Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And my next guests are two womenwho are trying to remind government again that
we work for them, not theother way around. Joining me now,
Debbie James and doctor Heather Potter.Ladies, welcome to the show. Thank
you, Andy, it's great gettingto talk to you. Well, Debbie,
I'm gonna start with you here.Thank you. I'm going to start
with you, Debbie. Tell mewhat you're doing. Well. About three
(00:25):
years ago our group started and wecame up with this idea for running two
initiatives so that we can form agovernment, a true democracy that is of
bite and for the people. Whatthese two measures are is one having a
public home news so that we canstop hearing all the propaganda and get to
(00:49):
hear independent and hear and read independentjournalism that tells us the truth of what's
going on so that we can makeproper decisions. And the second part is
setting up community councils that would firsttake over city budgets and then take over
the state budgets. And I canget to that part later. About that
jump. And so we tried runninga statewide and hit the roadblock that we're
(01:17):
hitting right now is that we haveno name recognition and so no one would
return phone calls or emails. Sowe broke it down, tried to do
it locally, and I ran intoa councilwoman I know, who said,
if she could get re elected andfind find six cohorts, that these two
measures could simply be referred to theballot by city council. What a deal.
(01:42):
Here are politicians. So we electdoing something good for us, So
that spoiled us, knowing that thatcould happen. What happened in the end,
she did not get re elected.So we had to regroup and figure
out what we were going to do. And that was the point that we
realized not only could we do thenationwide, but we could do it worldwide.
(02:02):
And the thing that we have todo is plant the seed. Now,
this whole thing is based on threetimes in American history where people gathered together
across whatever lines there were at thetime, they figured out their problem,
they developed a plan, they executedit, and they won. The first
time was the Boston Tea Party,and what we learned from that was having
(02:24):
a surprise attack, and that wasthe eighteenth century model. The nineteenth century
model was the American Grange movement,which was set up after the Civil War
to bring people together who had beentorn apart by strife. And the good
thing about these granges, the wonderfulthing is that here it was after the
(02:44):
Civil War, and they decided thatwomen would have equal power with men,
they would have full voting privileges.This was a half century before women would
get the vote. The other goodthing that the grange did, and they're
still in existence today, there's oneup at Naiwat, this functioning going on.
And the other thing they did ishave a children's program so that it
(03:08):
raised these kids up learning about democracy, how to be responsible for it,
practice it, so that then whenthey were fourteen they went in with their
elders, they had a full vote, and then at sixteen they could stand
for office or get committee assignments.So we see that in our community councils
too, so that just like Atheniandemocracy, it's an everyday part of the
(03:32):
life. We don't ever want againto have whatever whoever is ruling us going
on doing whatever they please, howeverthey please to do it, and we
having we have absolutely no say,I mean, this is complete craziness.
Well, so that's where we're atright now, is trying to jump this
(03:53):
to some really big podcasters who dothis so that we can get this word
out internationally. We call this theMosquito Revolution. Why because for more than
half a century, every time amovement of people would rise up and start
(04:14):
making strides, they get smacked downlike little mosquitos. But if mosquitos gather
together in a swarm, they canput the ruling class on the run.
And that's what we intend to do. We need to have a big enough
massive people, which is the lessonwe learned from the twentieth century model,
which was the Civil Rights movement.Once you get a critical massive people,
(04:36):
then you get the media on yourside. You know, they start reporting
what you're doing, and the favorgoes to you, and so you win.
Let me, let me ask,how did you come to this movement?
Tell me about your sort of backgroundand what made you want to be
a part of this. So Debbieand I are front and she was talking
(05:00):
to me about it, and Ihaven't been super involved in anything politically in
my life, and I just feellike the only way to do something is
to start locally. And so whenDebbie started talking to me about this,
and it interested me because I dofeel like we need change, and really,
(05:23):
I just think that the change happenshere locally. I'm going to play
devil's advocate for a minute, becauseI worked in the media for a very
long time and we currently have publiclyfunded broadcasting in PBS, and it has
been, in my view, ideologicallycaptured by journalists who believe that they are
right down the middle, but inreality are left of center almost consistently.
(05:48):
So let's start from that position.How do you where do you find these
truly unbiased journalists? Where do youget the people that are going to do
stuff right down the middle and justtell you the truth? Because trust me
on this, there's not a bigstockpile of them rolling around waiting for something
to come along. Unfortunately it's true, though, well, I think you
(06:11):
identified it properly. The way Itell if I am getting unbiased opinion is
if that journalist is holding both sidesaccountable. Now, I don't know if
you know it, but it wasthe guy who worked for MPR. He
was in the upper echelons of that. He came out and said he was
(06:33):
sick of everything being steered toward theleft side and away from the right side.
