Latest / IndieNewsNow LIVE! Clips / Mutual Aid- Food Not Bombs, Joe Blank, Words of Will, Nataliya Vlchekova, Aspen Martin, Chanda Masta
Transcript
- 0:00[music]
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: Who are these people?
- 0:09SPEAKER_01: I'm going to cover all the stuff from mutual aids,
- 0:12SPEAKER_01: and this will be things that I've talked about in the past.
- 0:15SPEAKER_01: These are, oh, thank you, Yona.
- 0:17SPEAKER_01: We love you too, bro.
- 0:20SPEAKER_01: These are causes that are important to me,
- 0:24SPEAKER_01: that are important to people that are a member of this audience,
- 0:27SPEAKER_01: that directly affect members of this audience,
- 0:30SPEAKER_01: or that directly affect people who I've interviewed in the past,
- 0:34SPEAKER_01: like our first guest, Keith McHenry from Food Not Bombs.
- 0:38SPEAKER_01: Well, as it turns out, Food Not Bombs needs a new van for Santa Cruz.
- 0:43SPEAKER_01: So if you know anyone that has a panel van like this that's for sale, let me know.
- 0:49SPEAKER_01: I'll get in touch with Keith and I'll put you guys together.
- 0:53SPEAKER_01: Because they could really use the help.
- 0:54SPEAKER_01: They're an amazing organization.
- 0:57SPEAKER_01: They don't seek permission from the government for anything.
- 1:00SPEAKER_01: Totally anarchist org.
- 1:02SPEAKER_01: And all they do is feed people.
- 1:04SPEAKER_01: And there's Who Not Bombs chapters all over the world.
- 1:09SPEAKER_01: And if there's not one in your town already...
- 1:14SPEAKER_01: Shout out to our friend Margaret Villa, Food Industrial Complex over on Instagram.
- 1:21SPEAKER_01: She's been setting up tables for hungry people and for food drives every weekend,
- 1:27SPEAKER_01: and I've been seeing her pictures and her video on Instagram,
- 1:30SPEAKER_01: scouting out the people that contribute and show up.
- 1:34SPEAKER_01: And she's such an inspiration.
- 1:35SPEAKER_01: I love her.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: She ran for Congress years ago.
- 1:39SPEAKER_01: I met her through the Convo Couch.
- 1:40SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Fee and Pasta for that.
- 1:43SPEAKER_01: Margaretville is great.
- 1:45SPEAKER_01: She's also been a big supporter of this channel.
- 1:48SPEAKER_01: She's on the Wall of Fame.
- 1:50SPEAKER_01: But again, Keith McHenry could really use a van for Food, Not Bombs, Santa Cruz.
- 1:54SPEAKER_01: So if anybody's got a lead, let me know.
- 1:58SPEAKER_00: Next, I want to talk about our friend Reverend Joe Blank.
- 2:01SPEAKER_01: Reverend Joe Blank could use a little bit of help getting through bills.
- 2:06SPEAKER_01: He's disabled.
- 2:07SPEAKER_01: Some days he has trouble getting out of bed.
- 2:09SPEAKER_01: He is an incredible sketch artist who draws pencil drawings.
- 2:14SPEAKER_01: I've seen up close and personal a woman named Janice Countess brought for Jose Vega
- 2:21SPEAKER_01: a The a hand drawing of Jose Vega that that Reverend Joe Blank had drawn.
- 2:28SPEAKER_01: I saw it at the due dissidence show in New York City two years ago
- 2:32SPEAKER_01: when Jesse Jett opened for that show.
- 2:34SPEAKER_01: And I watched Janice hand it to him and I'm like, oh, my God, I know what that is.
- 2:37SPEAKER_01: That's fucking gorgeous.
- 2:39SPEAKER_01: That's a Joe Blank.
- 2:40SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
- 2:41SPEAKER_01: All right.
- 2:42SPEAKER_01: But Joe said that he was asking for a little help.
- 2:45SPEAKER_01: Disabled, no health care, still in process with an attorney for disability.
- 2:50SPEAKER_01: So any help that he can get, Cash Shop, PayPal, and he's got to buy me a coffee also.
- 2:55SPEAKER_01: And then you can also purchase one of his sketches.
- 2:59SPEAKER_01: One of his most recent ones that I don't believe has sold yet is this one of Dolly,
- 3:05SPEAKER_01: which was an influence on him.
- 3:07SPEAKER_01: He's a Gen Xer, and when she died, this was what he was inspired to draw.
- 3:13SPEAKER_01: He saw a photo.
- 3:15SPEAKER_01: He sketched it.
- 3:16SPEAKER_01: It takes time.
