Wednesday, October 28, 2026

CHINA'S NEW AI POLICY SHAMES U.S. ROBBER-BARONS

          Since Artificial Intelligence (AI) burst upon the world's economies and societies in 2023, the US and China have taken widely divergent paths in its application. The Chinese have applied AI at first mostly to socially useful functions but since have introduced it into the general population in a limited way. The US, in contrast, has more or less turned over complete control to Big Tech which has flooded our degenerate culture with pornography, online gaming, cut-and-paste punditry, and other distractions. Any practical applications of AI in the US has been mostly employed to bolster the Security State and allowing Big Tech and the Financial Cartels greater abilities at social control. Meanwhile, in our exceptional Republic, the Tech Lords---largely through a completely captured Interior Department, a new bureaucracy established by Executive Order under Big Tech control, and Musk's DOGE purges of any civilian oversight---have seized large portions of American land to construct AI Data Centers while displacing thousands of jobs. 


          China, in contrast, recently released an updated policy on AI application within its nation. The full account can be read here; but here are some important points: 

          "China has rolled out a set of policy measures to create more jobs through artificial intelligence (AI), improve employment quality and mitigate the impact of job displacement resulting from AI applications, helping build an employment-friendly development model, amid the rapid development and growing use of the technology. The guidelines, issued by the General Office of the State Council and made public on Friday, outlines 18 major tasks across six areas, covering AI-driven job creation, employment-friendly AI adoption, workforce training, employment services, labor rights and social security protections, and employment risk monitoring and response...

          "In terms of employment services, the document calls for using AI to facilitate the implementation of employment policies, improve the intelligence and efficiency of employment services, and strengthen support for workers transitioning to new jobs or occupations. The guidelines also emphasize improving labor rights and social security systems to keep pace with technological changes. Measures include improving labor rights protections to accommodate human-AI collaboration, improving social security arrangements for flexible workers and those in new forms of employment, and refining income distribution mechanisms to adapt to AI development.

         "To address potential employment risks arising from AI applications, the document proposes strengthening employment risk monitoring and early-warning systems related to AI applications, stepping up research into AI's impact on employment, and improving mechanisms to respond to emerging employment risks."

         Of course, suggestions that actual planning should go into AI proliferation with the objective of protecting the labor force and preventing abuses of the technology---especially coming from China---meets with degrading silence or knee-jerk outrage because the American Media and Punditocracy somehow sees a heavily-subsidized Corporate Oligarchy filled with unaccountable and unelected globalist bureaucrats as superior to Communism. Despite this, China has emerged as the world leader in AI and robotic technology, while their Wall Street counterparts fear an 'AI Bubble' and the US struggles with surging unemployment. 


       There has been some backlash in the US about the Globalist Tech Lords and their potential overreach; so to forestall any activism, and to take control of the Official Narrative, a few of their number started warning about potential (but very unspecified) dangers of AI. To that end, six of the top globalist Tech Titans went to the White House late September and secured from their political puppets an Executive Order essentially granting these Corporations a de facto monopoly over AI regulation. Present at this meeting were representatives of Google, Meta, and Anthropic (WEF Top 100 Strategic Partners); WEF Young Global Leader and shadow US President Elon Musk; and WEF-adjacent Tech firms NVIDIA and OpenAI. Musk also assumed control of a secondary package setting up a new division within the Pentagon's Intel Bureau to apply AI to enhance the powers of the Security State. This program is part of a set of objectives outlined by the WEF during the Summer of 2024. 

         Now, sadly, most Americans will see these facts and put their heads in sand or brush them off as "baseless conspiracy theories" and turn their attention towards issues that are really important to us, such as seen in today's headlines:


           Wealth and power grabs by Globalist Corporations, the expansion of the Surveillance State, the disregard for displaced workers or the disruption of communities: focus on that, and you're suspected of being a China bot. No: what's important are the latest sexual allegations and gossip. This probably shouldn't be surprising since, as we noted above, the first use Americans put to AI was pornographic or sexual in nature. As long as Big Tech doesn't interfere with that, Americans won't care what the Tech Lords do. Meanwhile, while our culture and quality of life continues to decline, China, though, will go on rising. 


