PATRICK LAWRENCE: New Year’s Notes on Purported Leaders
It is no use hoping for any alteration in the collective West’s course so long as today’s “purported leaders” remain in office. “Heaven is high and the emperor is far away.” So did Chinese peasants celebrate their distance from the…
Patrick Lawrence: Zohran Mamdani and His (Our) Enemies
Well, the latest of these incessant polls concerning the Nov. 4 election for the mayoralty of New York are in, having arrived Thursday, Oct. 30, and if the story has changed it is only for the better. A new Emerson…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: My Bigotry Is Better Than Yours
Graham Platner, a combat veteran running a Democratic primary campaign for a Maine seat in the U.S. Senate, is getting hit with caricatures, which is the worst form of bigotry. Let’s look at him in 3-D. Jiminy Crickets. I hope…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 4: Wanderers and Seekers
Editor’s note: Earlier versions of this story reported Germany’s shock when Friedrich Merz initially failed to win sufficient Bundestag votes to assume office. After intense negotiations, he won back the six votes needed to declare victory. Berlin, in the meantime,…
Patrick Lawrence: The Nihilism of Antony Blinken
Readers write from time to time thanking me for keeping up with The New York Times so they don’t have to do so themselves. I understand the thought, and they are most welcome in all cases. But we have now…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Biden Family of Liars
Given Joe Biden’s apparently intimate involvement in Hunter’s dealings, it follows that his intent in pardoning his son is effectively to secure a pardon for himself. This is the sixth in Consortium News’s series on the extensive criminal allegations leveled at…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: ‘Vote Joy’ — a Delusion of Nostalgia
Those populating the vice president’s joy-and-vibes crowd can pretend to celebrate a state of elation while acquiescing to their candidate’s approval of mass murder. Many commentators have attempted to describe the astonishing devolution of Democratic Party politics into sheer marketing: Kamala…
Patrick Lawrence: This Isn’t Fascism
Political confusion and deluded notions of fascism colored Max Azzarello’s tragic death by self-immolation. On April 19, just as a court in Lower Manhattan finished selecting a jury to hear the farcical “hush money” case against Donald Trump, a 37-year-old…
IMPEACHMENT: A Rapid Succession of Events
Patrick Lawrence on the indictment of key witness Alexander Smirnov; the under-reported testimony of Jason Galanis from a federal prison; and Hunter Biden’s testimony under oath. This is the fourth in Consortium News’ series on the congressional investigation into President Biden’s allegedly corrupt…
WATCH: The World This Week, Episode 3
The World This Week looks at Trump’s new threats against Iran, his tendency to chicken out, and a tribute to the great Michael Parenti, with Joe Lauria and Patrick Lawrence. Producer: Cathy Vogan