Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
It's the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronaldus Magnus coming up, and we seem to be experiencing the second coming of Jimmy Carter.
And this Egypt thing is an abject mess.
It is an utter mess.
And people getting on the bandwagon of getting rid of an ally for whatever reasons.
I mean, they're not perfect, but we seem to be sidling up and out of the Muslim Brotherhood and Muhammad Al-Maradai.
This is not good.
Great to have you here, folks.
L. Rush Ball and the EIB Network Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Now, I'm not going to...
I started with Egypt today, and I want to play a Reagan soundbite for you since we are coming up on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
But I'm not going to let this stuff sidetrack me until the second hour.
We're going to talk a little bit about the healthcare vote, the repeal vote.
And I've got, it's amazing.
We've had, folks, a federal judge has declared Obamacare unconstitutional.
The law has been voided, and it doesn't matter.
Dick Durbin, all the Democrats, they are still implementing the law.
It's as though the Constitution doesn't matter.
The media is not the slightest bit interested in the substance of this.
They're just keeping track of it in the horse race context about how Obama's showing great courage, defying this Reagan-appointed judge in the interest of what's best for the American people.
It's stunning.
And I mean, we apply the test if this were if this were Bush 43 that were ignoring.
Let's let's say that Democrats had succeeded and they had found that the invasion of Iraq was unconstitutional.
I mean, just to pick something.
Federal judge, unconstitutional.
So all operations have to cease.
Bush doesn't cease.
Can you imagine?
That's all we would be hearing about here.
This is not an insignificant item.
We've had a federal judge rule that the whole law is void.
Now, Dick Turbin is out there saying, well, a judge did not issue an injunction.
The judge didn't say stop it.
The judge didn't think he had to.
Let's say a judge affirms murder is illegal.
People continue to murder.
The judge says, well, I didn't offer an injunction against murder or lawyers for the murderers.
The judge didn't issue an injunction.
The judge thought the law being voided spoke for itself.
If you have any kind of respect for the rule of law, this is a no-brainer.
And I'm just stunned by how little attention it's.
It's just a whole hummer for seemingly a lot of people.
Here's Reagan, 100th anniversary of his birth coming up.
This is October 21st, 1984 in Kansas City.
I happen to be there.
I happen to live in Kansas City in 1984.
I remember that convention, the debate.
Well, the convention was that was 1976.
But 1984, yeah, that was the last year of my 10-year failure in Kansas City.
Well, I mean, I didn't succeed at much of anything I tried there, but it all led to success later on in life.
Anyway, this is a presidential debate between Ronaldus Magnus and Walter F. Mondo.
The panelist is Morton Kondracki, the executive editor then of the New Republic.
Kondracki says, Mr. President, I want to ask you about negotiating with friends.
You severely criticize President Carter for helping to undermine two friendly dictators who got into trouble with their own people, the Shah of Iran and President Somoza of Nicaragua.
Now there are other such leaders heading for trouble, including President Penochet of Chile and President Marcos of the Philippines.
What should you do?
What can you do to prevent the Philippines from becoming another Nicaragua?
I did criticize the president because of our undercutting of what was a stalwart ally, the Shah of Iran.
And I am not at all convinced that he was that far out of line with his people or that they wanted that to happen.
The Shah had done our bidding and carried our load in the Middle East for quite some time.
And I did think that it was a blot on our record that we let him down.
Have things gotten better?
The Shah, whatever he might have done, was building low-cost housing, had taken land away from the mullahs and was distributing it to the peasants so they could be landowners, things of that kind.
But we turned it over to a maniacal fanatic who has slaughtered thousands and thousands of people.
This is, I'm playing this for you because it's great to match this against what's coming out of the White House today with, I mean, David Gergens going back and forth.
He doesn't know if he should be worried or not worried about what Obama continues to say and do regarding Egypt.
But that was Reagan explaining why we shouldn't always be so quick to trade a friendly dictator for Muslim extremists.
The bottom line always remains, what's in the best interests of the United States.
And of course, all during Iraq and during the Bush regime, we kept hearing Obama say, we can't impose our will.
We can't impose our way of life on people.
We can't impose freedom.
Democracy is.
Now we're going to impose our way on Egypt.
Obama wants Mubarak.
