Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

He really is that stupid.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

“They all knew.”

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

When I was faster i was always behind.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / What to Expect When You’re Expecting

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

by | 71 Comments

This post is in: 

I can now attest to the fact that John Cole is a secret optimist, because I told John that we can expect the new site to be back up by 6pm, hopefully sooner.  John turned that into “early afternoon”!!!  I suppose early afternoon is possible, but it is highly unlikely.

As John mentioned, the transition to the new site will start somewhere around 6 am tomorrow.  It may not start right on the dot at 6, and you are welcome to stay on Balloon Juice until the moment the old site is taken down. Who will be the last person to comment on the last thread on the current site?

So what can you expect for tomorrow?  When you see a message come up on balloon-juice.com instead of the website, that’s how you will know that the process has started.

It takes awhile to count each of the 5.5 million comments as we move them to the new site.  Okay, we’re not actually counting them, but you knew that.  It still takes a long time to move everything over!

We are unlikely to have anything to report until at least 10 am, but John will provide updates on his twitter account whenever there is something to say.  Anyone can view John’s twitter account at this link: https://twitter.com/johngcole

John has quite graciously decided to LET THE NEW SITE RUN AD-FREE FOR ONE WEEK as everyone gets acquainted with the new site.  After one week, ads will be added, and you can all judge for yourselves whether the new ads are well behaved and unobtrusive enough that you can live with them or decide that you are going to use an ad blocker.

If you’re happy with the new site, or you just want to show your appreciation for a week of ad-free Balloon Juice, and you are in a position to throw something in the coffers, I’m sure John would greatly appreciate that.

John believes that it’s the people who read the individual threads and the comments who are most likely to want to support Balloon Juice, so look for the Support Our Site links on individual posts rather than on the front page.  John wanted the front page to be warm and welcoming and not say “hey, give us money!”

Thanks again to all the testers who took the time to go through the forms and test the site and share their feedback.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day for any number of reasons!

*All times are Eastern.

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  2. 2.

    patrick II

    I thought at first that the 5.5 million comments you were referring to would those pent up from a whole first day of public impeachment hearings and no balloon juice.

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    Thanks again to all the testers who took the time to go through the forms

    And the testers who didn’t go through the forms? Huh? Chopped liver, or what?

    Um, asking for a friend, of course.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: You were a big help, form or no form! I didn’t mean that literally, I guess. I was just thinking that testing was a lot like work and took some dedication on the part of the testers.

  12. 12.

    TaMara (HFG)

    After one week, ads will be added, and you can all judge for yourselves whether the new ads are well behaved and unobtrusive enough that you can live with them or decide that you are going to use an ad blocker.

    So John can go broke running the expensive new site. That’s sounds good.

  13. 13.

    Spanky

    I just want to report that since I linked to the “You’re Having My Baby” Youtube video with Paul Anka, this blog has been hitting me with ads for the Jersey Boys show at National Theatre. I hope to hell the new blog cures that.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    I was so late getting this up that I didn’t even look.

    Said the gentleman who mistakenly slipped into the House of the Rising Son.

    :)

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @RAVEN: I think there were 87 or so devices tested in all, so we had you covered. I hope retirement has been splendid so far.

  21. 21.

    caphilldcne

    Um, How does one “throw something in the coffers?” A link or something would help me out. I’m sure there’s some simple way to donate (venmo anyone?) but I’ve never been able to figure it out (maybe cause I access this site on a phone?). Anyway maybe there’s a new donate page somewhere? This happened to me last year at XMas when I was donating to websites I like and couldn’t figure it out. Thanks for any help.

  22. 22.

    jl

    I gave up on expectations for BJ blog so long ago, I have a difficult time imagining what they could even be. So, I’m good whatever happens.

  26. 26.

    jl

    @Baud:” I feel like I’ll be going into the first day of impeachment completely naked. ”

    How is that different than any other day, for a Baudist?

  32. 32.

