Latest / IndieNewsNow LIVE! Clips / Mutual Aid- Food Not Bombs, Joe Blank, Words of Will, Nataliya Vlchekova, Aspen Martin, Chanda Masta

Transcript

Mutual Aid- Food Not Bombs, Joe Blank, Words of Will, Nataliya Vlchekova, Aspen Martin, Chanda Masta · IndieNewsNow LIVE! Clips

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Who are these people?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to get to the mutual aids like we do every week.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: We have our friends and family that watch the show that we're connected to,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: that we use this platform to let other people know what's going on with them and ask
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: if you have a couple of bucks to give a little help.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to start with Keith McHenry and Food Not Bombs out in Santa Cruz.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: They need a new van.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a phone number there,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: but they need a new van to help Food Not Bombs meet the growing needs of
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: the community, sadly.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so if you're able to do that, reach out to me.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Reach out to Keith McHenry on Twitter or on Facebook.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: He's also on Substack at keithmchenry.substack.com.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you can contact them there if you have any leads on a new van in the Santa Cruz,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: California area, or even beyond, somebody that's looking to get rid of a van.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hashtag FoodNotBombs.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Those guys are great.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was a little over two years ago that I did an INN one-on-one with Keith McHenry,
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: and I barely had to speak the entire time because,
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: as Steve Poigenin points out, that...
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Keith has an ability to slow breathe and to breathe through his nose while he's talking.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: So he literally can just go on and on and on and on and on.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: He's remarkable.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: He's got stories up the wazoo.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that guy.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And he's salt of the earth and he works so hard for everybody.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I would love for somebody from our community to be able to see Next,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: we have our friend Joe Blank.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Who showed up earlier, but he's also still not doing well physically.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he gets tired a lot.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he had asked last week for help to his buy me a coffee and to cover some bills.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's cash out at Joe Lynn Art,
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: PayPal dollar side Joe Blank Art, or is buy me a coffee link in his bio.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And his Twitter is at the Rev Joe Blank, the Reverend Joe Blank.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Joe is an incredible sketch artist, and he does pencil drawings mostly that I've seen.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Portraits of people mostly in our space.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: They're beautiful.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen a Jose Vega one that he drew up close and personal the night that I...
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the point was,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: somebody actually brought,
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Jose Vega was there as well,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: and somebody brought Jose a Joe Blank pencil sketch of him to give to him as a gift,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: and it was beautiful.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was something.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so that's Joe Black.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: He could use some help.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: This was last week.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: He drew this dolly.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: So if you wanted to commission dolly, I don't believe it's sold still.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you can purchase this dolly.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's looking for $150.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: But if you can't afford that, I'm sure he'll work something out with you.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know he wants it to go to a good home.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll drop Joe's link to that dolly tweet so you can find that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, next, words of Will.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about Will in the past.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Will's wife, Elizabeth, was diagnosed in May with breast cancer.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And she went through chemo.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this summer, Will got an apprenticeship fixing air conditioning at the end of the summer.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Their car broke down so he couldn't do DoorDash.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: They were scraping by all summer long, reliant on GoFundMes and the help of the community.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: He said they now had their washer.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: This was again August 31st.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a while.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Washer, dryer,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: refrigerator,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: AC, all broke going through the biggest financial crisis of their lives.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And...
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: We got some more news this week, unfortunately.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: So there's the GoFundMe where he first announced it.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Back in September 10th, it was his wife's birthday and she had to spend it getting chemo.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is a cruel world that we live in.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Fuck cancer.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then we got some more news.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, October 7th,
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: last week,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: he posted that he felt like half his life is now spent waiting at a hospital.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I very much feel that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then on the 8th, he posted this.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we finally found an honest oncologist.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: She says my wife has a 45% chance of surviving the next five years.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Chemo is over for now.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Next up is surgery, then radiation.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: The nightmare never ends, it seems.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, man.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: She's got those boys.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: They have those boys and they need a mom.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, We keep fighting, fuck cancer, is what I replied to him.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's so fucking cruel and so unfair, all of this.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: so again,
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: anything anybody can do, please, you know, hook them up with a couple of bucks.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: They can really use it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's so tough out there these days and everybody's struggling financially and
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: But can you imagine if you were going through cancer treatments,
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: couldn't work, you know, limited income, limited, you know, resources.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get this kind of prognosis where you fight 45% is still a good chance.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: You still got a 50, 50, almost a 50, 50 chance.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: That means there's a good, there's a chance.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you're saying there's a chance.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a 5% chance.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's a chance she can beat this.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Part of it is attitude too.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Attitude also comes with resources and knowing that you've got a support network behind you.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much, so much that goes into this.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I feel for this man.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I really do and his family.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: I love him.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Will.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then we've got Natalia.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: No change to her condition as far as I know.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: As of last Friday or as of last week,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Cowboy Kitty,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: who should be still in chat,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: said that she was still sitting in an ICE detention facility.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: They were hoping to run the clock out on the protected status for Ukrainians.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then we don't know what happens to her asylum at that point.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: She needs to get out yesterday.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: She should be out because she has asylum.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And she was stopped at a routine traffic stop.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And she's been sitting there, what, for 15 months now?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that, Ant?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Feels like forever.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: But, God, I just...
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: It kills me that so many people around us are suffering and struggling.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And this is ongoing for so long already.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And nobody seems to have any resolution.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the ICE and the Customs and Immigration Services seem to have no
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: desire
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: to speed things up time frame-wise.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that things are struggling.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's commissary, there's expenses while she's still in there.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Anything anyone can do, really, we always appreciate.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she's a political prisoner.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's absolutely right.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Then we've got Aspen.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Aspen is not a political prisoner.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Aspen was just in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong car.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a mess.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And she's going to need funding for her defense.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And she's out right now on bail.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: She's been out since last May or early June.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Her mom, Halo Benson, and she were Assange activists for free speech and for his freedom.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they could use help because this is going to be a protracted lawsuit.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: This woman is a vegan.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: She is autistic.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: She has trouble kind of adapting to a prison style environment.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't built for people like her.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we need to find a way to get the charges dropped
