• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

How stupid are these people?

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / China / Weaponizing Bullshit, Chattering Classes Edition

Weaponizing Bullshit, Chattering Classes Edition

by Tom Levenson|  April 21, 20207:53 pm| 84 Comments

This post is in: China, COVID-19, Don't Trip, Organize, Information Warfare, Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

A couple of weeks ago (a gazillion years in COVID time, I know), former intellectual Niall Ferguson published a piece in the Sunday Times, asserting that the Chinese government had allowed travel from Hubei province for international destinations after banning such trips to destinations within China, adding,

As far as I can tell from the available records, however, regular direct flights from Wuhan continued to run to London, Paris, Rome, New York and San Francisco throughout January and in some cases into February.

I’m not going to bother linking to the column itself–Murdoch clicks, and it’s behind a paywall;  I’ll connect this instead to the blog post from which I got the quote and information above, written by Daniel A. Bell, dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University, and a professor at Tsinghua U. (sometimes called China’s MIT, though I suspect the nicknaming may go the other direction soon).  As in, not a dummy, based in China, and with some expert ability to navigate knowledge in that setting. (H/t James Fallows for the link to the post, btw.)

Bell was, he wrote, “surprised by the allegation,” especially given the speed with which Ferguson’s assertion was picked up in the US and Canada by ready-to-otherize-China folks. So he asked Ferguson if he was sure. Ferguson replied:

 “I can assure you I wouldn’t write a sentence like that if I had not researched it rather thoroughly.” To support his claim, he sent me several pieces of evidence.

Weaponizing Bullshit, Fancy Pants Edition

The evidence was, I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn, bullshit–links to articles that did not support the incendiary claim in Ferguson’s article.

Ferguson also sent Bell flight records that the former historian of 19th century British banking believed confirmed that 31 flights had in fact left Wuhan for Europe after the domestic travel ban kicked in on January 23.

Did those records actually show that? Here’s Bell:

 I checked all the flights listed on the spreadsheet Professor Ferguson sent me. It turns out that none of the flights that supposedly left from Wuhan after 11:26 am on Jan. 23rd actually left from Wuhan. The flights listed as red on Ferguson’s spreadsheet were cancelled. The six listed as black left from Guangzhou and in normal times would do a stopover in Wuhan on the way to SFO but the stopover was cancelled. The app shows the actual flight paths of those flights as direct from Guangzhou, bypassing Wuhan.

Bell goes on, with all the receipts that show that Ferguson, most kindly, simply did not understand the records he was using.

Bell sent his results to Ferguson, by the way. With this result:

Ferguson continues to support his allegation even after I pointed out that the evidence he provided does not support it. That’s worrisome. Conspiracy theorizing of this sort deflects attention from what actually went wrong. And it fuels the demonization of the Chinese political system at the same time we need collaboration between China and the rest of the world to deal with an urgent global pandemic.

Ferguson was once a competent financial historian. He gave that up long before he gave up full time professoring, wandering into counterfactual historical fiction and an increasingly high profile as bully-boy defender of a revival of the glory days of Anglo-American imperialism and a kind of Boys Own conservative warmongering–with a sideline in always-wrong economic and financial punditry.  He’s still taken as a serious person, however, and, more troubling, as a rigorous one. He’s not. He’s a polemicist in support of terrible policy and worse people.

In this latest effusion, the consequences of those career choices are on display: what is either a lazy mistake or the willingness to trade in too-good-to-check conspiracy theories (leavened with a measure of anti-Chinese bigotry, perhaps) produced a column based on an elementary error in reading a slightly technical source, combined with a willful misreading of a couple of news stories.

This is what passes for the cream of conservative intellectual life these days.

TL:DR Niall Ferguson–and the prominence given to him by credulous editors–is one of the reasons we can’t have nice things. There are others who are more consequential, more harmful in their reckless disregard of evidence, and the obligation not to spew bullshit.

Mistakes are one thing–I’ve made plenty and will make more. It’s the contempt for the idea of even trying to get it right, to allow reality to confound your desired narrative that makes the contemporary radical right such an existential threat.

