Hello, I'm Mark Thornton, and this is Minor Issues. Sticking with a recent theme on gold, I'm going to talk today about the gold family, where you look at gold and silver and platinum and other metals as precious, defined as something having a very high value in terms of weight and or volume. So gold at $2,000 an ounce, silver at $25 an ounce, platinum, palladium, these are all what are considered precious metals. The monetary metals historically have been gold and silver, circulating as money for literally thousands of years. Historically copper also was coin money, and in more recent times copper and nickel have served as token monies, token coins. These are metals of relatively low value by weight and by volume. And then of course, there's a broader category of industrial metals. The precious metals are also used in industry, but there are also other metals, including copper, nickel, zinc, and so forth, that serve in industrial purposes only today. For industrial and artistic demand, gold and silver are particularly precious. They have chemical properties and mechanical properties in addition to being beautiful, colorful, and having a luster that is very appealing. That was the original demand for those metals, gold and silver, for industrial and artistic purposes. But of course, as society emerged and money became a very unique tool for exchange, the monetary demand for these metals increased the overall prices of those metals. The monetary metals were the most saleable of all metals, whether they were basic raw materials or whether they were recycled materials or whether they were in the form of products like cups, saucers, kitchen utensils, ornaments, rings, necklaces, and so forth. The monetary demand is triggered by the scarcity of these products, which gives them high value relative to weight and volume. They are also very durable products. They last and are almost indestructible, and they are highly divisible, so that even today you can buy gold in the form of a half of a gram of gold or roughly one sixtieth of a one ounce silver dollar. The scarcity of gold in particular is that there are only small amounts of it that we know of in the planet. It's very difficult to get to. It's very thinly spread over the surface of the earth, in the oceans, rivers, and so forth, as well as most importantly very, very deep into the ground. So it's very, very thinly spread, which makes that small amount even much more difficult to find. Finding pure or relatively pure gold is a very rare thing. The fifth largest gold nugget ever discovered, ever over thousands of years, is a very small stone-like item that's worth less than one million dollars. So it's very difficult to get. It's very scarce and therefore highly useful as a monetary product. Now in terms of its value, that's something that's obviously changes over time, even though gold and silver are inherently stable in price because it's demanded for so many things by so many people all over the world throughout history, even those people who didn't use it for money. So today, gold sits around $2,000 an ounce. Silver is about $25 an ounce. The gold-silver ratio is about 80 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. Historically, that ratio was much lower, roughly 12 ounces to 15 ounces of silver to one, but that's when silver coins were in wide circulation throughout the commercial world. And so that caused an enormous increase in the demand for silver to coin it into coins, and hence the silver was relatively much more valuable. Now, since we've gone off of the gold standard, we've stopped minning silver coins and we're on a fiat or paper system mandated by government, the gold-silver ratio has fluctuated from 50 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold up to a ratio of about 65 and beyond. The record historically occurred in the early days of COVID when the ratio was $125 to one. At that point, the fiat monetary systems of the world were at risk, and the industrial demand for silver evaporated, and so it set that record above $120 to one. Now, of course, there's a lot of other ways that people can own and possess gold and silver. There's paper gold, where you can buy gold or silver like a stock certificate. You can buy gold mining and silver mining stocks. You can even buy those stocks in terms of ETFs and mutual funds, and people even own jewelry, silverware, etc. So there's a wide variety of ways that people can own and possess gold as a protection against the degradation and chaos of the fiat monetary system, so there are a lot of different ways to approach this.


Hey, this is Brett and this 2023 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4-door 4xE is stock number 24J240A. I am here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, you're new and used Jeep and Jeep Wrangler headquarters this 2023 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xE has the 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine paired up with the hybrid system it puts out 375 horsepower this one's going to get you 49 miles per gallon equivalent and has an all-electric range of 21 miles it also has a combined range of 370 miles on it this Jeep has been fully safety to and inspected by our service shop has a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off and it is 100% ready to go ultra clean all the way around and very good looking I'm going to go all the way around in this video inside underneath start it up take a look under the hood show you all the options and give you the most accurate representation that I can of the vehicle bright white clear coat is the color I should all my videos in 4k if you like the video you can subscribe to the YouTube channel click the bell notifications get updates on the videos I do each and every day as well as having access to one of the largest catalogs of vehicle and specifically Jeep Wrangler walkarounds on YouTube over 500 videos of Wranglers on there over 9000 videos total and stay current on our and up to date on our ever-changing and vast Jeep Wrangler inventory here at Summit Automotive getting started we have the 17 inch painted and polished aluminum wheels and you get the blue Jeep logo on there with the hybrid package it also has BF Goodrich all-terrain TAK02 tires these are LT285 70R 17s and they have just about I'd say 70 to 80% of the tread left on them frame and underbody is in nice condition this is in this is a one owner clean title history clean car fax from right here in Wisconsin front fender is in excellent condition you get all the LED lights on this one which is a nice thing to have since this was that was an option in 2023 and I will turn all those on at the end of the video so you can see just how bright they are you get the blue tow hooks on there the seven slotted granite crystal inlays on the grill the led headlamps and running lights you get the sport hood you also get the 4 by e decal on the hood there with the anti-glare sticker or decal you also get the kind of low gloss Rubicon lettering with the hydro blue outline and the Jeep logo there passenger side front wheel excellent conditional scuffs or scrapes on there and the passenger side front fender is in excellent condition as well as you go down this side of this 2023 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4 by e just take note of how clean the body is how reflective and mirror like that paint is I take these hd videos so if you are far away or even if you're close by you just cannot make the trip down but you're still interested in purchasing the vehicle you can see the vehicle hear the vehicle and have confidence in what you're looking at before you even get here so when you do get here there's absolutely no surprises and you can make a smart and informed buying decision from wherever you're at and off this video helps you make that buying decision like your salesman know that you saw the video that was helpful and that bread sent you back wheel excellent condition as well and the back tires have just as much tread as the front tires frame and underbody is in really nice shape it does look like it was professionally undercoded by somebody we did not do that but we took this one in on trade and it does have the nice rock rails on there I was like showing the door hinges to make sure that they're not all corroded or chipped up these are in pretty nice condition the t50 on there is the torx bit that you have to use to get those doors off if you ever want to see how to get to your doors off we did a video that's in the upper right hand press screen and linked in the description below the hard top is in excellent condition as well I didn't see any major scuffs or scrapes on there coming around to the back so this is what a brand new tire looks like this one's never been on the vehicle other than on the back and that back wheel is matching of course this one does have the towing package with the receiver hitch four pin and seven pin wiring and it is a max tow capacity of 3500 you get the blue tail hook back here as well and the led tail lamps there is your case for the front hard top pieces this one also has the alpine premium sound system so you get the factory subwoofer back here you also have the white or the color matching rails back here so when you have that hard top off looks really good this is your charger in this bag here or the cord to charge it I should say door hinge roof and windshield bolts and it's really easy to get these hard tops off there's four bolts on each side two quick disconnects we actually did a demo on how to take your hard top off your jail wrangler if you want to check that out that's in the upper right hand press screen and linked in the description below one little easter egg you get seven slots on the back here there's your jail badge with the two-door four-door wheel base and overall length as well as water fording and your outside width of your tires and the middle width of your tires in USA developed in Auburn Hills Michigan built in Toledo Ohio doors shut nice and solidly and he's going down the driver's side just as clean as that passenger side once again that hard tops in great shape and the rear quarter and doors all look good no denser dings and this back wheel is in excellent shape as well and on the rest of the side of the vehicle these door hinges all look very good and the back seats are in excellent conditional rips or tears back here you get the cloth interior with the blue stitching once again all part of that