News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 11, 2019: A bit of inside baseball a good analogy here …
I do one episode a week, so I am always looking for good story material for the “next” episode” all week and I often begin writing and headlining more than one possibility. This week I had FIVE very powerful possibilities …
I hated to have to make a choice, but I did: BASKETBALL!
Why? Because this is WAR by other means! And because a single innocuous tweet of a few words becomes MAJOR news globally!
This is just too good not to use this episode. Sorry Joe Biden, Adam Schiff.
This episode is all about the response of the repressive Chinese elite, led by the corrupt, dangerous demagogue, the so-called President of the People’s NOT Republic of China, Xi Jinping, the heir apparent to the likes of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
Here is an alternate description of Xi in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal…
“Then there’s a third step, still more delicate and dangerous: The American intelligence community should gather information on the corruption in the Xi family that has allowed it to amass a huge fortune — with a hint that if China undertakes a brutal crackdown of Hong Kong or an assault on Taiwan, this information will slip out. This is what Xi fears most, and we shouldn’t pass up that leverage.”
I wasted enough ink on this thug, but it was necessary to frame this episode.
This episode is about China, the NBA and most of all BROOKLYN!
All of this as a result of a modest brief tweet by the General Manager of the NBA Houston Rockets that would have gone completely unnoticed EXCEPT for how scary and repressive the so-called government of China is. So, some minor figure writing something positive about the people of Hong Kong demanding basic human rights is SLAMMED by Xi and his thugs.
What that tweet has become now is one of the most important in history. I am going to place it above any of Trump’s endless tweets, because this NBA tweet exposes so many basic issues, we are fools if we ignore.
The Chinese “leadership” (sic) as everyone should know by now DEMANDED that Daryl Morey apologize and beg for forgiveness for making such a statement. Unfortunately, he quickly removed the tweet, but he did not get on his knees and beg the Chinese repressors forgiveness.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver of course tried to play both sides. He could not endorse the repressive Chinese regime which Xi wanted him to do but neither did he stand up for freedom and human rights BECAUSE the NBA is very big business in China $$$. In fact, it is the NBA’s biggest cash machine outside of the United States. And growing huge.
And of course, HYPOCRISY kicked in Big Time.
LeBron James and all the other STARS of the NBA making mega-bucks, who have no problem speaking up for “what they believe in” here in the United States, ALL FELL SILENT about Chines repression.
Not good for their BUSINESS interests $$$$ in China. What happened is the Chinese GOONS won as they successfully intimidated Americans and American businesses once again because nothing is more important than $$$$$.
When will I finally get to BROOKLYN? The headline for this episode is … CHINA GET OUT OF BROOKLYN! What does that even mean?
It means that the ONLY NBA team not owned by very wealthy Americans is the Brooklyn Nets, owned by CHINESE oligarch Uncle Joe Tsai.
This from a WSJ article this week …. (“Tsai) said he views his job as cultural translator: explaining to the Chinese and American sides why each other is so angry. “I’ve communicated with a bunch of people on both sides and my role is to help everyone understand the other side’s perspective.”
What other side Joe? The REPRESSIVE Chinese regime side, YOUR side? The Chinese company Alibaba that made Tsai a billionaire who easily paid more to buy the Brooklyn Nets than any team in NBA history at a grossly inflated value, where his company is an active partner with Xi’s Communist Party.
I am a life-long Brooklynite. I attended the very first NBA game ever in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Nets first exhibition game. I attended the Nets first regular season game in Brooklyn. I have been to many Brooklyn Nets games sitting up in the rafters with the other POOR people from Brooklyn overjoyed when I found a ticket up there online for just $5 or $10.
NO MORE … Brooklyn must not be a tool of Chinese REPRESSION.
I will NOT attend another Nets game until they are FREE again.
It may be wishful thinking on my part that others will demand that the NBA to force this Chinese oligarch to sell the Nets and make it an AMERICAN team. Shame on those that allow Brooklyn to be occupied by China.
(This series dedicated in honor of the late Liu Xiaobo & Jamal Khashoggi)