Fuck it. I’m tired. Whacking those who are wrong on the internet is an endless task–by design: the whole enterprise of illiberal authoritarianism turns on wearing out the opposition, as much as overtly crushing it.  But still–this is the kind of chickenshit up with which no civilized society should have to put.

Open thread.

Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters, 1799.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «spy v. spy flyouts The Senate Select Committee On Intelligence Has Validated the Intelligence Communities Sources, Methods, and Findings That Russia Interfered In the 2016 Election To Help Elect Trump President
Next Post: Work At Home Only Works When You Pay People A Decent Wage »

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  1. 1.

    E.

    April 21, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    I’m not saying you’re wrong, but do you have evidence Ferguson was at one time a passably honest intellectual? I read the first chapter of an earlier, pretend-scholarly book of his and immediately recognized a fraud. But maybe I didn’t go back far enough.

  2. 2.

    japa21

    April 21, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    He’s still taken as a serious person, however, and, more troubling, as a rigorous one. He’s not. He’s a polemicist in support of terrible policy and worse people.

    Too long for a tag line, but it works for so many people.

  3. 3.

    TomatoQueen

    April 21, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    OTOH as well as OT: we are permitted to make the Meatballs:

     

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/us/ikea-meatball-recipe-trnd/

  4. 4.

    Baud

    April 21, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    Mistakes are one thing–I’ve made plenty and will make more. It’s the contempt for the idea of even trying to get it right, to allow reality to confound your desired narrative that makes the contemporary radical right such an existential threat.

    That’s conservativism in a nutshell. They hide behind everyone else’s imperfections to let their freak fly.

    They take “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” to mean they are accountable to no one beneath them in the social hierarchy (which all liberals are).

  5. 5.

    cokane

    April 21, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    sleep is a better translation than dream of sueño in this context. minor quibble obviously

  6. 6.

    Tom Levenson

    April 21, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    @E.: His first book, on the Rothschilds, is said by people I trust to be competent. That’s all I got.

  7. 7.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    April 21, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    wandering into counterfactual historical fiction

    I’ll just say this: there’s nothing inherently wrong w/ alternate/counterfactual history as long as you can back it up with good reasoning/evidence. It can be interesting academic exercise as well as make for some good novels.

    I’m sure going based on Niall Ferguson’s body of work, he doesn’t tend to do tha

    ETA: Conservatives/RWNJ’s have been claiming that liberals and the media called Trump racist and xenophobic for the travel ban (which was too little too late anyway) on China when it was enacted. I wasn’t paying attention at the time to that specifically. Is any of that true?

  8. 8.

    Tom Levenson

    April 21, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @cokane: You’re right, and I’ve changed it accordingly. Thanks!

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    April 21, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    Bell goes on, with all the receipts that show that Ferguson, most kindly, simply did not understand the records he was using.

    This reminds me of Naomi Wolf, who similarly did not understand the records she was using, leading her to make serious errors regarding the application of capital punishment in the UK for supposed sexual offenses.

    But the political pundits and the publishers and others behind them, don’t fear rejection or retribution, and so remain committed to their noxious lies.

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    April 21, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    Keep fighting the good fight, Tom. It’s a never-ending battle.

    In the nobody-could-have-predicted file – Reuters:

    At least seven people contracted the coronavirus during Wisconsin’s primary election on April 7, Milwaukee health officials said on Tuesday, confirming fears that holding in-person voting during the health crisis put people at risk.

    [ image ]

    The seven cases include six voters and one poll worker in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, where nearly 200 voting locations were pared back to five and there were hours-long lines to cast ballots, the office of Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik confirmed.

    The number of election-related infections could grow as the 14-day incubation period ends on Wednesday, health officials said.

    […]

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  11. 11.

    Tom Levenson

    April 21, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    re Goku at no. 7:  I believe an issue was that he banned Chinese citizens and not those with other documents from coming this way.

