Something very interesting is happening - France is regaining its Diplomatic Voice

The United States used to be the world leader - the shining city on the hill.

It seems that some other people are stepping up to the plate during our bout of Y. pestis var: marxii [1]

From the Wall Street Journal: [2]

France Takes Toughest Line at Iran Nuclear Talks
France is again adopting the toughest line against Iran in negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, potentially placing Paris at odds with the Obama administration as a diplomatic deadline to forge an agreement approaches at month-end.

President Barack Obama called French President François Hollande on Friday to discuss the Iran diplomacy and try to unify their positions. The presidents “reaffirmed their commitment” to a deal “while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues,” the White House said.

French diplomats have been publicly pressing the U.S. and other world powers not to give ground on key elements—particularly the speed of lifting United Nations sanctions and the pledge to constrain Iran’s nuclear research work—ahead of the March 31 target.

Paris also appears to be operating on a different diplomatic clock than Washington, arguing that the date is an “artificial” deadline and that global powers should be willing to wait Tehran out for a better deal if necessary.

Some more:

“Making the end of March an absolute deadline is counterproductive and dangerous,” France’s ambassador to the U.S., Gérard Araud, said via Twitter after the latest round of negotiations in Switzerland concluded Friday.

“No agreement without concrete decisions on issues beyond the enrichment capability question,” he said a day earlier, specifically mentioning the need for extensive monitoring and clarity on Iran’s past research work. Western officials believe they included the pursuit of nuclear-weapon capabilities.

 Much more at the site and the 130+ comments are a good mix-up.

[1] - Y. pestis is, of course, Yersinia pestis - the Bubonic Plague. You are looking at a 30% to 60% fatality rate.

Whenever there seems to be a variation in the species, there is added a Y. pestis var: xyzzy notation until the new species is positively identified.

In our case, the failed fever-dreams of marxism 

[2] - the WSJ recently added a stupid paywall system.

1. all sites want to be indexed by Google. Install the Google Chrome browser
2. Cut and copy the headline of the article you want to read.
3. Open Chrome
4. Paste that headline into the Google Chrome Search Engine
5. Badabing!