By the way, I am hearing reports that Mubarak has fled Egypt, that he's not there.
Unconfirmed, but I have read here, I've been told that Mubarak is not there.
Don't know where he went, but he's not there.
More on this as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.
Efforts to repeal Obama's health care law died a quick death in the Senate Wednesday, this Politico happily writing.
But the Republicans got a consolation prize, a bipartisan fix to a tax reporting requirement in the law that was widely panned by businesses.
I assume that's the 1099 reporting requirement.
A Democrat amendment, the Politico, in interest of great journalism, does not identify the fix to a tax reporting requirement as the 1099 problem.
They should assume all of their readers over at Time, Newsweek, and the Washington Post will understand what they're writing about.
A Democrat amendment to repeal the law's new tax reporting requirements passed 81 to 17 with broad bipartisan support, a Republican amendment to repeal the entire health reform law, meanwhile, fell along party lines 47-51 in a procedural vote.
Mitch McConnell said just holding the votes is a political victory.
McConnell managed to force the roll call on the floor of the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Some moderate Democrats are now on record with a vote in favor of Obama's signature unconstitutional health care bill.
So McConnell forced a bunch of Democrats to say I, voting for what has now been ruled to be an unconstitutional piece of legislation.
So the politico can hear, can say here, full repeal of health law fails, party line, no big deal.
It is a big deal.
Getting this vote, Dingy Harry had vowed this would not happen.
That's why I say this Egypt thing, folks, the Republicans are doing some really good stuff.
It's in some heavy lifting, and it's not being reported elsewhere because the story of the day, the juice, if you will, is Egypt.
So some Democrats vulnerable in 2012 are on record as supporting Obamacare.
23 Democrats are up for reelection in 2012, and almost half of them are vulnerable, according to polling data that people have now.
So figure 12 to 13 of these Democrats up are vulnerable, and they had to go on record yesterday.
This was not part of the plan.
Audio soundbite time.
Let's go to Harry Reid, Dingy Harry, yesterday in Washington on the Senate floor.
This is Dingy Harry speaking about the differences between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.
Democrats are fighting to modernize our nation's air travel.
Republicans are fighting to repeal the health reform law, ignoring the 80% of Americans who want them to leave it alone.
What?
In other words, Democrats want to give passengers the rights they deserve.
Republicans want to take away patients' rights that they already have.
By the way, it's a lame effort, Dingy Harry, to try for the Obama reverb and echo there.
It just doesn't, with your anemic voice, every time I listen to Dingy Harry, I want to clear my throat.
I feel like I got phlegm in there just listening to Dingy Harry.
So did you know that 80% of the American people want us to want the law left alone?
Healthcare, don't it's total BS.
So here's they're defending an unconstitutional law.
Dingy Harry trying to score points with passenger rights.
Here's Mitch McConnell on the floor of the Senate yesterday.
It's not every day that you get a second chance on a big decision after you know all the facts.
This is that second chance.
And for all of us who oppose the health bill, today we reaffirm our commitment to work a little harder to get it right.
We can't afford to get it wrong.
So McConnell was giving Democrats like Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill a second chance, change their vote.
Claire, by the way, I'm from Missouri.
I keep up somewhat with what's going on there.
Her campaign is, what's the word I'm looking for?
It is schizo.
It's inconsistent.
She comes out against spending.
She's trying to make it sound like she doesn't want to side with Obama on anything one day.
And next day, it's the exact opposite, depending on who the audience is.
Anyway, McConnell said, look, if you guys want to get this right, you're vulnerable.
And Claire clearly is vulnerable in 2012.
If you want to get this vote right, here you go.
They didn't avail themselves of the opportunity.
Bernie Sanders, this is last night on MSNBC, the host.
Senator, how frustrating is this for you to see the bill tied up in a constitutional argument when the provisions that could have been in place, like the public option and other versions of the legislation that were rejected early on by the Democrat leadership, would not have posed any constitutional difficulties.
One of the ways that I want to see it improved is to give states flexibility to provide health care to all people, maintaining very, very high standards, but doing it in a more cost-effective way.
And in the state of Vermont, we are moving forward toward a Medicare for all single-payer system.
And I hope very much to be able to get waivers from Congress and the White House in order to allow us to do so.
