Former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan and Friday arched a citizen of the Arab state to prioritize peace to improve the development of the state. Jonathan gave the advice while the commission in phase one of the 22 kilometer dual carriageway. It is on record that the Arab state on the recent analysis of economies where the second on the table of 36th, second at the bottom that is least borrowed state in the whole country of 36th. We are second from the bottom. So for those who say we're over borrowed, I want to tell you we're under borrowed. Constructed to ease vehicular movement and for the safety of the residents of the state capital. This has given the state capital a firstly befitting the state capital. We are optimistic that morose project will soon be commissioned before the end of this administration. As the president, I know what security challenges could be. I know I remember in those days, sometimes I have been to church on Sunday. My ADC's phone will be on monitoring what is happening all over the country. And while in the church, assuming attack somewhere, attack some, you can imagine here in the church. And the ADC's you knew his phone and you're seeing somewhere. In fact, he keeps you sleepless nights. I don't sleep. So when the security of a place is much better, I'm always appreciative. And this is happening because the people of Tanaba have decided to live in peace. We are commissioning this flyover for our use with the glory of God.


I joined towards the end of World War II and I was, my enlistment was two years or the duration and six, which ever was the longest. And I went to boot camp and I shot well on the range. And so they noticed that and so I didn't realize it. I went down to the rifle range to hope to get a job and I became a gunnery and suck. They can probably talk to the people in Navy personnel about how they would best qualify for something they would be interested in and pursue that. Also, while they're in the Navy, they can educate themselves in different areas. I think that would help to, help make sure I won a Navy veteran to be employed.


what's going on everybody got Kyle here relating sports cards and we are ripping two boxes of the new release 2023 star wars galaxy both these gonna be for ridsy s good luck good luck let's see what we got let's see some nice little numbers let's see a super i don't think any we've hit a super yet not that i remember anyway they're on the speeder bike the pursuit and Darth Vader from the Darth Vader and the uh and the bounty hunter set cool looking set the animated bounty hunters invader got mojo this was a 50 nice one there it is from the depths boba fed coming out of the sarlacc pit there very nice number to 50 29 out of 50 on the mojo very nice one there that looks sick great start to the box see what else we got still got two more parallels coming refractor millennium falcon and the reimagined set i like those i like those the 50 man what i say what i say that's a super fracter called it we've got a um x-wing and we got a super come on ridsy it is mom what's that mas katana women of star wars on these super fracter there we go ridsy that will do mas katana on the women of star wars poster that's a boom we will take a super fracter congrats on that one ridsy that's the first super fracter i've seen out of this set very clean there super just on the border i like it we will mag that up for you hey there you are what's going on congrats congrats nice first box here man to 50 and a super we'll take that out of the two parallels very nice we'll mag that for you at the end here let's keep on going man let's keep on going see what else we can get great box of star wars so far refractor come on shouldn't still have one more parallel too little hot box we got going millennium falcon and we got the reimagined set another refractor yeah chris that a little bit called shot there a little bit there's a uh lando lando refractor let's go we'll take a uh we'll take a super the women of star wars set there is luke refractor that one is the torture droid and that one is uh assajj ventris from the women of star wars set very nice very nice righty got a super rich we hit a super we hit a super i'll show you just one second here refractor we hit a super the women of star wars set super fracter of mas katana from the new trilogy that is sick man the women of star wars with like the animated set they are sick very nice super there for you um ridzy very sick i like that women of star wars set and the um the dart fader and his uh bouncy hunter set both of those are sick we got a odd couple and return to the jedi poster yeah we had a uh we had a nice sketch in the box before this too there's a refractor that one is star wars saga and there is a leia on the women of star wars set yeah we had a nice uh kylo ren sketch in the last box right before this so this case must have been loaded it was uh it was the case from the front of the shop there's a um dart fader refractor definitely a nice case and a refractor speeder bike and return to the jedi poster refractor um the death star battle of endor gotta get used to some of these uh some of these card names if we're doing the random letter this is probably my favorite one in the set right there that's the uh master of evil dart fader got his uh the helmet on then they got the like they got like his face underneath the helmet underneath the flames that is just a sick card man master of evil refractor that's probably my favorite one in the set i think i think it might be an atomic to close it out close this box out it is gonna be malls rage darth mall there number to 150 on the atomic i know donny loves these atomics man they do look great malls rage we can jack darth fader there or darth mall and one more one more for you rincey let's see what we got box two it's helped to beat that first box man but let's do it let's try good luck good luck sir and guys still got some space for today for sure going till three o'clock today going till three o'clock still got some space dr doom or darth vader tough question uh daybreak on hawth i think i got to go with vader i don't think doom has the same uh kira vader's got some abilities from far away i don't know if doom's got the i don't know if doom can compete there is a which one is this shiny return shiny return refractor trying to get some of these names down this one is the patrolling the indoor moon and a return of the jedi poster darth vader's got range he can uh he can choke you out from far away there's a uh boba fet refractor i think i'd give that fight to darth vader i don't know dr doom's cool though dr doom's got some power got diabolic duo diabolic duo there boba and darth vader and we got a vader and his vader and the bounty hunter set refractor salacious b chrome they're talking about a dr doom movie really that'd be kind of cool i know they've been talking about a fantastic four movie another one i guess um this one is projection projection this card reminds me of rick and morty i don't know like the rick and morty uh design there i think it's just uh c3o's face there it's like a rick and morty card refractor of millenium falcon and darth vader refractor darth vader bounty hunter set yeah they haven't had very good ones that's true the fantastic four movies there's a leah women of star wars wave wave number two ninety nine this one is going to be vader redeemed that's kind of a cool set too the very end of the