that may be, with the hopeful goal of getting back to active living.Much easier said than done. In the meantime, I'm trying to be more grateful for the people in my life now who make it worth living, those who hung the Moon in my sky while I've been too worried about missing it. Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

I sat down with @cmclymer a year or so ago. Because I wanted to be better educated on issues relating to transgender men & women. I so loved this conversation with Charlotte, it's such an important issue, and I wanted to replay it again for everyone to listen to. We didn't agree on everything. But I learned a lot.”

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]This past May, country star Jason Aldean released a new song called “Try That in a Small Town,” which has lyrics that are—there's really no nice way to say this—corny as hell. I've been listening to country music all my life, and I gotta say that Mr. Aldean's latest single sounds as though ChatGPT were asked to write an excessively generic bro country song sung by a white nationalist and this is what we got. There are many commentators correctly pointing out that the song amounts to a symphony of racist dog whistles, but also: I just find it so incredibly boring as to be tedious beyond belief.“Bro country” as a sub-genre tends to be tedious because it prioritizes commercial value to a specific demographic—aggrieved, conservative white men—over storytelling, which, in my humble opinion, is what historically makes country music so damn compelling. I grew up watching CMT (Country Music Television) and listening to country radio, and I firmly believe the ‘90s were a golden age for the genre. George Strait, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, etc. — so many catalogues chock-full of superb storytelling. And yet, even that cohort pales in comparison to the greats who became before them: Alabama, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, etc. etc. etc. (I'm just rattling these off in no particular order, so please don't get on me for not including one of your faves.)Anyway, in more capable hands, country is a high art and fun as hell. Bro country, on the other hand, is off-brand fast food produced with the specific intention of placating insecure, white, conservative men who perceive the genre as a bastion for their beliefs in a changing world.About two weeks ago, Mr. Aldean released a music video for his new single that left no doubt as to what he was attempting to communicate via the lyrics he sings (but did not write, which ain't that surprising given that Mr. Aldean hasn't written any of his singles since 2009).The music video—which I will not link here but you're than welcome to google it—has Mr. Aldean singing with his band in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Nashville, TN while a montage of violent scenes from protests against white supremacy are projected on the building. The intent of this imagery is very clear: Mr. Aldean is attempting to pander to white nationalists who believe that Black Lives Matter protestors are, somehow, a threat to The Heartland™ and that, somehow, “small towns” are shining beacons of patriotic light in the chaos.It doesn't help that, as many commentators have pointed out, the Maury County Courthouse is the site of the 1927 lynching of Henry Choate, a Black teenager who was murdered by a white mob after being falsely accused of raping a young white woman.The song and video together essentially equate protesting white supremacy with violent crime whilst simultaneously threatening said protestors with violence if they ever do “try that in a small town.”You get the picture. It's racist as f**k, and it should be called out as such.It's so bad, in fact, that CMT pulled the video from rotation only four days after its release, which, in case you're wondering, is extremely rare. So, not great, to say the very least, but there's something else to all this that I believe isn't being discussed enough: what exactly is a “small town”?According to a 2020 report from the U.S. Census Bureau (“America: A Nation of Small Towns”), incorporated places of the small variety are defined as having a population of less than 5,000 residents. Interestingly, under that definition, the report points out that 76 percent of the nation's population live in small towns, and more than 40 percent live in towns with a population of less than 500. Thus, if you randomly pick a resident of the United States at random, it is more than likely that person lives in a small town. Even more interestingly: Jason Aldean is not one of them and never has been. Mr. Aldean was born and raised in Macon, Georgia — which, at more than 157,000 residents, is the fourth largest city in the state and ranks #166 nationally. That may not seem all that high up until you consider it's out of 19,500 incorporated places in the United States. That means Macon has a bigger population than 98.5 percent of places in our country, which isn't too surprising if you know anything about Macon. It has not one but TWO airports. It has six hospitals. It has five college campuses. It has robust local media, print and television. But here's the biggest clue that Macon isn't a “small town”: tens of millions of folks who've never visited Macon have at least heard of it. It's referenced in Margaret Mitchell's “Gone With the Wind” and in a “Simpsons” episode and in countless books on the Civil War given that Macon was the official arsenal of the Confederacy.Mr. Aldean did spend summers with his father in Homestead, Florida — which has a population of over 80,000. That's still a far cry from being a “small town” and even moreso when you consider that it's a suburb of Miami and has a population density several times that of Macon.Mr. Aldean's entire professional career has been spent in Atlanta (pop. 498,715) and Nashville (pop. 689,447), so there's ain't any help there, either. So, it has to be asked: is Mr. Aldean confused? He could be, and I think I may have found a clue as to why.Mr. Aldean, who has shaped his career around projecting the image of a good ole boy from simple beginnings, is an alum of the Windsor Academy, a K-12 private school in Macon that has a not-so-cheap tuition price tag of nearly $9,000 annually for every student in 5th grade and above. Hey, don't worry, y'all: the Windsor Academy has a rigorous financial aid program and offers limited scholarships. Of course, if a student's family does fall behind on tuition payments, barring extraordinary circumstances, they're ineligible to receive financial aid until satisfying delinquent payments.I bring this up because the full student body, across all grades, K-12, is just over 300 students. This could be the reason Mr. Aldean believes he relates to small town life: the vantage point of his small private school experience.So, essentially, with Mr. Aldean, what we have here is a prep school dilettante who was raised in a big city, singing a song he didn't write about an experience he never had, accompanied with a music video of which much of the footage was filmed in Canada.Mr. Aldean has about as much credibility describing the “small town” experience as I would have working alongside the professionals of a NASCAR pit crew, and trust me, folks: you sure as hell don't want me doing that. I respect my limitations.Listen, y'all, this isn't supposed to be literal. We all sense that. Mr. Aldean is not really attempting to describe actual “small town” life. He's trying to pander to a specific feeling of a particular demographic that happily codes their bigotry with information shortcuts.“Small town” does not mean a place that is literally small; it's a symbol of a passed society for which Mr. Aldean and like-minded folks openly pine. It's openly fantasizing for a time in which there was no question that folks who look like Mr. Aldean called all the shots. But even aside from the biggest problem here—the racist bullhorn aspect—it's also just incredibly insulting to folks who live in small towns. It's condescending. It's infantilizing. The vast majority of folks who live in small towns don't feel threatened by those who are different from them. They don't solve their problems with violence. It erases people of color (particularly Black folks), LGBTQ people, religious minorities, and social progressives who are just as much apart of small town life (and always have been).That's what's most glaring about Mr. Aldean's pandering: it's obvious he simply doesn't know the folks who live in small towns beyond his tourism.In 2017, Mr. Aldean was performing onstage at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival when a mass shooter opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, murdering 60 people. It is still the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in American history.I don't blame Mr. Aldean one bit for his response in that moment. I truly don't. He could have used his microphone to urge folks to seek cover. He could have rushed into the crowd to save folks or administer aid. Instead, he ran backstage. I would have done the same thing. I think most folks would. I don't think I would have had the wherewithal to be immediately helpful in that chaos.Then again, I would never release a song, six years later, suggesting otherwise, and that's partly the problem here. Let's hope Mr. Aldean embraces the concept of extending grace and nuance toward others as much as he expects it for himself.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]There are two highly anticipated films being released this week. One of them is about an iconic and controversial public figure from the 20th century, their influence on how we perceive ourselves and each other, and how they reflect the enduring cognitive dissonance between our stated values as a society and the reality of our myriad systemic hypocrisies.The other movie is about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.Greta Gerwig's “Barbie” is somehow both the perfect summer flick—hilarious and fun as hell—and an unflinching critique of a universal brand that has sold more than a billion dolls since its launch in 1959.This is the fourth directorial effort from Gerwig, who received consecutive Oscar screenplay nominations for her two previous films, “Little Women” (2019) and “Lady Bird” (2017), the latter of which garnered her a directing nod, only the fifth woman to be in that category.She is also an exceptional actor. Her performance in “Frances Ha” (2014)—one of my favorites—was widely praised and led to a Golden Globe nod for Best Actress in a Comedy.Gerwig does two things particularly well in her work: she makes us laugh, and she makes us think. It is no surprise then that “Barbie” feels like an especially potent trojan horse, beckoning us with well-earned laughter into a larger conversation on gender and how Barbie—the defining cultural symbol of high femme expression—has shaped that discourse over the past six decades.Neither preachy nor pandering, Gerwig is searingly honest and admirably fair in the screenplay she co-wrote with longtime partner Noah Baumbach. Barbie, the iconic doll, is rendered here—played brilliantly by Margot Robbie—as neither saint nor villain. She is an ever-changing projection of social views that have amalgamated during her tenure at the top of the toy world. Gerwig drills into that dynamic at the center of the film's plot. Barbie, who is initially depicted in a montage of the Barbieworld utopia—a gorgeous Dreamhouse, a sexy Barbie Convertible, great friends, perpetual sunshine—is randomly confronted with thoughts of death and finds herself literally caught flat-footed. She consults with Weird Barbie—the iconoclast of Barbie Land, played pitch perfect by Kate McKinnon—who explains to her that these changes are from the outside world, the thoughts of a girl playing with her.Barbie reluctantly sets out to find this girl in the real world and make things right, so she can get back to her daily utopia. She is joined by Ken (Ryan Gosling), who cannot perceive of himself as anything other than an extension of Barbie and the two are shocked to find that the real world is an inverse of gender power dynamics. In Barbie Land, the Barbies run everything and the Kens (and poor Allan) are merely accessories, but in the real world, Ken discovers the fast-food-like joys of patriarchy in a hilarious sequence of scenes while Barbie contends with unbridled misogyny for the first time. Moreover, upon finding the young woman who played with her, she learns that Barbies are considered by many girls to be enablers of the patriarchy.If this all seems like a lot, it's a testament to Gerwig's brilliance in putting it onscreen, in which zippy dialogue and clever sight gags in a visual feast acknowledge the nuances of Barbie's complicated legacy without even a hint that we should give up on Barbie. On the contrary, Robbie imbues Barbie with such empathy and charm that it's impossible not to root for her.And yet, Gerwig doesn't shy away from putting Mattel on blast, whom are depicted in the film as an all-male Board of Directors led by Will Ferrell, who humorously attempts to get Barbie out of the real world and back to Barbie Land. Ferrell's clumsy attempt to insist to Barbie that women are important to Mattel's history while surrounded by his all-male colleagues is one of the funnier bits of dialogue in a flick packed with hilarious exchanges and zingers.Many of those zingers and other thoughtful lines are delivered by an outstanding supporting cast: Rhea Perlman, Issa Rae, and Emma Mackey among them. I was quite delighted to see Hari Nef play one of the Barbies with substantial dialogue, and she is magnificent in this. Some fun cameos include Dua Lipa and John Cena as mermaids (ahem, excuse me, Cena is a “Kenmaid”).Without giving anything away, I was particularly taken with America Ferrera's performance as Gloria, an employee of Mattel and mom of the teen girl being sought out by Barbie. Ferrera is an outstanding generational bridge between contrasting views on Barbie, her character having a complicated nostalgia for the doll while her daughter rejects it. But it's Ferrera's monologue on what it means to be a woman about two-thirds through the film that marks a standout moment. Honest, funny, and a bit depressing, the speech captures the essence of what makes Barbie's legacy so uneven. It serves as an anchor for the story, forcing the viewer to confront some unhappy but necessary truths.Again, what makes Gerwig's vision so brilliant is in how the seriousness of the film's discussion on gender neither washes out the fun nor is diminished by it. It's a tightrope act that Gerwig walks with fantastic balance. The film wouldn't be nearly as fun without her honest framing.Gosling is especially a joy to watch. The Ultimate Himbo, after discovering patriarchy in the real world, Ken rushes back to Barbie Land to become something of a Jordan Peterson guru to the other Kens, except where Peterson has zero charm and is the dipshit's idea of a smart man, Gosling is quite hilarious and charming in parodying him.As Ken realizes that he has to define himself separate from Barbie and not treat her as the source of his self-worth and therapeutic needs—HINT HINT HINT—Barbie is realizing that she may want a lot more with her existence than what she's always had.Don't worry: no spoilers, but the ending is particularly moving and well-written.I'm going with my girlfriends to see it again on Saturday. We will all dress in hot pink and laugh at the biting humor. Then, we'll probably get drinks and talk about Gerwig's clever approach in unpacking the complexity of Barbie and the closing line of the movie, which alludes to how this whole conversation on gender and womanhood is based on a doll without a vagina.