Because I think at the end of the day, if you're going to provide health care to all of our people in a cost-effective way, you're going to have to get rid of the private health insurance companies and put our money into health care, not profiteering, not administration, not bureaucracy.
Who let Bernie out of the cage?
Bernie, you're not supposed to say that yet.
Bernie just gave it all away.
Get rid of the private health insurance companies.
We're going to have to get rid of and put our money into health care, not profiteering, not administration, not bureaucracy, which of course is all it will be.
So this is Obamacare.
This is what it's designed to be.
Single payer, public option, yada yada, whatever you want to call it.
But they're not supposed to say this in public.
And Bernie Sanders did.
I mean, it's one thing when Maxine Waters says, we're going to nationalize and socialize your, I mean, everybody just starts laughing.
But when Bernie Sanders comes out here and says, we got to get rid of the private health insurance companies, then people cringe because that is the agenda.
That is the strategy.
All right, have a quick time out here, my friends.
We've just begun El Rushball having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
Don't go away.
Starting a million conversations, serving humanity.
How?
Simply by existing.
Happy to have you here.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is being breathlessly reported that the Egyptian army, Snerdley, have you heard this?
The Egyptian army is rounding up foreign journalists.
I mean, even two New York Times reporters were detained.
Now, this is supposed to make us feel what exactly?
How are we supposed to feel?
Are we supposed to feel outrage over it?
I don't feel any outrage over it.
Are we supposed to feel anger?
Feel any anger over this?
Do we feel happy?
Well, do we feel kind of going like I'm sure that your emotions are running the gamut when you hear that two New York Times reporters have been detained along with the journalists in Egypt?
Remember now, we're supporting the people who are doing this.
Obama gave a speech.
In fact, we have, he's made another message to Egyptians.
This one has not aired in public in this country because it wasn't intended to.
This message specifically for Egyptians.
We just got it this morning.
Now a message of civility broadcast by President Obama to the Egyptian people right before the riots broke out.
People of Egypt, now that I have completely backed away from supporting your current government, I urge you to be civil in the transfer of power from President Mubarak to the Muslim Brotherhood or whatever.
Always remember that to build a successful future, you need to punish your enemies and reward your friends.
No, no, no.
What I meant to say is, if they bring a knife to a fight, you bring a gun.
But not a ball of cocktails.
Look, it's not surprising that you are bitter, that you claim to your guns and religion.
But remember, that's the latest from on the ground in Egypt.
You haven't heard that anywhere else because that's exclusive to us.
If I didn't know better, if I didn't know better, and I may know better, I don't know, but you look at this, Obama seems determined to give us Iran on the Nile.
I mean, this is, folks, there's something about this.
I'm seeing so many people get on the bandwagon here claiming that this is a pro-democracy movement and that's what we're all about.
Nobody's asking the question that I think is really crucial for us, and that is, how does this affect our number one ally in the region, which is Israel?
It doesn't even seem to be a factor out there, and it is somewhat troubling.
Anyway, Mexico has had to provide electricity to Texas.
It is amazing.
I have friends, I have co-workers, I have colleagues on the ground in Dallas.
But they actually can't touch the ground because there's still a sheet of ice one inch thick over, and they're pouring sand on it, not salt.
It's a shame to Dallas is getting ripped through all kinds of media for being unprepared and uncaring.
I even saw, I forget who it was last night, somebody said, yeah, well, it's just because the cowboys aren't playing in a game.
That's why Dallas doesn't care.
That's silly.
There are establishments from Fort Worth all the way to Grapevine who have invested a lot of money getting ready for this week, and they've had to shut down.
I'm talking about retail shops, bars and saloons with adult beverages and so forth.
The crowds aren't there.
You tune in, you watch ESPN.
I kind of smile at this.
These guys are freezing themselves to their outside in Fort Worth.
And at the Super Bowl, you can see their breath as they speak.
Their mouths are getting frozen, which is a benefit for the viewer in many cases at ESPN.
But Mexico has now had to provide electricity.
Mexico will provide electricity to Texas to help the state weather an ice storm that has forced rolling blackouts.
So we have to thank Mexico.
Dallas has not effectively shut down, but It's been bad.
They got rolling blackouts in some areas, some areas without power for eight hours or more.
