I have previously written about the disgraceful way that the NBA has kowtowed to the Chinese government after a single team manager sent a harmless expression of personal support for the protesters in Hong Kong. The cringing subservience of the NBA was on display in Japan when CNN’s Christina Macfarlane asked an obvious and reasonable questions at a press conference about whether players felt that the NBA response had sent a clear message not to criticize China’s human rights violations. In other words, do they feel censored on social issues? The NBA’s response was fast and clear: they took away MacFarlane’s microphone. They then announced that there would be no press conferences during the China trip. Problem solved.
Here is Macfarlane’s question which was not just poignant but obvious: “The NBA has always been a league that prides itself on its players and coaches being able to speak out openly about political and social affairs. I just wonder after the events of this week, and the fallout we’ve seen, whether you would both feel differently about speaking out in that way in the future?”
You can then hear an NBA staffer remove her mike as Macfarlane objects “It’s a legitimate question. This is an event that has happened this week.”
The most pathetic thing about the NBA’s shameless pandering to the Chinese is its effort to pretend that it is not shamelessly pandering to the Chinese.
With one exception and that is in football the players are thinking about new contracts. Sounds like the Association is where the buck slops. Yes the letter change is intentional.
Ah, for the days before electronics when orators needed to project and women, other than opera stars, knew their place.
David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me thirty-eight citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after forty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on.David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me thirty-eight citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after forty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – the first person to sign a $1 million a year contract in the film industry was one of those pesky women, Mary Pickford. She will later found, with her husband, Famous Players.
Well, I think she got her answer on where the NBA stands on censorship.
Actions speak louder than words.
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
– Vladimir Ilich Lenin
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Americans sold the rope to communists in America – liberals, progressives, socialists and democrats – and America was hanged by those communists long ago.
The entire communistic American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, rent control, social services, forced busing, minimum wage, utility subsidies, WIC, TANF, HAMP, HARP, IRS, Dept.’s of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
Congress has no power to tax for central planning, control of the means of production (i.e. regulation), redistribution of wealth or social engineering. Article 1, Section 8 provides Congress the enumerated power to tax only for “…general Welfare…” and to regulate only “…money…” and “…commerce among the several States,…” while the absolute right to private property restricts government from possessing or disposing of private property by any method or in any form, eminent domain notwithstanding.
Does anyone doubt that the brutal Chinese communist dictatorship hasn’t rolled up the protesters in Hong Kong with tank treads and machine guns because they’re in a frenzy of rope-buying from the greedy capitalists (i.e. free enterprisers)?
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“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.”
– Thomas Jefferson
How many of those NBA players are promoting thier “signature sneakers” made in China, in sweatshops, by children, being paid nearly nothing, while the “signature” shoes sell for over $150 a pair here in U.S.? They take a knee and protest the Anthem, the flag, America and Trump, but keep their mouths shut when it comes to China’s human rights abuses? They are hypocritical sellouts.
“No soup for you!”
Awwww.. the Red Chinese. They’re just precious is what they are.
What we’ve been learning in recent years is that American business is bifurcated into two sets:
1. General business of all shapes and sizes where people are employed in various capacities to support themselves.
2. The media-entertainment-casino banking-tech mogul-universityhealthservices-BigLaw-executivesdrawnfromtheIvyLeague sector, which is the enemy of the rest of the population, continually enforcing the inane norms of the teacher’s colleges and professional race hustlers on everyone they can manage to threaten when they’re not doing dishonorable things like the business under discussion.
The question is, is the legal system so corrupted that cleansing the common life of these people can be accomplished with the law. If it cannot, this will not end well.
China has been buying up Hollywood for years. Remember the movie The Martian with Matt Damon? He played a US astronaut stranded on Mars. Who rescued him? Not NASA. One guess who saved the day for NASA and America.
Trump warned about China years ago. Now he’s taking them head on. And the Democrats are fighting him every step of the way.
