P. Orin Zack
@gznork26.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.2K following 1.6K posts
Spent a career in IT stacking bits and stringing words. High point: NASA/JPL's Deep Space Network during Voyager 1's encounter at Saturn. Wrote 3 novels & 200+ short stories. klurgsheld.wordpress.com Help fix the OS of our self-governance. #gOS_2.0
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gznork26.bsky.social
Fair warning to visitors…

F-I.W. (Freedom: I Won’t) from SF short “And Then There Were None” by Eric Frank Russell

There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch - Heinlein

My ‘Simon Jester’ signature - from “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Heinlein
Small slate with chalk writing:
F-I.W.
Tanstaafl
(And a sly face)
gznork26.bsky.social
There's a Leaflet doc at #gOS_2.0 for working out the details. The first requirement should be the equivalent of OPSEC. Government office is having credentials to log into the OS of self-governance. Each role needs binding terms, conditions, consequences for violation, and the means to enforce them.
gznork26.bsky.social
Speaker Johnson feels threatened by Portland’s naked bike ride because it’s temptation by the devil, and he’s damned for engaging with godless Democrats in his fantasy world.
gznork26.bsky.social
Definitional differences like this are the subtlest and most intractable cause of conflict because they rely on the most unexamined of unstated assumptions: that words mean what we think they mean.

Re-read the 1st Amendment through this lens.

Understanding this is critical to our survival.

F: IW
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
johnpfaff.bsky.social
"Where is the NRA now" posts are, I think, useful frames for noting the key insight of Cowie's Freedom's Dominion:

There are two types of freedom:

1. FROM oppression.
2. TO oppress.

And (2) has always been what the NRA types embraced.

So Trump IS LIBERATORY for them.
wapplehouse.bsky.social
Imagine spending your whole life cos-playing and fantasizing about fighting the federal government sending troops in against its own citizens only to root for the government when the moment finally arrives
gznork26.bsky.social
That’s not a new idea. There was a book called “The 9 Nations of North America “ several decades ago.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
nedinmo.bsky.social
Keep up the pressure. They are very afraid.

What would John Lewis do?

Make Good Trouble.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
gznork26.bsky.social
We are, after all, what they consider “useless eaters”.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
democratsofa.bsky.social
There's no actual NEED for these lay-offs, remember.

This isn't happening out of financial need.
This is about the enjoyment of abuse and punishment, nothing more.
About people who think power is not as much fun if they can't use it to hurt people.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
standupforscience.bsky.social
#GetOutTheVought‼️ Trump and Vought are decimating the federal workforce. This isn't just a shutdown stunt, this is in line with Project 2025's goal of cutting our government by 1 million workers.

STAND WITH SCIENCE!
✊Rally to TAKE BACK SCIENCE 10/17 @ 3pm ET
200 Independence Ave SW, Washington DC
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
standupforscience.bsky.social
ALT TEXT: Poster Graphic of Russell Vought in red and white against a dark blue blurry background. A yellow X is marked over him. Title text reads: Get Out the Vought!
Poster Graphic of Russell Vought in red and white against a dark blue blurry background. A yellow X is marked over him. Title text reads: Get Out the Vought!
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
protip.altgov.info
Imagine a work crew showed up and started breaking up the pavement in front of your house with one of these, and didn’t put it back together. That’s basically what Vought and 🍆🥔 are doing right now.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
heartlandsignal.bsky.social
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says he has been denied 4 times to see what is going on inside the Broadview, IL ICE facility:

"Something's going on in there that they don't want us to see. I don't know what it is, but all Americans should be asking the same question."
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
kathleenelizabeth.bsky.social
General Strike
Shut the entire country down.
Do not go to work until this admin is gone.

Imagine the power that would have.

Imagine
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
thetnholler.bsky.social
Nothing says “America First” like letting another country put an Air Force base in Idaho
gznork26.bsky.social
To put it another way…

Our government is not a business. Its purpose is to serve the needs of the people, not to serve its leaders and enrich their cronies or investors.

Ruling by force without consent is abuse of the people.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
altcdc.altgov.info
Seems like the IRS is trying to dirty delete the email saying all employees would receive backpay once the shutdown was over.

You want a fight? You've found it.

We're not backing down, and we know the attempts to deny furloughed feds backpay is illegal.

federalnewsnetwork.com/government-s...
IRS backtracks on back pay guarantee for furloughed employees
An IRS employee told Federal News Network that earlier guidance emailed to employees on Wednesday was automatically deleted from their inboxes by Thursday.
federalnewsnetwork.com
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
sidiansonne.bsky.social
This sounds like what FINALLY might get a countrywide strike to happen. No pay? No labor!

I mean, if the government can shut down, so can everyone else!
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
gznork26.bsky.social
The junta is:

Committing waste
Committing fraud
Committing abuse

Makes easy to identify
gznork26.bsky.social
Your words carried freight. Not images for eyes, but for something deeper and more powerful. Call it magic, but it felt received by that part of me where creativity is birthed. Power spreads in quiet places where hope reflects the stars that guide us. It will spread.

So mote it be.
Reposted by P. Orin Zack
ominousrabbit.com
Alrighty, Antifa regulars.

I'm not a tactician. I'm not anyone, really.

But I am a generalist: I know enough about just about everything from the banal to the arcane to connect a lot of dots.
gznork26.bsky.social
Do I sense a breath of Republican pushback?
gznork26.bsky.social
Once upon a time, corporations saw 'just-in-time' production as a cost-saving strategy that eliminated the need to stock supplies locally. The idea spread, and now they can't exist without it. But tight supply chains are also fragile, like any hollowed-out system.

They've played Jenga and lost.