Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden may be senile, but don’t get the idea that the devastation which has been wrought upon our nation is the result of mistakes.  Never forget that everything being done by the Biden Administration is deliberate.  We’re all headed straight for Hell because that’s the way the Biden bunch has planned it.  The chaos of an open border with hundreds of thousands of invaders, along with tons of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl pouring in isn’t an unfortunate mistake, it’s their policy.  The embarrassing bailout from Afghanistan that wasted billions, stranded thousands and killed 13 Marines wasn’t a screw up, it was their plan.  Likewise, the advent of $5 gasoline and $7 diesel fuel wasn’t a mistake.  It’s Democrat/Progressive/Wingnut climate policy.  No, it’s not because of Putin, or the war in Ukraine, it’s all part of the climate nut, leave oil in the ground, transition to renewable energy, anti-growth, anti-industry, anti-human agenda.  That’s right, I said anti-human, because that’s what these climate nuts are into.  Don’t take my word for it.  Listen to “environmentalist” nut case Derrick Jensen, the co-founder of the radical environmental movement Deep Green Resistance.  Jensen believes civilization is destroying the planet, so wants to go back to the Stone Age.  That means fewer people, no lights, no heat, no electricity, no jobs, no food, and no life.  He wants a sustainable planet, you see.  At least now I understand the meaning of “sustainable,” back to the Stone Age, where up to half of all children died.  Then again, for a Party that worships abortion, it kind of makes sense.  Jensen says if we don’t do it, all of us may starve within 30 years. (If you’re keeping track, that’s exactly what Paul Erlich predicted, 52 years ago).  Biden and company have bought into this nonsense.  Joe told us as much.  Get used to high energy prices, Joe said.  It’s all part of the “beautiful transition” to renewable energy.  States like California and Michigan started this crap before Biden.  They face brown outs and black outs for a very simple reason – alternative energy sources are insufficient to meet the ordinary needs of everyday life for Americans.  Energy inflation has fueled inflated prices for absolutely everything, because absolutely everything we buy has to be delivered by trucks using that $7 a gallon fuel.  Biden doesn’t care what it costs you.  They’re saving the planet.  And if you and your children have to die to make their fever dream come true, that’s just too bad.  It didn’t have to be this way.  Before Biden, we were energy independent.  We could be again, but it’s contrary to the wingnut climate change plan.  Biden shut the pipeline, cancelled the leases, and denied operators loans, while all the time promising to close the fossil fuel industry.  Sleepy Joe did make one concession that he claimed was designed to ease the pain of high prices on American consumers.  He made daily withdrawals of oil from our strategic petroleum reserve.  Biden said he was doing it to help Americans.  Of course, the amount that his action added to oil supplies was the equivalent of a piss in the ocean, and was guaranteed to have no effect on prices, but Biden congratulated himself for depleting our strategic supply, oil that by law should be tapped only to meet a dire military or domestic emergency.  This week we learned where some of our strategic oil reserve actually went.  More than 5 million barrels of the oil President Trump stocked up on at bargain prices is being shipped to countries all over the world, including to – wait for it – China.  Biden has told gas station owners to lower their prices because, “this is a time of war and global peril.”  So in a time of war and global peril, what does Biden do?  He buys oil from Russia, the country that started the war, and he sends our strategic oil to our most dangerous enemy.  Meanwhile, what is China up to?  They’re buying cut rate oil from Russia, and adding that oil and our oil to the Chinese strategic oil reserve.  You can’t make this shit up.  But for the fact that Biden lied when he said we were at war, these actions would go by a simple name – treason.  That’s not a joke.  During World War II, the U.S. produced more than 80% of all the oil used by all the Allied countries.  We supplied the U.S., Great Britain, Russia and Australia with all the oil needed for the war.  We had gasoline rationing in the U.S., not because of an oil shortage, but because of a shortage of rubber for tires.  Had FDR shipped oil to Germany, Italy, or Japan, he would have been impeached, and then hanged.  But old Joe keeps telling us he did a good thing.  We’re being played for suckers.  The sad thing is that so many Americans are willing to believe this crap.  We can’t end the use of fossil fuels without causing a depression, famine, civil unrest, possible civil war, and default on our massive debt.  Maybe that’s the plan.  We go bust, and Biden sells the country to the Chinese at the bankruptcy sale.  Think of it as payback for the money the Chinese paid to Hunter Biden, who by the way did business with the Chinese company buying our oil.  I for one am not going back to the Stone Age.  We couldn’t do that anyhow.  With all the new Biden EPA regulations, if we went back to being hunter-gatherers, using open fires to warm our caves, the Biden EPA would arrest us for CO2 crimes against the planet.  But it may come to that anyway.  Diesel fuel is basically the same fuel used to heat homes.  At $7 a gallon we better start learning to smack two stones together to start that fire.  It’s been widely reported that more than 70% of the country doesn’t want Joe Biden to run for reelection.  If Old Joe doesn’t run, I know the perfect job for him.  He can replace that annoying guy on the Allstate commercials who keeps telling us, “I’m Mayhem.”  Joe Biden could handle that job easily.  He wouldn’t be acting.