- 3:17SPEAKER_01: Now he messaged me on Sunday night.
- 3:19SPEAKER_01: I got to tell you a funny story.
- 3:22SPEAKER_01: He messaged me and said that he just finished drawing a Kurt Cobain.
- 3:27SPEAKER_01: And he had put a ton of time into it and he poured himself into it, all his heart.
- 3:32SPEAKER_01: And when he finished the stroke,
- 3:33SPEAKER_01: he broke down and he bawled crying and it took all the energy out of him.
- 3:38SPEAKER_01: And he sent me a picture of it.
- 3:40SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to share it here.
- 3:42SPEAKER_01: Because I don't think that he's made it public.
- 3:44SPEAKER_01: But I sent him a link.
- 3:47SPEAKER_01: We were live with Boats, me and Reef.
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: And I sent him a link to Boats and he originally was like,
- 3:52SPEAKER_01: you know, I don't know if I really feel like I'm in a mood to...
- 3:55SPEAKER_01: Be around people.
- 3:56SPEAKER_01: I'm very emotional right now, whatever.
- 3:58SPEAKER_01: And he showed up at the stream and within five minutes he was laughing.
- 4:01SPEAKER_01: And afterwards he thanked me and said, you know, this was exactly what the doctor ordered.
- 4:05SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sending me.
- 4:06SPEAKER_01: I love you, man.
- 4:08SPEAKER_01: This is why we do this because we need to unplug and we need to mind dump
- 4:14SPEAKER_01: and we need to have some fun together and just laugh in spite of
- 4:17SPEAKER_01: the horrible shit we're all going through every day.
- 4:19SPEAKER_01: And Cowboy Kitty knows all about horrible shit that we're going through every day.
- 4:23SPEAKER_01: We're going to get to his struggles in a minute.
- 4:26SPEAKER_01: But before we do,
- 4:27SPEAKER_01: we're going to talk about our friend,
- 4:28SPEAKER_01: Words of Will,
- 4:29SPEAKER_01: another INN supporter whose wife was diagnosed in May with breast cancer.
- 4:36SPEAKER_01: Her hours were cut.
- 4:37SPEAKER_01: They lost their insurance.
- 4:40SPEAKER_01: They were treated at a local hospital for a while and bills piled up
- 4:44SPEAKER_01: before someone took pity on them and told them that the Christian hospital across
- 4:49SPEAKER_01: the street would treat them without charge.
- 4:52SPEAKER_01: And so she moved all of her stuff over there and now she's getting treatment and treatment.
- 4:57SPEAKER_01: They're not worrying about the bills that they are currently encountering,
- 5:01SPEAKER_01: though they still have bills piling up on top of the day-to-day expenses
- 5:07SPEAKER_01: that life requires, especially with one parent not having an income.
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: She's gone through chemo.
- 5:16SPEAKER_01: She's now going to have to have surgery and likely radiation.
- 5:21SPEAKER_01: And...
- 5:23SPEAKER_01: We've been following Will's story over the summer.
- 5:25SPEAKER_01: Will got a job as an apprentice for an AC company,
- 5:29SPEAKER_01: but he said, I'm seriously not making this up.
- 5:31SPEAKER_01: At the end of August, the AC broke.
- 5:34SPEAKER_01: That was after they had already had appliances break in the house.
- 5:38SPEAKER_01: And he said,
- 5:39SPEAKER_01: we've now had our washer, dryer,
- 5:41SPEAKER_01: refrigerator,
- 5:41SPEAKER_01: and AC all break this summer,
- 5:43SPEAKER_01: going through one of the biggest financial crises of our lives.
- 5:48SPEAKER_01: And the news didn't get any better.
- 5:52SPEAKER_01: Because his wife the next month was going through chemo and it was her birthday.
- 5:57SPEAKER_01: And then earlier this month,
- 5:59SPEAKER_01: they met with the oncologist who said that his wife has a 45% chance
- 6:04SPEAKER_01: of surviving five years.
- 6:09SPEAKER_01: And that,
- 6:10SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 6:12SPEAKER_01: In some ways,
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: that's a good,
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 6:14SPEAKER_01: you have to look at the positive that that's at least a 50-50 chance
- 6:18SPEAKER_01: of making it considering what she's gotten and how she's had to fight.
- 6:22SPEAKER_01: We fight every day, but next up is surgery and then radiation.
- 6:27SPEAKER_01: I don't think that he was expecting that all.
- 6:30SPEAKER_01: The nightmare never ends, it seems, and fuck cancer.
- 6:33SPEAKER_01: So they have a GoFundMe for their children and for their family expenses.