    As if the virus checks passports before replicating…

  12. 12.

    kindness

    April 21, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    It’s the whole party really.  My whole extended family were New England/NY Republicans.  Fiscal conservatives and social liberals.  Those people don’t exist in the Republican Party any longer.  Those people either left the party (like much of my family did), were pushed out or they ate the insane pill and now are right wing nut jobs.  It’s the MSM which refuses to admit it.

  13. 13.

    khead

    April 21, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Fuck it. I’m tired. Whacking those who are wrong on the internet is an endless task–by design: the whole enterprise of illiberal authoritarianism turns on wearing out the opposition, as much as overtly crushing it.  But still–this is the kind of chickenshit up with which no civilized society should have to put.

    Yeah, this.  But I’m still not quite sure how to deal with it without the bare minimum of 218-60-1-5.

  14. 14.

    divF

    April 21, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    I love Goya’s etchings. In my student days, I used to have a print of The Sleep of Reason hanging in my workspace as I moved from place to place, along with prints of his other works.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    April 21, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    TomatoQueen: But what about the lingonberry jelly?

    I’m not a meatball person but I do drive up to my local IKEA sometimes for the gravlax and the apple cake.

  16. 16.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    April 21, 2020 at 8:19 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    Oh okay. Yeah, that’s bullshit then. He should’ve banned all flights out of China sooner, then SK, then Italy/Europe

  17. 17.

    JPL

    April 21, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    @TomatoQueen: Thank you!    After reading Tom’s post, I was thinking about ways that we could combat fake news effectively.    I got pretty discouraged, and then I saw your link..   I’ll probably never make them, but it brightened my mood.

  18. 18.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 21, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    Let me join in the Niall Ferguson hate. He is full of shit. He is an apologist for the British Empire. His “work” on deficits after Obama took office for the Peterson foundation was intellectually dishonest.

    But we colonials (Americans and Indians too) are in thrall of the British accent and willing to swallow anything when said in the clipped tones of received pronunciation.

  19. 19.

    Just Chuck

    April 21, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    Truth is just whatever is on your Facebook feed.

  20. 20.

    Cheryl Rofer

    April 21, 2020 at 8:22 pm

    There’s a lot of this around.

    I cite the Stanford “studies” of immunity in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, for which they have not made their methods clear and are not responding to their critics, who are many.

    One of the co-authors is a venture capitalist, with no experience in statistics or epidemiology. The LA study is available only in the form of a press release.

    I saw a very patient thread on Twitter from a real statistician, who was hoping to get a reply from the authors. Seems to me we should just ignore what they’ve done and anything they may do in the future.

  21. 21.

    Ohio Mom

    April 21, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    Another Scott: Seven cases so far. If we did contact tracing, the number would no doubt be higher.

    I hope one day there is a historical marker: On this site on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, Wisconsin voters risked their lives, etc.

  22. 22.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    April 21, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    Yeah, well just wait until the Chinese find out that the COVID-19 virus is a US bioweapon that Trump approved for use on China, not realizing how widely it spread.

    Trump, and his inner circle aren’t taking precautions, seem to have zero worries about catching it. They’ve got the vaccine.

     

    And accidentally tweeting out “cofefe” during a classified briefing? It was a “covid” typo + send to twit feed.

     

    All part of “Trump: he’s not only worse than you think, he’s worse than you CAN think”.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    April 21, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    @japa21: Yeah, I don’t think I could sneak that one past John.  He is adamant that they can’t be too long. It’s a good one, though.

  24. 24.

    Spanky

    April 21, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    Huh! Here I thought you were going to use despicable Marc Thiessen’s latest screed in the WaPo as more puke funnel evidence.

    China can’t be ‘scapegoated’ if it’s actually guilty

    (Actual headline to the opinion piece.)

  25. 25.

    Delk

    April 21, 2020 at 8:36 pm

    Doubling down is the worst rebuttal.

  26. 26.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    April 21, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    This is satire, right?

