THC 83: James Corbett | Fukushima, The Balance Of Power, & New Alternatives

01:44 Holy shit people drinking a little drink smoking a little smoke from San Diego. I'm Greg Carlwood, I finally got my computer working again Sorry about not having a show last week But you know how it goes everything is still going well? I'm psyched about today's show we have James Corbett of the Corbett report And I'm sure a lot of listeners and conspiracy nuts will know of James because he's got one of the most popular Podcasts for the current events in global politics that they don't want you to know about First, we're going to run through a spot for the THC money bomb so I don't have to repeat myself every week. And then my special lady is going to deliver this week's higher education so you don't have to listen to me and then ladies and gentlemen will get to the only real reason why are here in that's the interview portion of the show this week with James Corbett of The Corbett Report

02:26 People, I gotta tell you about a little something we're calling the THC Money Bomb. The way it works is that i'm gonna pool up all the donations before episode 85 and give half back to one of you listeners So if ya can consider donating 5 or 10 bucks to THC You'll be supporting our show you love and know that half your donation will go to some random fairly like-minded individual Hell, It might even be you! The more people we get involved the bigger impact we can collectively have I'm really sort of tired of just talking about community and helping people, and i would rather just do it. So if you're with me go to thehiresidechats.com slash donate And to keep things kosher I must also add that you can get into the pool without a donation If five dollars is too much Just send me a letter with your info To Greg Carlwood P.O Box 635223 San Diego California

03:14 92163. So there it is! And if you've donated already, thanks so much! Keep an eye on your PayPal account I might just blow it up. That's the THC Money Bomb Boom Hey everybody, I'm Tiny Dancer and in a world full of secret agendas and corporate censorship it's hard to know what is what. That is where your higher education comes in! A recently published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have significantly lower IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas

03:49 In a 32-page report that can be downloaded free of charge from environmental health perspectives, the researchers said quote, we've concluded that adverse effects of high fluoride concentrations in drinking water may be of concern and that additional research is warranted. Fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in laboratory animals including effects on learning and memory. Huh? You think? There are so many scientific studies showing the direct toxic effects of fluoride on your body, it's truly remarkable that it is not considered a scientific consensus by now. And next over at Godlike Productions, conspiracy forums have posed an interesting theory on Paul Walker's untimely death from the car crash on Saturday. They tie it in and call it a murder to prevent Walker who was part of the Philippine relief effort from exposing quote, A conspiracy to supply victims of the typhoon with a prototype of permanent birth control hidden in medical and food aid supplies."

04:49 Another theory is that Walker discovered dirty money in the Philippines disaster relief and that it would make sense because he owned a company that specialized in rapid disaster relief. Who knows? And on the GMO front, the GM Super Salmon muscling its way onto your plate. As they splash around in their tanks they look like any other healthy Atlantic salmon! Their eyes are bright, their skin is gloriously silvery and their fully grown bodies exude power. It's only when you look closely at their hatching dates that alarm bells start to ring. A normal Atlantic salmon takes 30 months to grow to maturity this variety took just 16 The majestic specimen are frankenfish, genetically modified salmon created in a secretive research base in the Panama Rainforest.

05:32 Frankenfish are genetically modified salmon created by the company Aqua Bounty which grow at twice the rate of wild Atlantic Salmon and are constantly hungry. The salmon have been given genes from two other species of fish to make them grow twice as fast as normal, and while most people would balk at the prospect GM fish could soon be coming to a dinner table near you! Last week, Canadian authorities gave approval for the commercial production of GM salmon eggs for the first time while U.S. food regulators are in the final stages of approving fish for sale in supermarkets and restaurants And where GM salmon lead other animals will follow Plans are in place to genetically modify up to 50 other species including trout and tropical whitefish tilapia for human consumption GM chickens cattle sheep and pigs will not be far behind

06:24 And in our last story today, Mark Shivarella Jr., a 61-year old former judge in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for literally selling young juveniles for cash. He was convicted of accepting money in exchange for incarcerating thousands of adults and children into a prison facility owned by developer who was paying him under the table. The kickbacks amounted to more than $1 million dollars. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturn some 4,000 convictions issued by him between 2003 and 2008 claiming that he violated the constitutional rights juveniles including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter plea

07:04 Some of the juveniles he sentenced were as young as 10 years old. Shavarella was convicted of 12 counts including racketeering, money laundering mail fraud and tax evasion He was ordered to pay 1.2 million in restitution His Kids for Cash program has revealed that corruption is indeed within the prison system mostly driven by the growth in private prisons seeking profit by any means necessary That's it for me, I'm Tiny Dancer and this has been your Higher Education For The Week. See you next time! Alright people here we go most members of the conspiracy community will be familiar with a man of such status as James Corbett but if you aren't let me school ya little bit see James has been actively pursuing the truth on his show and website The Corbett Report out of Japan since 2007 and as a result is now running one of the top

08:02 alternative and uncompromised news sites out there that I know of. Today James is just going to share his educated opinions on a whole host of topics because there's a lot of pieces moving on the global chessboard these days, i know i want to try to see this game little more clearly and i think james is just the man to help me cut through that haze he's a pebble in the shoe with mainstream media thorn in the side of the global elite and champion of people at time when the people have very little. I'm fucking honored to have him here James welcome to THC Well, it's great to be here. Thank you so much for having me on today! I'm a big fan of the work you do. I know that when I want some straight talk, I can get it from you and your site. That's why I asked you to come on the show. It's definitely a lot easier to get real news in this age of the internet but I still feel like my perception at the global stage is partly tainted by my place here in the American bubble...