uh the sixth movie vader redeemed 55 of 99 takes out the emperor reimagined set i still think master of evil is probably my favorite in this set there's tattooing tattooing sunset refractor of uh dyad in the force and atomic this one is vader reimagined that is sick vader has a samurai vader reimagined they're the 150 on the atomic aqua this one is where's this uh star wars saga to 199 on the aqua that's a sick one too man we're doing well on the color some really cool cards on the color star wars saga another vader reimagined yeah i like that reimagined set it's like the jedi's as um as like a samurai it's a really cool set uh that one's a refractor of yoda's hut refractor land up already guys after this one we're gonna collect some more boxes um we'll get everything collected that's been ordered so far and we'll keep on ripping here so give me a few minutes after this one guys vengeful pursuit rey went from star wars still got room two guys maybe wants to get an order in can get it done for you go until three still got plenty of room here's a refractor this one is lobot and last pack for you sir congrats on that super man that was sick keep it going tuscan raider and return of the jedi poster all righty guys that'll do it for box two of star wars congrats rinsey on that super fractor of mosca tana the weapon of star wars set really nice one there um like i said guys we'll get uh i'm gonna go collect some more boxes see what we got ordered i'll get everything and we'll keep on ripping here i'll be back in just a moment guys thank you thank you um hey no problem rinsey no problem that was an awesome uh that was an awesome rip a lot of fun there thank you for your order i'll be right


If you expose pregnant crickets to a predatory wolf spider, her babies will hatch exhibiting increased anti-predator behavior, and as a consequence, improved survival from wolf spider attack. The mother cricket appeared to be able to forewarn her babies about the threat when they were still inside her so they would be pre-adapted to their external environment. This even happens in plants. If you grow two genetically identical plants, one in the sun, one in the shade, the sun-grown plant will produce seeds that grow better in the sun, and the shaded plant will grow seeds better, growing better in the shade, even though they're genetically identical. So what we're dealing with is epigenetics, external factors changing gene expression. Vole pups born in the winter come out growing thicker coats. Vole mothers are able to communicate the season to their babies in utero and tell them to put a coat on even before they're born, and people are no different. You know how different people have different temperature tolerances, resulting in battles of the bedroom. Do you turn the AC on or off, open the windows? It's not just genetics. Whether you're born in the tropics or in a cold environment determines how many active sweat glands you have in your skin. But what does this have to do with diet?  What happened to the children born during the 1945 Dutch famine imposed by the Nazis? Higher rates of obesity 50 years later. The baby's DNA gene expression reprogrammed before birth to expect to be born into a world of famine, to conserve calories at all costs. But when the war ended, this propensity to store fat became a disadvantage. What pregnant women eat and don't eat doesn't just help determine the birth weight of the child, but the future adult weight of the child. For example, maternal protein intake during pregnancy may play a role in the obesity epidemic, but not just protein in general, protein from animal sources, primarily meat products consumed during pregnancy may increase the risk of their children growing up overweight. Originally, they thought it might be the IGF-1, a growth hormone boosted by animal product consumption that may increase the production of fatty tissue. But weight gain was tied more to meat than dairy. Every daily portion of meat intake during the third trimester resulted in about an extra percent of body fat mass in their children by their 16th birthday, potentially increasing their risk of becoming obese later in life, independent of how many calories they ate or how much they exercised. But no such link was found with cow's milk intake, which would presumably boost IGF-1 levels just as high. So maybe instead it's the obesogens in meat, chemicals that stimulate the growth of fatty tissue. Emerging evidence demonstrates that environmental factors can predispose exposed individuals to gain weight irrespective of diet and exercise. After all, even our infants are fatter. You can't blame that on diet and exercise. Animals, too. And not just our pampered pets, even rats in labs and subways. The likelihood of 24 different animal populations from 8 different species, all showing a positive trend in weight over the last few decades, by chance is less than 1 in a million. So it appears there's something else going on, like obesogenic chemicals. One such candidate is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, found in cigarettes spewing out of exhaust pipes and in grilled meat. This nationwide study of thousands found that the more children are exposed, the fatter they tended to be. They could measure the levels of these chemicals right out of their urine, and it can start in the womb. Prenatal exposure to these chemicals may cause increased fat mass gain during childhood and a higher risk of childhood obesity. If these pollutants sound familiar, I've covered them before in relation to increasing breast cancer risk in the Long Island Breast Cancer Study. So maybe they're not just obesogens, but carcinogens as well, perhaps explaining the 47% increase in breast cancer risk among older women in relation to a lifetime average of grilled and smoked foods. If you look at one of the most common of these toxins, smokers get about half from food and half from cigarettes. But for non-smokers, 99% comes from diet. The highest levels are found in meat, with pork apparently worse than beef, but as you can see, even dark green leafies like kale can get contaminated by pollutants in the air. So don't forage your dandelion greens next to the highway and make sure to wash your greens under running water. Now these are fat-soluble pollutants, so need lots of fat to be absorbed, so even heavily contaminated plant-based sources may be safer unless you pour lots of oil on your food, in which case the toxins would presumably become as readily absorbed as the toxins in meat. The good news is that they don't build up in your body. If you expose people to barbecued chicken at time zero here, you can see they get a big spike in these chemicals, like up to a hundred-fold increase, but your body can get rid of it within about 20 hours. The problem, of course, is that people who eat these kinds of foods every day may be constantly exposing themselves, which may not only affect their health and their children's health, but maybe even their grandchildren's health. Being pregnant during the Dutch famine didn't just lead to an increase in diseases among their kids, but even, apparently, their grandkids. So what a pregnant woman eats now may affect future generations. The issue of generation-spanning effects of poor conditions during pregnancy may help shed some light on the explosive epidemics of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease associated with this transition towards Western lifestyles.