          

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

LESS THAN A WEEK LEFT OF THE ELECTORAL CIRCUS

          Thankfully, we are now less than a week away from Election Day, which here in the Prozac Nation ranks with the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and other of our Trash Culture's iconic collective rituals. Even Gulf War 3.0 has been postponed (at least on our end) until this farce is over with. 

         We're not thankful because we believe that the 'elections' actually will change anything: we're thankful that all of this media-driven spectacle finally will be over and done with. These dramatic races have left their sleazy mudslinging and attack-ad phases and gone into the stage where both sides of the Uniparty are already preemptively (and hypocritically) accusing each other of voter fraud. Despite all of the polling and trolling, the Party bosses must not have quite as much faith in the outcome as they pretend; because they're already working on the 'Stolen Election' narratives.


          This isn't to argue, of course, that American 'elections' aren't stolen or rigged: it's simply that the people doing the stealing and rigging are the ones who own both Parties. The Post-Election patterns are familiar. One side is allowed to present significant evidence of cheating; the other dismisses it; nobody looks into any of it too closely---the objective here being to keep the little people occupied fighting among themselves while the Uniparty goes on doing the bidding of their Commercial and Financial Overlords. 

         There are two other phenomena that appear during these spectacles, usually during the Midterm Elections. The first are phony 'alternative' movements led by allegedly dissenting pundits or politicians. The only purpose such people really serve is to give the illusion that there is a genuine Populist sentiment still vibrant in America, and that 'our Democracy' still functions. All of their plans typically are pie-in-the-sky programs or simplistic initiatives disguised as Common-Sense solutions. Invariably, these are all 'growing movements' setting a course to be achieved at some unspecified date in the future. Meanwhile, they tell us, stay the course until their plans mature and reform the political process from within. Also just as typically, these movements never survive more than one or two election cycles and they fade into history rather quickly.

       The other phenomenon is one which has been happening regularly during the last three or so decades: the general belief that Elections will be suspended and Martial Law declared. This is actually a genuine possibility---one that we've been building up to for some time. The rhetoric about it has been escalating nearly every electoral cycle and we saw serious proposals about it (mostly coming from the Democrats) during the Scamdemic. The Democrats then deflected attention from themselves---suddenly scrapping all of their 'Russiagate' nonsense and Media documentaries about the ease with which voting machines could be hacked---and proceeded to frame a protest as an attempted 'insurrection' founded on the baseless allegations that elections could be stolen. The current Administration with its sheer lack of transparency and its Surveillance State arsenal propped up by the Tech Oligarchy and the bands of armed fanatics and detention camps they've created easily could declare Martial Law and make it stick.

      That the Americans would roll over and go along with Martial Law was proven during the Scamdemic. Whether it will happen this year or not remains to be seen: but it will happen eventually. It will happen when the Oligarchs decide that maintaining this carnival of Managed Democracy is no longer cost-effective and when they are confident that the Ameroboobs will pose no more than a token resistance to them grabbing absolute power. 

       When we look at the state of our culture today, combined with the well-documented ease with which the Elites have imposed some of the most stupid and transparent shams on the public to the expense of both our civil liberties and our national character, it's difficult to argue that we haven't reached that stage already. The Elites may allow the Democrats to regain Congress---which is emasculated and deeply compromised anyway---so that when the time comes to seize power both parties will get a piece of the pie. Or they may pull the pin this year and throw the Controlled Opposition under the bus as expendable now that they've served their purpose. There are other possible scenarios, but one way or another, they'll do it at some point. 



      

            

Friday, October 23, 2026

ON OUR FAILED SOCIETY AND WEAPONIZED ENVY

           Typically, we don't put much faith in polls, but occasionally an informal one pops up on the Internet via news feeds, Youtube, etc. One came up yesterday and I voted in it. The question was "What should matter the most when exposing a politician's alleged private conduct?" Here are the results: I don't think it's any surprise to anyone which option I chose:


          While I'm certainly not unaccustomed to being in the minority in most such exercises, this particular question and the responses were quite troubling. The first problematic issue is the question itself. Note that it specifically refers to "alleged behavior." There's really no "exposing" anything here: to put it in plain English as opposed to postmodern Newspeak, what they're really saying should be "repeating gossip." The reaction of people to "what matters most" should also be to question the Media's integrity in spreading rumors instead of what's being said about the politician.