08:51 Right. No, I understand completely and it's good to step outside of that. That's why I'm kind of lucky to be where I am and doing what I'm doing because I'm not only outside of my own bubble which is Canada which is already outside the American bubble but now I'm here in Japan which is further outside the bubble so I get to look from the outside-in. So it's a different perspective and I hope that brings something different to the table when putting my podcasts and everything together Yeah, man. I really value that and I hope to get out of it some days but especially these days It's pretty tough you know But I find it really interesting you went from Canada to Japan You know I think most Americans would think the cliff notes to Asian countries is that generally the citizens are unemotional overworked drones who are overly censored and have a lot of weird porn fetishes And that Japan is like the corporate offices of the east but

09:43 I mean, tell us what it's really like. Would you consider Japan more open and free than America or Canada? No, I don't think that's the way i'd frame it It's definitely a different culture and there are certainly aspects to it that conform to some of the stereotypes And expectations that people have out there but then there are other ways in which it can surprise you so So, Japan is a great country and a lot of people love to visit here. And after spending a few months here I think most people think they have an idea of the culture but I think after you spend several years here you start to see sort of the undercurrents of the culture which is a different thing entirely. But certainly on the surface Japan is very much a reserved country where everyone's very polite and very formal

10:27 And you don't usually get past that certainly when you're just here for a visit. So people have that impression of the country, but there is an undercurrent – there's cultures and subcultures that occur here that you wouldn't necessarily see on the surface in society … because it is such a reserved culture, but there's a lot that's happening here and it's an interesting place to be from that perspective. Especially during these times in all of the craziness that's happening not only around the world but here in Japan specifically. Yeah I'd assume that people are probably a little less driven by Hollywood marketing and consumerism? Is that true?

11:05 Yes, and no. Certainly it's interesting that they do have sort of their own culture industry here if you will. Certainly the music industry is very much J-pop oriented obviously so they have sort of their own little bubble here but there is still a lot of crass commercialism and a lot pursuit of merchandise, merchandise fetishism that goes on here and you know people still care about Louis Vuitton handbags and things like that. So I mean it...I wouldn't say that there's a lack of that here there certainly is a lot of it here but it is..I mean its different

11:43 there's a different inflection to it. And I think that probably comes from just the history of the country, especially over the past half century and sort of the rise of the industrial Japan and sort of the rise of the Japanese bubble back in the 80s. And then the popping of that in the last couple of decades of stagnation has really left its mark on sort of the average Japanese population but certainly if you look at long term historical trends this is country, in a culture that's just been under imperial conditioning for centuries and centuries now. And really I mean even in the last half century nothing has fundamentally changed with that all that happened really is that the old feudal lords of the past became the big mega corporations today and people still continue to slave away for them and pretty unquestioningly to a large extent although that is changing and we have the younger generation that's growing up in a very different way than their elders did

12:36 And sort of the lifelong employment and all of that, years past is definitely gone now. So it is a culture that's undergoing huge changes right now and not necessarily for the better but not necessarily for the worse I think its still up in the air to large extent. Right on man yeah thats really interesting! You can't really get past the corporate overlords anywhere you go. I wish I could just retreat to an area that was little more remote, little more tropical but yet I still had lightning speed internet connection. That's all I want! Yeah, I hear you on that front. Well, I'd just like to go somewhere a little warmer. I am Canadian but I've become a bit of a wussy for the last nine years ten years here so... Well, I also wanted to ask you about Fukushima. I hear a lot of Armageddon-level fear porn surrounding the disaster there as well as, y'know, the polar opposite official stories that everything's fine but what's your assessment? You obviously must feel pretty safe if it's where you live kind of right?

13:32 Well, yes. I mean, qualifiedly so. I think you're exactly right that there seems to be that absolute polarization in terms of coverage. There are the people who say that there's nothing wrong and nothing could possibly be wrong with this situation it's all sunshine and lollipops and i'm so glad these reactors melted down And then on the other side is... The world is dead everyone is dead Japan is a nuclear wasteland we're all gonna die And I really want to try to break that cycle, that polarization that's taking place there because there is a lot of room in the middle for, I think, a bit of reality. So I have a website for people who don't know FukushimaUpdate.com where on maybe not a daily basis but several times a week anyway it's updating with stories about the latest from Fukushima trying to really keep an eye on what's happening there

14:21 not only specifically in terms of the Fukushima plant itself, but some of the other issues that surrounding that. For example, the Japanese parliament just recently passed a bill, a state secrets bill... ...that's basically effectively banning any type of leaks of what is termed classified information from within the government and a lot of people are speculating this is specifically designed to try to suppress information about Fukushima So that is a pretty worrying thing that's happened recently. And you even had Japanese senators coming out and saying this is a return to the type of fascism of years past, so it was a pretty worrying development on that front and of course on the Fukushima front there are a lot of things going

