Hey Catturd, the Running Mate Does Actually Matter This Time

Catturd, a social media influencer who has made quite a name for himself over the past 5 years sharing his conservative viewpoints on X, formerly known as Twitter, was recently in studio with Tucker Carlson on his Tucker Carlson Encounter show and was of the opinion, when asked who he thought Trump should pick as his running mate, that the Vice President doesn't really matter all that much.

Most of the time I find myself in agreement with much of what he says. And I mostly agree with him regarding his statement with Tucker Carlson as well. Except for one thing.

Trump can't run again in 2028.

He mentioned he likes Vivek Ramaswamy. Certainly, he's been saying many things people want to hear, and challenging the status quo in similar ways to Trump. But can he win in 2028? Would he be the one to carry on Trump's agenda and capture the hearts and minds of staunch Trump supporters?

Because that's, I think, what we (or rather, Trump) needs to strongly consider regarding who he ultimately picks as his running mate. Who can carry the torch at the end of Trump's final term? And win!

If it were Trump's first turn at bat, maybe it wouldn't matter as much. Much can be said about Pence as his first pick being questionable whether or not he wouldn't have been just another George H.W. Bush after Reagan. 

Ultimately, Pence, I think it is safe to say, didn't matter. Besides, he was a polar opposite of Trump anyway. Had the election gone the way we wanted it to in 2020, Trump would have had his second term, much of the agenda would have been in place and working, and things in place would have been harder to undo.

What the country needs more than anything, and very clearly is a major turnaround, and it needs to be one that can stick. And that means we need to have not only a strong four years ahead with a Trump administration, we need someone who sits in the office of the Vice President who can carry that turnaround into another eight years after Trump's final day in the White House.

Unfortunately, I think this rules out many current known members of the Republican party, especially even the ones who ran against him in the primaries.

In order for Trump's legacy to succeed him, whoever is set to take his reigns in 2028 needs to be someone who aligns well with Trump's plan and vision, and who has the tenacity and strength in which that all gets carried out, who can gain the appreciation and respect and support of Trump supporters in a way that those voters can have confidence that the successor will be the right man (or woman) for the job.

Maybe Ron DeSantis is that guy? Who knows? I have to say I was not very impressed with his campaign even if I continue to think he's been a fantastic governor.

Catturd has it mostly right. At least in theory. Vice Presidents don't usually matter. But this is a different set of circumstances in that this is not a consecutive term for Trump if he is elected back into office. This is the only four years we are going to get. And Trump needs to pick someone we can have confidence in to carry us through a strong 12-year run of leadership that hopefully permanently reverses the attempt of progressive politics to change America into an unrecognizable place that we may never be able to escape from.

The running mate matters more than ever right now.

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The Cost of Being Right

It keeps popping up in the news that since Elon Musk took over Twitter (now X) that it's losing throngs of daily users. And while that's true, what's not necessarily true is the reason why users have left. The media wants to paint it as "an attack on free speech and promotion of hate speech."

But, as is typically the case, who is defining what free speech is and what can be classified as hate speech? The media. And well, the left.

All too often anymore the truth itself can simply be called hate speech. Like saying a man is a man and a woman is a woman. Forget about science or the verifiable truth of that statement. It's hate speech in the eyes of many people.

In order to be a racist in today's world, for example, you need not honor the KKK or support segregation or other things. You simply need to call for a secure border and have conservative values. And if you espouse these values in a place like X, you are going to be labeled a hater and a racist, and according to some, you should not be allowed to say these things and because Musk, unlike his predecessor Dorsey, is not policing and censoring and shadow banning these values, many people simply can't handle that.

Those are the people who are leaving. The ones who before Musk were able to willy nilly say anything they wanted and could be assured that anyone espousing different opinions or values would immediately be shut down.

What essentially happened is that the playing field was leveled, and a good many people simply could not handle it.

By leaving they also have the impression that in some way they are sending a message that this simply cannot stand, and we should go back to the way things were or else. We'll destroy you, they are essentially saying.

Of course, that's not going to happen. The site is better now than it ever was. Freer now than it ever was. And more truly user-friendly than it has ever been. Everyone gets to have a voice, like it or not. 

At the same time users are dropping off, of course some advertisers are also saying no to X. That can be a problem since X is of course a business, and its main source of revenue is from advertising. Musk has said he wants to charge all users to use the site, but I think that's a recipe for disaster. That could potentially destroy the site and any hopes it can make a full recovery.

