Q-MHI Daily Brief ;

Good morning, Q-MHI readers!

What did the Weinstein Company board know and when did they know it?

In the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s firing, there are legitimate questions being raised as to why he was shown the door: Was it because of his hideous behavior, or because he was finally outed for it?

Either way, the message the board is desperately trying to send now, to the world, and to the men and women who still work for the company, is that sexual harassment will not be tolerated, no matter how powerful the abuser might be. But given the endemic nature of the problem (see: Cosby, Ailes, O’Reilly, SoFi, Uber, Amazon, and so on) and its damaging effect on the targets of the abuse and on the workplaces where it occurs, wouldn’t it make more sense for employers to send out a stronger zero-tolerance message from the outset?

After the implosion of Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco in 2001, US regulators smelled a systemic sort of rot in the preparation of corporate financials. One response of the US Congress was to require the CEOs and CFOs of public companies to start personally certifying financial statements. What if CEOs and board members were similarly required—or even just volunteered—to certify annually that to their knowledge, no one in senior management had engaged in sexual harassment and that any harassment complaints brought to the company had been dealt with appropriately?

Certifications are no panacea given the lengths to which companies go to insulate executives who sign them. They might, however, make someone think twice before participating in the coverup of an executive’s brutish behavior.

Ultimately, the person responsible for Weinstein’s actions is Weinstein. But if the board knew what was happening—or even just suspected it—and still turned a blind eye to it, then the company is complicit in putting women in harm’s way and inviting the scrutiny it is now under.—Heather Landy ( Q-MHI ).

SPONSOR CONTENT BY LEE KUAN YEW SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

When it comes to immigration Southeast Asia is nowhere close to a travel ban. Though the US has long been home for a huge number of the world’s huddled masses, Asia has played host to more immigrants than any other area since 2000. Money and youth are two big factors driving migration in the region.

FIVE THINGS ON Q-MHI WE ESPECIALLY LIKED

 Dwayne Johnson‏Verified account @TheRock

Motivating read from @corinnepurtill. A woman trying to balance the craziness of life. Glad I can help a little 

Crushing it with the Rock. Quartz at Work’s Corinne Purtill, a self-described working mother tired of getting her “ass kicked every day by the details of a basic life,” tried the Rock Clock, an iPhone “motivational alarm clock” from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Through her review, Purtill explores the power of motivation, and how the pro wrestler-turned-actor and motivational speaker has tapped into it. (Postscript: She’s even more inspired now that he personally roots for her on Twitter.)

A cruise for gay people in China. This summer, hundreds of members of China’s LGBT community and their parents climbed aboard the Glory Sea for a four-day cruise—and a chance to connect outside the restrictions of an often-discriminatory society. Zheping Huang was there to observe the bonds forged on the ship, along with weddings, workshops, passenger-led musical performances, and emotional conversations. “It was a family trip and a hookup party,” he explains, “a rebellion against stifling social mores—and an attempt to run away from them for a little while.”

Behavioral economics has a plan to fight poverty. Why do easily treatable patients still die in hospitals, and why did dozens of pilots accidentally crash-land their planes in World War 2? Karen Weese looks at work from Richard Thaler, Dan Ariely, Cass Sunstein, and others to understand “cockpit theory”—the idea that the design of our world is at least partly responsible for the results—and examines why pilots aren’t lectured about personal responsibility, but poor are blamed for outcomes largely beyond their level of control.

“Reverse missionaries” are trying to spread the faith in the UK.Brits are an increasingly secular bunch—but as Lily Kuo reports, churches in the UK dominated by people from the African diaspora are now attempting to bring native English folk back to the fold. As one Ethiopian pastor tells Quartz, “Britain brought the gospel to us in the past. Now, by God’s providence we are here when Christianity is very much challenged.”

Watch the deep ocean stretch our limits of perception and communication. The first episodes of Quartz’s “In the Deep” video series, produced by Erik Olsen and Solana Pyne, explore scientists’ efforts to understand the way octopuses, cuttlefish, and dolphins engage with each other—an enterprise akin to trying to communicate with aliens.

FIVE THINGS ELSEWHERE THAT MADE US SMARTER

Silicon Valley wants to disrupt politics. Trump’s election shook liberal Silicon Valley to its core, and tech leaders are reacting by treating politics like a startup. Vauhini Vara in California Sunday Magazine details how the president of startup incubator Y Combinator Sam Altman’s search for impact led him to target state and local elections.

