Jumpin’ ju-ju bones.  Hat Tip to Ezra Levant on Twitter – This is going to go down in the history books of bad diplomacy.  You have to watch the first 2 minutes of this video.  Canadian Foreign Minister took leave during the middle of critically important trade negotiations with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to attend a Women in the World conference in Toronto.
Check out the conference introduction video (first 01:30) “Taking on the Tyrant”, and the visual of Canadian trade negotiator on stage to deliver her remarks (next 30 seconds).  Consider that Ms. Freeland made this decision during the most critical trade negotiations in her country’s modern history.  The outcome of the U.S-Canada trade negotiation will determine the next several decades within the Canadian economy.  Now Watch:

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Think about the level of ideological tone-deafness here. This is simply off-the-charts echo-chamber crazy. Canada needs a positive trade outcome; their economy is already on the ropes; and Freeland considers this a good idea?  Unreal.
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Ezra Levant from Rebel Media outlines even more evidence of Justin from Canada taking specific steps to intentionally sabotage the Canadian economy.  A few days ago Mr. Levant posited some interesting considerations:  If Justin were NOT intentionally trying to bring hardship to Canadians, what would he be doing differently?

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After this broadcast the employment report from the Canadian government was published.  The economy lost 52,000 jobs in August alone.  Read THIS to see just one example of Justin destroying 8,000 Canadian jobs in a 24 hour period:  “Eight thousand jobs disappeared this morning, and one of them was mine.” MORE
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The 2018 Mid-Term elections are sixty days away. Today, September 7th, if traditional institutional protocols are followed, is the technical end of any opportunity for FBI and DOJ to publicly release any investigative material that would influence the political landscape.

While it is unknown if Special Counsel Robert Mueller will follow the customary tradition within the 60 day window, it is virtually guaranteed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will.   This means that any (presumed to exist) investigations that can collaterally damage the 2018 election -for either party- will be put on hold until after November 6th.  The investigation activity may be running in the background, but there will be no public action.
Any ongoing investigations -if any- will likely continue; however, the public release of any information from within the institutions of the DOJ and/or FBI will not happen.  There’s no written rule about this, just a general custom and protocol.  If this custom is followed we should not anticipate any public releases that would support indictments or accountability toward former political officials and/or politicians participating therein.
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Never before in the history of corporate branding decisions has a multi-billion dollar company had such a massive and swift drop of brand image as Nike.  The results from Morning Consult Intelligence, a firm that specializes in monitoring and measuring the brand image and reputation for thousands of major companies, reflects a massive drop in brand image across every single demographic.
We suspected there would be a diminishment of brand image, but nothing like the scale discovered within the polled data:

The report features over 8,000 interviews conducted among American adults, including 1,694 interviews pre-campaign launch (8/26/18 – 9/3/18) and 5,481 interviews post-campaign launch (9/4/18 – 9/5/18). Additionally, Morning Consult conducted a study among 1,168 adults in the U.S. about Nike’s ad and the decision to choose Kaepernick as the face of the campaign.

• Nike’s Favorability Drops by Double Digits: Before the announcement, Nike had a net +69 favorable impression among consumers, it has now declined 34 points to +35 favorable.

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These “executives” are nuts; simply bananas.  For some reason the corporate management and ownership of Twitter (CEO Jack Dorsey) and Facebook (COO Sheryl Sandberg) refuse to admit that people, employees of their companies, actually make the content decisions.
To defend the platform from critics who point out the ideological filtration, both Dorsey and Sandberg present a bizarro proposition that some created omnipotent, nebulous and invisible force has the decision-making power to determine content; and does so without consideration of view.  It’s just plain weird.  But that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

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These people would have a lot more credibility if they were just intellectually honest. The hearing continues below:
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All our propaganda are belong to us…

In comments yesterday about the likelihood of Canada joining the U.S-Mexico trade agreement, Justin from Canada stated emphatically that his country would not join any trade agreement that removes Canadian protectionist policy on “cultural industries”.

