The Elucidators: Decoding Global News

@RealDonaldTrump threatened to pull out 1/3 of the American troops stationed in Germany…without telling Congress…or Ze Germans. Nice guy!

What does this mean for the future of NATO—the world’s oldest multinational military alliance—and the United States military presence in Europe? If we end up leaving, should we care? Why or why not?

This week, Steve, Soumi, and Galen discuss this…And MUCH MUCH MORE!

**If you like the show, please remember to subscribe on your podcast app and tell your friends!**

More reading here:

1.    https://nationalinterest.org/feature/republican-war-over-trump2.    https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/26/nato-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/  3.    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/02/germany-afd-angela-merkel-thuringia/606541/4.    https://www.economist.com/international/2020/06/08/nato-sets-its-sights-on-china5.    https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-directs-u-s-troop-reduction-in-germany-11591375651

Also, visit and like us on all the social medias!1.    https://www.facebook.com/theelucidators/2.    https://twitter.com/The_Elucidators3.    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwm7lk1nGQGBsIjjpVMeIA

You’re China. (Hi, China!)

In the last 8 months, you were the source of this century’s worst pandemic, bungled the early management of the outbreak at home, and mislead the international community about it for months.

But now that things are under control health-wise in the Middle Kingdom and the United States is distracted by major internal issues it's apparently time to settle some scores, starting with Hong Kong… and Taiwan… and India… and WHO ELSE WANTS SOME OF CHINA!?

This week Steve, Soumi, and Galen talk about China’s rise, whether or not it can be peaceful, and on what terms it can be successful given what's currently happening in the United States. And MUCH MUCH MORE!

**If you like the show, please remember to subscribe on your podcast app and tell your friends!**

More reading here:

1.    https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-10/coronavirus-doesnt-deter-chinas-aggression-in-south-china-sea2.    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/world/asia/hong-kong-trump-china.html3.    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3086775/chinese-general-says-beijing-will-resolutely-smash-any4.    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/us/politics/coronavirus-global-competition-russia-china-iran-north-korea.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share5.    https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/28/why-india-china-sparring-border-clashes-conflict/

Also, visit and like us on all the social medias!

https://www.facebook.com/theelucidators/

https://twitter.com/The_Elucidators

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwm7lk1nGQGBsIjjpVMeIA

Lies.

Malarkey.

Propaganda.

Fake news.

Misinformation.

Disinformation.

Weaponized Nonsense.

The internet has all of these… as well as… real public information and actual news!

This week, Steve and Soumi talk about the deluge of disinformation and how we all play part in spreading it, whether it comes from foreign governments or homegrown conspiracy theorists.

And, of course, we have to talk about the world’s most notable purveyor of fake news, President Donald Trump and the upcoming 2020 U.S. Presidential election...and much MUCH MORE!

More reading: 

1.   https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-thomas-rid-active-measures-part-12.   https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/more-harm-than-good-twitter-struggles-to-label-misleading-covid-19-tweets/3.   https://www.c-span.org/video/?459639-1/depth-kathleen-hall-jamieson4.   https://warontherocks.com/2020/05/disarming-disinformation/5.  https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/these-disinformation-researchers-saw-coronavirus-infodemic-coming-n1206911

Also, visit and like us on all the social medias!

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https://twitter.com/The_Elucidators   

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwm7lk1nGQGBsIjjpVMeIA

Q: How did a mild-mannered Ethiopian microbiologist end up one of the most talked about people in the ongoing pandemic?

A: International politics.

This week, Steve and Soumi discuss how Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director General, found himself in @RealDonaldTrump’s political crosshairs, as well as:

What is the WHO?

What did they know about the coronavirus outbreak?

Are they covering up for China?

What does all the fighting over COVID-19's origins portend for the emergence and implementation of a vaccine?

We cover this and much, much more!