The U.S. Supreme Court really wrapped up this year’s session with a series of bangs.  And that whining sound you hear is coming from denizens of the Left, who are apoplectic over Court decisions with which they do not agree.  In point of fact, the Democrat Regressive/Progressives have lost what’s left of their minds, and are vowing to destroy the nine member Supreme Court, and replace it with an 11, 13, or 15 member Court that will do their Socialist bidding.  They have nothing but supreme contempt for the law.  This is typical.  Any part of our government or our Constitution with which they disagree must be destroyed.   The reason for this is the oft-mentioned Leftist mental disorder known as Delusions of Rectitude.  They’re convinced that any thought that comes into their heads is right, therefore any differing opinion must be wrong, extremist, and “a threat to our democracy.”  The Left has one remedy for dissent – scorched Earth.  All dissenters must be denounced, insulted, lied about, fired, destroyed and character assassinated.  This, of course is ironic, since the wingnuts who now make up the Progressive leadership grew up in the 1960’s, during which time they exhorted their followers to “challenge authority.”  When they became the “authority” all that changed.  Now, if they don’t win an election or a Court case, “our democracy is threatened.”  They actually have said that if the voters elect Republicans in the upcoming elections “democracy is at risk.”  Of course, a system in which the voters are free to choose their leaders is the very definition of democracy, and not a threat thereto, but no matter.  These people are brain-damaged.  They went off the rails when the Supreme Court decided the New York gun permit case.  In that case, the Court ruled that the New York requirement that a legal gun owner must prove special need for a carry permit violates the Second Amendment.  The decision was that, if you have been licensed to possess a gun, that permission extends to possession in those public places where gun possession has not been specifically prohibited (like schools, courts, etc.).  Leftists like NY Governor Hochel and NY Mayor Adams fumed that having more guns on the street would lead to more gun crimes.  Of course, this is nonsense.  The current strict gun laws in NY have not deterred gun crimes.  Shootings and murders are up 30 to 40% in the past several years.  And any politician who thinks the gun violence problem is the fault of people who legally possess guns is an imbecile.  They can’t be that stupid, so they must be lying.  As a prosecutor for 25 years, and having practiced criminal law for 42 years, crimes committed with a legally possessed gun are extremely rare.  Gun crimes committed with illegally possessed guns, and mostly by previously convicted felons who are prohibited from possessing any weapon are running at epidemic proportions.  If I have to say this again, criminals don’t obey the law.  Machine guns have been illegal since 1934, and there are more automatic weapons on the street today than Al Capone ever dreamed of having.  And the drive-by shootings being perpetrated in places like Chicago every day are not being committed by legal gun owners, but by teenage and young male thug gang members who have no regard for the value of human life.  The Left knows this, but won’t do anything about those guns.  They’re mad because they don’t think they’re supposed to lose any case in the Supreme Court.  They view the Court as their means to adopt policies that lack majority support in the legislature.  So, better to blame Clarence Thomas for his decision.  The overturn of Roe v. Wade was next.  The Left exploded with a “day of rage.”  Crowds of women expressed outrage and threatened to withhold sex.  As most of the protestors were so repulsive that no man would want to touch them with a ten foot pole, their virtue is not at risk.  They thundered about a constitutional right being taken from them.  No such thing happened.  Roe always was bad law.  Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg said so.  The Court simply confirmed that no right to abortion exists in the Constitution, thus leaving the question of abortion restrictions to the States, where the issue properly resides.  All those things that the federal government is permitted to do are in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.  All individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution reside in the Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments.  The right to abortion never was there, and all powers not delegated to the federal government make up the “Police Powers” of the various States, which include education, public safety, public health and morals.  