Very Quick Early Reaction To Iran's Attack On Israel

Here's my puzzle. According to this link, the first wave of Iranian drones and missiles arrived in Israel about 2:00 AM Saturday morning Israel time, which would have been 5:00 PM Friday night on the US East Coast. I spend a lot of my day on my computer, and I check the news a lot. The only headlines I saw all day yesterday (Saturday) was breathless reports that an Iranian drone strike could happpen -- but as far as the US was concerned, the strike had already taken place, early Friday evening on the East Coast, midafternoon Friday on the West Coast.

Yet the first reports that it had already taken place didn't appear, at least for me, until this morning, Sunday, nearly two days later. Nothing yesterday afternoon on YouTube, nothing on the conservative aggregators, nothing on Real Clear Politics. By midafternoon in Washington, nearly a day after the attacks began, the White House didn't quite know what to say:

CORRECTION: Report that Biden will address the nation false - CNN pic.twitter.com/Q84Cwdvhqm

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 13, 2024

The explanation is what I've believed for a couple of years: the holidays extend through each other, spring break extends to Memorial Day, probably the toughest stretch of the year, but then Memorial Day extends to Juneteenth, which extends to July 4, which extends to Labor Day, which extends to Indigenous Peoples Day, and so forth. Conservative writers and reporters are in on the scam as much as anyone else.

At 9:30 AM yesterday, Kaitlan Collins posted,

President Biden, who is currently in Rehoboth Beach, will return to the White House this afternoon to “consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East,” the admin says.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 13, 2024

As of 9:30 AM on the East Coast, the whole attack, I would guess, had been over for some hours, as it would have been 16:30, or 4:30 PM, at that time in Israel, which is 7 hours ahead. The big National Security Council meeting that took place that afternoon was over yesterday's papers.

There isn't a single person in this picture that gives me even the slightest bit of confidence. Not one.

They can't even get the proper drug cocktail mixed in time for Biden to address the nation tonight. https://t.co/6drwf4RlHU

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) April 13, 2024

My biggest problem at this point is that long-form reporting and opinion writing has been out to lunch for at least the past year. Short-form talking heads on news reports and YouTube have been losing credibility since early 2023 when the Ukraine war turned south and the retired generals' predictions of driving Putin out of Crimea came to naught.

Here's a Fox report time stamped 3:25, but whether that was 3:25 PM yeterday or 3:25 AM today, I can't tell:

It doesn't matter if it was midafternoon yesterday or early this morning, the voice says breathlessly,

So the drones are on their way from Iran, apparently some have already been engaged, possibly or maybe probably, shot down. . .

No, this was concluded the night before.

Everyone's still on spring break, and they're already getting ready for Memorial Day. It doesn't matter which side of the political spectrum anyone's on, they're all coasting.