Cosmic Fail, The Anti-Nova, Special Video Coming | S0 News Jun.11.2021

Impactor Cycle | Advanced Catastrophism

Companies Losing 100$ of Billion$$$$$$$$$ - Global Chip Shortage

Kraftwerk - The Robots (Live, Club Lido, Venice October 1978) (Better Qu...

Inside The World's Largest Chips Factory TSMC: A Robot Factory In Taiwan China

If you've been paying attention to "the news" you know there's a global logistical supply-change shortage of semiconductors that's disrupting vital and important large-scale industrial/manufacturing operations.

There are plans to build not one but two FABS here in Arizona.

TSMC was a topic of discussion by GPEC President Chris Camacho at last month's meeting on May 4,2021 of the City of Mesa's Economic Development Advisory Board Meeting.

Here are some details:

". . .A quick look at metrics from July through June FY21, we are trending right above 250 projects currently, 22% of those come from international locations, most notably out of Canada and the western European market and then most recently with TSMC that is going to north Phoenix. 

That project was a three-and-a-half-year process that will now manifest roughly two dozen supplier companies that will need rail, air quality measurements and vast power requirements. 

> 28 companies have located with $654.5 million in capital investment, 

> 5,589 jobs (excluding TSMC) and 

> $81,454 average high wage salary

Arguably, we have seen labor rates continue to rise across the region and it has made a more competitive market. . ."

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RELATED POST ON THIS BLOG FROM 03 JUNE 2021

Why is Taiwan's Tech Titan betting on the Desert here in Arizona?

Off-Shoring to Inland Ports (or Safe Havens?)

 

 

More

Dateline June 11,2021 12:39 PM EDT 2021 Pulitzer Awards Announcement: Prizes, Contenders and Speculation + A SPECIAL CITATION FOR A CELLPHONE RECORDING

If that's an odd way to state a headline there are reasons:

Pulitzer Prizes 2021: The Full List Of Winners

By Abigail Freeman Forbes staff

Hollywood & Entertainment

"I'm an assistant editor at Forbes covering media and entertainment"

Forbes | 2021-06-11

The 2021 Pulitzer Prizes, journalism’s highest honor, were announced Friday after a historic year shaped by a nationwide racial justice reckoning, a polarizing presidential election and a devastating global pandemic. 

The Pulitzer Prize Board postponed the awards, originally slated for April 19, for the second consecutive year so that its 18 members could deliberate in person, rather than remotely. The annual awards luncheon, usually held at Columbia University, is also delayed until the fall.

The Staff of 'Star Tribune' in Minneapolis, Minn. won the 2021 Breaking News Reporting Pulitzer for their coverage of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and protests that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)Getty Images

> One big contender for a Pulitzer this year was The New York Times’ investigation of the income tax information former President Donald Trump kept from the public called “The President’s Taxes,” written by Scripps Howard Award and the George Polk Award winners Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire. Although that story didn’t take home a prize, The Times won the Public Service and Criticism Pulitzers for its extensive coronavirus coverage and Wesley Morris’ piece titled “My Mustache, My Self” on the intersection of race and culture in America, respectively.

> Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, which was honored bythe Scripps, Polk and Online News Association Awards, was also speculated to win for its piece “The Killing of George Floyd,” as Scripps called the article “a local news story that quickly became the global epicenter of America’s long struggle with racial inequality and injustice,” according to Poynter. For that story and more, the publication’s staff was named the winner of the Breaking News Reporting Pulitzer.

> Notably, 18-year-old Darnella Frazier was honored with the Special Citation for her cell phone recording of Floyd’s murder, “a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice.”

Stay tuned for the full list of 2021’s winning storytellers in journalism, books, poetry and more below as they are announced:

JOURNALISM

Breaking News Reporting

Winner: Staff of Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Finalists: Helen Branswell, Andrew Joseph and the late Sharon Begley of STAT, Boston, Mass; Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

Investigative Reporting

Winner: Matt Rocheleau, Vernal Coleman, Laura Crimaldi, Evan Allen and Brendan McCarthy of The Boston Globe

Finalists: Dake Kang and the Staff of Associated Press; Margie Mason and Robin McDowell of Associated Press

Explanatory Reporting

Winners: Ed Yong of The Atlantic; Andrew Chung, Lawrence Hurley, Andrea Januta, Jaimi Dowdell and Jackie Botts of Reuters

Finalists: Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek of BuzzFeed News, New York

Local Reporting

Winner: Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi of Tampa Bay Times

Finalists: Jack Dolan and Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times; Staff of The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.

