JULIUS C. WILLIS JR: Our World, Today!

We learned that fast food workers at the famed McDonald’s hamburger chain have filed suit against the company and several of their franchisees in three states – California, Michigan, and New York – alleging “illegal underpayment of wages” by not paying overtime, ordering workers to work off the clock, and other “offenses”. The lawsuits were filed in early March this year.

In the suits, workers were allegedly being asked to show up for work but were not paid until customers arrived or until they started actually serving customers, and that workers were also being asked to clock out and wait on the premises until more customers became available. In addition, workers were allegedly asked to pay for their uniforms – and were not being paid for the cost of cleaning them – effectively further reducing their pay. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

If these allegations are true, McDonald’s and their accused franchisees should be sent to the gallows. $7.25 an hour is way below the poverty level in the U. S. The minimum wage should be raised to at least $15 an hour.

‘W’ The Painter

It’s out – former president George W. Bush has taken up painting as a career of sorts and has opened up to the world by displaying some of his works of “art.” One might suggest that the career change is a good thing for the former president, for his family, and for the country, albeit too late.

It is unfortunate that it took too long for Mr. Bush to discover his real passion in life. Had he found his love and engaged in painting before he ventured into politics, the world would have been spared the invasion of Iraq, and consequently, the heavy loss in American lives and prestige, not to mention the cost to the American people.

The military adventure in Iraq — undertaken on the made-up excuse of eliminating Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” that turned out not to exist — resulted in problems and setbacks for the world that the human race would probably never recover from.

What did the governor know?

Gov. Chris Christie has taken responsibility for the actions of his closest confidantes and allies but he refuses to admit any participation in the devious scheme now known as the “George Washington Bridge Scandal.”

Some people would deduce that because of the governor’s brash character and bullying attitude, his lieutenants have taken actions that they were pretty sure the governor would applaud. It should have been pretty obvious to the governor that something was amiss when bridge lanes are closed – for no good reasons – resulting in massive, crippling traffic jams that cause chaos and economic losses.

If Gov. Christie failed to see what was wrong with the events that later proved to have been plotted and carried out by his lieutenants, he is not fit to be governor – he should resign and find something else to do.

Gulf War Deposed Saddam

President Barack Obama said (Sept. 15, 2013) that Russia does not share America’s values in Syria, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “protecting” Syrian president Bashar Assad. Obama says that Putin has a “different attitude” about the Assad regime in Syria.

Different attitude is right. Syria, like Iran, is one of Russia’s best business customers. Like Iran, Syria buys military equipment and supplies from Russia. So why should Russia’s “attitude” toward Syria not be different from America’s?

Syria will meet the same fate as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Saddam’s Iraq was one of Russia’s armaments market until the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War deposed Saddam and transformed Iraq into an American business partner.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald

Outraged American journalist Glenn Greenwald has vowed to avenge the detention of his Brazilian partner David Miranda at England’s Heathrow Airport where Miranda was questioned for close to nine hours by British Intelligence officers who confiscated his laptop, cell phone, and memory chips.

Greenwald, a Rio de Janeiro-based columnist for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, said the detention was an attempt to “intimidate” him for publishing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosing U.S. surveillance of global internet communications. Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum by Russia, supposedly gave Greenwald more than 15,000 documents that detail the U. S. National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

Greenwald’s THREAT: “I will be far more aggressive in my reporting from now. I am going to publish many more documents. I am going to publish things on England too. I have many documents on England’s spy system. I think they will be sorry for what they did!”

Bring it on, Glenn! We’re all waiting to see who ends up flat on their face.

The moribund Washington Post

There is talk on how Jeff Bezos can “save” the Washington Post, the newspaper that he purchased recently for $250 million. Discussion centers on the future of journalism and what journalism is all about. At least we’re all off to a good start: the subject is “journalism” and not “newspapers” or the “newspaper business.”