Schools are closed for the third straight day.
As I said, a lot of businesses can't open because of the power problems.
This never happened.
This never happened when J.R. Ewing ran the show down there.
Never one time.
They're driving big cars all over the place down there.
Just a shame we can't maintain traditions.
Mexico helping Texas out with electricity.
Anybody familiar with the seven stages of film production?
Now, you people in Hollywood know full well what I'm about to say.
And those of you who are film students at UCLA and those of you working the porn shops, you know full well what I'm talking about here.
But the seven stages of film production remind me of the Obama regime's handling of the Egyptian crisis.
In fact, they're handling it pretty much every crisis.
Here is, or here are the seven stages of film production.
In other words, for those of you in Rio Linda, when you're going to make a movie, the first stage, wild enthusiasm.
Big press conference, announce that you've got your cast and you've got your budget and you're going to go to town.
The next phase, the next stage is total confusion.
Stage three is utter despair because it's not coming together as you envision.
You're way, way, way over budget.
A couple of actors have quit.
Maybe a couple are having an affair.
It's all bad.
The entertainment press is not giving you any favors and your competitors are just ripping you to shreds in the trades.
Number four of the seven stages of film production, search for the guilty.
All right, who's responsible for this?
Who blew this up?
Who's really to blame for this?
Number five, persecution of the innocent.
Once you find out who's really to blame, you know who not to publicly identify.
You search for the innocent and persecute them.
Number six, you promote, therefore, the incompetent.
After all of your project has fallen apart, you have identified whose fault it is and you've protected them.
You've blamed it on others.
You have thus promoted incompetence.
And at the end of the day, you give away t-shirts.
That's number seven, distribution of t-shirts.
Seven stages of film production.
And that's what this regime is, what it reminds me of.
Now, I mentioned earlier, Senator.
Oh, let me grab a phone call here from we got people from Dallas who want to weigh in here.
They're not happy down there when the news has gotten out that Mexico has to provide them electricity.
That, you know, I know Texans.
I have a lot of friends who are Texans.
I love going to Texas.
I've been to South Fork.
And this story out there that Mexico is having to provide electricity for Texas, particularly in Dallas during Super Bowl week, not sitting well.
Here's Is Andrew in Dallas.
Great to have you on the program, sir, and hello.
Hey, Brother Rush, it is an honor, a pleasure, and a privilege to speak with you, sir.
I know.
Thank you very much.
It is absolutely crazy here in Dallas with all the ice.
And, yeah, the whole global warming thing.
That's a freaking joke, let me tell you.
I think a lot of the reason that we've had so much trouble with the powers, what they've said on the local news stations, is because a lot of the pipes going into The power plants, as far as like the natural gas lines and the water cooling pipes and all that stuff, it's not prepared for this kind of weather because it's extremely out of the ordinary.
It is.
Wind chills in the double digits below zero.
Temperatures in the single digits.
It is highly unusual.
So the cold weather is what the culprit here in the power plant's ability to function and produce electricity.
Right.
And the scariest thing about it is driving because Texas people don't know how to drive on the ice.
And it's the nature of my business that I drive 1,000 miles a week.
So I'm going to watch out for all these people.
It's scary, man.
Who does?
It is scary.
Who does know how to drive on ice?
Well, definitely not Texas.
Folks, driving.
All right, snerdly, snerdly thing.
Northerners know how to drive on ice.
I'm not talking slush, and I'm not talking snow.
I'm talking ice you can't stop.
There is an inch of ice on everything.
The temperature has gotten nowhere near freezing.
It isn't melting.
They're putting sand on top of the ice, not salt.
It isn't melting.
I mean, you could, Santa Claus would be having trouble down there.
It's, uh, it really, and.
And the fact that people down there aren't used to driving on, of course, is a factor.
Andrew, I appreciate the call.
This is Michael in Plano, Texas.
You're on the EIB network.
Sir, hello.
Good morning, Rush.
Great honor to speak to you, Terabyte Dittos from cold Plano, Texas.
Thank you very much, sir.
I just wanted to call and tell you, I lost it yesterday morning.
My wife thought I was having an aneurysm.
The business I work in of dealing with a lot of the power outages and branch outages that occurred to this because of these rolling blackouts that were instituted by a group called ERCOT.
