Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I really should read my own blog.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

People are complicated. Love is not.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The revolution will be supervised.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Everybody saw this coming.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / New Years Eve Open Thread

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  2. 2.

    Lyrebird

    Thanks for the popsicles and the abundance of taglines!
    ETA: yes that is one of my attempts at humor! pun-free this time.

    Best wishes for an excellent start to your new year!

  3. 3.

    Bruuuuce

    Thanks for all the house and doggo pics. May they and you be happy and have a great new year! (::ducks the wrath of the unmentioned Steve::)

  6. 6.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Happy New Year to all.

    It’s been 2018 for half a day and already 2018 feels just like 2017.

    It’s too hot to go out in the sun and the humidity is somewhere around 800%. I’ve cranked the aircon to full and damn global warming, let the Millennials deal with it. I’ll be long gone before I get my beach frontage.

  7. 7.

    hellslittlestangel

    Happy New Year* to John, and everyone else at Balloon Juice!

    *You never know, it could be.

  8. 8.

    Sab

    Happy New Year to you too.

    My sick dog went to the animal hospital again and she doesn’t have noticeable tumors, so that’s good. She still won’t eat, so they gave me this special canned urgent care dog food. Kind of like liver wurst with no seasoning. Also a bunch of syringes. So I gently load the syringe with dog food, sneak up on the dog, shoot it into her mouth, then go back and laboriously reload. The first few times she was outraged. About halfway through the can she started to look expectant. Hopefully she will survive the weekend. I would really like for her to start eating again, because it’s really a pain to feed a St Bernard via tiny syringe.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    I am watching the Last Tango In Halifax Christmas special, which I recorded earlier this month and saved for tonight. It’s nice to see everyone again.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    @Sab: Best of luck to you. Sometimes if you can get them eating something, they remember that they want to eat.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    John, thank you for this place. You did a good thing when you created Balloon Juice. I hope 2018 is good to you, your family* and friends, and the entire unruly pack of BJ jackals.

    * “Family” obviously includes Lily, Yuki, Rosie, Thurston, and Steve, as well as your parents and siblings.

  15. 15.

    Denali

    Here’s hoping that 2018 will be better than its predecessor. Thank you JC and all the Jackals for making 2017 bearable!

  16. 16.

    Svensker

    Thanks for being such a great host, John. Here’s to a New Year that doesn’t suck (although I doubt it). Something something make the best of it something something. You and the animals help.

  17. 17.

    Sab

    @WaterGirl: Yeah. I am thinking two weeks of barfing has left her throat pretty raw. She seems hungry but she won’t eat. Went from 80 pounds to 55 pounds, and she wasn’t a plump dog to begin with. She does seem to be better with the tiny syringes full of whatever, if I can only keep them coming. It’s a pain to load those things.

  18. 18.

    Lyrebird

    @Sab: Sending lots of good thoughts to you and the pup as you turn yourself into a human hummingbird in reverse or something like that.

  19. 19.

    Olivia

    Happy New Year everyone! Thank you John Cole for sharing and even exposing so much of your life that is none of my business but I love it anyway. I really love the house and animal posts and pics. Thank you Betty Cracker for your wonderful wit and intelligence and photos and Annie Laurie for all your posts that clarify so much for me. To all y’all who contribute, comment and complain, thank you all for being here and keeping me from total despair.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    Call me crazy, but I am thinking that one way or another the illegitimate President will be gone before this day in 2018. In the meantime, we all need to get in fighting shape because we’re gonna need that with what’s ahead of us.

  25. 25.

    eclare

    @Sab: Thank you for the update, I have been wondering. So good to hear that there is some food your dog likes. Thinking good thoughts.

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: We used to have 5 dogs between us when I would visit my sister’s. It was a full house, but it wasn’t as crazy as you might think.

    Do we know yet if Yuki is staying with Cole?

  27. 27.

    dance around in your bones

    Thank you for creating this home for us rabid jackals to play in and rip up the joint. You done good.

    Happy New Year one and all! ????

  28. 28.

    Sab

    Thank you John. Didn’t mean to hijack your thread. This website has meant a lot to me over the last decade or so, through personal trauma, bad elections and sick pets, there are always people here to listen and respond. I know it takes a lot of invisible work to keep this site running. Thank you John, Alain, all the front pagers and the behind the scenes people that keep this wonderful site running.

  33. 33.

    mainmata

    Happy New Year to our great and community oriented host and members. 2017 has been an awful year not just because of the Trump/GOP catastrophe but also losing two members of my extended family within weeks of each other and a cat and a number of friends (to freakish events). I am hoping this awful year bounds back to something positive but good things require work not luck.