         The second troubling issue is of course the answers chosen by the overwhelming majority. "Holding politicians accountable" was the top response: but the question that should follow is: "Accountable for what?" Although it wasn't specified in the question, I think that we can all guess that sexual innuendo is what the Media thinks ought to be exposed: which boils down further to "allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior." This further boils down to however the neurotics and perverts in the press corps and HR departments define as"inappropriate."


          In a sexually repressive culture like ours, sexual jealousy is weaponized easily, in fact it has reached the levels of outright Paranoia. The mere fact that the media thinks that ferreting out whatever salacious details they can find on anybody in order to discredit or destroy them is proof in itself that envy---and not reason---are the motivations behind these kinds of witch-hunts.

         The really troubling thing is that---according to this poll at least---91% of the respondents are willing participants in this kind of sleazy behavior (because answers #1 and #2 are really just rationalizations for answer #3). Let's consider this for a moment: 

        American infrastructure is breaking down. Our agricultural and industrial base has been outsourced. Nearly half the population is living at or near the poverty level. Corporate Oligarchs and unelected bureaucrats and lobbyists dominate our political and economic systems. Drug overdoses and suicides are among the leading causes of death in America. Infertility and illiteracy rates are a national disgrace. Our healthcare system, our legal system, and our educational systems are disasters and probably incorrigibly corrupt. Our Military has been exposed as a Paper Tiger and is no less corrupt than any of our other institutions. The Police/Surveillance State is out of control: workers and students are treated in workplaces and schools no better than serfs and slaves. 

       Yet, what is more important to most Americans? "What dirt does he have on him?" "What skeletons are in his closet?" "Are the rumors about his private life true?" "Oooo! Oooo! Tell us more! Tell us more!" All that we have to do is witness the furious public reaction when deprived of the lurid details contained in muh Epstein Files for a recent example.

       This is an example, too, of why it can't be stressed enough that the root of our national problems is cultural. The political, institutional, and economic failures that we are experiencing currently all---without exception---stem from that. A saying from the New Testament says something like: "A good tree doesn't produce corrupt fruit." We're reaping the fruits of our own social and moral decay, as surveys like this one show. 


 





Thursday, October 22, 2026

FRANCE AND THE FUTURE OF THE US

           Though most Americans probably haven't been paying much attention to Geopolitics, the situation in Europe and the Middle East is lighting up rapidly. In Europe, the WEF satraps who recently were boasting about fighting a future war with Russia but instead are fighting in their own streets. What little Media attention has been given to Europe has mostly been in France---a country being torn apart by various factions. The riots began with a youth revolt against declining living standards, but has since been conjoined by both domestic and foreign criminal gangs; Left-Wing Whackos who reflexively protest everything; and no doubt provocateurs aligned with other various interests. 

        While we certainly have no sympathy for the Globalist Macron and his camarilla, it must be noted that we find it quite coincidental that characters like Elon Musk have been so vocal about France's situation not long after he predicted that there may be immigration-related riots soon---and that not long after he was formally charged by the EU (France in particular) for various crimes and corruption. It's much like the recent border surge and violence in Spain that just happened to occur immediately after the White House singled out Spain for criticism at the recent NATO Summit.

          The situation in Europe generally is more complicated than is being portrayed by the Media Cartels. The situation is more straightforward in the Middle East, where the Western vassals are cracking under both military and economic pressure. Americans who want to project hegemony across the globe should take note here: both Europe and the Gulf States are examples of what happens to nations which have imported American Exceptionalism. Europe is reaping the results of bringing in American Neoliberalism and Trash Culture; the Middle East is working to keep the same forces away from their borders. The GCC already has repressive, authoritarian regimes in place to deal with internal dissent; what's going on in France is obviously another example of the Strategy of Tension and may lead to the imposition of authoritarian rule that a WEF apparatchik like Macron would desire. 

         Unfortunately in our own country, we lack both the character and the will to stand up and defend our own traditions and values. We've seen this in our recent history. While the rest of these countries were protesting the policies of the Scamdemic, Americans were conspicuous for our abject submission. In fact, we've swallowed everything the Elites have imposed on us lately---flying Rainbow Flags on command, kneeling with BLM thugs when told to, dutifully donning masks and accepting passively curfews and lockdowns---down to today where we submit to armed government thugs on the streets, domestic espionage conducted by Big Tech, etc. Most Americans are convinced that 'Elections' actually matter; and that swapping one part of the Uniparty for another will bring change magically and effortlessly.