15:01 A couple of months ago, the big stories that were breaking were basically talking about the leaks that were happening in some of the containment vessels they have on site for some of the basically wastewater. They're pumping water into the reactors obviously to keep them cool and that wastewater is being collected and stored in these containers They found a bunch of leaks in these containers recently that was leaking radioactive water out onto the site and eventually, of course into the ocean. So that was a pretty big deal a month or two ago and in the last week or 2 they've started the process of transferring some of this spent fuel

15:38 out of the reactor 4 spent fuel pool. So for people who don't know, this is a G Mark 1 nuclear reactor and that design just bizarrely enough I mean it is a really bizarre system but the design basically has a spent fuel pool where they take the spent fuel rods out and they put them in a pool of water to keep them cool that's situated directly above the reactor so suspended in the air there And of course, during the earthquake and the tsunami and everything that happened there, the reactor four building got severely damaged. It was listing for a time it looked like it was maybe on the verge of collapse they had to shore it up. Eventually they started to construct these cranes and things that they were going to use to get the spent fuel out of there so if the building does collapse or anything happens

16:30 unthinkable nuclear disaster. Because the term spent fuel might make people think that, oh this is not radioactive anymore. Quite the contrary these spent fuel rods are still very much radioactive and if they were to break or if they were to lose containment in whatever way that would be a huge nuclear disaster so So it's a pretty precarious situation. And so they've started the process of removing those fuel rods from reactor four spent fuel pool, and that is a lengthy and difficult and very, very delicate process even under the best of times under ideal conditions they use computerized basically robotic cranes that are

17:08 tuned to the millimeter to do very precise moves, to move these fuel rods. But obviously they can't really rely on that at this point because the fuel containment for these rods has been moved around in an earthquake and everything so it's going to be a very difficult process and there are something like 1500 of these to remove and I think they've removed the first batch which is and apparently due to Japanese law, although I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what law this might pertain to. But they have to blur out certain areas of the photos so that you can see some of the details... ...of the cranes and things that they have in here so that you can't presumably do nuclear terrorism or something of that sort. It does certainly raise questions about what's in the blurred areas and what aren't they showing us about what is going on there?

18:13 That's funny. I actually saw a video like that and I wondered because Japanese also blur out their porn, and I was like is this some type of phallus thing? Is that why you can't show it but yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense man It seems like such a out-of-control disaster What about this thing about West Coast radiation concerns do you think that's hype or is that legitimate That one's, it's difficult to say but I did just post it up a very very thorough article from Washington's blog on Fukushima update. It's called what is the actual risk for Pacific Coast residents from Fukushima radiation? So people who are interested I suggest they take a look at that. It's extremely thorough and it goes through a lot of documentation, a lot of scientists and scientific opinions

18:56 that basically comes to the opinion that yes, there is going to be an increase in radioactivity in the Pacific region and on the west coast of the United States. And that it's going to be harmful for human health And and it's it's fairly well established. I mean, that's not really a point of contention That any level of radiation is an unsafe level? I mean it does increase the risk of cancer so So there's no such thing as a safe level of radiation and that's something to keep in mind as basically the first wave of Fukushima remnants and and and and radioactivity starts to make its way to the west coast and it's um, I mean It's really

19:35 just a question of time until it starts to be picked up. But interestingly enough, there is no US agency that actually monitors radioactivity off of the coasts so there's people who are petitioning right now to try and get the government to monitor what's actually happening but I'm not exactly holding my breath that's going to happen anytime soon. Man when you look at whether its a plant meltdown or weaponized atomic attack its like Is this technology even worth using when an area is going to be just fucked for decades because you had one mistake, you know? One weather disaster. Right and the answer is no I mean it really isn't worth using even from an economic standpoint The nuclear industry the way its been designed doesn't even make economic sense Nuclear reactors are not profitable And they would not be without heavy government subsidization in a number of different ways

20:27 And this is just the stark reality of the nuclear industry as it's developed and as it has been developed since the 1950s really with the Atoms for Peace project and all the propaganda that people had about the nuclear industry, nuclear energy. Oh! It's going to be energy too cheap to meter or so they said in all these kind of things, the dawning of a new era for mankind harnessing the power of atom and all that garbage propaganda that people were fed Meanwhile, in reality the entire nuclear industry as it's developed has been specifically designed around these uranium reactors that are great at producing plutonium which can be used for the nuclear weapons industry. Which is precisely why the types of designs for these types of reactors specifically have been developed

21:14 and why they are so heavily subsidized by governments because nuclear energy industry is always just an adjunct to a nuclear weapons industry. And even in this place like, uh, in Japan where obviously they officially don't have nuclear weapons or a nuclear program, um... Nuclear reactors here could be I mean spun on a dime to produce nuclear materials for weapons and that's, I mean that's the real point of the nuclear energy industry as it's developed. And there are other ideas for other types of designs using other materials like liquid fluoride thorium reactors and others such designs that would not have the types of problems that we see with uranium reactors but obviously they