They manage the unregulated utility companies in Texas, and they were the ones that requested these rolling blackouts, and they were all over the state.
They weren't just in the Dallas Ford Park.
Oh, I know.
It's all over the state.
And they had this parade of people on the local news media about crying about being without the power.
And I understand all that, but the media was just beating up on the utility companies.
And I turned around on the TV and I'm like, that's not the story.
The story is, why don't we have the capacity to deal with this?
We haven't built a power plant in this state in God knows how many years because of all the environmental regulations and everybody screams about all that.
And we can't build a power plant.
We shouldn't have this problem.
And we certainly shouldn't have to be borrowing electricity from Mexico.
And I wouldn't borrow it, steal it.
What are they going to do?
How are you going to give it back?
Exactly.
I mean, I'm like, I told my wife, this is the United States of America in the year 2011, the great state of Texas.
And we're having to have rolling blackouts like an East German Soviet bloc country in the 60s.
I'm telling you, look, I appreciate your call, Michael.
He's in Plano.
This is affecting him.
You don't.
Texas.
Texas, this is not what they're made of.
Rolling blackouts, I mean, this is Texas.
They think they could secede and have a stronger economy than the rest of the country.
So it's grading on them down there.
And he's exactly right.
And we're not even talking nuclear power plants.
It's just trying to ramp up and build even larger ones or brand new ones.
It is a you've got to jump through hoops.
And it's not just in Texas, that's everywhere.
And folks, let me tell you something.
If Obama gets his way, rolling blackouts will be the new norm.
What do you think green energy is?
Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Limbaugh, do you have to politify everything?
Look at Mr. New Castrati, I don't initiate anything here.
I react.
And I'm sitting here minding my own business, trying to enjoy life, have a great time.
I'm my 23rd year of this program.
I can phone it in.
But the problem, well, my professionalism wouldn't permit me.
I get here every day and I have to look at how attacks on my country are materializing.
And we've got an administration that wants to somehow roll back prosperity for whatever perverted reason.
So, yeah, here's some rolling blackouts in Texas.
Okay, what they're trying to do is come up with this new green energy.
They're throwing all kinds of money into it, bribing GE one way or the other.
Maybe it's a mutual bribe.
I don't know.
It doesn't matter.
The fact of the matter is that in weather like they're having in Texas and throughout the country, the windmills shut down.
And you need wind anyway.
If there's no wind, you can't fake that.
You can't manufacture that.
The rolling blackouts would be the new norm.
Because don't forget, as far as Obama and his crowd are concerned, we are wasting electricity.
We're using way, way, way much more than our share.
And we have to learn to do with less.
We need to learn what the rest of the world has had to put up with because of us.
It's time we learned.
It's time we experienced the rigors of life that we have inflicted on others.
There are people in this country who view America in that way.
And some of them now have positions of power and leadership in our administration.
Here is the CyberCast News Service.
Dick Durbin told the Cybercast News Service the regime should absolutely continue enforcing the Obamacare law because the federal judge Roger Vinson ruled only that the law is unconstitutional.
He had a chance to issue an injunction, but he didn't do so.
So we got an unconstitutional law.
Dick Durbin, senator from Illinois, say, yeah, he said it's unconstitutional, but he didn't issue an injunction.
So we're free to keep on implementing something that he said is unconstitutional.
The Cybercast News Service reporter asked Durbin to clarify whether the regime should continue to implement the law.
Durbin said, oh, absolutely.
Cybercast News Service asked Durbin on Wednesday whether he thinks the regime should stop implementing the law.
Personally, Durbin said, I don't, because the judge was asked for an injunction and he didn't rule that there would be one.
So he has not enjoined any conduct or activity.
Judge Vinson had a chance to not only decide whether it was unconstitutional, but to issue an injunction, and he didn't do that.
That's Dick Durbin.
Well, there is a long-standing presumption that officials of the executive branch will adhere to the law as declared by the court.
As a result, the declaratory judgment is the functional equivalent of an injunction.
Judge Vinson says the executive branch must obey.
Declaratory judgment is, in a context such as this, where federal officers are defendants, the practical equivalent of specific relief such as an injunction, since it must be presumed that federal officers will adhere to the law as declared by the court.
