Empty Bag of Ducks📎
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emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Empty Bag of Ducks📎
@emptybagofducks.bsky.social
190 followers 350 following 810 posts
Ex-Army officer, retired federal senior executive service. Historian. Metastatic bile duct cancer victim. Hoya. Diehard Packer fan. Fighting the dying of the light, the dying of liberal democracy and the death of the American Republic.
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emptybagofducks.bsky.social
My first build was Chris’s Roubio done mainly with hand tools I had restored. Repurposed some Lee Valley vises. Yes, I’m a lefty!
Woodworking bench with tools on it
October 21, 2025 at 4:56 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Headlines like these are why the love and support of my friends and family are the only things making this shitty fight with cancer worthwhile. Not this stupid shit.
GROK ROLLS OUT PORNOGRAPHIC ANIME COMPANION, LANDS DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CONTRACT Meanwhile, the most advanced version of the Al chatbot from Elon Musk's XAl is still identifying as Adolf Hitler
July 14, 2025 at 11:27 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Not this defilement of the Army motto
National Guard troops “protecting” ICE agents making an arrest
June 11, 2025 at 12:22 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
As a young Army officer I bought a complete set of these because I thought these were worth fighting for and defending
A picture containing all of Rockwell’s Four Freedoms (Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want) under the words “Ours to Fight For”
June 11, 2025 at 12:20 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
I wish the man who never served would stop screwing with those who did. Meanwhile, for those U.S. service members fighting in the Pacific - like my three uncles - victory would come not on May 8, but on August 14, 1945

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Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II. I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War Il and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I. We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That's because we don't have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!
May 3, 2025 at 12:16 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
I’ve got some reading for Milo. Spoiler Alert: Factory work isn’t scintillating or satisfying.
Cover of book On the Line by Harvey Swados.
April 5, 2025 at 4:22 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
So ok, they made it appear like something appropriate by invoking price elasticity.
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Basic Approach Consider an environment in which the U.S. levies a tariff of rate _i on country i and At_i reflects the change in the tariff rate. Let &<O represent the elasticity of imports with respect to import prices, let >0 represent the passthrough from tariffs to import prices, let m_i>0 represent total imports from country i, and let x_i>0 represent total exports. Then the decrease in imports due to a change in tariffs equals Дт_i*s*Ф*m_i<0. Assuming that offsetting exchange rate and general equilibrium effects are small enough to be ignored, the reciprocal tariff that results in a bilateral trade balance of zero satisfies: x; - mi Дт; = = * * mi Parameter Selection To calculate reciprocal tariffs, import and export data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2024. Parameter values for & and d were selected. The price elasticity of import demand, &, was set at 4. Recent evidence suggests the elasticity is near 2 in the long run (Boehm et al., 2023), but estimates of the elasticity vary. To be conservative, studies that find higher elasticities near 3-4 (e.g., Broda and Weinstein 2006; Simonovska and Waugh 2014; Soderbery 2018) were drawn on. The elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs, @, is 0.25. The recent experience with U.S. tariffs on China has demonstrated that tariff passthrough to retail prices was low (Cavallo et al, 2021).
April 3, 2025 at 2:29 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
I wish they would get the premise of a movement rooted in lived historical experience. This is why they erase that history to align the past to their beliefs.
Meme with two cartoon people, one MAGA MAGA: TESLA CARS MATTER! Other: ALL CARS MATTER MAGA: Teslas are being untreated unfairly because of their identity Other: You just hate Toyatas. All cars matter! No More Libtards responds to meme: I missed where all the Toyota drivers are being shot at, drivers chased down and threatened, Toyota dealership attacked and people personal Toyotas being vandalized. Reich Wing Monitor responds “Wow, you finally get the premise of the BLM movement with three laughing so hard im crying emojis
March 24, 2025 at 11:51 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Happy memory
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1977 Sports Illustrated cover with Marquette guard Butch Lee putting up a shot against North Carolina. Marquette won the NCAA tournament that year
March 21, 2025 at 11:57 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Norwich Terrier fans of the world unite!
Photo of head of a Norwich terrier poking his head above a sofa.
March 15, 2025 at 1:30 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
I know Trump wants to take us back to the 1890s, but can we skip the company towns?
Photo of Donald Trump. Caption reads Tech execs pushing Trump to build “Freedom Cities” run by corporations
March 14, 2025 at 12:34 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
When I was Senior Executive Service member, my staff had to shoe horn in time for “correspondence/lunch” into my calendar. Sometimes, it was as little as 15 minutes.

Musk doesn’t seem that busy.
Musk says federal workers do so little work they don’t check their emails
February 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Oh yeah, you mean this kind of help?
SpaceX rocket exploding
February 17, 2025 at 7:16 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Small detail first: Current administration doesn’t have a published NDS yet. They have to write a National Security Strategy first.

Second, this is um, like normal language every budget cycle. Like, if it’s not in the NDS you shouldn’t be doing it.
Pentagon says programs must align with National Defense Strategy
February 15, 2025 at 3:06 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Just gonna put this up for no particular reason.
Map of Canada contributions to North American Defense
February 15, 2025 at 12:37 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Josh Rogin: “Multiple lawmakers here in Munich told me the U.S. Congressional delegation presented Zelensky with a piece of paper they wanted him to sign which would grant the U.S. rights to 50% of Ukraine's future mineral reserves. Zelensky politely declined to sign it.”

We’ll always have Munich.
Neville Chamberlain waves piece of paper
February 14, 2025 at 6:49 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Neville Chamberlain holding piece of paper
February 14, 2025 at 6:38 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
I know my Military Ethics class was forty years ago, but they drew bright lines between legal and illegal orders.
Jd Vance says judges can’t tell generals how to conduct military operations
February 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
Pogo sitting on a tree root, head in hand. “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
February 2, 2025 at 11:49 PM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
The Sum of All Our Fears.
February 2, 2025 at 12:22 AM
emptybagofducks.bsky.social
So what happens after the anti-DEI measures? His initial “priorities” echo the existing Biden NDS. There’s zero strategic vision beyond a work shopped word salad from his comms team. Buzzwords replacing actual comprehension of the situation he has been thrust into. Unqualified
January 27, 2025 at 3:42 AM