  27. 27.

    danielx

    April 21, 2020 at 8:45 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): 
    So hard to tell these days…

  28. 28.

    jimmirayybob

    April 21, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    I looked into Ferguson a while back in preparation for buying a book. I thought that he smelled of a polemicist and not the historian that I would trust. Looks like the extra research effort is panning out.

  29. 29.

    Achrachno

    April 21, 2020 at 8:48 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): “Is any of that true?”

    Well, I call him a racist xenophobe whenever I have to talk about him. Why should I shade the blatantly obvious?  He’s been that way his whole life.  But I’m not part of the media or anything so no one listens to me.

  30. 30.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2020 at 8:49 pm

    @TomatoQueen: I like their meatballs and it’s great that we are allowed to make them, but I use a recipe that blows my socks off.

    Fabio’s Meatballs: https://youtu.be/gzQXD6sMoNM

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    April 21, 2020 at 8:52 pm

    Huh, and here I was guessing from the title that this was going to be about Richard Epstein, eminent law professor and now practitioner of history-rewriting due to his early and inconvenient prediction that the US would suffer a total of five hundred deaths from Coronavirus.

  32. 32.

    jimmirayybob

    April 21, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    As if the virus checks passports before replicating…

    But…..but….Trump said the virus is “tough and smart.”  So maybe……../

  33. 33.

    ThresherK

    April 21, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    @kindness: 

    My whole extended family were New England/NY Republicans. Fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Those people don’t exist in the Republican Party any longer.

    “Mistah we could use a man like Sherry Boehlert again!”

  34. 34.

    jimmirayybob

    April 21, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    And accidentally tweeting out “cofefe” during a classified briefing? It was a “covid” typo + send to twit feed.

    Cofefe is what they’d scrawled in crayon for his morning security briefing picture book.  So really, he was spot on.

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 9:00 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Anyone was a Thatcherite and hasn’t done an apology tour can fuck right off.  Then and now.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    April 21, 2020 at 9:01 pm

    @jimmirayybob:

    Your first comment on Balloon Juice, or your first comment after changing your name/nym or email address, has to be manually approved.

    Until that first comment is approved, everything goes into moderation and doesn’t show up until that first one is released.

    You should be good to go now.  Welcome!

  37. 37.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 21, 2020 at 9:03 pm

    MAGA Twitter: Immigrants are slave labor. How long before Rose Twitter joins in?

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Look, if Trump does something, racism is a pretty good guess as to why.  The others are weird and unpleasant perviness or personal profit.  Also on the board – any combination of the above.

  39. 39.

    Redshift

    April 21, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    Krugman was recently driven to repeat his observation about “academic” conservatism – “can’t they find any better hacks?”

  40. 40.

    jimmiraybob

    April 21, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    @WaterGirl:

     

    Thanks for the welcome but I’m afraid it’s due to fat fingers and a failing keyboard.  I’ve been offering snark here since the great Fountain, AZ Garbage Contract Wars of aught something.   Maybe earlier.

    I’ve corrected

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 21, 2020 at 9:07 pm

    @opiejeanne: Hahaha

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 21, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    @Another Scott: It’s now up to 19.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    April 21, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    I have a similar opinion of Peter Hitchens’ stand on Covid-19. If your time is too valuable to waste on 10 minutes of his nonsense, just look for my comment.

  44. 44.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 21, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Is he related to Christopher Hitchens?

  45. 45.

    Fair Economist

    April 21, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    The now chronically optimistic IHME model released today for Georgia:

    After June 19, 2020, relaxing social distancing may be possible with containment strategies that include testing, contact tracing, isolation, and limiting gathering size.

    Methinks Governor Kemp is creating quite the problem.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 21, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Fabio’s Meatballs

    It’s the long blonde hair that makes them special.

  47. 47.

    Redshift

    April 21, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

     Is any of that true? 

    No, it’s been thoroughly debunked. I mean, I’m sure plenty of random liberals called it racist, but their claims that he bravely fought off everyone who tried to stop it are BS. Some Dems thought it would be ineffective, and there was a hearing where Dems (appropriately) asked pointed questions about how it would be implemented, but there was no real pushback.

