Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Second rate reporter says what?

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Come on, man.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Let’s finish the job.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance / Site Rebuild Update

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  2. 2.

    MikeJ

    That looks really nice, but I feel like I should complain about it or you wouldn’t know you were reading the right site.

  5. 5.

    Daaling

    So basically the same non functioning site with the same crappy theme…but hey we got a new logo. The balloon has stripes n shit now. Wow!

  7. 7.

    jwb

    For the left it’s daylight and “green balloons,” whereas for the right, all is in shadow. Nice allegory.

  9. 9.

    Wannabe Speechwriter

    It’s worse than the Holocaust, the Khmer Rogue, and Obama’s Presidency (that one being the worst, of course) combined! You need to let David Brooks design your logo!!!

  11. 11.

    lamh35

    your last line made me think of the Mens Warehouse commercial…”you’re gonna like the way you look” tagline.

  12. 12.

    Tonal Crow

    So does the new look include working multi-paragraph blockquotes and the ability to spell “soshulist” correctly without getting kicked into moderation? Or only bolder stripes? Not that bolder stripes are bad, at least if you’re a mouse and the stripes are on the tabby that’s stalking you.

  13. 13.

    Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    I don’t know if it’s too late to bring this up, but I happened to think of it earlier today. When I’m reading the comments, and one comment is an answer to an earlier one, when I put the cursor over the link to the first comment, it’ll give me a number like 2910488 or something, and if I want to see what the first comment was, or if I’ve forgotten what it said, I have to go up through all of them, looking at the “link” thingies, before I can find it. Is there a way to have the link in the followup comment tell what number on that thread the earlier comment was? It isn’t a big deal, but it would be helpful.

    Also, Daaling is an asshole and should fuck off forthwith.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Mary

    Looks pretty nifty!

    (So will the balloon change colours depending on your mood, John?)

  18. 18.

    Tonal Crow

    @Wannabe Speechwriter:

    You need to let David Brooks design your logo

    You need to let David Brooks guest-write here. Really. He desperately needs to experience the evisceration skills we’ve honed on E.D.K.

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    @Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):

    When I’m reading the comments, and one comment is an answer to an earlier one, when I put the cursor over the link to the first comment, it’ll give me a number like 2910488 or something, and if I want to see what the first comment was, or if I’ve forgotten what it said, I have to go up through all of them, looking at the “link” thingies, before I can find it.

    Are you saying that you can’t just click the hyperlink to the previous comment and go right to it? Like clicking your (hyperlinked) name in this comment takes you to the comment to which I am replying.

    And, pro tip, if you want to come back from there to this comment, just press the backspace key.

  31. 31.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    I would have gone with an enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus myself.

    I think you need permission from Getty Images before you post pictures of Tom Friedman.

  32. 32.

    gogol's wife

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    I thought this should have been mentioned on the earworm thread. Every time I see that phrase, then I have that stupid tune in my ears the rest of the day, whatever that Beach Boys song was, Kokomo or something, only with these disgusting lyrics.

    I hate change too. But as long as nothing big changes, I guess it’s okay.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @TBogg:
    Oddly enough, I know what Jiffy Pop is, having heard Agent Mulder refer to it in the first X-Files movie.

  44. 44.

    Jewish Steel

    No one is reminded of the hat that is worn by a character in the Mario world? I don’t know the character’s name. Not a gamer.

  46. 46.

    Nix

    That’s great, let me file that with the other things in the world that do nothing for me.

  49. 49.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    Here’s a sneak peak at the new header …

    Nooo! I’ll miss the anachronistic little man with the cane, top hat, striped pants, tails, and barker’s horn.

    .

  52. 52.

    JoyousMN

    Hey John, like the new design. But dont forget about those of us on mobile, android and tablet. The site is pretty good,but I’ve had some issues switching to desktop versionwhen on a tablet. If you designer is testing the user agent for mobile, tables gets lumped in with smaller screens. I find myself switching to desktop but it works and looks better on table. But I’m getting a site not found when I click the link at the bottom of the ballon juice page.

  53. 53.