National Reporting

Winner: Staffs of the Marshall Project, AL.com, Birmingham; IndyStar, Indianapolis; and the Invisible Institute, Chicago

Finalists: Staff of The New York Times; Staff of The Wall Street Journal

International Reporting

Winner: Megha Rajagopalan, Alison Killing and Christo Buschek of Buzzfeed News, New York

Finalists: BuzzFeed News, New York, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Washington, D.C.; Staff of The New York Times; Staff of The Wall Street Journal

Feature Writing

Winners: Nadja Drost, freelance contributor, The California Sunday Magazine; Mitchell S. Jackson, freelance contributor of Runner’s World

Finalists: Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post

Commentary

Winner: Michael Paul Williams of Richmond Times-Dispatch

Finalists: Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star; Roy S. Johnson of Alabama Media Group, Birmingham

Criticism

Winner: Wesley Morris of The New York Times

Finalists: Craig Jenkins of New York magazine; Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times

Editorial Writing

Winner: Robert Greene of Los Angeles Times

Finalists: Alan Wirzbicki and Rachelle G. Cohen of The Boston Globe; Lee Hockstader of The Washington Post

Editorial Cartooning

Winner: N/A

Finalists: Ken Fisher, drawing as Ruben Bolling, for “Tom the Dancing Bug,” Andrews McMeel Syndicate; Lalo Alcaraz, Andrews McMeel Syndicate; Marty Two Bulls Sr., freelance cartoonist

Breaking News Photography

Winner: Photography Staff of Associated Press

Finalists: Hassan Ammar, Hussein Malla and Felipe Dana of Associated Press; Joshua Irwandi, freelance photographer, National Geographic

Feature Photography

Winner: Emilio Morenatti of Associated Press

Finalists: Staff of Getty Images; Tyler Hicks of The New York Times

Audio Reporting

Winner: Lisa Hagen, Chris Haxel, Graham Smith and Robert Little of National Public Radio

Finalists: Staff of National Public Radio; Staffs of the Invisible Institute, Chicago: The Intercept and Topic Studios

Public Service

Winner: The New York Times

Finalists: ProPublica, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

LETTERS, DRAMA AND MUSIC

Drama

Winner: The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall

Finalists: Circle Jerk by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley; Stew by Zora Howard

History

Winner: Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain

Finalists: The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson (Scribner)

Biography

Winner: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by the late Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Liveright/Norton)

Finalists: Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark (Alfred A. Knopf); Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley (Scribner)

Fiction

Winner: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Harper)

Finalists: A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason (Little, Brown and Company); Telephone by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)

Poetry

Winner: Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (Graywolf Press)

Finalists: A Treatise on Stars by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (New Directions); In the Lateness of the World by Carolyn Forché (Penguin Press)

General Nonfiction

Winner: Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Finalists: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Hong Park (One World/Random House); Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch (Random House)

Early Onslaught of Trump Apprentices Lurch into Arizona Election Races For 2022

The roster of Republican contenders is expanding almost every day with new announcements in both statewide and national contests upstream and downstream. New candidates are jockeying for the top jobs in what are now crowded fields of schemes and dreams.

There's already some fall-out; for example in the case of one challenger for Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly - GOP Candidate Jim Lamon - where the fault-lines or bonfires are getting reported with the usual not-so-surprising strategies.

Here's the recent run-down 10 hours ago by Lachlan Markay - it covers "the bases" just in case you are wondering where his loyalties might lie . . . . .

Arizona Senate candidate poured millions into voter registration group

Lachlan Markay

Axios | 2021-06-11T00:53:44.220374Z

"Days before the first Republican candidate jumped into next year's Arizona Senate race, he poured millions into an ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration operation affiliated with prominent election fraud conspiracy theorists.

Why it matters: GOP candidate Jim Lamon embraces many of these theories, and a drive to register voters with the same inclination has the potential to benefit his candidacy. Lamon also stands to get a substantial tax break from his $2 million effort to turn out conservative voters.