21:55 the time, the money, the effort. The infrastructure has not been developed or built because it doesn't serve the nuclear weapons industry." So I think at the end of the day this is what it's really about. It's about producing material for nuclear weapons and that's why we have these unsafe reactors and that's why they are all infesting all over these countries like Japan and the United States and France and others. And that's why it's going to be extremely difficult to get rid of them if, if that's even a possibility. And last year the previous Japanese government had put out a commission committee to study in industry, in Japan and its future. And they actually remarkably enough, they came back with a recommendation to actually scrap nuclear energy in Japan to get rid of it by the middle part of this century. And guess what? The new government as soon as they came in, the first thing they did is say, well no we're going to start up the reactors again and it's going to be business as usual for nuclear energy industry. So so I'm again, it's it's a huge uphill battle to even contemplate getting rid of this

22:58 these sores on the face of the planet. Man, I really had no idea it was just such a PR thing you know? There also seems to be an element of do anything to avoid energy technologies outside of corporate control because there's just such a PR campaign that they're oh there are none, they're not ready yet... It's like well yeah anything you're not working on is probably not ready yet Yeah, well absolutely. I mean that's one of the big factors certainly if the governments that are spending so much money subsidizing nuclear energy the way it's developed at any rate spent even a fraction of that on some of the other possibilities that are out there we would see some drastic changes and i think you're right. There has undoubtedly been a lot of suppression of various technologies

23:43 unchain us from this ridiculous infrastructure we have that right now chains us to these fossil fuels and nuclear energy and all of these other things which are just outdated energies that are obviously extremely well-liked by the powers that shouldn't be because they are so easy to monopolize. And obviously, I mean, we just have to look at you know, the Rockefeller family in the United States is sort of prime example how the monopolization of an energy resource can lead to unthinkable wealth, which of course leads to unthinkable political power as well. As reflected in the Rockefeller Foundation and the remnants of that so absolutely this is I mean there's been all sorts of suppression of other technologies and energies And I think we would be living on a very different planet if only we could harness some of those energies Totally agree man

24:37 You know, on the subject of Fukushima let's get a little crazy here. Researchers in this alternative space they can make a conspiracy out of pretty much anything and I thought i'd ask you if you've seen any evidence at all to suggest that the tsunami or the earthquake that caused it... Have you seen any evidence to support the idea that was some type of manufactured weather attack? There was an article that came out a couple of years ago in a scientific journal and I can't off the top of my head remember which journal it was or the title of the article. I did have it linked up in a podcast episode that I did on Fukushima

25:19 which off the top of my head, I believe it was called what caused the 311 earthquake or something along those lines. So people can find that in my podcast archives but that article actually talked about a ionospheric disturbance that occurred in the area of Tohoku, that area of Japan shortly before the earthquake began which is interesting because there's more and more evidence now that's popping up in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, so this is not conspiracy theorizing. That there are ionospheric disturbances that are happening before earthquakes in various locales including of course in this particular instance now that is at the very least it certainly consistent with the idea that there was some sort of ionospheric heating or some sort of harp like device may have been used

26:09 on that area beforehand specifically to cause an earthquake, which is what people have been talking about for decades now with regards to HAARP and HAARP-like technologies that these are capable of causing earthquakes. This is at least consistent with that I mean it's not conclusive I think but certainly worth looking into so yes I think there is some evidence that we could go along that route unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who speculate on these types of things I think without knowing or understanding the science and I don't pretend to be an expert on this science. Um, I'm just a you know former English teacher in Japan so you know what do i know about the science of this but But I think there's a lot of people out there who go off half cocked with this type of thing And speculate beyond the bounds of what is warranted So I think that there definitely something to pursue there but uh...I haven't seen anything definitive that shows oh yes This was HAARP I don't think I've seen anything quite that definitive yet

27:05 Man, I thought...I expected you to shut that idea down. Now you're keeping me guessing here! I do that sometimes. I keep you on your toes Well, another thing I'd hope we could do is kind of talk broadly about a couple different aspects of global politics and economics and see what you thought. It seems like the climate is pretty tense right now especially for people in Europe and America who are used to living in the backyard of all-powerful global elite. We may not like drone strikes and slavery through debt and exploitation of poor nations but as long as we've got cable and air conditioning we're not going to raise too much fuss.