    JoyousMN

    Hey John, like the new design. But dont forget about those of us on mobile, android and tablet. The site is pretty good,but I’ve had some issues switching to desktop versionwhen on a tablet. If you designer is testing the user agent for mobile, tables gets lumped in with smaller screens. I find myself switching to desktop but it works and looks better on table. But I’m getting a site not found when I click the link at the bottom of the ballon juice page.

  54. 54.

    Daaling

    @Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): Well lets see. It helps me cope with the fact someone like Bush could be elected TWICE by just the sorts of people like the one that runs this site. Besides, it’s cheaper than cable.

    In case you haven’t figured it out yet people like Cole ARE the problem. Very dumb when it counts. On election day. Then spend the next 12 years pissing and moaning about it.

  57. 57.

    JoyousMN

    sorry for double post, was trying to correct. Meant to say “because desktop looks better on table”

  59. 59.

    hildebrand

    Sure, change the logo and other things, soon enough Jane Hamsher, David Sirota, Tucker Carlson, McMegan and Glennzilla will be the frontpagers, and then where will you be. Hah!

  61. 61.

    A Ghost To Most

    I for one welcome our new header overlord. I do miss the guy with the megaphone, though.

  62. 62.

    Citizen_X

    THIS PLACE HAS GONE TO HELL! PATHETIC, COLE, PATHETIC!

    Ok, actually, I like it.

    enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus

    Is there a better tagline anywhere? I’m half-tempted to have that put on my tombstone.

  63. 63.

    JGabriel

    @Daaling:

    It helps me cope with the fact someone like Bush could be elected TWICE by just the sorts of people like the one that runs this site.

    Didn’t you vote for Bush fils too?

    Not rhetorical, I’m asking in true puzzlement — I thought you were friends with wingnuts for the first 5 or 6 years of this millenium.

    .

  64. 64.

    Chyron HR

    @Daaling:

    No, actually, you started trolling this site when most of the people here didn’t automatically believe that Rep. Weiner wasn’t sending pictures of his penis to people.

    And you never forgave us for being right.

    Now make like a good bag lady and start incoherently screaming that I’m your “groupie”, or whatever your fillings are telling you to say today.

  65. 65.

    David Koch

    I can’t believe it.

    This logo is bullshit! Bullshit!

    It doesn’t contain the public option!

  69. 69.

    Kiril

    Bah! The new header makes me angry! A thousand poxes upon you all! Martial law is imposed! Tariffs and taxes on everything! All fruit is banned! I am angry! So, so angry!

    >ht giblets

  71. 71.

    taylormattd

    Ooh, it’s pretty. Like.

    I’m crossing my fingers that the fucking mobile site will be wiped from the face of the earth. :)

  73. 73.

    Daaling

    @Chyron HR: Okey dokey. If you say so.

    Like I said, I have a problem with this site because I basically think Cole is retarded. He voted for Bush twice and has shown he can be persuaded by libertarian ideas at times. He claims he is all better now and it was all stupid youth or whatever.

    However, less than a year ago he got all messed up on Libya and I think the record is pretty clear just how back asswards wrong he was on that.

    So say bullshit to talk he changed. You cannot fix mental retardation. People can learn to cope with it better and not partake in certain types of activities but it never goes away.

    If this were 1940’s Germany he would be a brown shirt convinced that all Jews must die.

  75. 75.

    Sloegin

    So this fixes the 3 different site layouts that I randomly get on my desktop browser? Dat would be nice.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    Cole, can we please have a link to reload the current thread at the bottom of the page on the mobile version? I can’t recall whether it’s on my iPhone or iPad, but you have to scroll all the way tot he top to refresh the page for new comments, and then you have to scroll down until you find the spot you were in before.

    thanks.

  77. 77.

    slag

    I will say, based on this tiny preview, I’m going to miss the mildly steampunkian aesthetic you currently got goin on.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    Cole, before the last site rebuild, we could search on comment numbers. That was very useful in situations where someone doesn’t use the reply button and just refers to comment 15 (or whatever).

    Now we can’t, and I miss it.

