A recent survey conducted by the Victims of Communism and polled by YouGov, a research and data firm, found that 70% of millennials are likely to vote socialist and that one in three millennials saw communism as &#8220;favorable.&#8221;
Let examine this tragic vision in light of the Fraser Institute&#8217;s recently released annual study &#8220;Economic Freedom of the World,&#8221; prepared by Professors James Gwartney, Florida State University; Robert A. Lawson and Ryan Murphy of Southern Methodist University; and Joshua Hall, West Virginia University, in cooperation with the Economic Freedom Network.
Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their lead as the world&#8217;s most economically free countries — although China&#8217;s heavy hand threatens Hong Kong&#8217;s top ranking. Rounding out the top 10 are New Zealand, Switzerland, the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Mauritius. By the way, after having fallen to 16th in 2016, the U.S. has staged a comeback to being in the top five economically free countries in the world.
What statistics go into the Fraser Institute&#8217;s calculation of economic freedom? The report measures the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions by analyzing the policies and institutions of 162 countries and territories. These include regulation, freedom to trade internationally, size of government, sound legal system, private property rights and government spending and taxation.
Fraser Institute scholar Fred McMahon says, &#8220;Where people are free to pursue their own opportunities and make their own choices, they lead more prosperous, happier and healthier lives.&#8221; The evidence for his assessment is: Countries in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $36,770 in 2017 compared with $6,140 for bottom quartile countries. Poverty rates are lower. In the top quartile, 1.8% of the population experienced extreme poverty ($1.90 a day) compared with 27.2% in the lowest quartile. Life expectancy is 79.5 years in the top quartile of economically free countries compared with 64.4 years in the bottom quartile.
The Fraser Institute&#8217;s rankings of other major countries include Japan (17th), Germany (20th), Italy (46th), France (50th), Mexico (76th), India (79th), Russia (85th), China (113th) and Brazil (120th). The least free countries are Venezuela, Argentina, Ukraine and nearly every African country with the most notable exception of Mauritius. By the way, Argentina and Venezuela used to be rich until they bought into socialism.
During the Cold War, leftists made a moral equivalency between communist totalitarianism and democracy. W. E. B. Du Bois, writing in the National Guardian (1953) said, &#8220;Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature.&#8221; Walter Duranty called Stalin &#8220;the greatest living statesman &#8230; a quiet, unobtrusive man.&#8221; George Bernard Shaw expressed admiration for Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith visited Mao&#8217;s China and praised Mao Zedong and the Chinese economic system. Gunther Stein of the Christian Science Monitor also admired Mao and declared ecstatically that &#8220;the men and women pioneers of Yenan are truly new humans in spirit, thought and action.&#8221; Michel Oksenberg, President Jimmy Carter&#8217;s China expert, complained that &#8220;America (is) doomed to decay until radical, even revolutionary, change fundamentally alters the institutions and values,&#8221; and urged us to &#8220;borrow ideas and solutions&#8221; from China.
Leftists exempted communist leaders from the harsh criticism directed toward Adolf Hitler, even though communist crimes against humanity made Hitler&#8217;s slaughter of 11 million noncombatants appear almost amateurish. According to Professor R.J. Rummel&#8217;s research in &#8220;Death by Government,&#8221; from 1917 until its collapse, the Soviet Union murdered or caused the death of 61 million people, mostly its own citizens. From 1949 to 1976, Mao&#8217;s Communist regime was responsible for the death of as many as 76 million Chinese citizens.
Today&#8217;s leftists, socialists and progressives would bristle at the suggestion that their agenda differs little from that of past tyrants. They should keep in mind that the origins of the unspeakable horrors of Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism did not begin in the &#8217;20s, &#8217;30s and &#8217;40s. Those horrors were simply the result of a long evolution of ideas leading to a consolidation of power in the central government in the quest for &#8220;social justice.&#8221;
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Hammer and Sickel.

WILLIAMS: Young People Ignorant Of History

Communism

Josef Stalin

Socialism

The following is satirical.
This weekend, Germans celebrated the thirty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall divided the German capital between a thriving, free, capitalist West Berlin and an East Berlin so mired in poverty, lack of services and government oppression that it was almost as bad as living in California.
The wall was built in 1961 when the Soviet socialists who ruled East Germany realized that if they taxed people at the levels proposed by Elizabeth Warren, those people would leave and take their wealth and productivity elsewhere. But the socialists had a plan for that, namely anyone who tried to leave would be shot dead.
This policy continued through 1988, when Bernie Sanders honeymooned among the Soviets. So as Berliners celebrate the fall of the wall, perhaps they should also remember the good times, like when Bernie sat bare-chested with their Soviet oppressors and sang, “This land is your land, and so is Po-land, and so is Czechoslovakia and so is Hungary and so is East Germany and &#8230;” Well, you know, the rest of the lyrics.
On a side note, Bernie returned from his visit to the Soviets and said of the USSR and the U.S. &#8212; and this is a real quote: “Let’s take the strengths of both systems. Let’s learn from each other.”
Which would’ve made for an interesting country seeing as the strengths of the U.S. are freedom and capitalism, and the strengths of the Soviet Union were socialism and its necessary results: poverty, oppression, slavery and mass murder.
The Berlin Wall finally collapsed when the Soviets were confronted by Ronald Reagan, a freedom-loving president the American press hated so much they attacked him constantly and even tried to organize his impeachment. Thank heavens, that couldn’t happen today.
In fact, as we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s nice to know that we have learned so much about the evils of socialism, it has been relegated to the dustbin of history — and the Democrat Party platform.

Berlin Wall Monument

Germans Celebrate 30-Year Anniversary of End of Democrat Party Policies [Satire]

Bernie Sanders

Democratic Party

Democratic Socialism

Russia

Soviet Union

The West&#8217;s problematic relationship with the communist nation of China exhibited its toxicity once again when a British baking show disqualified a Hong Kong-themed cake after it angered certain organizers.
According to <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/a35dpa/hong-kong-protesters-are-getting-tattoos-that-represent-their-struggle">Vice</a>, an international cake show for the United Kingdom&#8217;s &#8220;The Great British Bake Off&#8221; ignited controversy last week when an exhibitor featured a cake that members of the &#8220;globalist&#8221; community would consider inappropriate.
&#8220;The dessert was presented at Cake International, the &#8216;world&#8217;s greatest cake show,&#8217; and <a href="https://qz.com/1741132/censorship-of-hong-kong-protests-spreads-to-cake-contest-in-uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">featured decorations like a tiny protester with a yellow umbrella</a> and a large Guy Fawkes mask,&#8221; reported the outlet. &#8220;It also had a pretend record player and vinyl record designed with a bauhinia, the flower featured on Hong Kong’s flag. A video by its creator, Hong Kong bakeshop 3rd Space, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Xv1nUAtPu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shows the record revolving</a> while the protest song &#8216;Glory to Hong Kong&#8217; plays. Liquid nitrogen also swirled from behind the umbrellas to look like tear gas.&#8221;
In a lengthy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CakeInternational/photos/a.329284370437670/2792909484075134/?type=3&amp;theater">Facebook statement</a>, Cake International said that the cake was removed from the competition area after exhibitors complained &#8220;about its content&#8221; to the point of threatening to &#8220;damage the piece.&#8221; They, however, maintained that the disqualification stemmed from it being an &#8220;oversized exhibit.&#8221;
&#8220;In reference to the comments regarding a cake being disqualified from the cake international competition, we wish to clarify that the difficult decision to remove the piece from the competition area was due to complaints about its content with some threatening to damage the piece,&#8221; the statement read. &#8220;We have judged this entry based on the cake decorating skills and not the subject matter; unfortunately it was ‘not to schedule’ for that category (as seen below) as it states in the rules &#8216;No part of the exhibit can overhang the allowed area. Oversized exhibits will be disqualified.'&#8221;
The statement then touted Cake International as an &#8220;inclusive community&#8221; that allows a diverse range of cultures and viewpoints to express themselves.
&#8220;Cake International is an inclusive community and welcomes entries from across the world, this competition entry was not removed as a political statement but was disqualified as a direct result of it not being made in line with our competition schedule,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;We appreciate that this situation is sensitive and there are many passionate views across the world, our decisions are based purely on what is in the best interest for the cake decorating community and not as a statement of our beliefs or opinions.&#8221;
3rd Space organizers clarified in an Instagram post that the complaints indeed came from Chinese competitors.
&#8220;One of our teammates joined the cake international show and got disqualified due to complaints from Chinese candidates, claiming that this cake contains offensive content by promoting independence of Hong Kong,&#8221; read the post.
As noted by Vice, the baking show has featured political cakes in previous episodes.
&#8220;Cake International is not new to politically-themed cakes,&#8221; reported the outlet. &#8220;There was also a cake at the event that featured United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/gallery/2019/nov/01/cake-international-show-birmingham-nec-in-pictures" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dressed as babies</a>, with a decorative bomb.&#8221;