hybrid package so these seats do fold up and they're a little different than the normal wranglers because your batteries are actually underneath here the normal wranglers just the whole seat goes down but this piece has to go up and then this seat folds down like that so they are a little bit higher up from the back storage area so there is a lip there but you can see that's how that works and there is a Jeep easter egg right there back here window controls two usb's two usb c's 115 volt 150 watt plug-in comes with a set of weather tech floor mats back here child safety locks on the back doors in the inside and bottoms of the doors all look good up front the rubicon package also gives you the black cloth bucket seats you get the blue rubicon stitching on the back rest there and you get this honeycomb design on the center parts no rips no tears driver's seat height adjuster weather tech floor mats up front as well so this is where you control your hybrid system you can have it be a hybrid system an electric system so just running on the batteries and then an e-save which basically just runs on the gasoline engine auto headlamps tilt telescopic steering wheel power windows or power locks and power mirrors right there the power windows are on the center stack we'll hop inside check out the miles the radio and everything that this one has to offer on the interior you get the rubicon 4 by e animation at the beginning on the 7 inch lcd display there digital speedometer 21 179 miles and the instrument cluster is very nice and clean you can see if you're charging over here you can also see how much battery is left and then your range as well has the heated leather wrapped steering wheel cruise controls on the right bluetooth and information center controls on the left and audio controls on the back of the steering wheel you get the blue stitching on the steering wheel there as well and this one comes with the 8.4 you connect 4c radio it does have amfm and serious xm radio capabilities you also have bluetooth aux and usb hookups you also have your climate controls on here including your dual climate controls you have your heated seats and heated steering wheel controls any of your backup camera which they've made those crystal clear hd so you can get hooked up to your boat camper trailer the first time every time you also have your same screen there here are your different apps this one does have projection manager you can project your cell phone to the screen via android auto or apple carplay we did a demo on android auto if you want to check that out that's in the upper right hand part screen and linked in the description below then these are the off-road pages they do take a second to load so while they are loading down here your more tactile volume tune and climate controls including your heated seats heated steering wheel controls dual climate controls and then i'll get to those buttons in a second here are your off-road pages you get your different steering angle so as i turn the wheel you can see that angle changes and the wheels actually turn up there as well that's pretty cool you got your sway bar if it's connected or disconnected front axle and rear axle if they're locked or unlocked and then if you're in too high for higher for low you also have latitude longitude and altitude on there get your different accessory gauges and your pitch and roll which would be really great if you're off-roading in this thing and that's pretty much it up there so down here this is your max regeneration mode so what that'll do is it'll actually use the brakes and the inertia of the car to slow you down and recharge those batteries on the hybrid system stability control this is your speed select crawl control and then you can turn the screen off there as well it does have a usb usb c and an aux jack here are your window controls and this is what makes a rubicon a rubicon you can have the front and rear axles locked or just the rear locked and you get a sway bar disconnect right there four upfitter switches and then your eight speed automatic transmission you also have your four by four shifter there with four high auto and four high part time keyless entry with remote start and your hazard lights does have the flipper key always liked those keys and you also get the mineral gray dash trim so it's actually got a little bit of metal flake to it kind of a cool color like those a lot better than the red ones passenger side floor mat and seat are in excellent condition and there are those front hard top pieces with the crushed egg shell finished to them they're in a very nice shape i don't think they've ever been off the vehicle to be honest assistant s s buttons and then the auto dimmy mirror you also have your home link buttons for your garage door security systems and lighting systems so i'm going to start it up no guarantee it's actually going to start the gas engine but oh there we go so it started right up we'll turn all those led lights on so you can see just how bright they are and i would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today also here is where you charge your vehicle just plug the plug in right there plug it into the wall and it's ready to go these take about 12 hours to charge on a one on a 120 and they take about two two and a half hours on a 240 charge see all those led lights they are very bright we'll take a look under the hood like i said i'd personally like to thank you for checking out the video today and hopefully from this hd video you've been able to verify the quality condition options and of course plentyness of this jeep all the way around inside note under the hood we have the two liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and one combined with the hybrid system once again 375 horsepower engine base very clean ones very smooth and once again this jeep has been fully safe and inspected by our service shop has a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off there is the emission sticker and this jeep is 100 percent ready to go i'd highly recommend it from a quality and condition standpoint i didn't seem to single dent or ding on it and really clean inside non-smoker and just really clean outside great condition and to see more i'd highly recommend it i'd ship this one anywhere california texas new york florida wherever's going to get this jeep is going to absolutely love it and to see more pictures of this jeep or one of other 550 new inus cars trucks scvs minivans and specifically wranglers go to that website right there's summit auto dot com full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle all at summit auto dot com if you want to check out more hd videos you can go to youtube dot com slash summit auto click the bell notifications get updates on the videos i do each and every day as well as time to access it's one of the largest catalogs of vehicle walkarounds on youtube and stay current on our ever-changing and vast inventory and specifically wrangler inventory here at summit auto in fact any second you will see a link to subscribe to my youtube channel the upper left a link to all the wrangler videos i've ever done in the upright link to this vehicle on our website in the lower left any link to one of our latest youtube videos in lower right quick those checks out we're super excited to help you with this ultra clean 2023 jeep wrangler rubicon four door four by e in bright white clear coat thank you so much for checking out the video remember to like subscribe and share on the youtube channel i really appreciate it thanks again and have a great day


Hi, everybody. I'm really delighted to be here from UNHCR to kick off this segment of the program today. And welcome to you all. I want you to think of yourselves as if you're underneath a mango tree, a mango tree where Doreen Bogdan and I were in early July talking to Ethiopian leaders, Ethiopian farmers, and Somali refugees who were working together to try to harvest crops to feed their communities, their refugee and host communities. Think about this part of southern Ethiopia on the Somalia border where there have been a 400,000 refugees and 100,000 drought survivors, people looking for food, people looking for water. And you have farmers working together to figure out what was the climate going to bring. Not only was there a drought, but a couple of months before there were floods that wiped out their crops. The digital age has fundamentally changed conflict in the world today for the better, but also for the worse. We have today 110 million forcibly displaced people in the world. And they find host communities everywhere, including in this part of Ethiopia. We've seen digital technology used for good. We've heard in the previous segments how it can connect people. It can mean that there's education for those that may not have. It can mean a way to find services when one doesn't know where to go for protection, for aid, for a warm house, a safe house. It can provide the tools really to be able to find the future. Jobs, for example. It can also, digital technology, be used for bad, for evil.  All of this you know very, very well. It has fueled conflicts in various parts of the world. It has meant that we have record numbers of people that are fleeing for their lives, from war, from persecution, from violence. But it can also be for the good. And this is why this segment is so important to advancing the SDGs, to making sure that no one is left behind. Where we can find a future where people are included, where people can take their own agency and make their own decisions safely when they have full information in front of them. We've embarked on a journey with ITU, with GSMA, with other partners where we're trying to connect 20 million forcibly displaced and their host communities to be able to bring these services, this capacity, this agency, to even those in the most remote locations. This kind of digital technology, this kind of capacity, is key to the future. And this is why we want all of you to join us on this journey. So this is something in terms of digital technology, digital solutions. It is key to peace. It is key to connecting the world. And it needs all of you. Breaking regulatory barriers, making sure that the infrastructure is there to be able to connect even those that may not have, that the power is there to provide education, jobs, and livelihoods, and importantly, protection. Thank you for joining us on this journey and please connect the world. Thank you.