So I'm going to answer a question, and it's about intellectualizing. It's this thing where we read book after book, maybe self-help book after self-help book, and we get all these ideas and concepts and you know, we're nodding along as we read them, and they seem really insightful in the air, you know, they're really interesting. But there's this phenomenon we begin to realize where it's not really transferring into any emotional change for me, and I got this question from someone and it talks about this. I mentioned it in an earlier video and this person, they wrote me a long email, but the part I want to read here is I realized knowledge is not the answer, but so far neither is the journaling or the meditating or the yoga or medication or anything. So this person says they feel stuck but can this be overcome and what's the way forward with this? Okay, so trying all these different things, they recognize intellectualizing the issue is not going to work, but a lot of these other approaches are not working either. So when that's the case, we really look for something really fundamental, a fundamental element to the approach that we're taking. Okay, so this is maybe depression here. We're talking about anxiety, underlying long-term issues that we've been living with for a long time, procrastination, anything, and one thing that we can start off and look at fundamentally is am I trying to get rid of this first and foremost, okay? Because we can try, we can throw the kitchen sink at any emotional block or issue we have. We can do all sorts of approaches to it or with it. But if there's this underlying thing of everything I'm trying to do with this block I have is in order to get rid of it, nothing will work because it's only going to set up again a computational dynamic within us where we're trying desperately to block and get rid of, fix, okay? That happens naturally over time that fixing, you know, if fixing is the wrong word, moving of the emotional block. But we have to start off fundamentally with the assumption here that we're not going to go in and try to fix anything straight away. In fact, what's needed primarily, first of all, is patience. Just meeting it where it is. Now, when I say patience, that's a difficult concept for us to grasp. Really, it is. When I mean patience, and this is a paradox of change here, patience means infinite patience. Patience doesn't really mean I'm going to be, I'm going to give you two minutes before I decide it's time to get rid of you, whatever the feeling or the block is inside. Once we can get to the point where we say this feeling that's here can stay right there, and I can stay present with it for as long as it wants to stay, however long that is, and I'm okay with that. That's infinite patience. Now, that sounds almost impossible for us, but here's the thing to remember about this. And you can use what I'm about to say here as a little trick, which won't work either. But once we get to the point where we meet that block or that feeling or that emotion inside us with infinite patience, the paradox of change is once that happens, it moves. Okay, so meeting it with infinite patience is primarily what's there. Now, once we have that kind of as our initial goal, we can do anything else. We can do meditation, yoga, as this person mentions, we can do meditation, we can do everything with it, right? But unless we have that sort of starting position where we're going to just go in and meet what's there, not with this, but just to be present with it, okay, to allow it to be, for allow it to be, allow it to be present and to be present with it. It starts to move. Okay, it's no longer, it's the conflict that they're pushing it back that keeps it in place for us all the time. But when we stop this, actually, don't even stop the conflict, right? Allow the conflict to be there. Once you're, when you're, when you're increasing awareness from your, for your emotional blocks, you'll notice the negative emotion is there. You become more and more aware of that. You'll feel it more and more. And you'll also become more and more aware of, oh, there's a part of me that's really fighting this. Now you become more and more aware of that too without judging that part of it either and when that happens, really, there's profound movement or change. It takes place. It's kind of a part of you that's okay with everything happening inside yourself, emotionally. So paradox of change is kind of what I'm talking about here. Once you meet whatever it is that's there without the need to fix it, get rid of it, you know, and to say to it, you can stay here for as long as you need to stay here. I'm not going to get rid of you and I'm not going to fight. That's when things actually start to change. Okay, so patience is something to look at for this. So bear that in mind. It's a pretty big concept, but it's a very fundamental one that it helps to remember every now and then. We do all the techniques, right? But if I'm using the technique to get rid of the anxiety, you know, there's already a subtle kind of a little little motive that I'm bringing in there. I have an agenda against the emotion to begin with rather than try to understand it and to be with it. Keep in mind guys, I hope that was helpful and I'll talk to you again soon.