    Meanwhile, here in MD it is in the teens tempwise and our Shenandoah farm is 8 degrees so i can only imagine what it’s like in Colesville (oops that’s the name of a nearby street).

    Happy New Year All (and let’s work to make it definitely happier than the last!).

  35. 35.

    Lyrebird

    @Sab:

    Birds feeding baby birds, and especially birds feeding big baby birds?

    Sorry so obscure. Birds taking in little doses of food on the wing over and over. In my line of work, hummingbirds are remarkable because their brain is so tiny but they show the ability to remember which little phlox bloom (say) they have sipped from already today, so they don’t waste precious calories flying back to it. Kindof a pain.

    The pains you are taking are not quite the same, but the flying around, hovering, fussing, and small doses of food per “meal” are in common.

    ETA: this is my nerdy and verbose way of saying “yay! the doggie is still hanging in there! you keep hanging in there!” pretty much

  40. 40.

    Ridnik Chrome

    It’s too damned cold to go out tonight, even in my own neighborhood, so my New Year’s celebration will be a bottle of beer and John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things” (a holiday tradition in the Chrome household) at midnight. Hope everyone here has a safe, happy and healthy 2018!

  41. 41.

    Sab

    @eclare: Thanks. I thought you might be wondering. Your advice about the vet school would be good but in Ohio we only have one vet school and that’s two and a half hours away, meaning a five hour round trip plus a consult. I didn’t think she’d survive it. So I took her for a second opinion at the local metro vet hospital. Hence the x-rays and liverwurst. Thanks for the nudge to get a second opinion.

  43. 43.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    Husband and I got a deep dish Chicago style pizza and are watching movies and staying in. So nice. Happy NYE everyone. 2017 is over!!!

  45. 45.

    eclare

    Happy New Year to everyone! And thank you to everyone for making this website such a wonderful place. My favorite Churchill quote: If you’re going through hell, keep going.

  46. 46.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Happy New Year may 2018 bring blessings to you and yours. May the good and decent of us in this country prevail in this time of darkness.

  47. 47.

    eclare

    @Sab: I hope your dog gets better! Just the fact that your dog is eating is wonderful. Thank you so much for the update, you must have so many other things to do this time of year, not to mention take care of a sick dog.

  49. 49.

    Joy in FL

    This year would have been even worse without the refuge of Balloon Juice.
    Thanks to all those who write front page pieces and who offer comments and insights, and who fund transport for pets and find homes for them.
    I really appreciate this “place” and wish all a good 2018.

  50. 50.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Are we allowed to say “Happy New Year”?

    Has Trump given everyone permission to do so, or should it be “Merry New Year”, or maybe “Merry post-Christmas”?

    Just don’t use the H word.

  51. 51.

    SgrAstar

    @Sab: worrying about your pup. My beloved giant lab would occasionally refuse to eat – sometimes because I had gone away for a few days, but finally, because he had bone cancer. I’m glad to know that your doggie has been cleared for tumors. Are you sure he hasn’t eaten a sock or something else that’s just sitting in his tummy?

  52. 52.

    James E. Powell

    Happy New Year, John Cole and thanks to you and (nearly) everyone here. You guys really help me maintain a semblance of sanity.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:
    If you are in hell, how do you know which direction is out? And no, up is not a reasonable answer if you are that far down. I’ve been on ladders leading out of a fireroom, two 1200 degree boilers going, it’s 95-100 outside and the humidity is very close to 100%, it’s over 140 at the top of the ladder, you can burn your feet right through your shoes. Don’t even think of hanging on to the hand rails.

  55. 55.

    efgoldman

    Next year has to be better, doesn’t it?
    I was hospitalized three times, but I’m finally getting my dialysis and blood sugar under control. I am. however, getting fucking-A tired of rehabbing and PT.
    mrs efg’s 87 year old mother is fading; mrs efg is the only one of her family reasonably close, and feels an obligation to take care of her – at the same time she’s taking care of me. It’s a 70 minute drive and a whole day.
    Consumer Reports (yes, that one) decided, literally on an hour’s notice, to nuke the successful Consumerist web site. My daughter, a senior editor, and five other people were thrown out of work literally with no notice.
    And of course there’s the dark cloud of mire that envelops us all, spreading malevolence like an acid fog over whatever it sees.
    And then I just think of my granddaughter, who told me today very seriously that “Dark Vader is Luke’s father. He should ‘sposed to be nice to his son.” And I smile, and am happy, and nothing else matters.

