No, not that kind of Libs, as in “owning the libs”.
Just Some Fuckhead mentioned the other day that we should have a thread where we can say what year we each first found Balloon Juice.
That struck me as a good idea.
When did you get here? How did you find Balloon Juice? I imagine we will discover that Andrew Sullivan was good for something. Did you start commenting right away?
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from _________, in ______, and I thought it was _____ . My first comment was _______.
I’ll start. I first heard about Balloon Juice from Daily Kos, TBogg, Andrew Sullivan, Talking Points Memo, Charlie Pierce, or some other blog, I’m not sure which one. I’m not sure what year, maybe 2007, and I thought it was like a party with really smart and interesting people. I most definitely did not comment for a very long time. I think my first comment was answering a question someone had asked, but I don’t think I started commenting regularly until I lost my beloved kitty soulmate and was really struggling, and talking about it here helped me get through it.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have gone first!
Talk about this or anything else, personal or political. You decide.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
Pretty sure Scoobie Davis pointed me here.
Just Some Fuckhead
Splendid post and setup.
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from Daily Kos, I think, in 2005, and I thought it was in need of an encouraging liberal influence on John Cole. My first comment was about anal sex.
Summer
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from the blogosphere (remember blog rolls?) in the early dark days of the Bush administration when I was living in Turkey and John was a Republican, and I thought it was the only place where a liberal would have a conservative actually engage in discussion. My first comment was, I believe, that I wished there would be more civility. And John actually responded to my post. Ah the old days.
NotMax
Haven’t the foggiest notion of when or how. Not one to look a gift kismet in the maw.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I also came here through Andrew Sullivan, who I was reading since he was vocal about the torture in Iraq under W. Don’t know what year it was, but roughly 2002-3. JC already had Lily, but I remember when he rescued Rosie. Didn’t comment for many years; I think it has only been a couple of years. Loved the politics and animals and the great mix of FPs. Great community for me now. Thanks everyone!
Major Major Major Major
Hehe, if you want mad-libbed lib-owning, I do recommend this bot.
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from Andrew Sullivan’s interns who actually wrote his blog, in 2008 or so, and I thought it was confusing because the new posts didn’t match the old posts. My first comment was oh lord who knows. No, don’t look it up.
NobodySpecial
I first heard about Balloon Juice while I was at DailyKos, when Cole first started converting during the Terry Schiavo ruckus. I’d been slowly losing my pretenses at balance when RedState went off the deep end as the last “reasonable” conservative site I could find, but watching Cole radicalize in real time was downright inspiring. Can’t remember what my first comment was, though, I lurked for a real real long time.
Stuck thought I was a sockpuppet of Corner Stone and him and eemom tried getting me banned off the site before Cole made him take his first vacation. Hasn’t been all roses here for sure.
geg6
I first lurked back in 2003. I was a regular on a reality tv board, Survivor, my guilty pleasure (don’t @ me!), mainly on their off-topic forum. Lots of W fans and some people like me and what were then reasonable Republicans (today’s conservative Dems). I asked someone for an intelligent, non-crazy Republican to follow online and he suggested John Cole and Balloon Juice. I started lurking shortly thereafter and for several years. I was very intimidated and wouldn’t comment. DougJ was my hero. He kept me coming back until Cole finally saw the light. Not sure when I first commented, though.
jl
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from I forget where, in the vasty deep of the internet, and I had no clue that it existed or what it was, if something with such a name were to exist. My first comment was probably useless.
I’ve typed this before, but years ago in the ‘beforetimes’ I read on some liberal blogs stuff like ‘John Cole left the Republican Party!!!!’
And I thought “What the F is a John Cole and why should I care?”
I guess, by sheer random chance, I did come to the blog with the appropriate attitude for a BJ commenter.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Do you mean DougJ? Or was there a DougH that was before my time?
geg6
@Summer:
Hell, he doesn’t even post here anymore, let alone respond to a comment. ??
NotMax
Can say with 100% certainty that Sullivan or Kos had nothing to do with it, as have never once been to either place.
tom
I first heard about Balloon Juice from – yes! – Andrew Sullivan in 2003(?) maybe. I thought John was like me – a somewhat conservative guy absolutely appalled at the lies used to justify the Iraq war and the utter incompetence of the Bush administration, and starting to move away from the republican party and conservatism because of that. I don’t remember what my first comment was.
Major Major Major Major
@geg6: He finds out the blog is down from twitter! lol
p.a.
I was here for Schiavo & neti pot, pre-Lily, Tunch was still with us, John was post-wingnut but pre-registered Dem. Don’t remember how I got here.
frosty
I first heard about Balloon Juice from dKos or Sullivan. I started reading blogs in 2005 so it was after that. After John abandoned Republicans but before Lily and Rosie. So 2008-2010 I expect. I have no idea what or when my first comment might have been.
