Animals, 

One of the top privileges of being in charge of The Keendawg Show is getting to choose who the most powerful person in the world is every week.  

With that as prologue, let me summarize the news that is forming this week’s brawl for Top Dog:   

• A Hollywood mega-merger is challenging streamers like Netflix’s ascent to the top of the entertainment industry 
• The MacArthur Foundation has basically pivoted from providing Genius Grants to Justice Grants and is officially more woke than a 40-year-old white woman living in a gated community 
• The city of Philadelphia has ruined Eli Manning’s life again 
• Germany is about to have a new Chancellor 
• The FBI has said that pretty much everyone in America was either murdered or involved in murdering someone last year 

Here are the nominations for Most Powerful Person in the World This Week: 

OLD HOLLYWOOD IS BACK—Creative Artists Agency (CAA)

CAA, the mega-agency that controls half of Hollywood’s A-list talent, has announced a merger with ICM Partners, another representation superpower.  

Basically, this is the Hollywood equivalent of the US Army merging with the British to fight-off a common enemy: streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu that have invaded Hollywood and are pushing down wages for the actors, writers, and directors that CAA represents.  

The gauntlet has been thrown-down: it’s people who get laid (movie stars) vs. people who get paid (tech bros). 

We’ll see who wins this round. 

THE TERM “GENIUS” GETS WOKE  

One of the things that rich people enjoy doing the most is claiming to own stuff that is clearly not theirs.  

For example, the beach in front of their vacation home, a patent on a product that their company doesn’t even make, or the vote of a senator who they greased early on.  

Which brings us to the MacArthur Foundation and its $7 billion endowment. 

The MacArthur Foundation claims to own the term “genius” due to the fact that each year, it hands out 25 “Genius Grants” to people who are at the top of their fields.  

This year, a Genius Grant was worth about $600,000. 

But something interesting happened with this year’s class of MacArthur Fellows: the criteria for “genius” was heavily weighted towards being an evangelist for Woke causes. 

In fact, 17 of the 25 “geniuses” were full-time social justice warriors, with only 7 fellows coming from hard sciences.  

Clearly, the Foundation has defined “Genius” as public intellectual focused on depicting America as a bad place.  

Well, another place we remember fondly has been conquered by the Woke Mob. 

Are these “Genius” grants or “Justice” grants?  

Laugh all you want. But owning either of these words is a serious power, especially when you get to put $600,000 in the pockets of people who want to make the world over in their image. 

PHILADELPHIA SPORTS FANS RUIN EVERYTHING (AGAIN) 

Reasonable people can disagree about what constitutes “genius,” but no human being who has not been lobotomized would ever accuse the Philadelphia Eagles of encouraging fans to behave in a civilized way. 

On Monday night, the Dallas Cowboys were blowing the Eagles out (as usual).  

But no one is talking about that.  

Instead, people are massively triggered that Eli Manning flipped 2 middle fingers at ABC’s cameras in order to demonstrate how he was treated every time he played in Philadelphia. 

Now, Eli is the bad guy – not the losing Eagles with their lunatic fans. 

Is there any city that exerts more authority in professional sports by losing, having terrible sportsmanship, and encouraging fans to behave like a subhuman species?  

No, that only happens in Philadelphia. And that, my friends, is power of its own kind. 

OLAF SCHOLZ IS ON TRACK TO REPLACE ANGELA MERKEL

To be honest, having to be the German Chancellor who replaces Angela Merkel is a big task. That is like being Jesse Usher & Liam Hemsworth attempting to fill Will Smith’s shoes in Independence Day 2. It is just more work than any single human can do. 

But Germany remains one of the most powerful nations in the world and is central to many of the modern era’s struggles: how to keep Putin at bay, integrating a society with waves of migrants from the developing world, and rebuilding an export economy during a pandemic.  

Then there is the fact that a German Chancellor’s time in power tends to be about as long as a German Shepherd’s time on earth – easily north of 10 years.  

So by default, we gotta give Olaf the nod.  

Is he the most powerful person in the world this week? Or is he just a chump standing in the long shadow of this century’s greatest democratic leader, Angela Merkel? 

FBI DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER WRAY STEPS UP TO SOLVE AMERICA’S MURDER PROBLEM 

Animals, we should not joke about murder.  

But the fact is that everyone in America is doing it.  

FBI Director Christopher Wray greenlit his agency to release some very damning data that shows the national murder rate climbing faster than it ever has.  

On top of that, the data also shows that both the victims and perpetrators are disproportionately black. 

This is a huge problem for a million reasons.  

And it’s sure to disrupt the highly emotional debate America has been having over crime and policing in recent years.  

The good news is that the first step to solving a problem is admitting that we have one.  

For that, Director Wray should get some snaps. 

But the true power will be in making the difficult decisions that get this crime wave under control.  

Hopefully, we’ll be back in a few months patting Director Wray on the back for a job well-done. 