    Let’s all except the delusional people, liars, prevaricators, and alleged Randians have a better 2018.

    And you jackals sometimes make it possible to get thru.

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Fucking grandfathers. My dad has been unrecognizable as the same person since October of 2001. He is often, how shall I say it, nice and cheerful. Weird shit.

  64. 64.

    Emma

    Happy New Year to all of you, who have made my life so much easier in the past two years, just by being yourselves. Thank you.

  66. 66.

    eclare

    @Ruckus: Um, I think it was supposed to be a saying about fortitude, and how that was important, and not literal advice about how to survive a fire.

  68. 68.

    Sab

    @SgrAstar: Gotta love labs. I adored my GSD, but my lab and my lab-mix were the best dogs ever. Both made it to sixteen years, which is remarkable for labs. I also had a Norwegian Elkhound lab mix (looked like a lab in an elkhound suit) who was a goofy looking but wonderful dog who also made it to 16. All smart, loyal, loving dogs who unfailingly loved not just me but the whole pack.

    Labs are wonderful dogs, but a bit lacking on the protection side. Also they want to eat a lot, and all the time.

  69. 69.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    @Sab: Sending healing thoughts to you and your pup. I’m wondering what’s been going on with my Muppet all month, so I understand.

    New Years resolutions: (1) try to be more active; and (2) finally set up the Zenfolio photography website I signed up (and paid) for earlier this month.

    Happy New Year to all.

  70. 70.

    efgoldman

    Oh. And I am trying to persuade mrs efg that we need a dog; if for no other reason that to get exercise walking (I’m not likely to walk regularly without some outside incentive) maybe sometime in 2018. I will be asking for advice later [not now].

  71. 71.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ruckus:

    I’ve been on ladders leading out of a fireroom, two 1200 degree boilers going, it’s 95-100 outside and the humidity is very close to 100%, it’s over 140 at the top of the ladder, you can burn your feet right through your shoes.

    That’s Memphis every August.

  72. 72.

    dance around in your bones

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    You are so kind! I’m always around but comment infrequently-ever since I found this joint lo these many years ago it has become an addiction. It’s where I get news that’s unbearable but the comments make it easier to grin and bear. To know that there are fine people out there who share my sensibilities!

    Resist, no kidding!

  77. 77.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He is often, how shall I say it, nice and cheerful. Weird shit.

    You may be assured that here in jackalville I will remain the same nasty ass old fart as always.

    Fuckem

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Oh, he is the same to me as always. And even to my brother. It is the grandkids and their friends and families to whom he appears a completely jolly, old soul.

  80. 80.

    Sab

    @Lyrebird: I think I understood your comment even if I couldn’t repeat it
    coherently. Thank you.

    Also autocorrect serves a useful purpose but mostly annoys me.

  81. 81.

    Lyrebird

    @efgoldman:

    Haven’t said so properly, but SO so happy you’re back to pepper these boards.

    And then I just think of my granddaughter…

    Yay!!

    And best wishes regarding daughter’s job.

    Mine is not certain after spring term, and I get major joy from my little one, and major worries regarding my own job. But we have very much to be thankful for.

  84. 84.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:
    I know. My humor some times leaves a bit to interpret. That was a fire room, not a room on fire. Boiler room on a steam powered navy ship is the fireroom. It’s like hell in there, except when the outside temp is around freezing. And there is only one way out and that’s up that ladder, the fire rooms are about 2 1/2 – 3 stories high and their floor is the bottom of the ship. I had to go down there every time we left or entered port. We had equipment in there that extended out the bottom of the ship and had to be raised or it would hit bottom and the ship would have to be put in drydock to fix it.

  86. 86.

    Gelfling 545

    @Sab: I had to do this type of feeding for the late Snarla at one point. She eventually perked up and had another 2+ good years. Best wishes for your dog’s recovery.

  89. 89.

    Ohio Mom

    Happy New Year to one and all!

    Sometimes I am on a commenting jag, other times I revert to merely lurking — whichever, this site is a daily stop and has become an anchor for me. I am very grateful to all of you, frontpagers and fellow commenters alike, for the community I have found here.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    Best wishes to everyone here and to everyone we care about. Fingers crossed for 2018! Let’s keep working to make things better.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    Lyrebird

    @Sab:

    I think I understood your comment even if I couldn’t repeat I think coherently.

    Hey thanks for the shout back.
    No one on this list at least is gonna expect you to be very coherent this evening!