Hong Kong Protesters Rally for 22nd Weekend

Hong Kong-Themed Cake Disqualified From British Baking Show

China

Hong Kong

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) stated during a Minnesota campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders – an <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/sanders-socialist-successes">admitted</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/04/29/bernie-sanders-is-an-avowed-socialist-and-democrats-are-actually-pretty-ok-with-that/">socialist</a> who has a history of <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bernie-sanders-praised-communist-cuba-and-the-soviet-union-in-the-1980s">sympathizing</a> with communists – that she was excited at the prospect of a Sanders&#8217; presidency because he would &#8220;fight against Western imperialism.&#8221;
Omar made the remarks toward the end of her speech, which last approximately 20 minutes. Omar stated:
<blockquote>As a refugee who escaped war and persecution as a child, I am honored to stand with the son of a Jewish refugee who survived genocide. The acknowledgement of pain and suffering is personal for both of us. The fight for human rights is undeniable and when we recognize injustices of the past and present – whether it is genocide against Jewish people, Armenians, or Rwandans, or Bosnians, or Native Americans, or more – we recognize, we realize that that recognition isn’t about punishing our political foes, but leading within a moral obligation.
I am beyond honored and excited for a president that will fight against Western imperialism and fight for a just world … I am excited for president Bernie Sanders. [emphasis added]</blockquote>
So, what is &#8220;Western imperialism?&#8221;
Generally speaking, when someone talks about &#8220;the West&#8221; they are referring to the non-communist states in Europe and North America, which have been largely formed by Judeo-Christian values and where capitalism is the dominant economic system in place.
According to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialism">Encyclopedia Britannica</a>, Imperialism is a &#8220;state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.&#8221;
The encyclopedia adds that the term is &#8220;frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy.&#8221;
So, in essence, what excites Omar about Sanders is the fact that she believes that he will essentially shrink the United States&#8217; role and influence in the world for the sake of having a &#8220;just world.&#8221;
Omar&#8217;s statement was met with thunderous applause by those who most likely have no idea what her words really mean.
Shrinking the United States&#8217; influence and power in the world will likely only breed conflict as it would allow terrorism and communism to spread, the latter of which is starting to become a serious threat because of China.
China, which is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), is widely considered by U.S. officials and experts to be the greatest threat to America from an economic and military standpoint.
An advocacy group – Stand For America – founded by former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, labels China as the &#8220;Biggest Foreign Threat to America.&#8221;
&#8220;China engages in hostile trade practices, stealing America’s intellectual property, and manipulating their currency for trading advantages against us,&#8221; the group writes. &#8220;China is aggressively enlarging its military, taking over islands in Asian waters, and dangerously expanding its industrial reach into all corners of the world. And we must not forget that China is still a Communist dictatorship that is perhaps the world’s single worst human rights violator, taking surveillance and imprisonment of its citizens to truly Orwellian levels.&#8221;
Over the summer, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/26/world/asia/united-states-china-conflict.html">reported</a> that many senior U.S. officials &#8220;now view China as a steely ideological rival, where the Communist Party aims not only to subjugate citizens but to spread tools of authoritarian control globally – particularly surveillance, communications and artificial intelligence technology – and establish military footholds across oceans and mountains.&#8221;
An NBC News article from earlier this year outlined the growing threat that China poses to the United States, stating that China&#8217;s &#8220;efforts to penetrate American society and gain influence are insidious – and growing.&#8221;
“The Chinese counterintelligence threat is more deep, more diverse, more vexing, more challenging, more comprehensive and more concerning than any counterintelligence threat I can think of,” FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
The official written intelligence report that was created by the the major U.S. intelligence agencies stated that China &#8220;remains the most active strategic competitor responsible for cyber espionage against the U.S. Government, corporations, and allies. It is improving its cyber attack capabilities and altering information online, shaping Chinese views and potentially the views of U.S. citizens.&#8221;
The author of the NBC News report – David A. Andelman, executive director of The RedLines Project, formerly a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia – further highlighted the spying threat that China poses to the United States in the academic realm.
Andelman <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/russia-monopolizes-headlines-china-s-threat-u-s-goes-way-ncna966196">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>The American intelligence community appears especially concerned by China’s patience. Chinese ambitions seems to be part of a much broader strategy – one that goes far beyond military capabilities and seeks to “significantly expand China’s penetration of the economies and political systems” of the U.S. and the West, according to the intelligence report.
Some of this expanded espionage appears focused on colleges and universities. “The use of nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students, we see in almost every field office that the FBI has around the country,” the FBI’s Wray said in 2018. “It’s not just in major cities. It’s in small ones as well. It’s across basically every discipline.”</blockquote>
China, which has aggressively expanded its military to the point where it can challenge the United States in the region, is positioning itself to become the world&#8217;s leading superpower.
As a totalitarian state, National Interest <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-happens-when-china-becomes-most-powerful-country-world-51887">reports</a> that if China becomes the world&#8217;s most powerful nation that it will aggressively attempt to spread its communist ideology around the world.
&#8221; &#8230; Under totalitarianism it is not enough for citizens to just mind their own business and refrain from political opposition to the regime,&#8221; National Interest reports. &#8220;Instead of being satisfied with their political complacency, a totalitarian regime demands strict adherence to its rules and ideas in people’s everyday lives, including in the matters that have nothing to do with politics. In effect, it seeks to control everyone’s every step.&#8221;
&#8220;This is precisely what the Chinese ruling regime is now working to achieve,&#8221; National Interest continued. &#8220;Modern digital technologies offer it a possibility to build an actual dystopia in the sense until now only described in the science fiction – something totalitarian regimes of the past could not do for practical reasons. A new Chinese system relying on total surveillance and big data to notice and assess everyday actions of the citizens is set to become fully operational in 2020.&#8221;

Ilhan Omar

Omar: Bernie Will ‘Fight Against Western Imperialism.’ Here’s What That Could Mean.

The woman believed to be the oldest person in the world has died at age 123 after living a life she described as being characterized by &#8220;hard work and optimism&#8221; despite living most of it under oppressive communist regimes.
According to the Russian Book of Records and Russian government officials, Tanzilya Bisembeyeva, a Muslim Kazakh whose death was announced Wednesday, was the oldest woman in the world, born before the last tsar of Russia and living a life that spanned three centuries.
Bisembeyeva was believed to have been the third-oldest person in Russia just months ago, but the two women who were reportedly older than her — Nanu Shaovawomen (128) and Koku Istambulova (129) — died earlier this year, leaving Bisembeyeva with the remarkable distinction.
Government-run Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, which first reported her death, quotes Astrakhan region official Nurgali Baitemirov, who said Bisembeyeva &#8220;died peacefully&#8221; and was buried in a family cemetery, where the &#8220;whole village came to see her depart on her last journey,&#8221; as reported by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7630077/Oldest-woman-world-dies-aged-123-Russia.html">The Daily Mail</a>.
Bisembeyeva credited her &#8220;healthy&#8221; and active lifestyle, as well as her commitment to &#8220;hard work and optimism,&#8221; for her longevity. The Daily Mail notes that she reportedly won a labor award, didn&#8217;t smoke and ate &#8220;only natural foods.&#8221; She also apparently drank a lot of fermented milk.
&#8220;The secret of her long life, surviving the upheavals of the Russian revolution, when she was already 21, and the Soviet collapse, as well the tyranny of Stalin, was &#8216;optimism and hard work&#8217; &#8211; along with drinking kefir, or fermented milk,&#8221; the Mail reports.
Her son, Shintas, who is in his 70s — which means his mother had him when she was 53 — described her difficult life under Soviet rule and in largely impoverished conditions. &#8220;My mother has seen a lot during her long life. She has lived from Rasputin to Putin,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;My mother met my father [Musagali Bisembeev] in 1946,&#8221; said Shintas. &#8220;She was 50 and he was over 60 but he was a strong man. He worked at the collective farm and did as much as two men would do. After the war my parents lived in a soldier&#8217;s shelter and their first son died in his babyhood.&#8221;
&#8220;They were so poor that could not afford a proper house, and probably this is why their baby son died,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;You could not heat such room properly.&#8221; But later they had three more sons.
&#8220;Just think about it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I was born when my mother was 53 and the youngest brother was born when she was 59. It still sounds incredible.&#8221;
They lived much of their life in poverty, Shintas notes, describing his upbringing as difficult and often characterized by hunger and work in the fields.
Her three boys went on to give Bisembeyeva ten grandchildren and over two dozen great-grandchildren.
As noted by The Daily Mail, verifying the ages of older Russians can be difficult due to a lack of consistent documentation. Skeptics of Bisembeyeva&#8217;s claim point to her unusually old age for having her three children as evidence that she may not have been as old as believed.
The previous oldest person in the world, Koku Istambulova, who reportedly reached the age of 129 before passing away earlier this year, offered a similar story of a lifetime of struggle as a Muslim under communist control to that of Bisembeyeva. Rather than a life filled with &#8220;optimism,&#8221; however, Istambulova described her experience as largely devoid of &#8220;happiness.&#8221;
&#8220;Why did Allah give me such a long life and so little happiness? I would have been dead long ago if not for Allah, who was holding me in his arms,&#8221; Istambulova <a href="https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/world-news/3338828/worlds-oldest-and-most-miserable-human-129-curses-allah-for-letting-her-live-so-long/" rel="nofollow">told</a> The Sun in October 2018. &#8220;It is hard to live when all who remembered you died long ago.&#8221;
One of her worst memories, she said, was the day she and her fellow Chechens were deported by Stalin&#8217;s government to Kazakhstan. &#8220;It was a bad day, cold and gloomy,&#8221; said Istambulova. &#8220;We were put in a train and taken no one knew where. Railway carriages were stuffed with people – dirt, rubbish, excrement was everywhere … On the way to our exile, dead bodies were just thrown out of the train.&#8221;
The day she pointed to as the one day she felt happiness was when first entered her home. &#8220;It was the day when I first entered my house,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was very small and I stoked the stove with wood, but it was my home. I built it myself, the best house in the world. I lived there for 60 years.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebrons-lakers-lose-amid-pro-hong-protests-china-state-tv-blackout">LeBron’s Opening Game Hit With Protests; China State TV Blacks Out NBA</a>

Tanzilya Bisembeyeva

&#8216;World&#8217;s Oldest Person&#8217; Dies

Islam

Stalin

With pro-democracy Hong Kong demonstrators both inside and outside the arena and Chinese state television blacking out the contest — as it did all the other league games — LeBron James&#8217; Los Angeles Lakers lost their much-hyped season opener against Kawhi Leonard&#8217;s L.A. Clippers in a game that felt more significant than just a single opening game.
As reported by <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27905614/chinese-state-tv-air-nba-opening-slate-protests-staples-center">ESPN</a>, Chinese state television did not air any of the NBA&#8217;s opening games as part of its continued punishment of the league after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey posted a pro-democracy tweet on October 4 simply stating, &#8220;Fight For Freedom, Stand For Hong Kong.&#8221;
Morey deleted the post and apologized as the NBA scrambled to appease China, while also trying to express support for free speech amid backlash from fans. But the oppressive communist government has clearly not been satisfied with the league&#8217;s response.
While Chinese state television completely blacked out the opening games, the Chinese-based streaming platform Tencent, a media partner of the NBA and ESPN, only aired a single opener: the Lakers vs. the Clippers.
James became a central figure in the controversy when he infamously upbraided Morey for his &#8220;misinformed&#8221; tweet and spoke dismissively of free speech.
&#8220;I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke,&#8221; James told reporters on October 15.  &#8220;So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So, just be careful what we tweet and say and what we do even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, there can be a lot of negatives that comes with that too.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
LeBron James rips Daryl Morey, says Morey was uneducated. Says, “We do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negatives that come with that too.” Really. <a href="https://t.co/ZTw6a3FZ5n">pic.twitter.com/ZTw6a3FZ5n</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1183921775647875072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Wearing &#8220;Fight For Freedom, Stand For Hong Kong&#8221; t-shirts bought with money from a GoFundMe drive, some 60-75 protesters, according to ESPN&#8217;s estimate, gathered outside the Staples Center Tuesday night.
The organizer of the protest, who felt compelled to refer to himself as only &#8220;MWG&#8221; and cover his face for &#8220;personal safety&#8221; and to protect his family in China, pointed to James&#8217; much-criticized response as emblematic of the NBA&#8217;s China dilemma.
&#8220;What LeBron James said, we&#8217;re not mad, we&#8217;re just disappointed,&#8221; the protest organizer told ESPN. James, he said, is &#8220;really out there (on issues) and then for him to say, &#8216;Oh, it was hard on us (during the China trip),&#8217; that was kind of a slap in the face.&#8221;
In a follow-up to his comments criticizing Morey, James tweeted, &#8220;My team and this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it.&#8221;
&#8220;To be LeBron James, so articulate and so meticulous about your words and how you say them and how you present yourself and all of the sudden when it comes to money, it takes a precedent over any sort of human rights — basic human rights?&#8221; MWG said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what our country was founded on. His home base is here. So you&#8217;re going to turn your back on your home base for money over there?&#8221;
<div id="attachment_57480" style="width: 1029px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-57480" class="wp-image-57480 size-full" src="https://editorial.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/LeBron-James-Protest.jpg" alt=" A pro-Hong Kong activist holds an image depicting LeBron James aboard a Chinese tank in Tiananmen Square before the Los Angeles Lakers season opening game against the LA Clippers outside Staples Center on October 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Activists also printed at least 10,000 pro-Hong Kong t-shirts to hand out to those attending the game and encouraged them to wear the free shirts as a form of peaceful protest against China amidst Chinese censorship of NBA games. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)" width="1019" height="638" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/LeBron-James-Protest.jpg 1019w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/LeBron-James-Protest-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/LeBron-James-Protest-768x481.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1019px) 100vw, 1019px" />Mario Tama/Getty Images</div>
&#8220;We want to stand with Morey, we want to stand with Hong Kong, but most of all, we want to fight foreign attempts to censor us,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Our first amendment rights to free speech — so if you have a government that&#8217;s not the United States telling us we can&#8217;t talk, what&#8217;s the point of having a government? What&#8217;s the point of having a first amendment right? We&#8217;re not saying that we&#8217;re trying to do anything other than show solidarity. We&#8217;re not trying to protest. We just want to show the NBA and show foreign governments that they can&#8217;t censor us.&#8221;
Along with the protesters outside the arena, some people also showed support for Hong Kong inside, where fans watched the Clippers&#8217; newly acquired star Leonard lead his team to a 112-102 victory in a game that one sports analyst said &#8220;<a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27905616/why-clippers-lakers-felt-bigger-just-one-game">felt bigger than just one game</a>.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shaq-blasts-china-were-going-to-say-whatever-we-want-to-say-when-we-want-to-say-it">Shaq Blasts China: ‘We’re Going To Say Whatever We Want To Say, When We Want To Say It’</a>

