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Empty Bag of Ducks📎

@emptybagofducks.bsky.social

Ex-Army officer. Retired DoD civil service/SES. Historian. Battling advanced metastatic bile duct cancer. Hoya. Diehard Packer fan. Fighting the dying of the light, the dying of liberal democracy and the death of the American Republic.

3090 Posts768 Follower761 Folgt
Mike Black@mikeblack114.bsky.social · 55m ago

a) donald john trump is one of the most incurious stupidest people alive, more at 11 b) pete blaming budgets steve is so fucking funny, sucks to suck man

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2h ago

Three-byline alert: 🚨 “.. Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages ..” @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Silverman on Security@silvermansecurity.bsky.social · yesterday

If you’ve used up “virtually all” of your stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles then you are well past raising concerns over readiness for future conflicts. You are, in fact, in a state of unreadiness until your stocks can be backfilled.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

"The Army has used up 'virtually all' of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, raising concerns about the military's readiness for future conflicts"

Patrick Chovanec@prchovanec.bsky.social · 2d ago

It would be interesting to know how many of the ships "transiting" the Strait of Hormuz are outbound vs inbound. I can readily believe ships that have been bottled up for months are eager to escape if they can find a window. Not sure how many are willingly heading back in.

Gerry Doyle@mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 7d ago

we call this horizontal escalation to me the underlying mistake here is a *literal* textbook example of assuming the enemy does not, in fact, get a vote

Vali Nasr@valinasr.bsky.social · 7d ago

I told NYT that in restarting the war Trump thought he could control, limiting the battlefield to where U.S. wants to bomb in Iran.“The Iranian response is to extend the battlefield much, much wider, so the United States has to defend a broader battlefield.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/u...

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 6d ago

Among many other things this is a good illustration of the necessity of untethering ideology and "fight" in intra-Democratic battles. The party is very united on fight, very divided on ideology. You unite on fight, let different constituencies/states find their center of gravity on ideology.

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T.J. Stiles@tj-stiles.bsky.social · last wk.

We all know Theodore Roosevelt championed (and redefined) the Monroe Doctrine, and popularized the expression, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." But with Trump bragging, threatening, insulting, and flailing helplessly, it's worth reading TR's preface to that remark. NY Tribune, April 3, 1903:

The passage in Theodore Roosevelt's speech in Chicago, April 2, 1903, in which he introduced "Speak softly and carry a big stick." He prefaced that adage with a condemnation of "boasting and blustering," by nations as well as individuals.
Empty Bag of Ducks📎@emptybagofducks.bsky.social · last wk.

Yesterday sucked. Got an out of cycle call from my oncologist that my latest CT shows the cancer is growing again. He’s switching me to my final FDA approved treatment. I knew this would happen eventually, but a bummer. So, to honor that, let me do a thread talking about treatment.

Joel Suss@joelsuss.ft.com · last wk.

I've written about the troubling, decades-long decoupling of pay & productivity growth The textbook says these should grow together, but reality - far from perfect competition - means capital has captured more of the economic fruits AI risks widening the gap Link 👉 as.ft.com/r/a188bb54-b...

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Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · last wk.

What might a Dem midterm contract for America look like? *Stop the Iran war *Investigate the corruption *Block illegal tariffs fueling inflation *Stop weaponization of federal funding by reasserting legislative power of the purse *Impose accountability on immigration enforcement

Kara N. Slade@karanslade.bsky.social · 2w ago

Feeling spicy, might delete this later. But I was in DoD-world long enough to get really, really mad at the meme on the left. The guy on the right, SGM Mike Vining, was one of the first members of Delta Force and a “tunnel rat” in Vietnam. He is 5’7” and weighs 150 lbs.

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