Nike Founder Phil Knight Writes a Million-Dollar Check to Republican Candidate for Oregon Governor K

[swag]

Source: Willamette Week

By Nigel Jaquiss

Nike co-founder and chairman emeritus Phil Knight has written the of campaign state Rep. Knute Buehler (R-Bend) a $1 million check for his November general election challenge to incumbent Gov. Kate Brown.

Although the campaign has not yet disclosed the check in the state campaign finance filing system, WW has learned that Knight has written it—and that the Buehler campaign has in turn committed to a television ad buy far in excess of the $645,000 it currently has on hand. (The campaign has 30 days from receipt to disclose the contribution.)

Buehler's campaign spokewoman, Monica Wroblewski, declined to confirm Knight's contribution.

"Our campaign does not discuss our donors or our donations," Wroblewski said in a statement Thursday evening.

Read more: https://www.wweek.com/news/2018/09/06/nike-founder-phil-knight-writes-a-million-dollar-check-to-republican-candidate-for-oregon-governor-knute-buehler/

[sandensea]

1. The CEOcracy loves playing both ends to the middle

They're nothing if not two-faced - at best.

[Initech]

4. I'm reminded of an old Bill Hicks bit:

"I like what the puppet on the left says! No the puppet on the right is more to my liking! Hey there's one guy holding up both puppets! Shut up! Go back to bed, America, your government is in control!"

Oh if only Bill had lived to see the Russian madness going on right now.

[Power 2 the People]

5. Bill Hicks

[sandensea]

12. Nice!

So much of politics is theater - and big business prefers Kabuki: Very elaborate, fun to watch; but where nothing really ever happens.

[ZZenith]

2. Reason #547 why you'll never find a stitch of overpriced Nike bullshit on this body.

[rockfordfile]

3. If true, Phil Knight gives a million dollars to a racist un-American Republican

[RockRaven]

6. Corporations go for those who give them money. Rich pricks go for those who keep them rich.

Kaepernick is good for corporate revenues, in this moment, according to market research.

GOPers are good for billionaires, based on the historical record, of many past decades.

[dalton99a]

9. +1

[Fred Sanders]

29. Except Knight has nothing to do with the current Nike or with their current anti-racism stance.

Some corporations...are on our side, now.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. Deplorables will now want to unburn all their Nike stuff.

Kinda like unshooting yourself in the foot........

I suppose Mr. Knight is now a full card-carrying member of the plutocracy......

[Spartacus101]

10. Their shoes were always shoddy...

....and paying some slave in a Bangladeshi slave factory .17/hour

[LakeSuperiorView]

11. If a corporation is a person, why can it donate more than a person can?

Screw this, hold them to the individual limits, prosecute them for violations.

[FailureToCommunicate]

13. 'Cause as Romney said "Corporations are rich people, my friend"

[onenote]

14. This is a state election, not federal, and Oregon places no limits on individual or corporate

contributions in state elections.

[Native]

16. Thank you for clarifying this. nt

[Lulu KC]

15. He's no longer CEO

and attends board meetings with no voting power. The story also describes how he has donated to Democrat's races as well. Still, it makes me wonder what he thinks of Nike's most recent events.

Capitalism is a lot of things and sometimes it's just plain weird.

[democratisphere]

26. Capitalism is clearly about greed. No confusion there.

[former9thward]

31. He and his son are the two biggest shareholders of Nike.

They each have about 10 times the shares of the #3 who is the chairman. To say they have no power is not realistic.

[Trust Buster]

17. I have been repeatedly bashed on DU for suggesting that the company that operates sweatshops

Around the world was simply hijacking the NFL protest issue to cash in. NIKE puts profits over people and always have. They are preying on the sympathies of good people. They are cynically making a statement in the hopes of luring top athletes to endorse their products instead of those of their competitors.

[Solomon]

18. And you're also pissed because you don't agree with kneeling during the anthem.

We get it.

[Trust Buster]

19. Wrong, I don't agree with athletes signing multi million dollar contracts just to turn around and

Act in bad faith by hurting their employers revenue stream that is necessary for those owners to honor the terms of those multi million dollar contracts. But, you deflect, NIKE is just using people here.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. "Hurting Their Employers Revenue Stream"

Your quote. Cite, please? The recent spate of free agent signings and essentially flat ticket pricing suggests otherwise.

By the way: Employers should have an apostrophe after the S.

[Farmer-Rick]

21. It's not the individual player you should be blaming

It's the owners who make billions off your tax dollar supported stadiums, re-routed traffic and roads, police and safety protection, sanitation controls, available customers and lack of social unrest.

Why should the uber rich get to make billions just because? Those individual payers have rights too, even if they have contracts. Billionaires are not kings or even decent people.

[Trust Buster]

23. This thread is about NIKE but I will respond.

If I invested in a convenient store just to find out that one of my cashiers was a Trumpster who was alienating my customer base because said employee was burdening them with Trumpster propaganda, I would give that employee one warning. If I caught said employee doing it again, I would fire said employee for cause.

The NFL owners spent hundreds of millions developing a successful marketing platform. They signed these players to multi million dollar contracts based on a formula in the negotiating contract that pegs player income to available to revenue. Players cannot, in good conscience, act out in a way that threatens the very revenue stream that the owners must have in order to honor those contracts. This is not about the Anthem to me. If the same players wanted to protest in front of a police station, city hall or state Capitol and stand on their heads while the Anthem is playing, I would have no problem with that.

[Farmer-Rick]

24. What right in either case do you have to limit any employees' freedom of speech?

Just because you pay her or him doesn't mean you own them while they are on the job. They are fullfilling their part of an agreement by providing you with labor in exchange for wages. Aren't they still in America? Don't they still live in a democracy?

Just because you are buying their labor doesn't mean you bought up their freedom of speech. Yes, traditionally in a capitalist country, you have a right to gag your employees because of possible lost profits. But that does not make it ethical. Nor are possible lost profits used uniformly to gag all employees.

Suppose your employee was saying sexually explicit comments to other empolyees and reducing your over all productivity and profits? There are many, many cases where this has been allowed and accepted. And yet, the fall out of such behavior can cost millions to a business.

Even when an employee is caught harassing or abusing, there is a lengthy administrative process to prove it. And if the owner is doing the abusing it may never stop.

I think the employer employee relationship we have in most capitalist countries merely perpetuates a destructive and undemocratic power structure that minimizes labor while over valuing capital. It makes petty tyrants out of businessmen and serfs out of a labor. Having a job should not be at the cost of your freedom of speech.

[onenote]

25. The main element of the owners' revenue stream consists of TV rights

The league is getting nearly $40 billion under the 9 year contracts signed with various networks in 2014. That's almost double the amount they received under the previous contract extensions. And those payments are made whether fans tune in or not.

The most recent NFL franchise to be sold was the Carolina Panthers, which was purchased earlier this year for a record price of $2.75 billion. Again, not a sign that NFL owners are suffering.

[obamanut2012]

28. "Hurting Their Employers Revenue Stream"

HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

Those poor, poor NFL owners and Corporate suits! I hope they can afford Top Ramen so they won't starve to death!

[Farmer-Rick]

22. This is how capitalism destroys democracy.

[efhmc]

27. That is the one statement in this entire thread that makes complete sense.

nt

[sweetloukillbot]

30. Milkshake duck!

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