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[shawn-d-freud]

China's new trade deal is bad for the US but not as bad as you heard

China's new trade deal should be a wake up call for Americans

The RCEP is not another salvo in the US-China trade war – but it should be a wake up call to Washington. Last month fifteen countries signed what could be the biggest trade deal in history. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) covers a third of the world’s population and a corresponding third of the global economy. In many ways, the RCEP is historic: the first trade deal…

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[shawn-d-freud]

The 20th century ended in 2020

The 20th century ended in 2020. this year we ended an amazing run of progress at every social ill. We should keep perspective of how far we've come lest we allow 2020 to ruin what we've accomplished.

Decades of declining poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, and more were all reversed this year. The natural state of humanity is illiterate poverty and for most of human history, for well over 90% of people, everywhere on the planet, this was the case. Until very, very recently most people around the world went to sleep hungry, most of their children died early, and they had little chance to…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Ted Cruz is wrong about Hong Kong but right about Chinese spies

Ted Cruz is wrong about Hong Kong and should have voted to protect protesters. He's still right about Chinese spies.

The unfortunate truth that far too few people want to acknowledge is that Hong Kong is part of China. The People’s Republic of China. The five stars have flown over the territory for over twenty years and even though Beijing didn’t really keep their end of the bargain, the physical fact is that Hong Kong is under the legal and political authority of China. This is as true and as obvious as saying…

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[shawn-d-freud]

A new book

An excerpt from my new book - The battle had exhausted both of them. They sat around a fire stoked by a flaming arrow lodged in the chest of a fallen hoplite, now under a pile of corpses popping and squirming unnaturally in the flames.

Hi friends, a long time ago I wrote a book, An Honest Man. Which is now for sale.

I published after almost ten years because, well why not? Expect more fiction from me.

Why yes, it is also available on Amazon (in most countries), Barnes & Noble, and other retailers soon.

Anyway, here’s the prologue of my first book, An Honest Man. On sale now.

AN HONEST MAN

Prologue

One may…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Trump lost the Republican vote

Trump lost the Republican vote. The party he was trying to remake in his image fought back.

The election is over. Votes are still being counted but President Trump has a significant deficit that it seems increasingly unlikely he will be able to overcome. Very soon we will be speaking about President-elect Biden. Who has Republicans to thank for giving him this victory it seems.

Donald Trump again spoiled predictions by bringing what was supposed to be a fairly easy Democratic-win…

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[shawn-d-freud]

The election won't end next week.

The election won’t end next week.

Even if we know who won on election night, everyone will immediately start talking about the midterms and 2024

The 2020 election is almost over. It’s been two years since Bernie Sanders and others declared their candidacy. Two years of constant campaigning. Although, if we’re honest, the campaign against Donald Trump began the moment Hillary Clinton conceded the election to him.

However,…

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[shawn-d-freud]

In praise of spite

In praise of spite

Spite plays a key role in political life, and that can be good thing, too.

I have asked many Americans, in person and online, why they voted for or support(ed) Donald Trump. More than once I got nearly the exact same response: ‘Fuck you, that’s why.’ Because irritating me and who I represent, an educated elite that is both arrogant and aloof, is a good enough reason to cast a vote for the most…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Who I'm voting for - probably

Who I'm voting for - probably. The veracity of any author, living or dead, is not -- and cannot be -- contingent upon their objectivity but knowing their motivations and prejudices are of undoubted use in catching the flagrant liars and frauds.

To better understand what you read, understand who is writing it.

For every presidential election since 2004 the libertarian Reason Magazine has conducted a voluntary survey of and then published the votesor intended votes of their journalists and staff. It should come as no surprise that they lean towards the Libertarian candidate, Jo Jorgensen, but it may be of interest to know that almost…

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[shawn-d-freud]

The revolution will be branded

Perhaps I'd been cooped up in my rural hideaway for too long but Washington's pavements were empty of people only to be still full of tension.

Thoughts and pictures from a short summer trip to Washington, DC.

