Kaja Kallas is in Thiel's "Eyes wide shut" club of terrible, awful people

I chortled

I can only hope that Redacted has been politically exposed by this Iran fiasco, but I suspect that's overly optimistic. He spent a ton of money, killed thousands, damaged the global economy, and achieved... nothing. 🤨 But I'm sure he'll go on like he did before, because that scenario doesn't fit his inner reality. Still, the Pubs are starting to complain more; they probably want to move on past him at this point. Hopefully the fall elections won't be compromised by Redacted's meddling.

Edited Thursday at 06:46 PM5 days by rjshae

On 6/17/2026 at 4:47 PM, Zoraptor said:

So, how do you spin that to be better than what Obama achieved with no war? Even managing to get an explicit no toll on the straits provision isn't exactly victory, just not an abject defeat.

No wonder Trump seems genuinely peeved with Netanyahu.

Easy, just talk about how many people you killed and stuff you blew up.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil

Oil price as expected is dropping nicely, it was  down to $76/barrel

Its dropping quicker than I expected and the world may get relief from gas\petrol price pressures sooner than expected. Big news for Trump who needs this for Midterms voting sentimen

It shows how much the oil price volatility was more about speculation and risk sentiment than supply chain realities because the Straits are open but there is still backlogs around shipping

But good news for everyone except for Russia. Global economic collapse averted 👍

surprised usa still didn't push through the age verification surveillance law like uk yet

they are certainly trying

guess uk are easier to buy now they are so much more destitute than before

rejoice

strait of hormuz are closed again

as expected attack on lebanon didn't stop for 1 day

Yeah, Israel under B. Netanyahu is probably the one nation that doesn't want a US-Iran peace deal.

This is a big geopolitical development because of the decades long bastion of socialism that Cuba is or was

Finally the Cuban state will be moving away from its failed model of socialism and adopting different degrees of privatisation and free market economics

Yes US sanctions had a huge influence on this prudent decision but this should have happened 30 years ago when the Cold War ended. Finally the people of Cuba may have a future or at least live in a functional country


https://www.reuters.com/world/ameri...omic-reforms-amid-us-stranglehold-2026-06-18/

"HAVANA, June 18 (Reuters) - Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country's socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions.
The ‌measures, if implemented as passed, would represent the single largest change to Cuba's socialist model since former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and a major shift towards a market economy.

The reforms open the door to private real estate development on the Caribbean island, propose to transform state-owned businesses into private commercial ventures with shares and equity stakes and would allow private banks to enter Cuba's once state-dominated finance sector.
They would also allow the "sale of state-owned properties to national and foreign legal entities and individuals, including Cubans residing abroad," according to a televised presentation to lawmakers - a major change in a country where the state has long held control over land and industry."

6 hours ago, rjshae said:

Yeah, Israel under B. Netanyahu is probably the one nation that doesn't want a US-Iran peace deal.

Yes, it doesn't align with Netanyahu or the Israeli far-rights objectives of how to secure Israel

But these objectives were never achievable unless the US was deeply committed to a military conflict and there is no real political appetite or convincing reason in the US for that

But Israel will have no choice but to go along with this peace deal because the US has the real influence on them and needs US support on several levels

Its not just Israel who would be opposed to this deal, hardliners in Iran and within Hezbollah would also not want it but they also will need to go along with it

Don't see how even Iranian hardliners would be opposed, since that's basically who's in charge and who Trump was negotiating with even more so than before.

The only 'concession' made was to disavow nukes, which they'd done repeatedly anyway; and had supposedly been months to weeks away from developing since 1999, ie 27 years ago now. All the big provisions Trump wanted beforehand and criticised Obama for not getting- eg no aid to proxies, giving up ballistic missiles- aren't in his 'agreement' either. And they can still shut the straits down whenever needed. There's essentially no downside for Iran.

If one thing is obvious now then that Iran doesn't need nukes to get america to its knees. The strait of hormuz is a way better tool than any nuke could ever be.

6 hours ago, Lexx said:

If one thing is obvious now then that Iran doesn't need nukes to get america to its knees. The strait of hormuz is a way better tool than any nuke could ever be.

I don’t think Iranian nukes has Washington written on them (unlike North Koreas). More likely a counter measure to Israeli nukes

Edit: of course a few may deviate off course and “accidentally” hit Riyadh

15 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Don't see how even Iranian hardliners would be opposed, since that's basically who's in charge and who Trump was negotiating with even more so than before.

The only 'concession' made was to disavow nukes, which they'd done repeatedly anyway; and had supposedly been months to weeks away from developing since 1999, ie 27 years ago now. All the big provisions Trump wanted beforehand and criticised Obama for not getting- eg no aid to proxies, giving up ballistic missiles- aren't in his 'agreement' either. And they can still shut the straits down whenever needed. There's essentially no downside for Iran.

Oh no, Iran has several different factions. And the hardliners are not the same as the Supreme leaders son who is mostly in charge

Its the Western media who are framing this peace deal as an " Iranian win " but thats how everyone feels within Iran

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/19/middleeast/iran-us-nabavian-peace-agreement-intl

"Before the war, containing anti-government dissent was among the regime’s chief domestic priorities. Now, it faces a different challenge: managing opposition from within its own ranks. According to Vali Nasr, author of “Iran’s Grand Strategy,” the supreme leader and those around him will first have to look inward to a hardline faction known as the Jebhe-ye Paydari, which Nabavi is close to.