Journalists must not think like the old “railroad” folk. The railroad people dogmatically maintained that they were in the “railroad” business, overlooking the fact that their business was actually “transportation.” When planes were being built, the railroad folk refused to go into what they believed was the “airplane business.”

Journalists are NOT newspaper folk. Journalists have to think of themselves as propagators of “news” and not forget what “news” is all about. People will want their “news” to be information that is NEW, TIMELY, and PERTINENT. “News” is fresh, touches or impacts people and their lives, and is delivered at the right place and time.

News must come fast or quickly, in the most convenient way possible. People will not want to pay just to know the news – people feel they have a right to free information.

Journalists should learn to fly and not take the train.

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop transport system

Once upon a time we read Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy comic strips which in those days were thought of as “fanciful.” We now have jet planes and all kinds of “fancy” personal communication devices – and today we’re even saying “nothing is impossible under the sun.”

Elon Musk’s transportation concept, which he calls the Hyperloop, is possible (it is feasible, doable, etc.) – and every scientist and engineer worth his salt is not only saying so but swearing to it. If Albert Einstein were alive today, he would have likely exclaimed: “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Although the Hyperloop is feasible it is not a probability that it will be built here in the United States in the next fifty to a hundred years, or even more. The most powerful economy on earth that is home to an obsolete landline telephone system can’t even get the California High-Speed Rail Project going on schedule.

Bradley Manning’s conviction by a military court for leaking or passing sensitive military documents and video to the website WikiLeaks is a warning to potential whistleblowers and so-called leakers. The message is: count to ten and then think twice before you squeal on the government or any of its agencies, especially when you’re ratting on matters affecting national security. And this means not just the U. S. government but any government on the face of the earth.

It is one thing to “clear one’s conscience” and expose something one believes to be illegal, immoral, or distasteful, and it is another matter to “take center stage” to jeopardize the security or interests of one’s own country and people. Under these circumstances, one does not choose between the lesser of two evils, one chooses between what is right and what is wrong, the greater good for the greater number.

Aspiring whistleblowers should take heed. There is no fame-and-glory payoff for infidelity – only pain and ignominy.

Rush Linbaugh – Blowing Smoke

According to Rush Limbaugh, “Muslim women” like Huma Abedin (NY city mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s wife) “don’t have any power” . . . and so “Weiner can get away with anything.” Limbaugh is quoted in a story by Noah Rothman on Mediaite.com as having made the comment during his radio talk show this week.

Limbaugh was explaining why Weiner was able to get away with his philandering – “sexting” various women while a congressman and even after resigning from congress. Weiner is currently in an uphill fight for NY city mayor and the scandal has made his chances of winning practically nil.

The problem is Limbaugh’s presumptuousness in knowing Huma Abedin and her character. Not all Muslim women are subservient to their husbands, especially Muslim women who live in the U. S. and are U. S. citizens. (For Limbaugh’s edification, there are Muslim Shiites and Muslim Sunnis, two highly differing sects with respect to women and their rights.) It is also very probable that Huma Abedin was absolutely unaware of her husband’s wrong-doing given the fact that it was all in the form of text messaging.

And so Limbaugh once more lives up to his name – rushing to conclusions.

Confessed kidnapper Ariel Castro

The purpose of penalty is four-fold: punish the perpetrator, compensate the victim, set an example to society, and reform the perpetrator. In the case of Ariel Castro, who has pleaded guilty to kidnapping three women and holding them and a child captive for close to 10 years, only the first and third objectives of punishment would be met: he will be punished and the punishment will set an example to society.

In order to avoid a possible death penalty, Castro has entered a guilty plea to over 700 counts of kidnapping and other charges in a deal with prosecutors of the Cleveland, Ohio case. He will then be sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 1,000 years. There is no way Castro will be able to compensate his victims, nor would he care to do so, and although an example of what happens to his kind of criminal will be set for society, it is questionable if Castro would be “reformed” at all.

Castro is not society’s problem. Society’s problems are the victims. Society needs to make sure the three women and one child who were freed from years of cruel captivity are able to return into its fold and lead normal lives.