I was in the capital in June. [I wrote this at the time but felt like I didn’t have anything all that insightful or interesting to say. Still feel that way really but am publishing it anyway as the pictures may be of interest to some people, so I’ll leave it unedited from this point on.] With all the museums and public…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Voters are Getting Partisan Postcards from Complete Strangers

Thousands of Americans are writing to complete strangers encouraging them to vote

Thousands of volunteers are writing random people on behalf of political campaigns

My neighbors got a postcard in the mail last week. This is not unusual. Your Vote Matters!it proclaims on the front, atop an American flag design. Also not unusual in October of presidential election years. What is strange is that the postcard was handwritten, by a complete stranger, who mailed it from the other…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Do Americans vote too much? America's omnibus ballot may be lowering turnout.

Do Americans vote too much? Americans are asked to vote far more than other developed democracies – sometimes more than twice a year and often multiple years in a row – and this may be exhausting voters.

America doesn’t really have low turnout; Americans actually are asked to vote too much-and this hurts our democracy

Contrary to what nearly every observer, and participant, of American elections says, America doesn’t really have low voter turnout. It does have relatively low voter registration and low institutional trust at the moment. We may be able to fix that by asking Americans to vote…

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[shawn-d-freud]

2047 came early to Hong Kong - which should surprise nobody

2047 came early to Hong Kong - which should surprise nobody. The protests were a great excuse for China to move early. And things could have been worse.

The new National Security Law over Hong Kong was a predictable, and relatively tame, response to a year of protests

On January 1st of 1997, Hong Kong was a Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Seven months later, it was a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The political handover from the UK to China was a long time coming, having been agreed to in 1898.…

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[shawn-d-freud]

There is no police reform without police union reform

That police who break the law are held to a wildly different standard than normal civilians is not a political position - it is a political fact. And police unions are at the heart of it.

Police unions have more power than police chiefs and keep bad cops on the streets. This has to change.

America’s police forces are suffering from an image problem at the moment. Their public face is so battered that calls to defund or abolish the police are not fringe elements, they’re openly discussed by lawmakers. Law enforcement in the US is widely seen as violent and unaccountable,…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Nobody knows anything: My COVID quarantine

"Call us in two weeks for what to do because we have no idea what our advice will be in two weeks." This is what my doctor said about my COVID quarantine. We really, really screwed this up.

As I prepare to exit self-isolation, it appears that we know even less about the coronavirus than when I started quarantine two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I tested positive for COVID-19. I am in quarantine on the second floor of my house right now.

I went to the emergency room two Wednesday’s ago for what seems to have turned out to be completely unrelated symptoms.

Several days prior I…

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[shawn-d-freud]

Don't believe China's accusations of racism

Don’t believe China’s accusations of racism

China’s belligerent invective belies its repeated and hypocritical claims of offense

In January, a Danish newspaper printed a cartoon about the COVID-19 epidemic – a Chinese flag with virus icons where the stars should be. China didn’t find it amusing. The Chinese embassy in Denmark demanded an apology, stating flatly that the cartoon “is an insult to China and hurts the feelings of the…

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[shawn-d-freud]

What is happening in North Korea?

"What is happening in North Korea" is a question that is always being asked because it is always difficult to answer. What do we know about Kim Jong Un's health and the state of the corona virus in North Korea?

Questions about the extent of the COVID-19 epidemic there are now taking second-stage to rumors about the health of Kim Jong-un.

Every country in the world right now is concerned what every other country is doing about COVID-19. For the last two months, North Korea has claimed zero casesin their country, to the incredulity of most observers. But with such a fast-spreading disease, the world is…

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[shawn-d-freud]

How the Government Creates Criminals

Congress has decided it’s okay to turn 90 percent of lower-class young smokers into criminals in the slim hope that 5 percent of them will quit.

(Originally published Dec. 22, 2019) There are criminals and there are criminals. Philosophers and theologians and social workers theorize about their origins; what makes a criminal? Are they all the same? Are some people just born larcenous and violent? Are they products of a hard world, reacting to circumstances beyond their control in the only way they can assert control? Nature or nurture;…

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