ETA About the same time as p.a above.
brantl
I got here from Crooks and Liars blogroll, also found TBogg (what the hell ever happened to him anyway? that was a GREAT blog!). I can’t remember my first comment to save my ass. Probably that if Nixon had been prosecuted, we wouldn’t be in this place; which has been an appropriate comment in an Republican administration since after Eisenhower, since they’ve all been crooked as shit……
geg6
@WaterGirl:
You are correct. I fixed it.
bbleh
I first heard about Balloon Juice, uh, seems like at least 7 years ago, although my time sense has become badly distorted by Trump and COVID. Certainly it was not long after my gateway experience with Kos, although I gave up Kos early on and moved into blogs more conventional for my age group, like Eschaton and Calpundit, which is probably how I contracted — contacted — BJ. Also, I am genetically susceptible to WV, which of course is my parents’ fault. As to my first comment, long past and forgotten…
cintibud
I can’t remember when I first came to Ballon Juice but it was when John was still a republican. (ETA – pre Lilly now that other people have mentioned that). I had a lot of down time at work so I was doing a lot of web surfing checking out political blogs. I was probably pointed in this direction by Andrew Sullivan’s blog. I was trying to check into alternate opinions from my usual liberal perspective but quickly found that Cole and Sullivan were the only conservative places I could stand for more than a minute.
I have never commented very much but I watched in real time fascination as the scales fell from Cole’s eyes – a lot of righteous rage as it dawned on him that he had been lied to.
I still don’t comment much but I eagerly browse the comments. I am continually amazed at the range of expertise and experiences I read hear. Thanks to John Cole, all the front pagers and commentators that make this a great place
Scout211
I first heard of Balloon Juice when the infamous “Jane Hamshers of the left” became the biggest blog scandal in the history of blog scandals. //
Maybe that whole controversy was actually a clever ploy by John Cole to siphon off all the FDL readers to this blog. It worked with me.
I don’t remember when it became a blog I read everyday, maybe 2006?
It took years for me to comment and I still don’t comment very often but I wouldn’t call myself a lurker anymore.
nicdanger
My story pretty much mirrors Watergirl, sans Andrew Sullivan. I very. very. very seldom comment.I follwed a couple of other commenters over to LGF,where i also comment very. very. very.seldom.usually by the time I formulate a reply to something ,type it, proofread and all that, the conversation has moved on.So,I just read…
WaterGirl
Funny how the carbon dating on BJ is based pre- or post- Schiavo, John’s and other front-pager pets, and which front-pagers were here when we arrived. *And which trolls you remember.
I remember being so happy when John brought Betty Cracker on board.
Evap
Although I’ve been voting since I turned 18 in 1976, I first became obsessed with politics during the 2004 election. I started reading blogs at some point in 2004 and discovered this blog then, along with Daily Kos, Eschatan, and a few others. I’ve checked in here almost daily since then.
A Good Woman
I heard about Balloon Juice from narya, who is my neighbor. This was a few years ago. I don’t recall when I first commented. I lurk, and I find myself with an expanded reading program thanks to the FPers and commenters.
Honus
I learned about Balloon Juice some time around 2006, from a post on the late Sadly No about The blog host having a conversion “on a late night drive from Shinnston, WV” Being a native of that part of the world, of course I was fascinated. Turns out I actually know a few of John’s colleagues. Gary Kappell’s parents were neighbors of ours when I was a kid and Elizabeth Hull was a classmate at UVA. Anyway, been here ever since.
TheflipPsyd
I’m pretty sure I found BJ by clicking a link from another blog, probably on a blog roll. I was an old usenet lurker and when they went out of fashion I found blogs. I started off reading the huff post then discovered will bunch at the daily news. From there I started reading atrios and Digby. Discovered the Atlantic blogs and read TNC, Megan McCardIe and Andrew Sullivan’s. I read Glenn Greenwald back then as well as a number of other blogs that are long gone. John had not gone through his conversion yet when I started reading. BJ has been a daily read since at least 2004 ( I know this because I met my husband in 2004 and he has always joked about the name and how much time I spend on the blog). I mainly lurk and would say I have only commented occasionally in the past couple of years.
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
Still wonky in the comment box, but after I refreshed it was back to normal.
Ilieitz
Don’t really remember. Started off on the smirking chimp and then started reading all kinds of blogs. Went to daily kos in 2005- 2006. Read Atrios, digby, fire dog lake etc. Loved tbogg. Really liked the editors and sadly no. One of them send me here and it is my main site ever since. Thanks John for bringing a sanity to the intertoobs.
mali muso
Came here via Kos which I abandoned not long after Obama was elected and the place quickly turned into a snarling purity lefty cesspool. My first comments were on one of the World Cup threads because they felt safe enough to venture into for a newbie. Definitely this has become my first stop in the morning and last stop in the evening during the last four years.
jl
@geg6: “Hell, he doesn’t even post here anymore, let alone respond to a comment. ”
There was a rotating header about Cole not reading his own blog but I haven’t seen it for a while. I’d suspect Cole took it down, but he being the warlord of an almost top 10,000 blog, I suppose he is too busy to read those anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from, I was gonna say Eschaton, but maybe it was Sullivan, in 2008 or 09, and I thought it was a refuge from fusion of the Naderites (remember them?) and bitter PUMAs (remember them?) in the Eschaton threads. My first comment was I think asking Cole how big Lily was. Pretty sure it was the story of Cole finding and adopting Lily was what drew me all the way in.