Pro-Hong Kong Activists Protest Outside NBA Opening-Night Games

LeBron&#8217;s Opening Game Hit With Protests; China State TV Blacks Out NBA

First Amendment

Free Speech

LeBron James

Dear Mr. Brin: Fifty years ago this week, when I was a 21-year-old college senior, I was in the Soviet Union, sent by the government of Israel to smuggle in Jewish religious items and smuggle out names of Jews who wanted to escape the Soviet Union and could then be issued a formal invitation to Israel.
I was chosen because I was a committed Jew and because I knew Hebrew and Russian. I was no hero, but the trip did entail risk. The Soviets did not appreciate people smuggling out names of Soviet citizens who sought to emigrate, information the Israeli government and activist groups in America used to advocate on their behalf.
My four weeks in the USSR were, of course, life-changing. This young American, lucky beyond belief to have spent his entire life in the freest country in the world, experienced what it was like to live in a totalitarian police state. People feared merely being seen speaking with a Westerner, lest the KGB arrest and interrogate them. People arranged to meet me at a certain tree in a certain park and only spoke to me while walking to avoid eavesdroppers. I met with Jewish engineers, doctors and professors who could find no work because they were known to the government to be &#8220;otkazniki,&#8221; or &#8220;refuseniks&#8221; — Jews who had applied for exit visas to leave the Soviet Union and been refused permission. I&#8217;m sure you know of them from your parents.
I left the Soviet Union angry and grateful — angry there are people who have the audacity to tell other people what they could and could not say, and grateful beyond measure to have been born in America, where no one could tell anyone what they could say. From that day to this, I have never taken freedom, especially freedom of speech, for granted.
Why I am writing to you about this?
Because, beyond my wildest dreams, two things are happening in America.
One is that for the first time in America&#8217;s history, free speech is seriously threatened.
In 1977, when Nazis sought to march in Skokie, Illinois — those terrible human beings chose Skokie because it was home to many Jewish Holocaust survivors — virtually every liberal and conservative organization, including Jewish organizations, defended the Nazis&#8217; right to march. Because in America — and only in America — it was understood that even if the most loathsome speech was not protected, all speech was at risk.
That has changed.
Today, decent people — people who abhor Nazism and every other form of evil, left or right; people like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Ayaan Hirsi Ali — are shouted down, threatened, disinvited or never invited to speak at America&#8217;s universities.
The other thing that is happening is even more frightening. The company that you co-founded, Google, the greatest conduit of speech in world history, is also suppressing speech. I have asked myself over and over: How could the company founded by a man whose parents fled the Soviet Union do this?
It so boggles the mind that I have to hope you are simply not fully aware of what your company is doing.
So, in a nutshell, let me tell you what Google has done to one organization, Prager University (better known as PragerU). Every week, PragerU releases a five-minute video on virtually every subject outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Some of the finest minds in the world have presented these videos — including professors from Harvard, Stanford and MIT; four Pulitzer Prize winners; three former prime ministers; liberals; conservatives; Democrats; Republicans (including never-Trumpers); gays; and, of course, many women and members of ethnic and racial minorities.
Yet YouTube, which Google owns, has placed hundreds of our videos on its restricted list. In addition to the inherent smear of being labeled &#8220;inappropriate for children,&#8221; this means no family that filters out pornography and graphic violence, no school and no library can see those videos. Among those restricted videos is one during former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper defends Israel. Had someone told me 50 years ago that a company led by the son of Soviet Jewish refuseniks would suppress a video by a world leader defending the Jewish state, I would have told them they were out of their mind. That&#8217;s one reason I can only assume, or at least hope, that you are not fully aware of what your company is doing.
Or how about a video series I present on the Ten Commandments? YouTube is suppressing a number of those, too. When Sen. Ted Cruz asked a Google official why Google restricted one of my videos on the Ten Commandments, the official responded (it&#8217;s on YouTube) that it was because the video &#8220;contains references to murder.&#8221;
In fact, PragerU has repeatedly asked Google over the past several years why any of our videos are on the restricted list, and we have received either a runaround or silence. We have never received a substantive explanation. We have no desire to see government intervene in private business to protect free speech. But your company has availed itself of protections under law that shield it from liability for defamation, copyright infringement, etc. Your company&#8217;s arrogance is such that a vast number of Americans — liberals as well as conservatives — are worried that the major conduit of speech in the Free World doesn&#8217;t care about free speech.
Mr. Brin, along with millions of other Americans, I fought to bring your parents from a land with no freedom to the Land of the Free. None of us has ever asked for anything in return. It was our honor to work for liberty in general and for Soviet Jewry specifically.
What Americans most want from immigrants is that they help keep America free. I never had any doubt that those leaving the Soviet Union would fulfill that mission.
Until now.
Freedom of speech is the most fundamental of all freedoms. It&#8217;s what your parents yearned for and bequeathed to you. Please don&#8217;t help take it away from those who made it possible — the people of America.
Sincerely yours,
Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Exodus. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; comes to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

Sergey Brin.

PRAGER: An Open Letter To Sergey Brin

Google

Free of the chains that come with the pursuit of Chinese profits, the ever-so-fearless &#8220;South Park&#8221; took basketball superstar LeBron James to the woodshed for his denunciation of Houston Rockets General Manager (GM) Daryl Morey&#8217;s support for Hong Kong protesters
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/south-park-episode-mocks-lebron-james-china-comments-1248405">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR), Wednesday&#8217;s episode of the hit show centered around the school implementing healthy options on the school lunch menu, prompting anger from character Eric Cartman. Later, when Cartman confronts the students protesting in favor of healthy lunches, the protestors cite free speech as their reasoning. His reply nearly echoed the words spoken by LeBron James on Monday night.
&#8220;Their protesting is ruining my lunch. Yes, we do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you are not thinking about others and only thinking about yourself,&#8221; Cartman said. &#8220;They’re trying to change peoples’ lunch. They don’t realize it harms people financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually.&#8221;
&#8220;South Park&#8221; has taken a no-nonsense stand against China after the government banned the show from airing in the country in response to an episode criticizing American big business for catering to the Chinese censors to make a quick buck. &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-park-trolls-china-after-country-bans-the-show-f-the-chinese-government">F*** the Chinese government</a>,&#8221; the show said in response.
Wednesday&#8217;s episode came in response to LeBron James saying that Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey was uneducated about the situation in Hong Kong, arguing that he should have waited to send out a tweet in support of the protesters.
&#8220;We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself,&#8221; James told reporters on Monday. &#8220;I don’t want to get into a … feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually.&#8221;
As backlash quickly mounted on social media, James dug himself an even deeper hole when he attempted to clarify his remarks by somehow casting the National Basketball Association as the victim.
&#8220;My team and this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it,&#8221; James <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disaster-lebron-tries-to-explain-china-remarks-digs-deeper-hole">said immediately after on Twitter</a>.
Further sinking himself into a hole, James then said on Tuesday that only politicians should comment on the China situation, even though he has been hyper-political throughout his basketball career.
&#8220;I’d be cheating my teammates by continuing to harp on something that won’t benefit us trying to win a championship because that’s what we’re here for,&#8221; James told reporters on Tuesday. &#8220;We’re not politicians. I think it’s a huge political thing but we are leaders and we can step up at times. But … you don’t feel like you should speak upon things you shouldn’t have to.&#8221;
After the election of President Trump, James referred to Trump voters as &#8220;<a href="https://www.excaliburnews.com/lebron-james-ridiculed-after-calling-trump-supporters-uneducated/">uneducated</a>.&#8221;

