Some thoughts on the reported meeting between former U.S. officials and Lavrov earlier this year—and why it's neither real diplomacy nor a helpful tool for getting to a real peace deal, but rather a trap Haass et al fell into.

https://www.pwnallthethings.com/p/fake-diplomacy-isnt-real-diplomacy

Second, my financial advisor has been asking me to buy Apple stock since 2011. And every time I would tell him, "oh no, I can't do that, I'm a tech journalist and we're not really allowed, and it might look bad."

I would have bought like, what. $100 worth of Apple stock? (That today, would be worth about $1500, still hardly market-moving.)

And Clarence Thomas has a full-on literal sugar daddy and is on the Supreme Court. I just. Wow.

There are moments when a conversation leaves you speechless and immediately expands your worldview. When I chatted with United States Army veteran, feminist, writer and trans activist Charlotte Clymer, that is exactly what happened.

As many know, the Republicans have targeted the trans community with particular viciousness and ferocity in the past two years and we want to understand what’s behind it a bit more deeply. At a more fundamental level, we want to hear from trans people like Charlotte about common myths and misconceptions and what it’s like to be trans in America today.

Importantly, those of us who are horrified by the legislative attacks on trans identity and hate crimes against trans people want to know how we can best be allies in this struggle.

Please consider taking the time to hear directly from Charlotte about what is currently happening: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/five-questions-with-charlotte-clymer