A right which never existed cannot be taken away, and nothing really has changed.  Leftists complain however that the ruling may make abortions harder to get in some States.  That’s true, but so what?  It’s the Bill of Rights, not the Bill of Convenience.  State to State it’s harder to get driver’s and other licenses, building permits, and so on.  Have you forgotten the Wuhan pandemic?  The various States decided when to close schools and businesses, what medications could be prescribed, and who needed vaccination.  President Trump wasn’t authorized to order State schools open or vaccine mandates changed.  That’s federalism folks.  The abortion issue is no different.  As this is written, the Supreme Court has decided what may be the most important case on this year’s docket.  West Virginia v. The EPA challenged whether unelected bureaucrats in an agency such as the EPA have the authority to impose regulations that could overhaul or even shut down entire industries without Congressional legislation.  The Court ruled against the EPA, which argued that it had the right to impose CO2 regulations on the coal and oil industry which would have the effect of banning coal and oil fired power plants due to “the climate crisis.”  The Court ruled that the Congress could enact such a policy, but that an agency cannot simply order it.  This, no doubt will set the Greenies’ hair on fire.  They’re right and your wrong, and they’re not supposed to lose.  They want a Court that rules only in their favor, if not, burn it down.  It’s their only remedy.  End the filibuster, end the electoral college, make Senate seats proportional, and pack the Supreme Court.  They have 3 liberal sycophants on the Court now, so let Biden add 6 more leftist nuts, then they’ll never lose, and that’s good.  A rubber-stamp Court that’s not really a Court is what “justice” looks like to them.  Anything else is a threat to our democracy.

Make no mistake, we’re in the midst of a revolution in America.  Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden and his cronies can prattle on all they want about “democracy,” but a government which rules according to the wishes of the majority is the last thing they want.  They are revolutionaries, who are engaged in a reign of terror, reminiscent of that which overtook the French Revolution in 1793 and 1794.  This revolution was a  long time coming, but it is no less a revolution than the one fomented in France in the 18th Century.  When Il Duce Obama told us that he was about to “fundamentally transform” the United States, what do you think he was talking about.  If you’re dedicated to the Constitution you’ve sworn to uphold, then you’re not trying to “fundamentally transform” anything.  The main difference between the French Revolution and today’s Progressive Revolution is that the French sought to remove a monarch, who they considered to be a tyrant, while the Democrats simply want to substitute their tyranny for the political system that made the United States the envy of the world.  The comparisons to the French Revolution are chilling.  The French revolutionaries sought to take control of the government by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government.  The revolutionary Council announced that, “terror is the order of the day.”  So-called “First Citizen” Robespierre explained how it worked, “If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless.  Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the homeland.”  Robespierre saw it as his duty to weed out, (kill) all those who lacked the virtue he demanded, which killings he regarded as “justice.”  He vowed to “crush the enemies of the revolution … let the laws be executed … and let liberty be saved.”  Sound familiar?  It all worked fine until July 1794, when “justice” came for Robespierre, and he was guillotined.  Today’s Progressives are no different.  Lawyers led the French Revolution by manipulating the mob.  What do you think is going on 24 hours a day on MSNBC and CNN, where one “legal expert” after another comes on to stir up, dare I say it, insurrection?  Robespierre equated violence with justice.  Nothing has changed.  Progressives talk about “justice” all the time.  There’s social justice, racial justice, gender justice, abortion justice, climate justice, Trans justice, and Illegal Alien (I mean Irregular Migrant) justice.  And what’s their motto?  “No justice, no peace.”  The “mostly peaceful” riots of 2020 left no doubt that Progressives view violence, terror if you will, as an acceptable means of seeking what they consider to be “justice.”  