You are America's best hope for the future and for the best hope for more jobs, stronger growth, and a higher standard of living. If we're to remain true to the American dream, we must preserve the chance for every small businessman and woman to make it big. And you know something I believe we're doing? Just that. From housing to high technology, America is on the move and small business is leading the way. We're creating an economic recovery built to last and to get better and better. Inflation is down by three quarters. The prime rate has been cut nearly in half, and tax rates have been cut by 25 percent for everyone who works and earns. Something else is getting better. That bureaucratic monster who would slay private enterprise is being taught a new command. It's called Heal. The growth of regulations has been cut by more than a third, and that means 300 million hours of federally imposed paperwork have been eliminated. This will save the public more than $150 billion over the next 10 years. In 1983, an estimated 600,000 businesses were incorporated, and that sets a new record. Better opportunities are opening up for all Americans. In 1983, for example, women filled more than 70 percent of the new jobs in managerial, professional, and technical fields. The number of women-owned businesses is growing four times faster than men's. And last year alone, 4 million Americans found jobs. We had the steepest drop in the unemployment rate in over 30 years, and growth is stronger than the experts had predicted. I think we're seeing the best of both worlds. Strong growth without a new run-up in inflation and interest rates. Now, forgive me for repeating what's become a kind of favorite question of mine, but now that our program is doing what we said it would, I keep wondering why they don't call it Reaganomics anymore. I guarantee you, we're not going back to the disasters of tax and tax and spend and spend. I do not favor raising taxes on hardworking Americans. I favor making government spend within its means and not a penny more. If we want continued, strong, steady growth, we must not raise taxes on small businesses which create more than half of all the new jobs. Take a look at the venture capital industry, which provides seed money for many of tomorrow's jobs and products. You will see the tremendous potential for progress. During 1983, the venture industry raised about three and a half billion dollars, nearly four times more than in 1980. The General Accounting Office has already estimated that previous investments of some 209 million in venture capital have generated 130,000 jobs in 10 years. Well, if 209 million of venture capital generated 130,000 jobs in 10 years, imagine how many jobs three and a half billion dollars will create in the next year. This recovery is being nourished by incentives from lower tax rates and important changes in the estate tax laws. They provide direct benefits to small business and in particular to small proprietors ships which make up 75% of all businesses in the United States. And I believe we've just seen the beginning of a long-term expansion that will bring greater opportunities to small business and to the American people. We've come too far, we've struggled too hard and accomplished too much to turn back now. America's days of hand wringing and defeatism are over. If we keep our heads, if we work together, and above all, if we have the courage to do what is right and necessary, then there is no limit to what our proud and free people can accomplish. I appreciate the support that the Small Business Legislative Council has shown in sharing in this belief. And so I've come here really just to say to you all, thank you very much and God bless you. Mr. President, the leaders of the Small Business Legislative Council have a presentation they would like to make to you. I would like to introduce them to you at this time, Phillip Freedlander, who is the chairman of the Small Business Legislative Council and also serves as the executive director of the United Tire Dealers and Retredders, and Jared Blum, who is the vice president and legal counsel of the Direct Selling Association and chairman-elect of the Small Business Legislative Council and Herbert Liebenson, who is the executive director of the Small Business Legislative Council and also the president of the National Small Business Association. Thank you very much. Mr. President, the Small Business Legislative Council has adopted a resolution. Our founding fathers envisioned a society that would allow complete freedom for individuals to realize their full potential and further to share and preserve the spirit of economic, political, and spiritual freedom. Your devotion served to the continuation and preservation of economic freedom for American small business has been demonstrated by opening the doors of communication between your administration at the highest levels in the small business community in a manner and fashion unprecedented in modern times. Your belief that a strong democratic society can and will be preserved as long as there is a strong small business community has been demonstrated many times over by deeds rather than words. Therefore, be it resolved, the members of the Small Business Legislative Council, representing over five million small firms, are deeply appreciative and gratified for the continued faith and support given by you to the small business community. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Who needs an Oscar?


We have to educate ourselves about this history. We're not going to be able to address anything if we don't understand the damage and the history. And we've done a very poor job of that across the globe, but particularly here in the United States, where most school children are taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America without recognizing that there were millions of indigenous people here. And that gives rise to a lot of ignorance and poor policy and bad decision-making. And when that narrative of racial difference made us comfortable with two and a half centuries of enslavement. And too many American school children were taught that slavery was pleasant, that enslaved people liked being enslaved, that it wasn't brutal, that it wasn't violent, that enslavers were good and noble people. And that false narrative will block you from the kind of repair that has to happen. And that's why I don't believe that slavery ended in 1865. It just evolved. And until we contend with that, we're not going to be able to effectively address issues like police violence, like over-incarceration, like discrimination. So the beginning, for me, is truth-telling about the history. And that's why I talk so much about truth and justice, truth and repair, truth and reconciliation, truth and restoration. I just think these things are sequential. And we haven't done that in too many places across the globe. And that's why memorialization is such a critical part of the process. I think when people use the word reparations, they actually think some check in the mail. I think we actually have to open ourselves up to the multiple ways in which repair is going to mean doing things differently, talking differently, memorializing differently. The UN and other institutional international organizations can contribute to our struggle by affirming these basic realities and the need for justice and equality.


The Kurdish nation is the largest stateless nation in the world. There are about between 20 to 40 million Kurds who live in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria mainly. And the Kurds have always been an oppressed nation by the ruling classes of these countries. In Turkey, the Kemalist government which came to power in the 20s, banned the Kurdish language and even banned the use of the word Kurdish. Kurds were called mountain Turks essentially for the majority of the last of the past century. In Syria, the majority of the Kurds have not even been allowed to be given basic citizenship. And in Iraq and Iran, the Kurdish areas have always been kept underdeveloped and starved of any kind of investment. And the Kurds basically in one way or another have been oppressed throughout the history of these states. And while obviously the ruling classes of these countries have oppressed the Kurds, they've also used them for their own benefits to sabotage each other's political, how to say, political sphere. And when they were done doing that, they haven't ever hesitated by crushing the Kurdish movement. I mean, we can go back to the 20s where in I think it's 1928, there was a Sheikh Said uprising in Turkey supported and organized partially by the British against the nationalist government and in defense of bringing back the caliphate and in defense of the old regime essentially. And they promised the Kurds their own nation at the peace after the war and so on. But once the war was finished, the Kurds were just dropped to one side and there was no country and no state given to them. In the 70s, the Iranians and the Americans supported and armed and financed a Kurdish rebellion against the Iraqi central government for about a year from 1974 to 75. But once they reached a deal with Saddam Hussein about whatever they were disagreeing about, they didn't hesitate to pull the plug, pull the funding, close the borders and basically allow Saddam to go in and crush the Kurds. In the 80s, again, during the Iran and Iraq war, the Iranians would support the Kurds in northern Iraq against the Saddam Hussein regime. They would arm them in order to weaken the regime. But once that was finished, once they were done using the ones the war was drawing to an end, Saddam brutally crushed the Kurdish movement, killing tens of thousands of people. I think it's more than 100,000 people, in fact. And even using chemical weapons while all the while being supported by the United States. Again, in 1991, in the first Gulf War, George Bush called for an uprising of the Shias and the Kurds and they rose up and the Kurds, in fact, took power in the areas of northern Iraq where they live for a brief period. But again, once the war was finished, they pulled all support and they watched while Saddam was crushing the Kurds. Of course, then this created the big refugee crisis in Turkey and the Americans had to backtrack and come to some kind of a solution, giving some kind of self-governance and autonomy to the northern parts of Iraq. But nevertheless, it just shows the cynical attitude that the imperialists and the ruling classes of the region have always had against the Kurdish people. Over the past century, hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been killed. This place has constantly been moved from one country to another and kept in subjugation only to serve the narrow and short-sighted aims of one capitalist class or another intervening in the region. But of course, while the ruling classes have used the Kurds in their foreign policy, they've also used the Kurdish question internally in order to cut across the class struggle in order to basically dominate and exploit their own working classes as well, use the national question to dilute class differences, essentially. And Western imperialism, again, has had no small part of this. In fact, after World War I, the Western imperialist powers divided the Middle East up in these spheres of influence, completely arbitrarily, literally