Of course I believe in freedom of speech, but Marco and the Felon-in-Chief CERTAINLY do not, so this is clearly a smoke screen. And frankly, I suspect that any previous examples of this happening are in the interest in basic human decency. The fact of the matter is that American businesses doing business internationally have to be held accountable for the laws of the countries they are operating in as well, so this all sounds completely ridiculous.

Doesn’t really feel like an apples to apples comparison because nobody is going there for vacation excited to see a major sports event. And certainly nobody would want to go there knowing full well that they’d be at risk of death (or in the case of the USA, permanent imprisonment) for daring to enter the country.

My point was that the world potentially wasn’t fully aware of the environment they were entering personally to attend the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany, but everything happening in the US today is broadcast digitally and the world is very well aware of the environment in the United States today.

That’s an interesting point. However, my understanding is that the world did not understand the full extent of atrocities being committed in 1930s Germany until after the war was over. I think in the age of the internet and social media, this certainly could be the first.

I wonder if the IOC will be using the World Cup as a test bed. This certainly will not go well - there will be horrific stories coming from the few athletes and tourists that DO come for some reason, and attendance will be otherwise annihilated. What are the chances that the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA get moved? They’ll have 2 full years to ramp up in another city elsewhere in the world, probably one that has had the Olympics in the recent past and has the infrastructure built out already.