“Barbie” is in theaters this Friday, July 21st. Four stars. Go see it.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements.]You may have heard about the organization Moms for Liberty. It was founded in early 2021 with the initial purpose of advocating against COVID-era protections in schools, like vaccines and mask mandates. Over the past two years, the group has become far more infamous for their support of book bans, censoring any mention of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and LGBTQ identities in textbooks, and calling for the segregation of LGBTQ students into special classes. The org has ties to the Proud Boys and Three Percenters, both of which, as I'm sure y'all know, are extremist, anti-government groups. This year, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated Moms for Liberty an “extremist” group itself, laying out its active presence within the far-right movement since its launch. The latest round of controversy involving Moms for Liberty is in how they've taken to quoting Hitler, Stalin, and Mao during their events — almost always in the context of pointing out the evils of indoctrinating youth. Moms for Liberty and their defenders will claim that this is being taken out-of-context and that quoting violent dictators isn't meant to defend those dictators but merely implying that their ideology aligns with the far-left, particularly on issues of LGBTQ equality. I don't believe that Moms for Liberty is lionizing Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. I also don't believe that the group has read much into the history of these tyrants, either. Before we get to the meat of all this, let's point out the obvious: reconciling Stalin's role in helping defeat Nazi Germany—and thus, helping to save the Western hemisphere—with his legacy as a mass-murdering piece-of-s**t. I imagine that the following conversation has taken place many times in these conservative homes that so heavily rely on information shortcuts and not so much the depth that history deserves:Teenager: Dad, this Hitler guy seems pretty evil.Dad: He sure was. Your great-grandfather served in the Army. He was part of the Normandy landings. It's because of men like your great-grandfather that we're free.Teenager: That's really cool. I'm proud of him. It was a coalition of countries, right?Dad: That's right. We were part of the Allies. A number of countries worked together to defeat Germany, Japan, and Italy.Teenager: Russia was our ally, right? Stalin?Dad: Well… yes, in that particular war, Russia was our ally.Teenager: So, Stalin helped keep the world free, too.Dad: It's more complicated than that. Yes, Russia helped, but Stalin was evil, too.Teenager: I read that the U.S.S.R. lost 11 million people during WWII, more than 22 times the fatalities of the United States. It sounds like they did a lot more than help.Dad: Look, just shut up, and eat your dinner.Because, it turns out, history is often complicated! We would have lost World War II without the U.S.S.R. and its evil dictator. Stalin was absolutely a mass-murdering piece-of-s**t, and yet, somehow, white Christian nationalists would have their children believe that the U.S. singlehandedly defeated Hitler.We live in an era that has become calcified by information shortcuts following the larger part of a century's worth of relentless propaganda about American exceptionalism and the evils of anything remotely adjacent to Nazi Germany and the Communist movement.There is no room for nuance. If you bring up that the single-day most devastating wartime acts of murdering civilians were carried out by the United States in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you are a traitor to the brave heroes in uniform who sacrificed everything for our country.If you bring up that Nazi Germany's horrific laws and policies took significant inspiration from U.S. white supremacist laws and policies, you are claiming that the U.S. has a history comparable to what Nazi Germany did — which, given the millions of Black people enslaved and tortured and raped and murdered in our country and the white supremacist laws thereafter via Jim Crow, is fairly accurate.Groups like Moms for Liberty don't want our country's history to be told. They want fairy tales that help them sleep at night, free from the enduring burden carried by the countless millions of descendants-of-enslaved-people in our country.I'm not trying to make anyone uncomfortable here — though, if you'll allow me to say so, discomfort is often a gift because it means we have learning left to do. I wish Moms for Liberty were inclined to examine their own discomfort and take the cue that they have learning left to do, as well.If they did, they would realize that Hitler and Stalin and Mao would absolutely support their indoctrination of children against LGBTQ rights. All three dictators were viciously anti-LGBTQ. Let's take a tour!HitlerLGBTQ people—primarily homosexual and bisexual men—were persecuted by Nazi Germany as soon as Hitler came to power. Thousands of queer people would be murdered in concentration camps and public streets and detainment centers. LGBTQ people who were imprisoned were forced to wear an inverted pink triangle to identity them as “sexually immoral” and thus at odds with Hitler's vision — you may recognize this as the logo of ACT UP, the LGBTQ advocacy group most prominent during the HIV and AIDS crisis. The Institute for Sex Research—the world's first sexology institute, based in Berlin—was raided in the early days of the Third Reich and was an early prominent target of book burnings, its entire archives destroyed by the Nazis.StalinIn 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution, under Vladimir Lenin, homosexuality was decriminalized by the Soviet government, but under Stalin, it was re-criminalized in 1933, carrying up to five years of hard labor for relations between gay and bisexual men. Interestingly, Soviet propaganda linked homosexuality to Nazi Germany at the same time that Hitler was sending queer people into camps. It's been estimated that up to 1,000 gay men in Soviet Russia were imprisoned annually for their sexual orientation under Stalin's leadership. It was later revealed in declassified documents that he personally ordered an anti-gay law to be implemented. MaoAlthough I haven't found definitive confirmation, there's substantial evidence that LGBTQ people—particularly gay and bisexual men—were persecuted under the rule of Mao Zedong after the Chinese Communist Revolution. Mao supposedly believed queer men should be castrated for their “deviancy,” and in addition to the thousands of gay and bisexual Chinese men who reported systemic discrimination while seeking asylum, there are confirmed reports of gay and bisexual men being forced to undergo electric shock therapy as a treatment for their sexual orientation.There you have it. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao—the triumvirate of conservative boogeyman bedtime story hour—have a lot in common with the Republican Party when it comes to LGBTQ rights. So, while far-right extremists like Moms for Liberty openly quote these dictators in an attempt to fear-monger over the belief that LGBTQ people are trying to indoctrinate kids (never mind that I barely have time to pick up my dry cleaning this week), those same dictators were essentially making the same claims about LGBTQ people in their own time.Can I close with a point that should be painfully obvious to anyone with common sense?Folks like those in Moms for Liberty fall back on some of the most extremist literature written by some of history's most evil people, openly quoting it to their kids, and then pretend that their children are somehow unprepared to read a picture book about a woodland creature with two moms.The entire conservative blogosphere melted down when there was even just acknowledgement of gay anteaters or koalas or whatever the hell in the PBS children's show “Arthur,” but sure, do go on reading whole passages from the Little Red Book or Mein Kampf to your children.By the way, for the millionth time, this has never been about the kids. This is about adults who can't negotiate their own internal discomfort about the world around them or be open to the 8 billion other experiences on this planet and have now put that labor on their children.Your kid is going to learn at some point that some of their peers have two moms or that some of their peers are trans or that they, themselves, are LGBTQ, and that it used to be a lot harder to simply exist as such in most spaces and they're gonna struggle to reconcile the current, positive visibility of LGBTQ people with your hateful propaganda.I say with all sincerity that I pray for your children's health and happiness, that they may find an open heart in you when that times comes — that last bit being for your own sake.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements. If you need a Pride Month speaker, hit me up.]My earliest memory of patriotism is from kindergarten. My family was living in a cramped apartment building, and every morning, as I waited for the bus to fetch me, the property manager would bring out an American flag to the pole resting in a grassy island in the middle of the parking lot. I don't know when I started doing this, but it only made sense for me to salute the flag as it was hoisted. I had seen it on television—soldiers rendering their own salutes—and I imitated them.The property manager got a big kick out of this, and his beaming face only served to encourage my foal-like love of country.The seed planted at that early age was invaluable. I had a broken family and an abusive home, and as a child, long before I really knew why, I needed some kind of pride in something — a value system, a set of beliefs, a confident path out of fear and uncertainty.When you're a kid who knows a little too much and doesn't have much—materially and parentally—it can feel brutally lonely and hopeless. In those early years, I had public schools teachers who told us that we could be anything we wanted in this country if we were willing to work hard to achieve it. To be fair, I don't think it'd be remotely accurate to say that's true. Privilege is a real thing, and I have found, far too often, that those with it seem unwilling or unable to see it.But at that time, I bought into it. I studied hard, I stayed out of trouble, I dreamed big, and, above all, I wanted to serve my country. For many, this is far too earnest. It smacks of naïveté and propaganda and jingoism and indoctrination into the ideology of American exceptionalism, specifically created to enable the military-industrial complex and keep the most elite in power.I can't deny our country is built on a horrific past, and moreover, we have an obligation to confront it, be honest about it, and rectify it, whatever discomfort that will entail.But I do love my country. I love America. I often feel disappointed by what happens in this country—and in recent years, with increasing frequency—but I have never abandoned a feeling of pride in what this country could be. I am a proud American because I still believe there are countless people in this nation who also believe in the vision of a country where no one is oppressed and where no one gets left behind.In spite of our history, I still believe America has the potential to be a model society, and it is because of this belief that I rarely felt lonelier in my perspective than I have in recent years.I am a trans woman living in a country in which a major political party has made it one of their prime policy objectives to eradicate people like me, for no more reason than mollifying their own fear and insecurity.I have watched my community become a scapegoat through which mainstream politicians seek to shamelessly pander to their base and exploit unyielding ignorance for fundraising and political gain.My community is living through a nightmare of violent propaganda from which there appears to be no immediate escape. It is, of course, not just the trans community. Every marginalized community is witnessing a moment in which the human imperative to be empathetic and respectful, the very basics of decency toward others, is derided as “woke.”And thus, I can understand why there are some in marginalized communities who see a trans woman wave an American flag and can't help but feel annoyance and frustration.My fluency in the language of pain is only native to the hurt I've experienced. I cannot fully understand the complexity of pain others experience that is varied from my own, nor do I pretend to understand it.But respectfully: I have pride in my country because over the course of my life, it is has often been one of the few things that kept me going. Imperfect and struggling though it may be, I have to believe in America because I have already thrown my whole self into the idea of it.And I do believe in this country. I still believe we can be something grand and hopeful and proud and inclusive, if only we'll keep it up long enough to finally make the choices required to that end.I hope all of you will enjoy time with your family and friends today, and more than that, I hope you'll take time to remind your kids of the country we could have someday.Happy Fourth to you and yours.