drawing a line in the sand and saying, this is British sphere of influence, this is French and so on. And while doing this, they always made sure to keep different nations and sects in each of these territories in order to be able to, if things ran out of control, to divide and rule basically those countries. So, yes, the question of reactionary nationalism and sectarian tension has been something which has been imposed and used by the ruling classes more than anyone, whereas in fact the peoples of the region have never had any problem living harmoniously and peacefully next to each other. But the general situation in the whole Middle East obviously changed after the Arab Revolution and after the world economic crisis of 2008, you saw the rise of class struggle, and this upended, destabilized the whole situation. And in Syria, during the Syrian Revolution, which started about seven years ago, the Assad regime was getting very pressured, it was being cornered, and it was being drowned out essentially mainly in the western parts of Syria. And therefore the Assad regime made a deal essentially, giving Kurds certain rights and sending power to some Kurdish organizations in order to be able to focus on the western part, which was seeing the most violent kind of revolutionary turmoil at that stage. Now, this vacuum of power was filled by an organization called the PYD. The PYD is a branch of the Turkish organization, the PKK, which is a left-wing guerrilla organization set up at the end of the 70s. At that time, it was a Stalinist, essentially, left-wing organization fighting for Kurdish independence, but also fighting for socialism, at least in its program. Now, the taking of power of the people, and just to clarify in this speech, I'm just going to call it the PKK because all the different names and abbreviations that we know, the YPG, the PYD, PKK, HPG, there's many, many of them. Essentially, they're all parts of the PKK organization, which is branched out into different countries, which has different wings, a women's wing, a military wing, political wings, and so on. But essentially, it's all part of the PKK movement. Now, that was the beginning of what's called the Rojava Revolution.  And in doing so, they set up these councils or communes, they call them, which had mass participation of the masses from below, who would meet on a weekly or on a regular basis, take decisions on politics, and essentially run society by themselves. They also set up the YPG, the armed wing, which is essentially a people's army, which is drawn in hundreds of thousands of Kurdish youth, women and men, which is very revolutionary in the Middle Eastern terms. And because of this very democratic, because of the extremely democratic basis of the movement, because they were fighting for a cause, because they were fighting for their own homeland, this army became the most effective, essentially, the best army in the Middle East, in the whole region fighting in the civil war that then developed within Syria and Iraq. They were fighting for democracy against sectarianism, and this had an enormous appeal to people in the areas that they came to. And in spite of their extreme lack of funds and support and arms, they've been proven to be extremely efficient. And at the same time, this bold fight that they started, especially against ISIS, and again, the political basis on which they were based, they also gained enormous authority on the one hand, the Kurdish masses and the Kurdish youth, but amongst the masses of the whole Middle East and further throughout the Western world as well. In Iraqi Kurdistan, where at a certain stage, the Barzani, the Peshmerga forces, which is another Kurdish militia, were pulling out essentially handing power to ISIS because they wanted to use that against the Baghdad central government, it was the PKK militias who went in and saved the Yazidis who were caught, I don't know if you remember it, on Mount Sinjar and being besieged by ISIS, which was encroaching on them. And this sent a powerful shockwave throughout all of Iraqi Kurdistan, especially amongst lots of young people who could see that their own, the so-called Kurdish regional government, which was governed by the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, they could see that they were essentially allying themselves with ISIS, playing an extremely reactionary role, and all the while the PKK and the left wing of the Kurdish movement making great sacrifices to save the Yazidis. This gave enormous authority to the movement in Iraq. And essentially led to the setting up of a Yazidi organization as well. Amongst the Yazidis, of course, the PKK is now I think the biggest political force at all. In Turkey, all of this coincided with the rise of the class struggle in Turkey. If some of you might remember in 2013, in June, there was a mass movement in Turkey about the Gezi Park movement, it was called, which reflected the rising dissatisfaction with the Erdogan regime against the privatizations, the attacks, the austerity measures, but also Erdogan's Islamization of society as Erdogan's authoritarianism. And because within the Kurdish left, the Turkish left, sorry, and the Turkish working class movement, none of the parties was putting up a bold opposition to Erdogan. The Kurdish movement came to play a very important role, especially through this party that they had called the HCP. The HCP stood on a radical rhetoric for social justice against dictatorship, against Islamism, and they gained a lot of support. And in the elections in 2014, they came into parliament with 13.2% of the vote, as far as I remember. Now, this was a big blow to the Erdogan government because Erdogan was counting on the Kurds not gaining, there's a 10% threshold amongst the Turkish parliament, and he was banking on the Kurdish movement not gaining those 10%, and therefore all those votes and all those seats essentially in the Kurdish areas going to him, which would mean that he would have an overall majority in parliament. He could change the constitution and implement a presidential system and consolidate power in his hands, basically. So in that sense, the Kurdish movement became an existential threat to Erdogan's ambitions, not just that they could stop him from expanding his power, but also because they were beginning to galvanize rising class dissatisfaction in Turkey amongst themselves. Now, for the Kurdish movement, this was a great achievement. Also, well, for the Turkish working class, this was a great achievement, because for the first time since the 70s, you had Turkish and Kurdish workers and youth fighting together against the ruling class, basically. And this was the biggest threat to Erdogan, not only in Turkey, but also in Iraq. The undermining of the Barzani regime and Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish itself rule area in Iraq, is essentially a tool, is essentially a puppet of the Erdogan regime, and by the rise of the influence of the PKK, again, they also became a threat to his ambitions and to his domination of that area. At that point, you had a situation where, now I've handed out this map, so maybe you can divide it up amongst you, where the influence of the PKK was rising to such a degree that they essentially controlled a massive strip going from the Iranian border almost all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, and that's the part I've kind of tried to mark out. Going through the mountain ranges of northern Iraq, the Qantil Mountains, and then into Turkey you have the cities of Hakkari, Jezira, Shilopi, and Sirrt, I think it's called, Sirnak, and then further into Syria, where the Kurds had expanded their territories, and to almost, as I said, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. So in that sense, the PKK movement, or the left wing of the Kurdish liberation movement, had become a physical obstacle to Erdogan's imperialist ambitions of expanding further down throughout the Middle East. In every way, the Kurds were becoming a threat to Erdogan's regime and to his ambitions. The same goes in Syria, where the Kurds were not only fighting ISIS, but also the so-called FSA, the Jihadi movement, which was supported by Turkey as a means of gaining influence within Syria. So on that basis, Erdogan started a civil war against the Kurds in the summer of 2014. He started a one-sided civil war against the Kurds of Turkey, who've never done anything to harm him. And he used this to, on the one hand, whip up extreme nationalist hysteria to cut through the rising class struggle, to divert attention from the class problems that people had, but also literally to destroy this land mass that the Kurds were gaining, which was becoming a threat to Turkey. If the Kurds consolidate this area that they control, this will be a powerful impetus, not just there, but further into the Kurdish areas, which span way into Turkish territory. However, met by this offensive of Erdogan, the leaders of the movement didn't continue the path which has been successful to begin with, the path of class struggle, revolutionary mass mobilization, but instead began vacillating and compromising basically at every single step. Every time Erdogan raised the pressure or different powers raised the pressure, the leaders of the movement thought that they could negotiate themselves or maneuver themselves out of this situation. In Iraq, for instance, where as I said the PKK had enormous authority, especially amongst the youth, the PKK refrained from building a mass movement out of this, refrained from actually building a mass organization amongst the Iraqi youth. Why? Because they didn't want to upset Iran and Iranian-supported proxies in Iraq. Instead they thought, well, if the Iranians give us support or tacit support against Turkey, which the Iranians wouldn't mind, then in return we'll get to Iraq later on. That was essentially the philosophy. That was a basic method of saying we're not going to fight the struggle here, but we're going to focus on Syria and defending ourselves against Erdogan and using all the support we can get, i.e. in this case Iranian support. For instance, in the local Kurdish elections a few years back for the local self-government of the Kurdish areas in Iraq, they didn't put up their own list, they didn't put up independent candidates in a decisive way in a serious way, but instead supported this other organization which is called Ghoran, which is a corrupt, liberal, bourgeois organization, essentially. They also developed ties with another party called the PUK, which is led by a guy called Masoud Talebani. Sorry, not Masoud, I forgot his first name, but the Talebani clan, which is essentially a tribal or clan-based, family-based organization. Again, a proxy of Iran in that area. At the same time, the PKK's Yazidi wing, which they developed, became a part of the popular mobilization units in Iraq. They received funds, even until recently, I'm not sure if they're doing it right now, but at least until six, seven months ago, receiving funds from the Iraqi central government. All of this, obviously, while in purely military terms, might have made sense, but in political terms it was completely counterproductive because it undermined the PKK's authority amongst the youth in the area who weren't interested at all in making deals with this or that power, but were interested in wiping the