Weaponizing Russian TV. Writing for Coda Story and Foreign Affairs, Amie Ferris-Rotman reports on how popular television has become a tool for the Kremlin to disseminate its political messages. Hit shows like Adaptation (the Russian version of the US show The Americans) and Sleepers (about a James Bond-like figure), Trojan-horse Vladimir Putin’s political messages (like Crimea must stay Russian). One comedy features a Putin impersonator that the president himself has been known to laugh at. The shows, writes Ferris-Rotman, give the impression of being self-critical, but ultimately aim to support the regime.

US prisoners are dying without air conditioning. Despite the rising temperatures of sweltering summers in America, few prisons have installed air conditioners or other basic measures to keep inmates cool. Prisoners complaints aren’t taken seriously and they are fatally overheating as a result, reports Maurice Chammah for the The Marshall Project, the Weather Channel, and Divided Films. They’ll likely continue to do so as hot weather becomes more prevalent due to climate change.

Slower-growing chicken points the way to a healthier world.Restricting antibiotic use for poultry as we do for humans—to care for the sick, not to fatten them up—is the only way to balance the drugs’ utility against the risk of resistance and, as Maryn McKenna shows in The Guardian, the awful taste of the standard American bird.

The predatory corner of the gig economy Startup Crowdtap pays users a few cents to complete small tasks, but it’s more than a job, writes Daniel Carter in The Outline—it’s a training program to model workers into a brand’s perfect consumer.

Q-MHI 

WHITE HOUSE REPORT

To : <redaksi@mediahukumindonesia.com>Date : Wed, 27 Sep 2017 00:42:53 +0700   Subject : Giving Our Children a Pathway to Success

Hurricane Maria 
The top priority of the federal government in regard to Hurricane Maria is to provide life, safety, and life sustaining resources to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. FEMA and its federal partners continue to conduct 24-hour operations, aggressively conducting search and rescue operations, bringing additional essential commodities to the islands, and restoring power at hospitals, ports, airports, and other critical facilities. Find up-to-date information on the response to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, how to help, and how to search for loved ones. You can also apply for assistance.

Expanding Access to High-Quality STEM and Computer Science EducationYesterday, joined by over 50 students, President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum expanding access to high-quality STEM and Computer Science education to K-12 students. Also in attendance were Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, as well as several congressional representatives. This Memorandum establishes STEM education as one of the Department of Education’s priorities and establishes a goal of devoting at least $200 million per year in grant funds towards this priority.
Read more

First Lady at Invictus Games
First Lady Melania Trump made her first solo international trip as First Lady to the Invictus Games in Toronto. A Presidential delegation of about 100 athletes participated in the games – an international, multi-sport event founded by Prince Harry of Wales, where wounded armed service members and veterans compete in various sporting events. The event pays tribute to the fighting spirit of the men and women who have given so much for their country, sacrificing their lives to keep us safe. “You have given so much for your country. You truly are our heroes,” said First Lady Melania Trump to the athletes representing the United States. “Take that fighting spirit that I know you have and bring home the gold.”
Watch the video

Photo of the Day

President Donald J. Trump signs a Presidential Memorandum Expanding Access to High Quality STEM and Computer Science Education | September 25, 2017 (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

POTUS and VP TODAY

This morning, the President will meet with bipartisan members of the House Committee on Ways and Means, followed by a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts.

Later, President Trump will welcome President Mariano Rajoy of Spain to the White House. Watch the joint press conference in the Rose Garden live at 1:45pm ET. Vice President Pence will travel to the U.S. Capitol to participate in the Senate Republican Policy Lunch and hold a series of meetings with lawmakers.

Later in the day, the Vice President will participate in a swearing-in ceremony for US Ambassador to Canada Kelly Knight Craft. Watch live at 5:00pm ET.

Coming Up

Tomorrow, the President will travel to Indiana to promote the Administration’s tax reform agenda.

THE WHITE HOUSE  MHI 

WEST WING MHI Daily

“PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND HIS DAUGHTER IVANKA ARE UNVEILING A NEW FEDERAL COMPUTER SCIENCE INITIATIVE WITH MAJOR TECH BACKERS”

– Tony Romm, Recode

Tony Romm of Recode reports on President Trump’s efforts “to supercharge the U.S. government’s support for science, tech, engineering, and mathematics” as well as coding education. Along with a presidential memorandum that devotes at least $200 million of Department of Education grand funds to STEM fields, the President’s daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump, will be travelling to Detroit to unveil “a series of private-sector commitments” that are “meant to boost U.S. coding and computer-science classes and programs” alongside business leaders from companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, Romm writes. Recently, Ivanka has focused on how coding education will assist with workforce development, stating she hopes “all children will have the opportunity to become fluent in this language of the future,” Romm concludes.