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements. If you need a Pride Month speaker, hit me up.]This weekend, Lance Armstrong announced a video interview with Caitlyn Jenner regarding trans inclusion in sports, as part of a series which he'll begin releasing today.I don't know why Mr. Armstrong woke up one morning recently and decided that trans athletes and "fairness in sports" should be a topic that needs his public exploration, but I do have thoughts on all this and context for those without it. First, let's get the obvious out of the way: as most folks know, in 2012, Mr. Armstrong received a lifetime ban from basically all competitive sports--not just cycling--after declining to challenge the findings of an investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The findings were so damning that he was stripped of all his Tour de France victories and dropped by every sponsor.What did the USADA say about Mr. Armstrong?That he was the ringleader of "the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."Not just in cycling. Not just in an American context. But in the history of sports. Ever.And hey, look, even now--just as in baseball--there are folks, including Mr. Armstrong, who say this is far more complicated than perceived -- that everyone in the sport was doping, that doping in itself isn't the critical factor for superior athletes, etc.My personal belief: there are regulations in sports and when you knowingly break those regulations, that's called cheating. That's a controversial take in some quarters, but even so, let's just, for a second, put Mr. Armstrong's historic, all-time #1 doping operation aside.Forget about that.I'm far more concerned with Mr. Armstrong's very long history of lying to people, intimidating them, threatening them, and generally engaging in pretty direct sociopathic behavior toward anyone who had the audacity to get in his way. I mean, we're talking YEARS of this behavior.And that's all to say: I don't know how, after all that, after years and years of Mr. Armstrong publicly destroying his own credibility, anyone could take anything he has to say seriously. This wasn't a few little goofs. This wasn't a rough patch. This was his entire career.I'm from Texas, and he was a hero to many of us growing up. I can't emphasize enough that wherever you were during the height of Mr. Armstrong's popularity, it was nowhere bigger than in Texas. There was a solid year where it seemed almost everyone was wearing yellow bracelets.So, when he denied he was doping and called out his critics, we took his side. Why would he lie? Why would he cheat? And then, as it unraveled, there was just severe heartbreak and the realization that he used our good faith and support to viciously attack innocent people.Mr. Armstrong probably sees some sort of link between his historic cheating and the inclusion of trans athletes, or in other words: he wants his audience to draw a relationship between the two, which really sucks for trans people who are just trying to exist and play fairly.I don't know exactly what Mr. Armstrong gets out of this--maybe a big check--but the effect is pretty obvious: a conversation between the greatest doper of all-time and a trans woman who despises other trans people as a rightwing media grift = further anti-trans propaganda.Before Caitlyn Jenner became the rightwing's favorite anti-trans propagandist, she was firmly on the side of trans inclusion in sports. She played in women's golf tournaments and told journalist Dawn Ennis, in no uncertain terms, that trans kids should be protected in sports.But then, as Ms. Jenner realized her quasi-advocacy path was too hard and wasn't doing whatever it is she had wanted and that the siren song of the conservative media circus called with promises of money and attention, she suddenly, seemingly overnight, changed her tune.Suddenly, Ms. Jenner was the go-to mouthpiece for anything the GOP wanted said about trans people but needed a trans person to say it. Someone convinced her that running for Governor of CA while saying this would boost her profile. She was soundly trounced.And now, having unequivocally burned bridges with the critical mass of reasonable adults, Ms. Jenner takes whatever odd jobs she can get pushing the same b******t rightwing nonsense -- whatever table scraps that sad world will offer her in exchange for complicity.It is no mistake or coincidence that Mr. Armstrong isn't interviewing trans athletes currently competing or trans advocates or parents of trans children or supportive medical experts or champions of trans inclusion in women's sports like Meghan Rapinoe or Billie Jean King.It is no mistake or coincidence that Mr. Armstrong is seeking out an interview with arguably the most famous transgender former athlete in the world who just so happens to be engaged in a multiyear effort to harm the livelihoods and rights of all other trans people.Mr. Armstrong doesn't appear to want a complicated or nuanced narrative on trans inclusion in sports, which is interesting given how assiduously he has attempted to push for affirmation of complication and nuance in his own story.You're not going to get illumination in the interview between Mr. Armstrong and Ms. Jenner, of course. You'll get Mr. Armstrong's calculated attempt at empathy for trans people and Ms. Jenner's sincere feelings of hostility toward trans people.Mr. Armstrong—who is officially independent but thrown out various hints that he's more Democratic than not (for example, he endorsed Beto over Ted Cruz in 2018)—will probably tell you he doesn't hate LGBTQ people, including trans folks.I don't think Mr. Armstrong hates trans people. I also think he doesn't give a s**t about us, one way or the other. For the vast majority of folks holding this view, it's fine with me. But now that he's found a way we can be useful to him, he intends to fully take advantage.Mr. Armstrong still has a large platform and plenty of clout to gain access to folks willing to pay him to utilize that platform. There are many millions of people who still probably think he was wronged and still trust him to a large extent.So, even though he doesn't care about trans rights either way, our utility to him is now being leveraged in the typically cynical manner he approaches the world. It seems the conversation on trans equality is paying dividends to those willing to mollify anti-trans sentiment.Here are some things you will not learn in that interview:1. No trans woman in high school has ever been awarded a college athletic scholarship in the United States. Ever. It's never happened.2. No trans woman has ever medaled at the Olympics, despite erroneous reporting.3. Trans student-athletes are so rare that on multiple occasions, when GOP lawmakers were asked to cite examples in their own states, they couldn't answer.4. Lia Thomas has never broken a national or NCAA record and has had many races in which she didn't even place.Now, do I think that any young trans woman in high school should be able to come out on Monday and start competing on any sports team she wants on Tuesday? No, I don't. I think it's common sense to have fair regulations in place that protect the safety of all involved.That looks different depending on the sport. We should be having that conversation in good faith. Any young trans woman should be permitted to compete provided she has followed through on regulations that ensure safety and fairness. That may mean waiting to compete! That's fine.At the same time, I think it's utterly absurd to suggest there weren't unfair advantages in sport until this conversation on trans inclusion. When it's a cisgender male student athlete involved, these unfair advantages are praised and sometimes take on mythological importance.Boys and young men who are significantly larger, taller, faster, and stronger than their peers are deemed to be great for sports.Girls and young women who are similarly outliers are most often said to be bad for women's sports, and that was true long before trans inclusion.The history of women's sports has seen rather disgusting policing of women's and girls' bodies. Girls and women who are not transgender but have atypical bodies have been attacked as being supposedly transgender long before now. There's a history of this.The real war on women's sports is the lack of funding, lack of respect, and lack of overall support that has been true before and after Title IX. Even now, women athletes in the NCAA are given bare bones facilities compared to male counterparts. It's ridiculous.All of these rightwing anti-trans clowns didn't really seem to care about women's sports before now. They're the same ones who claim no one watches women's sports (false), no one will pay for women's sports (false), and that women's sports aren't fun as hell (very false).This is all the more absurd when you consider that most of the trans girls and women who compete in women's sports are average in ability. When a young trans woman is bad at sports, no one cares. But when she's good? Everyone suddenly has an opinion.The same week that the parents of three young women who are not transgender filed a lawsuit against Connecticut to bar the inclusion of young trans women in track and field events, one of the young trans women was beaten by one of the young cisgender women in a state final.Did any of y'all see that news? No, because it undermines the narrative that has driven this absurd moral panic against trans student-athletes. If reasonable adults are made to sit down talk calmly through this in good faith, it suddenly lacks its clickbait value. God forbid.I don't think this is a topic that has easy answers, but it has been so completely one-sided and so absolutely vicious against trans children that even children in sports who are not transgender are being harassed on suspicion of being transgender, such as the nine year-old girl who was shouted at by transphobic grandparents at a track meet.So, yeah, when Mr. Armstrong and Ms. Jenner decided to further weaponize this complicated issue for their own benefit, I get a little angry over that. I think anger is warranted in a situation in which the lives of children are being directly affected by rightwing narcissism.When your friends and family inevitably cite this interview as something to watch, I hope you'll take the time to gently inform them of the ways in which this is all a massive grift being built on the backs of trans kids who just wanna play sports with their friends.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements. If you need a Pride Month speaker, hit me up.]Pat Robertson passed away this morning.He was a Southern Baptist minister best known for launching the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), founding the Christian Coalition (at a time, one of the most powerful political organizations in the country), running for president in the GOP's primary in 1988, and hosting The 700 Club on CBN.He used his large platform and outsized political influence to dehumanize innocent people and accelerate their persecution. Some highlights:He once described all people who aren't Christians as “termites.”He spent his career encouraging Islamophobia and described Hindus as “demonic.”He claimed LGBTQ people cause hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes.He subscribed to the belief that 9/11 was caused by feminists, queer people, and the ACLU, among others.In 2010, the day after a horrific earthquake struck Haiti and killed an estimated 160,000 people, he went on The 700 Club and said that Haitians are to blame, claiming they made a deal with the Devil during their revolt against slavery in 1791.He never apologized for these incidents. He never attempted to make amends.So, while I'm sure there are many who will claim we shouldn't speak ill of the dead, I would like to point out that Pat Robertson went out of his way to inflict suffering on innocent people grieving the loss of their loved ones.I'm holding his family in my prayers today, and I hope they receive far more love than he ever offered us.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements. If you need a Pride Month speaker, hit me up.](WASHINGTON) — On Tuesday, House Republicans passed sweeping legislation that would prohibit all minors from entering Christian places of worship, ban Christian clergy from public K-12 campuses, and otherwise restrict interaction between children and Christian clergy in public spaces.The Children's Health and Religious Integrity, Safety, and Trust Act of 2023—CHRIST Act—was introduced only weeks ago in response to a massive public outcry over widespread sexual abuse of children across numerous Christian denominations in the United States.“I am thankful to my colleagues for ensuring rapid passage of this bill, and I urge our Senate counterparts and the White House to seek immediate passage and implementation,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has won praise for his leadership in confronting sexual abuse in churches.The sexual exploitation of children by Christian clergy has come to the forefront of the nation's conscience following seemingly unending revelations over the past two decades of adults in positions of authority assaulting and raping minors within their congregations only for that abuse to be swept under the rug.In the United States, sexual abuse of children in Catholic parishes, alone, have led to about $4 billion in payouts to more than 17,000 survivors, according to data compiled by U.S. Catholic dioceses. Despite the widespread documented abuse, only one arrest has been made in connection with these cases: a defrocked priest charged with lying to FBI agents. Some experts believe those numbers are just scratching the surface and could as much as double within the next decade as more investigations conclude their findings. This past April, a report released by the Maryland Attorney General found that more 600 children have been sexually abused by priests and other church officials in state parishes.Last month, the Illinois Attorney General released a report revealing that 2,000 children in his state had been sexually abused by Catholic officials.The investigations were at least partially motivated by a report published five years ago by then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro—now that state's governor—detailing at least 1,000 survivors of sexual abuse by more than 300 priests and the myriad efforts by church officials to cover it up.For example, in 2019, the Associated Press reported that nearly a thousand clergy members accused of child sexual abuse had been left off lists circulated by Catholic dioceses, including more than 100 former clergy members who have already been charged with rape or possession of child pornography.Reports of child sexual abuse in Christian churches have gone far beyond U.S. Catholic dioceses. For several years, the Southern Baptist Convention has been reconciling with ongoing revelations that have, to date, found more 700 victims of sexual abuse by about 380 clergy and other church leaders. Survivors were “stonewalled and denigrated” by top SBC leaders, according to a report released last year.Sexual abuse scandals have similarly plagued white evangelical, charismatic, or independently-affiliated churches. Released this week, the Amazon Prime docuseries “Shiny Happy People” details a startling, widespread pattern of sexual abuse among congregants subscribing to teachings of the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP), a nondenominational Christian organization that has gained major influence in the United States.The documentary laid out efforts to cover-up various sex crimes by Josh Duggar, the eldest son in the reality TV family featured in TLC series “19 Kids and Counting,” including molestation and possession of child pornography. It then revealed evidence of countless other alleged sex crimes within the IBLP network, including an implication of inappropriate conduct by Bill Gothard, the minister who founded IBLP.Countless other child sexual abuse scandals have been cited across the country in numerous denominations at churches and religious schools. The growing outrage over these reports has reached such a fever pitch that House Republicans, newly in the majority after last year's midterm election, have taken great pains to distance themselves from abusive clergy and hold them accountable.