Butterflies are a little bit of anticipation or a little bit of uncomfortableness in the presence of others, so to speak. Even in course groups and gatherings, a lot of times there's that chitter-chatter talk at the beginning, you know, hi, what are you up to, isn't it? It's just a trait of this present joining business, and so there's all kinds of little things that seem to be normal things within this world, or just a ways of avoiding.  Places where there seems to be lots of people, like New York City, like on the streets, when you walk down and there's none of this looking of eye contact. It's just another expression or symbol of the mind's fear of present joining, that's its dread. And it's a symbol of the other direction would be like the book about the aborigines and the message where the thing was raised, you know, how do you have a sense of telepathy where you can just communicate by mind and they said, we have no secrets. I mean that's a symbol of the other direction where if you've become totally transparent, as Sidney Gerard used to say, if you are a transparent self, if you have no sense of a private self, no mask that you're holding up, no pretenses that you're wearing, you are totally just revealing of your right-mindedness, then you don't believe in private minds as private thoughts. You don't have anything to hide from anybody else. That's where the telepathy, that's where the connection of minds seems to come in where the one-mindedness can be experienced. There's another line in the Course that says, the willingness to communicate attracts communication to it. That in one sense, in a deeper level of your mind, you've chosen to really be in communication with the father and then this holy encounter or these teaching learning sessions is just a symbolic expression of that willingness to communicate, attracting communication to it. It's still at the metaphorical level of persons, but it's a very helpful symbol. I seem to be in contact with other people who are really committed to this waking up. This is, of course, the willingness to communicate attracts communication to it. This is the symbol of your own mind of coming to that awareness. This personhood thing is very deeply rooted. To start, you can say the words, I am mind. I am not body, I am not, you know, in body, I am mind. But that's where as we keep going into things and looking at things, looking at things, you'll start out seeing, gee, I don't perceive myself as mind, as purely mind. And every concept that I hold has to be looked at and questioned because that's what's keeping me in my awareness of mind. It's my beliefs that hold up what I think I am. And that's where it's not just a matter of sitting around reading and talking, but it's really looking at those beliefs and questioning those because that's who seems to hold up this person. It's like, that's me, that's who I am.  The most beneficial form of practice that the Course recommends and that I recommend in the ultimate sense is completely unstructured. It doesn't, it's not dependent on a time or place. It's not dependent on a body posture. It's not dependent on repeating something so many times a day. It's sinking in your mind, sinking down and letting go of everything that you think you know. That is the most beneficial form of practice and salvation. And if you'll notice in the workbook, that's, as you go progress through the workbook, that's what you come to. But the majority of the workbook, the beginning parts are, is highly structured. And that, to me, it's for a reason. That's why repetition of ideas and trying to think of the ideas in a frequent number of times is important. The highly, the mind that is not highly trained, it can't remember its purpose. It gets off into all these specific things. It can't remember its purpose because it's so tied into this thinking in terms of goals. And gotta do this and I gotta take care of this and all these specifics. As we get into it, you know, as we continue along, it's going to come to the point where talking about the specifics and tracing them back will become less and less a part of the teaching learning sessions. And there will be more and more times of just sinking into the silence and not, you know, bringing up all these scenarios because the mind will be open and ready for the stillness and it will be attracted to the stillness. Present joining is your dread. Who can feel desolation except now? A future cause as yet has no effects and therefore must it be that if you fear there is a present cause and it is this that needs correction, not a future state. And that present cause, again, is the belief in separation. That is the one thing that the mind has tried to conceal, you know, making up a world and seeing linear time and all these, the whole world is like the hiding place of the smoke screen to conceal this present cause that must be examined. I mean, right now, this present cause, that's all it really comes down to but the ego is trying to use all its magic tricks and do all of its fast dances and whatever to avoid being looked at. And that's a metaphor, again, because as if the ego is this identity. You know, talking about it in that way. It has to really be just looked at as thus and come to a point of, my mind beholds only what I think with God. You know, that puts the ego out of business, doesn't give it any kind of life of its own. The plans you make for safety are all laid within the future where you cannot plan. No purpose has been given it as yet and what will happen has as yet no cause. Who can predict effects without a cause? And who could fear effects unless he thought they had been caused and judged disastrous now? So in other words, we talked about the idea that there really is no hypothetical but the deceived mind believes that the hypothetical is real and it's disastrous. It has judged disaster in the past and it believes that disaster will inevitably be repeated in the future. And so it believes that there is cause for fear because these disastrous effects that have really happened in the past, pain, real pain, real misery, real scarcity, lots of proof of scarcity will actually come about in the future. More real pain, more real scarcity, more real lack, more real loss and that's what the whole ego system is based on. Belief in sin arouses fear and like its cause is looking forward, looking back, but overlooking what is here and now. Yet only here and now its cause must be. If its effects already have been judged as fearful. Another great line from the text is Jesus says the Holy Spirit looks not to effects for he has judged their cause. Chapter 27, Section 8, The Hero of the