curated citations to news sources
Howard Yu: TSMC posted a $440 million loss at its Arizona factory.
American engineers called it “rigid, brutal, prison-like.” Taiwanese managers complained about “lack of dedication and obedience.”
TSMC’s CEO Morris Chang saw this coming.
“A very expensive exercise in futility,” he called America’s chip push.
Taiwan doesn’t just make chips. It breathes them. Three decades of alignment created something money can’t buy.
In Arizona, Americans clock out after shifts. In Taiwan, engineers sleep in the fab.
In Arizona, decisions need consensus. In Taiwan, orders flow down.
In Arizona, it’s a job. In Taiwan, it’s national service.
Chang knew this at 55 when he started TSMC. The playbook worked because a nation aligned behind it:
(Howard Yu more…)
Howard Yu: Inside TSMC, the $1 Trillion Ghost Foundry Behind Nvidia’s Crown
AXIOS: AI’s global race in the dark
Thom Hartmann: Entrepreneurship and the American Dream
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Austin Chronicle: Texas Is Still in Drought, and AI Data Centers Are Quietly Guzzling Up Water
Texas continues to attract AI giants, despite resource strain
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Just over a year ago, Altman broke into the clay and sand of Abilene, Texas, to begin building the biggest data center in the world. The Stargate campus, when completed, would be about 60 acres larger than New York City’s Central Park. Construction of the campus’ first two buildings is scheduled to finish this summer.
(Austin Chronicle more…)WKMS: Billionaire Peter Thiel backing first privately developed US uranium enrichment facility in Paducah
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OM: The Satya of Satya’s Layoff Memo
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The Microsoft memo portends the new reality of the technology industry. For years, the sector has been generous to its employees, offering unheard-of perks and placing a premium on skills such as software development. AI, however,inverts that relationship. As a result, we now face a different set of parameters.- Loyalty has become a one-way street: Employees must be committed, but technology companies owe only “opportunities,” as and if they deem necessary.
- Layoffs will be used for strategic positioning, regardless of a company’s financial health.
- Profit provides an opportunity to invest in transformation, which sometimes involves eliminating jobs.
Don’t be surprised if normalization of profitable layoffs becomes the next big Silicon Valley export to broader economy.
That’s really the satya (truth) of Satya’s memo.
(OM more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 26, 2025
Ten days ago, ten Republican senators wrote to Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, asking him to release the funds Congress appropriated in March to support education. Vought was a key author of Project 2025, which claims the federal government has been taken over by a radical left cabal and calls for the decimation of that government in favor of state power, enabling the construction of a religious government.
Vought was central to the cuts made by the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) and has recently pushed Congress to put its stamp of approval on $9.4 billion of those cuts. Over the objections of Democrats, Republicans agreed earlier this month to approve cuts the administration made to laws passed by Congress, known as “rescissions,” for the first time in decades. Trump signed that measure into law on Thursday.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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engadget: DOGE is reportedly pushing an AI tool that would put half of all federal regulations on a ‘delete list’
The Washington Post obtained a PowerPoint presentation outlining the ‘DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool.’
According to a report from The Washington Post, DOGE is using an AI tool to analyze federal regulations and determine which to get rid of. A DOGE PowerPoint presentation obtained by the publication notes that its “AI Solution” — reportedly called the DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool — found that 100,000 out of over 200,000 regulations “can be deleted.” The document sets a September 1 goal deadline for agencies to complete their own deregulation lists using the tool, which it says can be done in under four weeks, and then “DOGE will roll-up a delete list of 50% of all Federal Regulations (100k Regulatory Rules).”
(engadget more…)
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Reuters: Trump orders crackdown on homeless encampments nationwide
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order urging cities and states to clear homeless encampments and move people into treatment centers – a move that advocates for the homeless said would worsen the problem.
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to overturn state and federal legal precedents and consent decrees that limit local efforts to remove homeless camps. It remains unclear how Bondi could unilaterally overturn such decisions.
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Brendan Carr: FCC Approves Skydance’s Acquisition of Paramount CBS
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“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network. In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media. These commitments, if implemented, would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage. Doing so would begin the process of earning back Americans’ trust. Today’s decision also marks another step forward in the FCC’s efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination. And Skydance’s commitment to enhancing local news and reporting—coverage valued by the public—will also inure to the benefit of the American people.”Commitment to Unbiased Journalism. Skydance has made written commitments to ensuring that the new company’s array of news and entertainment programming will embody a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum and that CBS’s reporting will be fair, unbiased, and fact-based. To promote transparency and increased accountability, Skydance commits, for a period of at least two years, to have in place an ombudsman who will report to the President of New Paramount and evaluate complaints of bias.
(Brendan Carr more…)Alternet: FCC chairman assigns ‘bias monitor’ to CBS — who reports ‘directly to the president’
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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