A surreal Tuesday morning: Of nuclear deals and the Land of Oz

What a strange morning.

Has a U.S. president ever delivered a nationally televised address at 7 a.m. Eastern? And, until today, had I ever turned on the television machine at 6 a.m. Central?

On both counts, I think not.

Then, upon switching said television machine to "On" — because of the NYT's top story — I heard President Obama say that he "welcome[s] a robust debate with Congress," and that "this is not the time for politics or posture."

It was at this point that I began to suspect not my Kafka-esque metamorphosis, but that I had somehow become L. Frank Baum.

I then turned the page to Vox for enlightenment, since it is the site that explains the news — and there, in Matthew Yglesias' coverage, was this:

Benjamin Netanyahu says the deal is a historic mistake

Followed by,

Was this article helpful?

Well, it sure would have been, if only I had learned to read Hebrew yesterday, as I meant to. Damn my lazy Ozian ass.

Now, on to the right-wing freakout, buttressed by congressional Democrats in the pocket of Bibi and AIPAC. 

 

Comments

[Peter G]

I have taken Vox to task many many times for "explaining the news" and getting it wrong. If you look below the helpfulness question there are two icons which allow you to give the article a thumbs up or down. If you click up you get a menu that allows you to share the article via Facebook or Twitter. If thumbs down you get a feedback dialogue box. And that's where I reply if I don't use e-mail. Klein, Yglesias and some of the others are pretty good at what they do. (You have spotted a rare Yglesias bungle) but some of the others are terrible journalists. Vox sucks particularly bad when it attempts to cover technical and scientific issues but, to be fair, it sucks a lot less than much of mainstream journalism. You can't explain what you yourself do not understand.

[tunadaddy]

Translation:

"When one is prepared to come to an agreement at any price, this is the result. From the first reports received, it is already possible to determine that this agreement is a monumental historic mistake."

Flashback July 4, 1976 - I remember it was at the end of our basic training at a base near Hedera Israel that I heard the announcement of the successful raid on Entebbe. Bibi's brother, Yonatan Netanyahu, commander of that raid, was killed in the operation. A month and a half earlier, we had been the honor guard for prime misister Rabin on Independence Day at a ceremony in Jerusalem. Life is strange.

[Peter G]

I wonder what Netanyahu expected. His government did not object to severe economic sanctions being imposed on Iran. Those were great. But the point was to bring Iran to the negotiating table which Netanyahu clearly did not think was ever going to happen. Those wily Iranians upset all plans when they did come to the negotiating table. The only way sanctions would survive as either an inducement or threat is if the negotiations were done in good faith. That is something neither Netanyahu or the American hardliners will ever be able to accept. No deal, no sanctions. The sanctions were on life support the minute negotiations began and given Putin's state of mind I am surprised the whole thing hung together.

The hardliner's strategy is clear. Terms unacceptable to any nation state had to be imposed on Iran so their rejection could justify a military assault. It just isn't their day.

[Frank Moraes]

It's strange that the "translate" link doesn't show up in the embed, but apparently Twitter is putting all resources toward finding a way to be profitable. Regardless, it was hardly necessary to have Netanyahu's tweet. We already knew what he would say. And it is the same thing that he will say in a decade, regardless of how well the deal goes.