More reading:

1.    https://www.cfr.org/event/virtual-meeting-who-and-state-global-health-governance2.    https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2014/may/08/outbreaks-of-disease-and-war-polio-conflict-cold-war3.    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-coronavirus-test/4.    https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/19/vaccine-experts-say-moderna-didnt-produce-data-critical-to-assessing-covid-19-vaccine/5.    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2020-05-14/international-order-didnt-fail-pandemic-alone

Also, visit and like us on all the social medias!

https://www.facebook.com/theelucidators/

https://twitter.com/The_Elucidators

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwm7lk1nGQGBsIjjpVMeIA

Since we first discussed the #coronavirus outbreak in China last week, A LOT has changed:  

• There are now more than 7,800 confirmed #nCoV2019 cases and 212 deaths worldwide... as well as over a hundred full recoveries.
• The vast majority of this activity remains in China, but we're seeing a handful of cases elsewhere, including other Asian countries, Germany, France, Australia, the United States, and Canada.
• National health organizations are on high alert and WHO has declared a Global Health Emergency.
• And China's major cities, including Wuhan, Shanghai, and Beijing, are entering progressively tougher states of quarantine and lockdown.

In this week’s episode, we discuss 3 big emerging challenges:

1. Xi Jinping has a serious dilemma on his hands: he must balance fighting a massive public health crisis against minimizing economic impacts that could damage the Communist Party politically.
2. In an information-sensitive environment, the spread of fake coronavirus news is running rampant, which will magnify the panic generated by an already serious situation.
3. If the world's second-largest economy shuts down for an extended period of time, which now seems likely, is a global recession around the corner?

Please like and subscribe… and more importantly, be safe out there and wash your hands all the freaking time, even if you're not in China, because it's flu season!

Further reading:

1.    https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf62.    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-29/coronavirus-timeline-from-wuhan-china-to-global-crisis/119032983.    https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/01/28/coronavirus-outbreak-airport-screening-seattle-detroit-la-chicago-jfk-dallas/4596689002/4.    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/china-coronavirus-twitter/605644/5.    https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/how-fast-and-far-will-new-coronavirus-spread/605632/6.    https://time.com/5772134/coronavirus-mild-symptoms/

This week, Steve and Soumi discuss the new #Coronavirus, the threats of pandemics in a globalized world, and what countries can do to handle problems that are bigger than nations.

Buckle up cuz #pandemics can come at you fast! Observe what's happened in the last three weeks:

December 31: China tells the World Health Organization (#WHO) about concerning pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan—the hub of central China’s (population 8-ish million). A quarantine and search for the sickness’s origins begin.

January 1: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (#CDC) isolates the virus's origin to a Wuhan open-air livestock market; it’s promptly closed.

January 9: #WHO announces the sickness is new kind of coronavirus (like #SARS or #MERS). For now, it’s called #2019-nCov.

January 11: #2019-nCov claims its first life—a 61-year-old native of Wuhan; 41 Chinese diagnosed.

January 13: First #2019-nCov case reported in Thailand.

January 16: First #2019-nCov case reported in Japan.

January 17: Second #2019-nCov fatality reported. CDC starts screening Wuhan-passengers arriving into American airports (SFO, LAX, and JFK).

January 20: 3rd #2019-nCov fatality reported. 200+ cases reported in China. Chinese leaders publicly confirm that #2019-nCov is transmitting from person-to-person.Cases reported in #USA and #SouthKorea.

January 22: Airports around the world begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan. The WHO weighs declaring a global health emergency.

January 23: China confirms 17 dead and 500+ cases. #LunarNewYear celebrations, China’s biggest holiday (January 25th), cancelled in several cities including Beijing. Travel in and out of Wuhan is severely restricted.

Additional reading:1.    https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/health/wuhan-coronavirus-first-us-case-cdc-bn/index.html2.    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-20/asian-stocks-poised-to-drift-oil-pares-gains-markets-wrap3.    https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/02/07/512634375/map-find-out-what-new-viruses-are-emerging-in-your-backyard4.    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-virus-factbox/what-we-know-about-the-new-coronavirus-spreading-in-china-and-beyond-idUSKBN1ZM0C75.    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-21/coronavirus-how-we-should-prepare-for-the-next-pandemic6.    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636331/7.    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/23/coronavirus-timeline-from-wuhan-to-washington-state

January 8: The Iranian regime says Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed a couple hours prior because of "mechanical errors."

