Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

No one could have predicted…

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

We still have time to mess this up!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Come on, man.

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Is This Thing On?

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack

    The “Leave a Comment” box was running very slowly for me just a few minutes ago—delay before typed text appears, edit actions take effect, etc.—but now it seems okay. Go figure. (Desktop, Win10, Firefox.)

  3. 3.

    geg6

    Had a few problems on my iPhone earlier this morning (first time I’ve experienced the nym and email deletion everyone else was yelling about a few days ago). But I’m on my work desktop now and everything is fine.

  4. 4.

    Ohio Mom

    The site comes up quickly, which it was not doing before on my iphone — sometimes it would time out. That is very, very nice.

    It is still ignoring my request to remember my nym and email. It may be remembering them on a thread, I’ll check that, but if I shut the page and open it later, I have to retype everything.

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    Good news, that was yesterday my nym kept getting dropped. Just turned off phone, turned it back on and I’m remembered on all threads.

    Whew! On behalf of Alain. Whom I congratulate on his success in straightening this big mess out. I feel like we owe him a thank you gift.

    Off to tidy the house, gave a good day one and all!

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    Not all of them, no. A particularly intractable problem is the nonpersistence of nym and email and “save my name” checkmark when you go to another thread or close the tab.

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    @Barbara: So Chrome now seems to remember. But it seems spotty. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. Hmmmm.

  15. 15.

    chris

    It’s working fine… for now anyway. Yesterday I blocked the ads because BJ was using about 25% of 8 gigs of memory. Today, ads back on, it barely registers. Progress. (Linux Mint, Chrome)

  19. 19.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Testing the “remember me” button except… there is no “remember me” button. Safari on iPhone.

    Switched to desktop version on phone, lost my comment, and it’s weirdly laggy, characters show up 5 sec after i type them.

    Anyway, commencing test.

  20. 20.

    Jackie

    No ‘remember me’ box available to check. iPhone Safari. Have to enter info each time I post.

  21. 21.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Switched back to mobile version. Yay, it remembered me! Still no checkbox though.

    ETA: spoke too soon. It cleared my info right after posting. I’m guessing because the invisible checkbox was invisibly unchecked (I’m a programmer, I know how software thinks.)

  22. 22.

    Mr.Moderate

    Seems like the ad content system is still constantly thrashing (Chrome on Linux without any extensions and Firefox on Linux with DuckDuckGo extension). The site essentially never stops trying to load ad data and often fails to do so.

  25. 25.

    TomatoQueen

    No. IE gov’t laptop/WIN7/vpn/much web locked out
    Scrolling hangs then freezes after varying number of comments
    Comment box

  28. 28.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Safari on iPhone 5/6 still doesn’t remember my nym, but that’s not new. Everything else is working and pretty much has been all weekend, I don’t think I’ve been affected by these latest kinks…

  29. 29.

    chris

    @Mr.Moderate:

    Seems like the ad content system is still constantly thrashing

    Yes. Constant “Waiting for…” And lost nym again.

    Gotta go, good luck, Alain,

  34. 34.

    No Drought No More

    David Axelrod: “Kind of amazed and appalled by the number of folks on Left who applauded the expulsion of @PressSec and her family from a restaurant. This, in the end, is a triumph for @realDonaldTrump vision of America: Now we’re divided by red plates & blue plates!#sad. 9:09 AM – Jun 24, 2018”.

    The problem with guys like Axelrod is that nothing of real import offends them politically, leastwise not sufficiently enough to draw a line over anything. Bush-Cheney stampede American into waging an inexcusable war, but “we’re all Americans here, kumbaya” was essentially their only response (and continues to be). That Americans were lied to in a matter of war and peace meant, and means, seemingly nothing to them.

    The United States suffered a Pearl Harbor-type attack in November 2016. That dastardly and sinister attack has already far exceeded even 9/11 in terms of damage done to this country.

    Yet, people like Axelrod are genuinely, inexplicably offended when a woman, currently employed to undermine American democracy itself on behalf of another republican POTUS, is courteously asked to leave a place of business. And I don’t get it. Democrats like Axelrod consciously abdicated their responsibility to fight the bastards over a plot to war. Now they have the gall to lecture Americans about political manners? While the country is still under sustained attack both from within and without? Who the hell do they think they are? What’s wrong with those people?

  35. 35.

    oldster

    @No Drought No More:

    Best comment that I have seen on this sort of thing, though I cannot remember the source (and I’m going to mangle the wording):

    MLK wanted an America in which people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
    Republicans bar people from restaurants due to the color of their skin.
    SHS was barred from a restaurant due to the content of her character.
    There’s no liberal hypocrisy here at all, just the vision that MLK dreamed of

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I never previously had that problem so many others had, of the name and email boxes blanking out my information each time, but since last night I’ve been having exactly that problem. Hope that can get fixed, fast.

    Also, the quick links thing still doesn’t work. There’s nothing there.

    iPhone, Safari. I always use the desktop format, though, as I dislike the look of the mobile.