         Like most American 'elections' all of the campaigns have been based on attack-ads with very little substance. The Controlled Opposition (i.e. the Democrats) occasionally try to harness the blind rage floating around in our culture with criticisms of Trump's policies: scrupulously not mentioning what they intend to do about any of it. As we get closer to the Big Dance on November 3rd, the ads are sinking to lower and lower levels---which sadly reflects the marketing strategy that the campaign managers think they need to reach the mentality of today's American voter. One wishes that their calculations are wrong: but every election held during the 21st Century has proven them right. 

        The Ohio Governor's race got some attention because of (what's being framed as) an especially vicious attack-ad where one candidate got the other's estranged mother to spread some family skeletons about. A lot of ads across the country have been engaging in this kind of sleaze; but there's considerable self-righteous pearl-clutching and virtue-signalling over this particular one because Americans still like to pretend that families are still important in our culture. Of course, the Democrats and their paid Media partisans are shrieking the loudest, because the attack was levelled at one of their candidates---and we all know that the Democrats never engage in personal attacks against anybody in the Trump Family. 

         This kind of trash is designed for distraction. If Ohio voters had any sense, they'd see that both candidates are a pair of buffoons who serve Wall Street before anybody else. Amy Acton, the Democrat, worked for outgoing Arch-RINO Governor Mike DeWine and shaped and enforced all of his authoritarian Scamdemic policies on behalf of Big Pharma. The Republican, Vivek Ramaswamy, is a WEF Young Global Leader who made billions with seed-money from Soros to develop contact-tracing software and Loyalty Vaxx formulas that he was working to sell to the Biden/Harris Administration. Neither one of these clowns will do a thing to bring Ohio back from being a failed State: both their past policies and their current campaigns show that they hold those little people in utter and condescending contempt. 

         But Americans evidently don't much care about things like being lorded over by Uniparty apparatchiks who take their marching orders from Globalist Corporations. They care much more about salacious scandals and/or which candidate promises to benefit them personally or punish designated scapegoats (or both). So long as this mindset continues, we'll keep getting Acton and Ramaswamy types in positions of leadership. Ultimately that may well lead to the same scenes we're seeing in France (we had a foretaste of it here in 2020) and the same impending calls for the Iron Fist to come down. 

        

Saturday, October 17, 2026

VIRTUE-SIGNALLING AND PUBLICITY STUNTS LEFT AND RIGHT

          Here in the Prozac Nation. the general population has been following both the Media and Political lead and focusing on diversions and distractions in a desperate attempt to prove to themselves that our Trash Culture is still exceptional and we can vote our way out of all of our problems.

          So, the last two weeks, we've had debates over Capital Punishment in the United States, something that's been talked about for a long time and has long been incompetently managed by our failed Legal Establishment---that is, whenever the convict hasn't died of old age before sentence is carried out. The recent Internet blood-sports over the issue began with a Hung Jury in the Lindsay Clancy Case; a botched execution in Tennessee after waiting 30 years to get around to it; and chest-thumping Alpha Pete Hegseth vowing to live-stream a military execution (which itself is being carried out 14 years after sentencing after a trial that took 3 years to conclude). 

       Obviously, the problem is both with our Legal Establishment and a complete public ignorance of how the Justice System is supposed to function, but nobody was addressing anything of these things. Most of the controversy fell on Hegseth's orders---which were countermanded by President Trump yesterday. Like nearly everything else in our Political-Media Culture, this was a publicity stunt which was never intended to happen, but made good distraction, headlines, and political theater for a time. Most of the public debate fell into three general categories.

       One was the MAGA Churchians who idolize characters like Hegseth and think that his Alpha spirituality somehow reflects Christian or Conservative values. After all, they reason, public executions "are what Charlie would have wanted" and that's good enough for them.


           There's little that need be said against such a position; but if anyone's interested in hearing an actual Conservative perspective, watch this three-minute clip of an interview with former Ambassador Chas Freeman. Freeman goes into the unconstitutionality, outright barbarity, and immorality of Hegseth's scheme: such, though, will likely fall on deaf ears among most MAGA Churchians because they see things like 'cruel and unusual punishment;' as a sign of strong leadership, and take voyeuristic pleasure in witnessing such scenes. 