While some may be willing to pay for the chance to tout their opinions and share their lives on the site for a small fee, I would suspect most would not. I would be one of those who would not be willing to pay to post.

At the same time, I think that if the site were to operate behind a paywall, it would also become less diverse and more of a "club" of sorts than a total free place to express oneself.

But that's a separate issue.

Part of the reason some advertisers are jumping ship, though, is directly related to the media and its portrayal of X, which they think resonates with their customer bases. In fact, I think the reality is just the opposite of that. Consumers are paying attention to woke politics by companies more than ever, and if they see an advertiser essentially rallying against free speech, I am not sure this will bode well for them.

Most people, despite how it seems sometimes, are more conservative and patriotic than many give credit for—even many liberals.

What Musk's X is suffering from is very simple. It's suffering from doing what's right. It's suffering because it broke up the monopoly the left held on speech. And naturally there are going to be some people who simply won't accept that.

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Stupid Talk Needs to be Called Out as Stupid Talk

Let's face it, when it comes to social media a lot gets said, and a lot of what gets said is dumb. Hell, I won't fail to admit that I have probably said some dumb things in my time on social media as well. Still, if I say something dumb someone usually calls me out on it.

Not that I always agree that what I said was dumb, mind you. Nonetheless, we call things for what they are.

Take this statement made on Twitter, now X, by Barb McQuade wherein she said, "I think a strong case can be made that Trump committed 5 counts of manslaughter on Jan 6 by recklessly causing the unintended deaths of others."

That's dumb.

Granted, I may be a little bit biased on my opinion of the whole January 6th, so-called "insurrection," in that I don't agree that the events occurred as so many believe they did.

Do I think it was an orchestrated and planned event to serve as a distraction from a possible real examination of what happened with the election in 2020? Yes. As a matter of fact, I do. But I don't want to digress. I simply want to point out my bias.

Including my bias as a Trump supporter then and now.

If there is one thing that we can all agree upon, for whatever it is worth, it is that January 6th was an unpleasant event in our history. For a lot of reasons. Still, to suggest that Trump caused it, I believe, is a real stretch of the imagination.

People, with individual intent decided on that day, provided it was not a planned and orchestrated event, to act in a manner that could at best be labeled as inappropriate, and perhaps even unfortunate. Smooth transition of power has always been a tenet of our system and on that day that tenet was challenged.

The deaths that occurred on that day were also tragic and unfortunate. But to suggest that Trump should be held liable in any way for them is ludicrous beyond imagination. Were the people who stormed the Capitol Trump supporters? Who knows? But again, does it matter if they were?

If we were to take Barb McQuade's comment seriously, we'd have to consider other events in our history and assign similar culpability. In all fairness, right?

Do we go back and hold Barack Obama to account for his decision to initiate Fast and Furious that resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent? Do we take a look at what happened in Benghazi when Hillary Clinton was serving as Secretary of State, an event that killed four Americans, and hold her accountable for those deaths?

And by the way, there is some reason to suggest maybe she should have been accountable. But even I will admit it is a bit ridiculous to suggest it. Same goes for Barack Obama and Fast and Furious.

Or what about Joe Biden? Should we, according to Barb McQuade, hold him criminally liable for the actions, or lack of actions he took which led to the death of multiple Americans on the tarmac in the withdrawal of Afghanistan?

All of these ideas are, to my mind, clutching at straws. 

The bottom line is that when things like this are said, they are said out of pure hatred for the person those things are said about. There is no real basis for the comments. And frankly, there's no thought behind them either.

It's the old forest for the trees argument. You either see the one tree you want to focus on and dismiss the entire forest for potentially having similar trees, or you have no interest in the rest of the forest. Only the one tree matters.

Clearly Barb McQuade does not like Trump, so of course she's going to make a comment like that. But she has to understand what she's really saying. She can't simply dismiss all the other bad things that have happened and target the one she perceives as having been perpetrated by one man she dislikes or disagrees with. 

And people should call her out for it. As I did, commenting back on her post. And as I have done here.

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A Blocking We Will Go

MOST RECENTLY I DECIDED TO CHANGE MY POLICY A BIT WHEN IT COMES TO BLOCKING OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS. For years my longstanding policy on social media has been to engage the other side in any debate, feeling that in order to have a well shaped opinion on any issue one must be able to take in multiple viewpoints, and be open minded when it comes to how any issue is perceived, reported on, and what the opinions of others are. Sometimes I actually do change my position if the opposing argument is strong.