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: because she didn't know they were in the car.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: She wasn't carrying them.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: She was literally innocent, but she was in the wrong place right now.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: She's facing decades in prison and she could use the support.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: The ways you can support her are to purchase her art.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can do that at this link tree.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Linktr.ee slash justice in the number four Aspen.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's also an article written a year ago by Descent in Bloom about Her time in lockup.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: The one-on-one conversation that I did with her also was a year ago with her and her mom.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: You can go and watch that as well as the live stream fundraiser that we did.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: That was last October 29th on INN where Jesse played songs and Descent's article.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Between Descent's article and that, we helped raise over $12,000.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: But it's stuck at 12.5 or 12.6 now for like the better part of a year.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And at some point they're going to call her in for trial.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I know they got some of the testing back already and they need to get some of
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: the others and they need to hire private investigators and fund lawyers
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: and do other things.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So again,
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: anything anyone can do to support,
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to reach out and And let Halo know we still care,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: we still love you,
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: we still love Aspen,
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: and we're still here,
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: and you still have a network and a group of people here behind you.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And this is Aspen's GoFundMe again,
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: which I don't know when the last time she got one was,
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: but the last time I saw it, it was at just over 12.5.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: 12.625 is where it sits right now.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, we're going to get our sunflowers out for our friend Shanda Masta.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sadly,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: it was a year ago that Shanda and I had a one-on-one conversation
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: and it was inspiring and she was exhausted afterwards.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: We went almost two hours.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we got to talk about her illness, and we got to talk about people in the space.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: And, oh man, I miss that woman.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so many people here do.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to honor her, we lost her in April after almost two years of fighting.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to honor her,
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: you can pick up a t-shirt at the INN shop,
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: which you can get to by going to indienewsnow.com and click on the merch store.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And there's t-shirts and there's hangtop and there's a hoodie there.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty reasonable.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oz said he was wearing his the other day.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: But it's...
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's... Fuck cancer, man.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like...
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's all around us.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of our good friends and neighbors was just diagnosed,
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: and he just had surgery, and he's going to have to go through radiation.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so disheartening to see it happening all around us.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the fact that,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: healthcare in this country is so expensive and the wait times
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: to see certain specialists that there are and everything else going on,
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: it's just,
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: fuck cancer is all I can say.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah,
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: just revisiting my conversation with Shanda,
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: it was uplifting and also really upsetting at the same time.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I miss her and I think about her all the time.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: And she still inspires me,
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: as hard as she fought to stay on the mic and to come back here to go live
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: for everybody.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was one of the things that kept her going.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: God, man, we miss her.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So again,
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: if you could honor her by picking up a t-shirt or by donating to...
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Look, it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if you could donate to a foundation or any charity in her name,
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: you know, honor her legacy in that way as well.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Keep her name alive.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: We will continue to do so here.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Finally...
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know that Shanda,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: of course,
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: was an Indie Media Award honoree,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: class of 2023,
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: for her excellence as a broadcaster and as a live streamer,
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: podcasting as well.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: All her links are still there.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can get to all of her old tweets and shows and all the things
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: that she had posted are still up.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you can access all of them from getting to her Indie Media Awards page
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: and all her profiles are
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: still there.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Finally,
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: I want to shout out very quickly the INN Active Live Calendar,
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: which I try to update on a regular basis.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can see the last time I updated it was on Sunday,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: but all of last week's live streams, clips, podcasts, and RTLs.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: The articles that were published throughout the network by all the members are here.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: I also even include our friend Rich Slutsky's articles when he publishes to Lies,
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Damn Lies, and Counterspin.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Lies, Damn Lies, and Spin.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote this article I covered last week in the lightning round.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I kept that in last week.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you can, again,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: feel free to go here anytime and you can get to all the different articles Um,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: properties and access any of them directly from there.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Really.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, wow.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of spent.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you everyone for sticking with me.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry about the, uh,
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: the emotional stuff,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: but you know, that's, I do this cause I care cause I love everyone here.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And if this happened to anyone in your family and any one of you guys,
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: I would feel the same way.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, it's, We've become family over the years.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And INN's coming up on our fifth anniversary very soon.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Today, actually,
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: was our fifth Twitter anniversary from when I first established the account
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: at Get Any News.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was before we were even an actual network.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: We had just held two conference calls to decide what the network name is going to be.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I first searched for what the Twitter handle is going to be.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's been five years.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been with us for most, if not all, of those five.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I thank you so much for all of that.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate all the support and sticking with us for all that time.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, really.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love you all.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'll see you next Tuesday.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what she said.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Support Independent Media because we need it more than ever.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Night, everybody.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: No!
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: We just fucking lost the stream!
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I guess this isn't such an awful place It's not what you want me
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: to say You prove it's possible to sleep for days
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I still think you're right here awake The cost of living isn't much to make
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: But God, it's so hard to say.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And when they told you everything was safe, were you
• 17:19
  [music]