Chives Or Lobster?

That's right. You heard the question correctly. Chives or lobster? The reason I pose this very odd question? Did you know that McCormick sells a freeze dried chives container at Walmart that sells for...

Wait for it...

$492.96 PER POUND???

No my friends. That is not a typo. You read that number just as correctly as you read the question I posed in the title.

You have to say that seems a bit steep, no? I mean, since when is a chive, freeze dried or otherwise, ever worth nearly $500 per pound? I would venture to say right here and now, for the record, that there is never a time when chives are worth that.

Pot growers stand up and take notice. There is new crop out there you can grow. AND IT IS LEGAL TOO!

No more need to worry about the bad boys from the ATF knocking at your door, or coming to your crop fields looking to burn down your crops and haul you off to jail in handcuffs. Now you have chives!

So, I ask the question? Chives or lobster. Because obviously lobster only runs about $30 per pound.

EXTRA, EXTRA! Obama's New Executive Order

Did you not see it? How in the world could you have missed it? President Obama has now seen fit to issue yet another of his executive orders. And this one is real humdinger mind you. The humdinger of humdingers.

What is it, you ask?

It has now been officially declared by executive order by President Obama that the Oval Office will now be the greens of our nations golf courses. Heck, that is where he spends all of his time in any event...and I do mean in any event.

Russia downs planes, attacks innocents in the Ukraine, Americans lie dead in the streets of Benghazi, the IRS targets conservatives, the NSA spies on Fox News (okay, that was unfair...reporters in general, but you know who they were after. Obama dissenters.), and the economy continues to tank, crumble, and implode...

But what a swing this guy's got!

Also signed into law by executive fiat is that Air Force One will now be a golf cart. To hell with needing something to fly to enemy States. Forget needing to get to the problem areas of the country, or important meetings with anyone that matters.

This guy needs to get the next hole, man!

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!

Bubblews Payment Issues

The worst press that Bubblews gets happens to be around payment issues. Pull up a search on Bubblews on Google or Bing and what you get on the first pages of results is nothing but bad press. Words like liars, cheaters, crooks, scammers, illegitimate, and not worth the time are in all of the titles and summaries. It is harder to find good press on Bubblews than bad press on Bubblews.

I like Bubblews, and I spend a lot of time there. That is without a doubt. I will also say that in the past I have never experienced any issues with getting paid by the site. In fact, my last redemption only took 28 days after a change in redemption time was announced to be around 30 days to get paid.

That all changed with a redemption I made on July 23rd for $53.10 which is, as of this writing, still missing. That puts that redemption at 43 days without having been paid.

In the Bubblews Learning Center the site says that payments may take up to 30 days. Where I come from up to means perhaps less than, but not more than. So 43 days is certainly outside the parameters of what they are claiming is the time it takes to process a payment once a member redeems.

I have two other pending redemptions; one made on the 7th of August, and another made on the 25th of August. I am set to redeem right now with over $60 in the bank. All said, the Bubblews website now owes me to the tune of $231. Not a lot of money by any stretch of the imagination. But certainly an amount worthy of my wanting to receive, and pay attention to.

The troubling part for me is that the CEO and president of the site regularly post articles. The CEO tends to do this more frequently than the president. They like to write about new features, and other developments for Bubblews members to enjoy. They write about inspiration, vision, and what Bubblews wants to be. But they never speak about missing payments, or on the fact that right now there are hundreds, if not thousands of members who have redemptions outstanding for well more than 30 days. Some have claimed to be waiting for nearly two months with no communication whatsoever from Bubblews about where their payments are. Or if they will be paid at all.

A site like Bubblews, which wants to change the face of social media, and have any prospect for a strong future need to be extremely engaged in the one thing that truly separates them from the competition.

That they pay their members.

When they do not, or when they do not pay in a timely fashion, and do not pay in accordance with their own parameters set by them in the Learning Center of their own site, this erases their niche. It makes their claim moot.

Worse, it causes members like me to speculate about where payments are. It causes members to make potentially false accusations. It causes members to write outside of Bubblews, and add to the throngs of negative press that overload any information someone might pull up on Bubblews while surfing the Internet. It causes members to question the integrity and legitimacy of the Bubblews website. It causes members to speculate on the integrity of the president and CEO of Bubblews, and it simply makes Bubblews look bad.

Whether the perceptions are true or not, Bubblews cannot escape the speculation if they continue to contribute to it directly.

Biden Visits The Detroit Wasteland

It's a trap. That is, the unions. But Vice President Biden won't tell you that. Neither will Obama, or the entire democratic party. Because they don't want people to catch on. The truth is that Detroit us a wasteland in part due to unions who sought to siphon every penny they possibly could out of companies from wages, to benefits, to pensions and beyond.

Did anyone care to look at a balance sheet? Of course not. That would tell the real story about how much money a company could afford to pay its workers. And it would not fit the narrative that the unions wanted the workers to hear.

Companies are bad. CEOs are evil. Workers need protection from bad and evil and the unions will come to their rescue.

But they didn't, and that's the point. And one that so many workers missed then, and continue to miss today. When they think about the jobs they had that went away, they don't put the blame on the unions who essentially took those jobs away by making unreasonable and unfounded demands for more money that simply wasn't there to give. They blame it on the companies and the executives who had to make tough decisions according to what was best for the company to keep their doors open at some level.

That means shuttering some doors, and letting workers go. It is simple business. And it was the unions who caused this, and even the workers themselves. But again, that's not the story anyone will hear nor pay attention to.

So Biden made a trip to Detroit this past Labor Day to speak with workers in the wasteland, and what did he tell them? You deserve more. Forget the wasteland around you, toppled by insane demands and union work rules that made it nearly impossible for the companies to operate. Forget that in right to work states people have jobs, get paid well, and are doing well. No, workers deserve more.

But the proof that simply demanding more doesn't work doesn't matter anymore than the proof that higher taxes do not increase government revenues. They will go on and beating the dead horse until there is nothing left but dependents who will need the democrats to feed them, clothe them, and now take care of all of their medical needs.

Wake up America. Wake up workers. Let's figure out what "fair" really means instead of trying to make up a hogwash definition of it on our own.

Image is mine from my private collection © 2014

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