Los Angeles Lakers v Brooklyn Nets &#8211; NBA China Games 2019

‘South Park’ Trolls LeBron James Over China Stance

South Park

On Tuesday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” Klavan talks about the appalling pro-communist antics happening in the NBA. Video and partial transcript below: 
When I was a kid, we used to wonder: If you&#8217;d dug a hole deep enough, would you come out in China? Well, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is apparently going to try that experiment and find out. 
They started digging after Houston Rockets [General Manager] Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the demonstrators in Hong Kong — the brave men and women fighting to keep their liberty as China slowly closes its iron grip on the formerly free British colony. The NBA apologized for Morey’s righteous tweet. They&#8217;ve apologized, disgustingly, in English and even more disgustingly in Chinese. They started ejecting fans who openly supported freedom in the face of communist tyranny. Morey had to apologize to the Chinese tyrants. Players apologized. Golden State [Warriors] coach Steve Kerr, who is Superman when it comes to attacking the American president, suddenly turned into a mealy-mouthed worm, drawing a comparison between the 65 million Chinese murdered by the communists and something, something, something about America.
It was appalling crap, and now LeBron James — King James — has turned himself into Chairman James with this stupid statement:
<blockquote>JAMES: We all talked about this freedom of speech. Yes, we ought to have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen. When you&#8217;re not thinking about others, you know, and you’re only thinking about yourself. So, I don&#8217;t believe — I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn&#8217;t educated on the situation at-hand and he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet, what we say, and what we do even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech there can be a lot of negatives that come with that, too. </blockquote>
Yeah, James tried to explain that away but it just got worse — and the thing is, I don&#8217;t even want to pick on LeBron. His job is to put a ball through a hoop; He&#8217;s very good at putting balls through hoops — he may be the best putter of balls through hoops since balls were hooped. But I do think the situation &#8230; has besmeared not just him and everyone in the sport, not to mention ever-so-woke ESPN, which suddenly went morally dark on the Chinese subject, and Disney, who owns ESPN and isn&#8217;t about to lose access to that big ol’ Chinese audience for its films. 
And by the way, let&#8217;s not forget the NFL, where all those oh-so-brave Kaepernicks disrespect the American flag. They apologized to China back in 2004 for accidentally airing a &#8230; long image of Tiananmen Square during the Super Bowl halftime show. Same exact thing. 
This situation brings a lot of things into focus and into question. It brings into question celebrity culture. Why does putting a ball through a hoop or reciting lines someone else wrote for you elevate LeBron James — his opinion or Robert De Niro&#8217;s opinion — to relevance? That is corrupting. That attitude is corrupting. It brings into question our reliance on capitalism and free trade for moral guidance. Without the brave and moral hearts of human beings, these systems will operate only on the basis of profit, and that&#8217;s corrupting. 
It brings into question the drive toward globalism. It sounds pretty to say we should all act as one world, but if we don&#8217;t act under truly moral rules as opposed to Chinese rules, then economic and military might will decide what&#8217;s right, and that&#8217;s about as corrupting as you can get. Freedom is the first moral good of politics, because without freedom, every other good is just oppression with a smiley face. If you can&#8217;t choose your own path, and speak your own mind, and spend your own money as you see fit, you&#8217;re nothing. You&#8217;re no one. No matter how much free stuff or law-and-order the state gives you in return for your soul, and no matter how much good the government tells you it is doing with your money.
I support capitalism because it&#8217;s the most free system. I support free trade because it supports capitalism. And it&#8217;s wonderful that capitalism, when it&#8217;s done honestly, raises everyone to a higher economic level. But if you put the economics before the freedom, you become corrupt and that&#8217;s what&#8217;s happened to the NBA and the NFL and Disney and a lot of other people who sold their values for the almighty yuan. No system can do the moral thing for you. Shareholders are not an excuse; cultural sensitivity is not an excuse. No one can demand that you be willing to die for freedom — not everyone&#8217;s a hero. But we can hold you in contempt when you won&#8217;t even speak up for freedom when there are people in the streets of Hong Kong risking everything.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of “The Andrew Klavan Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">Watch “The Andrew Klavan Show” on-demand!</a>

LeBron James in China

KLAVAN: Economics Should Never Come Before Freedom

Capitalism

Economy

It was more than a year ago that NBA superstar LeBron James bristled at the notion that he ought to just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-james-responds-laura-ingraham-i-mean-too-emily-zanotti">&#8220;shut up and dribble&#8221;</a> rather than express his sociopolitical views.
James immediately <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/965448138902286336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E965448138902286336&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbssports.com%2Fnba%2Fnews%2Flebron-responds-to-news-pundit-i-will-not-shut-up-and-dribble-i-owe-it-to-the-youth%2F">fired back</a> at the comment by Fox News host Laura Ingraham after the 2018 NBA All-Star Game:
&#8220;I will not shut up and dribble. I owe it to my peers. I owe it to my fans. I owe it to the youth. I owe it … to everybody that has laid the path for me to get to this point.”
In what now resounds with irony, <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lebron-responds-to-news-pundit-i-will-not-shut-up-and-dribble-i-owe-it-to-the-youth/">CBS Sports</a> stated in 2018:
“Lebron James has never shied away from sensitive issues. He&#8217;s known for being an activist and uses his platform as an athlete to share his thoughts on the world.”
James has now decided to pathetically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-bows-to-communist-china-pro-hong-kong-advocates-not-educated-negative-things-come-with-free-speech">bend the knee</a> to China and all the monstrous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-as-woke-nba-bows-to-china-we-learn-more-about-the-horrific-acts-of-the-communist-regime">atrocities</a> its government continues commit.
In response to Houston Rockets’ General Manager Daryl Morey’s now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">famous tweet</a> expressing solidarity with the Hong Kong protests against China’s Communist regime, James offered the following <a href="https://twitter.com/BenGolliver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1183917743680020480&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fftw.usatoday.com%2F2019%2F10%2Flakers-lebron-james-crushed-for-take-on-daryl-morey-usa-china-situation">mind-numbing response</a> on Monday:
<blockquote>We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself. I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and say and we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.</blockquote>
The level of ignorance on James’ part is staggering. It’s abundantly clear that he is absolutely clueless, if not altogether craven. Here is the NBA’s most recognizable player as well as one of the greatest to ever play the game, actively shilling for the Chinese government. This is the very same player once dubbed by the <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/lebron-james-to-take-floor-for-nba-all-star-game-as-the-most-powerful-voice-in-his-profession/">Undefeated</a> as “the most powerful voice in his profession.”
Writing for <a href="https://theathletic.com/1281993/2019/10/14/charania-inside-what-went-on-among-nets-and-lakers-players-on-the-ground-in-china-amid-the-nba-china-conflict/">The Athletic</a>, Shams Charania reported that last week James lead a players-only discussion on the relationship between the NBA and China. According to Charania, James did not want players to speak out on the horrific injustices being committed by the Chinese government because they felt confused or uncomfortable about the subject. Of course, these very same players have no problem whatsoever letting loose when it comes to their criticisms of America.
More importantly, the issue is not at all some vexing deliberation over geopolitics from the likes of James and the NBA. The issue is money and sponsorships. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nike-pulls-american-flag-sneaker-after-complaint-emily-zanotti">Nike</a> is intimately connected to China and James is easily the shoe company’s biggest star. The NBA also has billions of dollars tied to China, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-07/nba-china-crisis-threatens-billions-of-dollars-decades-of-work">Bloomberg</a>.
It seems that, more than anything else, many, if not most, of the players in the supposedly &#8220;woke&#8221; league have gone decidedly corporate. Countless players have millions of dollars tied up in deals and sponsorships directly related to China. In 2017, the <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/klay-thompson-signs-80m-deal-with-anta-aims-to-be-the-m-j-of-chinese-shoe-brand/">Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson</a> signed an $80 million deal with Chinese shoe company, Anta.
Perhaps, James Harden’s rather pathetic quip last week to <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/china-rounds-rockets-gms-hong-kong-tweet-031203458--nba.html">Agence France-Presse</a> summarizes the extent to just how low the NBA and its players have stooped. The NBA’s 2018 MVP and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zpmigCh0Aw">notorious traveler</a> brazenly stated, like only a good comrade could: “We apologize. We love China.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-democracy-hong-kong-protesters-unload-on-lebron-brainwashed-or-bought">Pro-Democracy Hong Kong Protesters Unload On LeBron: ‘Brainwashed’ Or ‘Bought’?</a>

KHAN: When It Comes To China, LeBron Has Decided To &#8216;Shut Up And Dribble&#8217;

Laura Ingraham

A few days ago, a respected rabbi told me that when he heard Greta Thunberg&#8217;s speech before the United Nations, he understood how Joseph Stalin had managed to indoctrinate children so thoroughly that they were willing to report their own parents.
For those unfamiliar with the history of Stalin&#8217;s demonic rule over the Soviet Union, children were “educated” to believe that loyalty to country was more important than such antiquated, bourgeois concepts as loyalty to family. If a parent harbored ideas that made him or her an “enemy of the state,” children were encouraged and expected to report them to the authorities. This occurred countless times during and after the “Great Purge” of Trotskyites and others during the 1930s.
Thunberg received her own indoctrination regarding her parents’ betrayal: The world is coming to an end, the sky is falling, and the fault lies with the economy they built. Cars must be taken off the road, and carbon dioxide-producing power plants replaced with only solar and wind power — or we will all die. In her words, “entire ecosystems are collapsing,” though neither she nor her handlers can provide evidence of anything but growth. Since “we are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” there is no time for silly things like evidence or sober consideration. We must act, not think!
And she concluded with an implicit threat: “Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.” With rhetoric like that, how far-fetched is it to imagine that CEOs of energy companies might be imprisoned for imagined crimes against humanity?
Yet with all of that said, this is far from the most troubling example of Stalinism’s return. For that, we can look still closer to home: The effort to impeach President Donald Trump.
I must admit, it is troubling to imagine a U.S. head of state strong-arming the leader of a foreign government to do his or her bidding. I am referring, of course, to the possibility that Joe Biden forced Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor in order to end an investigation of corruption at an energy company that was then paying Hunter Biden $600,000 a year for consulting work (despite his utter lack of experience or knowledge of the energy industry).
And it is also troubling that Trump may have asked that Biden be investigated, not because of genuine suspicion of wrongdoing, but because it is politically expedient. Two wrongs do not make a right, and even in the immediate wake of the failed Mueller investigation, it was inappropriate.
But that doesn’t make Trump&#8217;s actions dangerous to democracy. It certainly doesn’t make his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky worthy of the Constitution&#8217;s prescribed “high crimes and misdemeanors” impeachment criterion. That would require conclusive proof that Trump withheld aid to force Zelensky to settle a personal score. Everything we were assured would prove this true has been found false, from the transcript on down. Zelensky himself has volunteered that that their phone conversation was as friendly and unthreatening as the transcript appears to indicate.
Neither is this new. I referred earlier to the “failed” Mueller investigation, but by what measure was it a failure? Mueller executed his mission precisely. It merely failed to produce the results that Democrats, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in particular, assured us would emerge.
Democrats set their target in 2016, immediately following the stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton by Donald Trump: Impeachment. The goal came first and the search for evidence came later. And this is where the comparison to Stalinism is not merely appropriate, but frightening in its precision.
From 1936 to 1938, a series of large trials were held in Moscow of senior Communist leaders accused of treason against Stalin’s government. Most of them even confessed to their alleged crimes. Yet in 1937, an American commission led by John Dewey proved that many of the specific charges made during the trials could not have been true.
These were Stalin’s “Show Trials.” The “guilt” of the accused was predetermined, and evidence, whether true, distorted, or fabricated from whole cloth, came later — and only then in service of the predetermined conclusion.
During the middle of Mueller’s work, Democrats took control of Congress with a new “squad” of loud leftists demanding they “impeach the mother******.” And time and again they have tried and failed to find a way to justify their predetermined conclusion. When Mueller produced the “nothingburger” that Van Jones of CNN predicted, the calls for impeachment only grew louder.
This is why Democrats now refuse to vote for a formal impeachment inquiry — because doing so would permit Republicans to subpoena witnesses that would bring the full truth to light. As another prominent rabbi once told me in a different context: “When you are searching for the law, you find the law. When you’re searching for a place to hang your hat, you find a nail.”
The Democrats are now using Ukraine as the nail upon which to hang their predetermined conclusion. It is the very opposite of justice — and incredibly dangerous for the future of our democracy.
&nbsp;
Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Managing Director of the <a href="https://coalitionforjewishvalues.org/">Coalition for Jewish Values</a>.