Twelve years ago? That can’t be right
WaterGirl
@mali muso: I remember feeling so vulnerable after I posted my first comment here.
geg6
@jl:
Yeah, fame has really gone to his big old melon, hasn’t it?
zhena gogolia
I first heard about Balloon Juice from my brother. Then I think there was some dog-related post on Andrew Sullivan that sent me here. I have no recollection of when I first commented, but I was immediately flamed by M-C and was traumatized. It’s hard for me to remember when, but definitely before 2008.
cope
Can’t remember when I first trod these soggy shores but I clicked on a link to here from another blog that had Balloon Juice listed under “Loyal Opposition”. I’m sure someone will whiz by and inform us what blog that is or was. Me, I’m too tired and have to go rest up for Second Shot Saturday. I’ve heard the second one can be a bit of an ass kicker.
Don’t remember when I first commented, don’t remember who all was on the front page then, I just know that I have been reading it ever since whenever.
Sorry, I don’t think this comment will contribute much to the Chronicles of BJ.
zhena gogolia
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
Okay, John didn’t have Lily yet when I started here. Only Tunch. I remember him adopting Lily.
zhena gogolia
@NobodySpecial:
Speaking of which, where are Corner Stone and eemom? And there was a time when they teamed up? I thought they hated each other.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
I won’t @ you, because my first foray into internet commenting was the Dancing with the Stars message board.
oldster
It may not have been the first time that I came here, but the first time that I *remember* coming here involved a lamentable but hilarious episode in which JC called “The Editors” at the Poorman blog something like “a giant lying asshole” in reference to a dispute over the Iraq War. This was before JC figured out that the war was a scam.
So The Editors wrote a long post wondering whether JC really meant that the Editors was an “enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus,” which concluded with his realizing that this phrase fits really well into the Beach Boys hit “Kokomo.” That’s why I can quote The Editors’ paraphrase verbatim, though I cannot remember the exact words that JC used — they didn’t fit a pop song.
I still start laughing whenever I hear Kokomo, for this reason.
Not that much later, JC came around to the reality-based community, and I began to associate the phrase “lamentable but hilarious” with many of his escapades.
John, I am genuinely grateful for all of the good times and mental health breaks that your blog has given me over the last 15 years.
HumboldtBlue
There’s an underlying message here that Martin accurately nailed last night.
I came here from TBogg who mentioned a right-wing asshole was waking up, wrote something mean and sarcastic in the comments, apologized to Cole by email and became a regular when John stole Betty from RumpRoast.
RCMAN
I’ve been lurking since GWB days. Back then Cole kept showing up on other blogs because he was on the dark side but couldn’t take the duplicity of the administration any more and was willing to say so. So rare and refreshing.
I’ve only posted once or twice in all these years but I visit often because it’s a real community and gives a person faith in their fellow humans. And of course Cole has taught me one can be a curmudgeon w/o being an asshole.
WaterGirl
@cope: congrats on shot #2 tomorrow! Don’t forget to stop by the I Got the Shot! thread for your sticker. No lollipops, sorry.
mali muso
@WaterGirl: Definitely! And now look at you. Wrangling jackals like you were born to it.
Mathguy
I think I found this blog sometime during the mid 2000s via Sullivan (spit). Definitely pre Obama. Can’t remember the first time I commented, though Google said there was one from 2012 floating around somewhere.
Jeffro
I’m not sure how long I’ve been here – 2004? 2005? – so I searched, um, myself and came up with this gem from 2017
So hey, there’s that! ;)
But I think it was in the mid-aughts when I first came here, as Iraq was going to hell, as everyone with half a brain knew it would.
TheflipPsyd
@cope: I remember reading a blog with loyal opposition as well but cannot remember the name for the life of me. Good luck tomorrow with the second shot
RoonieRoo
I first came to Balloon-Juice early in the Bush Administration, before Shiavo and Cole’s awakening. I found it via an article on Salon.com listing political blogs because I was specifically looking for “reasonable conservatives” to restore my faith that they weren’t all a little crazy.
jl
@oldster:
“enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus,” which concluded with his realizing that this phrase fits really well into the Beach Boys hit “Kokomo.”
A truly full service blog should have audio demonstrating that. Preferably very loud, and on autoplay when the blog page opens, IMHO.
M31
I found this place after Cole converted, wasn’t around to see that. LOL somehow I never read one word by Andrew Sullivan, and every discussion of him made me never regret that fact.
Ended up here during the days of prime Atrios, pre-purity pony Kos, Smirking Chimp, Bartcop, Steve Gilliard, digby in the anon days, First Draft, Crooks and Liars. LOL just went and checked and my Kos user ID is #1329, haven’t posted in years.
Was around for the Subaru in the field and the lost mustard though. Good times.
Jeffro
I think I might have, too! Except in my brother’s case, he learned all the wrong lessons from Iraq, W, the financial crisis, Obama’s election, Romney’s defeat, and the rise of trumpism/LowIQ-Anon. My brother is *still*, believe it or not, checking in with Glenn ‘heh’ Whatshisname and is all in on Reagan Baby Nihilism. Sad!
