113 Comments

I'm a capitalist, but corporate America now takes such a short-term view of things and have so much power that I wonder how much longer our freedoms (or what's left of them) can be sustained. Three cheers for the WTA for showing some foresight.

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having grown up and lived during the cold war, i look on the cowardice of americans now on these issues with something approaching astonishment, certainly with a sense of shame in our country. putting it in that old cold war context, imagining this sort of thing being done then, the republicans would be all over anyone who kowtowed (a perfect word in this context) to the russians in order to be allowed to make money in that country. China is intent on becoming the next british empire and laying the west low and they are very clever at how they are going about it. instead of responding we are fighting over critical race theory, abortion, whether paving the roads and building up the infrastructure is socialism or not, and abandoning any sense of the importance of the constitution and democracy to our country. I applaud the WTF and as well hope that people in this country start to find the balls to take a stand; thanks as always for this post.

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Kyle Bass is one hedge fund manager who cares about human rights in China (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/01/hayman-capitals-kyle-bass-blasts-us-companies-for-cozying-up-to-china.html)

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founding

This hedge find guy was exactly to whom Lenin was referring when he said; "The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”

I also find him morally repugnant on a whole other level.

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I was a strict parent. I had five kids. American, well-to-do, and I was supposed to tolerate all kinds of things that I didn't. I'm searching my memory banks, and yet I cannot recall killing one of my kids for misbehaving.

To mangle a Randy Newman song: People who make bad analogies have no reason to live.

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Bari. It’s Enes Kanter FREEDOM. American citizen.

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I've long been disappointed by the response of institutions to threats to liberal democracy. Unsurprisingly, firms have been very weak. But institutions which should provide intellectual and moral leadership, such as universities and parties, have also been poor. Whilst I admire the WTA, the actions of this institution seem to be the exception, rather than the rule. This reflects institutional incentive structures; almost no institutions want to rock the boat!

Given this crisis of institutions, individuals must be the primary defenders of liberal democracy. It's heartening to see so many of these individuals on platforms such as Substack.

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Dalio was truly pathetic in responding on the CCP.

He would have sound far more sensible if he had simply said: “Hey, I’m just here making money whoring for the CCP. Why are you asking me these questions?”

Very sad - he HAD to know he’d be asked about it…

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founding

Nike revenue $44 billion with $8.2 billion from China. Not to mention the steep discount they receive on labor in China…..

😬😬😬

Nike not so brave*.

The popularity of tennis in China is ranked 120th but that’s because the popularity of tennis is calculated using Google data.

Let’s just say that if 20% of the global tennis audience was in China, the WTA would not be quite so ballsy. If France and Australia open Uyghur camps, expect a strange mid-serve hush to fall over WTA headquarters.

*if segment revenue / total revenue < 3% then ‘brave’ occurs

PS the “10% for the big guy” was 100% from China segment revenue so don’t expect a lot of ‘brave’ from US President Jiao Bideng.

PPS I love that nickname so much because a ‘jiao’ is a monetary unit representing 1/10th of a Yuan.

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Ray Dalio is the sociopath's sociopath. The less you listen to his self-serving horseshit, the better you'll feel.

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There should be heavy public pressure on the Williams' sisters to step up and vocally support the WTA boycott of China. That would then put the pressure on Lebron James and the NBA to stop deflecting on the issue and take a stand, less they be exposed as the greedy woke hypocrites that they are. If the NBA steps up, the floodgates would open and many others would follow, including, hopefully, a USA boycott of the Olympics. This would be a tremendous first step in knocking over the dominoes and striking the Chinese right between the eyes.

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Love the title Bari.

China should never have been permitted into the WTO. The only thing Xi can’t do at this point is to make himself immortal.

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"China is ruled by an increasingly totalitarian regime..."

Not sure how much cap space is left for China to get more totalitarian. Just more insidious with their collection of data.

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it's easy to be principled when you have nothing in the game , Maybe people should stop buying cheap made in China crap stop demanding low prices that can only be produced by slave labour ? Stop shopping at walmart and other big box China supporting businesses . As consumers demand made in the USA or some other free country product , Give the big boys a reason to shut off dealing with China . We are all guilty by demanding cheap products that cannot be produced by people making a decent wage

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And nothing from the feminist movement , BLM , NBA , POTUS , Hollywood etc.. will not watch NBA unless Enos Kantor is playing .

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Courage comes from the most unlikely quarters. Remember tank man? We are all called to courage. Chinas leadership is a great evil in this world. It must be resisted.

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