Who do you think the most powerful person in the world is this week? Here’s the full conversation with Pratik and Arya: 

The team at Vox, notable for their Netflix series and subsequent podcast Explained , have partnered with HBO Sports to launch Level Playing Field, a four-part miniseries focusing on the cross-section of sports and social justice. Not unlike Explained, Level Playing Field focuses on educating and refocusing narratives in order to further understand a complex topic.

Each episode of Level Playing Field focuses on a unique issue facing the sports community.

The premiere episode, “Midnight Basketball,” directed by Akil Gibbons, weaves the story of the infamous 1990s crime bill , formally known as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and a local grassroots initiative to curb inner city crime by offering at-risk youth the opportunity to be a part of a basketball league. The league, dubbed Midnight Basketball, was often controversial due to what its detractors claimed was a “soft approach.” Conservatives were focused on enacting harsher punishments and enhanced law enforcement presence rather than community-led initiatives, which they ultimately achieved.

Subsequent episodes, which air Tuesday nights on HBO, focus on student athletes, the lesser-known side of horse-track racing, and the harrowing story of how WNBA star Elizabeth Williams created a new era of athlete activism.

The series aims to utilize sports as a pathway towards further understanding social inequities within America.

The series’ executive producers Joe Posner and Michael Jacobs bring unique skillsets to the table.

Posner, who is Co-Founder & VP of Creative Development at Vox Video, has a storied history in political storytelling, while Jacobs’ portfolio is more sports-centric.

Together, the duo was tasked with creating a series built to shine a light on the idea of “fairness” and its imperfection, all during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Level Playing Field airs Tuesday nights on HBO and is available to stream via HBOMax.

Earlier this week, on the eve of the series’ second episode airing, Posner and Jacobs sat with me to discuss how Level Playing Field was made, the complexities of creating such a show during a pandemic and their hopes for further iterations.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erupt (@eruptnow)

Aaron Wagner isn’t the investment firm CEO you’re used to. 

The 6-foot-3 former linebacker and early Bitcoin investor, walked into our 10am interview right after a morning workout, Redbull in hand, like his day was already half over. 

Born in Canada to modest means, Aaron parlayed his talents as an athlete and opportunity-seeker into a multi-million-dollar investing business. 

His first exposer to real estate investing came when he was a junior playing football at Brigham Young University in Utah where the student body was predominately Mormon, and the honor code was strict. It was common there for two or more students to share a single bedroom.

“What I learned was that this created an incredible opportunity. If you had a house with four or five bedrooms you could put two or three students in each room paying $250 bucks each. Now that room is making $750-$1000 in rent.” 

Wagner leapt at this money-making opportunity. 

He started searching the MLS, a database of properties for sale, and found a five-bedroom house that fit his investment needs. 

Then, he needed capital. 

Wagner knew his friend’s dad was wealthy and also was a big football fan. 

Wagner invited him out to breakfast with the promise of game tickets and field passes and pitched his idea.

“I’ll make the payments, pay the mortgage, manage the whole thing. Your son will get to live here for free. Whatever profits we make we’ll split 50/50. And he was like-yeah, I like your plan.” he said.

A year later, Wagner sold the house and made a $110,000 profit. His cut of the deal was $60,000.

“To make $60,000 in profit as a junior in college, this was life changing. I didn’t go buy a car or blow my money. I took the money and I bought two more condos. I realized real estate was the ticket.”

Even with housing prices rising 18.6 percent in 2021, Wagner believes it’s still possible to break into the real estate industry.

“Prices are high but it’s important to understand that It’s just perspective. The market is always going to go up & down but there is opportunity everywhere,” Wagner told me, “When prices go up, almost with certainty, terms like interest rates go down and the only way you can get a good deal in real estate is either in price or in terms.”

Wager also advises beginners to learn the market before jumping in head-first. Everything you need to know, he says, you can get from the internet.

“YouTube, courses, masterminds—you can find incredible amounts of free content or pay very little to go to big seminars. These professionals online are real people. Real people actually winning. You can pay and be taught by the best people in the world. Get the education first, then go to work.” 

As far as where to buy, Wagner says for short-term gains, like flipping, focus on positive net migration states like Florida, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and Utah. 

But, if you have cash and want to protect your money and hedge against inflation, Wagner says to buy in negative net migration states like California and New York and hold them because those places will populate again because of their coastal advantages.

For those wanting to get into the real estate game with limited funds, Wagner says wholesaling is the way to go. 

Wholesaling is when a wholesaler contracts a home with a seller then finds an interested party to buy it.

 “The reason wholesaling is a fantastic entry point for real estate investors is because it requires no money and no credit. It only requires work ethic and knowledge, that’s it. You can make huge wholesale assignment fees depending on how good you are at finding good deals, negotiating good pricing and terms, and then soliciting those contracts to other buyers. It’s a great place to start.”

“I’ve never been that person to have this super strategic plan mapped out, I just knew I wanted more, I had confidence in myself that I could do things as well as others or better. I’ve been an opportunist. When an opportunity presents itself, I’ve executed on those things.”

Watch our full Instagram live video here.