I am a conservative of course. But despite what some hard core conservatives may say, there are actually SOME liberals out there who do have the ability to think and formulate a common sense opinion.

I will admit it is rare. But I am not being fair minded if I simply discount every single liberal as a total idiot.Which brings me around to why I have changed my policy on social media blocking.

There is a trend, and it is certainly not a new one, for many on the left (and let's be fair, some on the right do this too, guys) to, instead of return with a valid and cohesive argument, they will simply start lobbing unfounded accusations, character assassinate, and respond by calling people names.

Racist and Russian bot are all the craze.

When the opposing argument begins to resort to that sort of thing I am of the mind that 1) there is no valid argument the other side can make, and 2) there is no argument I can make to change a mind or make a case for. So, why bother really? What's the point?

Sure. On some days it can indeed be fun. But honestly, more and more it just becomes an irritation. A back and forth of wasted energy that just gets more and more ridiculous and crazy the more you go along with it.

And then there's those lists the left has resorted to creating. They don't even bother to respond. They just put you on some unfounded list that places you into a corner that you really have nothing to do with, and accuses you of having a position you don't have at all.

It does not bother me. I should be clear about that. It does not bother me anymore, really, than being called a racist or a bot or any other moniker the left wants to place on me simply because I happen to disagree with their view of the world.

But it does mean there is no longer an argument.

The thing for me is that I know where I stand on any issue, and so whatever I may be accused of is really meaningless and pointless to try to defend. You cannot rationalize with someone who is simply incapable of seeing the other side's view.

I know I am not a racist. And I am certainly not a bot. So what value is there in trying to defend myself from these kinds of accusations? No matter what I say to point to the contrary, it is going to fall on deaf ears anyway.

So again, why bother.

Part of my policy of not blocking opposing viewpoints was that I thought it was borderline childish. In my mind, every time someone on the left blocked me I would envision a 5-year old clamping his palms to his ears shouting, "I can't hear you, I can't hear you." So my aim was not to become that childish figure on the right.

The problem is that when I offer my viewpoint, I try to support it with facts and reason, and a dose of common sense. Of course I am not always right. I would be naive to think that I could never be wrong. Which is also part of the reason I enjoy a reasonable exchange of ideas, because I am adult enough to acknowledge that I may not always have the right answer or viewpoint, and sometimes the left does.

It's the crazy that closes the door for me. And the crazy is simply getting to be quite thick these days. Even more as Trump derangement syndrome is in full force and the left is all but losing their minds as Trump is clearly winning on a number of fronts. And that's not just my conservative bias saying that. It's obvious.

Speaking of bias momentarily, that is also the one thing that still surprises me just a little bit these days, that the right can have a bias, but can also offer praise to the other side when the other side gets it right and will lambaste even our own when we get it wrong.

I can count on my fingers how many times I have seen a liberal hold one of their own accountable for anything.

Quick Shout: Hollywood Just Needs to Can It About Russia

I’m dumping my @facebook stock and deleting my page because @facebook profited from Russian interference in our elections and they’re still not doing enough to stop it. I encourage all other investors who care about our future to do the same. #unfriendfacebook pic.twitter.com/KHWgZzhhmp

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) February 6, 2018

WHEN WILL IT END, I WONDER? I am to the breaking point when it comes to this continuing narrative by the MSM and some of these idiots in Hollywood that the Russians essentially stole the election from Hillary Clinton. The thing is that we all know all too well that the facts just DO NOT BEAR OUT. They are beating a dead horse. And it's just making them look even more foolish than we already knew they were.

YES, it has been acknowledged that the Russians did pay for some ads. But what influence would that ultimately have? I mean think about it. What influence did the fucking polls have on swaying republican voters that Donald Trump had no chance of becoming president to stay home?

This is just becoming tiring and stupid. Puerile is a word that also comes to mind.

Ass Kissers At Bubblews?

They are everywhere! We see them at work especially. Ass kissers. Those guys who have their noses so far up the boss' hindquarters you can tell by their smell what the boss had for lunch, and even dinner the previous day.

And at Bubblews, there are a few of those there as well. Of course there are. Like I said before. They are everywhere. Like flies congregating on a fresh kill. Ubiquitous.

Of course, Bubblews is having problems paying its members. And while I cannot beat the dead horse anymore than I already have many times in the past about the fact that like the site and like the concept, I also cannot simply discount the fact that fun aside, the site says it will pay its members.

And yet it does not.