“Look, we're not saying that all Christian clergy are predators, of course,” stated Speaker McCarthy at a press conference following the vote. “But until we have assurance from church leaders that there will be zero tolerance for child abusers within their ranks, we cannot allow children to be put in harm's way.”He then pointedly added: “Christ would protect children. These churches need to be reminded of his teachings and get their houses in order. It's time to root out these demons who are preying on children.”Other GOP officials were more blunt.“This is a culture problem,” insisted Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). “You have these men in dresses performing in front of kids and reading to them, indoctrinating our children into an abusive ideology. Children should be nowhere around these predators.”Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. So, if you like what you read, please consider a paid subscription. And yes, I do speaking engagements. If you need a Pride Month speaker, hit me up.]Dear Sir,We don't know each other past a brief interaction, and in the event this finds you, wherever you are, tucked behind anonymity, I am hoping it may be of service in your walk with God.We were both on the Amtrak N.E. Regional that initially departed from New York City last Tuesday in the early afternoon. I'm not certain if you boarded at Moynihan Train Hall or shortly afterward in Newark, but by the time we were leaving New Jersey, it was difficult for anyone not to notice you.I was sitting at a table in the Café Car with my back to you and a young man with whom you were engaged in robust conversation. It was a packed ride, and not only were all the tables occupied but there was a considerable line running down the center of the car to purchase food and drinks — which is to say: even in this especially loud part of the train, chatter aplenty, you stood out. I promise I had no desire to eavesdrop, and yet, it was impossible to not hear your conversation. The entire car was forced to listen. I'm not kidding.It started out innocently enough. You were talking about your relationship with Christ, and hey, being a churchgoing person myself, the subject doesn't bother me. You were, I guess, attempting to proselytize to this young man, but it sounded like he was engaging enthusiastically, and the conversation was none of my business. So, I attempted to focus on work.But the volume. My goodness, the volume. This was a moment I cursed myself for leaving my headphones at home, a rookie travel mistake for which I was now paying dearly. You gradually became louder — so loud that out of the corner of my eye, I could see folks at the tables in front of us (and the folks in line), occasionally glancing back with a raised eyebrow. At least one person in line looked back at you and then locked eyes with me, as if to say: is this guy serious right now?I did a small shrug and tried to focus on the many emails waiting patiently in my inbox for a response.And yet… you kept going. It reminded me of that Saturday Night Live character played by Will Ferrell: the voice immodulation activist — not as monotone, mind you, but definitely as concussive. You were, I kid you not, a notch above that volume, just booming over the typical yammering of the Café Car.I was very tired—this was my third roundtrip to NYC from D.C. in less than a week's time, with some sort of work event every evening (multiple events on a few evenings)—and I just didn't have the energy to care.But then, the conversation between you and the young man took a turn. You told him—and the rest of us in the car, as everyone could hear you—about a moment recently when you were talking to one of your work friends about a mutual acquaintance who's a trans woman. You talked about how you misgendered this woman and your friend at work quickly corrected you. This had made you angry because your work friend—apparently, a middle-aged man like yourself—insisted that you not misgender her. This enraged you.During your rant, you said something like “why do we have to pretend to be considerate to these people” — which, in case you're wondering, is positively fantastic to have shouted at the back of one's head when the conversation is about oneself.There was a perceptible drop in the decibel level of the Café Car at that point, and this time, I felt a dozen eyes purposefully scan our corner, including a few that fell directly on me, gauging my reaction. I'm not really allowed to have a reaction. You see, I've been here before. If I say something, I risk inflaming a situation with a person who is clearly primed to be a problem. On the other hand, I'm not gonna run to Amtrak personnel and bother them with a complaint that someone in the Café Car is being rude, which can also inflame the situation. Anyway, those folks are overworked, and I don't wanna drag them into this.There's also the question of how trans folks are generally perceived when we express anger or hurt. It doesn't always go well. In fact, most of the time, it puts people who are not transgender on edge. When we express pain, people who are not transgender have a tendency to get defensive and angry. It's also exhausting. Every trans person has been conditioned to pick our battles and engage selectively. If we responded to every instance of transphobia, from trivial to severe, it's all we'd ever do. So… we have to choose wisely.I did the quick arithmetic and decided to keep my mouth shut and hope the moment would pass quickly. I didn't see a need to escalate things, and honestly, again, I just didn't have the energy.The young man sitting across from you—apparently as caught-off-guard as the rest of us—responded admirably, all things considered. He told you he lives his life and respects how others live their lives. He then changed the subject. You went back to talking loudly about Jesus, and mercifully, my own prayers were answered because I was provided with a sufficient distraction that made me temporarily not care about your presence.The train made another stop, and at some point, I looked up to see someone different sitting across from me: former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. We exchanged pleasantries, and before I knew it, we were engaged in one of the better conversations on politics and American life I've had in quite some time. Mr. O'Malley is good people. We were both Fellows in different years at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, over which we bonded, among other topics. He kindly bought me a drink and regaled me with anecdotes from his storied career in public service. It was a nice respite from, well, you know… your pontificating. Midway through our conversation, there was a ruckus behind me, and I looked back to see you engaged in some kind of heated argument with someone over table space, which got bad enough to the point that, once again, the rest of the Café Car looked back toward our corner as you spat out expletives at this person for whatever reason. I'm sure it was super important.For what it's worth, that outburst felt like a gift because, truth be told, in one fell swoop, you came across as both insecure and in pain. Grown adults don't cuss out strangers over table space in the Amtrak Café Car. Even on bad days, that's not a thing reasonable adults do.Suddenly, things clicked into place, and the marginal hurt over your anti-trans commentary earlier instantly dissolved. I was left simply feeling sorry for you. I don't mean that in a condescending way, I promise. I mean that it made me wonder what's going in your life that you felt this angry and insecure in the company of strangers on a mundane Amtrak ride. It made me wonder what you're going through right now that feels so painful. Your behavior that afternoon came into clearer focus. You're in considerable pain and lashing out at the world.Mr. O'Malley departed at the Baltimore stop, and eventually, you and me and all the rest finally arrived at Union Station in D.C. and began to leave the train.I had forgotten my water bottle, so I doubled back, where a kind gentleman saved it for me, and I noticed you and me were nearly alone in the Café Car. I'm not sure why you hadn't left yet, but there we were. I should point out that one of my biggest weaknesses is my naïveté. I tend to have an annoying faith in the goodness of others, even when they haven't exactly acted with kindness toward me. I've seen this work both ways. Sometimes, it leads to a moment of understanding (and sometimes, even friendship). And sometimes, it leads nowhere, and in those moments, it's hard not to feel foolish for trying.I think I do this because I know I'm profoundly imperfect myself and grace is one of those things that has a way of being reparative far beyond the present issue. We could all use a lot more grace in the world, right?Against my better judgment, I walked up to you and extended my hand. I introduced myself with my first name and, with all the warmth I could summon, told you that I hope you're gonna have a good day. I said it genuinely. I wanted someone to offer you a smile before you left the train and collided into the outside world.With a look of deep annoyance, you quickly shook my hand, went back to gathering your things, and hissed that you were just trying to spread the Gospel. The way you said it as you glanced up gave me the impression you thought it might have an effect equal to that of water being tossed on the Wicked Witch of the West. You, I guess, had thought this was about me overhearing all the Christ chatter — that I was about to confront you on all the Jesus talk. When I responded “Oh, I have no problem with the Gospel; I find sharing it is most effective when done by example rather than words,” you did a double take from the bag you were gathering. Of all the responses I could have given, it was clear this one wasn't on your bingo card. You stood straight up, looked me in the eye, intent on getting the last word and asked (in a bit of a harsh tone): “But do you know the Holy Spirit?”(You asked this not unlike how a certain kinda dude would say “okay, name all their albums in chronological order” if a woman said she liked a particular rock band.)But I do know the Holy Spirit quite well, so I answered in the affirmative. I told you I had known the Holy Spirit for a long time, which is quite true. I know what it means to know the Holy Spirit, to feel the Holy Spirit within me. I don't expect others to understand it, of course, but I get it. I know that feeling. I crave that feeling.I then said: “And the Holy Spirit reminds me that Christ loves you and Christ loves me and we are all called upon to love each other as Christ loves us.”Naïvely, I thought this might thaw the ice between us, but I don't think it did. You were still looking at me, but now, you had the expression of someone who really wants to be angry but you're not sure why. What I had said is something you've heard in your church a thousand times, I'm sure of it. But coming out of my mouth, it was just confusing.You've built this bubble for yourself. You've flooded your daily life with people who sound and think exactly like you do. You thought you had your own language with them, a language only spoken in your church community. Because of that, it's easier for you to disregard the outside world, particularly anyone who doesn't speak your language.And now, suddenly, standing in front of you, here's this trans woman who's fluent in that language and possibly may even speak it with greater efficiency than you do. You stared at me, still angry but unsure what to say. I mean, what could you say in response to that? I promise that all I wanted to do was mend some fences. In my wildest (and naïve) dreams, I had this hope that maybe we'd hit it off and talk about how God is bigger than all of us, how little we understand compared to God's own understanding.Clearly, that wasn't gonna happen, so I said: “I hope you take care, brother.”You looked at me for a beat and muttered “you, too” and walked away in a bit of a huff.If this ever does find you, I hope you'll understand that I recognize you're in pain, and we do odd things when we're in pain. One of the most common phrases of this era, already well-worn, is: “Hurt people hurt people.” I think there's a lot of truth to that. But I also hope you'll understand that exclusion is the opposite of Christ's teachings and has never amounted to anything worthy of the Gospel. Finally, and I say this with love: just because you're not in the Quiet Car doesn't mean you shouldn't be considerate to others.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hi, I'm Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte's Web Thoughts, my Substack. It's completely free to access and read, but it's also how my bills! So, please do kindly consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Lifetime Member at $250. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