I have an ethical dilemma. Normally, I would not allow CNN a mike since they are the Corrupt News Network, how this reporter asked a really good question. What do I do? What do I do?
Boycott the NBA. I am already trying to track down all entities I do business with that have business with China and am boycotting their products.
Paul, I get the sense this China behavior is a precursor to them going Rambo in Hong Kong.
nick spinelli – I did hear they were about to cut the internet to Hong Kong. That would allow them to do what they wanted with the demonstrators. However, I think they may be able to get around it.
They’re massaging that situation carefully.
If somebody was swinging rebar at cops in America and got popped, nobody would care at all. Molotov cocktails? know what an MRAP is? The American cops are decent, but, they wouldnt have taken half the crud that the Hong Kong troublemakers have thrown at their cops. They’ve been very restrained. The protesters- not restrained….. Vandalism, arson, its’ really out of hand. I had a lot of sympathy in the beginning but I’ve been steadily losing it as they act badly.
Kurtz, have you been to Hong Kong? Have you been to mainland China? If you were from Hong Kong would you want to give up what you have to live under mainland China type rule?
No. I know a lot of Chinese from all over, very well. But I’m not as well traveled as you.
I am sympathetic to their desire not to be subject to mainland courts which are very corrupt.
Nonetheless, they don’t need to attack police, commit arson, vandalize govenment buildings. That’s counterproductive.
There is zero chance the US is going to support an insurgency in Hong Kong. Sneaky CIA spook inspired attempts to do a color revolution will fail. They are trying to provoke a Tianenmen situation but probably the Chicoms understand that which is why they are restrained. Overall, the Hong Kong people are in a bad situation, which I am sympathetic to just as much as the people of Taiwan, but given international relations and treaties, Hong Kong is definitely part of the PRC, right now, two countries one system or not. And Taiwan is more or less in a similar diplomatic situation.
Likewise Tibet and Xinjiang are under adverse treatment by the PRC of which they are a part, but, we can’t solve that problem either.
I favor a successful trade war with China– not a hot war. You know they can nuke us, right?
I have a lot of sympathy for the people of Hong Kong. The regime in China is getting worse and that was predicted a long time ago noting that when the new breed of technocrats came in there would be repression which is exactly what happened. Hong Kong just doesn’t fit into the Chinese model and if they are forced in one cannot predict what will happen. Just look at the round up of the Muslim population in China or the Tibetans or any other group.
Mr Kurtz,
Do you think the arson and attacks are a smear campaign at all against the legitimate protesters to steer attention away from their concerns and toward violence to discredit them?
I have not watched or read about the situation to get a good feel for what is going on.
one more thing. as bad as many things are about the PRC, there are some things which are not so bad. even good. especially if you are a Chinese person.
there are some things which are actually better about the PRC than the US, believe it or not. things that matter to ordinary every day people more so than professors and newspapermen. I won’t elaborate but TAXES is a good first place to start your investigation if you want to know. The tax burden of a PRC citizen compared to some poor schmuck who lives in Chicago? HUUUGE difference.
And ya know, CHICAGO IS A ONE PARTY STATE TOO. So much for voting there.
here’s the thing. A lot of the “freedoms” we are supposed to be worrying about all the time, ACTUALLY DON’T MATTER MUCH TO REGULAR PEOPLE. Like our vaunted freedom of the press to slander public officials on a daily basis and get away with it. That doesn’t hurt John Q Public and it doesn’t help him either. It’s just what the NYT keeps telling us is so very important.
Finally, back to this core point. If you are a PRC Chinese, you know at least that the government is invested in your ethnic identity as a core uniting factor for the nation-state.
In America, we are told, its a “Creedal nation,” and any form of ethnic pride from people not on the list of “the oppressed” is racism etc etc etc.
In America, there is no common culture and shared blood and all that. If I even SAY that here, people will say oh blut und boden you must be a neonzi! But guess what? In china, shared culture and ancestry forms a cherished national bond of pride and rightly so. They’re a proud people and for good reason.