Well, not always. They mostly pay their members. But the real problem is the why factor. That's the part that no one can get to the bottom of. And certainly the CEO Arvin Dixit isn't saying anything about it. He's as hush as a mute.

One member, who I am beginning to think is one of those Bubblews ass kissers I am worried about, Mike Pugh, says, "The Bubblews Team is working both night and day on these issues and due to the fact that so many countless redeem rewards were lost in the process of the cut over from the old Bubblews to the new Bubblews."

My question is where on Earth did he get that answer from? The Bubblews team? The CEO? The president of the company?

No one from the Bubblews team has said a word about payments, or how hard they are working at getting them processed and paid. No one.

Oh sure, the Learning Center on the site says payments may take up to 30 days, and even goes on to say that they plan on taking on more payment processors in the future. But let's be real here. The number of posts both within the Bubblews website, and outside the site are stacking up big time. People are not happy and they are saying so.

And Bubblews remains silent.

Mike Pugh goes on to tell us, "Many of us have tried contacting the Bubblews help email thingy. That didn't work, but I believe it shall begin to work soon for the folks who haven't violated the rules. It's just a matter of time before they catch up to your emails, and please for assistance. Hang in there folks!"

Sure. That sounds like a fine way to sort things out, now doesn't it? Your boat capsizes. A little birdy comes and assures you a rescue boat is coming. Don't try to swim your way to safety. Don't try to hold onto that capsized boat until rescue comes. Just lie there, floating and hoping.

You will not drown I promise you. The rescue boat is being launched any minute now. JUST HANG ON!

Thanks but no thanks, Mr. Pugh. Tread water till your heart is content or stopped for that matter. But I'm not going to take my chances.

So, this is not a life or death situation. Certainly it is not. But it is a situation, and one that has no explanation. So I voice about it. And so do others. Because it is something to be concerned about and is something to be explored, and questioned.

I am not an ass kisser. I feel no fear voicing my opinion. And voicing my opinion does not make a Bubblews hater out of me.

In fact I would go as far as to say that I am a Bubblews lover. I state my concerns because I am concerned. For the other members who clack away at the keys there. For the site that gives us a place to clack away at the keys.

The site says it will pay. When it does not it makes the whole point and the very site itself moot. And that means that the site will have difficulty treading its own water. I don't want Bubblews to drown. I want to be that rescue boat to help save them.

I will continue to beat the dead horse for as long as I can because I do care what happens. As for ass kissers? Well, we all know where they ultimately wind up when the company goes kaput!

Is Bubblews Hard Up For Cash

If you have never heard of the website, Bubblews, perhaps it is time to give it a look. In fact, the site is actually a fairly good money maker if you happen to be one of those who likes to find new ways to make a little extra dough working online.

So, what is Bubblews? I tend to call it sort of like a Facebook on steroids type of a deal. You basically can write about anything you want, and you get paid one penny per view, one penny per like, and one penny per comment.

Not a bad deal.

That all out of the way, there is one thing that affects those pennies. A little glitch the site has from time to time that returns a message, "you already liked this news," even when you did not.

For quite some time that glitch disappeared, and thankfully so. But now it is back with a vengeance, which makes me think. Do they, Bubblews, know how to turn this on and off? Because these guys are programmers, right? They know their stuff when it comes to building and operating a website, right? This can't be that difficult of a bug to figure out...

Not if you know what you are doing. Which, as I've alluded to, I think they do.

So the question for me becomes, is Bubblews hard up for cash? Or is it more along the lines that they want to save a penny here and penny here for themselves and hide behind a glitch that can be turned on and off as easily as a light bulb?

One of two things has to be the answer, because the only alternative answer is that they are amateur programmers that don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. I'm trending toward the latter not being the case.

So, it is a great site that offers up interesting earnings opportunities. But I cannot help but think that something is rotten in Denmark when it comes to this glitch.

So, to those fine people over there who run Bubblews, let me also offer you a word of advice. You are a public site. And many of us write in more than one place than just there. You say you want to be the next Facebook or Twitter. That's a great idea, and I think they may have an opportunity to get at least close one day. But this will not be how to do it. Not with glitches that are annoying and that deny writers a penny here, and a penny there. And certainly not by not knowing how to fix a simple little coding problem.

When you eff it up, you will be called on it for the world to see. You want existing members to stick around and new members to show up, you better get it right. You better do your members right. Because the Internet universe is vast, and so long as I place the word Bubblews in anything I write outside of it, or anyone else for that matter, it could well find its way right underneath your own link to your own site. And it may just cause someone to think twice.

I'm just saying.