    J R in WV

    Our new puppies are at least as good — wait! No!! Better!!! than eve Scout. Cuter, smarter, more affectionate, sleeker. Well, your own kids are always better than other people’s kids…

    I guess this should be on the respite thread, but this is where I was reading when BooBoo came in and put her head in my lap after she finished her puppy chow. Now she wants to go outside, where it’s 17 degrees… colder than they’ve seen so far!!

  33. 33.

    West of the Rockies

    You have to count 5.5 MILLION comments?

    I demand a recount. I will not concede the old Balloon Juice. I will take this to the SC if I must!

    Oh, and I concur with Lord Fartdaddy: the new site stinks to high heaven.

  40. 40.

    Martin

    John turned that into “early afternoon”!!! I suppose early afternoon is possible, but it is highly unlikely.

    Keep Scottying his Kirk, WaterGirl. You’re going good work.

  41. 41.

    John Revolta

    Frankly I dunno if I can adapt to not having to type in my name and all that stuff every time I comment.
    Living in such a capitalist Hell is gonna make us all soft and defenseless with big fat fingers.

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl:

    I gave up on expectations for BJ blog so long ago, I have a difficult time imagining what they could even be. So, I’m good whatever happens.

    Just think about Baud being naked, that should help, or not.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    I just need to be reassure that the transition to the new site will be seamless; that all media will load correctly; that I’ll at least get back the functionality I have lost access to in recent days at this decrepit old site, like comment editing and the arrow keys. If I get that I’ll have no complants.

  53. 53.

    Middlelee

    I donated $50 for the new website tonight and will throw in a little more when I get paid on the 22nd. There was no way to designate it for the new website but I assume John puts the donations where he needs them.

  56. 56.

    Aleta

    We could all stand to learn something from Jared Kushner about project messenging a path to success.

    Jared Kushner and other senior Trump administration officials are planning to set up web cameras to live-stream construction of President Trump’s border wall …
    …
    Kushner floated the idea during meetings in July, part of a messaging effort to push back against criticism that Trump has failed to deliver on the signature proposal of his 2016 campaign. The Army Corps and CBP have told Kushner that construction contractors do not want their proprietary techniques visible to competitors, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal discussions.

    Officials at the Army Corps and CBP also were concerned the cameras would show U.S. work crews violating Mexican sovereignty because they sometimes must stray south of the border to maneuver their vehicles and heavy equipment in the desert. Because some of the remote border areas lack network access, the cameras will require their own web connectivity and attendants who could frequently reposition them to keep the lens pointed at the action.

    Kushner has continued to press forward with the 24-hour-wall-cam idea anyway, viewing the feeds as a crucial part of the administration’s effort to demonstrate irrefutable evidence of progress.
    …
    “It’s understood that Kushner is so aggressive because the president has been asking him about it all the time,” a senior White House official said.

    The July meeting that Kushner led included White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Trump’s senior immigration adviser, Stephen Miller; acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan; and acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan.
    …
    It is unclear how much the webcam initiative will cost, nor how the technology will be used.
    …
    In general, Kushner… (the White House official said) does not believe contractors’ claims that their construction methods are proprietary.
    …

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @caphilldcne: Just caught that you access the site on a phone. The donation link is on the right-hand side, but on a phone, everything that is on the right-hand side on a computer is at the bottom of the post, after the comments. So that’s where you will want to look for the link to PayPal under Support Our Site.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @M. Bouffant:

    When you give a time, you might clarify w/ the time zone. We have six of them.

    I was speaking of BJ time, which in some circles is known as Eastern Time.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    Goodnight, old Balloon Juice. Thanks for hanging in there and holding yourself together while we got the new site in order. We are moving on, but we’ll always have the memories.

    Some day we may look back, fondly reminiscing about the good old days when we had to type our nyms and email addresses over and over.

  69. 69.

    Origuy

    Not Last!
    Probably, anyway. The Hawaiians and Amir are probably still up.
    Watergirl, thanks for all you’ve done. That goes to the testers, too. Effective testing is a skill that can be tedious.

  70. 70.

    way2blue

    How difficult would it be to add an ad-free subscription option to the website. Say $35 / year? (Too soon?)

  71. 71.

    Geeno

    Ooooh – new buttons and stuff. I’ll have to take some time and get acquainted with the new site

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