But yet it's our public dollars.It's people on the right who are
paying to fund that news organization.The same with PBS, so I derogatorily
call it propaganda Broadcasting Service and nationalpropaganda Radio. So I don't believe.
(06:58):
I used to watch those and itwas when I was brainwashed, and looking
back on it, I'm ashamed thatI was so ignorant, and I get
really frustrated now with people who don'trealize they're not seeing their side being held
accountable. I agree, but that'swhat I yeah, that that doesn't necessarily
(07:20):
answer my question, though, howdo you prevent any publicly funded organization from
being ideologically captured when so many peoplein journalism are left of center? I
mean, this is a huge issue. I mean that I don't I don't
know if I even understand like howbig that issue is of where you're going
(07:40):
to find people that are going toshoot straight down the middle. Well,
I'm kind of I listen to hugeand read huge numbers of them, and
I call them there's a diastheman Democratswho are disgusted with what's going on in
(08:00):
the Democratic Party. They left itlong time ago, so they're going after
and exposing all that rot so youcan read that there's people on the right
also who are holding the right accountable. So, you know, it's interesting
whenever you tell the truth, likewhen Tucker Carson told the truth, he
got fired. So that's the wayyou tell. There's a lot of independent
(08:24):
journalists out there, believe me.So I see those people, you know,
say, you know, we getthis public owned news up and so
you know, the community council getstogether, they get a pick who the
editor is, and they look atthe background of this person, you know,
the reporting that they did. Didthey hold both sides accountable? You
know? Did they go after readingout corruption? How do you let's talk
(08:48):
about the community council aspect of thisfor a second, because you brought it
up initially in the form of we'regoing to bring people together to work on
the budget, which I think isan amazing idea. But how do you
choose the people that go on tocommunity council? Is that evenly divided between
Republicans, Democrats and independence? Whatdoes that look like in your mind?
(09:09):
Well, excuse me, we saidit bad era as you were saying,
we set it up taking after theGrange. So the doors are open and
everybody's welcome. So it's a community. So you'll go like twice a month
to a community council meeting. Youmeet with your neighbors perhaps you know,
you order food in and you putthe commune back in community council. There's
(09:33):
a business meeting first, just likethere are in grange meetings, and then
there's always a program to elucidate andinform. So these are people talking together
at at the grassroots level. They'reall connected to throughout the city to the
other granges. You elect delegates too, and this is based on Vermont's.
(09:56):
Vermont has already has a citizen pricesets for determining their state budget. So
you elect delegates who go to workon the budget and they report directly back
to you. So we're sending theminformation we want this in the budget and
we want to spend this much,so they take that Carriet advocate for it.
And this process has been working beautifullyfor quite a number of years.
(10:20):
It's been on the national level inIceland. There's another participorty participatory citizens in
Brazil, and Heather found in Aurorathere's an advisory council overseeing the budget.
We went to that meeting, sothese are these people were selected, so
(10:41):
you know the brain I mean,the community councilors are going to be everybody,
Okay, so it's your responsibility.If you want your democracy to work
properly, then you show up andyou participate and you have a voice in
it. Debbie James is my guest, do you She is with the Mosquito
Revolution, and we were talking offthe air. You got to get some
kind of website or Facebook group going, because how can people participate if they
(11:05):
want to be a part of this. Well, you helped me understand that
that's what we need to do,so that will be our next step.
Well, Debbie, and I meanwe've just been doing that face to face,
right and as I told you before, we have talked over fifteen hundred
people in eight different states and twoforeign countries who are up for doing this.
(11:31):
People are excited to do this.And I have to say that I
have an easier time with people wholean conservative then with those who lean liberals.
And I don't know exactly why thatis yet. I really have to
be careful and parse my words carefullywith people who are liberals. Maybe they've
(11:54):
just been taught to be very suspicious. I don't know. Well, I
think conservatives are wild about this withthe website, will be on our way,
all right. Then when you getthat website, you let me know
and I will share it so peoplecan join in. I would say that
people on the left are generally moretrusting of the job that government is doing,
and that's really what it comes downto. They tend to have more
(12:15):
faith in the fact that we alreadyhave people in the government writing a budget,
and we already have public radio.So I think probably that's where the
resistance might come from. But Debbie, let me know when you get your
website up, and I will shareit with my people. But I appreciate
you guys sharing first of all,that you're trying to solve the problems,
right, isn't that Isn't that reallywhat we're doing here. We all see
(12:35):
the issues, and we all wantto try and solve problems, and I
appreciate the fact that you guys aretaking the initiative to try and fix things,
and I really like that. Butget your website on and we'll have
you back on after that. Thankyou so much, Mandy. I really
appreciate you having us on today.That's Debbie James, the har Potter from
(12:56):
the Mosquito Revolution.