See, I am not Chinese, but excuse me if I can admire a system different from our own. That’s perhaps the true diversity — can you see how the common man lives on the other side of the world and what pleases him– and not just pretend we are all exactly the same worldwide?
Kurtz, you can admire the Chinese as much as you wish and I shared some of that admiration in the not distant past, but I see China diverging from the way it was just a few years ago. Not that it wasn’t destined to do so since that was the prediction of the people I know that study China.
I’m not sure of the logic of those that may have the biggest part in the Hong Kong “rebellion”, but in the back of my mind I think of history. What happened with the Chinese in Vietnam being the first thing to come to my mind.
Of course, he’s right and just in the Nick of time!
A man of few words can be dangerous; lethal.
You’re a good man, Paul C.
Even more disturbing, IMO, is American citizens @ NBA arenas being evicted for saying “Free Hong Kong” and “Free Tibet.”
I wonder if there are transgender bathrooms in China?
no, and the PRC does not allow gay marriage either. Taiwan does, recently
Gay marriage is an oxymoronic contradiction in terms. Mary and Mother Mary are the genesis of the word marriage. Mater and Mater Dei are mother and Mother of God. Mary, Mother Mary, Mater and marriage are institutions of MOTHERHOOD. Motherhood produces babies. Homosexuals cannot produce babies, cannot engage in motherhood and cannot engage in marriage. Homosexuals are literally perversions and freaks of nature. They cannot be made normal by allowing them to participate in activities and institutions of normal people. Homosexuals may enter into contracts of some sort of personal nature. Try to stay coherent and rational. Marriage = Motherhood = Making Babies. Homosexuals cannot do that. Get it?
Well, I think this whole thing is racisssst! Because, if it was white college-age white kids getting triggered, we would all be on their side. But, no! The Chinese are Asian and People of Color, so once again they are being oppressed! Why can’t a whole nation get triggered??? Why can’t a whole nation have its own “safe space.’??? Plus, this was hate speech, so the white lady does not have any right to engage in it!
That is the way the ball bounces!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
NBA better obey. Happy 70th anniversary. China military parade 10/1/2019
That was funded by American credit card debt to pay for all the sh!t that now forms mountains in our garbage dumps.
Yep. Thank you Clinton, thank you GW Bush.
How about we stop feeding the dragon!
That’s what Trump is trying to do.
First of all, I have to admit that I have despised the NBA for decades. So I dont’ really care what these swine do one way or another. It actually pleases me to see them grovel, which has unmasked their insincerity.
Now, normally I like to criticize Chicoms but here I have to admire the cunning and brilliant brand management by XI Jinpeng. Masterful strategy with this humiliating move forced on Silver. “Silver” is a synonym for money in many languages (l’argent) and it couldnt be more fitting.
The message is NOT JUST To the NBA.
The message is NOT JUST to the Hong Kong protesters.
The message is to AMERICAN BUSINESS AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. And all foes and rivals of the PRC and CCP everywhere.
Not specifically about us, but about them. It’s about China. Its a message of Chinese Communist party unity and strength as Chinese leadership against all the laowei, all the domineering global business interests, including but not just the NBA
They’re showing the NBA that they don’t need the “panem et circenses” they offer.
They’re showing they value “Face” more than money. FACE. Xi gets HUGE FACE from this. HUGE
That’s a message of power, coming down straight from Xi.
Of course we as Americans don’t care but we should understand it. They don’t share our values of freedom and diversity and all that jive.
They value NATION and they value STRENGTH they value UNITY.
Call them fascists if you want– the Hong Konger protesters are calling them that.
But while the NFL spits on American flag and anthem by letting its rich players cop a squat,—NOBODY is showing that disrespect to China.
Will the nation be run by leadership that is handpicked by business, or by the people?
You know what communism means in China. It means one thing. The Chinese will pick the leader not rich foreign devils.