- 6:39SPEAKER_01: And if anybody can do anything,
- 6:43SPEAKER_01: Again, tremendous help.
- 6:47SPEAKER_01: I feel for Will and as a parent and as a father,
- 6:51SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 6:52SPEAKER_01: to watch my wife go through breast cancer while we struggle financially,
- 6:59SPEAKER_01: just it breaks me.
- 7:00SPEAKER_01: It hurts.
- 7:01SPEAKER_01: And I want to do what I can to help and use this platform to try to share the words
- 7:05SPEAKER_01: so that if anybody does have the resources to help,
- 7:08SPEAKER_01: please reach out to me, reach out to Words of Will and help.
- 7:12SPEAKER_01: Help these kids.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: Help their mom.
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: Hey, there she is, Elizabeth.
- 7:20SPEAKER_01: Next, we're going to talk about Cowgoy Kitty.
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: Yes, I said it.
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: I don't like it, but I said it.
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: Cowboy Kitty, Anthony Malecki, our brother.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: All right.
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: This is his sister-in-law, Natalia.
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: Natalia was arrested last July on a routine traffic stop where they suspected her of
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: a DUI, which she was not drunk.
- 7:43SPEAKER_01: They impounded her car.
- 7:44SPEAKER_01: Her car got out of jail, but she has not still.
- 7:49SPEAKER_01: Because the county is profiting from her being in a nice detention facility
- 7:53SPEAKER_01: while she appeals and while her lawyer fights to get her out.
- 7:57SPEAKER_01: She has asylum.
- 7:59SPEAKER_01: Apparently a judge has ordered her released,
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: but there's some kind of an issue of bond,
- 8:05SPEAKER_01: whether that's $500 or $5,000 of bail that's needed.
- 8:12SPEAKER_01: And yes, life is not fair.
- 8:13SPEAKER_01: Poor guy.
- 8:14SPEAKER_01: That's, yes, Will.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: But...
- 8:17SPEAKER_01: Natalia also will need help getting back on her feet when she gets out.
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: They still do want to deport her.
- 8:24SPEAKER_01: ICE is still pushing to deport her.
- 8:27SPEAKER_01: We still think that there was some kind of an effort to kick the can down the road
- 8:31SPEAKER_01: until special protections for Ukrainian citizens expire in the United States,
- 8:38SPEAKER_01: which would make it even easier for them to send her back in spite of the fact,
- 8:42SPEAKER_01: again, that she has asylum and fears for her life.
- 8:47SPEAKER_01: And This again has been going on for more than a year.
- 8:51SPEAKER_01: And so this is Natalia's GoFundMe.
- 8:54SPEAKER_01: If anyone is of means and able to and wants to help, it is greatly appreciated.
- 9:00SPEAKER_01: And again, this is somebody related to a member of our community.
- 9:04SPEAKER_01: This affects us directly.
- 9:09SPEAKER_01: Then we're going to talk about our friend Aspen, Justice for Aspen, Martin.
- 9:15SPEAKER_01: Aspen is the daughter of Halo Benson.
- 9:18SPEAKER_01: Halo and Aspen were Assange for Oklahoma activists who stood with signs
- 9:25SPEAKER_01: and petitioned for Julian Assange's freedom and arranged for a screening of
- 9:30SPEAKER_01: the Ithaca documentary to be shown in their local theater.
- 9:35SPEAKER_01: Halo mailed out postcard campaigns to Support to activists so
- 9:41SPEAKER_01: that it were pre-stamped and addressed to members of Congress that had pictures
- 9:46SPEAKER_01: of genocide or an appeal for Julian's freedom.
- 9:50SPEAKER_01: Already pre-written out,
- 9:51SPEAKER_01: you could add a note to it,
- 9:53SPEAKER_01: but the idea was to flood Congress in their mailboxes,
- 9:57SPEAKER_01: physical,
- 9:58SPEAKER_01: with material that made them believe that this was a big effort
- 10:03SPEAKER_01: to actually see him free.
- 10:06SPEAKER_01: A year and a half ago,
- 10:07SPEAKER_01: last May,
- 10:08SPEAKER_01: Aspen and I interviewed Aspen and Halo on INN last October, about a year ago.
- 10:16SPEAKER_01: Last week,
- 10:17SPEAKER_01: I believe,
- 10:17SPEAKER_01: was the one-year anniversary of our one-on-one interview where she laid out
- 10:23SPEAKER_01: the entire trip where she met an old friend.
- 10:27SPEAKER_01: They went from Oklahoma City to Nashville.
- 10:30SPEAKER_01: The friend in Nashville says, we're all going to go to this music festival.
