And they're not alone:
Shame on the NBA...'Woke' NBA Bows to Communist Tyrants
The Hong Kong protests have inspired people around the world and especially here at home. Some Americans have even taken to social media to voice their support, including Daryl Morey, general manager of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, who tweeted what he probably thought was a harmless show of support for freedom and democracy. After all, who among us could take issue with such a quintessentially American statement as “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong”?
Freedom-loving Americans, meet the “woke” NBA and its communist-sympathizing speech suppressors.
Morey was pressured to retract his statement by the NBA brass, which is bending over backwards to keep from offending Chinese President Xi Jinping and his despotic comrades. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who hates Donald Trump but loves the Black Lives Matter movement, thoroughly disgraced himself by apologizing to the ChiComs while all the world was watching.
This is what happens when American companies sell out in the blind pursuit of profits: They side with monstrous regimes that harvest the organs of their political prisoners. And that’s just one of the current abuses. Don’t forget the tens of millions slaughtered by previous ChiCom regimes.
It’s easy to find the hypocrisy in the NBA’s supplication to China. Suddenly, the league has decided to crack down on certain kinds of political expression while at the same time encouraging its players’ support of domestic “progressive” causes.
Remember, this is the same NBA that pulled its 2017 All Star Game out of Charlotte, North Carolina, after that state’s Republican governor signed a biological-sex “bathroom bill” into law. (One wonders whether the NBA has any clue as to how homosexual and transgender people are treated in China.)
ESPN’s social-justice warriors have been equally craven, as revealed in a leaked internal memo forbidding its on-air “talent” from even discussing Hong Kong or Chinese politics. This is the same ESPN whose president, Jimmy Pitarro, last year explained that whenever there is an intersection of sports and politics, “ESPN is the place of record. Of course, when you tune into ESPN … we need to be covering those stories, if there is a connection to sports.”
But when a nascent democracy movement makes the news? Crickets.
Here’s more: A CNN news reporter who questioned an NBA player about the controversy was shut down this week; Nike’s anti-Betsy Ross battalions are pulling Houston Rockets products from the shelves of Chinese stores; and Apple just removed from its App Store an app that helped the people of Hong Kong monitor police movements.][Absolutely disgraceful]
Remember, this is all the result of a seven-word pro-democracy tweet. If only Daryl Morey had tweeted, “Fight for Freedom. Impeach Donald Trump.”
Jarrett Stepman writes at The Daily Signal, “Political dialogue is great unless the gravy train from an authoritarian state is cut off, it seems. Celebrating the Betsy Ross flag is beyond the pale, but we don’t dare in any way contradict the whims of a brutal, police state regime that puts Muslims in concentration camps, forces women to have abortions, and throws citizens in prison for exercising their God-given right to free speech, among other atrocities.”
As the editors at the Washington Examiner explain, “Terrified of losing out on potential future profits from 1.4 billion Chinese consumers, Hollywood and Silicon Valley have bowed again and again to Chinese censors.”
If the Chinese were only interested in silencing a basketball league or a sports network, we might not have much to worry about, but their influence is growing more pervasive. They’re practically calling the shots in Hollywood and have already established nearly 90 Confucius Institutes in colleges and universities across America to indoctrinate our debt-ridden students with Chinese propaganda.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” said Thomas Paine. Sadly, the NBA and many other American entities have already sold theirs. Perhaps we American consumers should begin to make buying decisions that reflect our displeasure.
Shame on Apple...
Shame on any American business, organization or individual that turns their back on basic American values to appease tyrants in the pursuit of financial enrichment...
We already have a President pursuing this cowardly and feckless course; we don't need any others...
ETA:
More shame:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sk ... s-protestsNBA Fans Supporting Hong Kong Protests Are Getting Kicked Out Of Games And Their Signs Confiscated
"I don't see how it was any more or less disruptive than an average NBA fan holding up a sign and screaming at the players and those people don't get kicked out."[Excellent point]
Several fans were escorted out of NBA preseason games this week after holding up signs and voicing support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong as the league grapples with the backlash over its statements in support of China.
At least three fans at games in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, reported being removed from the arenas, while others said officials confiscated their "Free Hong Kong" signs.
Patrick Hedger, 29, of Arlington, Virginia, told BuzzFeed News security officials at the Washington Wizards game asked him to leave Capital One Arena Wednesday night after he held up a sign and yelled "Free Hong Kong" inside the arena.
Hedger, who lived temporarily in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory in 2002 and 2011, said the ongoing protests — sparked by a bill that would have allowed extraditions to China — have been "breaking my heart."
After the NBA issued a statement saying that comments by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey, who voiced support for the protesters in a now-deleted tweet, "deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China," Hedger said he felt compelled to act.
On Monday, he stood outside Capital One Arena carrying a sign denouncing the league.
When he learned that a Chinese team, the Guangzhou Loong Lions, would be playing the Wizards on Wednesday, he decided to take his protest into the arena.
During the Chinese National Anthem, Hedger stood silently in the stands, holding up his sign. Then as the arena grew quiet again he began to chant "Free Hong Kong."
Soon after, a member of the arena's security team approached him and asked him to leave.
"They said you need to put your sign down or leave," Hedger recalled, adding that security escorted him out of the arena. "I would have been kicked out if I had continued to hold my sign."
On Tuesday, Sam Wachs, 33, told CNN he and his wife were removed from the Philadelphia 76ers game at the Wells Fargo Center, also against the Guangzhou team, after he held up a sign and chanted "Free Hong Kong."
"They told me 'no politics'," Wachs said. "I asked why and they told me not to give them a hard time. A little after the signs were taken away, I stood in my seat and chanted "Free Hong Kong" until security escorted us out."
Other fans at Wednesday's Wizards game reported having their signs confiscated in the arena.