This week for the book club, we have poet Maggie Smith talking about her tell-most own new bestselling memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful. You know Maggie from a poem she wrote in an Ohio coffee shop in 2015. That poem “Good Bones” was so deeply true and beautiful that readers passed it around. And it went viral a year or two later. Poems don't go viral, but this one did, so much so that the unimaginable happened. First. In April of 2017, Meryl Streep read that poem, “Good Bones” at a Lincoln Center gala. But there's a next. Next, her husband –– the father of her two young children –– the fellow writer, turned lawyer she met in a creative writing class in college. That guy. He blew up the marriage with a postcard and a pine cone.  Joining us in this conversation is one of Maggie's and my mutual friends, activist and writer Charlotte Clymer. You know Charlotte from her regular appearances on the Mary Trump Show. She was previously the press secretary for rapid response at the Human Rights Campaign and director of communications and strategy at Catholics for Choice. Contact Booked Up: You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:  BOOKED UP  P.O. BOX 147 NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061 Get More from Maggie Smith Twitter | Website | Author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful Get More from Charlotte Clymer Twitter | Website | Charlotte's Web Thoughts Substack Get More from Jen Taub: Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

#NerdAvengers Danielle Moodie, Jen Taub, Brian Karem, and Charlotte Clymer take over the show to fight against the rise of fascism throughout our institutions.  During it, they highlight the government's failure to work for the people– from veterans to the transgender community– and break down how the Democrats can take the high ground in the upcoming election with inclusive messaging that speaks to us all. This Week's Guests: Danielle Moodie: Twitter | Woke AF Daily | DCP Entertainment | Daily Beast | Democracy-ish | Medium | TikTok | The New Abnormal Podcast Jen Taub: Booked Up Podcast | Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Brian Karem: Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Charlotte Clymer: Twitter | Substack | LPAC

