“We need more international leaders, presidents, to speak openly & plainly against Hong Kong government’s actions.”

Anyone else (still) failing to give a care about spineless NBA players and teams this year?

“The People’s Republic of China is the largest, most powerful and arguably most brutal totalitarian state in the world. It denies basic human rights to all of its nearly 1.4 billion citizens. There is no freedom of speech, thought, assembly, religion, movement or any semblance of political liberty in China. Under Xi Jinping, “president for life,” the Communist Party of China has built the most technologically sophisticated repression machine the world has ever seen. In Xinjiang, in Western China, the government is using technology to mount a cultural genocide against the Muslim Uighur minority that is even more total than the one it carried out in Tibet. Human rights experts say that more than a million people are being held in detention camps in Xinjiang, two million more are in forced “re-education,” and everyone else is invasively surveilled via ubiquitous cameras, artificial intelligence and other high-tech means.

None of this is a secret.” – Farhad Manjoo, Dealing With China Isn’t Worth the Moral Cost

Don’t forget actual genocide, mass rapes, torture, looting, sacking of libraries, daily supervision of citizens (gatherings if to large, language like ‘freedom,’ photos of Dalai Lama are all illegal).

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How my love affair with LeBron came to an end.

MORE THAN AN ATHLETE
*unless it affects my $$$ in which case imma shut up and dribble

I’ve looked up to LeBron for years.

On the court, he passes first, making other players better. Off the court, unlike 99% of his peers, he dares to criticize President Trump, stand up for minorities and funds an entire school for disadvantaged children. More than an Athlete, he likes to say. He executive produced “Shut up and Dribble,” an eloquent rebuttal to a conservative on-air personality’s cold exhortation to him and others to just do what they’re told, evoking racist tones right outta the days of slavery.

But, this week, he not only failed to speak up for the Hong Kong protestors, but actually talked down to Daryl Morey, the Rockets’ executive who dared to tweet in support of the movement against Chinese violence and oppression.

Saying in one breath that Morey was “misinformed,” and in the next that he himself was not informed enough to speak to the issue (you know: democracy vs. dictatorship), LeBron landed firmly on the side of greed (he’s already vastly wealthy and powerful) vs. liberty.

It doesn’t get any more un-American. Contrast his cowardice with Colin Kaepernick‘s (Nike, too, has failed to dare to speak up. Here’s a list of 25 other cowardly companies worth boycotting). 

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

A few intelligent comments via Reddit: 

• • Billion dollar lifetime Nike deal

  • 269 million $ earnings from NBA contracts

  • sponsorship deals with Sprite and State Farm and I’m sure a ton of other companies

  • HBO show, Uninterrupted Network, investments in stuff Iike Blaze Pizza, made 30 mil when Beats sold to Apple, star of Space Jam 2

All these revenue streams but losing out on the China $ is too scary for him. Becoming a billionaire means more to him than speaking up for human rights. The Lebron- Ali comps end here.

He’s done a lot of good charity work in the US and this doesn’t take that away, but he’s not an activist, he’s just another rich guy worried about his place among the 1%

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