And my next guests are two womenwho are trying to remind government again that
we work for them, not theother way around. Joining me now,
Debbie James and doctor Heather Potter.Ladies, welcome to the show. Thank
you, Andy, it's great gettingto talk to you. Well, Debbie,
I'm gonna start with you here.Thank you. I'm going to start
with you, Debbie. Tell mewhat you're doing. Well. About three
(00:25):
years ago our group started and wecame up with this idea for running two
initiatives so that we can form agovernment, a true democracy that is of
bite and for the people. Whatthese two measures are is one having a
public home news so that we canstop hearing all the propaganda and get to
(00:49):
hear independent and hear and read independentjournalism that tells us the truth of what's
going on so that we can makeproper decisions. And the second part is
setting up community councils that would firsttake over city budgets and then take over
the state budgets. And I canget to that part later. About that
jump. And so we tried runninga statewide and hit the roadblock that we're
(01:17):
hitting right now is that we haveno name recognition and so no one would
return phone calls or emails. Sowe broke it down, tried to do
it locally, and I ran intoa councilwoman I know, who said,
if she could get re elected andfind find six cohorts, that these two
measures could simply be referred to theballot by city council. What a deal.
(01:42):
Here are politicians. So we electdoing something good for us, So
that spoiled us, knowing that thatcould happen. What happened in the end,
she did not get re elected.So we had to regroup and figure
out what we were going to do. And that was the point that we
realized not only could we do thenationwide, but we could do it worldwide.
(02:02):
And the thing that we have todo is plant the seed. Now,
this whole thing is based on threetimes in American history where people gathered together
across whatever lines there were at thetime, they figured out their problem,
they developed a plan, they executedit, and they won. The first
time was the Boston Tea Party,and what we learned from that was having
(02:24):
a surprise attack, and that wasthe eighteenth century model. The nineteenth century
model was the American Grange movement,which was set up after the Civil War
to bring people together who had beentorn apart by strife. And the good
thing about these granges, the wonderfulthing is that here it was after the
(02:44):
Civil War, and they decided thatwomen would have equal power with men,
they would have full voting privileges.This was a half century before women would
get the vote. The other goodthing that the grange did, and they're
still in existence today, there's oneup at Naiwat, this functioning going on.
And the other thing they did ishave a children's program so that it
(03:08):
raised these kids up learning about democracy, how to be responsible for it,
practice it, so that then whenthey were fourteen they went in with their
elders, they had a full vote, and then at sixteen they could stand
for office or get committee assignments.So we see that in our community councils
too, so that just like Atheniandemocracy, it's an everyday part of the
(03:32):
life. We don't ever want againto have whatever whoever is ruling us going
on doing whatever they please, howeverthey please to do it, and we
having we have absolutely no say,I mean, this is complete craziness.
Well, so that's where we're atright now, is trying to jump this
(03:53):
to some really big podcasters who dothis so that we can get this word
out internationally. We call this theMosquito Revolution. Why because for more than
half a century, every time amovement of people would rise up and start
(04:14):
making strides, they get smacked downlike little mosquitos. But if mosquitos gather
together in a swarm, they canput the ruling class on the run.
And that's what we intend to do. We need to have a big enough
massive people, which is the lessonwe learned from the twentieth century model,
which was the Civil Rights movement.Once you get a critical massive people,
(04:36):
then you get the media on yourside. You know, they start reporting
what you're doing, and the favorgoes to you, and so you win.
Let me, let me ask,how did you come to this movement?
Tell me about your sort of backgroundand what made you want to be
a part of this. So Debbieand I are front and she was talking
(05:00):
to me about it, and Ihaven't been super involved in anything politically in
my life, and I just feellike the only way to do something is
to start locally. And so whenDebbie started talking to me about this,
and it interested me because I dofeel like we need change, and really,
(05:23):
I just think that the change happenshere locally. I'm going to play
devil's advocate for a minute, becauseI worked in the media for a very
long time and we currently have publiclyfunded broadcasting in PBS, and it has
been, in my view, ideologicallycaptured by journalists who believe that they are
right down the middle, but inreality are left of center almost consistently.
(05:48):
So let's start from that position.How do you where do you find these
truly unbiased journalists? Where do youget the people that are going to do
stuff right down the middle and justtell you the truth? Because trust me
on this, there's not a bigstockpile of them rolling around waiting for something
to come along. Unfortunately it's true, though, well, I think you
(06:11):
identified it properly. The way Itell if I am getting unbiased opinion is
if that journalist is holding both sidesaccountable. Now, I don't know if
you know it, but it wasthe guy who worked for MPR. He
was in the upper echelons of that. He came out and said he was
(06:33):
sick of everything being steered toward theleft side and away from the right side.