Many Christian churches of all denominations have been dealing with progressives infiltrating their congregations. This has been made as apparent as ever by Reverend Jim Wallis' and Charlotte Clymer's recent comments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Newsweek's Josh Hammer and journalist Ashley Rindsberg about Joe Rogan's epic rant about the failings of mainstream media and the importance of independent journalism; Rep. Chris Stewart questioning Janet Yellen about the Matt Taibbi IRS home visit he received while testifying before congress about the “Twitter files” and the weaponization of government; MSNBC's Joy Reid talking about Ashley Hale and the Nashville shooting with transgender activist Charlotte Clymer; CNN trying to trick Rep. Byron Donalds and Rep. Andy Ogles to make the Nashville shooting only about gun control and not mental health; Sean Hannity's interview with Donald Trump about Elon Musk's running of Twitter; and much more.

Friday, March 24th, 2023 Today, in the Hot Notes; more delays for the Manhattan DA Grand Jury as Alvin Bragg claps back at Jim Jordan; a judge rules that E. Jean Carroll jurors can remain anonymous for security reasons; Kari Lake loses Arizona again; Trump's lawyers make an appearance in the Pence subpoena case; Ray Epps has sent a letter to Tucker Carlson demanding a retraction; and abortion is legal again in Wyoming; plus AG and Dana deliver your Good News.  Charlotte Clymerhttps://twitter.com/cmclymer/https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/  Want some sweet Daily Beans Merchhttps://shop.dailybeanspod.com/ Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/ Follow AG and Dana on Twitter:Dr. Allison Gill https://twitter.com/allisongillhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://twitter.com/dailybeanspod Dana Goldberghttps://twitter.com/DGComedy Promo Codes:Thanks to Athletic Greens for supporting The Daily Beans. Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com/DAILYBEANS Google Doc of current legislation threatening trans people and their families:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fTxHLjBa86GA7WCT-V6AbEMGRFPMJndnaVGoZZX4PMw/edit?usp=sharing Have some good news; a confession; a correction?https://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Links in the Good News Sectionhttps://www.advocate.com/news/ohio-nazi-drag-story-hourhttps://queeryouthassemble.org/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short Follow the Podcast on Apple:https://apple.co/3XNx7ck Want to support the show and get it ad-free and early?https://dailybeans.supercast.techOrhttps://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcastshttps://apple.co/3UKzKt0