Dream, paragraph 9. The Holy Spirit does not look to the projections of the world and judge the effects of the world. He is not working in the world, he is not finding people jobs and finding people parking spaces and giving people sunny days for picnics and helping people lose weight and finding soul mates and so on and so forth. The Holy Spirit looks not to effects but has judged the cause. The ego is the belief that produced all the effects. All the images on the screen come from the ego and the Holy Spirit knows the ego is not true. So he is simply judging, he is looking at the ego and seeing that it is untrue. He is not judging all the images that have been projected from the ego. He looks not to effects. If I think that something happened a few days ago and I was very sad and in a lot of pain I had to believe that there was a cause of that pain. Something happened, I experienced the pain and now I look back on it and say that was disastrous. And turning that around is saying it was a total misperception that there wasn't anything that happened that caused me to feel what I felt that it was all a projection from my own mind and I was looking at the script and making a judgment about it and perceiving it, misperceiving what was happening. Even the eye that seemed to feel the pain was a misperception. From this moment it's just seeing how that must be so. I was misidentified. Even taking a step further back from that, from I was misidentified. Who is that eye that I was misidentified? You see, that's the deception. It's thinking that there was this real being, this real person back then that experienced this pain or that was misidentified. You see how it just put will of the box to the present. Do I believe that there is a present cause, small see, that is disastrous? As long as I do, then I have to believe that disaster is imminent in the future. It was real in the past. Hang on to your seat cause it's coming again. Even if this is constructed, that salvation and atonement are coming. But if it was real in the past, then I'm going to have to wait. I'm going to have to go through a period of more pain. That's what I've heard the voice and the word saying, you know, I don't know if I want to do this. I don't know if it's worth it. That is the voice of the wrong mind. It's like the pain is real. It has been real and it will be real. And that's what has to be questioned. It only here and now its cause must be if its effects already have been judged as fearful. And in overlooking this, is it protected and kept separate from healing? For a miracle is now. It stands already here in present grace within the only interval of time that sin and fear have overlooked. But which is all there is to time? The working out of all correction takes no time at all. Yet the acceptance of the working out can seem to take forever. The change of purpose the Holy Spirit brought to your relationship has in it all effects that you will see. They can be looked at now. Why wait till they unfold in time and fear they may not come? Although already there. You have been told that everything brings good that comes from God. And yet it seems as if this is not so. Good in disasters form is difficult to credit in advance. Nor is there really sense in this idea. Yeah, right.


Matters in the Badab sector were bluntly not good. The chaptermaster of the Astral Claws and self-proclaimed tyrant of Badab, Luft Kurran, was facing a wave of Xenos attacks, piratical raiders, and cult uprisings, all spinning out of the swelling of the maelstrom, while, at his back, the baying of the Administratum and the Carthand shipping cartels grew even louder. The complete cessation of the payment of the imperial tithe, the seizure of the entirety of the sector's resources in the name of its defence, had infuriated the Carthans, who relied on the steady flow of material from the maelstrom zone to not only line their own pockets, but provide boons to their own tithes. The situation was a tinderbox in dire danger of an open flame, and soon that flame would be lit. No then that this is a further record of the Badab war, the point of the schism to the declaration of the articles of just cessation, and the ensuing red harbinger crisis. The heavy hand of the Administratum was beginning to ponderously move in the direction of the shipping cartels, and frantically they had petitioned the segmentum court authorities to grant them rights of claim under jurisprudence. Not only that, but clamouring from the Majos biologist Invigila had finally joined the voices against Huron, with the adeptus mechanicus now only realising that the lack of gene seed shipments from the astral claws carried with it no just reason, that the chapter's postponements could not be brooked by any assurances of mere bureaucratic errors, shipping delays or wartime exigencies. Preliminary word from the court rulings were in the Carthan favour, deeming the actions of Huron in breach of the Lex Imperialis, nominally speaking, although with contingencies requiring more deliberation owing to the often ill-defined reach of the adeptus astartes. Ignoring the cautionary words of the remaining yet to be ruled upon decisions, the Carthans and their allies within the Administratum seized upon the opportunity to deliver a strong statement. It is likely that the subsequent attempt of showing force was a move in the Carthans part more spurred by desperation than actual vindictiveness. Whereas in the case of the Administratum, the only explanation of worth was seen as an unconscionable lack of awareness of the true state of the Imperium beyond their tithe offices. Motivations were broad and difficult to ascertain with certainty given all that would follow. Regardless, the die was cast. The relationship in cartels and the bureaucrats assembled an investigation fleet under the purview of an Administratum assayer general, the highest investigative office of that adeptus. The fleet was joined by Surveyor-Barks from the Adeptus Mechanicus biologis carrying invigilum magi, merchant tenders from the Carthagos sector authorities and families, and at least one inquisitor, independently overseeing so diverse and motivated a civilian coalition as is the Inquisition's want. The flotilla made full wake for Badab Prime itself, intending to demand the wholesale surrender of the entire zone's tithe, with interest, as well as the missing gene seed from the astral claws themselves. Three Imperial Navy cruisers were seconded to the fleet to form its heart, escorting a dozen or so mass conveyors with hungry, empty holes. It was a threat, that much is certain, plainly stated, with the implicit violence of the cruiser's macro-lances as obvious a statement as the empty conveyors were. The fleet was entirely destroyed, as it attempted to pass through the Badab system's ring of steel.  