SiubhanDuinne
I don’t actually recall how I found this blog, but Sullivan would be a good guess. I think it was 2007, as I recall coming here during the Obama-Clinton primary (seems strange now to remember how much I loathed Hillary then, considering how I came to love and respect her a few years later).
It was certainly pre-Lily, as I can vividly picture John’s tales of finding her. I think he had gone to a shelter to look for another cat as a companion to Tunch, and this pathetic little doggo grabbed his attention and his heart, and he ended up adopting her. He went through a long catalogue of all the things that were wrong with her, and ended by saying something like “So naturally I brought her home.”
My first comment? Either a front-pager or another commenter had posed a question about how old each of us was, and I said that I was … whatever age I was then, 65 or 66 and feeling very elderly and wise.
Summer
@oldster:
This is so delightful.
HumboldtBlue
@mali muso:
Preach!
jl
@M31: “Steve Gilliard”
I liked that blog. Now I’m reminded and I miss it again.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: The jackals will not be wrangled! I believe that is in the BJ constitution.
oldster
Boy, one of the weird flips that I never predicted was when the Fafblog people decided to hate Obama.
In its prime, Fafblog was unmatched for hilarity — I don’t think any blog was funnier. And generally congenial in its politics.
Then Obama got in after Bush II.2, and they just curdled into rancid hatred of the purity-pony variety. Very odd, and sad.
M31
@jl: yeah, RIP Gilliard. I sometimes imagine what he would have had to say about Donald Fucking Trump, and miss him.
oh and RIP Bartcop too, with his blinking GeoCities-style blog and love of expensive tequila
Crusty Dem
I want to say ~2005? TPM? I remember my first comment resulted in a response post from John, back when he was in a constant battle with us libs. And this blog felt my connection to sanity from 2006-8. Good times.
M31
@oldster: damn I loved fafblog, but what a disappointment it became. Followed the guy who wrote it on twitter for a while for the art, though.
Ilieitz
Nobody remember the smirking chimp? Loved the name, though they mostly just replayed columns from other people
Kent
I don’t know when I first found balloon juice but it has been over 10 years. I was at Kos, TMP, Eshaton, Hullabalo and other similar blogs before settling here as my primary. I dislike the threaded comments at places like TPM and LGM because I can never figure out how to jump into the stream of a conversation. It seems like a bunch of independent ones talking past one another. I also liked Steve Gillard’s News Blog and anything by Ta Nehesi Coates back in the day when he would make posts and have commenters. Losining Steve was a big loss. I liked his military stuff. I refuse to delete him from my blogroll still.
My schedule causes me to miss most of the a.m. threads. Here in the Pacific Northwest my weekday schedule pre-covid was get up around 6, walk the dog for 30-40 min in the dark listening to podcasts or NPR, breakfast, get the girls up and ready for school, drop everyone at school, settle into my first period assignment (I’ve dialed back from full-time teaching the past 2 years and have been long-term subbing instead). And then once attendance is taken and the kids are working I start checking out political blogs and news sites. That is usually around 9 a.m. PST which is noon eastern time and by then all the morning threads are all commented-out and you are usually on some mid-day respite thread or travel thread or something. So I do more reading then commenting. Now with Covid my schedule is still much the same except that we settle into online learning at home and I still have two teenage girls to get up and ready for online school and a dog to walk and kitchen to clean before being free to sit down for my own time
I have always like Cole’s curmudgeoness but not so interested in all the pets as my house has been a house with too many cats and dogs so I don’t need to read about more of them. Other people’s pets are like other people’s kids. They just don’t interest me.
barbequebob
Don’t comment much but began lurking sometime during late stage Terry Schiavao era, (2004?) when John was major commenter. Not really sure how I stumbled into the place: I was not a big follower of blogs or even very much aware of them or social media. About the only other site I think I visited back then was Altercation by Eric Alterman, so MAYBE, that is how I stumbled into BJ, or maybe vice versa. Who Knows?
BJ is still my go to place to get the leads on the stories behind the headlines I see on the MSM sites.
HumboldtBlue
Watching the parade of old blog names march past and man I miss Sadly, No!.
TBogg too.
Mousebumples
Directed here from Sullivan’s old blog many years ago. Pre Obama and Pre Lily, though i don’t remember “when.” i was in college so 2003-2007, probably. Thanks for all the laughs and commiserations (and fuck ’ems), everyone!
geg6
@M31:
imagine Gilliard through the Trump century! Damn, but I miss him!
Genine
I found Balloon Juice around 2006 from a post on Stupid Evil Bastard. (I just Googled to see if he’s still around and, yep, that blog is still active.)
Jim Appleton
I first heard about BJ from The Poorman, I forget the year but it was well before John grew put of his Bush positive eta. The Editors sent us to laugh and point.
I was struck earlier today that I hung around BJ because it was fascinating to see John’s transformation. What struck me is a message of optimism — right wingers can have one of many epiphanies ending in a sane future.