slate clean and overthrowing all of them. And so in that sense, they limited themselves, or they kind of sewed a divide between themselves and the radicalizing masses. In the Kurdish independence referendum, which took place last summer, again, this was a referendum, this was actually a referendum called by Barzani, who's, as I said, a reactionary, but he felt that he was losing support and he thought that whipping up nationalist sentiment would help him regain support amongst the masses. But obviously he was doing it for reactionary ends, but this was a progressive revolutionary, he was trying to tap into a progressive revolutionary mood which did exist amongst the Kurdish masses in Iraq. And instead of tapping into that, instead of saying to the Kurdish masses, yes, we also fight for independence, but we fight for independence without these clans, without these tribes, without all the capitalists who are corrupt and who you all hate. The PKK went to the other side, again, as a means to appease the Iranians and the Iranians supported proxies in Iraq and actually went against the referendum and supported a no vote essentially. In the end, the yes vote won by 90 some percent, 97 percent. And again, the PKK, and the movement then afterwards was crushed by all the forces in the region, the Americans, the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Turks, everyone united to crush this independence movement and the PKK basically stood silently or, you know, objected very, very weakly and only in words. Now, in Turkey as well, the movement has been weakened by its vacillations. When it got to power, no one thought that it would gain this amount of votes, 13, almost 14 percent. But after it did so, it became a point of reference for millions of radicalized youth and workers in Turkey. But the only thing that a lot of people said were, well, we actually agree with the HDP, we agree with this Kurdish movement on everything. The only thing is we're not sure that they won't sell out the whole movement in order to gain some kind of national independence for nationalist aims, for Kurdish aims essentially. And that's why a lot of Turkish youth and workers didn't really, didn't support it in the first instance. But instead of then appealing to these and proving itself to fighting on a class basis, the Kurdish leaders fell back in a nationalist rhetoric in the face of the attacks of Erdogan. And of course, from Erdogan's point of view, nationalism is what he wanted. Nationalism was what could keep him, which was what could strengthen him. And obviously it's not an easy thing to fight against such a hysteria being built up in every single newspaper and every single media outlet and every single school or university. But nevertheless, by playing along with it, you're only strengthening the general trend that Erdogan is achieving to aim. And at the same time, not only were they falling into the nationalist trap, but they also, at every single turn, signaled that they were willing to cooperate and collaborate with Erdogan in return for a deal on the Kurdish question and in the Kurdish areas. In fact, just a couple of weeks after he started the civil war, which was in August of 2014, the HDP joined the provisional government of Turkey. So they joined the provisional government with Erdogan, who was at the same time waging a war against the Kurds. And they did many such things, which undermined again their authority, which in return led to in the following elections them seeing a slight decrease in the number of votes they got. Now, in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, while the civil war was taking place, it was enormous radicalization. And Turkey has a lot of Kurds, between 15 and 20 million Kurds live there. And as Erdogan was attacking them, these masses were being brought out to the streets, were being brought into action. And you saw rolling general strikes in all of the areas and all of the regions that the Kurds lived in. An extremely radicalized mood. The youth were willing to fight. And at that point, again, the Kurds could have armed the masses and began at least to wage a defensive against the brutality of the Turks. And in fact, in my opinion, they could have easily taken power in many of these areas. The mood was there, the people were ready to fight back. But they didn't do so or only armed the population to a very, very low degree. On the basis with the excuse that they were too busy fighting in Syria. But the point is that not doing this was demoralizing the whole movement. And in the meantime, Erdogan was attacking the key towns controlled by the PKK in Turkey, the towns that I explained that which are kind of highlighted in the map. Basically, raise these towns to the ground. There's Jezira, Sirenak, Hakkari and a couple more. I can't remember the exact names of them. Raise these towns. These are not small towns. There are 100,000 people. There are 200,000 people living there. And they were reduced to rubbles, literally. Which, again, was a big blow to the movement as a whole. Now, of course, the real reason for not doing this was not that they were too busy fighting a war in Syria.  But it was because they didn't want to alienate the Americans and the West who were supporting them and was arming them in Syria. Yes. And that's the final, that's the, in Syria is the last kind of area where they made similar mistakes. Because the YPG was so effective and because of the general weakness of U.S. imperialism, the Americans had to lean on the Kurds to retain a foothold in Syria, essentially. And they became the most important ally of U.S. imperialism in the region. And at this stage, the Americans have dozens of bases throughout Syrian Kurdish areas. But all of this, this so-called support for the Kurds have come at a certain cost. On the one hand, they forced a number of ex-FSA Free Syrian Army units to join in with the Kurds. So undermining, again, the political radicalism of the movement. They've pushed them to ally themselves with the Shamar tribe, which is a tribe which goes from Syria all the way into Saudi Arabia. Which is a group which has completely its own agenda. It has nothing to do with the fight for liberation of nations or a fight against capitalism. And all of this, again, has been undermining and hollowing out the political power of the movement. Not only have the allies been working with the Americans, they've also allowed the Syrian regime forces into some of their areas. They've allowed Russian forces into some of their areas supposedly because then Turkey wouldn't attack them in those areas. They've allowed the French, the British. And even last summer when Saudi Arabia had a conflict with Qatar, the leaders of the Syrian wing of the PKK came out saying that they were open to working with Saudi Arabia. Now this is complete, this is ridiculous because on the one hand here they are fighting ISIS, which is the spawn of the Saudi royal family itself. And on the other hand they're reaching out to the Kingdom, which is probably, well in real terms, is probably more reactionary than ISIS. And it has committed more horrible crimes than ISIS. Now the idea behind all of these alliances is that if we ally with this or that power, if we ally ourselves with the Americans, then the Kurds won't attack us. If we ally ourselves with the Iranians, then they will leave us in peace in Iran and in Turkey. But every step that they take in doing this is politically undermining them. And what they don't realize is that for the imperialists, small nations such as the Kurds are just small change. It's nothing. They serve no other purpose than to be used as they have been throughout their history and then just to be discarded whenever they're finished. Because what can the Kurds offer US imperialism? Turkey is the most industrialized, the biggest economy of the whole Middle East. It has an extremely important geopolitical position. The Americans have military bases, nuclear arms and a close collaboration through NATO with the Turks. Whereas for the Kurds, they only serve for the Americans to maintain a foothold within Syria where they've lost everything else from their interventions. Other than that, they have nothing to offer from a capitalist point of view than barren lands, essentially. And mountainous areas. And we saw this a couple of months ago when Turkey decided to attack the enclave of Afrin. In northwestern Syria. And the Americans did nothing. And it was clear that there was a deal between the Americans and the Turks. And they even said so many times that they had no intentions of defending the Kurds in those areas. And how different is that reaction to when the Islamists in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus were being attacked by the Russians and the Assad regime. And the Americans fired these missiles and made a big hooha about the so-called inhumanitarian nature of that offensive. Whereas in Afrin, hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been displaced, killed. And there is essentially ethnic cleansing going on of that whole area.  It just shows what the Kurds are in the eyes of the Americans. And it's clear that the next step is the city of Manbij, which the Turks also want. And which according to the Americans, even yesterday, that they're still negotiating about. Whatever that means. It's clear that once ISIS is finished, is fully defeated and once the Americans have gotten what they could out of Syria, then they won't hesitate to sell out the Kurds in order to gain some concessions from their allies and enemies. So we see step by step the Kurdish movement is being isolated. And this political isolation is only a precursor to a military isolation and a military crushing of the movement at some point in the future. The U.S. has now complete knowledge and intelligence about everything that's going on, all the military installations, the hierarchy, the key personnel throughout Kurdish areas. And in fact, I was reading a foreign policy, this magazine, Foreign Policy, if you know it, about a year ago. And they said, well, maybe it's time for us to abandon the Kurds. They've been a great help for us, but maybe it's time for us to abandon them and support our real traditional allies and do intelligence collaboration with them. What does that mean? That means giving them all these targets and all the areas that they need to hit in order to crush the Kurdish movement in northern Syria. This would be obviously a completely, this would be a disastrous event for the Kurds. And of course, on the one hand, we can't criticize the Kurds for just in principle using the fault line between different imperialist nations. That's any nation, any revolutionary movement will have to do that, but there's a limit to that tactic. And you cannot base your whole tactic on this because the strongest point that the movement has is the political authority that it has. That's been what's been strengthening it, that's been what's been giving it its advances at every single term. It hasn't been because they have arms, they don't have any arms. They've been starved of arms, they don't have funds. All of these things is not what gained the Kurdish movement its victories to begin with. The way that they advanced to begin with was in Turkey on the basis of a radical, class-based approach, not a nationalist approach, but all Turkish way of uniting all the workers and youth and all the oppressed peoples of Turkey against the regime. And in Syria, in a distorted way, they gained their position by mass revolutionary means. That was an all Syrian revolution which weakened the state and then created this power vacuum that the Kurds could then step into. These are the tactics and the strategies that the Kurds have to lean on in order to advance if they want to defend themselves and if they want to strengthen and consolidate their position. And to say that this can't be done is also wrong I would say because although the Arab revolution for now has ebbed, in every single country underneath the surface revolution is still there and revolution is still bubbling away just waiting for a focal point to come to the fore. So in January we saw the most dangerous, from a point of view of the regime at least, the strongest and most dangerous movements in the last 40 years of Iranian history.  