January 11: Actually… we shot it down because we mistook it for an incoming missile. Also this is America’s fault! We will not take any questions about why a commercial flight was allowed to take off while we were launching missiles at the American troops in Iraq. Ahem. Yes.

Also January 11: Turning on a dime from mourning assassinated General Qassem #Soleimani to focusing rage on a hidebound regime, the Iranian people resume protesting in face of goons firing live ammo, even though 1500+ citizens have already died.

Now: These are extremely hard times in #Iran, where the 40-year-old Islamic Republic looks like it could be tottering. And you know what they say: a cornered foe can be more dangerous than a confident one...

This week, Steve and Soumi talk about the Islamic Republic's many difficult challenges, as well as how things in the Middle East could somehow be even scarier now than they were a month ago, even though everyone's stopped paying attention!

Further reading:1.    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-510690902.    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-01-14/soleimani-strike-shows-trump-plan-for-iran-is-regime-disruption3.    https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/796260687/iran-makes-arrests-over-accidental-downing-of-ukrainian-airliner4.    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/business/economy/iran-economy.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article5.    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/14/world/europe/iran-nuclear-deal.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage6.    https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2020-parliamentary-election-causing-anxiety-tehran-191213162204935.html

Follow this maze, if you can.

Last week, #Trump ordered the assassination of #Iran General Qassem #Soleimani as payback for Iran-linked Shia militias protesting in front of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, #Iraq.

The Iraqi parliament then passed a symbolic, non-binding measure to have the #Americans leave their country over this violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Meanwhile, after three days of official mourning for Soleimani, #Ayatollah # Khamenei violated Iraq’s sovereignty AGAIN by launching non-lethal missile attacks on Iraqi bases where American troops operate.

All this while folks all over the world were terrified that 41 years of tensions between Iran and the US would finally escalate into a proper, conventional war… or even #WW3!

At time of recording, it seemed as though tensions had receded somewhat, with Iran stating it had retaliated in a manner compliant with international law. Trump has come out and said that it's time to give diplomacy a chance. The Iraqis remain stuck in the middle.

BUT NOW, it appears that in this fog of almost-but-not-quite war, the Iranians may have accidentally(?) shot down a commercial flight filled with Iranians AND Canadians! Using Russian antiaircraft missiles!

This week, Steve and Soumi chip away at elucidating this incredibly tense and crazy situation.

Further Reading:

1.    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-shadow-commander2.    https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-dangers-posed-by-the-killing-of-qassem-suleimani3.    https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/30/middleeast/us-strikes-iraq-syria-analysis-intl/index.html4.    https://www.ft.com/content/40dc36ee-2b15-11ea-a126-99756bd8f45e5.    https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-finally-fires-back-at-iran-115776620296.    https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/contractor-whose-death-trump-cites-was-a-naturalized-us-citizen-born-in-iraq/2020/01/07/afa7e774-31ac-11ea-91fd-82d4e04a3fac_story.html7.    https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/middleeast/plane-crash-iran-intl-hnk/index.html

*BREAKING NEWS ALERT*

Just before we were about to post this episode Thursday evening, President Trump ordered a targeted assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike on Baghdad Airport.

Welp.

Soleimani was a) not a good guy in any way, shape or form, being responsible for Iran's proxy militias and therefore countless deaths across the Middle East over the course of decades; b) a major Iranian military hero and a beloved political figure who may himself have been Ayatollah someday.

Make no mistake: this is a choice, on the part of the Trump Administration, for escalation and probable war in the Middle East.

No doubt we will have more details for you soon.