Stalin In Moscow

MENKEN: The New Stalinism

Donald Trump

Greta Thunberg

Impeachment

Joe Biden

Leftism

On Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang skewered &#8220;the Chinese government&#8221; and the NBA over the controversy regarding a tweet from Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets.
In a statement provided to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/465263-yang-rips-china-says-nba-should-stand-up-for-free-speech">The Hill</a>, Yang said:
<blockquote>The Chinese government banning NBA games because of a deleted tweet by a franchise employee is ridiculous. The main losers would be the Chinese fans who would find another way to watch the games. The NBA should feel confident in its position and stand up for the free speech rights of its employees.</blockquote>
On October 4, Morey sent out a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">tweet</a> that featured a pro-Hong Kong graphic, which read: &#8220;Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.&#8221;
Morey deleted the tweet, and issued the following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">statement</a>:
<blockquote>I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA.</blockquote>
The controversy surrounding Morey’s initial tweet has been monumental — multiple Chinese businesses have severed ties with the Houston Rockets. The team’s merchandise in a Beijing NBA store is allegedly being replaced, reports <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-state-broadcaster-drops-two-nba-games-11570522782">The Wall Street Journal</a>. Nike has also begun pulling Rockets merchandise from their Chinese stores, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-basketball-nba-nike/houston-rockets-nike-merchandise-disappears-from-china-stores-idUSKBN1WP109">Reuters</a>.
According to <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2019/10/8/20904450/nba-china-fallout-lakers-vs-nets-broadcast-streaming-tencent">SB Nation</a>: &#8220;Tencent, a streaming service with a billion-dollar deal to bring NBA games to people in China, announced it would ‘suspend all reports/streaming’ of Rockets games.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-nba-team-takes-microphone-away-from-cnn-reporter-asking-about-chinese-censorship">reported</a>, on Tuesday, fans at an NBA game in Philadelphia had their &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; signs confiscated, and were later escorted out of the stadium. On Wednesday, &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; and &#8220;Google Uyghurs&#8221; signs were also confiscated at an NBA game in Washington D.C.
Following Morey’s tweet, NBA Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass issued a <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPILDbUwAA_V2Z.jpg">statement</a>, which reads:
<blockquote>We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.</blockquote>
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also released a <a href="https://www.nba.com/article/2019/10/08/adam-silver-statement-china-nba">lengthy statement</a> in which he notes the &#8220;diversity&#8221; of &#8220;views, backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and religions&#8221; featured in the NBA.
<blockquote>It is inevitable that people around the world – including from America and China – will have different viewpoints over different issues. It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences. However, the NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way.</blockquote>
The statement concludes by suggesting that basketball should be &#8220;a unifying force&#8221; that fosters a focus on common interests, rather than differences.
State-run CCTV in China were not satisfied with Silver’s statement, releasing their own:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#China</a> ups the ante on the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a>. State TV CCTV to halt all broadcasts of games. Condemns Commissioner Adam Silver’s defense of <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a> statements on <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dmorey</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HongKongProtest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HongKongProtest</a>. CCTV announcement below: <a href="https://t.co/GoeKUktSkA">pic.twitter.com/GoeKUktSkA</a>
— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) <a href="https://twitter.com/onlyyoontv/status/1181470403731939328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>We have noticed that Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, who is participating in an event in Japan, has responded to Houston Rockets general manager Morey’s post of inappropriate Hong Kong-related remarks. We are strongly dissatisfied and we oppose Silver&#8217;s claim to support Morey’s right of free expression. We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech.
To this end, CCTV Sports Channel of the Central Radio and Television Administration has decided to immediately suspend the current broadcast arrangements of the NBA pre-season (China Games) and immediately investigate all cooperation and exchanges involving the NBA.</blockquote>
During a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday, Christina Macfarlane of CNN <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/houston-rockets-shut-down-reporter-asking-players-about-nba-china-n1064761">attempted to ask</a> two Houston Rockets players if they &#8220;feel differently&#8221; about engaging in political speech in light if the NBA/China firestorm.
&#8220;The NBA has always been a league that prides itself on its players and its coaches being able to speak out openly about political and societal affairs. I just wonder after the events of this week and the fallout we&#8217;ve seen, whether you both feel differently about speaking out in that way in the future?&#8221; Macfarlane asked.
After Macfarlane’s question, a female spokesperson said the players were only taking &#8220;basketball questions.&#8221; After some back and forth about the relevance of the question, the mic was taken from Macfarlane.
Macfarlane also asked Rockets coach Mike D&#8217;Antoni if he had &#8220;a message for &#8230; [the] Chinese fans who, rightly or wrongly, may have felt let down by the NBA this week?&#8221;
D&#8217;Antoni replied that &#8220;it’s a tough situation,&#8221; and that &#8220;Adam Silver speaks for the NBA,&#8221; and because D&#8217;Antoni works for the organization, he goes &#8220;with Adam,&#8221; who he says will &#8220;do the right thing.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;You can’t answer questions like that because you’re wrong no matter what &#8230; I coach basketball. I’m not a diplomat.&#8221;
Other politicians besides Yang have entered the fray.
In an October 9 <a href="https://gallagher.house.gov/sites/gallagher.house.gov/files/NBA%20China%20Letter.pdf">letter</a>, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), stated in part:
<blockquote>It is outrageous that the Chinese Communist Party is using its economic power to suppress the speech of Americans inside the United States. It is also outrageous that the NBA has caved to Chinese government demands for contrition. We are deeply concerned that individuals associated with the league may now engage in self-censorship that is inconsistent with American and the league’s stated values – and that this incident will only encourage further intimidation of American companies and persons by the Chinese government.</blockquote>
The lawmakers admonished NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to further state that the organization will &#8220;support their right [players, staff, partners, and fans] to express their opinions no matter the economic consequences.&#8221; The letter also makes several suggestions regarding the way the NBA should handle Chinese boycotts and business relations going forward.
This is far from the end of this developing controversy, which has engulfed the NBA, been the focus of intense media coverage, and elicited reactions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers — even including a presidential candidate.

Andrew Yang.

Andrew Yang Skewers China Over ‘Ridiculous’ Reaction To ‘Deleted Tweet’ From NBA General Manager

Andrew Yang

Censorship

The National Basketball Association found itself in the middle of a political firestorm of its own making when the Houston Rockets&#8217; general manager tweeted something simple and admirable: &#8220;Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.&#8221; The NBA&#8217;s first statement was cowardly. It began: &#8220;We recognize that the views expressed by &#8230; Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.&#8221; Morey buckled and deleted his tweet.
The NBA then went overseas to grovel.
A statement posted on the NBA&#8217;s Weibo social media network in China stated that they were &#8220;extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comment,&#8221; and as a result, Morey &#8220;has undoubtedly seriously hurt the feelings of Chinese basketball fans.&#8221; China is a huge and lucrative market for the NBA. If business means turning your back on freedom while defending one of the most brutally repressive regimes in human history — so be it.
That abject surrender, that spineless concession to a government now shooting pro-democracy protesters in the streets drew near-universal condemnation in America, ranging in Washington from conservative Sen. Ted Cruz to socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, readjusted to insist the league would not discourage their athletes or executives from speaking freely. &#8220;We are not apologizing for Daryl exercising his freedom of expression&#8221; — which is disingenuous. That is exactly what all of their &#8220;extremely disappointed&#8221; remarks implied.
And the duplicity continued. In Philadelphia, a 76ers fan named Sam Wachs and his wife brought a pair of signs that read &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; and &#8220;Free HK&#8221; as the Sixers took on the Guangzhou Loong Lions, a Chinese Basketball Association team. Wachs said he lived in Hong Kong for two years, so he sympathized with the protests. First, security confiscated their signs. When they yelled &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; during the second quarter, Wachs said, they were removed from the game.
Then the same Chinese team played the Washington Wizards in D.C., and the routine repeated itself. Several fans standing with a sign reading &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; and &#8220;Google: Uighurs&#8221; had them confiscated prior to the game. (The Uighurs are a Muslim minority in northwestern China, with an estimated one million people held in concentration camps.)
The NBA now doesn&#8217;t want to be political. But it&#8217;s been very political on the home front, when it has suited its purposes, which is to say, when it placates the left. The league moved the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte over a North Carolina law that in government offices, transgender people should use the bathroom of their gender &#8220;assigned at birth.&#8221; The NBA commissioner criticized President Donald Trump&#8217;s travel ban from seven Muslim countries as going &#8220;against the fundamental values and the fundamental ingredients of what makes for a great NBA.&#8221;
The NBA allowed their players to wear &#8220;I can&#8217;t breathe&#8221; shirts to protest police after Eric Garner suffocated while laying down on the sidewalk in New York. National Review&#8217;s Jim Geraghty underlined the hypocrisy: &#8220;Apparently the NBA is fine with protesting American police brutality, but not Hong Kong police brutality.&#8221;
Speaking of American police brutality, nobody&#8217;s found Colin Kaepernick saying anything about China&#8217;s grip on the NBA. The man with the Nike sneaker-selling slogan of &#8220;Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.&#8221; is silent while Nike orders the removal of all the Houston Rockets merchandise from their stories in China. Apparently, America is still the most horrible country in the world that was founded on racism, slavery and genocide.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

NBA sign.

