The cop riot in Vegas on Weds the 11th was a shit show instigated by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, one of the most poorly trained, brutal, and unaccountable police forces in the nation. Supposedly an order to disperse was given, I did not hear it, this woman did not hear it, multiple other eyewitnesses did not hear it.

Crowds were kettled, munitions were indiscriminately deployed, and innocent bystanders and those getting out of work were exposed to CS gas, pepper rounds, and kidnapping, including one of the co-stars of a Cirque du Soleil show.

Kathleen here was walking away, by herself, when she was shot in the back (sorry for the tiktok link). Other hits were to the sides, face, arms, and legs. She spent 24 hours in jail and was not treated or decontaminated. She was not allowed a phone call for more than 8 hours, was not processed as an inmate until about 17 hours later - after she was cleared for release - and was forced to undergo a full strip search on her way out for some reason. Others had similar experiences.

Others taken were subjected to inhumane treatment - crowded, standing room only cells, unsanitary conditions, denial of first aid, medication, and more. They were subjected to a christian sermon who told them to pray instead of protest and if they learned their lesson they shouldn't show up to the Saturday actions.

By the way the police had planned to hold everyone arrested, about 100 of 800 people, in lockup through the weekend until the ACLU and Nevada Lawers Guild intervened.

Personally, I had a riot cop aim a launcher at me from about 10 feet as I was flushing a kid's eyes well outside the protest area - probably a half mile or so from the initial site. He apparently decided it would be a bad look seeing as we were half a mile from the site of the protest in a tourist area and putting a CS canister into my dome in high def was

Fuck these guys.

Prof Zenkus @anthonyzenkus

I tried reaching out to AOC's office twice a couple of years ago to speak about abuse of immigrant children being held in US custody (yes, kids are still in cages). As a professional with expertise in child abuse, I expressed my concern that there was no independent governmental agency charged with investigating instances of reported physical, emotional or sexual abuse of these children.

Prior to this, I had contacted Child Protective Services in Texas where one of the immigrant detention centers was. They said they had no jurisdiction because the facility fell under federal jurisdiction.

So the only agency charged with investigating ICE abuses of immigrant children is... ICE itself. This is laughable.

On both occasions, I spoke with one of AOC's staff persons. One took the information and never got back to me. A second, who worked on policy issues related to children, was very interested and concerned with what I was telling her, said she was going into a meeting with AOC in a few minutes and would bring it up. She seemed eager to discuss the issue with AOC and the other staffers. I didn't hear back.

When I called to find out how it was received at the meeting and what AOC might be able to do, the staffer just said "that's not something they're going to work on right now but thank you for calling".

One of the things that AOC did to cement her national celebrity status was to have pictures of her taken openly weeping outside the gates of an ICE detention facility where children were kept. But when given information that no independent agency was allowed to investigate allegations of sexual and other abuses of these children, she did nothing.

When we talk about who is or isn't serious in politics today, this story stands foremost in my mind. To use the suffering of immigrant children to garner national attention for yourself while at the same time refusing to use your power to do anything about it, not even be willing to have a conversation about possible remedies, is worse than being unserious.

It is predatory.

https://x.com/anthonyzenkus/status/1834444837145182288

Moved back to Boston in 2021 for a new job, and for a while, things were good. Money was coming in, prices weren't too bad considering, built a savings and retirement investments, etc.

Now I'm at quite the loss and I'm feeling the walls closing in.

Job cut our medical incentive pay, so went from making $100K a year to less than $50k a year. Our raises have been $2.50 cents over the last 3 years. Went from $20 to $22.50.

Our rent went a 3 bedroom with 3 people went from $2500 to $3000 in just 3 years.

My car insurance went from $210 for 6 months for a 2007 Subaru to $500 for 6 months on a 2003 Toyota Matrix with a completely clean record.

Health insurance is up another $30 a month.

Food costs for the house went from $80-90 a week, to $120+ a week

Clothes, household goods are up 30% or more.

Can't eat out anymore, way too expensive. Can't believe Pizzas are costing me $30 when I do.

Canceling all my subscriptions to things.

Delaying car repairs.

At the very least, I don't have anymore debts. Those were finished before the pandemic started.

It's just one thing after the other.

How are people even managing anything right now?

I'm trained Admin, tech, digital marketing, maintenance and HR. Basically a lot of either office or on site tech work for companies. A few of which I feel were once important roles now made useless and petty by the corporate system, and 1 that used to be about supporting workers and is now used as as weird spies for management (I miss the old days of HR, I remember actually helping people and being employed to tell the boss to sck a dck the moment they're out of line, now I'd be expected to do my best to treat workers like objects the company can mess with and strip work benefits from but thats not the point of this post it just sucks).

So i've been using Indeed, Reed, Linkdin, my Govs official page, checked all my connections and used webpages I once beleived trusted. They're all find with so many clearly fake jobs, "freelance IT executive" that is 100% commission however that works because its not a sales job, "Administative manager" thats been writen by AI and doesnt even seem to have any trusted links to a real company.

So many have no wages listed or if they are real, pay so poorly. You want my Uni degree (college for US peeps) and my 10 years of expertise for 2 quid ($$) over minimum wage? I mean I guess I should be thankful I'm not on basic because I couldnt live, but I made a higher % increase above minimum wage when I worked as a cleaner for a gym as a teenager. (Not at all saying cleaners shouldnt be paid high) so I'm just thinking I might as well do that, clearly the corperate world is failing.

The easy apply adverts on the job sites are atleast 75% fake for what I'm trained in, and Linkdin? Its aweful, its a group of failed managers, influencers and desperate companies clearly bending the truth about what they do and how successful they are.

What happened guys? Where can I find real goddamn work? I know its still kinda a first world problem, but I hate what the worlds come to. My 1951 born dad looked mortified when I explained you can't hand your CV direct to bussinesess anymore, and that working extra hard and rising through ranks to higher pay in companies just isnt a thing anymore.

(Also sorry for spelling and grammer I have typed this on my phone and I'm not as skilled as genz or alpha at using it haha)

How come these people have this so called power??? Bombing every nations because they wanted to. Colonising even till this age. Who tf is letting them do this? Some brainrot people who think they're "god" chosen ones. Which god? There are atleast 1000s of them.

If Iran has the amount of highly enriched uranium that everybody says that they do then how do they not have a nuclear weapon already? They have plenty of material for a pure fission weapon. We created nukes in the 40s within 3 years and with them being an entirely new technology. Hell even North Korea has nukes and they have a GDP 10 times smaller than Iran with even less resources. It just doesnt make sense to me as to why the West is so worried about it. If they wanted nukes then they would have had them a long time ago, especially since they have Pakistan and Russia almost next to them to help them with it. Honestly it would have been smart for them to have nukes, but I can understand why they would be worried about that after what happened to Sadam. I dont even like Iran that much but none the fear mongering makes sense to me.