  93. 93.

    ChiGail

    Thanks all of you for keeping me amused and getting me agitated and even, occasionally, optimistic. Happy 2018 from a loyal lurker.

  94. 94.

    chris

    It’s 11:50 here and the fireworks have started across the river. Bert has retired to his crate for the duration because he knows that the gunfire will start in a few minutes and the fireworks will go on for a while. So much for the quiet country life. Think I’ll have another wee piece of chocolate before bed.

    Happy New Year to all! 2018’s gotta be better, right?

  95. 95.

    geg6

    Happy new year, John Cole. Thank you for providing this space to us jackals. 2017 was the year i most needed BJ and thank pasta it was here for me.

    And the happiest of New Years to Lily, Rosie, Thurston, Yuki and, lord of them all, Steve. Koda and Lovey send their love.

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I’ve also been in rooms on fire and a fireroom feels closer to hell to me.
    And to the guys who worked in there. Shorthanded, as long as the boilers were lit, they worked 6hrs on and 6hrs off. Day in day out. If we were in port for a short time, say 3 days, the boilers stayed lit. We got liberty, they got to work 6 on, 6 off. Under way 6 on, 6 off. Good duty. Not.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    @Sab

    Not the brightest of bulbs in the dog marquee. Someone lefts hers with a group of us once while she went off on vacation. None of us liked the dog’s name (can’t remember what it was, truth be told none us us harbored much of a liking for her either but we were known to be good with dogs). By the time she returned we had trained it to answer only to “Veggie.”

  104. 104.

    eclare

    @Ruckus: I have the utmost respect for Navy people, I think (know) I would go nuts and be claustrophobic. That said, I love the poster the Navy came out with maybe five or ten years ago, “Sometimes we follow the storm, sometimes we are the storm.” Colbert had a great interview with Secretary Mabus on the Report.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @Sab:

    We had a whole issue with one of our cats last year where she became scarily lethargic and stopped eating. After multiple trips to the regular vet and the specialty vet to check her for cancer, it turned out to be an autoimmune disease called pemphigus. Now we have to give her steroids every few days and we’re still figuring out the long-term dose, but she perked right up as soon as she started getting the right treatment. It was really scary until they got it figured out.

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    If I may be so bold –

    TO ALL LURKERS:

    Make a New Year’s resolution to come into the pool and play, at the least from time to time. Can’t have a choir without a multiplicity of voices.

  107. 107.

    fuckwit

    @WaterGirl: 2019, maybe. First, we take back the House next November. Then, they’re sworn in at the end of January 2019. Then, Impeachment vote in the House in the spring or summer. Then… the wheels turn and either we pressure the Senate into voting to convict, or, the Shitgibbon to call it quits. By end of 2019 we should be free of his corrupt ass.

  108. 108.

    Duane

    This is a popsicle stand? I came here to get chili! It’s freezing out and you’re selling popsicles. This joint’s never gonna make it. Happy New Year anyway.

  109. 109.

    Betsy

    Love being here with the jackals through the years since I found y’all back three or so presidential cycles.

    I remember how delightful it was to point and mock together within a day of Sarah Palin’s appearance on the political scene. We knew what she was before anyone else did.

    What happens here helps me sort through the mess. There’s a lot of support and great takes on this forum, along with the (mostly harmless) snark and growly grief.

    Best wishes to all, especially our hard-working front-pagers.

    On to 2018! I sense good things ahead.

    H O P E

  110. 110.

    frosty

    Happy New Year from me to Cole, front pagers, and all jackals, commenters and lurkers both. And I second everyone’s thanks for the site. Can’t say it’s keeping me sane, but it sure makes it easier to get through the crap raining down every day.

  115. 115.

    Jackie

    @chris: I’m in southeastern WA state and fireworks have been exploding since about 6:30. Not even midnight eastern time ? It’s going to be a loooong nite for cat critters – and by default – me.

  119. 119.

    Schlemazel

    I was just thinking about this. I started stopping by this nightmare back when the great orange satan was recommending you. It made no sense as you were a wingnut then, must have been around 2004 or so(?). I watched as the light came on & saw how your former friends tore into you. Even the worst days now you never get treated that badly anymore. I guess that means I have been by under one nym or another for something like 13 years. Thanks for keeping the lights on, I don’t know what I would do without all these jackals.

  120. 120.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @chris:

    It’s 11:30 here, and the fireworks have been going on steadily for five solid hours.

    ETA: Should clarify that these are amateur fireworks, not anything sanctioned by any official jurisdiction.