BOZELL &#038; GRAHAM: The NBA Grovels To China

As the National Basketball Association (NBA) seeks to appease the Communist Party of China (CPC) by apologizing for any criticism that may be directed its way by one of its members, Americans should keep in mind that the league has a highly selective history regarding the causes for which it chooses to take a public stand.
As highlighted by <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/nba-boycotts-states-for-trans-bathrooms-but-censors-critics-of-authoritarian-china">LifeSiteNews</a>, the NBA effectively boycotted the state of North Carolina back in 2016 by pulling the league&#8217;s annual All-Star Game out of Charlotte due to the state&#8217;s law barring transgender individuals from entering a bathroom not corresponding to their biological sex. At the time, NBA commissioner Adam Silver gave the state a deadline to repeal the &#8220;discriminatory&#8221; law or else face having the game pulled. &#8220;I don&#8217;t see how we would get past this summer without knowing definitively where we stand,&#8221; he said.
Come July of that year, the NBA officially announced that the All-Star Game at issue would not take place in Charlotte, North Carolina — the league opted for New Orleans, instead.
&#8220;While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by [the transgender law],&#8221; the league stated at the time.
<blockquote>&#8220;We are particularly mindful of the impact of this decision on our fans in North Carolina, who are among the most passionate in our league. It is also important to stress that the City of Charlotte and the Hornets organization have sought to provide an inclusive environment and that the Hornets will continue to ensure that all patrons — including members of the LGBT community — feel welcome while attending games and events in their arena.&#8221;</blockquote>
In response to the NBA&#8217;s glaring hypocrisy by shaming North Carolina while seeming to overlook monstrous human rights abuses by the CPC in order to make a buck, Republicans have called out the league.
&#8220;I see hypocrisy,&#8221; former Republican North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article235910582.html">told </a>the Charlotte Observer. &#8220;They wanted to involve themselves with North Carolina commerce and an election, while not setting the same standard for China. I called them out then, and it’s still true now.&#8221;
&#8220;They were losing some sponsorships (if All-Star Weekend was held in North Carolina then); they told me that flat-out on the phone,&#8221; McCrory continued. &#8220;They got heavily involved with our community and elections, while ignoring China. I told the commissioner they’ve got a lot of business in China. But they’ve got a lot of sponsors there, and that would cost them hundreds of millions.”
The NBA is also not the only entity appeasing the CPC during this controversial firestorm. As reported by Reuters on Thursday, Nike <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nike-pulls-houston-rockets-merchandise-from-china-stores">has since been removing</a> Houston Rockets merchandise from its China stores in response to the team&#8217;s general manager expressing support for Hong Kong protesters.
&#8220;Houston Rockets sneakers and other merchandise were pulled from several Nike stores in major Chinese cities amid the furor surrounding a tweet from the team’s general manager in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong,&#8221; reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-basketball-nba-nike/houston-rockets-nike-merchandise-disappears-from-china-stores-idUSKBN1WP109">Reuters</a>. &#8220;Managers at five Nike stores in Beijing and Shanghai told Reuters during visits on Thursday they had been told in recent days via a memo from management that all Rockets merchandise had to be removed. Reuters was unable to view the memo.&#8221;

Houston Rockets v Toronto Raptors &#8211; NBA Japan Games

Reminder: The NBA Boycotts States For Trans Bathroom Policies

On Tuesday night, a husband and wife holding &#8220;Free Hong Kong&#8221; signs at a preseason NBA game in Philadelphia were kicked out of the stadium.
The man, identified as Sam Wachs, and his wife had their pro-Hong Kong signs confiscated by NBA employees and were escorted out of the Wells Fargo Center arena after Mr. Wachs shouted &#8220;Free Hong Kong,&#8221; a statement in support of the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations.
The 76ers were playing the Chinese squad Guangzhou Loong Lions.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
these are the signs that led to two fans being kicked out of Tuesday’s 76ers vs. Guangzhou Loong Lions game *in Philadelphia* <a href="https://t.co/xzQxhNyqIy">pic.twitter.com/xzQxhNyqIy</a>
&mdash; David Paulk 波大卫 (@davidpaulk) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidpaulk/status/1181894853707235328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;There&#8217;s no foul language, no politics.&#8217; I asked &#8216;Why not?&#8217; They said, &#8216;Don&#8217;t give me a hard time,'&#8221; Wachs explained to <a href="https://6abc.com/sports/sixers-fan-supporting-hong-hong-ejected-from-preseason-game/5604293/">Action News</a>.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s shameful, harsh reaction,&#8221; the man added.
&#8220;The moment Sam Wachs and his wife are escorted out of the [Sixers] preseason game against a Chinese basketball team for yelling &#8216;Free Hong Kong,'&#8221; <a href="https://6abc.com/sports/sixers-fan-supporting-hong-hong-ejected-from-preseason-game/5604293/">ABC 6</a> reporter Christie Ileto posted to Twitter.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The moment Sam Wachs and his wife are escorted out of the <a href="https://twitter.com/sixers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sixers</a> preseason game against a Chinese basketball team for yelling “Free Hong Kong.” <a href="https://twitter.com/6abc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@6abc</a> <a href="https://t.co/3HlZxKXDzs">pic.twitter.com/3HlZxKXDzs</a>
&mdash; Christie Ileto (@Christie_Ileto) <a href="https://twitter.com/Christie_Ileto/status/1181779722243575809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Earlier this week, the NBA took heat for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">cowering</a> to Communist China after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey upset Chinese officials by expressing support for the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. 
&#8220;Fight For Freedom Stand With Hong Kong,” a graphic tweeted by Mr. Morey read. 
According to <a href="https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2019/10/6/20901828/daryl-morey-hong-kong-china-houston-rockets-tweet-controversy">The Ringer</a>, the “Chinese Basketball Association, and various Chinese businesses quickly denounced Morey and moved to sever ties with the Rockets. As a consequence, league sources told The Ringer that Rockets ownership has debated Morey’s employment status and whether to replace him.”
“We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable,” NBA chief communications officer Mike Bass said in a statement released Sunday, reported <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">The Daily Wire</a>. &#8220;While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.”
Additionally, Morey deleted the tweet and offered an apology on social media. 
“I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event,” he said. &#8220;I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday that &#8220;he and the league are ‘apologetic’ that so many Chinese officials and fans were upset by Morey&#8217;s tweet and comments that followed — but insisted that Morey has the right to freedom of expression,” <a href="https://6abc.com/sports/sixers-fan-supporting-hong-hong-ejected-from-preseason-game/5604293/">ABC 6</a> reported. 
&#8220;Daryl Morey, as general manager of the Houston Rockets, enjoys that right as one of our employees,&#8221; said Silver. &#8220;What I also tried to suggest is that I understand there are consequences from his freedom of speech and we will have to live with those consequences.”

A Chinese flag placed on NBA merchandise

SHAMEFUL: Fans With ‘Free Hong Kong’ Sign Kicked Out Of NBA Game

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Houston Rockets cowered to communist China on Sunday after Rocket&#8217;s General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted out support for Hong Kong which sparked an immediate backlash from Chinese businesses and the Chinese government.
Morey tweeted out a graphic on Friday evening that stated: &#8220;Fight For Freedom Stand With Hong Kong&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A bunch of us have shared this, but <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ICYMI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ICYMI</a>, here&#8217;s what <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HoustonRockets</a> GM Daryl Morey tweeted that offended his bosses and league officials <a href="https://t.co/agjiLZjC2R">pic.twitter.com/agjiLZjC2R</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1181056501303123969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
&#8220;The Houston Rockets suddenly find themselves in the middle of a geopolitical controversy that could put their chief front-office executive’s job in jeopardy,&#8221; The Ringer <a href="https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2019/10/6/20901828/daryl-morey-hong-kong-china-houston-rockets-tweet-controversy">reported</a>. &#8220;After general manager Daryl Morey expressed support in a since-deleted tweet for pro-democracy efforts in Hong Kong, the Chinese government, the Chinese Basketball Association, and various Chinese businesses quickly denounced Morey and moved to sever ties with the Rockets. As a consequence, league sources told The Ringer that Rockets ownership has debated Morey’s employment status and whether to replace him.&#8221;
On Sunday, NBA chief communications officer Mike Bass released the following statement:
<blockquote>We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable. While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals’ educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them. We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.</blockquote>
Daryl Morey also apologized for standing up for freedom, tweeting: &#8220;I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
2/ I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA.
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/1181000809363857409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets, said in a tweet that Morey&#8217;s beliefs did &#8220;NOT speak&#8221; for the team&#8217;s values, writing: &#8220;Listen&#8230;. @dmorey does NOT speak for the @HoustonRockets. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the @NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Listen&#8230;.<a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dmorey</a> does NOT speak for the <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HoustonRockets</a>. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a> internationally and we are NOT a political organization. <a href="https://twitter.com/espn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@espn</a> <a href="https://t.co/yNyQFtwTTi">https://t.co/yNyQFtwTTi</a>
— Tilman Fertitta (@TilmanJFertitta) <a href="https://twitter.com/TilmanJFertitta/status/1180330287957495809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Houston Rockets, the NBA, Fertitta, and Morey also faced intense backlash online for cowering to China&#8217;s communist government, which was responsible for the murder of tens of millions of its own citizens under Mao Zedong, and which currently has millions of people locked up in concentration camps.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) tweeted: &#8220;So let me get this straight. @HoustonRockets GM Daryl Morey expresses support for Hong Kong democracy movement &amp; Chinese government pressures NBA to fire him? Moment of truth for NBA. Will they bow to pressure from repressive, authoritarian govt?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">
So let me get this straight. <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HoustonRockets</a> GM Daryl Morey expresses support for Hong Kong democracy movement &amp; Chinese government pressures NBA to fire him? Moment of truth for NBA. Will they bow to pressure from repressive, authoritarian govt? <a href="https://t.co/S9fChodCfP">https://t.co/S9fChodCfP</a>
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1181006229193285632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Chinese govt has a million people locked in concentration camps &amp; is trying to brutally repress Hong Kong demonstrators &#8211; and NBA wants to &#8216;bridge cultural divides&#8217;? Cultural divides?&#8221; Hawley added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Chinese govt has a million people locked in concentration camps &amp; is trying to brutally repress Hong Kong demonstrators &#8211; and NBA wants to “bridge cultural divides”? Cultural divides? <a href="https://t.co/d6jXQOzb5F">https://t.co/d6jXQOzb5F</a>
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1181016264178835461?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted: &#8220;As a lifelong @HoustonRockets fan, I was proud to see @dmorey call out the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive treatment of protestors in Hong Kong. Now, in pursuit of big $$, the @nba is shamefully retreating.&#8221;
&#8220;We’re better than this; human rights shouldn’t be for sale &amp; the NBA shouldn’t be assisting Chinese communist censorship,&#8221; Cruz added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We’re better than this; human rights shouldn’t be for sale &amp; the NBA shouldn’t be assisting Chinese communist censorship.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1181030466247417861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) tweeted: &#8220;It’s clear that the <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/NBA" data-focusable="true">@NBA </a>is more interested in money than human rights. Tonight’s statement from Commissioner Silver is an absolute joke. The NBA is kowtowing to Beijing to protect their bottom line and disavowing those with the temerity to <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/standwithHongKong?src=hashtag_click" data-focusable="true">#standwithHongKong</a>. Shameful!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s clear that the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a> is more interested in money than human rights. Tonight’s statement from Commissioner Silver is an absolute joke.
The NBA is kowtowing to Beijing to protect their bottom line and disavowing those with the temerity to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/standwithHongKong?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#standwithHongKong</a>. Shameful! <a href="https://t.co/RBPJa04xzK">https://t.co/RBPJa04xzK</a>
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenRickScott/status/1181024291095273473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech tweeted: &#8220;I hope a player, just one, is brave enough to speak out against this corporate bullshit bending of the knee.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I hope a player, just one, is brave enough to speak out against this corporate bullshit bending of the knee. <a href="https://t.co/AEXYesM3Dj">https://t.co/AEXYesM3Dj</a>
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) <a href="https://twitter.com/bdomenech/status/1181011431938023425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Famed sports analyst Clay Travis tweeted: &#8220;ESPN is set to broadcast from China this week. The woke league with the woke broadcasting network. All shilling for Chinese communists. Y’all think they’ll say anything at all? Ha ha. The hypocrisy is crazy. When the NBA pulled out of Charlotte ESPN praised them to high heavens.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ESPN is set to broadcast from China this week. The woke league with the woke broadcasting network. All shilling for Chinese communists. Y’all think they’ll say anything at all? Ha ha. The hypocrisy is crazy. When the NBA pulled out of Charlotte ESPN praised them to high heavens. <a href="https://t.co/Y3ZySBJc7c">pic.twitter.com/Y3ZySBJc7c</a>
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1181031078427009030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
TIME columnist Ian Bremmer tweeted: &#8220;I get the @NBA not wanting to side with Hong Kong because it’s politically uncomfortable. But apologizing to the Chinese dictatorship against the democracy they’re repressing? As an American sports league? That’s unconscionable.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I get the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a> not wanting to side with Hong Kong because it’s politically uncomfortable.
But apologizing to the Chinese dictatorship against the democracy they’re repressing? As an American sports league?
That’s unconscionable.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1181027905243160576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Even far-left people in the media reacted strongly against the NBA, including Vox&#8217;s Aaron Rupar and former Obama official Ben Rhodes.
&#8220;This is a hostage video,&#8221; Rupar tweeted. &#8220;What an embarrassment for the @NBA.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is a hostage video. What an embarrassment for the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a>. <a href="https://t.co/wWDD5y8ZMO">https://t.co/wWDD5y8ZMO</a>
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1181005750367391745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Rhodes tweeted: &#8220;Just consider that the NBA is suggesting that supporting democracy and human rights &#8216;does not represent&#8217; the NBA or the values that the league supports. What values does the league support?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Just consider that the NBA is suggesting that supporting democracy and human rights &#8220;does not represent&#8221; the NBA or the values that the league supports. What values does the league support? <a href="https://t.co/m8VGkRVUiP">https://t.co/m8VGkRVUiP</a>
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) <a href="https://twitter.com/brhodes/status/1181029977388486657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>