- 10:34SPEAKER_01: She says, cool, I'm going to go with you.
- 10:37SPEAKER_01: The friend is staying with his girlfriend.
- 10:39SPEAKER_01: The girlfriend's threatened by her.
- 10:41SPEAKER_01: She goes and stays with their friend in Nashville,
- 10:46SPEAKER_01: who's driving this RV to the music festival, so she can get acquainted with him.
- 10:51SPEAKER_01: Well, her friend that she was originally staying with,
- 10:53SPEAKER_01: and the girlfriend,
- 10:54SPEAKER_01: all of a sudden, at the last minute, back out because of some medical...
- 10:59SPEAKER_01: Um...
- 11:26SPEAKER_01: And charged everyone in the RV, including Aspen, with drug trafficking.
- 11:32SPEAKER_01: She spent more than two weeks in a county lockup.
- 11:35SPEAKER_01: She's vegan.
- 11:37SPEAKER_01: She's autistic.
- 11:38SPEAKER_01: She did not do very well in that prison.
- 11:42SPEAKER_01: Her mom drove from Oklahoma to Georgia and slept in her car in
- 11:46SPEAKER_01: the parking lot every night until she could get her daughter out and bailed out.
- 11:51SPEAKER_01: And she did everything she could to raise bail.
- 11:55SPEAKER_01: Descent in Bloom wrote an incredible article laying out all of this,
- 11:59SPEAKER_01: and you can read that on her Substack or at the link tree that I'm going
- 12:03SPEAKER_01: to link here.
- 12:07SPEAKER_01: And again, we've been covering this for well over a year, and we're still stuck at 12,625.
- 12:16SPEAKER_01: What we need to do is raise money to hire experts and pay lawyers to try to get
- 12:20SPEAKER_01: the case dropped.
- 12:22SPEAKER_01: Because she was innocent, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
- 12:28SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: And which
- 12:31SPEAKER_01: just sucks.
- 12:32SPEAKER_01: So this is the link tree where you can find all about Aspen's story and support her
- 12:40SPEAKER_01: in multiple ways.
- 12:43SPEAKER_01: Finally...
- 12:45SPEAKER_01: And she, of course, has a GoFundMe.
- 12:46SPEAKER_01: Again, like I said, it's been a $12,625 for a long time now.
- 12:51SPEAKER_01: Oh, I guess we got $10 last week.
- 12:53SPEAKER_01: Thank you to whoever did that.
- 12:55SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
- 12:57SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's because of somebody that saw that on here.
- 13:01SPEAKER_01: I hope that's the case.
- 13:02SPEAKER_01: I can only hope that that's because of the work that we're doing here.
- 13:08SPEAKER_01: Finally, get your sunflowers out.
- 13:12SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about our friend Shanda.
- 13:15SPEAKER_01: Because it was a year ago also this time
- 13:18SPEAKER_01: that Shanda did her last one-on-one live streamed interview with me.
- 13:24SPEAKER_01: And I am honored to have been one of the last people to have interviewed her
- 13:30SPEAKER_01: and asked her about her illness and her perseverance and her attitudes
- 13:37SPEAKER_01: and her viewpoints and let her really have a voice about Fighting cancer
- 13:43SPEAKER_01: and healthcare in this country.
- 13:46SPEAKER_01: And we lost Shanda in April.
- 13:49SPEAKER_01: It really, it's hit all of us really bad.
- 13:53SPEAKER_01: Especially her co-host Oz from Beauty and the Boomer.
- 13:57SPEAKER_01: There's the live stream that they hosted.
- 14:00SPEAKER_01: And I'm hoping again that Oz will get back on the horse and live stream again soon.
- 14:07SPEAKER_01: I understand why he's not really motivated to.
- 14:10SPEAKER_01: So in our Indie News shop,
- 14:12SPEAKER_01: which you can get to at indienewsnow.com,
- 14:15SPEAKER_01: we created a Shanda Master Fuck Cancer collection where any profits that are made
- 14:20SPEAKER_01: on these shirts,
- 14:20SPEAKER_01: which we don't sell for a lot of profit and markup,
- 14:23SPEAKER_01: would be given to a cancer charity.
- 14:26SPEAKER_01: There's t-shirts, there's a tank top and a hoodie.
- 14:30SPEAKER_01: Reasonably priced and it's designed to get the word out to support her,
- 14:36SPEAKER_01: to support her cause and to say fuck cancer.
- 14:40SPEAKER_01: We miss you.
- 14:40SPEAKER_01: We love you, Shanda.