They have never been, and likely will never be, properly explained. What we do know is the Grim Tally, on a single ship survived the hurricane of shot and lance and shell, and over twenty thousand servants of the throne, perished within the void. The Dvox records speak of a tense standoff between system defence monitors and the incoming fleet, with both sides asserting their authorities with rapidly escalating intensity. The Badab defence forces asserted the necessity of following proper maelstrom zone security protocols, as the sector was a dangerous volume at the best of times, perennially beset by enemies of the Imperium, but the tithe fleet brandished the seal of the Adeptus Terra and the holy writ of the Leximperialis, stating that Badab and its tyrant had lost all claims to the shield of laws and protocols when they had reneged on their dues to the throne. Huron himself was adamant that his men had discharged their duties with all possible diligence and righteousness, and allowed the tithe fleet plenty of time and warning before hostilities had inevitably, seemingly, broken out. The tyrant, in his own report to the segmentum adepta, demured on the topic of who had fired first. As the scrambled all-spec screeds were inconclusive, and he did not wish to muddy matters with accusations, although other authorities in Badab did not share their overlords opinion in this particular matter. Indignation at the incident in the Carthagos sector flared into outright fury after the delivery of the chaptermaster's statements. The Carthaglords were now baying for the open censure of Huron and the Astral Claws, reparations for their dead, and sanctions on all further trade. What little of the latter that indeed remained open between the two sectors became now a war in proxy, with escalating levies, taxation, customs duties, and seizures all becoming the norm for all shipments. Meanwhile, the local Majos in Vigila, outraged on the loss of their own colleagues, petitioned the distant Synod of Mars for political aid, finding themselves quite on the outs in terms of clout next to the rich and influential shipping cartels. Even the Administratum escalated the issue to the Adeptus Terra, their expedition having failed utterly to bring the obstinate Badab sector into imperial heel. Progress on all fronts was simply glacial. Despite the massive loss of life, despite the keen severity of the crisis in retrospect, the Imperium's attentions were pulled as they always are a thousand different ways, and in the vastness of the galaxy, a conflict surrounding taxation in an outlying system was of little concern compared to, say, the emergence of dormant Necron dynasties, the brewing tumult in the Eye of Terror and the Cadian Gate, a spike in Drukhari raids, or even the ongoing fortification of the Damocles Gulf. A thousand wars may require the Eyes of Terra upon any one day, and compared to the myriad of crises both actual and potential, the loss of 10,000, 20,000 bureaucrats, magi, and merchants was a minor affair at best. Calus? Yes, this is the Imperium we are discussing here. Even without the pressing concerns of eternal wartime governance, the legal issues involved were muddied by countless special interests and clashes of competing, but nonetheless legitimate authorities. The Adeptus Terra was owed its due, and that a loss of life had occurred under the watch of the Astral Claws was indisputable, but said loss of life had occurred within an active warzone. The Astral Claws remained an Adeptus Astartes chapter in full custodianship of that warzone. The Maelstrom was one of the most lethal volumes of space within the emperor's borders. Warders of the zone were a bastion of righteous imperial defense against the predations of the alien, the mutant, and the heretic. No evidence of the Tithe fleet's loss was considered satisfactory for an open condemnation of Huron. And so the years ground on, bitterly and inconclusively. As the inertia of the Imperial machine panes takingly inched forward, the Carthan lords remained subjected to their Tithe obligations by the segmentum Administratum, whom, for lack of any other options, returned to levying Terra's dues with customary heavy-handedness. In desperation, they dispatched two more Tithe fleets to Badab over the course of three years, under the same auspices as the first, but with far less interdepartmental cooperation. Both fleets were completely lost, purporting, according to both the tyrant's subjects, and Carthan operatives in Badab itself, to never have reached their intended destination. The cartels railed against the barbarians of the Badab sector, accusing them of everything from dereliction of duty to protecting imperial citizens, to actively destroying the fleets themselves. But there was nothing approaching proof of the latter, and little could be done of these pronouncements except to pronounce them. The fact that this came with an increase in disappearances of merchant shipping on the sector border was, however, troubling to more than just the cartels. While mails from Zone Patrol Pickets blamed the ongoing issues with pirate raiders and a marked uptick in Xenos and Arch enemy activity across the volume, the fact that such instances were now occurring within the Carthago sector at the nadir of relations between the two only added to matters. Each lost convoy just raised further the suspicions that Huron and the Astral Claws were now hunting Carthan shipping, doubts that were worrying enough to reach the ears of the highest echelons of the Administratum. Desperation began to take hold amongst the Carthan lords. Faced with the tithe stonewalling from Badab, bankruptcy, and debtors, their hand was forced. The shipping cartels began to attempt to extract their taxation quotas directly. In combined operations with equally pressed local Administratum forces from Sagan, they sent ships on perilous routes to the pale stars, and attempted to browbeat what local planetary governors in Badab itself that they could into supplying them with materials to meet their commitments. By 903 M41, agents at the behest of the Carthans were now upon Holy Terra itself, spreading word to any member of the Senatorum they could find of the moral corruption, treachery, and vain glorious pride of the tyrant of Badab. Segmentum authorities, swayed now by what little influence the Carthan and their adept allies could wield, now pressed the High Lords as well, until, finally, word came from within Badab itself. Just as the clamouring of