Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Bark louder, little dog.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

85Comments

  2. 2.

    kindness

    Clear Tunch out from the hamsters running the server’s motors…he’s creeping them out with his stares.

  6. 6.

    Violet

    Some of the ads feature naked women, making this site somewhat NSFW. I don’t know if you can do anything about that, but it’s been a topic of discussion for the last day or so.

    I’m not having this problem, but for some people if they refresh the site the new posts don’t appear. They have to click the rotating tag line in the banner to get the site to refresh properly and the new posts to appear.

  7. 7.

    West of the Cascades

    It’s loading nicely today, thanks. On the “Blogroll,” it seems like a link to Charlie Pierce’s snark would be nice, and an edit to “Steve Benen” to link to his new Maddowblog as well as adding Ed Kilgore (and/or “Washington Monthly”) to the list.

  9. 9.

    Tony J

    No follow-up pictures of The Host with The Cat, or The Host and The Dogs. You’ve popped the cork, let the bubbles spray.

    And the wraparound text. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does it will not go away. Yeah, I use the world’s most ubiquitous and crappy browser, but come on, the clue is in the name.

  10. 10.

    burnspbesq

    The problem may be browser-specific. I currently have my work laptop (a MacBook Air running OS 10.7 and Firefox 8.0.1) and my iPad drawing from the same Internet connection via the same AirPort. The iPad is loading fine. The laptop is dead in the water.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    Other than general slowness, are there any other problems?

    All of the Republicans running for President are either crazy or sociopathic. Please fix.

  14. 14.

    Three-nineteen

    To me, the naked woman seems a lot more safe for work than the one that was pretending to fellate that cucumber. It seemed like you can’t actually tell she’s naked unless you really stare at her. I can’t see it now because a NASCAR driver is telling me who should do my taxes. Heavens, is that Earnhardt Jr.? He doesn’t look anything like his dad – must be the lack of mustache.

  16. 16.

    pragmatism

    blame the solar flares, john. i have gotten a lot of mileage out of that in the past week or so.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    @Tony J:

    No follow-up pictures of The Host with The Cat, or The Host and The Dogs.
    __
    And the wraparound text. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does it will not go away.

    Seconded! On both counts.

    @burnspbesq:

    The problem may be browser-specific.

    Seems to be happening both on my laptop at home where I use Explorer and at work where I use Firefox. The only device where I don’t seem to be having this problem is on my iPhone.

  19. 19.

    t jasper parnell

    The economy sucks and the neoliberals control the debate. Plus all the good beer costs too much and, as if the latter wasn’t bad enough, my feet hurt.

  22. 22.

    The Pale Scot

    “Other than general slowness, are there any other problems?’

    I’m almost out of the good scotch, Please help.

  27. 27.

    Phoenix_rising

    Too many excerpts from David Fucking Brooks on front page. Please hide behind the jump and provide a trigger warning: May cause blinding rage.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    In case anyone wondered, snark is definitely not a recent invention:

    Letter from freed slave to former master draws attention

    Though apparently “escaped slave” would have been a more accurate headline since the letter includes lines like, “Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living.”

    Jourdan Anderson has been dead for over 100 years, and yet I love him.

  30. 30.

    NobodySpecial

    Other than general slowness, are there any other problems?

    People whine too much about riot shields in Modern Warfare 3.

    Maybe that wasn’t what you were looking for….

  31. 31.

    cathyx

    I just got notice that my garbage pickup is going up in price. My car insurance renewal is more even though I’ve had no accidents and my car is 6 months older than the last time I paid it. My favorite wine is now a dollar more per bottle. I’m so sick of this daily rising of prices of everything.

  33. 33.

    BarbF

    I could use a new job, or maybe just get a pound of $20’s.

    Other than that, no specific problems.

  36. 36.

    feebog

    Yes, most of time when I go to cocmments after reading the main post the margins stretch out to fucking Nebraska. Please fix.

  38. 38.