********************

Are the United States and Iran on the verge of war?...Because of conflicts in Iraq?...Even though neither country wants war? ESPECIALLY in Iraq?...And do you need a flowchart to follow all the groups, interests, and possibilities entangled herein?

These questions are at the center of what looks like @RealDonaldTrump’s 1st big international crisis after a violent demonstration at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias.

The militias have since withdrawn, but relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States remain at their tensest point in years and close Middle East watchers are starting to warn that these two countries might be about to sleepwalk into a large-scale military conflict.

This week, Steve and Soumi elucidate this mess by going over the history of U.S.-Iraq-Iran relations and what lies ahead in this very central part of the Middle East.

Further Reading:

1.    https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/irans-iraqi-militia-proxy-kataeb-hezbollah-explained?amp2.    https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/30/middleeast/us-strikes-iraq-syria-analysis-intl/index.html3.    https://www.ft.com/content/40dc36ee-2b15-11ea-a126-99756bd8f45e4.    https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/30/state-department-iraq-airstrikes-us-troops-0912835.    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/world/middleeast/iraq-airstrikes-us-iran-militias.html6.    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-backed-militia-supporters-converge-on-us-embassy-in-baghdad-shouting-death-to-america/2019/12/31/93f050b2-2bb1-11ea-bffe-020c88b3f120_story.html

Q: How can a law offering a path to citizenship for religious refugees from neighboring countries lead to nationwide protests?

A: When the law excludes Muslims from that path... and there are already 200 MILLION Muslims in your country.

This week, Steve and Soumi discuss mass protests in India over Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

Since the law passed last week, Indians of all religions have taken to the streets to voice their displeasure. Social media and news reports showed awful video of police entering one Muslim university's library and beating students who appeared to be doing homework.

For his part, Modi, who has his own checkered past vis-a-vis Hindu-Muslim violence, has not done nearly enough to tamp down tensions, adding to suspicions that this is all part of his plan to Make India Hindu Again (even though it already largely is).

Further Reading:

1.    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/india/2019-09-11/roots-hindu-nationalisms-triumph-india 2.    https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/12/16/21024306/india-protests-muslim-citizenship-amendment-bill 3.    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50805092 4.    https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/citizenship-amendment-act-protest-hartal-live-updates-december-17-2019/article30326650.ece 5.    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-16/india-protests-show-modi-s-hardline-agenda-may-hurt-economy 6.    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/world/asia/india-citizenship-protests.html

PS: this will be our final show for 2019! See you (perfectly, har har) in 2020, fam.

Much like the well-known horror film franchise (albeit with fewer hockey masks and machetes), Brexit is scary and just doesn’t seem to end. In this latest installment of UK Democracy: Endless Madness, the world will find out who the UK’s next Prime Minister will be on the appropriately (actually randomly) chosen date of Friday, December 13th.

Either the right-wing Conservative Party’s controversial bon vivant Boris “BoJo” Johnson or the Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn, a socialist doing very little to pretend to be a center-left pol, will be the next resident of 10 Downing Street. And, weirdly, the socialist is in favor of maintaining free trade with the European Union, while the supposedly free-market Tory wants out… which doesn't make sense. But here we are!

In this week’s episode of The Elucidators, Steve and Soumi discuss the long and winding road to this election, as well as what the potential outcomes mean for the Brexit process, the United Kingdom (and the peoples of the British Isles more generally) as well as Europe!

Further Reading:

1.    https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2019/12/infographic-uk-election-191207103305507.html2.    Financial Times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xi-6rzpFqw3.    https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/10/30/brexit-endgame-parliament-agrees-to-december-elections/4.    https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-election-numbers-factbox/factbox-how-will-britains-dec-12-brexit-election-work-idUSKBN1XL1125.    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2019/dec/08/election-polls-uk-2019-latest-opinion-poll-tracker-tories-labour

Q: What annual event is the biggest, most important, and least fun party in the world?

A: It's the United Nations' Conference of Parties (COP) to combat climate change.

(Fine. It's more of a conference than a party…let it go, nerd.)