the merchants, the bureaucrats, and the Magi had reached its zenith, as centuries of tension had finally reached an apex, Huron spoke with words. That would ultimately shake the foundations of the Imperium. The Articles of Just Secession, as a chaptermaster called them, were issued to the stunned Segmentum authorities and courts temporal. They were explicitly designed to state the Maelstrom Zone's position from that date. The volume would no longer fulfill the demanded tithe obligations to neighbouring sectors. In perpetuity. The Articles were a response to, and I quote from their records, many grievous insults, presumptions, and denials of the Emperor given rights of the adeptus Astartes by the false and wayward servants of the Administratum, the Carthan Lords, and their allies. The demands of all parties named therein were to no longer be given Maelstrom's own recognition under the Lex, declared void, as were obligations to defend them. That being said, the Articles did take care to fully reaffirm the Maelstrom Warder's commitments to defending the Imperium from the enemies of humanity. Only that they will now be doing so under their own judgement, free from the corrupt interference of those who claim to serve him, but seek instead their own glory and greed. As legal precedent, the Articles cited the original founding documents of the Maelstrom Warders themselves, as well as adeptus Astartes' rights and principles that guaranteed chapter independence from a plethora of Imperial regulatory measures. The Articles concluded with both a reassertion of this historic Astartes' sovereignty and calls for an investigation into the shipping cartels and local Administratum branches to root out a rotting corruption amongst those who pledged to serve the throne, but were content to let others bleed in its defence. Documents presented by Huron were not the sole sanction of the Astral Claws, but were in fact co-signed by the chapter masters of their fellow Maelstrom Warders, the Mantis Warriors and the Lamentors. Needless to say, the Articles were akin to a frag grenade thrown into a reactor core. But it may surprise Acolytes to learn, despite how incendiary they may seem, the response to them was far from immediate. While any just Imperial citizen, upon reading them now and having a modicum of knowledge of the events that were to come may be shocked and horrified, it should be noted that as with so many points upon the escalating curve of this crisis, the wheels of Imperial rule were slow to turn and even more ponderous to react. Little was done in the immediate aftermath of the issuing of the Articles of Just Secession, as the court's temporal received them, as yet another chapter, in the ongoing legal feud between sectors Badab and Carthago, Astartes and the Imperial citizen. They may have been shocked and surprised, but once that had worn off, it became just another footnote. However, as the legal luminaries of the segmentum hummed and hawed and debated and discoursed, Imperial shipping lanes on the edges of the Maelstrom Zone began to become subject to higher than normal disappearances, blamed of course on Xenos pirates. However, these reports were soon joined by other, more disturbing ones. Worlds beholden to both the Carthan cartels and the Administratum within the Zone suddenly went dark, sending out fragmented communiques screaming of attacks committed by Astartes forces. Horrified by the losses they were now yet still enduring and telling the few Imperial government outlets that would listen that they were under full assault by the Emperor's own Adeptus Astartes, the Carthans rushed petitions for military support to the segmentum departmentum Unitorum and naval command echelons at Port Rhiza. In both cases, their demands were outright refused, with both organs of the Imperial military utterly unconcerned with the mulling of merchant shippers who they saw as being inconsequential players in an internal dispute. There is of course one glaring example of an Imperial organization that the Carthan lords did not implore or invoke, the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition. While yes, a rather glaring omission in their grand tour of Solicitus claims, one must understand, to the majority of the Imperium, the Inquisition is to never become involved in one's dealing if one can help it. Inquisitors are as diverse a collection of characters, ideologies and zealotries as any group of humanity is. One can never be sure just what aspect they may be on the receiving end of. We all strive for justice and for truth, but just as often, what such well-intentioned petitioners may receive is a righteous firebrand concerned with rooting out any and all who fall under their own personal definition of being wayward from the path of his Imperial Majesty. Invoking the Inquisition is the most dangerous game one can play within the borders of this Imperium. That the Carthans were squaring up against three Astartes chapters and did not seem to even consider it, well, that should tell you all you need to know. Even if their records of trade had been spotless and one highly doubts this was the case, all too often the Inquisition is adept at finding treachery in the most surprising of places. This all being said, records from the time show that even without the cause of the cartels, the Ordos were nonetheless keeping a weather eye on the developing situation. The authorities were mostly occupied with a variety of investigations and military engagements across the segmentum and as such were content for now to merely passively observe. As it must be remembered that at this point in the schism, there was nothing in the way of evidence of either heresy, treachery, or the taint at play. Yes, an Inquisitor had lost their lives in the Tithe Fleet debacle, but one must remember that this was seen as simply a tragedy born of a complex and bitter legal dispute. Something that is far from uncommon within the Imperium. At the end of their tether, refved of options and with coffers empty, the Carthan lords now took steps to mobilize for war, if for nothing else than to defend what remained of its shipping with a show of force against hated Badab. The secession had pushed the Carthago sector to the brink of economic collapse, exhausting the last of their credit, the Carthan lords under Satrap Tanit Canig established a formal military alliance with administrative elements within the sector and levied vast numbers of additional troops to swell the planetary defense regiments under their direct gubernatorial purview. Canig, now voted Satrap general by her peers, took this one step further. She sent open appeals to the one