Amir Khalid
Some of the better regular commenters on TIME‘s Swampland blog (which was pretty good, back in the day, but never did any pet or food blogging) decamped for Balloon Juice when Swampland went into terminal decline after Obama was first elected. So I followed them here.
NobodySpecial
@zhena gogolia: No, eemom hated CS. Her, Stuck, and some other guy whose name I forget were running around acting like Sherriffs of the Blog during the public option discussions and it got bad enough that Cole finally had to pull the reins in on them.
It was during that time they decided I was a sockpuppet of CS’s, because I had the horrible opinion that the ACA was gonna really suck for people who made too much to get the full subsidy and not enough to be able to afford insurance even with the premiums, and that first couple of years were pretty rough for me as far as trying to keep a policy. it’s part of the reason I got real irritated with the veneration of Stuck when he passed, because to me he was just the asshole who tried to get me banned off the site. And, of course, CS completely disappeared and eemom only shows up when she’s deep in her liquor cabinet to yell at some random person who’s displeased her.
Gravenstone
First heard about some malcontent blogger who seemed to be turning against Republicans because of the furor surrounding Terry Schiavo’s end of life over at Eric Alterman’s old blog, so circa 2005. Poked my head in and found an interesting cast of characters. And here I remain. Fuck if I remember what my first comment was about, but I probably lurked for a year or more before piping up.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@geg6: No need to apologize for liking Survivor to me. I’ve been watching since Season 1 in 2000 (20 years!). The only reality show I watch except for Top Chef and Project Runway
ETA: and The Great British Baking Show, early seasons.
Ukko
Pretty sure I got here from Obsidian Wings but I lurked a while. Not that I talk much anyway. I know I was here for republican John, Shivo, and all the classics—naked mopping, mustard, Tunch.
Jeffro
OT but when Kathleen Parker starts sounding like Jen Rubin, maybe…just maaaaaybe…we’re getting close to splitting the GOP for realz:
Curtis
Peeked onto here around 2005 or 2006 from Daily Kos. Stuck around shortly after John’s departure from the Republican party, partly because of the delicious grumpy vitriol around these parts, and partly because of the legend that was Tunch (RIP).
Mike in NC
Probably Andrew Sullivan — or really who the hell knows — around 2007.
JanieM
First heard of the blog back in the days of the Daily Dish but didn’t start reading it at that time. (The Dish in itself is a story, but never mind. I can’t stand Andrew Sullivan, leave it at that.) Started reading BJ regularly during the Malheur occupation because of Adam’s posts on that topic. Got hooked pretty easily, given the timing (Jan 2016).
I was a longtime reader/commenter (and eventually a sometimes front-pager) at Obsidian Wings, and also read and commented pretty regularly at Crooked Timber in those days, so I took participating as a commenter for granted, and didn’t realize at first what a huge and longstanding “core” group of commenters there was here — honestly, as amazing as the place is, it’s also pretty damned daunting to try to break into it and feel part of it.
My first comment was a fairly long one about ethnic neighborhoods in the town where I grew up, in response to something written by a commenter named redshirt. Since then I’ve gone back and forth between commenting and lurking, and didn’t really start to feel like I was part of the place until I started contributing some photos to OTR After Dark last fall.
I believe redshirt’s last comment was here, the night of the 2016 election. A commenter with the handle “martian” expressed concern about redshirt’s last couple of contributions (“Goodbye cruel world” was the last), but redshirt didn’t respond and I’m pretty sure never showed up again. Before that redshirt had been a pretty frequent presence here, and was also a Mainer, so I felt some kinship and have wondered ever since what happened. The blog linked by redshirt’s handle also went dead, and its heading was “Meditations on an Away Mission.” If someone can figure out when redshirt first commented, that would be quite interesting….
Now to go back and read the thread
ETA: Immediately saw gravenstone mention Schiavo, and that might have been when I heard about this place through the Dish, because as someone raised Catholic I had found Andrew Sullivan’s commentary on the Schiavo mess interesting.
NobodySpecial
@HumboldtBlue: Sadly, No! was the best.
Another Scott
Dunno when I first wandered over here. I was “I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet” first, and for a long time, because I was paranoid about using the same ‘nym on more than one place on the WWW.
Then I dropped the apostrophe because it broke something in a FYWP upgrade.
Then I dropped it for my current handle.
I do recall that I first contacted JC because I’d been reading things here for quite a while before I even setup an account, and then I couldn’t without some trickery. It looks like that was back in 2010.
I probably found the place via FDL (or maybe Booman or less likely Atrios).
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
My eight-year-old grandniece, whose birth I attended due to some odd circumstances here on the Lost Coast, has penned a wonderful piece of verse.
She and her WV family, very tight, very close travel every summer to the North Carolina beaches.
She told my sister, her grandma, she would write about summer in the midst of a cold, snowy winter day.
The Beach
By ridiculously awesome grandniece of HumboldtBlue (I was tasked with texting the family when grandniece arrived, but after the nurse opened the door and looked out at me grandniece cried, and I cried and thank goodness for my niece’s friends who took the phone from my weeping ass and let the family know the clan’s poet laureate had arrived)
The waves are loud
The sand is soft while the shells play peek-a-boo
Can you hear the laughter?
