Thursday, November 16, 2017

UCLA players express regret for shoplifting in China, thank Trump for interceding

Thus proving they can read.

They did not write this contrition. Somebody else did, and not by their own volition either. Trump goaded somebody else to reaction, in the NCAA or at UCLA. 

And that would not have happened had Trump not trolled them through Twitter.

Everyone wants Trump to cease tweeting yet with his one trolling tweet Trump manages to break Media's ridiculous silence on his Asian tour. He knows American media's audience is Reddit-level news consumers so that's who he addresses: 





The comments to this Trump tweet and to this video are a mixed bag of viewpoints. I'm interested to know yours.  

18 comments:

edutcher said...

Needless to say, The Donald did not have to do this.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

From now on I hope the relevant authorities warn players to abstain from this behavior while representing our country abroad.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Now trump probably owes one to the Chicoms.

Rabel said...

I just wonder who decided to have them dress in stripes.

ndspinelli said...

I surmise some intelligent adult told these bozos they were in a serious trick bag in China and were facing 10 years and that they owe Trump thanks.

ricpic said...

Thank God for the Chinese Poeleece!

Chip Ahoy said...

Stripes. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

AllenS said...

Who else should they thank? Hillary?

Leland said...

I played in the band in college, and one year, we went with the women's B-Ball team as they played in the NCAA tourney. This included at trip to San Diego, and an opportunity to visit Tijuana while in college. On taxi ride south, the driver told us whatever we did, "do not pee in public".

Where the heck did that advice come from? He didn't tell us not to hire prostitutes. He didn't tell us to avoid the donkey show. But he thought we should know not to pee in public?

There was about a dozen us that went south, and after an or so at an Americanized bar, half us got bored and went back to the hotel. The other half stayed a bit later. Apparently the second half (some where with me on the way south and heard the driver) decided on their walk back to the border to pee alongside some street. It took $150, twice, to bribe cops into not taking them to jail. There were the first cops that caught them, and then a second set of cops that "we're called as backup" closer to the border that harassed them again.

College kids do stupid things. What most don't know is that other countries have tougher laws than the US, and none, outside of Europe, treat their criminals like we do in the US. My advice when visiting a country that shoots dissidents in stadiums, don't steal anything. Not even a banner that you think might make a neat keepsake.

The reality is, those students went their for the host country to make money off of them. They'll make money off them spending to be there, they'll make money off selling tickets for citizens to see them, and given the chance; they'll make money off ransoming them to get back home.

Trooper York said...

President Trump should have let them rot.

Why waste a favor for these ungrateful snots. They had to be reminded to thank him.

Typical.

Methadras said...

Trump did these malcontents a solid. They should be kissing his ass and shining his shoes for life. Fucking embarrassments as far as I'm concerned. I'm shocked they didn't take a knee or proclaim the chinese police didn't racially profile them or some other stupid BLM SJW bullshit.

Rabel said...

It was a minor issue which could have become a major one if these twats were sentenced to serious jail time.

Trump did exactly the right thing by sweeping it under the rug with a minimum of publicity. It looks to me that he has established a working relationship with Xi and took advantage of that to put this away. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were no tits-for-tats and Xi simply said, "Yeah, whatever. Get 'em outta here."

He would have said that in Chinese as "Mei wenti. Zaijian, losers."

chickelit said...

Thugs can’t be thugs in China?

MamaM said...

I'm stuck at the beginning of the story wondering what they were stealing and what led them to think it was ok to do so?

They apparently took items from three stores during the 90 minutes of free time they were given to "explore the city", with multiple items taken.

From my seat is looks like 3 young men, talented enough to be on a college ball team and old enough to vote, didn't received the necessary direction or life lessons from their parents or the culture in which they were raised to refrain from amusing themselves or procuring goods through theft.

While they are responsible as adults for their behavior, the question of how they came to believe this kind of behavior was acceptable also needs to be addressed.

After the tour, Guerrero said the teams returned to their hotel, where players were allowed 90 minutes to explore the city.

During that time, Guerrero said, the three players went to three stores in the mall adjacent to the hotel and stole the items before returning to the hotel. The following morning, local police arrived and interviewed players from UCLA and Georgia Tech to determine which players had stolen the goods, before eventually settling on Ball, Riley and Hall...They did not elaborate on what was stolen, though it had been previously reported that one of the items was a pair of sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store.

XRay said...

MamaM... very few adults left, anymore. We've got Admirals taking bribes, congress critters thinking they are above it all.

The whole damn system is bad.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

They should have said thank you sooner, but the statement they finally gave was appropriate (at least what I heard this morning).

Trump went to the favor bank to get them out. They were flat out guilty on this one.

William said...

It takes a certain amount of intelligence to realize you're stupid. Gifted athletes are prone to hubris.

rcocean said...

Why give them special treatment? Should have been treated like any other "Foreign Devil" who shop lifted. And how dumb. "Yeah, I'm 6'6" and and black/white and I'll steal from this Chinese shop. No will notice me. I'll just blend right in"

And sorry, I don't buy the "Oh, gosh they were just college kids" - I knew stealing was wrong when I was ten years old - I had relatives fighting in WW2 and Korea when they were "college age".

If you're old enough to get married, vote, die for your country - you're old enough to know not to steal.