Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday! Ways to Give: Anon linked to a fundraiser for Kristi, whose undiagnosed cancer eventually meant she had to have her right foot and lower leg amputated; she actually requested to be able to keep her foot and eventually created an instagram for her articulated bones. She is facing a lot of medical bills and has had to fight her insurance company on some of them; she is raising money to help with the rest. You can read more and help out here. Holly was recently injured and needs surgery, but has to come up with $1900 before they will schedule her; she’s in a lot of pain and will be until she can have her injury fixed. You can give via paypal at marajade@chattooine.com. jvfriedman linked to Games vs. Nazis, a weeklong anti-nazi game jam (video game creation event) taking place between 2/6 and 2/13 this year. All finished games will be played on livestream on the weekend of the 17th, and winners will be announced on the 24th. The prize pool will be donated to the winner’s choice of RAINN or the SPLC. You can read more here and donate to the prize pool here. banesidhe is doing her first Polar Plunge on March 4th. It’s a big deal for her due to her anxiety, and she’s raising funds for the Special Olympics, so she’s hoping for lots of donations at any dollar amount. You can read more here or donate here. The Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas was destroyed in a fire over the weekend. As of this posting they don’t know what caused the fire, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations will be monitoring the investigation. The Islamic Center is raising funds to rebuild, and they’re almost at their goal; you can read more and support rebuilding here. dreamwaffles’s job ended and she’s trying to make ends meet until she can land another one. She has a donation page up here but is also selling beaded jewelery through Etsy; you can check out Saxifrage Designs and make a purchase here. nivcharayahel is the only supporter for herself and her sister, who is recovering from a serious, years-long illness and trying to re-enter the workforce. Nivcharayahel is currently working but won’t get her first check until mid-February, so they need help with February rent and a few weeks of groceries and supplies. You can read more and help out here. rilee16 is still struggling to cover medical expenses after two head injuries last year, and hasn’t been cleared to return to work, thus can’t earn money to cover basic living costs, let alone the bills they’ve received, including a recent rent increase. They literally have no money left until their next worker’s comp check comes, which means no gas money for their car, so they can’t get anywhere to do odd jobs for bill money. You can read more and help out here. a_phoenixdragon lost her job a couple of months ago and has been unable to find a new one; because of mounting rent and bills, the family is being evicted. They have the truck and are preparing to move cross-country to a better place for jobs and low housing costs, but still need help to get there and to get a new place once they arrive. You can read more and help them raise the move money here. Help For Free: Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, possibly the best thing on any social media platform ever, is in the running for the Shorty Awards and needs your vote! You can vote daily now through February 16th. Go here to vote; there’s also a rebloggable tumblr post here. Do it for Sharky. Activism: kungfunurse linked to an article about public comment on DAPL, the pipeline currently being protested at Standing Rock. There is an article here about what public comment means and how your comments on DAPL can help stop the pipeline. RebelRouser is a new start-up company developing an online hub for activism, which is currently raising money to launch a site that will provide an activist resource library, basic activism training, and project competitions supported by donations and site ads. You can read more at their website or facebook, and support their launch fundraiser here. And finally a reminder that if you don’t know where to start helping to protest and fight the recent acts of our government, a good place to begin is Indivisible, which offers both a handbook for activism and a directory of local activist groups. And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you’re not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!). If you’re new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

Wow, we’ve already had one new contribution and several people reach out to us to help since this morning! 

Thank you so much, @copperbadge!  

The faster we reach our goal of 20k, the faster we can make our services available to the public–so please donate if you can! Every little bit counts. This amount will go towards setting up our final product, and paying the wages of our two person staff that are currently working around the clock to make this happen as quickly as possible. 

A short summary of what RebelRouser hopes to offer:

Resource Library: 

Training:

Project Hub:

So if you can, please donate! Every little bit counts. Right now we very much want to make sure we can pay for our employees (well, employee singular) for their February work. If you can’t afford to donate, boosting this post and the IndieGoGo campaign is incredibly helpful and saves us from unnecessary marketing costs! 

If merchandise is more your style, we recommend visiting our store!

Thank you so much!! We really appreciate anything you’re willing to do!!!

Celebrate MLK Day with activist games!