- 14:42SPEAKER_01: And as a reminder again,
- 14:43SPEAKER_01: Shanda was an Indie Media Award honoree for her excellence as a broadcaster,
- 14:50SPEAKER_01: live streamer, and podcaster.
- 14:55SPEAKER_01: And again, you can also get to at the shop.
- 14:59SPEAKER_01: There's plenty of other merch,
- 15:00SPEAKER_01: not just the Shanda collection,
- 15:02SPEAKER_01: but the Shanda collection is at the top of the shop when you go to it.
- 15:06SPEAKER_01: There's the Shanda collection.
- 15:07SPEAKER_01: Then you can pick up T-shirts, INN shirt.
- 15:10SPEAKER_01: Angel was wearing that shirt on Angel and Friends on Friday night.
- 15:14SPEAKER_01: There's our Cats or Dicks shirt in black.
- 15:16SPEAKER_01: Love that.
- 15:17SPEAKER_01: Pick one up.
- 15:19SPEAKER_01: I wore that shirt yesterday.
- 15:21SPEAKER_01: That's the Indie with the green tie and the arms.
- 15:23SPEAKER_01: Go check that out.
- 15:24SPEAKER_01: Or a Boat Smashing in Other Boats t-shirt.
- 15:27SPEAKER_01: I wore that while we went on a boat in Cape Cod last month.
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: That was great.
- 15:33SPEAKER_01: Anyway, that's my little soapbox about merch.
- 15:38SPEAKER_01: Again, go to indienewsnow.com.
- 15:40SPEAKER_00: Click on the merch link.
- 15:40SPEAKER_00: You can get there.
- 15:43SPEAKER_01: Finally, I wanted to make a plea.
- 15:44SPEAKER_01: I know Kamishwari Kate is not here.
- 15:46SPEAKER_01: Shout out to our sister Kamishwari Kate,
- 15:49SPEAKER_01: who told me this morning in the AM wake up chat that she wasn't going to be able
- 15:52SPEAKER_01: to make the live stream tonight.
- 15:54SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate that.
- 15:55SPEAKER_01: She and her husband were going to go see the Natsum documentary movie.
- 15:59SPEAKER_01: And I was like, please report back and let me know.
- 16:04SPEAKER_01: If you see anything that you had not been seeing on this show.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: Oh, Kate's here.
- 16:09SPEAKER_01: Oh, great.
- 16:10SPEAKER_01: So you've been silent for the most part tonight.
- 16:14SPEAKER_01: Good to see you, sister.
- 16:15SPEAKER_01: But I know you said you were going to go with the husband and
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: that he has not seen all that we show on this show.
- 16:22SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate him being willing to go and learn and experience that.
- 16:28SPEAKER_01: But this is our live interactive calendar for INN.
- 16:32SPEAKER_01: I update this on an ongoing basis whenever I can.
- 16:35SPEAKER_01: And if you click on any one of these cards,
- 16:37SPEAKER_01: it will give you more of a description of what this was with a podcast or
- 16:42SPEAKER_01: a live stream or an article and link directly to it right from this website.
- 16:48SPEAKER_01: And again,
- 16:48SPEAKER_01: I try to update this pretty regularly,
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: a couple times a week at least,
- 16:52SPEAKER_01: and definitely Friday afternoons because this becomes the thumbnail for
- 16:57SPEAKER_01: the weekly update that I send out through innnewsletter.com.
- 17:02SPEAKER_01: All right, everyone.
- 17:05SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much again for sticking with me on all of that.
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: Like I say at the end of every week,
- 17:11SPEAKER_01: support independent media because we need it more than ever.
- 17:16SPEAKER_01: I will see you next Thursday.
- 17:19SPEAKER_01: That's what she said.
- 17:21SPEAKER_01: Not see you next Tuesday.
- 17:22SPEAKER_01: Still cunt.
- 17:23SPEAKER_01: See you next Thursday.
- 17:24SPEAKER_01: See you NT.
- 17:27SPEAKER_01: But goodnight, everyone.
- 17:28SPEAKER_01: I love you, fam.
- 17:29SPEAKER_01: Goodnight, everybody.
- 17:30SPEAKER_00: No!
- 17:30SPEAKER_00: We just fucking lost the stream!
- 17:35SPEAKER_00: I guess this isn't such an awful place Is that what you want me to say?
- 17:42SPEAKER_00: You'll prove it's possible to sleep for days And I still think you're right here awake.
- 17:50SPEAKER_00: The cost of living isn't much to make.
- 17:54SPEAKER_00: But God, it's so hard to save.
- 17:58SPEAKER_00: And when they told you everything I said, were you safe?
- 18:03SPEAKER_00: Were you safe?
- 18:04[music]