Progressives use inherently violent groups such as BLM and Antifa  to do their bidding.  They threaten that, if they don;t get their way, there will be “days of rage,” marches, protests, and inevitably, violence.  They are terrorists.  The French Reign of Terror was orchestrated by what was called the Committee on Public Safety.  The Progressive Reign of Terror is being run by an equally harmless sounding organization, the Department of Justice.  This is an organization which pledges “equal justice for all,” but pursues justice only for those whose political views it consider to be acceptable.  Dissenters are hounded, persecuted, and jailed.  Thus, the DOJ is no better than the French Committee on Public Safety.  The riots of 2020 led to the highly questionable election of 2020, and installed the Biden Administration.  What has followed has been a virtual reign of terror.  Ignoring the fact that Democrats have largely run the government for 140 years, the government was declared “systematically racist.”  Although the government exists for the purpose of keeping citizens safe on the streets and in their homes, the police were declared criminals, criminals were released from jail, and prosecutors refuse to enforce the laws.  Progressives want to remove guns from the hands of the law abiding, but won’t lift a finger to take them from criminals.  As a result, our cities are war zones.  Progressives have opened the southern border to more than 250,000 invaders a month, people from all over the world, none of whom belong here.  Among them are people on the terrorist watch list.  They now demand that we house, feed, educate and care for these people at a time when we’ve been driven more than $30 trillion in debt.  More than 77,000 of our citizens die every year from the fentanyl shipped by China to Mexico, and imported to the U.S. by Mexican drug cartels.  Progressives won’t do anything to stop this carnage.  Progressives have deliberately doubled the cost of fuel as a means of pursuing their addle-brained climate goals.  This act, and uncontrolled spending, have caused unprecedented inflation, along with product shortages, and expected food shortages.  People are hurting, and it will only get worse, but Progressives see it as “justice.”  You may be starving, can’t afford to drive to work, and your child has no baby formula, but it’s all part of a “beautiful transition” on the road to justice.  It’s more like the road to Hell.  The French Reign of Terror ended only after years of bloody civil war, and put a dictator (Napoleon) at the head of the government.  We have an opportunity for a more peaceful end to our Reign of Terror.  We can start in November by taking the Congress from the hands of the Progressive maniacs who put us in this position.  We can finish the job by winning the the presidency in 2024.

I never thought the day would come when I would be paying $5 a gallon for gasoline.  Now that crazy day is here.  As with most issues, the problem of high fuel prices has been a subject on which the Biden Administration has contradicted itself.  We’ve been told all of the following:  high fuel prices are Trumps fault; Putin’s fault; the greedy oil companies’ fault; nobody’s fault, and nothing can be done about it; and all part of a Democrat planned “transformation” of the energy market.  Believe the last one.  The “root cause” of the high prices is the result of the confluence of two Democrat/Progressive policies – climate hysteria, and the conscious decision to put Americans last.  Think about that second policy.  Putting Americans last.  Biden has consistently made that choice.  He opened the southern border, and is admitting more than 500,000 illegal aliens a month.  The illegals are only seeking a better life, so they mustn’t be inconvenienced, but Americans will just have to sacrifice.  More crowding, more crime, higher taxes for education and police, and fewer jobs for citizens.  Americans can’t buy baby formula, but it’s being passed out free to “irregular migrants.”  America last.  We’re sending Ukraine money and goods we can’t afford.  Americans will just have to sacrifice.  America last.  Fuel prices are no different.  Make no mistake.  The high prices aren’t the fault of Trump, Putin or the oil companies.  They’re Biden’s plan, and it wasn’t a secret plan.  Old Joe told us all about it.  Candidate Joe Biden laid it all out on the campaign trail.  During  a debate, Biden said, “I would transition from the oil industry, yes.”  Biden made other statements that should have left no doubt about his plans.  “No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.  