Through December 13th, representatives from 200-ish nations are meeting in Madrid, Spain to discuss rising carbon emissions levels, carbon trading, the financing of climate change mitigation, and other initiatives to achieve a carbon neutral world by 2050. Despite the big achievement that was the 2015 Paris Agreement… things frankly are not looking amazing right now.

In this week's episode, Steve and Soumi talk about COP 25, how we got here, experimental initiatives to combat climate change, and the political and economic difficulties the United States, China, and everyone else need to overcome in order to stem the tide of a changing climate.

Further Reading:

1.   https://thebulletin.org/2019/06/gaseous-molecules-of-freedom/
2.   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-04/persistent-emissions-signal-global-climate-goal-out-of-reach
3.   https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/11/cop25-climate-conference-priorities
4.   https://www.politico.eu/article/cop25-climate-summit-6-things-to-know/
5.   https://www.cbsnews.com/video/world-leaders-tackle-climate-change-at-cop25-summit/

Back in August, we checked in on #Hong Kong eleven weeks into the city's millions-strong pro-democracy protests. Fourteen weeks later, those protests are still rolling, with even greater intensity -- and they are now generating electoral consequences too!

Local district counsel elections this past week registered MASSIVE victories for the pro-democracy movement... while the U.S. Congress has passed legislation to have Hong Kong’s back. All of which is to say Xi Jinping and the People’s Republic of China can’t be happy with the way things are headed in the increasingly restive city-state of Hong Kong.

In this week's episode, Steve and Soumi discuss the past, present, and future of China's “One Country, Two Systems” policy towards Hong Kong, and what all of this might mean for China, Hong Kong, and the U.S.

If you like what you're hearing, please like, share, subscribe, and rate us 5 stars on your podcast store! And if you have thoughts or questions, write us at theelucidators@gmail.com. We're lonely and we want to hear from you!

Further reading:

1. Brookings: Hong Kong’s precarious future
2. South China Morning Post: Eating out in Hong Kong: Protesters declare eateries ‘yellow’ or ‘blue’
3. NPR: Warnings, Wariness Mingle With Joy After Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Landslide

Q: What do you get when you raise fuel prices in Iran by 50-300%?A: Major protests all over the country.

Q: So then what’s the government do?A: Shut down the internet and attack protesters with live ammo!

Iran is two countries at the same time: a young, modern, and cosmopolitan nation of 80 million hoping to join the international community, AND a very conservative, older, and rural theocracy that wants to export its Islamic Revolution and dominate the Greater Middle East.

Increasingly, these two countries do not mix, so when the Trump Administration applies "maximum pressure" in the form of extremely stringent sanctions, the results can be as violent and unpredictable as a hacked Iranian uranium centrifuge.

This week on The Elucidators, Steve and Soumi discuss how Iran got here, what the United States had to do with it, and what might come next for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Further Reading:

1. Bloomberg.com: Iran’s Protests Are About More Than Rising Fuel Prices
2. Atlantic Council: Iran protests -- Something has to give
3. Foreign Affairs: America’s Great Satan -- The 40-Year Obsession With Iran

If a nation’s leader loses the support of his military and resigns, but no one steps into replace him… has there been a coup?

This is no riddle. It’s one of the main political questions facing Bolivians days after their long-serving and (by all accounts) effective leader Evo Morales resigned, along with his Vice President, amid (well-supported) accusations of vote rigging, as well as other attempts to weaken the country’s democratic processes. Now, Bolivia is leaderless and the country’s political future is cloudy to say the least.

This week, we try to elucidate this complex challenge with the help of our friend and Latin American politics expert, Dr. Jesse Acevedo of the University of Denver’s Political Science Department.