    .

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    April 21, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    @TomatoQueen:

    I understand the meatballs at Malaysian IKEAs are made to a halal, pork-free recipe.

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    April 21, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Brother.

  50. 50.

    Tom Levenson

    April 21, 2020 at 9:23 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: very well done, mon sembable, mon frere.

  51. 51.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 21, 2020 at 9:23 pm

    @Amir Khalid: They do look similar, that’s why I asked.

  52. 52.

    japa21

    April 21, 2020 at 9:24 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Of course the standard RWNJ response to that is, “Only 19? I thought this was some horrible virus that would kill everybody.”

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 9:24 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Peter is Christopher’s younger brother.

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 21, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    @japa21: 19 so far.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 9:29 pm

    @japa21: @Adam L Silverman: We are a very competitive state.

  56. 56.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2020 at 9:29 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Did I say something funny?

    Oh, you think I’m talking about the mode, don’t you. :-P

  57. 57.

    TomatoQueen

    April 21, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    @Ohio Mom: IKEA are control freaks, so the lingonberry jam won’t come out till next year.

  58. 58.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 21, 2020 at 9:31 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I was reading not quite in order and decided I didn’t need to know how you knew what Fabio’s meatballs look like.

  59. 59.

    Patricia Kayden

    April 21, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    “It allowed me to have some closure. Even though I couldn’t see him and I couldn’t hold his hand, having that connection… was incredibly valuable.” Abby Adair Reinhard and her family spent more than 30 hours on the phone with her father, Don, as he died of coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/TYKN9cpE30— CNN (@CNN) April 22, 2020

  60. 60.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh God, you guys do know that there are other guys named Fabio?

  61. 61.

    Feathers

    April 21, 2020 at 9:33 pm

    I would like to point out that Harvard Business School voted him off the island fairly quickly and quietly, after the Obama shit started up. No announcement, he just dropped the appointment off his list of affiliations.

    I audited his Harvard world history since 1630 class (online). Thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot. He had a recommended novel for each lecture. Read quite a few good books I wouldn’t have otherwise, for example, Joseph Roth’s Radetsky March. Star professors do often show a very different face in the classroom and on the TV news shows. His contrarian takes work better as the last 5-10 minutes of an hour lecture. He struck me as a man addicted to being clever and who never got over his crush on Margaret Thatcher.

  62. 62.

    West of the Rockies

    April 21, 2020 at 9:36 pm

    Is Martin still doing his Covid19 data dumps?  Anyone know when they tend to show up?

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    @Feathers: He struck me as a man addicted to being clever and who never got over his crush on Margaret Thatcher.

    I must necessarily find one of these forgivable.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    April 21, 2020 at 9:46 pm

    @jimmiraybob: Well, dammit!  When I don’t say “welcome” people say we should be more welcoming.  When I do say “welcome” then invariably the person has been here for a million years and either changed a nym or an email address or just has a new device.

    So maybe I should just say “fuck you”?  In the nicest possible way.  :-)

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    April 21, 2020 at 9:48 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: I thought maybe I had finally run out of tears this week, but nope, apparently not.  That’s heartbreaking.

  66. 66.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 21, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @WaterGirl: Just say it in the standard way.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @WaterGirl: So maybe I should just say “fuck you”?

    It would be irresponsible not to.

  68. 68.

    E.

    April 21, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    @Feathers: Interesting. I may check it out. But I hate him so much already I probably won’t make a fair judgment.

  69. 69.

    catclub

    April 21, 2020 at 9:58 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): he also only banned them after the US major airlines had already cancelled their flights. so chicken shit timing.

  70. 70.

    catclub

    April 21, 2020 at 9:59 pm

    @jimmirayybob: and about two years early

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 21, 2020 at 10:03 pm

    @opiejeanne: I know of no such thing.