Mainly not composed of middle class people who normally would lead the revolution, have been leading the revolutionary movements in Iran over the past period, but by people who working class and poor and poor middle class people who traditionally have been pillars of support for the regime. This is an extremely dangerous situation developing from the point of view of the regime, from our point of view is extremely favorable. There's a revolutionary ferment and the regime is terrified of what could happen. And that's a movement that the Kurdish movement could reach out to and help organize and unite with against the central government in Iran. And once they take power in Iran this will send shockwaves throughout the region. Even in Iraq, which surprisingly, although it has been dominated by sectarian warfare, civil war, all kinds of barbaric events over the past period, you still have a rising class contradictions and class struggle which was reflected in the parliamentary elections just a few weeks ago. I don't know if any of you followed it, but on the one hand in Iraq there was historically the lowest participation in the elections. But this wasn't because people are not political, but this is basically because people hate and are disgusted by the whole political elite. Every Iraqi you speak to would say this, that they hate all of them. They're all feeds, they're all corrupt and they're all hated. And the people who did win was a coalition of, there was an Islamic demagogic cleric and the Iraqi Communist Party, which stood, although we have to say the guy who was leading the coalition, he's a demagogue, he's a reactionary. But the program that he stood on was against corruption, against poverty, against inflation, unemployment. But more importantly, against all foreign powers meddling in Iran, i.e. both Iran and the Americans, as well as against sectarianism. And sectarianism, as you might know, has been the core basis of the Iraqi ruling class ever since the occupation that the Americans and the British carried out in 2003. So you see even in Iraq the ground is prepared for mass revolutionary movement, for the Kurdish movement to reach out to and to ally itself with against the central government. In Turkey as well, the situation is not far behind. The movement in 2013 was defeated because on the one hand it didn't gain anything, the leadership wasn't able to show a way forward. And all of the different political parties, which would traditionally reflect this pressure from below, one way or another sold out essentially, betrayed the movement. So it never gained a political expression, but nevertheless, underneath the surface there's enormous dissatisfaction with the government. And now we see that Turkey is going into a very severe economic crisis. The Turkish leader has lost 30% since in the past six months against the dollar. And this is only going to continue. The Turkish economy is in very big troubles. And all of this is going to lead to rising class struggles, it's going to lead to explosive movements in Turkey. And again, a great opportunity for the Kurdish movement to reach out and ally itself with the Turkish workers and youth against the Erdogan regime. Because on a purely military basis and on a nationalist basis, there's no way that you can defeat the Turkish state. The Turkish military is the fourth largest or fifth largest military in the world, is very well equipped. You cannot defend it militarily, but only by breaking it on class lines, by appealing to the soldiers who don't have any interest in killing Kurds. And weakening the grip that the Erdogan's nationalism gives over the masses to break his state in half and then wage a revolutionary war against him. That's the way forward, that's the way they want to begin with, and that's the methods that they have to use in order to defend their position today. Now, just to end, the past 10 years have been probably the most turbulent of the whole history of the Middle East. And that's saying a lot because of the way the situation normally is in the Middle East. You've seen the Arab revolutions, you've seen the rise of ISIS, you've seen civil wars in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen, in Libya. And you've seen revolutions and revolutionary movements in every single country. And what this essentially reflects is the same process, is the process of the senile decay of capitalism. It is a reflection of the fact that capitalism is not capable as a system, as a regime to solve any of the problems that the masses and that societies in the region face today. And the old system of states which was artificially imposed by Western imperialism is beginning to disintegrate. And we see that the only result of imperialist and Western intervention in the whole region has been to leave a barbaric mess. And the only solution really to all of this is not to fight, to ally yourself with this or that ruling class, with this or that establishment of this or that country, but to wage a struggle against the whole system, against all of these ruling classes, none of which are able to solve the situation, overthrow capitalism and essentially establish a socialist federation of the whole Middle East. Thank you very much.


Hello and welcome back to the craft box. My name is Brenton today. We're in episode 227 Of the was a one-on-one death walk-through the last time if you haven't checked it out already we Defeated Ivan to get rid of his curse that rescued and put upon him And we came back to Baba Yaga and today we're heading into the arc anum Which is the Well, you'll find out, you know if you don't know already you'll find out today I'm really excited about this. So we're actually not too far away from the end of Polaro see this So, you know like a couple more episodes, maybe three. I don't know who knows. It's not like I keep count. Do I? So, yeah, let us head through the world door Can we stop with the leg, okay, that'd be great things I'm so excited to go into the arc and can we not like today that would be great. Thanks. Oh Here we go. Yay new world New world new area fantastic The arc anum. Hello. This place is really cool The music is the best as well. It's the most Wizard one of the most well-kept secrets of all time known only to an extreme Select group of spellcasters Here the most accomplished scholars in the spiral gather in the quest for knowledge and in the interest of protecting the spiral It exists in a place of its own between worlds of the spiral enabling us to guard against threats both from within and without all The books and scrolls accumulated in all the libraries are replicated in our Repository and can be shared where we deem it appropriate Now I brought you because I think you're worthy. Don't go and prove me wrong What you see here what you hear here And for the spiral sake don't touch anything just let me do the talking Let's just say they may not be happy with old Baba Yaga Okay, if you say so let's talk to Liberian hello Well, if it isn't Baba Yaga so kind of you the graces with the visit how long has it been? I had forgotten. We even had a myth scholar Scandalous don't take that tone with me fits you I've had other priorities Until now, there's been a peculiar confluence of events in Polaris Oh really, let me guess ancient beings falling ill strange people and creatures of shadow appearing and Signs of the end of the spiral. Hmm. Yes That's it in a nutshell How did you know wait a minute? Have you been spying on me? Sure as if we have time for that don't be absurd Polaris isn't unique We've are the same rumors from other worlds too from what I gather we've made little progress But of course no one bothers to tell me anything speak to Ioni in the Hall of Divination Okay, hello, Ioni. Let's meet her. This is really cool. I'm so excited to be finally in the Arcanum. This is So cool. I'm excited about this to be honest. I'm so excited. We can also get our new spell as well, which is great Baba Yaga you've been gone a rather long time I resent you I think being unable to reach you in these dark times has been frustrating You recall my concerns about shadow magic. Well unsurprisingly I was right in fact It's worse started as a trickle, but now it's a flood. We have much to discuss But first who is this with you? I'm sure I've told you before new people make me nervous especially young ones young but an Experienced wizard nonetheless invited here is my guest. I believe this one could be a valuable ally to the Arcanum I'm skeptical a little irritated even but alright wizard We don't allow tourists here. You will be an initiate for now You must begin by going to the repository to study the Arcanum creed that will give Baba Yaga and myself time to catch up Okay, let us hit over to that so you're nice we little paintings in every single room of the home world or what is we assume the home world of most of the Scholars while there's paintings in every one and we just assume that it's a home world because the words that we have visited have kind of been sort of concept-ish arts of those worlds like the Baba Yaga one and the Mirage one, but you know, that's not a world. We don't know that right Let us head over to the repository This is such a big place as well. It's ridiculous It's so cool. There's also a Way to get potions here as well from from this dude here He'll give you potions mystical mixtures as they're called Unfortunately, I have four potions, but you know, that's fine. It's really cool Let's go over here the repository Such a big place. Hello Repository reeks of musty old scrolls and dry binding glue The Arcanum creed is engraved in massive glyphs on the wall to translate each of the glyphs You'll need to consult the ancient tomes set out on this level Okie dokie then let's read the one of creation Tom of creation. Hello Within the tomb you find a translation for the first glyph in the order a spiral Okay, let's go the knowledge weight waters. This is this parchment that would make sense. It is wall They made it make sense. That's good What are these? These are we little pets. Oh my gosh, I didn't notice that. That's so cool That's so cool level we little pets and water moles. That's really cool. That's so cool Knowledge speak to me, please Don't do this to me now. Thank you within the tone. You find a translation for the second glyph in the spiral a magic Okay, and the insight Within the tone you find a translation for the third glyph in the magic and eternity And the final one is In the eternity a what who knows we'll find out Hello inspiration Within the tone you find a translation for the fourth glyph in the eternity a truth Together the glyphs read in the order a spiral in the spiral a magic in the magic and eternity in the eternity a truth After reading the creed you feel a strong sense of belonging as if you were meant to be here Of course we were meant to be here. This is really cool though. Look at this. This looks so cool This looks so good Amazing I really like how they've used like all of them together The stars in the middle and there's like the spiral and the yeah, that's pretty cool pretty cool Let's head back to Eoni. We can go to the Ark anim. It's probably quicker at this point because it's such a humongous area Let's do this hello storm hall or the Hall of What is it divination? Need to remember what what each of the magic is called Jesus hello, so you managed to figure out the creed. I feel surprised, but not disappointment Perhaps Baba Yaga's assessment was not entirely wrong Of course it was she told me of the troubles in Polaris and your involvement all this makes me feel a little queasy But I admit it's good.  