The Post-Partisan Emporium

  I’m still not sure which was more outrageous- the home invasion/kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife, or the subsequent declaration by US President Donald Trump that we would “run” the country and hand over the nation’s oil reserves (the world’s largest) and infrastructure to Exxon Mobil. How quickly we moved on from those “drug boats”. Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez said the kidnapping had a “Zionist tint” to it. If the Trump Administration thinks she will now hand over her nation’s oil to the Four Horsemen they will be sorely disappointed. They have no clue as to the depth of the working class support for the twice democratically-elected Maduro and his cabinet. Meanwhile Trump has embarrassed our country in much the same way that his regular house guest Bibi Netanyahu has destroyed the international reputation of his. It’s not the first time the US has tried to derail the Bolivarian socialist revolution underway in Venezuela. And judging...

  ‘Expresso Vaccines’ and Lessons from the American Chestnut Tree Why a vaccine designed in two days faced less regulatory scrutiny than a venerable nut tree that sustained life for centuries Dr. Mathew Maavak A tree that once fed multitudes now faces a decade of federal red tape before a single seed can touch wild soil, while a brand-new genetic vaccine, cooked up in 48 hours and injected into billions, sailed through approval in under a year. One restores a vanished forest, the other rewrote human cells on a planetary scale. Both are genetic modifications, yet one is treated as a potential ecological threat while the other is hailed as a modern miracle. Welcome to the “expresso lane” of modern biotechnology, where speed, risk, and scrutiny depend entirely on whose veins are on the line. Reign of the Chestnut King In the ancient forests of Appalachia, the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) once towered as the unmatched monarch. Stretching from the southern ridges to southern Can...