  72. 72.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 21, 2020 at 10:13 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    So maybe I should just say “fuck you”?  In the nicest possible way.  :-)

    Just ask yourself, WWJGCD.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 21, 2020 at 10:18 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Trip over at least two different pets, drop the mustard, have his overalls slide off while falling, land funny and hurt something, and then the mop falls on him.

    That’s what John G Cole would do.

  74. 74.

    jimmiraybob

    April 21, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    While I was happy to be embraced by “welcome” I would also get a laurel and hardy “fuck you.”

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: That sounds like too much work.*

    *I would make a poor acolyte.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    April 21, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    Clicks for Shelter Meals for Pets,

    and you don’t have to see much of an ad,

    but the ad money ( per clic) goes towards feeding shelter animals.

    https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clicktogive/ars/home

  77. 77.

    jimmiraybob

    April 21, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    @catclub: You’re ruling out time travel?  The deep state has its ways.  Que up sinister music.

  78. 78.

    Jay

    April 21, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    We should start distributing these, along with handy prefab forms for their wills. pic.twitter.com/4tYFbWb2dQ— David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) April 21, 2020

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    April 21, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Perhaps he would say:

    Fuck you, you fucking fuck!

  80. 80.

    Juju

    April 22, 2020 at 12:55 am

    @opiejeanne: I don’t think I’d really want to eat Fabio’s meatballs…

  81. 81.

    bjacques

    April 22, 2020 at 1:47 am

    All these comments and no mention of his Somalian (really Kenyan) missus Ayaan Hirsi Ali who immigrated to the Netherlands, and became a Labor Party politician, then, sensing shifts in the political winds, joined in on the disgraceful Muslim- and immigrant-bashing here post-9/11 and proceeding to leave a trail of political destruction in her wake before decamping to America.

     

    she really was a piece of work. Ferguson dumped his wife for her. They deserve each other.

     

    I haven’t heard from him since Sadly, No! used to give regular kickings to him and Victor David Tiberius Drusus Nero Hansen.

  82. 82.

    Procopius

    April 22, 2020 at 4:21 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m sorry, but there is no such thing as “alternate/counterfactual history.” There is such a thing as alternate/counterfactual historical fiction. Newt Gingrich did some, fantasizing about what might have happened if the Confederacy had “won” the Civil War. I believe the thesis was that the traitors prevailed at Gettysburg and marched on to seize Washington, D.C. I recall Len Deighton wrote one called SS-GB, based on the idea that Nazi Germany successfully invaded and conquered Great Britain.  The trouble is once you change one outcome, you can’t really tell what other outcomes depended on that and were changed in ways you don’t know. In the case of Niall Ferguson, I remember reading a quote from him concerning a computer game based on World War II. He said something to the effect that by trying different values for the parameters we could see how the world would have been shaped. Well, no. He did not seem to understand that he was dealing with a game, not a serious attempt to simulate the real world. He did not seem to understand that the default parameters were not based on rigorous analysis of the real world, they were assumptions chosen to make an interesting game. He’s gone downhill from there.

  83. 83.

    Wesley Sandel

    April 27, 2020 at 1:31 pm

    Damn I wish I could get a sinecure at one of those right-wing stink tanks. I could churn out complete bullshit all day long, one article after another. No research wanted or allowed.

  84. 84.

    Michael

    April 27, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    @TomatoQueen: Wait, soy sauce is Swedish?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - lashonharangue - Along the Zambezi River [2 of 2] 8
Image by lashonharangue (7/8/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • Ruckus on Sharing Is Caring Open Thread: Calls to Action (Jul 9, 2025 @ 1:54am)
  • Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom on War for Ukraine Day 1,230: Another Early Morning Under Ukraine Wide Air Raid Alerts (Jul 9, 2025 @ 1:47am)
  • prostratedragon on Wisconsin Is A Reminder of Why We Should Never Give up (Jul 9, 2025 @ 1:45am)
  • prostratedragon on Wisconsin Is A Reminder of Why We Should Never Give up (Jul 9, 2025 @ 1:33am)
  • Msb on We Should All Be So Lucky (Jul 9, 2025 @ 1:31am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!