There are grave matters at stake Venkman sent word She's found the target Velma von Venkman is our shadow scholar She's tracked down the villains behind the surge in shadow magic, but she can't confront them alone The wizard is familiar with shadow magic Perhaps this is a good way to further test our newest initiate and give us more time to chat Indeed your familiarity with shadow magic makes me feel curious wizard, but I will not pry Instead we will put your talents to use take the world door to Avalon and join Velma von Venkman in Caliburn I feel at least slightly hopeful you two could put an end to this scourge Okay Let us quit we're level 110 right? Yes. We are got that a couple episodes ago We are gonna see if we can go into the other Halls because that would be great. I don't know if we can Who knows? if we can go into The astral one that would be fantastic, which is right here. Can we please? Yes, fantastic amazing. Okay. Let's get Some astral magic spells because we're level 110 and I believe that's a level we can get some of them at least Hi, Kybern. Hello Okay, what do we want don't really need you ages definitely clothes Brace We'll get it just because we can Epic definitely Radical definitely And Dimity definitely Fantastic there we go. So the other ones are adept which is upgrade of The other one which gives pips I forgot what it's called is completely runoff This is the upgrade of infallible. This is the upgrade of Berserk This is the upgrade of amplifier and that's the upgrade of mend So I'm not gonna get those ones because I don't need it, but we have epic Amazing So that one protects from removal a trap or charm from removal. What does this one do then that protects a Negative one from removal. So yeah, those are good to have for feints and such for bosses that Don't allow feints We will remove all of those we need another one It feels so good to be like Doing this Let's remove these braces and That should be a good Okay, that's all I want to do today for that but let's we'll get a Well, there'll be another video sometime soon of getting our level 108 spell Which is very long overdue because well, I mean we can go here until now, but we are over 108 Obviously, let us head over to Avalon Avalon Avalon Boop Boop Avalon. Hello good world. Yes, please good job good Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop Lag lag hello. Hello. Hello. Hi, I'm Avalon Venkman. The Arcanum sent you. I guess you're my backup I could have handled this myself. I don't know when the other scholars will start trusting me That's a shame. Thank you. I'm glad to have the company though I don't know how much Ioni told you but I've been investigating the surge in shadow magic You ever heard of a sorceress named Morganh? Yeah, I thought so. She nearly destroyed the spiral meddling in shadow magic She's not the problem anymore, but the surge is related. I think some of her acolytes These arachna have been continuing her work. I tracked them to this place They've been using as a hideout now all that's left is to go in and confront them. Got it? Good.  Like how dare they don't they know I'm death and it takes forever. Apparently they don't Where are we even going? We've leveled up so much. It's great. Like we're nearly another level as well level 111 that'll be fantastic I don't know why I said one of them, but you know what? It's fun. What does she give us? I think she gives us shadow percent Doesn't she yeah, we've got 15%. Oh my gosh That's a monster amount 15% shadow pip chance. That's ridiculous That's crazy that's crazy stuff Let's go in and see what we can do Let's see what trouble we can cause today Fire and Storm, okay. Well, we should be good. Well, let's do this. This shouldn't be too difficult We've got epic as well, which is great. It's epic. Some people would say so yeah, did she just give us the shadow pip chance? I think she would yeah, just 10% sure, but that's ridiculous. That's so good. Oh my god Let's just see how much this is gonna do It does 830 base and now it does 1,000 what the heck okay, that's so good so good So so good blade good She'll probably faint a couple times and actually see how much healthy fizzle already. He's bad. He's so bad Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do-do-do Okay, we will enchant the dear knight. How much does that do? Mmm does mass Well enchant you think we can do that. Yep I really should get into a bit of chicken before he only has 10,000 Okay, even worse than the other people we've been facing recently. That's ridiculous 10,000 That's a couple blades and a couple of feints and he's dead. He's Easy-easy. Is that a whiptail Pantera? That is.   Can we get a shadow, but please that'd be great. I mean with thank you Like we have 15% chance surely we can get a shadow, but now right Okay, we will faint and Then we will go for a hit probably sometime soon We should probably at least get another blade or faint up one or two other He's got minus 15 Fortify is ridiculous. Why would you use fortify? I mean he only has 2,000 that's ridiculously easy. You know what? We're just gonna go for it. Let's go for it We've got epic now. We we use epic. We epic Ba-ba-dum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-boop Hello Aha, let's go.  I assume we'll do another blade or two He has what like 3,000 health? Probably not 2,000 even easier. I don't need you. I mean Let's just have fun. Let's go for this. I don't know why but we're going for it. Whatever Whatever We crit you see we're just too good. Can we weapon cast as well? Nope. Okay, that's fine That's fine. I didn't want it anyway. He's literally fizzled just everything.  He's so bad We'll blade and then we'll hit again with a Lulu hopefully otherwise day and night and he should be dead Just got less than a thousand probably finally he takes a spell. Geez finally not fizzling good job that did nothing good job and shadow but my coming in clutch with them clutch shadow books hello good job you're here yeah let's go yeah easy peasy what do we get what's the longbow oh this is level 72 stuff oh that's pathetic it's not even fun I don't approve of that I really don't approve of that stuff let's see what we have to do next oh did I not go to the right place oh I didn't even go to the right place oh my god I'm an idiot I'm like why why do they have like no health and isn't like a whiptail Pantera at level rank 11 a bit too low but I didn't really think about it I'm an idiot I'm such an idiot we're exposed I knew Avalon was a poor place to hide let us not go down gently though we fight to the end well you've seen a boss fight this is basically what I'm going to do for this one so I'll be back in just a sec okay I am back that was very embarrassing and I'm sorry for my idiot idiocy hopefully we are definitely killing them and I'm not sure about it couldn't find feints you know feints are just ridiculously bad to find these days ridiculously hard to find okay hello you think you're cool but that's fine you're not let's go for now our feints come yay good job good job okay so it makes me feel just so much more great about myself when feints come after I've heard and embarrassed myself you know it's ridiculous this guy can stun so he's a bit annoying but otherwise it's just a normal health normal health normal ice kind of dude so not too big a deal really didn't even reduce I was about to say didn't even reduce backlash what okay but don't worry it did let's inch on you even though we're going to get a shot up anyway because we're good 8000 we will play we will play and then we will go for a nice little paint again if we can that would be great maybe not okay I mean why not why not we're just getting shadow pips out our ears so I mean might as well just spam it now we can do that because we can yay good job okay hello yeah he's not dead damn it another one of those would kill that'd be good don't know if we have enough blades for that but you know whatever he fizzled who that's unfortunate he reduces backlash much he's gonna take a lot of damage not too much but he's gonna take some damage okay take more damage than the idea you don't know how much that was because we can't see thank you pit for yelling me good job gonna be nearly full health again yay yeah good job okay um let's see we got this now which is good 3000 okay okay we have no more of those that's unfortunate well let's go for this and then we'll go for a day and I and then if we still need something we might as well just go for a wanted and then we'll reshuffle if we have to hopefully we don't because we can maybe crit one of these times thank you he's dead good jeez that took way too long I'm an idiot as well if we go into the battle good job me good job me yeah me go go me why must you do this our queen is gone and we seek only to live out our days in peace your queen is gone but her legacy persists shadow magic still corrupts the spiral you expect us to believe you're not responsible of course shadow magic continues to spread grandfather spider is free along with his children the spirals doomed but we are spurned and no little why ask us when the one who released grandfather spider from his prison stands at your side of course your wizard friend would have known grandfather spider better by another name he called himself old cob hold on what are you saying you mean the wizard wizard could we maybe um have a word outside sure thing I was just waiting for that to happen honestly just waiting for that to happen knowing that we actually defeated more gants than we freed or cob I mean grandfather spider yep okay well I'm just waiting for that one kind of walked right into it okay hello well I guess there are no coincidences so you're the one who defeated the shadow queen wow color me impressed and it's true about grandfather spider dark more has some scary bedtime stories but the ones about grandfather spider were the worst yeah about Raven and spider was a myth but now I find out he's real it does explain the surge in shadow magic though all right this is bad that's true but it's not the end of the spiral not yet at least right and of course this doesn't look good for you I should be the one to go tell Ioni I'll go now maybe she'll calm down before