What are Justin’s “cultural industries“? Well, that would be control over media and telecommunications. In essence, Canada wouldn’t want any of that pesky free-market media stuff interfering with the state-run propaganda broadcasts.  Yup, you can’t make this stuff up folks…

CANADA – […] The prime minister also said his government won’t sign an updated free trade accord with the U.S. and Mexico if the deal doesn’t continue exemptions for Canada’s cultural industries, which aims to protect Canada’s publishing and broadcast industries.

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From a pure economic/financial perspective this Nike  branding campaign doesn’t make sense…. unless, you realize a much bigger picture. A hidden bigger picture.

On its face, it just seems absurd. Why would any major corporation intentionally stake out a branding position that is adverse to their financial interests?
I’ve spoken to some very excellent business actuaries on this late today; and one specific conversation finally helped to make it all make sense.  During that conversation a good ally shared: “a multinational corporation would never make a branding decision adverse to their financial interests. Unless there is a hidden risk unrelated to what is visible on the surface.” ….BINGO, there it is, the lightbulb went on.
A hidden risk that likely has nothing whatsoever to do with Colin Kaepernick.
The bigger risk to Nike has nothing to do with Black Lives Matter, U.S. Consumers, or Antifa-like political advocacy. The bigger financial risk to the Nike Corporation has everything to do with geopolitics and a reset of international trade agreements.
Here’s the hidden aspect with research to back it up.  Nike Inc. has hitched its massive corporate existence to a 10-year business plan that is dependent on the continuance of recently negotiated manufacturing contracts.
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Nike shares fall Tuesday after the company revealed failed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be the modern face of the brand.  It will get much worse; much worse.
It is only day #1 of the Nike decision to make Colin Kaepernick, and all of the controversy that surrounds him, the brand image of Nike sporting goods apparel; and today the stock dropped over 3%.
However, the current valuation drop doesn’t really tell the full story; because massive investment/branding moves like this are generally projected to increase share value, not lose it.  The financial loss is actually much more significant, and only beginning.
There is another problem.  Not only is Nike branding themselves based on severe political ideology; and not only is Nike selecting a failed athlete to express that image; and not only has this decision removed well over half of their potential customer base; but Nike has also decided to go much further.  Nike will present an entire line of Colin Kaepernick apparel and products. Essentially an apparel line for the Antifa audience.
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In the latest example of a corporation making a ridiculous decision to brand itself based on politics, Nike apparel has decided that Colin Kaepernick is the modern face of the brand:

“We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward.”

~ Gino Fisanotti, Nike’s vice president of brand for North America

Apparently Nike has been paying Colin Kaepernick since 2011, and made the decision to go full social justice as part of their 30-year anniversary.   As with prior endeavors for corporations who engage in political advocacy, this will likely not end well financially.

The U.S. Dept of Justice detained ISIS fighter Omar Ameen in Sacramento, California, yesterday (full pdf below) pending extradition back to Iraq on murder charges.  Incredibly Ameen gained State Department entry into the U.S. through the refugee system.
Despite the claims of the Obama administration, Omar Ameen’s ability to enter the United States is a clear example of weaknesses within the refugee process and lies told by former administration officials about the security therein.
From the DOJ memo of extradition, Omar Ameen first applied for refugee status in Turkey in 2012.  Then in June of 2014 applied for refugee status to the United States.  The extradition memo explains that “based on the written and verbal answers given by Ameen, his refugee application was approved by USCIS on June 5, 2014.”
On June 21st, 2014, Ameen, who claimed to work as a truck driver, murdered police officer Ihsan Abdulhafiz Jasim in Rawah, Iraq, an ISIS stronghold.  Four months later, November 4th, 2014, Ameen entered the U.S. settling in Salt Lake City and then later traveling to Sacramento, California, where he was arrested.
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