  79. 79.

    dance around in your bones

    Oh rats. I always really liked the old-fashioned guy in the topcoat, swinging his cane and either smoking or shouting through some megaphone – and the balloon full of juice escaping, rope dangling.

    I guess you won’t bring back those beautiful curvy grey numbers either that made the site look so elegant. I have complained about that every chance I got, but my lone cries in the wilderness fall on deaf ears.

    Oh rats.

  81. 81.

    boss bitch

    The balloon isn’t doing anything. Its just sitting there like…a balloon. All stiff, well-behaved and generic. This blog isn’t any of those things.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JGabriel:

    I’ll miss the anachronistic little man with the cane, top hat, striped pants, tails, and barker’s horn.

    Every time I see that barker’s horn it looks like a big misshapen cigar to me. Smoke and everything. So I’m okay with changing things out.

  85. 85.

    dance around in your bones

    @SiubhanDuinne: Oh, I just broke my hip, is all.

    No, seriously! Long story, but end result is I snapped the ball right off the top of my femur and had to have surgery to get it all screwed back together (writing about this sounds vaguely dirty, no?)

    So I am recuperating. I’m always here, lurking. Just haven’t felt like commenting much. Humping around on a walker tends to make me grumpy – though I do still have my sense of humor, which tends toward the blah ….haha!

    Thanks for asking :)

  87. 87.

    Schlemizel

    Here is what I don’t get, someone invoked the name of a specific troll early in the thread for no apparent reason. Of course said troll had to respond & it semi-hijaked the thread in pointless bickering. Its like that other troll, the one that can’t let a thread go by without dredging up the name of a lemon that had fortunately moved on.

    Whats the point? Trolls gonna troll why invite them? They add nothing of value to the site & have proven unworthy of attention. They are like any 3 year old throwing a tantrum for attention, ignore them & maybe they will go away.

  88. 88.

    Schlemizel

    @dance around in your bones:
    About 11-12 years ago I broke my pelvis into 3 pieces (fell maybe 4 feet maybe a bit less). The recover to pretty mobile & mostly OK took a year but it was probably a good 5 years before I could actually run any amount on even soft surfaces without days of pain. I still don’t run (bike & use elliptical) but I have jogged short distances (100 yards) with no pain. Hang in there the recovery is a PItA and really takes a while but you should eventually be OK

  89. 89.

    dance around in your bones

    @Schlemizel: I’ve heard pelvic fractures are REALLY painful and take longer to heal.

    I’m hanging in there, I just really dislike being semi-immobile. And the pain was…..intense. It’s getting better, slowly. I’m trying not to gobble up all the Percocet too quickly, but using a walker makes OTHER parts of my body hurt. Mostly I have to try and follow the doc’s advice, which is to take it slow and not try to do too much just now. “Walk like there’s an egg on the ball of your foot, and DON’T BREAK THE EGG!” Ha!

  94. 94.

    Nylund

    COMPLAINTS! I am making them. About something! Maybe the logo change!

    I am drunk. Also too.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    @TooManyJens: Me, too. Beautiful. And searchable!

    I get confused with all the Jens, but you are the Jen who lives in Champaign-Urbana, right? Are you voting for David Gill? I have gotten 2 polls for the past 2 days, just on that race. I wonder if that means it’s close.

  97. 97.

    dance around in your bones

    @WaterGirl: heh, bad phrasing there, Watergirl!

    But I understand what you mean…..I keep wondering what I did to piss off the karma machine.

  99. 99.

    TooManyJens

    @WaterGirl: That’s me. I still haven’t decided how I’m voting. Gill seems like a firebagger and Goetten seems like his heart is in the right place but he’s very unprepared. I’m not crazy about our choices.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    @TooManyJens: I thought that was you. I would love to hear why you think Gill is a firebagger. I think he’s clearly the better choice, and I think he’s the only one of the two who can actually beat Tim Johnson (R-vile & disgusting) in the fall. Plus, I don’t think the other guy is nearly as good on women’s issues.

    I have already voted, but still, I hate firebaggers, so I would love to hear your thinking in case there’s something I’ve missed.

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