No more drilling on federal lands.  No more drilling, including offshore.  No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.  Ends.”  Biden claimed that he wants to shut down the oil industry because it “pollutes significantly” and needs to be “replaced by renewable energy over time.”  How much time?  Uh, not much.  “I do rule out banning fracking because we need other industries to get ultimately to complete zero emissions by 2025.” “No fracking on federal land.”  “We would make sure it [fossil fuel] is eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those.”  “I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuel.”  And running mate Kamala Harris agreed.  “There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking.”  President Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden began his destruction of the fossil fuel industry on day one of his term.  He cancelled the Keystone Pipeline, that would have facilitated shipping oil and gas from Canada.  He cancelled oil and gas leases, imposed crippling regulations on holders of existing leases, and ordered the Federal Reserve to deny loans to the industry.  But fear not.  It’s for our own good.  It’s all part of “a beautiful transition” to alternative renewable energy, from renewable energy sources that don’t exist.  Biden’s Cabinet is on board.  He appointed John Kerry Climate Czar, a position that never existed before.  Kerry’s supposed job is to “pursue green energy policies around the world.”  No one knows what that means.  The State Department won’t reveal how much he’s being paid, or who, or how many people work for him.  So Kerry’s free to fly around the world on a private jet selling America down the river, while lecturing mere American citizens about their carbon footprints.  Energy Secretary Granholm is another beauty.  She’s eminently qualified.  She went to Harvard Law School and then became a politician.  As for fossil fuels, she has said, actually she has sung, that oil should be left in the ground.  When asked, “What is the Granholm plan to increase oil production in America?” she began laughing. “That is hilarious.”  She explained that oil prices are set by OPEC, so America can’t do anything about them.  Of course, that’s a lie.  Donald Trump made OPEC irrelevant, by encouraging domestic production of oil, which made the U.S. energy self-sufficient, and drove the price of oil to about $60 a barrel.  Biden took the opposite approach – discouraged production, increased regulations, threatened increased taxes, and denied funding.  As this is written, the oil price has “fallen” to $120.  So take a bow Joe –

He did do that.  And he did it all to address the “existential threat” of climate change, and because that’s what his Woke masters told him to do.  But don’t despair, soon you’ll have an electric car, and just wait till you try to charge it on solar and wind power, when it’s cloudy and still outside.  No matter that electric cars cost more than gas cars, and that we don’t have the lithium, cobalt or rare Earth elements needed to produce their batteries.  The Chinese will sell us the elements, and use the money they make to open more coal-fired power plants in China.  No matter that we don’t have enough charging stations.  No matter that oil is needed for the components of electric cars.  No matter that electric cars won’t solve the climate problem, if one in fact exists.  It’s a beautiful transition, so just enjoy it – or else.  And yet, in the midst of Biden’s great and beautiful experiment, Old Joe and his henchmen know that they’re in serious trouble.  The Americans that they’ve put last didn’t sign up for $5, or $7, or $10 gasoline, and they’d prefer to stay warm next winter.  So, having single-handedly taken steps guaranteed to double the price of oil, Biden is now at work blaming oil companies for the increase.  In order to do this, he has had to deny 200 years of economic theory.  Economists agree that when a commodity is in short supply, its price goes up.  Biden decreased the supply, and now he’s complaining that the oil companies, to whom he denied supplies of crude oil are making too much money refining less oil at higher prices.  He’s even threatened the companies, that unless they increase oil supplies (which he cut) he will unleash his “emergency powers.”   You may be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but that’s simply bullshit.  There is no shortage of oil.  There’s a shortage of leadership.  So hats off to Joe Biden.  He’s done in less than two years what all our enemies failed to do in more than 200 years, he’s brought America to her knees.