But yet it's our public dollars.It's people on the right who are
paying to fund that news organization.The same with PBS, so I derogatorily
call it propaganda Broadcasting Service and nationalpropaganda Radio. So I don't believe.
(06:58):
I used to watch those and itwas when I was brainwashed, and looking
back on it, I'm ashamed thatI was so ignorant, and I get
really frustrated now with people who don'trealize they're not seeing their side being held
accountable. I agree, but that'swhat I yeah, that that doesn't necessarily
(07:20):
answer my question, though, howdo you prevent any publicly funded organization from
being ideologically captured when so many peoplein journalism are left of center? I
mean, this is a huge issue. I mean that I don't I don't
know if I even understand like howbig that issue is of where you're going
(07:40):
to find people that are going toshoot straight down the middle. Well,
I'm kind of I listen to hugeand read huge numbers of them, and
I call them there's a diastheman Democratswho are disgusted with what's going on in
(08:00):
the Democratic Party. They left itlong time ago, so they're going after
and exposing all that rot so youcan read that there's people on the right
also who are holding the right accountable. So, you know, it's interesting
whenever you tell the truth, likewhen Tucker Carson told the truth, he
got fired. So that's the wayyou tell. There's a lot of independent
(08:24):
journalists out there, believe me.So I see those people, you know,
say, you know, we getthis public owned news up and so
you know, the community council getstogether, they get a pick who the
editor is, and they look atthe background of this person, you know,
the reporting that they did. Didthey hold both sides accountable? You
know? Did they go after readingout corruption? How do you let's talk
(08:48):
about the community council aspect of thisfor a second, because you brought it
up initially in the form of we'regoing to bring people together to work on
the budget, which I think isan amazing idea. But how do you
choose the people that go on tocommunity council? Is that evenly divided between
Republicans, Democrats and independence? Whatdoes that look like in your mind?
(09:09):
Well, excuse me, we saidit bad era as you were saying,
we set it up taking after theGrange. So the doors are open and
everybody's welcome. So it's a community. So you'll go like twice a month
to a community council meeting. Youmeet with your neighbors perhaps you know,
you order food in and you putthe commune back in community council. There's
(09:33):
a business meeting first, just likethere are in grange meetings, and then
there's always a program to elucidate andinform. So these are people talking together
at at the grassroots level. They'reall connected to throughout the city to the
other granges. You elect delegates too, and this is based on Vermont's.
(09:56):
Vermont has already has a citizen pricesets for determining their state budget. So
you elect delegates who go to workon the budget and they report directly back
to you. So we're sending theminformation we want this in the budget and
we want to spend this much,so they take that Carriet advocate for it.
And this process has been working beautifullyfor quite a number of years.
(10:20):
It's been on the national level inIceland. There's another participorty participatory citizens in
Brazil, and Heather found in Aurorathere's an advisory council overseeing the budget.
We went to that meeting, sothese are these people were selected, so
(10:41):
you know the brain I mean,the community councilors are going to be everybody,
Okay, so it's your responsibility.If you want your democracy to work
properly, then you show up andyou participate and you have a voice in
it. Debbie James is my guest, do you She is with the Mosquito
Revolution, and we were talking offthe air. You got to get some
kind of website or Facebook group going, because how can people participate if they
(11:05):
want to be a part of this. Well, you helped me understand that
that's what we need to do,so that will be our next step.
Well, Debbie, and I meanwe've just been doing that face to face,
right and as I told you before, we have talked over fifteen hundred
people in eight different states and twoforeign countries who are up for doing this.
(11:31):
People are excited to do this.And I have to say that I
have an easier time with people wholean conservative then with those who lean liberals.
And I don't know exactly why thatis yet. I really have to
be careful and parse my words carefullywith people who are liberals. Maybe they've
(11:54):
just been taught to be very suspicious. I don't know. Well, I
think conservatives are wild about this withthe website, will be on our way,
all right. Then when you getthat website, you let me know
and I will share it so peoplecan join in. I would say that
people on the left are generally moretrusting of the job that government is doing,
and that's really what it comes downto. They tend to have more
(12:15):
faith in the fact that we alreadyhave people in the government writing a budget,
and we already have public radio.So I think probably that's where the
resistance might come from. But Debbie, let me know when you get your
website up, and I will shareit with my people. But I appreciate
you guys sharing first of all,that you're trying to solve the problems,
right, isn't that Isn't that reallywhat we're doing here. We all see
(12:35):
the issues, and we all wantto try and solve problems, and I
appreciate the fact that you guys aretaking the initiative to try and fix things,
and I really like that. Butget your website on and we'll have
you back on after that. Thankyou so much, Mandy. I really
appreciate you having us on today.That's Debbie James, the har Potter from
(12:56):
the Mosquito Revolution.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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