  39. 39.

    ruemara

    Except for the constantly loading ads choking the site – typing that line took 2 minutes – the desktop is ok on my kindle. The mobile doesn’t have a remember my nym field.

  40. 40.

    Barbara

    @No Drought No More: Axelrod seems not to understand that the Red Hen would have served SHS and Kristjen Nielsen before they became advocates for crimes against humanity. The idea that every political choice, and every action in furtherance of that choice, is morally neutral to the point that no one who makes it or serves an administration that makes it, should be even minimally accountable poses a very real risk when someone like Trump comes along. Being asked to leave a restaurant might be humiliating but it hardly registers above zero on whatever scale is used to weigh harm to victims.

    ETA: Chrome is remembering my information now.

  42. 42.

    Faithful Lurker

    I’m using a 5 year old MAC laptop with High Sierra system and Safari browser and it works perfectly and always has. I don’t know what’s wrong with this setup that it works the way it’s supposed to

  43. 43.

    germy

    My question is this:

    Is this place having technical problems or…

    Is it being attacked/hacked?

  44. 44.

    kattails

    Rats. It was running fine for me last night when everyone was having problems. Now it’s lost my name & email. Let’s see if it remembers after I renew them.

  46. 46.

    Yarrow

    Well, this is the first time the site hasn’t remembered my name. I’m typing it back in and have clicked the box for it to remember me, so let’s see what happens.

    Also, as I’m typing this the last comment above the comment box is from comment 45 from Raven. It has the Edit and Request Deletion options available. I clicked Edit just to see what happened and the edit box opened but never loaded.

    Edit: It seems to have remembered my name in this thread.

    Edit again: I checked a few other threads and it’s remembered my name there too.

  47. 47.

    kattails

    OK, tried going to a different thread and my info was still there, but just closed the whole Safari window and re-opened to BJ and my info is gone. I’m on a Mac mini 10.11.5 if that helps. I did check the save button.

  49. 49.

    Mike J

    WISCTV News 3 @WISCTV_News3

    MILWAUKEE (AP) — Facing rising costs from tariffs, Harley-Davison will shift production for EU bound motorcycles overseas.

  50. 50.

    JWL

    Mark Sumner, Daily Kos: “..But the people who just went all the way to the Supreme Court to insist that a business owner has the right to refuse service over an innate feature of a person’s biology, have been outraged that a business owner refused service to someone who daily dishes out cruelty and lies with a side of sarcasm”.

    And yet democrats like Axelrod have their back. It’s not a capital crime on their part, of course. But they have nothing to offer the party by way of advice on that score anymore, either. No doubt if-and-when they they finally wise up, it will become a far stronger and more formidable democratic party for their having done so.

  51. 51.

    OldDave

    @Mr.Moderate:

    Seems like the ad content system is still constantly thrashing

    This might explain why my iPhone runs hot / drains its battery when accessing this site. It can’t all be Trump induced rage.

    ETA: desktop (chrome) remembered my name / info.

  52. 52.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    Site loads fine today. Just checking to see if it will remember name, etc.

    ETA: Yes, it did remember name and email after checking the box, on this thread as well as the one below.

  53. 53.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    The site still doesn’t remember my nym or email. Android, Chrome

  54. 54.

    James E Powell

    @No Drought No More:

    Democrats like Axelrod consciously abdicated their responsibility to fight the bastards

    I submit that when a person becomes a member of the Village he ceases to be a Democrat. See also, James Carville.

  56. 56.

    Laptop review

    I really liked this post just as I like the rest of your blog.
    I read your blog regularly but I felt that I should comment today.

    I shared this with my friends and they loved it too.

    Keep up the good work! :)

  57. 57.

    gvg

    test
    work mac, OS El Capitan, firefox 59.0.1, checkbox save my name is there and checked
    for the past week or so this site would get stuck reloading and I discovered I could fix it by clearing cookies only, then trying again. Hasn’t hung up this morning again yet.

  61. 61.

    JAFD

    A very good day to all my fellow jackals.

    I’m still using Firefox 56 (not upgrading till there are equivalent addons to new version) on Windows 7. Haven’t noticed any problems with Balloon Juice.

    Finally went and got myself a More Keyboard. Working out well, some of the ‘arrow’ and ‘home’, ‘end’, etc keys not in accustomed place, but easy getting used to it, like it a lot. If you have Big Hands, you should, IMAO, take a look at it.

  62. 62.

    Jack the Second

    Typing from the iPad was very slow – letters not showing up and then showing up in bunches. Dunno what causes that.

  63. 63.

    Dorothy Winsor

    For the first time, my name etc has disappeared from the comment form. I’ll do this and save it and see what happens.

    ETA: OK. It saved my information.

  64. 64.

    Mike J

    @JAFD:

    If you have Big Hands, you should, IMAO, take a look at it.

