My wife and I have seen every South Park episode probably 7-10 times. We watch it every night before bed. If you watch an episode and pull up the news from the era of the episode, South Park is always on the pulse. Like scary. Last summer they were given some huge Hollywood award. And they were given the award at the news. Well the whole ceremony everyone bashed Trump. Matt and Trey walk out, thank everyone for the award and proclaim “We are Republicans”. Omg. Silence. Mic drop moment. It was amazing. As far as this new Chinese episode, we had our 17 year old watch it last night and explained how the NBA stars are training right down the road from where China harvests organs from concentration camps.
Meanwhile, LeBron hasn't said shit since arriving in China. I had a quick conversation with a mid level executive at Nike yesterday on some other business. I asked how things were going internally for him. His response was they were praying no players said anything at all and that they were hoping for something else to take over the news cycle before anyone opened their mouth one way or the other as it's a no-win for them.
I believe their press conference was canceled so that helped the players a little bit. Now the question seems to be whether or not the games will be canceled. Popovich seemed to be over the moon with how Silver has handled this so far. Funny stuff.
I'm wondering if Morey doesn't end up resigning at this point. NBA doesn't have to be the side that officially makes the call and can claim they support him in whatever decision he wants to make. China still shows they can flex their muscles whenever they want to.
That would be sad. If I were Morey, I certainly wouldn't do that but who knows what kind of pressure he is getting. Judging by his immediate backtracking, I don't think he has strong convictions about what he tweeted. I think he is protected for a while though. No way he gets fired until this is all blown over and people forget about it. The NBA would look worse than they already do.
I heard that 500 million Chinese watch NBA games. Hard to believe but that's what the TV said. In any case, if true, wouldn't NBA suddenly going black raise a lot of questions among the peasants? Remember when they switched off a NFL game to show Heidi many moons ago? You could hear the outrage for miles and miles. Seems to me that the Chinese overlords would want to keep the hoards passive, not stir them up. I think the one thing the ChiCom's fear more than the US is the under class....
The NBA won't fire him. They really can't as the domestic backlash would be too great. That's why I think he may ultimately "resign". There are several billion dollars on the line, and judging by the response of the league and it's players, they are all keenly aware of it. I don't agree that he should for one second, but it's going to be really interesting to see if the NBA has the balls to stand up to that kind of revenue loss.
An NBA owner with a unique perspective. Not one I agree with but it least it is coming from someone with way more experience in China than any of us: Open letter to all NBA fans from Joe Tsai (New Jersey Nets "Governor" and founder of AliBaba) https://www.facebook.com/100001583307192/posts/2653378931391524?sfns=mo
Best part is I believe they are liberals. However they rip on everyone. It is not about balls it is about morals and that the NBA lacks
"Chinese citizens stand united when it comes to the territorial integrity of China and the country’s sovereignty over her homeland. This issue is non-negotiable." Wow, respecting sovereignty. How novel.
So what about the Hong Konger's desire for freedom? How does that stack up against Tsai's opinions? Is it just supposed to be ignored? Is no one allowed to have an alternate view where freedom and liberty are prized societal goals? More hogwash trying to obfuscate the real issue. Counter point....Do you think 1+ billion Chinese peasants might just look at Hong Kong and say "I want some of that too!" and hence the ruling class has put the kibosh on any dissenting opinions.
I think this is precisely what is happening and also why they are framing it as a separatist movement and riots. One of the HK protesters demands was for the government to quit referring to their protests as riots. It is all about shaping public opinion. I have been following the HK situation as well as I can, but I don't think a lot of this country has any idea what is going on there. This event may very well serve to educate more people in the US and cause them to actually care where they didn't before, at least I hope it does.
If it won’t further the “Impeach Trump” movement, it won’t even move the news needle to maybe open more eyes round these parts.
No. They’re republicans. It was really funny how they announced it at an awards ceremony last year that dogged trump the whole time and they came out for their big award at the end and just told the crowd they were Republicans. Crowd went silent. I cried a little I was laughing so hard.
This is not directed at you, but it’s frustrating at minimum that in our culture that “Republican” and “liberal” are mutually exclusive. It’s seems very unAmerican to me.
And you're sure they didn't say that just to get the reaction they got? I don't know how someone who claims to have seen every episode of South Park take that at face value without wondering. It sounds exactly like something that would do if they actually are not Republicans.