branch of the Imperial military yet to be invoked by the cartels in this crisis, the Adeptus Astartes. Submitted for inquisitorial questioning in the aftermath of this whole affair, Canig professed her reasoning at the time was rooted in the belief that only Anastartes force could provide sufficient military opposition to another. The Emperor's Angels of Death were of course superlative and unique, a law, as the previous decades had amply shown the Carthans, unto themselves. The implication in enlisting the aid of other space marines was not to provoke an actual open conflict, she assured her interrogators, but merely to provide one adamantine bulwark against the encroachment of tyrannical Huron. At best, she claimed escalating the conflict in this manner would lead to a plateauing of tensions, a standoff where both sides feared mutually assured destruction. During the desired standoff, the Carthan cartels would then seize the opportunity to re-establish commerce, extract their tithe, and return to some semblance of the status quo, ensuring free access to the riches of the Maelstrom zone were once again within the rights of the Carthago sector and all Imperial citizens. With the benefit of hindsight, the idea of escalating to Astartes involvement and expecting what had become a monstrously tense crisis to simply stalemate is unspeakable arrogance. It was folly, but the folly of the beyond desperate, merchants and bureaucrats found stripped of their temporal and economic power by a force of superhumans dictating to them beyond the bounds of their own stars. Yes, they had been comfortable, and yes, they had been idly benefiting from the blood spilled by the Maelstrom Warders, but let us not think that when backed into a corner, even the most pampered of creatures cannot but become unpredictable and dangerous as baser instincts take over. Stonewalled by the Imperium, bogged down in interminable legal actions as their coffers were worn to dust. The Carthan cartels acted in haste and in stupidity, and oh, the calamity they wrought. The Fire Hawks chapter of the Adeptus Astartes answered Satrap Canex Cole. The bellicose collection of space marines, if ever there was one, the Carthans had millennia old ties with the fleet-based chapter, having provided them succor, anchor, and resupply at highly discounted rates at the cartel dockyards in orbit of Sedon Ultra, in exchange for which the Hawks had often come to the aid of the merchant clans during times of piratical Xenos raids. The relationship was an old one, little utilized, yes, but invoking it spoke of the desperation the Carthan lords were no doubt feeling at this point. Additionally, the warlike reputation that the chapter held was doubtlessly factored into their decisions. The Carthans no doubt hoped that Huron and the Warders would be cowed to have such potential opponents. At the direct request of the Satrap, the chapter elements made full wake for the shipping lanes of the Zone, with the intent on investigating the disappearances of Imperial vessels therein. One such ship, the Red Harbinger, breached the boundaries of the Andemian Cluster in 350904 M41, a volume of space under the purview of the Mantis Warriors, outraged at what they saw as unwarranted encroachment on their sovereign territory, remember acolytes that the Mantis Warriors had also signed the articles of just secession, they immediately dispatched their own strike cruisers to intercept. A tense chase led to the Harbinger finding itself surrounded in the Galen system, where increasingly aggressive communiques were traded between the two chapters, as the Mantis Warriors demanded the hawks stand down and submit to boarding and inspection. If ever there were a pair of Astartes forces to meet in opposition, whose characters were least suitable to an amiable conclusion, it were these. Proud, stubborn, and quick to anger on both sides, the situation escalated to just base insults, until, provoked into rage, the Mantis Warriors ships opened fire on the intruders, crippling the firehawk cruiser before launching a full-scale boarding action. Despite the engine loss rendering it dead in the void, the Harbinger was still an Astartes battle cruiser with a full complement of marines, who were now far beyond the reach of diplomacy. Casualties on both sides were horrendous, as history has taught us that all Astartes on Astartes conflicts are. Only twenty firehawks survived to be captured, but the sacrifice of their battlebrothers allowed an astropathic communion to be sent to their chapter, informing them of the treachery of the Mantis Warriors and the grievous losses the chapter had now sustained. Finally, the first shots had been fired. Astartes blood had been shed by fellow Astartes. Acolytes may balk, at this account, for I know many have in the past. When studying the unfolding conflict in Badab, they are often heard remarking, How could this have happened? Surely some must have seen it coming. I'm sure you, diligent student of the truth, as I hope you are, have the same questions. I would hope that, in parsing the sad and unfolding tale of the crisis so far, you will have seen how at every turn, none involved were even incognizant of just how dire it was going to become. All too often throughout history, and not just imperial history, has this been the case. A demagogue leader rises, authoritarian in his tendencies, open in his declarations of intent, and indeed all too often, has this figure not been curtailed. For those who should ordinarily oppose such aims cannot fathom the truth in his words. Instead choosing to believe in a comfortable world where systems put in place ages before shall ultimately constrain. The Badab schism was the result of imperial indolence, inertia, and carelessness, of a lack of attention paid to issues pressing and immediate simply because others were deemed, well, more pressing and immediate. The Imperium's very macro structure allows all too readily for such situations to emerge, with the hopes that, ultimately, they play out in a way beneficial to the overall empire, if not for the personages and powers involved. Endling of the Badab conflict is one stoked by the very system it was born of, a rising sequence of crises precipitated by bullishness, greed, and pride. Upon the next time we meet, I shall outline the beginnings of the civil war itself, but, as always until then, Ave Imperator, Gloria in Excelsis Terra. This video and this channel were made possible thanks to the very kind donations and support from my Patreon subscribers. If you'd like to help support the channel, head on over to patreon.com. 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