    Warren Terra

    It’s not specific to this site, but for most of the last week some script in flash ads has given my Chrome the heebie-jeebies, so loading most sites that have ads means my browser freezing for ten seconds and then giving me an error message. It’s really, really vexing.

  40. 40.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @feebog:

    And I thought that was just me.

    Lesseee, other problems: our corporate media, a convservative party that’s batshit insane, a firebagging left that’s batshit insane, the fact I have two fantastic foster kittehs I can’t find a home for.

    Oh, you meant the *site*.

    Nevermind. Except for the foster kittehs, inquiries welcome.

  42. 42.

    Libby's person

    My brain is loading slower than molasses. I’m still waiting for that paper I’m supposed to be working on to download…

  45. 45.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Violet:

    Some of the ads feature naked women, making this site somewhat NSFW.

    On a 17″ monitor the woman showing about the same skin you’d see on a beach is about 1″ long and I’d go along with the thought that hot rods and scantily dressed babes is kinda silly but my eyes prefer her to Newt’s visage on a political beg…

  46. 46.

    Punchy

    Can we get another picture of your lady-killin’ mug please? Maybe an action photo, like you drinking wine or washing the doggies?

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @BGinCHI:

    Baby pooped on me.

    This is another one of those hazards of getting laid that no one ever bothers to tell you about.

  50. 50.

    lamh35

    I’ve been late to all your posting about your angst and stuff and never did have a chance to comment on ur picture post. Chin u dude you are alright.

    The site is working fine for me I guess.

  52. 52.

    Violet

    @Chuck Butcher:
    It’s not really a matter of preference. In some workplaces an ad with the scantily dressed women could get you in trouble. An ad for Newt, no matter how offensive he is, wouldn’t cause the same problems.

  56. 56.

    Violet

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    They do indeed. But as a lowly employee, you can’t really change that kind of workplace policy. You can, however, be fired for “violating workplace policy on viewing objectionable material.” HR doesn’t side with the lowly employee if the boss is upset by it.

  57. 57.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Violet:

    And people bitch about the government telling them what they can and cannot do.

    Most workplaces are authoritarian hellholes that Stalin would approve of.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @cathyx: With regard to your garbage bill going up, lots of people have success with this strategy. This is kind of an open secret.

    You call around until you get a competing quote at the rate you have been getting (or lower). Then you call your garbage company that is raising your rates, and you tell them that you will be canceling because of the rate change. Tell them about your competitive quote, and I believe they will return you to your current rate.

  59. 59.

    cathyx

    @WaterGirl: We don’t have competition. One company only. My choices are to go on a monthly pickup, or take it to the transfer station myself.

  60. 60.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Violet:
    I suppose that the thrust of my point was two fold, one the lack of clothes in that pose is scarcely anything, more to the point is exactly how close to the monitor you’d have to be to make out what it actually is.

    I’ll be the first to admit that at my workplaces if you even have a computer running you’re not doing what you should be. After the third time someone was stopped and on their cell phone I’d tell tham to fix that situation or turn it off – the unstated “or” was that they could find someone else’s time/money to waste. If the house isn’t on fire, the kid in the hospital, or the dog puking blood there are two breaks and lunch and a whole shit load of time off work to jibber-jabber on the phone and tools and construction aren’t involved.

  61. 61.

    Benjamin Franklin

    Just saw Paul Begalla chastizing Romney for ‘abusing’ his dog.

    I swear, piling on could create some sympathy for the non-Klingon.

    I remember an anecdote about FDR and the Republicans who went ballistic when, after a State trip to Japan, wherein the President traveled on a Naval vessel, 6 hours into the return he realized his Scottish Terrier was left behind. He turned the escort around to retrieve the dog.

    “He’s wasting money” they fumed. The result was an outpouring of sympathy for FDR, because he loves his dog.

  64. 64.

    Benjamin Franklin

    I guess the whole story is 25 years ago Romney tied the family dog to the roof of the car for a trip.

    That’s’ admittedly, pretty bad. But do we really want to tackle these issues when so many others exist?

    I’m a little more than ambivalent.