“For this agreement to work, (Supreme Leader) Mojtaba (Khamenei) and the (Revolutionary Guards) have to control the very forces that they helped create,” he said. The hardline faction has tried to sabotage the deal with the US throughout the negotiations process. They see such an agreement as capitulation and appeasing them is more critical than appeasing anti-regime groups in Iran, he said.

A message posted Thursday purportedly by Khamenei confirmed that he authorized the deal while stressing that its architects had accepted responsibility for it, an apparent effort to distance himself from any fallout should the agreement unravel. "

6 hours ago, Lexx said:

If one thing is obvious now then that Iran doesn't need nukes to get america to its knees. The strait of hormuz is a way better tool than any nuke could ever be.

Not really, its this type of peace deal or a military solution. And no one in the US has the appetite or political fortitude for that

If Iran suddenly attacked American military ships the US wouldn't be negotiating because then war would be justified

" this is the worst deal ever....except for all the others "

10 hours ago, Lexx said:

If one thing is obvious now then that Iran doesn't need nukes to get america to its knees. The strait of hormuz is a way better tool than any nuke could ever be.

if iran have nuke before start of this year

the entire world wouldn't need to suffer in the last 4 month

it is in the best interest of global commerce and majority of population that iran have nuke while vassal of usa remain belligerent

13 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

if iran have nuke before start of this year

the entire world wouldn't need to suffer in the last 4 month

it is in the best interest of global commerce and majority of population that iran have nuke while vassal of usa remain belligerent

Are you suggesting after all of this Iran should still try to get nukes, please tell me I'm misunderstanding you?

starmer finally resign

too much damage are already been done

labour prove how worthless it is as another flavor of conservative

there is no stopping the downward spiral now

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/starmer-out/

The Labour Government has, to be summary, implemented or proposed sweeping changes to the immigration and asylum systems and made us into one of the most trans-hostile developed democracies in the world. Legal immigrants will often have an expensive and insecure decade-long legal limbo imposed on them. We are functionally ending real refugee status. Even if we admit those fleeing war or persecution, they will (under proposed changes) only ever stay here temporarily, subject to deportation at any time. Their children with British citizens will also be subject to deportations. This is completely counter to both the letter and the spirit of international law on this subject, something the Home Secretary overtly lied about. She was, I think, correct however in describing the changes as the most radical made in the last 70 years.

[...]

On the economic front, they can note that Labour failed to deliver economically, but have very little to say about why. Starmer’s departure coincides with the 10th anniversary of Brexit, a project that made most people meaningfully worse off for overtly nativist reasons. We have essentially imposed sanctions on ourselves, not to mention becoming an international laughingstock, just to try and sooth the delicate feelings of anti-immigrant voters. 

Another anniversary comes to mind. On June 16th, 2016, Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered. Shot twice in the head then stabbed fifteen times. A judge concluded her murder had been motivated by “an admiration for Nazism, and similar anti-democratic white supremacist creeds”. Yet when her memory is raised, it’s usually in service of cautioning against heated political arguments in general. Of decrying how toxic politics writ-large has gotten, of the need for civility, of being nice to politicians online. Often it is not even mentioned that her killer was motivated by a specific ideology. Much less is that ideology tied to the increasingly open racism of our right—or the validation of it by figures like Starmer. 

2 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

starmer finally resign

too much damage are already been done

labour prove how worthless it is as another flavor of conservative

there is no stopping the downward spiral now

We still can bounce back, providing that the voting population 1. votes; 2. not for the several types of fash.

Curious when Starmer v.2.0 folds, though. Burnham has about the same intelligence and integrity.

They key take away about Starmer is, and always has been, that in his 'landslide' election victory he got half a million less votes than the 'unelectable' Corbyn. It was always about a Tory collapse and how First Past the Post works rather than Starmer/ Labour themselves being popular. Turning out to be Tory lite- which was not exactly a surprise, his slogan could have been 'status quo, but better!'- evaporated even that tepid support.

Labour in the UK have the same issue left parties have in most places- spent so long pandering to the mythic floating vote in the centre and shifted so far right in pursuit of it that they've given their core voter no reason to vote for them. For 30 years in the UK, and 40 years here. Then get terrified of doing anything even slightly left economically, and start up with... weird social policies to compensate. For Starmer in particular in seems the only thing he actually capital B Believed in was unqualified support for Israel. Which was a particularly odd look, for someone who was a human rights lawyer.

(As a contrast, all the right wing parties are hugely pro immigration here. Most immigrants vote right so adding a million new people give them ~700k new voters; and the 'anti immigrant' party needs something to complain about but not do anything about, of course, since they own houses as much as any other MP. It also inflates the housing bubble further which makes the economy look good on paper while our English Lit grad Finance Minister who has only ever worked in PR and politics runs the real economy into the ground. While spending more money per unit than Trump did on Air Force One buying helicopters and claiming those in social housing have 'won the lottery' (direct quote)- unlike her fellow ministers on struggle street practically donating their time on a paltry 320k salary and claiming 52k/ year accommodation supplement for living in their own houses. One of six in their portfolios. Mystery why NZ has no stamp duty or Capital Gains Tax, eh)