27:42 That's just a sad reality, but it seems now that our shadowy secret societies and closed-door think tanks are losing their power. The balance seems to be shifting a bit. I don't know if it is just stage play to usher in a new world order or the global elite really are losing their grip...but what do you think about this James? That's a good question. I think it might be a little bit of both, actually. Um, I definitely do see that there is an uh change in awareness that's happening across the board and obviously i'm biased In my opinion because i'm in the alternative media i'm working on this day after day I correspond every day with people who are of like mind So obviously i'm going to sort of be tainted in that in my perception of what the general feeling of the public is but having said that I think there are

28:26 absolute identifiable signs that the conversation is changing dramatically. And I've seen this just in the six or seven years that I've been running my website, back when I started saying that 9-11 was an inside job was just about one of the most transgressive things you could think of to say and still really offend people. This day and age it's not only become sort of more commonly accepted but But we're starting to see even in quote unquote mainstream headlines, we're starting to see more and more of this type of rhetoric starting to peek through. And I noticed that especially after the Boston Marathon bombing, I noticed even on Yahoo News

29:04 on the Atlantic and other mainstream websites. They had headlines like, what is a false flag? And was Boston the Boston Marathon bombing one of them and obviously those types of articles pooh-pooh the idea but that they're even raising the idea is pretty amazing I think and shows that we really have busted through a lot of the rhetoric and really started to educate the public at any rate that these types of things exist which is a good first step. Obviously we have a long way to go, but it is a good first step and we are changing the nature of the conversation And whether this is necessarily enough, whether this in fact not even something that has been if not planned on at least foreseen by the powers that shouldn't be. Is another debate entirely and we've seen for example in recent years people like Zbigniew Brzezinski who people might know as Jimmy Carter's national security advisor and it's basically been infesting the halls of power for decades now he's been going around for last few years talking about the global political awakening

30:04 how we've never before seen a globally politically aware and an interactive, connected global situation like what we have right now in people around the world rising up against oppression. And it's interesting to see him talking about this everything. But of course, it means that obviously these people are not unaware of what's happening and I can't say that...I can imagine that they haven't foreseen some of this and perhaps even planned on it. And you could even look at someone like Zbigniew Brzezinski in some of his works like talking about the technotronic era which he was writing about 30 plus years ago

30:40 and basically foreseeing this whole era of the internet and how that's changing, basically the world. And all of this, um, basically before even the internet existed or at least as we know it today so uh... So definitely some interesting things are happening but I wouldn't exactly say that it's going to be a straightforward narrative of people wake up and the power structure ends, and everyone lives happily ever after. There is obviously still a huge struggle that's shaping up in some ways. And in some ways we haven't even seen the beginnings of that struggle really happening yet. It's going to be an interesting decade or two as we, I think the 21st century starts to take shape and we really start to understand what the narrative arc of that century is going to be. But unfortunately I see it tending towards…

31:26 basically more of the same. And I think that they're trying to build up right now, for example China to basically be the Soviet Union of their past century and the kind of Cold War mentality that pervaded so much of the 20th century is shaping up once again with China being the big boogeyman here and just like the Soviet Union was largely built up in fostered and funded and protected by the Western monopolist capitalists of the 20th century So to China has been specifically built up for that purpose for the 21st century and by many of the same people. I mean it was Rockefeller famously that preceded Kissinger, that preceded Nixon to open up China and normalize relations back in the 1970s And I think we've seen since that time just this very concerted effort to build China into what it is today so I'm not really buying this type of Cold War rhetoric that they're starting to put out there but

32:20 regardless of whether or how much this is just stagecraft, at any rate they are starting the military buildup and there are starting to be these tensions. So unfortunately this looks like it's going to be defining a lot of the 21st century for us Yeah, man. That's actually a pretty great analysis some things I hadn't thought about you know we definitely are facing some uncertain times and Seems like every week. I read something about how close we are to World War three I mean do you think that's all just sensationalized hype or I mean Do you see a few powder kegs around the planet that are primed to go off me? You talked about China a bit And how were being positioned against them what about what's going on in the Middle East right now oh

33:00 Right. Well, there are definitely powder kegs and whether or not they're going to go off is a different story but that they're there and that they could go off is something that should be at least concerning for us we should be aware of them so Of course what's happening in Asia-Pacific is something I've got my eyes on here in Japan But as you mentioned of course the Middle East always a very volatile area And we seen some very interesting moves happening on that particular piece of geopolitical chess board recently In fact, we saw obviously not only with this Iranian deal which supposedly is kind of diffusing some of the tensions there and all of this. But I'm very much on board with Sabel Edmonds and others who have been talking about how this deal is really perhaps just a trap door that it's just a way of setting up a series of expectations

33:49 that later on they'll be able to say, look Iran didn't live up to this expectation therefore we've tried our best and now it's time to bomb the hell out of them. That's always a possibility and that's something that I'm keeping my eye on obviously Israel not exactly happy that this is happening so they'll try to undermine it in any way they can I have no doubt So definitely some things to keep your eye on with that And on that particular note We've had recently indications that Saudi Arabia has basically bought nuclear weapons from Pakistan and Pakistan is kind of holding them ready for delivery whenever Saudi Arabia sees fit, which is an extremely interesting, extremely worrying development because Saudis are using this as a way of saying well if Iran gets the bomb we'll have it before them.