Now more than ever before, indie games are positioned to educate, empathize, and stand for what’s right. These past IndieCade selections do just that. Today we applaud every activist, big and small. We’re proud to count game developers like you in our midst.

1979 REVOLUTION: Black Friday, our 2016 Festival Grand Jury Awardee, is a riveting narrative adventure based on Iran’s defining revolution. Will you survive as an aspiring photojournalist on the gritty streets of Tehran?

…&maybetheywontkillyou is an empathy experience about being poor & black in America. Participants journey to a local corner store but must deflect harassment.  Will you speak out or remain silent? Either way, you must deal with the consequences. …&maybetheywontkillyou was a 2016 Gaming for Everyone selection and a 2015 Festival nominee.

In Sunset, you are a refugee trapped in San Bavón during a military coup. As a housekeeper for the wealthy, you become sucked into a rebellious plot against a notorious dictator. Sunset was at our 2015 E3 Showcase.

Use of Force is a virtual reality documentary that recreates the traumatic event in which Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was beaten & tasered to death by border control along the US-Mexican border. Dozens of migrants have been killed by border patrol under questionable circumstances, prompting the Department of Justice to review their Use of Force protocols. Use of Force was an IndieCade 2014 Impact Awardee.

How have military drones affected us? In Killbox, critically explore the consequences of the abstraction of killing and extension of military power. Based on documented Northern Pakistan strikes. Killbox was a 2016 Festival Nominee.

 Step into some big shoes in Giant Cop, a charming & satirical VR game from our 2016 Festival. It’s up to you to watch all of the citizens of Metro City! Rule with an iron fist or a soft hand: it’s up to you!

An important reminder that #FlintWaterCrisis is far from over.

source

‘He Just Smiled and Shot Both My Kneecaps’

Young native man from the Ojibwe nation, reports being openly targeted by a police officer using “non-lethal” weapons to cause serious harm.

“He shot me with a rubber bullet right in the belly button, and when I showed him that he had hurt me, he just smiled and shot both my kneecaps,” he said.

“I was tear gassed over 15 times, which made it hard to breathe and left my face burning for hours. I got hosed down with a water cannon in freezing temperatures leaving me hypothermic, and I was slammed into a barbed wire barricade out of panic caused by the police after a flash grenade was thrown and caught fire to a field,” said Cheyenne, a young native woman from Michigan, whose face was streaked with tear gas, and whose eyes were red and swollen.

read here

Yep. Thanksgiving. Native American Heritage Month. Celebrated in 2016 by encroaching on Native land and assaulting Native bodies.

It’s the traditional American way. 

Oh yeah its the time of year to be thankful, therefore give thanks for rubber bullets, tear gas, water / sound cannons, concussion grenades and the freedoms for a bunch of evil bastards to attack groups of unarmed people without the “legal” ability to defend themselves.

#NoDAPL #NativeAmerican #Thanksgiving #FuckThePolice #StayWoke

You can donate money or supplies to help support protesters at this link: http://sacredstonecamp.org/donate/

Here is the link to the legal defense fundraiser: https://fundrazr.com/d19fAf?ref=sh_25rPQa

#RECOUNT2016

If anyone is currently confused on what’s happening, JILL STEIN (in a shocking turn of events, I know) has put together a campaign to raise enough money to call for a recount in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

Very recently, a number of analysts have reached out to the Clinton campaign to urge them to request a recount. Why? 

THE STEIN CAMPAIGN NEEDS TO RAISE $2 MILLION BY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH AT 5 PM EST. THIS IS VERY TIME SENSITIVE. She’s already raised quite a bit in just a few hours, but that doesn’t guarantee that she will get enough. Here’s a direct statement from the website:

THE LINK TO DONATE IS HERE. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD EVEN IF YOU CAN’T DONATE. WE DESERVE TO HAVE THE VOTE CONFIRMED. THIS CAN AND WILL BE DONE. 

8:45AM EST: Total is at $2.8M and growing. New goal is $4.5M. Full cost in Wisconsin is now covered, and the new goal reflects full cost in Michigan.

3:20PM Central Time: Total is at $4.057 and climbing! We're almost there, friends!

Please help this water protector who’s having her arm amputated after being hit by a concussion grenade at #StandingRock the other night #NoDAPL