    The official keyboard of anti-Trumpists everywhere.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    Less than fun day coming up today, with necessary but ineluctably frustrating things afoot in the great big world.

    @JAFD

    Hear ya on that. Rolled Firefox back to 56 within the first hour after the newer Quantum ‘upgrade’ happened in January. Sadly, while there is a NoScript for the newer Firefox, it is nowhere near as user friendly as the old one, which Just Worked. And the developers say that there won’t be a version equivalent to the old one forthcoming.

  66. 66.

    Gravenstone

    Testing. Everything seems fine, fast loads, quickly registers typing, remembering name and addy. Desktop site on Chrome via Android phone. Will compare to my work desktop in Chrome in a bit.

  67. 67.

    Faithful Lurker

    I knew I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth. Now it’s (the site) is forgetting my nym and address. If something ain’t broke, shut up and hunker down.

  68. 68.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    Every fucking time I click “next post,” Spotify pauses the current track. This has been happening for a while, idk how long. I’m getting fucking sick of it.

  70. 70.

    Shana

    I just got the “site is using significant energy” message a few minutes ago. Again. Doesn’t happen with any other site.

  71. 71.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    Testing to see if I am forgotten. Have people with problems tried clearing the cache? I see no latest posts. Chromebook, Chrome.

  73. 73.

    TomatoQueen

    comment box freezes after 2 sentences. Failure to respond banner frequent. Flint is out of water and Puerto Rico’s in the dark.

  74. 74.

    Gelfling 545

    Working much better today. It loads well and I can read the erudite comments of my peers again. Will try commenting in 3…2…1

  75. 75.

    SRW1

    Site loads much more quickly, praise be to Alain!

    However – there always is a however, isn’t there – the ‘Stop loading / Reload’ button (in Firefox) still flickers madly and the info line as to what Firefox is up to keeps frantically going through messages of ” Read …”, “Waiting …”, Transferring ..”, etc, with the word fragment ‘google’ appearing suspiciously often.

    It’s probably the Google vampire sucking the intertubes dry.

  76. 76.

    Gelfling 545

    At first I was concerned about how panic stricken I was at NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE BALOON JUICE! I’ve decided to just consider it to be one of my coping mechanisms in the age of Trump as I would probably be MUCH WORSE(!) if there were no Balloon Juice, no jackals, no pet pictures and interesting anecdotes, no sensible political and social commentary. It doesn’t bear thinking of.

  77. 77.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Repeating for Alain’s benefit: The underlying cause for not remembering my nym on the mobile site (iPhone, Safari) seems to be that I don’t have a “Save my name” checkbox on my mobile, so it apparently interprets that as the unchecked state.

    And when I displayed desktop version on the phone, I got a box, checked it, and was remembered the next time I switched to mobile. But after posting from the mobile site, it again acted as if I was unchecked.

  78. 78.

    gvg

    well it has remembered my name. when I did edit ny comment before, i got a blank box that didn’t do anything.

    OT apparently ducks chase laser pointers too, 1 video led to lots more, if Tamara is around.

  79. 79.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Gelfling 545: I would definitely OD if I tried consumption of straight unfiltered news. My system couldn’t take it. I need it cut with snark and animal videos, which I get here and at Wonkette. We don’t seem to have a huge influx of irritating trolls either. Wonkette gets more (angrier ones too) but they don’t last long.

    That may change as it gets closer to election time and Putin ramps up the Troll Farm.

  80. 80.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    I step outside from following a link in the next post and I am forgotten? At least I still have the save checkbox. Chromebook. I will clear cache after this post

  82. 82.

    JAFD

    Hello again!

    Glue drying on current project. Reloaded BJ, found my name and eddress not there. Typed them in again, checked ‘remember me’ box. Let’s see what happens now…

    Meanwhile, on current national issue, there is the old Pennsylvania riddle:
    Q – Why is Marriage like unto The Tariff ?
    A – They’re both ways to
    Protect the Domestic Enterprise, and
    Encourage the Infant Industry

  85. 85.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    Nope not just the side arrow. It appears to be post specific. I can jump back and forth using the recent post list and my nym vanishes and reappears.

  86. 86.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    I’ve got to remember to tick the save box when I post after my nym vanishes otherwise all is lost (across posts)

  89. 89.

    TomatoQueen

    Now on the home laptop, Fireyfox/Win7/vpn, Recent Comments and saved nym missing. Pie instructions available, haven’t seen them on the work machine in ages. Comment box functionality restored, scrollbar similar. Save box checked.

  93. 93.

    No One You Know

    Testing on Android mobile with Chrome, not getting my nym and email fermented. Er, remembered. Swype functioning exactly as expected the way it always does.

  95. 95.

    TomatoQueen

    Work laptop IE/vpn/WIN7. La Marseillaise stirring. Save details checkbox last night did not work. The Recent Posts Recent Comments section GONE. All the advertising garbage, including autoplay vids, in place. Flint water, Puerto Rico power as per.

Comments are closed.