34:37 But obviously that's a huge escalation in the situation in the region. And interesting also on top of the fact that Saudi Arabia seems to be moving out from under the American military umbrella, where it has been staunchly ensconced for the last four decades basically since since Kissinger set up the petrodollar system whereby the Saudis would get American military protection in return for funding their oil money, sending their oil funds back through the United States and into US treasuries. So basically we've had this system for last four decades where the entire world's system has functioned on the premise that oil would be priced in U.S dollars and those U.S dollars would make their way back into U.S banks eventually

35:19 That's been the system by which the American dollar has preserved its status as world reserve currency despite the fact that there is nothing behind it. That looks like it's breaking down and now we've seen for example Saudi Arabia turning down a seat on the UN Security Council, a seat that they'd been lobbying and petitioning for quite vigorously and then they went and turned it down once they got it saying that it was in protest of America and the types of things that America has been doing. For example, not going in and bombing hell out of Syria which is what Saudi Arabia wanted so some interesting developments there that shows that there's some pretty drastic changes that are happening right now And again, that plays into the whole larger picture because we've just seen China become the world's largest

36:04 oil importer, not only on the fact that obviously Chinese demand for oil is growing but also American demand for import...oil imports is diminishing because more of that demand is being fed by local supply from...that's being made available through the new fracking and other technologies that are increasing the oil basically domestic oil output. So some interesting things happening there and what this means is that um the projections are like some ridiculous number, 70% of world oil imports are going to be going to China. So pretty drastic changes that are happening and that's going to really change I think the situation in the Middle East and I think Saudi Arabia might be sort of looking at which way the wind is blowing and starting to move out from under the American umbrella and perhaps who knows maybe they're gonna be more on board with the Chinese? And again, that just plays into the larger picture of what we're talking about

36:58 Yeah, man. You mentioned the US dollar as the world's reserve currency I hear so much talk about The world switching off of that. How would that really affect people who live on the U.S. dollar? Well, this is the thing. From the US perspective for an American, the fact that it's the world reserve currency is not something that you see in your day to day life but affects everything because not only obviously does it make the imports cheap so you get cheap Chinese imports or whatever they slave labor market of next slave labor market might be But also it affects the American government's ability to completely fund whatever it's doing and to print off as much money as it ever wants because people will always be there to buy American debt, and that has been the system that has propped up and made possible this.

37:52 unbelievable behemoth, gigantic juggernaut of American military might which still continues to just unbelievably dwarf any other military on the planet. It's not even close. I mean, every other military combined still doesn't equal the budget of the US military so we have a situation where there is just this unbelievable superpower that dominates over the rest of the world that has been specifically funded because the American government can print off as much money as it wants and people will continue to buy their debt and they can fund whatever they want to do That would come to an end if and when the dollar loses its World Reserve currency status

38:31 And the Federal Reserve can pick up the slack by printing money out of thin air and buying US debt. But at some point, that becomes just a ridiculous game of musical chairs and that's an unsustainable system that would fall apart at some point I mean someone just has to draw back the curtain and see that there is no Wizard of Oz there but it's just a little man That's what we'd be looking at in that scenario It is something that a lot of people have been talking about, and the global currency reset kind of thing happening. I don't see that happening in the near immediate future. I don't think this is something we're going to be seeing next year or something but certainly over the course of the next decade we're going to start seeing that transition and it's a question of what will be there to replace the dollar as the world reserve at this point

39:21 particular moment, there really is nothing there that could take over from the world. The dollar is the world's reserve currency which is why I think it's not going to happen in the immediate short term but we're starting to see the moves toward either creating some sort of global standard based on a basket of currencies or perhaps something new will come along and who knows maybe Bitcoin or a Bitcoin type idea will take over but again I don't think that's gonna happen the short term. If you conduct business with Bitcoin, I mean you kind of can circumvent those central banks and fractional reserve banking system. It would be really interesting but it'd also be a tall order. Yeah well very tall order but ultimately this is where I see the solutions to these types of problems lie.

40:27 Solutions are not going to come from down, from on high. They never have they never will because obviously the status quo wants to maintain the status quo and they'll do anything to fundamentally go against that but I think you're right it has to be some sort of citizen led movement to get off of the system that we're on and that is going to be an exceptionally difficult process and its gonna be a long one at first its gonna look ridiculous and puny compared to the gigantic amount of resources that national governments can wield on these issues. But we see little glimmers of what could possibly be and one of them that I point to several times in my podcast is Volos in Greece, which

41:12 which is an area where obviously Greece is just having ridiculous economic problems because of their position there in the Eurozone and the lack of Euros that are circulating around in the economy. So, in Volos they actually started their own currency system that's basically a type of let system where people donate... They put in hours of work and get the equivalent in this Volos currency back … and then they can facilitate exchanges with people in the market there, with this currency that they've essentially created themselves. And this is the type of idea which if – I think we need to be enacting right now not only in Volos in Greece…

41:56 but everywhere around the world, we need to be building up these types of systems local exchanges whatever we can as a type of alternative that will still be there whenever whatever collapse happens. These alternatives will already be there it will already be functioning people will already be used to them and will be able to at least survive the worst of the collapse apps Without these alternative structures, we are completely at the whim of the powers that shouldn't be and whatever they decide to do in those emergency situations. And whatever FEMA roundups might occur in the US – I mean, I don't tend to dwell on those types of things but certainly the infrastructure is there for a, oh come to the camps! We'll take good care of you during this economic crisis