Can you see the playing?
While the seagulls are calling
After you play and swim, the day will end with a salty grin
cope
Curse this blog…I just HAD to check in before going beddy-bye and now I’ve seen the names of great blogs I used to read mentioned in other comments (Steve Gilliard; Tbogg; Sadly, No!; anonymous Digby; Jon Swift). So that reminded me of other blogs I used to frequent that are now gone like Doghouse Riley and Joe Bageant. Good times…good times. Now, off to bed. No, I really mean it this time.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@WaterGirl: Yes! Adding Betty Cracker was a masterstroke. Otherwise, I would never have heard of butter lambs, or known there were reasonable people in FL. Betty is the best.
Ilieitz
Ever read Chris Floyd, Greg Palast ,Arthur Silber. All pretty anti government but wrote good analysis
Planetjanet
It is a struggle to remember when I came here. Atrios was my entry point, who mentioned this Republican who was pretty interesting. I was pretty devoted to Atrios, even going to a couple of his “conventions”, meeting Digby and Jane Hamsher. I remember evening entertainment by Rude Pundit. I did not comment for years, so I can’t confirm when I got here. All the other blogs I consume then are rarely read now, Daily Kos, FDL, Salon, and my all time favorite, Media Whores Online. I think I was here before Lily, maybe during the Schiavo days. Tunch was magnificent. I recall thinking I passed by someone who looked like what I imagined to be John at the Daily Kos convention when it was in Pittsburgh. This was pre-NetRoots Nation. Now BJ is my home.
Viva BrisVegas
Like a lot of others, I came across BJ via Andrew Sullivan. The main thing I remember about Sullivan now is the atrocious colour scheme of his blog. It must have been around 2004, after the Iraq War turned sour for Bush. Sullivan described Cole as a thoughtful Conservative and I thought, I’ve gotta see this unicorn. This was before Schiavo and the comments were essentially, “Democrats, Stupid or Evil”?
I didn’t post for years and I still don’t often post. Basically because this is a mostly political blog and my knowledge of American politics is rudimentary at best. Another inhibition is that I am a dog person but definitely not a cat person. Which I suspect is enough to make me persona non gratia here.
As an aside, does anybody recall Brick Oven Bill and his tales of toothless catfights in diners?
beef
It would have been 2003. I’d been reading Kos from early 2002, but had gotten frustrated with the crowd there for various reasons (among them that I thought Al Gore would be a good candidate for 2004, lol) and was branching out looking for other things. Found Cole at about the same time as Billmon, Digby, and FDL. I think I found him through Billmon or Digby.
Kirk Spencer
I thought I was on in 2004 but the earliest I find in a quick search is 2005. I was a librarian looking for a balance of left and right voices. John joined the list next to a couple of sites I no longer read. I really don’t recall my first post, but there are decent odds it was bloviating pontification. Or about cooking.
SoupCatcher
I started coming here regularly some time after Schiavo, but before the 2008 election. Can’t remember if it was Kos, Eschaton, or someone at FDL, but probably Eschaton; I think Atrios had a phrase he used to refer to John Cole in contrast to Juan Cole; something about a levelheaded Republican, maybe.
At the time, I was daily reading Daily Kos, Eschaton, Talking Points Memo, Cal Pundit/Kevin Drum’s various incarnations, Hullabaloo, and Fire Dog Lake. After Obama was elected, I drifted away. It felt to me as if the election broke all of them in some small way.
But I kept coming back to Balloon Juice. At first, for the front pagers, but then more for the comment threads. You all help me gauge what change is possible. As a brown man in America, I am well aware that no change happens without the support of those with the most privilege. This blog is a great place for me to see how the messages of women and people of color are received by white Democrats.
I’m mostly a lurker.
Rileys Enabler
Pretty sure it was a blog roll list from Sullivan, and was right after the great Conversion of Cole. I didn’t comment for years and rarely do now, but I am so grateful for this pond of sanity. It’s the rare space that provides kitty pics, interesting political discourse, recipes and naked mopping tips.
Aziz, light!
After lurking thru 2006 I put up the nym of Soylent Green in 2007. I was pleased to witness a Republican (our esteemed blogfather) renouncing the dark side of the force.
Ilieitz
Messed up my email address. Did anyone read Greg floyd, Greg palast ,Author Silber. Good essay writers
Honus
@HumboldtBlue: me too, and also Gilliard and Jon Swift
oldster
@JanieM:
Thanks for mentioning Obsidian Wings — I’m pretty sure I used to read and comment there before finding this place. And Crooked Timber, which I still comment on now and then.
Sullivan…sigh…I regret the time and attention that I gave to that guy.
JanieM
@Viva BrisVegas: I remember Brick Oven Bill from Obsidian Wings, but he was gone from here before I got here. He’s long gone from there, as well.