What's happening: In late April, Lamon, a renewable energy executive, announced his donation to the nonprofit Look Ahead America, designed to help register "tens of thousands of new conservative voters."

• A week later, Lamon officially entered the race to challenge Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat.
• Records indicate Lamon had been laying the groundwork for his run by the time he donated to LAA: his campaign website's domain was registered in March, and its social media pages were created in April.
• LAA is officially a nonpartisan charity and can legally engage in voter registration activities as long as they're not geared toward benefitting a specific candidate or party.
• The group said it planned to use Lamon's $2 million to register and turn out "America First patriots."

• LAA executive director Matthew Braynard told Axios the group is in the process of reapplying for tax exemption. If it's granted, Lamon's donation to the group will be retroactively tax-deductible.
• "We take our nonpartisan obligation extremely seriously," Braynard said in an email. "We do not have any direct contact with Mr. Lamon or anyone working with him regarding our activities in AZ other than sending the reminders for payment to his accountant (it’s a monthly commitment)."

Between the lines: Efforts byBraynard's group to root out supposed voter fraud last year were cited in multiple failed lawsuits seeking to overturn election results in states carried by Joe Biden in his matchup with President Trump.

• The group has turned its attention this year to lobbying state and local governments to abandon contracts with voting machine companies at the center of Trump-backed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
• Lamon has pushed many of the same conspiracy theories.
• He joined Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward late last year in unsuccessfully suing to block Biden's victory in the state.
• Lamon's company donated $300,000 to the Arizona GOP in March, as the state party used a Republican-led "audit" of the state's 2020 election results to boost its fundraising substantially.

The big picture: LAA was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2017 but had its tax-exempt status revoked last year for a persistent failure to file annual reports with the IRS."

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More

Then, again here's one more challenger for Mark Kelly > BLAKE MASTERS who is backed by Big Money

Peter Thiel makes $10M bet on associate in Arizona Senate race

POLITICO |

"Libertarian tech titan Peter Thiel is spending $10 million to boost one of his closest allies in next year’s Arizona Senate race, a contest crucial to the fight for the majority.

NOTE: ". . .Those close to Thielsay he’s also looking at potentially supporting other 2022 contenders, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking reelection, and army veteran Joe Kent, who is waging a challenge to GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Trump impeachment backer, in Washington state's all-party primary next year."

The billionaire is coming out in support of Blake Masters, the chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and the president of the Thiel Foundation, who is expected to soon enter the race. Thiel, who co-founded PayPal, is bankrolling Saving Arizona PAC, a newly formed, pro-Masters super PAC, according to a person familiar with the investment. . .Thiel’s support could play a major role in Arizona by helping Masters possibly scare away would-be Republican opponents.

The list of potential candidates also includes state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, 

energy company executive Jim Lamon and Rep. Andy Biggs. The anti-tax Club for Growth has signaled it would likely back Biggs, the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, should he enter the contest. . .

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Reported earlier

Senate hopeful Jim Lamon ripped Capitol Hill spending, but his company got COVID-19 relief

Screengrab campaign video/YouTube

By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez |Arizona Republic

Republican Jim Lamon, who entered Arizona’s GOP U.S. Senate race this week, suggested Congress was spending excessively to deal with the pandemic’s economic fallout.

In an announcement video, Lamon lamented the power “to spend so much money, our grandchildren will struggle to pay off the debt” while an on-screen headline noted that Congress has already spent $4 trillion in COVID-19 relief spending. 

But records show his own company, Depcom Power, received $2.6 million in relief last year from the Paycheck Protection Program, intended by Congress to provide some economic reprieve for payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities. Lamon is the founder and chairman of the Scottsdale-based solar engineering and construction company.

The company was among the thousands of Arizona businesses that received federal aid.

Lamon did not respond Wednesday to The Arizona Republic’s attempts to reach him for comment

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The Rise of the Thielists

Has the Republican Party found its post-Trump ideology?

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

The New Yorker

". . .Most of us, these days, operate downstream from one billionaire or another, and the most interesting and destabilizing parts of the Republican Party are operating downstream from Thiel, whose net worth Bloomberg recently estimated at more than six billion dollars. . ."