42:40 I mean, I think we all know what happens from there. So so I think we have to start looking at the ways that we can build up alternative currencies, complementary currencies these types of things now while we have this opportunity before it becomes too late to do so Yeah man, economic collapse is a real big concern to me right now. It's like I can see the storm coming but I can't afford the umbrella you know? What do poor paycheck-to-paycheck smucks like me do without much in the way of resources look at a form an alternative currency, a local-based currency system would probably be the best approach. You're right I hope so! I think that's the way to go and the thing that might surprise many people is that a lot of these already exist in their community it's just a question looking for them i mean there are hundreds have these complimentary currencies around the united states and some of them are quite well established by now

43:34 One of the most famous is Ithaca, New York where they have Ithaca hours and lots of local businesses in fact even local credit unions and some of the banks and things function with these ithaca hours. It's a pretty established system right now And i think that's at least one model that people could be looking for but again there are lots of different models and i'm not a particular proponent of any one model Having a lot of different models is a healthy way of doing it. I'm all for competition and having a lot of different backups because why put all your eggs in one basket? So sure, a lot people are into Bitcoin these days well why not let's have some Bitcoin lets our systems lets have

44:15 Let's have other types of systems and let them compete with each other, which is I think the healthy alternative to the system we have. Which is this monopoly of Federal Reserve notes or whatever it may be in whatever country people are listening in? Which is from the central bank printed on high and you just have to take what occurs with that, which of course is always going to be inflation caused because of the money printing that these governments do to fund adventurous wars of aggression around the world that they wage and all of this just horrific things that are done on the back of these dollars and yen and pesos and whatever that's our printed by these central banks, that people don't have any control over. Well why would you want to sign up to a system like that when you could be exchanging with people in your own community in a completely different system? Why not put our time effort resources and money into that type of system rather than feeding the beast that is currently enslaving us

45:10 Seems so simple man, but so many people just they don't even realize that there are their enslaved themselves. It's a pretty sad predicament And a lot of people I think don't want to realize that because it's, I mean it is a lot of work. Let's not beat around the bush. It's not going to be an easy thing to transition off these systems that we've been placed into and it is a lot easier just to go along with the flow. Oh you know what? I get these dollars from my employer every month so then I can spend them anywhere why would I bother trying to find a different way of doing this Why would I care about supporting local community businesses when, you know, Walmart provides everything I need for so cheap? And a lot of people think that way and and I can't necessarily blame them for that.

45:59 for their own victimization. And I think a lot of people have just been steeped into this system for so long that they've kind of forgotten the dangers of the system that we're living in and there are times when you see a glimmer of that, for example, the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse was a time when I saw huge spike of people getting interested in this and looking at my website another alternative websites. You see that from time to time when there's a big panic suddenly everyone will turn to the alternative media and start to realize what's going on but it's It's incredible how quickly that can get shut down. And now after a few years of this ridiculous quantitative easing that we've been under and seeing the corporate profits rising once again, that placates a lot of people. Oh it's all OK what you guys are just fear mongering blah blah blah

46:44 And when the next crisis occurs, they'll all be coming back again and we'll start this again. So hopefully we can at least lay the seeds right now for people who are not quite ready to flower with those seeds quite yet Yeah man, no one cares until it's too late. I know you just got back from this open source conference in France speaking on open source journalism and i really love the idea of open source everything You know the idea of a resource based economy that kind of thing The Venus Project thing I'm sure your familiar with Do you think people are starting to come around to those types of ideas more these days? Well, as we were talking about before I think there's a lot of flowering of awareness at least of these types of ideas and there is a fundamental shift that's happening in certain percentage of the population. Again whether it's enough or what kind of effect it will ultimately have is still up in the air but I think its something that we at least have some determination over depending on what again we choose to invest our time and our energies doing And thats...I mean thats the beauty of open source concept for me which is

47:47 For people who don't know, I attended this conference. It's called FOSA 2013 in Lille France and it's an interesting open source conference because open source obviously usually people equate that with open source software and that really is kind of the basis of this conference. It is an open source software conference and it's put on by a technical institute or research institute there in France but FOSA is very interesting because they're trying to expand and go out of the box in terms of what their conception of open source is. So every year, they try to feature something different this year they were looking at open source art and open source journalism And it's just fascinating to see the ways that Open Source as a concept can really take root in different subjects in different fields. This is something that I've been

48:34 doing on my website since its inception several years ago, but it's not something that I've had a lot of opportunity to talk about or say why it's important. And I think it really is important to look at open source for example open source journalism like what I'm attempting to do at any rate which In some ways, it's an extremely simple concept. It's not really that revolutionary or it shouldn't be that revolutionary for us in this age of the internet where everyone is instantly connected to more information than has ever been available to any human being in history before. It shouldn't be that mind-blowing that someone who's telling you or trying to report the news will actually link you to the source documents that they're talking about