In the 1950’s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy seized upon the issue of communists in the government as a means of gaining political advantage.  In truth, there were some communists in the government, most famously Alger Hiss, but McCarthy lost control, and embarked on largely fictional accusations of communists in every field and under every bed.  Lives were ruined, and when McCarthy expanded his witch hunt to supposed communists in the Army, the resulting televised hearings ended with McCarthy censured by the Senate.  The Army’s counsel, Joseph Welch is best known for this on-air rebuke of McCarthy,  “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.  Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”  And it is ever thus.  When a politician or a political Party uses a real problem to advance its extremist political ends, our republic is placed at risk.  Today’s Democrats are now using the gun control issue to advance their fading political prospects, and the republic be damned.  They’re not concerned by this since they have no use for our republic, preferring instead to rule by decree.  The rash of gun crimes, which culminated in the recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde are symptoms of a real problem; a problem which cries out for meaningful action by our lawmakers.  The problem won’t be addressed by passing some new meaningless gun regulations that will hamper the law abiding but will hinder the criminals not at all because, and this may come as a surprise to Leftists, criminals don’t obey any laws.  The latest mass shootings were perpetrated by people with mental disorders.  Keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill should be a priority.  Instead of gun control, we need nut control.  More and better “red flag” laws might prevent some shootings by stopping bad actors when they show themselves to be potential threats.  Schools are at risk.  A comprehensive plan would include hardening of school buildings and increased security in schools.  Democrats aren’t interested in a comprehensive approach.  They want only gun control that declares broad categories of guns illegal, renders them unusable, or orders their confiscations, and the Constitution be damned.  Democrat Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island minced no words.  When some questioned whether Democrat proposals were consistent with due process, Cicilline said, “spare me the bullshit about constitutional rights.”  This neatly sums up the Democrat view of our constitutional republic, as far as Democrats are concerned, “the document which is the supreme law of the land is bullshit.”  The left wing media jumped right onboard too.  Elie Mystal of MSNBC, claimed that the Second Amendment was only created to “preserve slavery and white supremacy.”  Mystal raved on, “This is what those white guys said when they were debating the Second Amendment.  They said that they needed a Second Amendment because they needed the armed disciplined.”  This goes to show that, in the hands of a demagogue, a bit of truth is what Congressman Cicilline might call, nothing more than bullshit.  The “white guy” who said part of what Mystal ranted about was George Washington, who told Congress in 1790,“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined…”  The object wasn’t to protect “those white guys” from slaves, but to protect the rights of citizens from being stolen from them by a standing army.  The Second Amendment was enacted when British oppressions were fresh in the minds of the Founders.  It was enacted not to preserve slavery,  but to prevent Americans from being enslaved by their new government.  Thomas Jefferson agreed, “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”  George Mason concurred, “To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them.”  And no, it wasn’t just Southerners who supported the right to bear arms. “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed” – Noah Webster.  “What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty” – Thomas Paine.  “Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins” – Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.  So, Mr. Mystal, spare me your race-baiting bullcrap.  Democrats continually talk about passing “common-sense” gun reforms, but they resist any reasonable compromise.  November is coming, so it must be all or nothing.  Their left wing contributors will settle for nothing less than confiscation of all guns in private hands.  Well, not all guns in private hands, just the guns in the hands of people who obey the law.  Democrats have no intention of trying to take guns away from criminals.  Here’s a tip for the left wing blowhards.  If you insist on confiscating guns, I’m with you, on one condition.  You have to start your confiscations on the South side of Chicago.  Just send Beto O’Rourke door to door to ask the gangbangers to please had over their illegal guns.  After all, the gangsters have more machine guns than Al Capone every dreamed of having.  They’ll give Beto the guns, or at least the bullets.  But Beto needn’t worry because Democrats are unconcerned about the nearly 10,000 black Americans murdered every year, nearly all by urban criminals with illegal guns.  They’re largely unconcerned by urban crime at all.  They’d prefer to pass unconstitutional gun laws that will turn law abiding citizens into criminals.  And for what?  To try to distract Americans from the disaster which is the Biden Administration.  They’ll rant about guns, abortion, and white supremacy to try to keep their useless butts in office.  They’ll seek political advantage from the blood of little children.  “Have they no decency?  No they do not.