That's from Justice Scalia.
There is no reason to conclude that this presumption should not apply here.
Thus, the award of declaratory relief is adequate and separate injunctive relief is not necessary.
The law has been voided.
The judge specifically says that his decision is a functional equivalent of an injunction.
He says the bold text that I just read to you is from his ruling that an injunction is not necessary because it is presumed the executive branch will obey the declaratory judgment that the law is voided.
Let me read it to you again.
Judge Vincent, remember his Durban running around saying, he didn't get shit an injunction.
He didn't tell us we had to stop implementing the law.
Here's Judge Vinson from his ruling.
There is a long-standing presumption that officials of the executive branch will adhere to the law as declared by the court.
As a result, the declaratory judgment is the functional equivalent of an injunction.
The judge says it's an injunction.
Here it is.
This is a declaratory judgment.
I'm declaring this unconstitutional.
He has done so.
They keep on.
This is not insignificant, folks.
It's being swept under the rug as though it never happened.
Egypt and other stories are being used to hide and camouflage this.
This is big.
It will be back.
Don't go away.
And welcome back.
El Rushbo would have my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Oil has now pushed above $103 a barrel.
World food prices have reached a new record.
We talked about this Monday.
There are more and more.
We got the sound bites to back this up.
I've got so much stuff here I'm not yet even organized with all that I've got.
So I promise you we'll get to it before the program wraps up today.
More and more people starting to sing the song that I warned everybody about on Monday, and that is all of this printing money that we're doing, QE2, quantitative easing to is leading to record high commodity prices, food prices around the world.
And this, in Egypt, the few will recognize what it is.
It's a gut-level economic protest as much as anything else.
And the evidence is continuing to build.
And people want to say, well, yeah, Bernanke is, you can't separate Bernanke from Obama.
This incessant spending, printing, under the guise of stimulus, is wreaking havoc all over the world.
Julie in Pittsburgh, hello, and welcome to the EIB Network.
Great to have you here.
Hi.
I just wanted to say, you know, the president had two opportunities to support pro-democracy movements in Iran, once in 2009 and once again in 2010.
And he chose not to do so.
So what's different here?
It's a great question.
It's a question that I, El Rushbo, have been asking all week.
Why ignore the 2009 freedom protesters?
We knew that was about democracy.
We knew that was about freedom.
We still don't know that that's what this is about in Egypt.
Contrary to what he says, folks, we still don't know that's what this is.
Well, I mean, there are pro-leftist forces in Egypt that are probably, he has a lot in alignment with them.
Well, that's a serious charge.
You are claiming that there are leftist groups in Egypt that are aligned with President Obama.
Well, I mean, he would have a lot in common with them, wouldn't he?
Yeah, and looked at it from your prism, yes.
But there has been, it's not just Obama.
He's clearly trying to get out in front of this, and he owns this now, and he owns this mob.
He purposely got out there and tried to own this mob, but there's all kinds of people are on the bandwagon praising this thing.
We have several on our side.
Weekly Standard, I think their official position is this is fabulous.
McCain thinks this is fabulous.
This is wonderful what's going on.
It's not just Obama.
There are people that are running as fast as they can to get in line behind this thing.
This is great for democracy.
It's great for freedom.
Get rid of Mubarak.
Yeah, but they're not schooled in the Middle East, are they?
I don't know if they're not schooled in the Middle East or if they have other things more important to them, such as hoping it turns out good, but hoping also the way they position themselves now in the media is more important than the end result endgame there.
You can't take that out of the equation.
That could be.
That could be.
Yeah, I don't think it's the whole reason.
I don't think it's the sum total or why certain people are getting on board this thing, but it is a factor.
You cannot rule it out.
We have to take a brief time out.
Look at time.
I cannot believe it is zipping by, but it is.
We'll be back.
Don't go anywhere, folks.
The more I look at this in Egypt, the less convinced I am that this is a revolution.
I really don't think it's a revolution.
This is more like a civil war of sorts that is happening.
But the civil war aspect, mark my words, that's going to be dismissed as little more than Mubarak unleashing thugs against the forces of Jeffersonian liberalism.
This is the way this is all shaping up.
And the bottom line is nobody yet really knows for sure what's happening.