Friday, March 24th, 2023 Today, in the Hot Notes; more delays for the Manhattan DA Grand Jury as Alvin Bragg claps back at Jim Jordan; a judge rules that E. Jean Carroll jurors can remain anonymous for security reasons; Kari Lake loses Arizona again; Trump's lawyers make an appearance in the Pence subpoena case; Ray Epps has sent a letter to Tucker Carlson demanding a retraction; and abortion is legal again in Wyoming; plus AG and Dana deliver your Good News.  Charlotte Clymer https://twitter.com/cmclymer/ https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/   Want some sweet Daily Beans Merch https://shop.dailybeanspod.com/ Check out other MSW Media podcasts https://mswmedia.com/shows/ Follow AG and Dana on Twitter: Dr. Allison Gill  https://twitter.com/allisongill https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote https://twitter.com/dailybeanspod Dana Goldberg https://twitter.com/DGComedy Promo Codes: Thanks to Athletic Greens for supporting The Daily Beans. Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com/DAILYBEANS Google Doc of current legislation threatening trans people and their families: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fTxHLjBa86GA7WCT-V6AbEMGRFPMJndnaVGoZZX4PMw/edit?usp=sharing Have some good news; a confession; a correction? https://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Links in the Good News Section https://www.advocate.com/news/ohio-nazi-drag-story-hour https://queeryouthassemble.org/ Listener Survey: http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=short Follow the Podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3XNx7ck Want to support the show and get it ad-free and early? https://dailybeans.supercast.tech Or https://patreon.com/thedailybeans Or subscribe on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/3UKzKt0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Trump kicks off 2023 by welcoming #NerdAvengers Brian Karem, Jen Taub, Charlotte Clymer, Wajahat Ali, and Danielle Moodie to livestream the Republican's disastrous attempts at electing Kevin McCarthy as their speaker and analyze their party's takeover by extremists.  As of the recording, it looks like it will take many ballots to elect a speaker.  Has the destruction of their moderate wing destroyed the party for years to come? ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers Jen Taub: Booked Up Podcast | Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Brian Karem: Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Danielle Moodie: Twitter | Woke AF Daily | DCP Entertainment | Daily Beast | Democracy-ish | Medium | TikTok Wajahat Ali: Twitter | Daily Beast | Website | | Democracy-ish | Author of “Go Back To Where You Came From” Charlotte Clymer: Twitter | Substack | LPAC Get More From Mary Trump: Twitter | Substack | Author of “The Reckoning” & “Too Much and Never Enough”

In the final episode of the year, a roundup of bits and pieces of some of the most memorable "White Flag" conversations of 2022, including Amy McGrath (01:43), Fred Guttenberg and David Hogg (08:28), Jared Yates Sexton (16:38), Stephanie Grisham (40:45), Jason Kander (56:30), Charlotte Clymer (1:01:40), and Kurt Eichenwald (1:18:30). If you love these bits and pieces, check out the full-length conversations in the archive wherever you get your podcasts! Happy New Year.