49:16 And yet that is a mind-blowing concept if you've only been looking at mainstream media websites. I've only noticed in the last couple of years, that mainstream sites have started putting hyperlinks into their stories to some source documents and things. It's just ridiculous to look at that! was one of the I mean, when I started the website from the very first moment that I had the idea for the website. It was always stuck in my mind. I wanted to do a podcast and I thought well obviously this is the Internet. I'm going to link to everything that I talk about and now it was always something that was important to me because it's never been about me being this objective journalist who's going to tell you the news because I don't think there are there is any such thing objectivity in journalism as a pipe dream

50:04 And so it's not about me being on high telling people what to think. It's me sharing basically the information that I have and the sources that I use to get that information, and people absolutely...I encourage always always people be skeptical don't believe what i'm saying please go look at the sources and come to your own conclusions use your own sources find your own path through this information If you value what I'm doing, great. Awesome! Then continue to listen to my podcast or look at my materials but... But I never want it to be me being on high on some cloud which is the way that obviously the mainstream media has always functioned because it's always been about this authority and objectivity and we're telling you the news

50:47 which is just a false paradigm and people are starting to realize there's a different way of looking at it now that we're all instantly connected through this worldwide network, and we can all participate in the conversation rather than just being passive receptacles of information. And it's a really hard road to go to get people to understand that this is important and why it's important, and why they shouldn't just be passive receptacles for information. And it's strange to me that even some people in my audience continue to basically kick back against that idea and oh I just want to be told what the news...I don't have to look at it myself

51:23 And I understand, again it's not easy to do this but... ...but i think its our responsibility if we care about the world. If we want to shape a different world for our generation and future generations We're gonna have put in a little bit of effort and in previous generations that effort might have been fighting and dying in wars of aggression and imperialism or what-have you But here we are in this little bubble of opportunity potentially change the world just based on what we do on a daily basis, just how we spend our time. What we choose to think about and spend our time and money and energies on. And that's that's it to me an exciting window of opportunity at any rate. It's a question of each one of us out there basically doing something with this information rather than just sitting on it

52:12 Amen, man. I agree it really does seem like we're living in two different worlds right now There's a you know the obviously the typical reality But then the internet is its own world with its own systems And I think that big struggle really is going to be corporate control coming in and dominating the internet versus the open source domination of reality. You know, either the internet culture is going to spill over into reality or this old systems... The old corporate oligarchy is gonna dominate the internet I think that really is the big struggle right there I think you're right, and I think you're right to frame it that way because it's not about the technology itself. The technology is just a tool It's passive. It can be used for good or bad And it really is about the mindset of the culture, the consciousness of the people who are using this technology and That's either going to be dominated by that corporate model where we are just passive recipients of information We just sit there and it gets fed into us

53:10 or we start to really actively start to participate in the creation of the world around us. And, we realize that we are all creators of the world in a certain key sense. We all create our reality by acting on the world and it's fundamentally different mindset either you are just a passive sponge to sit there on a couch and soak in information or you're someone who is actively creating a community and participating in that. And that's a very different mindset, and that I think is something that fundamentally the status quo absolutely does fear it fears people who see themselves as history's actors rather than people who are just living in some bubble of reality that happens to them

53:52 And again, it's just about the consciousness and about the way that people perceive themselves in the world. the fundamentally important revolution, because I don't think taking pitchforks to Washington is going to change anything. I think it's going to have to happen when people start to fundamentally change the way they live their lives on a day-to-day basis and the way they interact with people around them. That's where reality is and that's where we have to start and end. And hopefully ultimately we will get there but it's not gonna be an easy road

54:30 Yeah man, well said. Well hey James I know you gotta get out of here it's been a real pleasure having you on man can you tell the people where they can keep up with your work what you got going on before i let you go? Sure, well I do a lot of different things. I write an editorial for the International Forecaster, I do video reports for GRTV, the branchofglobalresearch.ca, I do weekly video report for boilingfrogsposts.com and we're starting a new series with Boiling Frog's Post myself, Sabel Edmonds, Peter B Collins and surprise guests will be on for roundtable discussion It will be a weekly series once it really gets going. Right now, it's just gonna be every couple of weeks or so as we're starting to get that series going. So a lot of different things and then of course I have my own podcast and interviews and articles and videos that come out on a regular basis. The best way to follow my work is just go to corbetttreport.com and it's all linked up there you'll find all the different things that I'm doing

55:28 So, hopefully that's the one-stop shop. And as I say, I have other websites like FukushimaUpdate.com and things but that's all linked up from the site as well. Excellent! Well thanks James very enlightening chat That about does it for me keep fighting the good fight my man. I appreciate it anytime you need me just let me know. Alrighty have a good one Take care There you have it, Hireside Chatters. Thanks again! Please share the show You can stay in touch with me on Twitter and Facebook Please review the show where you can The Stitcher Awards are coming up I want to maybe try to get it on that And you can still get in on the first THC Money Bomb yourself, where I've thought out what to me is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Check out conspiratese.net and let's make this alternative culture the mainstream culture! Thanks for sticking with me people love ya your move Kimo Sabe

57:02 I'm a dog, all you know. Bending like a bullet. Final word, wait! It's not a call to action! Stop this! Stop this! Stand together units! Evolution gotta come my unit! As one stand together unity! Evolution gotta come unity as one stand together