you return okay let's go home I am so annoyed that I went into the wrong schedule that is so embarrassing whatever it's fine it's fine it's fine it's fine it's fine thank you our cannon good job yay and we will go and face the rough of Ioni and she's gonna be so furious with us she's gonna be very annoyed I can guarantee that right now but let's see if she maybe not maybe not maybe she isn't who knows hello Ioni where are you load please that would be great thank you great success thank you Lord Lord please please Lord thank you Lord thank you thank you so much I feel conflicted I want to dislike you now more than ever but if it's true you defeated Morgan I have to give you some credit for that furthermore there's no time for me to rebuke you the revelation that grandfather spider has escaped his prison changes everything there can be no doubt that spiders return is a threat to the spiral we must work together and move quickly to find out what web he weaves I'm pleased to say Baba Yaga has agreed to resume her duties here at the Arcanum go speak with her in the hall of conjuration okay she also teaches um spells so all of these teachers you can learn spells from all of the ones that you would normally learn from Houston but also you can learn other ones like windstorm and what else she knows probably not that one you can learn Trident in the Storm Lord which is really cool the ones that you need to be level 104 so those are quite cool and each school has their own specific ones that you can learn I can't remember all of them off the top of my head obviously but you know I mean you wouldn't use them anyway but just because you can use TC and they also do more damage anyway so I mean makes sense myth is directly opposite I believe or close enough to yeah myth is here hello hiya how's it going Baba Yaga let me talk to you once more please that'd be a good idea hi see this is all Polaris stuff on the walls yeah that's what I was talking about hi I knew you were troubled the first time I laid eyes on you I just didn't realize how much trouble why didn't you tell me you were the one who defeated Morgan I don't know if that's a sign of modesty or if it's just plain suspicious don't bother answering what matters now is you help us clean up this mess and since I'm stuck here that means you get to do the footwork now that we've confirmed grandfather spiders return it seems clear to me that this Rasputin character is one of spiders children the question is which one of spiders children is he that might help us figure out what terrible plans he has for Polaris Xander the Arcanum life scholar has been studying ancient texts about spiders children I want you to go find out what he's learned don't let Xander fool you he doesn't talk but he has a great deal to say come back when you've got something more unrest okay let's go back to not back to let's go meet Xander now what a lad I love Xander he's great fantastic years do do-do-do do-do do-do do-do-do do do-do-do do do-do-do do-do do-do-do do-do-do do-do-do-do do-do-do hello um let's head on in and wait for it to load forever and once it's loaded we will meet Xander hi patience initiate patience Questions are only the seeds of answers, and answers need room to grow before they can be harvested. You wish to know about grandfather's spider's children, do you? They're a dark brood, to be sure, born out of pure misery during spider's captivity. Each of them has a true name and form. We're talking about a dark, shadowy nature that they'll probably try to disguise. Disguised or not, the children are driven by spider's vengeful ambitions. The spiral stands for all they hate. They will try to destroy it. That's the big picture, but you want to know about one child in particular? Talk to our balance scholar, Jackie Whisperwind. She'll help you. Okey dokey, balance time. Let's go into the balance scholar and see what we have to learn about today.  Oh, hi, you're the one from Ravenwood, right? I've always wanted to visit there. I hear there's a street called unicorn way Yep, I love unicorns and Pegasi. Have you ever ridden a Pegasus? There's so fast. That's good. If you're in a hurry I'm always in a hurry And I forget what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh, yeah I'm supposed to be helping you learn about grandfather spiders children. I found something There's a bunch of cave paintings in Zafariya the ancient Zafarians somehow recorded information about How did they know right amazing and I wonder how they drew the paintings? Is it really paint or is it chalk? It looks like ink, but oops. I'm getting distracted Zafariya Look for an archaeologist named Airdale Guthrie. Tell him Jackie will share her secret if he helps you okay, um she's very um It's kind of really funny because I think they tried to make the scholars the polar opposite to The teachers at Ravenwood Bubba yug is nice. I only is not nice Well, it doesn't seem to be nice. Jackie is fast where L has read as slow and I mean whirlwinds and are just the same though Nobody can doubt that whirlwinds and oh, they're amazing both of them amazing I've also noticed that all of the scholars are actually the opposite gender of the Ones in Wizard City. Where are we going Zafariya? Nearly forgot that they're the opposite gender, which is really interesting So anyone who had a male was now female like Bubba Yuga and Houston is now a Yoni Yeah, and yeah, it's kind of kind of interesting Let's go to the Savannah. No, I don't like being back in Zafariya. It gives me bad memories bad memories of defeating 10 and then defeating 10 and Then doing nothing and then defeating 10 And then defeating 10 and collecting 10. Yeah, that's not fun. Zafariya not fun Dislike it thoroughly. Where are we even going? Over this way. I always get random leggings as far as also bad Hello mistwood. Yay. Gotta get some of that mistwood. You're not usually here. Are you I? Say you look more learned than some of these other wizards I see running around here I'm Airdale Guthrie, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Oh You're interested in the early Safari and mythos too fascinating material, isn't it? I'm doing research for the Royal Museum. I might be willing to share my insights Wait, wait, you're a friend of Jackie's of course then the cave paintings are just in I was about to go in and study the Paintings but one has come to life, and it's quite hostile if you'll deal with it. Well, we have a deal I find it's so funny a hostile cave painting that came to life. Oh, no run quick It's a painting that came to life. We got a Need help for this one needs so much help geez Let's see if it's really that bad. Oh look it is a Kated painted cave monster This is actually really cool It's actually cool really ridiculous, but cool. I like it. I like it a lot Um, let's see rank 15 fire 13 Okay, not too much health, which is good. Let's go for a nice wee blalala aid Blalala aid hello there Do-do-do-do-do do-do-do You're on link, okay, that's cute Does like 17 good job Not even hurt yet either so I don't see why you're dealing, but that's fine. I'm not gonna judge you for that one Um, let's do this one. Let's just cut you Do another spirit blade I I'm surprised it's only one just the boss I would expect there to be more, you know, but nope just the boss Kind of weird I think it's so funny this like how it's just a 2d piece of painting really that's coming alive and Like I don't It's funny the people are so clever. I swear it's ridiculous ridiculous Okay, another we faint a faint I should say because we have an extra put another one on only one Only one Fizzle that's unlucky Gotta try harder next time. Don't you? Sure do Let's do this blade. Whoops didn't even click myself. Good job Well, how much is this gonna do 99?  Okay, I mean not what I was going for but that's fine 13,000 we can't do that yet. I don't think No, we don't need that. Well, we're just gonna pass Just gonna pass whatever just pass just pass pass pass pass.  What is this try an avenue or something J's? Fire off What a spell we're just kind of you Can we get a good thing a blade possibly thanks Okay, we will hopefully get a Another faint actually, no we can't we need to put them as well. We'll just hit next. I think we've got what four blades One two three four. Yeah four blades in a faint. They should be fine. They should do a lot Okay Strange didn't they okay. They even do much. Don't know why you would do that, but that's fine Let's go Let's do this See how much this does and won't do too much I don't think but I mean better than nothing Better than nothing we can always just spam Lulu or deny it or whatever. Oh crit. He's dead. Okay. Good job. There we go fantastic Hidden block either which is even bigger Yay. Bye. Bye How much would have that done that would have been all that would have been close No, that would have killed him without a crit. So we're fine.  What what was it something I said? That's all you need All right, give Jackie my regards. Yeah hogwash. That's what it is. Okay. Um, let's Head on back. Let's go to the baby crossroads. It's probably quicker She knows probably quicker to go home whatever same thing Doesn't really matter should have probably left a mark. It's fine Um, yeah, who would believe in that superstitious stuff? It's not like Obviously we freed old Cobb and his children are destroying everything No, definitely not that Yeah, we obviously know which one we're facing now obviously the rat Yep, and then obviously the other children are later worlds Which we're not quite up to yet and by quite. I mean not quite. We've got a couple of episodes left, you know Just a few um, let's go talk to Jackie though Hey, welcome back. How was Walleroo? Oh wait. No, you were going to Zafaria. That's right. Yes. Did Airdale help you? Oh good I'll have to send old Airdale. Thank you note tomorrow or maybe next week right now I had to find this book about spiral astrobiology. Oh the cave paintings. Yes, you learned about spider's children That's great. You should go tell Baba Yaga right away. Now. Where was I? Let's go back to Baba Yaga, and then I think we will end off the episode there Just because it's probably quite long I originally had this episode as like two, but I just wanted to you know, do it all because It's the first part of the Arcanum the first time we see it. We got to make something special of it. So, you know Yeah, that's cool And it would have been shorter if I hadn't actually gone into the wrong battle either That was embarrassing that never happened though. Obviously that is something that you blocked out of your memories Definitely something I completely forgot about as well. Bye. Bye. I hear you had to work with Jackie Sometimes hard to follow isn't she? Sometimes there's wisdom in her madness So you discovered Rasputin's true nature Rat a puppet master that sounds fitting But what is the rest plan Polaris? I believe it's the borealis gemstones that are the key Why was he mining them? No, they're magic. But what kind of magic? I gave a small borealis gem to our father scholar Ignospheric go to the whole of pyromancy and see if Indus has been able to glean anything from it Okay, so next time we will be heading over to Ignis Thank you for watching and to deliver like and subscribe and if you've already subscribed press the little bell So you know exactly when I post another video and remember craft outside the box