Further reading:

1. NYT: Evo Morales and Bolivia: What We Know About the President’s Resignation
2. WaPo: Leftists are wobbling in South America. Here’s why Bolivia’s Evo Morales may be the last socialist standing.
3. Foreign Affairs: Why Latin America Was Primed to Explode

This week, a horrific tragedy unfolded in the high desert of Northern Mexico, where three SUVs full of women and children were gunned down with automatic weapons and subsequently burned to ashes. The fact that these folks were members of a Mormon fundamentalist sect that emigrated to the area in the late 19th century and still hold dual US / Mexican citizenship has refocused US attention on the ongoing Mexican Drug War -- an ongoing low-intensity conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocents (as well as plenty of not-so-innocents) and disrupted one of the world's largest economies for the past 15 years or so.

Steve and Soumi peer through the lens of this outrage to examine Mexican and American policies towards the cartels; the basics of supply and demand; endemic violence and state failure; and who we think is ultimately to blame (hint: they're not in Mexico).

Further reading:

1. Bloomberg: AMLO Declines Trump's Help After Six Children Killed in Attack 
2. CNN: Amid Mounting Drug War Deaths, Mexico's President Sticks to his Strategy

On October 26, 2019, American special forces raided the compound belonging to Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi (ABaB), the leader of the Islamic State in Syria’s (ISIS) and self-anointed caliph or head of all Muslims, resulting in an explosive fatality. In this week’s episode, Steve and Soumi delve into who this guy was, where he came from, what he did, how he died, and what might be coming next from the world of jihadism.

(Spoiler Alert!)

*

*

*

None of this would have come about without a stolen pair of underwear.

Further Reading:

1. FDD: The Battle of Baghdadi
2. WaPo: Baghdadi hid among rivals and enemies in rebel-held Syrian province 
3. Daily Beast: How US Commandos IDed a 'Mutilated' al-Baghdadi So Quickly

On October 17th, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera was bragging to the international media about his country's status as a socioeconomic "oasis" in a sea of instability.

Less than 48 hours later, violent protests were roiling Chile's major cities and the Chilean army was in the streets, shooting at protestors with live ammo and running people over with armored vehicles.

What the heck happened?! Find out this week on The Elucidators, where Steve and Soumi discuss economic inequality, the Pinochet dictatorship, 21st century protest movements, populism vs. plutocracy, corrupt capitalism, and oh so much more!

Further reading:

1. ProMarket: How Economic Concentration and Crony Capitalism Lead to the Chaos in Chile
2. Bloomberg: Chile's Violence has a Worrisome Message for the World
3. NYTimes: Chile Unrest Spreads, with 15 Deaths Reported in Violence

Q: What does a 275% increase in your monthly wage get you?

A: If you’re a Venezuelan depending on minimum wage, it gets you the equivalent of $8.That’s enough to buy about nine pounds of meat… for the entire month. And that's after after eight previous minimum wage hikes!

In this week's episode of The Elucidators, Steve and Soumi discuss the long and sad path that has led South America’s formerly most-prosperous nation into near-total economic and social collapse. Domestic corruption, incompetence, and autocracy, along with a surprisingly wide array of international actors -- including Cuba, Russia, China, India, Turkey, Iran, Hezbollah, and of course the United States -- have all played a role in bringing this oil-rich nation to its knees. Also discussed in this episode: the "resource curse" / "Dutch Disease," petrostates, narcostates, left-wing populism, and much more!

Here's some additional light reading on this slow-motion disaster:

1. Bloomberg - Venezuela’s Maduro Hikes Minimum Wage Again, This Time by 275%
2. Council on Foreign Relations - Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate
3. CBS News - Understanding the Venezuelan presidential crisis: Who are Juan Guaido and Nicolas Maduro?

Q: How do you spell betrayal?A: R-O-J-A-V-A—ROJAVA. That’s the name of the nascent Kurdish state in northern Syria that’s currently being bombed by Turkey.Q: Who are the Kurds?A: The largest ethnic group in the world without an official state of their own and the warriors most-responsible for forcing ISIS out!Q: Why is Turkey doing this?A: Well…because President Trump said they could.We tackle these questions and many, many more in this week’s episode: Kurd Stomped!