JanieM
@oldster: I don’t read Crooked Timber very faithfully anymore, but I do see you there, and I always make it a point to read your comments even if I’m just skimming a thread quickly, because I’m a fan of yours. :-)
Honus
@Viva BrisVegas: I was wondering the other day what happened to BOB. Kind of expected to see him arrested at the insurrection.
John Revolta
I first found this den of iniquity through the blogroll at sorely missed Sadly, No! It was right around the time of the Great “I Am Aware of All Internet Traditions” kerfuffle which Google tells me was 2008. In that way I also found LGM. I found S,N from the blogroll at Salon which, along with Slate, was where I first got this disgusting blog habit.
HumboldtBlue
@SoupCatcher:
You have hit the nerve of why I and why I assume many others come back — learning. Full purpose blog may be a gag, but it’s true, you stick around, and you learn.
Fuck, just the book and author mentions is enough to fill a series of ongoing lists I’ve curated over the years.
oldster
Whoa, Billmon — he wrote some excellent stuff, and I have not thought about him in years. Sharp analysis, witty, and with a very distinctive voice.
Okay, since we are holding a requiem for all the good blogs gone bad, can we state the obvious?
As great as JC is, this blog has survived and thrived because JC had the good sense to recruit *great* front pagers like Betty Cracker, Anne Laurie, Dave the Insurance Guy, Adam the military whiz, DougJ the worlds greatest troll, MajorMajorMajorMajor, and I don’t even know who else.
I imagine that John has to pay a lot to retain all of this talent, but then that’s why he puts his animals out to work during the day so that they can pay the bills.
oldster
@JanieM:
Mighty obliged to you, ma’am. And I find you a fountain of good sense, well-expressed.
JoyceCB
I was exploring what this new concept of a “blog” was – someone way up top mentioned blogrolls and that’s how I got here, maybe from FDL or TBogg, can’t remember. It was Terry Schiavo or before, definitely pre Lily. Can still remember the gut-punch when Tunch died. All this time and I never commented until late last year. Feel a bit odd as a half-American but living in Canada, mother was a war bride but wanted us brought up with her American heritage. That was OK until Vietnam, then emphatically No Thank You. You all have been a bastion of sanity through George W. and the Shitgibbon.
Avalie
@Ukko:
Pretty sure I also found this place from Obsidian Wings and have been mostly lurking ever since.
SFBayAreaGal
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from Daily Kos around 2015-2016, maybe. I can’t really remember.
I found the name Balloon Juice interesting. I didn’t know what is was until I started reading the front pagers and commentators and I knew I was home.
Unfortunately or fortunately I can’t remember what was my first comment.
Anon in NC
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from a dear friend who has passed away (he told me in 2017 or 2018), and I thought it was a fun way to keep up with news. My first comment was in November 2020 when my father in law passed away. Thank you so much to the community for the emotional support. Y’all are good people.
Geoduck
A Google search says I’ve been here since at least 2006, when I commented on a story about some trapped coal miners. Like many others, I was a lefty scouting around trying to find a conservative voice that wasn’t completely frothing insane. (Something I still do..) Little Green Footballs was another place I visited for this service, but he also converted, and now mostly just posts video and music links. And someone mentioned Billmon, I too had forgotten about him, after enjoying him much in the day.
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid:
Have we known each other for longer than when we first interacted in this wretched hive of scum and villainy? I also drifted over here from Swampland way back in the before times of 2008. Remember pourmecoffee? He’s the one who really gave me the nudge to drift over to these parts.
And since we’re drifting down memory lane: remember how Karen Tumulty really interacted with us? Good times, that was.
SFBayAreaGal
@mali muso: It’s my first and last stop also.
SFBayAreaGal
@geg6: I won’t @ you! My first experience on the chat boards was using AOL and commenting in the Babylon 5 chat group. Michael Straczynski was a regular commentator.
Shalimar
I first started reading regularly during Schiavo, but first visited at least a year earlier from Daily Kos when Markos linked to a post by a conservative he agreed with. Don’t remember the topic anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yutsano:
I got my nym from a snotty Joe Klein post in which he derided people who didn’t get his jokes as “foolish literalists”. During the Petraeus hearings. Remember how often Joe would huffily announce “this shall be my very last word on the subject!” whenever he was getting roasted in the comments? Speaking of people who faded away, I see Joe Klein once or twice a year reviewing a book. Not that I miss him, but such people rarely fade away so quickly.
Zelma
I came in late 2007 or early 2008 and I was directed here by my son. I had just retired, just been diagnosed with cancer, and turned to politics as a diversion. Unfortunately it became an obsession. I felt at home because of a shared love of cats and the Steelers. I missed John’s conversion and by the time I arrived BJ was pretty liberal. What I liked – and still do – is the sense of community. I don’t comment much. I fear I tend to pedantry rather than wit and this is a very witty bunch. I spend much too much time here.
namekarB
Oh gosh, I don’t remember dates but must have been some time in the 00’s. Lily and Tunch, John Cole was converting. I don’t remember how I got the link but I used to visit D-Day, Whiskey Fire, Ameriblog, Andrew Sullivan, Daily Howler, Firedoglake, The Horses Mouth and some others I cannot recall offhand but will remember after I post this comment. (Some of those blogs mentioned may have been before or after, it is kinda fuzzy) ETA Daily Kos also. Think that may have been the 1st link to BJ
NotMax
This whole exercise prompted me to go look at the long list of blogs (well over 100) I’ve bookmarked over the past 20-odd years, most visited frequently at one time or another. And most no longer extant, living on only in the bookmark files. More than would have expected that went away due to the expiration of the person running the place.