They don’t care what we think about free speech or any of that jive. That is our fantasy, not theirs,. That’s how they think. And our PROBLEM, not theirs. That’s how they see all our talk about freedom.
In America, permit me if I suggest that rich foreign devils are trying to pick our leaders all the time too.
And I don’t mean some pikers from Ukraine chipping in a few thousand either. Here’s how the pros get their graft
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-foundation/clintons-charity-confirms-qatars-1-million-gift-while-she-was-at-state-dept-idUSKBN12Z2SL
Not picking on Hillary. This has been an issue with America from Day one, 1776, which is to say, plutocratic interests everywhere, here and abroad, wielding enormous influence over the state. Libertarians can pretend that is wonderful if they like. I’m past that notion, myself. To me I admire FDR more now than i ever did.
“CNN’s Christina Macfarlane asked an obvious and reasonable questions at a press conference about whether players felt that the NBA response had sent a clear message not to criticize China’s human rights violations”
Letting China into the WTO sent a clear message that China’s human rights violations were less important than the almighty dollar.
Same for the Beijing Olympics.
I’m not seeing what’s wrong with buying or selling from someone. The problem here is a corporation acting as an enforcer for a flagitious foreign government. Not sure there’s a regulatory solution to this problem. It would be agreeable if the market’s reaction cost the enforcers of these policies their careers.
TIA,
There isn’t anything wrong with buying from or selling to someone, per se. I think capitalism is great. Corporatism is a whole ‘nother issue.
Your values are intertwined in purchases and in selling. You value what you pay for and do not value as much what you sell.
What is it that you value when you purchase something? It is not just the item, but other things, too. I might value the relationship with the seller. I might value how an item is made and by whom. Are items made in such a way that reflects your values? That can be at several levels–workmanship, fair pay, safe working conditions, sustainably-raised, humane, non-toxic, etc etc. Does the purchase support corruption or abuse?
People should consider what they value when they buy and sell. What do we value (or not) when we buy shoes and other schtuff Made in China?
What is our hierarchy of values? Are civil liberties near the top or are material goods?
Silver is the same guy who violated civil rights of former Clippers owner by forcing sale based on private conversation taped without consent. Similar sequence of events occurred with Atlanta franchise. Silver acted like authoritarian just like Chinese government. He seems to encourage resistance to our government and even goes so far as to stay silent when LeBron James refers to U.S. president as a bum. Also, allows sour-pus San Antonio coach to excoriate U.S. president. Silver does not protect the civil rights of the owners he is purporting to represent, cow-tows to players and coaches who blast U.S. president, and now muzzles all of NBA in the name of $$$. Silver is not principalled, he is an authoritarian lefty prik.
The woke NBA needs to wake up and figure out who they are and what they stand for. When suddenly the Chinese steal the franchise and the NBA becomes the CBA will the NBA excuse be Neutered By Accident?
Sadly, Allan, I would hazard to rephrase your statement more broadly:
The United States needs to wake up and figure out who they are and what they stand for. When suddenly the Chinese steal the nation and the USA becomes the CSA will the USA be the Utter Subservient A**-holes?
Prairie, thank you for expanding the point to a logical conclusion the left promotes with its behavior. There are other logical conclusions and Trump is advocating one of them so the USA remains the USA.
Trump 2020
We used to think that the interconnections forged in trade would make us all better humans but what we now see is that rather than spreading the better angels it puts more and more power into the hands of dictators. “American” companies don’t care about American values, if they ever did, they care about money. As a result, censorship by China is OK by them!
Love watching Commissioner (and Nosferatu impersonator) David Silver squirm trying to navigate between Chinese human rights abuses and feigned American patriotism. Also enjoying the utter hypocrisy of coaches Curr and Popabeeatch who see, speak and hear no evil unless it’s about Trump. Let ‘em “get woke and go broke” like so many anti- American institutions like the UN, leftist colleges, faux news organizations and the list goes on.