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    @efgoldman: You and your family have had more than your share of trials recently. :-( I’m glad you are all there for each other. And I’m glad you’re here for us in this little nearly-top-10000 blog.

    Best wishes, efg. Here’s hoping for a much better 2018!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:
    We were all just guys doing what we were supposed to be doing there and then. One time I realized that I hadn’t seen the outside, the sky for over 3 weeks. Outside was water and sky, sky and water, water and sky……… It’s more boring than anything else. I imagine that if someone was shooting at you that might change. In the North Atlantic we frequently were shadowed by a similar ship to ours from the USSR. They would follow us for days staying off about 1/4 mile, matching course and speed. When we refueled they would move farther away, in case anything went wrong. When the tanker would leave they’d move right back into position. On night, at about 2 or 3 am the general quarters alarm sounded. 2/3 of the ship is asleep. About 30 seconds later we found out we hadn’t joined the war, it was a simple fire and the moron on watch couldn’t remember that we had a FIRE alarm that he was supposed to sound. Didn’t make many of us feel all that good though, knowing what could be. If the ship went down and you survived the sinking, you’d freeze to death in less than a minute without a full survival suit. We of course didn’t have these. So freeze to death it is. Funny what the government is willing to spend money on during a war, personal survival doesn’t seem to be found in those dollars. We did have a draft after all, how much easier is it to just request more bodies?

  128. 128.

    chris

    @SiubhanDuinne: Lucky you! There’s hardly any people here and very few of them are young enough to be up and partying at midnight. The complaints will go on all week.
    Happy New Year, SD!

  131. 131.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @chris:

    Thanks, and a happy new year to you! Eight minutes until midnight here.

    It’s funny, the fireworks sound as though they are right outside my bedroom window, although there’s no visible sign of them. Some acoustical trick, I guess. Same thing happens around July 4th every year.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    Some people just can not get that involved. Have you ever felt like your feet are glued to the floor? You can’t move one way or another because it looks like shit in every direction? It can be difficult to do some days for everyone but if your days are basically shit for one reason or another out of your control, it’s hard to jump into the fire all that often. We run the politicians we have for office, we work with who we have to work with and we take the voters we can. Last year I sat at a table in someone’s back yard making phone calls for HRC. A young man at the table stated he was a republican and everyone stopped and looked at him. His next words were, we can’t let this asshole win. We all nodded and got down to business. He did fine by the way.

  135. 135.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Ohio Mom: Oh, I’m glad I’m not the only one who follows that commenting/lurking/commenting pattern. Youse people is good folks and I’m grateful for you. Here’s to a blue wave 2018! Let’s make it so.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Happy New Year!

    Weird: the New York countdown with Ryan Seacrest on ABC was 15 seconds behind, according to my computer and the cable box. Guess it’s so cold it’s slowing down the video feed.

    I went out for two minutes to get something from the car, and, damn, it is cold out there! Currently 17° here in NoVA. Think I’m going to have a rum and tonic, putter around a bit and then pack it in.

    P.S. I missed Kathy Griffin on TV. A needed antidote to all the saccharine bullshit.

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:
    He didn’t learn, same thing happened about a month later about the same time in the morning. Like I said, moron.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dance around in your bones:

    I hope you will comment more often in 2018. Happy New Year to you and to all — and now that the firecrackers have finally stopped (unless they’re just reloading), I’m going to try for a night’s sleep and see if I can shake this bug that’s trying to make me all achy.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    A Yugo of a year. Perfect. An absolute piece of shit that while cheap, you will pay to own in ways you can’t imagine long after it sits in your driveway a disgusting, rotting turd of an object that screws you in many ways you can’t imagine either. It would have been better to take the money and light it on fire. It wouldn’t hurt any more and you will have gotten a better value out of the deal.

  141. 141.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: I lived for a few years just behind the main library and Deaf School Park. Never heard guns. Left in 2008, maybe things changed. Or my sex life was that good then so I didn’t notice.

  142. 142.

    satby

    I’ll enjoy reading the whole thread tomorrow, for now just popping in to wish us all more happiness in the new year. Best wishes to all jackals and lurkers, and gratitude and love to John for bringing us all together.

  144. 144.

    mai naem mobile

    Happy New Year. 2017 can’t be gone fast enough . 2018 better be substantially better.

  145. 145.

    amygdala

    Happy New Year, all. I’d never be accused of being sane, but the camaraderie definitely makes me slightly less crazy. Many, many thanks.

Comments are closed.