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1. The 2019 CIA Lithium Coup in Bolivia: “I can coup anyone I want: Deal with it” - Elon Musk. A story that did NOT make the headlines in 2019-2020 (a year when nothing was happening) was that Elon Musk and Mike Pompeo, Trump's CIA Director, became America’s public-private co-operation in the deadly 2019 Lithium Coup in Bolivia that toppled popularly elected Presidente Evo Morales. Didn’t hear about on MSNBC, CNN, FOX or anywhere else?That our tax dollars were used by the CIA and Elon Musk to topple a democratically elected regime—because they nationalizedlithium over 20 years to reduce their poverty rate by 300%?Lithium? Elon Musk? Teslas?Oh…okay. Now I get it…

THE U.S.-SUPPORTED MILITARY COUP in Bolivia has largely disappeared from western news outlets ever since the November 2019 massacres of pro-democracy protesters by the right-wing faction that seized power. But for Bolivians, the repression and tyranny that replaced their stable and thriving democracy endures. And, predictably, the “interim president” installed after the coup, Jeanine Áñez, continues to rule the country 10 months later, despite no possibility of being democratically elected, while she and her party plot how to prevent an election which all polls show will result in victory for the socialist party of toppled President Evo Morales.

What makes the coup in Bolivia and its aftermath so worthwhile to explore is not just the inherent importance of Bolivia itself: a country of 11 million people with a rich and unique ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, as well as an ample supply of the now-vital resource of lithium. It is also instructive because of how U.S. discourse evolved in support of the coup, with supposed “foreign policy experts” across the political spectrum — The Atlantic’s Yascha Mounk, Mother Jones’ Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery, former Obama official and Stanford Professor Michael McFaul, along with the Economist, the New York Times, and the Washington Post — spouting outright falsehoods to depict the destruction of Bolivian democracy as the salvation of it.

2. Your host was 1 of 12 international educators selected for Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program (ACEAP) to visit Mt. Atacama, at 16,300 ft, the highest Observatory in the world!

In Summer, 2024, The ACEAP team will travel to Chile for a nine-day expedition. Ambassadors will visit ALMA, CTIO, and Gemini facilities for a “once in a lifetime” behind the scenes experience. During the visits, observatory personnel will share an overview of observing facilities, discuss current science and engineering taking place at the facilities, and show Ambassadors how to access the observatory data archives for research projects and other purposes. Participants will also experience Chilean culture and society, and the astro-tourism industry that has emerged in Chile. In addition to the professional facilities, ACEAP Ambassadors will visit smaller amateur-public observatories. Weather permitting, nighttime observing opportunities will be made available. The observatories include: ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array); CTIO(Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory); GSO (Gemini-South Obervatory); still under construction are the LSST(Large Synoptic Survey Telescope);GMT (Giant Magellan Telescope).

Between LSST and GMT alone, nearly $1.5 billion will be invested over the next eight years. By the year 2022, 70% of the world’s astronomy infrastructure will be located in Chile.

Why is this the case?Because Atacama is at 16,800 ft.