Regarding the Affordable Care Act, The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes that ObamaCare’s tax penalty for not purchasing insurance is being predominantly and unfairly paid by the poor and middle class.

On tax reform, Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist writes in Fox News that the “emerging tax reform and reduction legislation will deliver a strong boost to the creation of jobs, income and wealth” and that passage “looks increasingly likely.”

In USA Today, former Congressman Jon Christensen writes that “President Trump said what millions of Americans, including myself, feel” about NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, saying “when millionaire athletes refuse to honor America and pay homage to the men and women who died for our freedom, and instead, choose to use their field of occupation to make a statement, then I can choose to turn the channel.”

Regarding the opioid crisis, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway write in City & State PA on the extensive efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, from over $800 million in HHS-given grants to a new five pillar strategy focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery. Price and Kellyanne state “this is an administration-wide effort to reduce the demand for drugs” and “the President is leading the way, and urging each of us to do our part.”

WEST WING MHI 

The duel of Champions: Dovizioso vs Marquez at Motegi

The two men at the top stage a historic duel in the rain-soaked Japanese GP, with everything on the line

Tags MotoGP, 2017, MOTUL GRAND PRIX OF JAPAN, RAC, #JapaneseGP

In pouring rain at the Twin Ring Motegi, Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) staged one of the greatest MotoGP™ duels of all time, putting everything on the line down to the final lap and the final corner. And despite the best efforts of the reigning Champion, it was Andrea Dovizioso who emerged victorious from ‘Victory’ corner in Japan – taking his fifth win of the season, the seventh of his career, and one of the most spectacular in history. Marquez was an incredibly close second for his 100th career podium, with Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) completing the podium.

It was Marquez took the lead off the front row, with Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) soon pouncing on the first lap to take second and then take over in the lead. Marquez was followed by Petrucci and Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), with Dovizioso staging a stunning start to tag on the back. Marquez then fought back as Lorenzo moved back slightly, before Petrucci struck at the front and the trio who would head the remaining laps was decided: Petrucci, Marquez, and Dovizioso.

As the laps ticked down, the two title contenders remained locked together and Petrucci found some clear air in the lead. But with 12 laps to go Marquez made his first move to take over, with ‘DesmoDovi’ then through on his compatriot to keep close company with the Championship leader. They pulled away, and the stage was set.

With six laps to go, Dovizioso attacked at Turn 6, and the cat and mouse continued. Marquez then hit back with a brutal pass in Turn 3 with three laps to go, and the fuse was lit. Dueling it out with some of the most spectacular racing of the season – and in the pouring rain – it seemed Marquez was holding the cards as the final lap approached.

Pushing hard to catch the race and Championship leader, the gap was hovering just over half a second for Dovizioso, until Marquez suddenly suffered a moment at Turn 8 and the Ducati was back on him. The Italian struck to take the lead soon after and prepared himself for the aptly-named victory corner – knowing the number 93 was close behind and undoubtedly with Austria on his mind.

The door didn’t prove closed for Marquez as he shot up the inside, but Dovizioso was prepared for the move and kept it together as the Repsol Honda headed wide. Almost neck and neck over the line, it was ‘DesmoDovi’ who took the victory in a duel that will go down in history – and he cuts the gap to 11 points at the top.

Behind the trio on the rostrum it was a stunning ride for Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) into fourth, as the Italian picked his way through from P12 on the grid as was able to close in on his teammate Alex Rins, then getting past him in the latter stages. Rins was top rookie after his own display of brilliance, however, earlier shadowing Zarco and then moving through as the Frenchman faded.

After dropping back after a stunning start, Jorge Lorenzo was able to move back past those ahead of him to cross the line in sixth for another good haul of points – getting back Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) as his final victim, with the Spaniard coming seventh. Zarco faded in the latter stages to head home in P8, ahead of a difficult day for Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP). Viñales is now 41 points off Marquez at the top of the table.

Loris Baz (Reale Avintia Racing) completed the top ten as he sliced through in the rain, with Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) taking another top result for the Austrian factory in P11. In twelfth, it was wildcard Yamalube Factory Racing rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga – 2017 Suzuka 8H winner and former MotoGP™ podium finisher – as the Japanese veteran impressed as ever.

Sam Lowes (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) took his best ever result and some good points in P13, with the points scorers completed by Hector Barbera (Reale Avintia Racing) and Tito Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS). Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) crashed out of contention, but rider ok.

Now the Championship heads for the legendary Phillip Island, with the gap at the top now cut down to 11 points and three rounds remaining. Motegi was a duel that will go down in history, as will 2017. But with whose name engraved on the trophy?

For full results, click here!