  65. 65.

    trollhattan

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    It’s just that Mittens would tie the whole damn country to the station wagon roof if it appeared logical to do so, and I don’t mean in a Spock sort of logic. A tiny window into the soul–if you will–of an evidently soulless man. Nation, meet lump of coal.

  67. 67.

    Downpuppy

    @trollhattan: Bradley did a full “Releae the Hounds” on Federal workers, with Clive Crook, too.

    None of the Atlantic Assclowns bothered to do any research at all. As many commenters pointed out,

    1)It’s not that the Feds have got meore generous – private sector wages have been stomped

    2) Wages are a small part of the Federal budget

    3) Weissman, McArdle & Crook are overpaid hacks overdue for the glue factory

  69. 69.

    dance around in your bones

    The site is working fine for me. Once in a while there is a slow loading problem but I swear I don’t keep mashing the refresh button, I just have another sip of wine and meditate on our need for speed.

    I’d love to see a current picture of Lily and Rosie. I miss the little buglets.

  71. 71.

    trollhattan

    @Downpuppy:

    It’s like Sully broke up all the furniture there and McMegan and Friends hang around and complain lubrules are preventing them from sitting.

  72. 72.

    redheadedfemme

    @Warren Terra: Get AdBlock for Chrome (there’s also a version for Firefox). Works wonders.

    Also, John: Is there any way to write up a little script that allows commenters to subscribe to individual threads? I would love to be able to read replies in my email instead of coming back to the site over and over again. Not that I don’t like visiting y’all, but…

  74. 74.

    Allen

    Well, it seems to be loading fast to me but my internet has till now been down up till just now.

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    This is another one of those hazards of getting laid that no one ever bothers to tell you about.

    Somebody (here?) made a joke along those lines where the punchline was, “That’s why you should never drink and park.”

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    The following is a minor nit in the grand scheme of things, but I have noticed it happening the last few days. Maybe file it under “weird things that might be related to something else.”

    When you click on “Link” next to a comment, that becomes the anchor point at which the page is situated when you refresh it, i.e., it’s at the top of your browser screen. I use it as a convenient way to hoist up the next batch of stuff to read and keep track of where I am.

    What I have noticed over the last few days is that under certain circumstances when I go back to a page (a tab in Firefox 9.0.1 under Windows XP, actually) the anchor point is at an arbitrary point about three PgUp’s above where I last left it. I haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly what the circumstances are, but I think it is related to doing a “Reload all tabs” in Firefox. At least that is where I have noticed it so far.

    Again, not a flaming problem, but just something I have noticed as being different from before and thought I would mention.

  80. 80.

    walter friesen

    I’ve read Balloon Juice for years, but I’ve recently switched to an Android tablet as my travel computer. The Balloon Juice site really sucks with Android. Why is that? Do you have an Android app that works better?

  81. 81.

    dch

    I’m having the same problems as warren terra – some flash ad or something is causing errors pretty regularly. Also, the site didn’t update yesterday (though I saw tons of new posts this AM).

  82. 82.

    john patrick

    “… are there any other problems?” I have this weird, nipple – like accretion of skin that forms at the back of my armpit. It’s a bit sensitive to the touch. Seems like a kind of Darwinian appendage designed to allow my enemies to more easily apprehend me as I go past. Thanks for asking. Almost nobody asks me about this stuff.

  83. 83.

    FlyingToaster

    To our host: I’m married to a fat man with a beard. You’re just fine. Trust me. And my ninja daughter.

    @Violet: My four-year-old WarriorGirl kept wanting to know “what is she doing?” I finally figured out which site was serving the ad and just blocked images from there (don’t mind the ads, but I DO NOT WANT to explain oral sex to a kid in preschool).

    @BGinCHI: WarriorGirl brought home the current Norovirus; vomited on me (twice), gave it to me and HerrDoktor and on to her godlessparents and their son. Consider it your part of encouraging the robustness of the species (a la Guns Germs and Steel).

    –FlyingToaster +2

Comments are closed.