Why the U.S. Never Aimed to Own the Full Semiconductor Ecosystem
It’s not just that it didn’t try. It couldn’t. Let’s break it down. (1/11)
Johnny and Mary Can’t Read
Literally. America’s public education system collapsed so long ago that most kids can’t do algebra, let alone quantum mechanics. STEM PhD? Be serious. (2/11)
The U.S. Outsourced Its Brainpower
Why build local talent when you can import it? The U.S. tech elite ran on Chinese, Indian, and Iranian PhDs. Johnny and Mary were too busy vlogging or vaping. (3/11)
Walmart Nation Doesn’t Build Cleanrooms
Manufacturing was offshored to Taiwan and Korea. Real work was for foreigners. Americans built apps, not fabs. The only silicon they touched was in a Valley VC's yacht kitchen. (4/11)
The U.S. Industrial Base Was Replaced by Raytheon
The Pentagon gets trillions. Intel gets ghost fabs. Semiconductor policy? That’s what you squeeze in between forever wars. (5/11)
China Builds Infrastructure. The U.S. Builds Narratives
China treats semiconductors like civilization. The U.S. treats them like venture bets. One has five-year plans. The other has quarterly earnings reports. (6/11)
America Has No Institutional Backbone
China has CAS, CETC, and a deep national bench. The U.S. has DARPA grants and think tanks who confuse PowerPoints for production. (7/11)
America Turned on Its Talent Pipeline
Just when it needed more engineers, the U.S. chased them away with FBI witch hunts, visa bans, and racial paranoia. Self-harm as foreign policy. (8/11)
No Tools, No Patience, No Sovereignty
The U.S. never tried to build ASML or Tokyo Electron. It was cheaper to import—and now it’s too late. Silicon sovereignty isn’t bought. It’s built. (9/11)
The Empire Polices Supply Chains. It Doesn’t Build Them
China builds fabs, materials, and tools. The U.S. files lawsuits, patents, and sanctions. One builds ecosystems. The other enforces monopolies. (10/11)
Taiwan Was the Colony. Now It’s the Crisis
The U.S. never planned for self-reliance. Taiwan would always fab the chips. Now, with war on the table, they're realizing Johnny and Mary still can't operate an EUV scanner. (11/11)
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The Pentagon’s latest prep for Chinese air defenses is not building better missiles or countermeasures. It’s building props.
(1/10)
Torch Technologies in Alabama just rolled out a full-scale replica of China’s HQ-22 surface-to-air missile. It looks the part, mimics radar and heat signatures, but it’s a hollow shell.
Trump’s tariff war is no master plan. It’s a sign the U.S. has run out of real leverage against a world moving on.
Trump expands use of tariffs to reach national security goals - The Washington Post share.google/tbb0o2cMViSLuY…
The U.S. is running out of leverage. Tariffs are no longer a trade tool. They are a public confession of weakness.
(1/8)
The Washington Post reports Trump is using tariffs to push countries into unrelated foreign policy concessions. Israel on Chinese port deals. South Korea on defense spending. India on Russian oil.
Friedmanism sold us the market as gospel. Now we have no national grid, no public vision, and no idea what we lost
As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act - ABC News share.google/TXqlB9EVEc79d5…
Milton Friedman didn’t just change policy. He rewired America’s brain. For fifty years we have lived inside his worldview without knowing it.
(1/10)
Once, “public good” was central to every macroeconomics textbook. National grids, highways, public universities. These were investments in the backbone of the nation.
From toxic rare earth mines to women leading China’s tech rise this is the power shift no one saw coming
Confirmed - electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines depend on a single mine in China - and it is destroying its land and people share.google/DtIGhOek5Dkoyf…
The Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia is a scar on the Earth. It feeds the world’s wind turbines, EVs, and solar panels but leaves behind poisoned soil and toxic lakes. (1/11)
The West loves to point at Bayan Obo as proof China’s rise is dirty. What they never ask is why China dominates these industries in the first place. (2/11)
Donald Trump said China has no drug problem, and he is not wrong when you compare it with the US. In America, entire neighborhoods are gutted by fentanyl and meth. Addicts shoot up on sidewalks in broad daylight. Cities pretend it is compassion to look the other way. (1/5)
In China, the idea of leaving people to publicly self-destruct is unthinkable. Dealers face life sentences or worse. Users are forced into treatment before they hit rock bottom. The social contract still says the health of the community comes first. (2/5)
In the US, we call this tolerance “freedom.” In reality, it is FreeDumb. A political culture that confuses neglect for liberty and treats self-destruction as a personal right. (3/5)