China Communist Party Houston Rockets

BACKFIRE: NBA, Houston Rockets Cower To Communist China, Get Blasted Online

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire and Democrat megadonor, was called out during an interview that aired on Friday on PBS&#8217;s &#8220;Firing Line&#8221; for repeatedly praising the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Bloomberg&#8217;s remarks came in response to a question from Margaret Hoover about climate change and how the United States can get India and China to be more responsible in reducing carbon emissions.
&#8220;China is doing a lot, India is doing some, but I think China is doing a lot,&#8221; Bloomberg responded. &#8220;Yes, they’re still building a lot of coal-fired power plants &#8230; but they’re now moving plants away from the cities.&#8221;
&#8220;The Communist Party wants to stay in power in China and they listen to the public,&#8221; Bloomberg continued. &#8220;When the public says ‘I can’t breathe the air,’ Xi Jinping is not a dictator, he has to satisfy his constituents or he’s not going to survive.&#8221;
&#8220;He’s not a dictator?&#8221; Hoover fired back.
&#8220;No,&#8221; Bloomberg responded. &#8220;He has a constituency to answer to.&#8221;
&#8220;He doesn’t have a vote. He doesn’t have a democracy. He’s not held accountable by voters,&#8221; Hoover pressed. &#8220;Is the check on him just a revolution?&#8221;
&#8220;You’re not going to have a revolution. No government survives without the will of the majority of its people,&#8221; Bloomberg responded as he became defensive. &#8220;Okay?&#8221;
A few moments later, Bloomberg said that if the United States can lead on climate change, then the Chinese people &#8220;can go to the government and say, &#8216;if America can do it, why can’t we do it?'&#8221;
Hoover, however, did not let Bloomberg off the hook about his comments on the CPC being responsive to the people of China, saying, &#8220;the idea that the Chinese government is responsive to sort of a Democratic expression of fresh air, clean air &#8230; &#8221;
&#8220;Oh, come on, of course they are,&#8221; Bloomberg interrupted.
&#8220;I’m looking at the people in Hong Kong who are protesting &#8230; &#8221; Hoover continued.
&#8220;Go back and read the press, the days when you have big pollution in Beijing and they’re doing something about it,&#8221; Bloomberg responded as he ignored the Chinese government&#8217;s crackdown on freedom. &#8220;That’s ridiculous. They are very responsive to it.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Firing Line host Margaret Hoover shreds Democrat megadonor Michael Bloomberg for his shocking defense of the Communist Party of China <a href="https://t.co/bLNrm037gR">pic.twitter.com/bLNrm037gR</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1178106304226717697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Hill&#8217;s Saagar Enjeti responded to Bloomberg&#8217;s comments by tweeting: &#8220;This clip becomes less bizarre when you remember that Bloomberg just added hundreds of billions in Chinese corporate bonds to its indexes.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">
This clip becomes less bizarre when you remember that Bloomberg just added hundreds of billions in Chinese corporate bonds to its indexes <a href="https://t.co/UJYovb0BbC">https://t.co/UJYovb0BbC</a> <a href="https://t.co/mPkExm6asg">https://t.co/mPkExm6asg</a>
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) <a href="https://twitter.com/esaagar/status/1177627236607959044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
Vice News&#8217; Michael Moynihan tweeted: &#8220;The headline here is that Bloomberg says China *isn’t* a dictatorship. Good push back from <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/MargaretHoover" data-focusable="true">@MargaretHoover</a>; incoherent, condescending responses from <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://twitter.com/MikeBloomberg" data-focusable="true">@MikeBloomberg</a>.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The headline here is that Bloomberg says China *isn’t* a dictatorship. Good push back from <a href="https://twitter.com/MargaretHoover?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MargaretHoover</a>; incoherent, condescending responses from <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeBloomberg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MikeBloomberg</a> <a href="https://t.co/jiShMxdohh">https://t.co/jiShMxdohh</a>
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) <a href="https://twitter.com/mcmoynihan/status/1177555408715747328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
President of Foundation for Defense of Democracies Clifford D. May tweeted: &#8220;Bloomberg is drawing a moral equivalence between one of the most repressive regimes on the planet and democratic societies. On the basis that in China there are &#8216;stakeholders.&#8217; So how are the Tibetan, Uighur, and Christian stakeholders doing? Asking for a friend.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bloomberg is drawing a moral equivalence between one of the most repressive regimes on the planet and democratic societies. On the basis that in China there are &#8220;stakeholders.&#8221; So how are the Tibetan, Uighur, and Christian stakeholders doing? Asking for a friend. <a href="https://t.co/x37o4LwSkJ">https://t.co/x37o4LwSkJ</a>
— Clifford D. May (@CliffordDMay) <a href="https://twitter.com/CliffordDMay/status/1177400568035323904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
Author Michael Brendan Dougherty tweeted: &#8220;This is going to be one of the biggest problems going forward. The richest most powerful Western capitalists schilling for the Chicoms. Also one of the biggest opportunities.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is going to be one of the biggest problems going forward. The richest most powerful Western capitalists schilling for the Chicoms.
Also one of the biggest opportunities. <a href="https://t.co/9YmumBBwb9">https://t.co/9YmumBBwb9</a>
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/1177571403828215808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>

Michael Bloomberg

Democrat Megadonor Michael Bloomberg Repeatedly Defends China&#8217;s Communist Party, Gets Slammed By Critics

Our age loves scientific equations. Here&#8217;s one you weren&#8217;t taught at college but which affects you as much as the law of gravity:
GI &#8211; W = E
Good Intentions (GI) minus Wisdom (W) leads to Evil (E).
You weren&#8217;t taught this rule at college because the modern university believes only science has rules. &#8220;Rules of life&#8221; is another term for wisdom, and there is no wisdom — or even pursuit of wisdom — at our universities.
Life has rules just like the natural sciences do. Examples include:
Ingratitude makes happiness impossible.
Corrupt people think everyone else is as corrupt as they are.
Human nature is not basically good.
Feelings are far less important than actions.
Most men need a woman to mature. Most women need a man to mature.
The list is long. And the more life rules people know and live by the better people they&#8217;ll be — the better the world will be.
There is a reason Jordan Peterson&#8217;s book &#8220;12 Rules for Life&#8221; has sold millions of copies, mostly to young people. It is the same reason PragerU has a billion views a year, mostly among people under 35. Many young people are sensing they have been cheated by the adults that have taught them, for example, to pursue self-esteem rather than self-control — a &#8220;rule&#8221; guaranteed to lead to moral and professional failure.
But one rule almost no one was taught, that explains most organized evil and the left in particular, from the Bolsheviks to Mao to Castro to Chavez to your everyday leftist in New York or Iowa: Good intentions without wisdom leads to evil.
Communism, the greatest mass murder ideology in history, was for almost all its rank-and-file supporters rooted in their desire to do good. (This was rarely true for its leaders, whose greatest desire was power.)
The many millions of people all over the world who supported communism did not think they were supporting unprecedented levels of mass murder and torture or an equally unprecedented deprivation of the most fundamental human rights of a substantial percentage of humanity. They thought they were moral, building a beautiful future for humanity — eliminating inequality, enabling people to work as hard or as little as they wanted, providing their fellow citizens &#8220;free&#8221; education and &#8220;free&#8221; health care. They were convinced that the moral arc of history was bending in their direction and that they were good because their motives were good.
That&#8217;s why leftists have such moral contempt for those who differ with them. Because those on the Left are so good, only bad human beings could possibly oppose them. That is the position of virtually every editor and columnist at The New York Times.
The problem with communists and with leftists who don&#8217;t consider themselves communists is not that none of them mean well. It&#8217;s that they lack wisdom. There are wise and foolish liberals, wise and foolish conservatives; but all leftists are fools. Every one of the Democrats running for president is a fool. This is not, however, a description of their totality as a human being. Fools may be personally kind and generous, may be loyal friends and devoted spouses, and of course, they may be well-intentioned. But in terms of making the world worse, there is little difference between a well-meaning fool and an evil human being. Tens of millions of well-intentioned Westerners supported Stalin. The Westerners who supplied Stalin the secrets to the atom bomb were not motivated by evil. They were simply fools. But few evil people did as much to hurt the world as they did.
They are fools partly because they believe good intentions are all that matter. Therefore, they never ask perhaps the most important moral question one can ask: What will happen if my policy is enacted? Leftist supporters of communism never asked.
Democrats who push the country-bankrupting Green New Deal provide a contemporary example. They not only deny the economy- and society-crushing consequences of the Green New Deal, they deny any price will be paid. Every home, office, hospital, school and business will be forced to stop using fossil fuels, yet only good will come from that. Giving that amount of coercive power to the state is of no consequence to leftists. In their make-believe world, no one will suffer. On the contrary, America will become richer, and millions of jobs will be created while we destroy our economy. Poor Africans trying to electrify their countries will be told not to — yet they, too, will somehow become rich using only wind and sun.
If the Green New Deal is enacted, the American economy will tank — and with it, much of the rest of the world. Tyrannies like China and Iran will be emboldened, as will dictatorships like Russia.
On every issue in which the Left differs from conservatives (and often from liberals), they are fools. They push for a Palestinian state although even Israelis on the left know this would mean a Hamas-Hezbollah state on the Israeli border. But they know they mean well.
They routinely label the beacon of freedom on Earth racist, misogynistic, homophobic, imperialistic, genocidal; cheapen the label &#8220;Nazi&#8221;; promote all-black dorms and graduations; promote preteen boys&#8217; performing drag shows; tell young women career is more important to happiness than marriage; believe a country can remain a distinct nation with open borders; condemn parents who try to reassure their 3-year-old son that he is a boy; and ruin the university, the arts, late-night comedy, pro football and religion.
But they mean well.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Exodus. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