Mary Trump celebrates the show's 1st anniversary and the victory of Senator Warnock in Georgia by welcoming #NerdAvengers Dahlia Lithwick, Jen Taub, Brian Karem, Charlotte Clymer, and Julie Zebrak.  They look at the reasons he won, how to broaden the voter base and bring new voters to the Democratic coalition, and analyze the recent absurdities and rulings of the SCOTUS. See Mary and the #NerdAvengers LIVE in Los Angeles: December 19th, 2022 at Dynasty Typewriter  Ticket link Please Support This Week's Sponsors Miracle Brand: For a total of 40% off the best sheets for perfect sleep, plus 3 free towels, go to trymiracle.com/mary and use promo code: MARY ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers Jen Taub: Booked Up Podcast | Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Brian Karem: Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Dahlia Lithwick: Twitter | Slate | NewsWeek | Amicus Podcast | UVA Law | Author of “Lady Justice” & Other Books Julie Zebrak: Twitter | Medium | Website | Washington Monthly Charlotte Clymer: Twitter | Substack | LPAC Get More From Mary Trump: Twitter | Substack | Author of “The Reckoning” & “Too Much and Never Enough”

Mary Trump brings together #NerdAvengers Jen Taub, Brian Karem, Danielle Moodie, Wajahat Ali, Dahlia Lithwick, Charlotte Clymer and Cliff Schechter to take on the monetary corruption of the SCOTUS and defend the moral imperative of true justice.  In their conversation, they discuss the potential and pitfalls of special counsel Jack Smith's appointment, and fire back against toxic rhetoric from the Right that empowers fascism and leads to horrors like the shooting in Colorado. See Mary and the #NerdAvengers LIVE in Los Angeles: December 19th, 2022 at Dynasty Typewriter  Ticket link ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM Additional Content From This Episode: Jen Taub on justice delayed when it comes to Donald Charlotte Clymer on the power of queer spaces Support Rich Fierro's Business This Week's Nerd Avengers Danielle Moodie: Twitter | Woke AF Daily | DCP Entertainment | Daily Beast | Democracy-ish | Medium | TikTok Brian Karem: Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Jen Taub: Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Dahlia Lithwick: Twitter | Slate | NewsWeek | Amicus Podcast | UVA Law | Author of “Lady Justice” & Other Books Cliff Schechter: Twitter | Blue Amp Strategies | YouTube | UnPresidented Podcast | Author  Wajahat Ali: Twitter | Daily Beast | Website | | Democracy-ish | Author of “Go Back To Where You Came From” Charlotte Clymer: Twitter | Substack | LPAC Get More From Mary Trump: Twitter | Substack | Author of “The Reckoning” & “Too Much and Never Enough”

Now that the results of the midterm election results and their implications are beginning to come together, Mary Trump welcomes #NerdAvengers Danielle Moodie, Jen Taub, and Charlotte Clymer to get their take.  They look at the encouraging support of women's rights, how young people are standing up for democracy, and voters' repudiation of fascism and Supreme Court extremism.  There are still some seats undecided– but can we start planning ahead with a sense of optimism?  ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers: Jen Taub: Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Charlotte Clymer: Twitter | Substack | LPAC Danielle Moodie: Twitter | Woke AF Daily | DCP Entertainment | Daily Beast | Democracy-ish | Medium | TikTok Get More From Mary Trump: Twitter | Substack | Author of “The Reckoning” & “Too Much and Never Enough”

With the initial midterm election results coming in, Mary Trump convenes an all-star cast of #NerdAvengers comprising Wajahat Ali, Dahlia Lithwick, John Fugelsang, Jen Taub, Dean Obeidallah, Jennifer Rubin, Allison Gill, Bob Cesca, Mara Gay, Charlotte Clymer, Julie Zebrak, Cliff Schecter, Norm Ornstein, Kimberley Johnson, Brian Karem, and Rachel and Alex Vindman.  They give live analysis of what we're seeing so far, lay out the implications of a weak so-called red wave, and look ahead to what comes next for defenders of democracy. ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers: Jen Taub: Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Dahlia Lithwick: Twitter | Slate | NewsWeek | Amicus Podcast | UVA Law | Author of “Lady Justice” & Other Books Wajahat Ali: Twitter | Daily Beast | Website | | Democracy-ish | Author of “Go Back To Where You Came From” Dean Obeidallah: Twitter | Website | MSNBC | CNN | Daily Beast  Jennifer Rubin: Twitter | WaPo | Author of “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy From Donald Trump” Allison Gill: Twitter | The Daily Beans Podcast | Mueller, She Wrote Podcast  Bob Cesca: Twitter | The Bob Cesca Show | Sexy Liberal Podcast Network Charlotte Clymer: Twitter | Substack | LPAC Mara Gay: Twitter | NYT Norm Ornstein: Twitter | AEI | The Atlantic | Author Rachel Vindman: Twitter | The Suburban Women Problem Podcast Alexander Vindman: Twitter | Testimony Against Donald Trump | Author of “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” John Fugelsang: Twitter | Website | The John Fugelsang Podcast | SiriusXm Julie Zebrak: Twitter | Medium | Website | Washington Monthly Kimberley Johnson: Twitter | ‘Start Me Up' Podcast | Website | Author  Brian Karem: Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Cliff Schechter: Twitter | Blue Amp Strategies | YouTube | UnPresidented Podcast | Author  Get More From Mary Trump: Twitter | Substack | Author of “The Reckoning” & “Too Much and Never Enough”

With the midterm elections only 5 weeks out, Mary Trump summons #NerdAvengers Wajahat Ali, Danielle Moodie, Jen Taub, Cliff Schechter, Charlotte Clymer, and Brian Karem to lay out the messaging needed to win.  Can Democrats focus on our shared humanity, go on offense to combat Republicans' escalating war on our rights, get out the vote, and share a positive vision of the future in time? The Mary Trump Show Live In Los Angeles 10/21/22 @ Dynasty Typewriter 2511 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90057 Tickets ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers: Cliff Schechter- Twitter | Blue Amp Strategies | YouTube | UnPresidented Podcast | Author  Charlotte Clymer Jen Taub- Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money” Brian Karem- Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Danielle Moodie- Twitter | Woke AF Daily | DCP Entertainment | Daily Beast | Democracy-ish | Medium Wajahat Ali- Twitter | Daily Beast | Website | | Democracy-ish | Author of “Go Back To Where You Came From” Charlotte Clymer- Twitter | Substack | LPAC Please Support This Week's Sponsor BrickHouse Nutition's Field Of Greens: To get 15% off your first order of powerful green filled nutrition, plus an additional 10% off when you subscribe, go to fieldofgreens.com and use promo code: MARY

Mary Trump is joined by a team of #NerdAvengers made up of George Hahn, Charlotte Clymer, and Jen Taub to break down the threat of MAGA to our democracy and discuss President Biden's address to the nation over a livestream.  During it, they look at the strength of the President's words after recent policy successes, and how the speech successfully called us to action while illuminating the path our politics need to take going forward. ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers included: Charlotte Clymer- Twitter | Substack | LPAC George Hahn- Twitter | Website | Instagram | IMDB Jen Taub- Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money”

Mary Trump assembles a team of #NerdAvengers consisting of Elie Mystal, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Jen Taub, Brian Karem, Dahlia Lithwick, Charlotte Clymer, Dean Obeidallah, and Norm Ornstein to break down Donald's increasingly crazy and criminal actions, and the growing threat of (not so semi) fascisom.  Despite it, they emphasize our power to take back our democracy through a focus on state and local elections, winning the midterms, and fighting for universal rights if we speak out. ‘Ask Mary Anything' Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM This Week's Nerd Avengers included: Norm Ornstein- Twitter | AEI | The Atlantic | Author Brian Karem- Twitter | Just Ask The Question Podcast | Author  Elie Mystal- Twitter | The Nation | Above The Law Blog | Author of “Allow Me To Retort”  Ruth Ben-Ghiat- Twitter | Website | Substack | NYU | Author of “Strongmen” & Other Books Dean Obeidallah- Twitter | Website | MSNBC | CNN | Daily Beast  Charlotte Clymer- Twitter | Substack | LPAC Dahlia Lithwick- Twitter | Slate | NewsWeek | Amicus Podcast | UVA Law | Author of “Lady Justice” & Other Books Jen Taub- Twitter | Western New England University School of Law | Website | Author of “Big Dirty Money”