           We noted here most MAGA Churchians because a certain segment of them have been Virtue-Signalling over Hegseth's orders and expressing their opposition to the Death Penalty in general. These are the second main group who's been chiming in on the subject. 

           The problem with this group is that their position might have some legitimacy if they weren't such complete hypocrites about it all. While they object to live-streaming an execution by firing squad here they fall all over themselves otherwise apologizing for an Administration which routinely executes Caribbean boatmen, defends ICE gunning down people on American streets, bombing Iranian schools and other civilian targets, etc. They also deny or even applaud the Genocide in Israel and Lebanon, and support for the thugs in Ukraine and Syria. The victims there didn't even get a trial.

          Denialism is really the key to understanding their position. These other cases are easy to hand-wave away as 'fake news,' or narratives that the victims somehow got what they deserved. A live-stream, though, would be undeniable proof of what sort of political regime that they are supporting. In other words, the only reason that they care at all is that it's bad optics. 

          The third group---also engaged in Virtue-Signalling---was the Corporate Media. Of course, they knew all along that this proposed execution was a Publicity Stunt and thus felt at liberty to pretend outrage over it. They don't mean a word of what they say: every time there's a scheduled execution in the US, the Media is in the background lobbying to get permission to cover the event live. Their only real objection was that Hegseth wanted the Government to live-stream it: giving the public free access to sate its bloodlust when the Media could have profited off it instead.

         


         Public executions have had a mixed history in the United States. Many of our Founding Fathers opposed them because of their close association with the terroristic policies of European authoritarian monarchies. During the French Revolution, the dangerous impact of such spectacles on the populace was made abundantly clear with their wholesale employment by the Jacobin psychopaths during the Reign of Terror. Like many other evil policies that we inherited with our independence, public executions took a long time to stamp out permanently. At least we thought that they were gone permanently until our Culture degenerated to a level where they are being discussed again. 

Thursday, October 15, 2026

DENIAL AND DISTRACTION WON'T SAVE THE REPUBLIC

          Although last September is Ancient History to most of our exceptional population, some might recall that our Head-of-State pronounced that he was postponing Gulf War 3.0; much as the Democrats did during his first term by postponing the Scamdemic during the Summer of 2020 so that their hired minions and rent-a-mobs could rampage through the streets. Now, as back then, the Corporate Media dutifully has obeyed and seemingly forgotten about the disasters of the foreign wars and focused on distractions. Mostly they've focusing on Political Theater with sensational polls---discreetly not mentioning Democrat support for Administration policies. They've dredged up a few scandals, too, for example the recent resignation of Ambassador to Greece Kimberley Gilfoyle. The scandal, as portrayed in the Media, centers on Ms. Kimberley's relationship to the Trump Family and some pay-to-play allegations made by some Oligarch---but the press prudently didn't discuss some of the deeper details like her connections to the WEF and threats of Color Revolutions in the Balkans in exchange for WEF-connected energy contracts. This probably shouldn't be surprising since she once was married to WEF Young Global Leader and aspiring Democrat presidential candidate Gavin Newsom. Not surprising, and apparently not newsworthy either. 

       There have been a few 'protests' interrupting campaign speeches by Trump and Vance, carried out by the usual suspects.


        

            Doesn't it all bring back fond memories of the days when Social Media eagerly waited for the next Q Anon file-drop, often followed by somebody losing it and attacking Beltway pizzerias? It's interesting to look through our old blog archives and seeing how many stories there were about some Red Pill flipping out and ending up either dead or in jail; more recent articles follow these Epstein Conspiracy crackpots doing the same things. Just like then we had media 'influencers' egging on the violence---usually so-called 'alternative sites;' today we have outlets on the fake 'Left' doing the same thing. The dupes and patsies in both cases think that they're standing up to the Deep State when, in reality, they are the pawns of it. It's part of a deliberate Strategy of Tension whereby the Elites cultivate rather than suppress politically-motivated violence to encourage the population to seek 'security' in a strong government. It's made even worse in our degenerate culture because it has people fighting over complete non-issues while ignoring illegal wars, genocides, ethnic cleansing, wealth-transfers, erosion of basic Human Rights, etc. 