Equations.jpeg

PRAGER: The Equation That Explains Evil

Progressivism

Seemingly every year, some prominent conservative goes out of his way to contemptuously mock the U.S.-recognized federal holiday known as Labor Day. The general rationale for such scorn is that Labor Day came into being and, to some extent, still exists to glorify and harken us back to the once-dominant labor movements of yore. Labor Day, the narrative goes, was a capitalism-undermining governmental fabrication that bestowed unnecessary social capital and legitimacy upon the restive, and oftentimes outright violent, unionized forces of the proletariat.
It is true that sometimes, shibboleths and outmoded orthodoxies require <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49750/hammer-national-conservatism-conference-josh-hammer">fresh, innovative thinking</a>. But it is also the case that the general conservative disdain for Labor Day is not a particularly good example of that. This &#8220;holiday&#8221; deserves all the derision it can possibly receive.
Simply put, Labor Day is indeed an anti-capitalism, anti-economic growth federal &#8220;holiday&#8221; born out of the ashes of the late 19th century&#8217;s societally ruinous labor movement. It is a manifestly stupid socialist &#8220;holiday&#8221; and conservatives are wholly justified to make fun of it.
While the precise origins of how Labor Day came to be recognized as a federal holiday in 1894 are subject to historical debate, it is uncontested that various cogs of Big Labor served as the driving force. According to one version of the history, Central Labor Union (CLU) Secretary Matthew Maguire first proposed the federalization of the holiday after the CLU successfully held a pan-organizational parade of labor organizations in New York City on September 5, 1882. According to a different version of the history, American Federation of Labor Vice President P.J. McGuire initially proposed the federalized holiday to the CLU as a means of publicly demonstrating and flaunting Big Labor&#8217;s institutional might.
But the Haymarket massacre of 1886 threw a wrench into Big Labor&#8217;s self-aggrandizing plot. On May 4, 1886, radical leftist anarchist forces disrupted a pro-worker labor rally in Chicago by throwing a bomb at local police. Seven police officers and four civilians paid the ultimate price, and eight committed leftist anarchists were ultimately convicted of conspiracy. Indeed, Grover Cleveland&#8217;s initial 1887 decision to campaign on a September-based Labor Day, as well as his ultimate 1894 presidential decision to sign the holiday into law, were both based on a conscientious awareness that allowing the holiday to be celebrated in May — in accordance with the venerable European tradition known as May Day — risked the perception of positively commemorating the violent, radical leftist anarchy of the Haymarket massacre.
In a nutshell, then, Labor Day was born out of violence and Big Labor intimidation. Chris Pandolfo, writing at Conservative Review two years ago, <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/happy-labor-day-a-holiday-born-in-violence/">elaborated</a> upon how even President Cleveland&#8217;s ultimate signing of the holiday into law was itself a final act of gross capitulation toward the insubordinate socialist rabble-rousers of the labor movement:
<blockquote>When the Panic of 1893 hit, several workers were laid off from the Pullman Car Company, while the rest suffered an average of a one-fourth wage cut. Eventually, the downtrodden and livid workers organized a strike, and to their aid quickly came the American Railway Union (ARU) and its socialist leader, Eugene V. Debs. Debs helped orchestrate a national boycott of trains carrying Pullman cars.
The strike lasted three months, from May 11 to July 11, 1894. When replacement workers (&#8220;strikebreakers&#8221;) were called in to cross the picket line, violence erupted. Riots, the pillaging of railway cars, and property destruction ensued.
But it was the interruption of postal mail delivery that really brought the strike to the federal government’s attention. President Cleveland declared the strike a federal crime — insisting that the strikers were prohibiting the government from carrying out its constitutional responsibility for mail delivery. Soon after, 14,000 federal and state troops were called upon to break up the strike.
By the strike’s end, as many as 30 people had been killed. In Chicago, lawless strikers took advantage of the violence to &#8220;rob, burn, and plunder,&#8221; leading to an estimated $80 million in property damages. Debs and the leaders of the ARU were jailed and the union dissolved.
With the nation roiling and the 1894 midterm elections approaching, Cleveland’s administration sought a way to appease the labor movement. Thus came Labor Day. The legislation was expedited through Congress and signed by the president on June 28, 1894, in the midst of the Pullman strike.</blockquote>
By all means, conservatives, enjoy your day off work. Enjoy your end of summer sales. Enjoy your barbecues and picnics. Enjoy your final day showcasing the sartorial delight that is seersucker before our fashion overlords deem the fabric verboten tomorrow.
But while you are enjoying yourselves today, do be aware of Labor Day&#8217;s wretched, leftist, socialist, anarchist origins. And do not hesitate to mock this remarkably silly &#8220;holiday&#8221; as much as your heart desires.

Construction Workers

HAMMER: Labor Day Is A Stupid Socialist ‘Holiday’ And Conservatives Are Right To Bash It

United States

Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was accused of promoting communist-style propaganda posters on Friday, which promote her <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/green-new-deal-would-cost-93-trillion-or-600g-per-household-study-says">$93 trillion</a> Green New Deal.
&#8220;Surprise! I am thrilled to announce the launch of our #GreenNewDeal art series with custom Bronx &amp; Queens GND posters,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. &#8220;The Bronx edition poster will be given for free as a limited release to the public at our Pelham Bay Nature Day &amp; Backpack Giveaway in the Bronx tomorrow.&#8221;
The tweet included two posters that many claimed looked like Soviet-era propaganda.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Surprise! I am thrilled to announce the launch of our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreenNewDeal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreenNewDeal</a> art series with custom Bronx &amp; Queens GND posters.
The Bronx edition poster will be given for free as a limited release to the public at our Pelham Bay Nature Day &amp; Backpack Giveaway in the Bronx tomorrow.
/1 <a href="https://t.co/xD4AinKrWi">pic.twitter.com/xD4AinKrWi</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1167486090913210369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;These posters push us to imagine our future with a Green New Deal in two of our beloved NY-14 parks: Pelham Bay &amp; Flushing Meadows. All our #GND posters are made in the US, union-printed &amp; will be available for purchase soon, but available at organizing events now,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez added. &#8220;Bronx &amp; Queens art is where we’re starting, but we aspire to release custom #GreenNewDeal art for local communities across America. We are also working on a line of GND reusables! The first 250 prints will be released at Family Nature Day tomorrow, where we’re doing park tours.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Bronx &amp; Queens art is where we’re starting, but we aspire to release custom <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreenNewDeal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreenNewDeal</a> art for local communities across America.
We are also working on a line of GND reusables!
The first 250 prints will be released at Family Nature Day tomorrow, where we’re doing park tours: <a href="https://t.co/AMrUX4etG5">pic.twitter.com/AMrUX4etG5</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1167489709020450827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Here are some of the reactions that critics online had of her posters:
&#8220;This looks awful similar to Soviet era propaganda,&#8221; Pradheep J. Shanker tweeted, adding: &#8220;Just saying.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">This looks awful similar to Soviet era propaganda&#8230;
&#8230;just saying. <a href="https://t.co/vXp3f4cjER">https://t.co/vXp3f4cjER</a>
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) <a href="https://twitter.com/Neoavatara/status/1167502806997262337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Jeryl Bier tweeted: &#8220;I wonder if it was a conscious decision to use a World War I Victory memorial as the centerpiece for @AOC&#8217;s #GND poster?&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">I wonder if it was a conscious decision to use a World War I Victory memorial as the centerpiece for <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a>&#8216;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GND?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GND</a> poster? <a href="https://t.co/Tea2mUZeOB">https://t.co/Tea2mUZeOB</a>
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerylBier/status/1167499315226525697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Charlie Kirk tweeted: &#8220;Why does this seem like something the Soviet Union would post throughout the Red Square?&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Why does this seem like something the Soviet Union would post throughout the Red Square? <a href="https://t.co/buxyph4kSV">https://t.co/buxyph4kSV</a>
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1167519417648975872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Derek Hunter tweeted: &#8220;Communists, fascists, and socialists love their posters. People may suffer and die, but there will be state-sanctioned &#8216;art.'&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Communists, fascists, and socialists love their posters. People may suffer and die, but there will be state-sanctioned &#8220;art.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/srfMot4BYj">https://t.co/srfMot4BYj</a>
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) <a href="https://twitter.com/derekahunter/status/1167559198353317893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Tom Rogan tweeted: &#8220;These posters have a weirdly Soviet/Maoist/NoKo quality to them.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">These posters have a weirdly Soviet/Maoist/NoKo quality to them. <a href="https://t.co/3ytSSvzEWM">https://t.co/3ytSSvzEWM</a>
— Tom Rogan (@TomRtweets) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomRtweets/status/1167524358799147008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Jon Nicosia tweeted a photo of Soviet propaganda and wrote: &#8220;Similar vibe.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Similar vibe <a href="https://t.co/LqErrVzhGp">https://t.co/LqErrVzhGp</a> <a href="https://t.co/mPhODSquxx">pic.twitter.com/mPhODSquxx</a>
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsPolitics/status/1167489883046330369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Harry Khachatrian tweeted: &#8220;@AOC shares Soviet Union inspired propaganda posters to promote her &#8216;Green New Deal.'&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a> shares Soviet Union inspired propaganda posters to promote her “Green New Deal” <a href="https://t.co/fFOZPP9ycB">https://t.co/fFOZPP9ycB</a> <a href="https://t.co/FWGHs95m1O">pic.twitter.com/FWGHs95m1O</a>
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) <a href="https://twitter.com/Harry1T6/status/1167524138950549504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Ian Miles Cheong tweeted a photo of her posters in red and wrote: &#8220;Fixed that for you.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Fixed that for you. <a href="https://t.co/1D4g9XEMMC">pic.twitter.com/1D4g9XEMMC</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1167540848868786176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

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Communism

Articles tagged with Communism