          Meanwhile, the participants in the ongoing wars against Globalism haven't joined their American counterparts and taken a hiatus to watch our cultural and social dramas. In fact, many of them are fighting for the very purpose of keeping American Cultural rot out of their societies. For example, this past week alone in the Gulf, Iranian forces sent 6 cargo ships and tankers belonging to Globalist interests to Davy Jones' Locker in the space of 24 hours. Yemen has announced a no-fly zone (!) over WEF satrapy Saudi Arabia. The Saudis ignored that too and got their airports flattened. WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner Saudi Aramco saw its corporate headquarters blown off the map and lost some more refineries as well as miles of pipeline. In Europe, riots are breaking out all over the place---reaching critical levels in France and Albania; and Globalist interests are beginning to abandon the Khohols, who are losing ground daily to Russian forces. 

        The Geopolitical situation isn't going away because Americans want to put their heads in the sand; and neither, for that matter, is the inexorable march of our domestic situation towards outright Totalitarianism. But the American Public seems content to keep denying the reality of both; hoping that they can grab what they can for themselves even if that means that their neighbors are sacrificed in process.






        

Monday, October 12, 2026

THE 2026 MIDTERMS: THE REVOLT OF THE NPC'S

          While travelling about this month, we've been bombarded nearly everywhere by local political ads. A clip of one from western Washington State encapsulates the tone and tenor of nearly all of them. Apparently, the two candidates in this particular race have been finger-pointing over which one has cheated the 'working class' the most: the implication being that the other doesn't. 


          What's so telling here is that this guy even looks like an NPC. If we could have uploaded the audio, we'd hear that he sounds about like one too. 

           This is the main reason why all of this political theater has absolutely zero substance: both wings of the Uniparty are aggressively courting the NPC vote; although the Media Jackals prefer referring to that demographic as "independent" or "undecided" voters because NPCs like to think of themselves in those terms. Both sides have no need to appeal to a 'base' because that group will support their Party no matter what it does. The Democrats are a safe haven for the usual crop of self-hating Whites, anti-Russian paranoiacs, and Epstein-obsessed conspiracy kooks. The Republicans likewise can count on libertarian nihilists, anti-China paranoiacs, Red Pills, and MAGA churchians. There are several issues---mostly the only important ones---that both sides of the Uniparty agree upon but are discreetly kept out of sight during 'election' years.


       For the NPCs in the Mushy Middle, voting is less of a reasoned political decision and more like a psychological catharsis. Whatever they happen to be mad about (i.e. whatever the media-focused outrage of the moment happens to be) they take out on whichever wing of the Uniparty happens to be in power. They do this by voting in the same collection of dunces and grifters that they voted out just a few years before thinking that they're 'sending a message' and that it really will be different this time. Meanwhile, the imperialist wars, the cultural degeneration, the wealth transfers, and the expansion of the Security State go on unabated.

      


        The managers of our carefully-staged Electoral Season dramas also provide some cultural sluices for those deeply disaffected by the Party Machines. On the fake 'Right,' we have media influencers like Tucker Carlson who pose as America First proponents, while on the fake 'Left' we have so-called Democratic Socialists like Michigan Senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed. These kinds are always around and always surface during Election Cycles to keep the actual system from becoming too stale and to help create the illusion of an actually vibrant and robust Populism. 

       Now, supposing there really is the Blue Tsunami November, which all of the pundits and 'experts' claim will happen (but which I'm inclined to doubt), nothing much will really change. Suppose, too, that the Republicans are wiped out subsequently in the 2028 General Elections. In such a scenario, we can almost guarantee here that in 2030 or 2032, a Red Wave will resurface, because this has been the electoral pattern for the entirety of the 21st Century. We can know this because of three factors:

        1. The majority of actual voters are NPCs and NPCs always want instant gratification and will support any authority figure who promises this:

        2. The American Electorate---despite what our actual laws say on paper---has no real control over the Political Class.

        3. The Political Class---also despite what our actual laws say on paper---has no real control over how the Republic is governed.

         This is the actual situation facing the United States today and will continue to be so unless and until either the Oligarchy decides to dispense with elections altogether or the American public stops being dupes for the Uniparty and its media sock-puppets. Given our current cultural decline, we little hope of the second happening and several proofs that the first very well might in the near future.