BigJimSlade
@There are those who call me…tim… (Still posh): OHHhhhhh Sheeeeyit! Scoobie Davis! I forgot all about Scoobs!
Sandia Blanca
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from Janet Strange, in real life, and I thought it was surprising because I’d heard it was a conservative blog . My first comment was so unmemorable that I can’t remember when or where I made it. My most exciting Balloon Juice experience was meeting the Blogmaster in person several years ago when he came to Austin for SXSWedu, and we had an actual meet-up at a hipster venue downtown.
oldster
@NotMax:
I haven’t expired exactly, but I sure am overdue for a renewal.
HumboldtBlue
@Zelma:
Nonsense, that’s not possible. It is one of a few open tabs when I’m online, however.
BigJimSlade
When W. became preznit, I found blogs. What were the first? Oh, god. Um, Eschaton, Media Whores Online, even early Calpundit, and wherever Altercation was, which led to following Charles P. Pierce thanks to his Friday input. Pandagon, Chris Clarke (the desert guy), Orcinus, CLM, FDL for a bit… When did I first hear about BJ? I have no idea. Same for the other mad libs entries for this :-/
But I’m glad y’all are here!
NoraLenderbee
Latecomer here–late 2015 or early 2016. I got here from LGM, I think. I don’t recall how I found LGM. I thought Balloon Juice was a disgusting name (warm spit?) but stuck around because you guys saved my sanity during and after the 2016 election.
Did Cole ever make a specific “That’s it–I’m done with the GOP” post? I would love to read it.
hitchhiker
All I know is that I was innocently following the Howard Dean campaign, which led me to that orange thing run by Markos Moulitsas, which I think had a blog roll thingie, and then suddenly here I was, reading about someone named John Cole and his naked mopping adventures. Pain was involved.
I stayed b/c of that.
The vicious humor with a golden center and never a false note. Odd how rare that is.
NotMax
@Viva BrisVegas
Amen³.
The Lodger
Can’t remember my first comment either, but Tunch was still with us and the Kokomo earworm was pretty fresh in my mind. I used to be a regular reader of Gilliard, bartcop, Slacktivist (pre-Patheos), Charlie Pierce (pre-paywall), Billmon’s Whiskey Bar, and even Table Talk. Nowadays, it’s usually Balloon Juice with semi-regular trips to LGM, Wonkette, First Draft, Scalzi and Stross. Plus the occasional four-line drive-by in these environs.
dr. luba
I found this blog back in the very early aughts, after Bush was installed but before Lily or Schiavo. Not sure who sent me here, but definitely NOT Andrew Sullivan (never read him). I think someone in Kos? mentioned JC as being a reasonable conservative, so I had a look in.
Been hanging around since.
citizen dave (aka mad citizen)
@NoraLenderbee: Very similar for me! Stumbled in maybe from LGM blogroll and haven’t left. It was definitely Dec. 2016, looking for a way to cope with we all know what.
I decided today to try to always use the word “outweighs” instead of a five/six letter word beginning with “t” that refers to suits of cards.
something fabulous
I feel like John Revolta (!!)’s comment above could be me, but maybe a few years even earlier? Seems so unlikely– 15 years or more?? But I suppose must be true. Can’t remember what my first comment was either, but certainly have mostly lurked. I remember joining in with some joke going on with Steeplejack and some others one late evening, and feeling very brave.
I can vividly remember Anne Laurie’s commenting on Sadly No, and then seeing her here, thinking, oh, must be ok then :). Maybe she in a post there pointed us over here, even? And then she became a front-pager here.
Which reminds me, Betty, if you’re here, also so excited to see your move from there to here: I was also a big reader of Rumproast, and I have always wondered what happened to it. Felt, sad, somehow that there was never a formal final post, just kind of… petered out? Did anyone ever discuss making a that’s all folks wrap up or anything? And do you know what ever happened to, am I remembering his nym right; Strangeappar8tus?
HumboldtBlue
If you need a laugh here’s a quick clip of misheard lyrics
BigJimSlade
@Ilieitz: Yeah, I forgot to mention TBogg, Digby, and even Bartcop!
oldster
@citizen dave (aka mad citizen):
Getting that synonym is important. Sometimes, the word “swamps” will also work.
(In some contexts, “outweighs” will outweigh “swamps,” whereas in other contexts, “swamps” will swamp “outweighs.”)
jl
@The Lodger: The Tunch cult drew in many, some to glory, some to their own ruin.
Tunch was an attraction of this blog. A supernatural spooky cat who could infest computers and foul up the internet, so dense and vast, it ripped the fabric of spacetime, was a point of interest.
BigJimSlade
@oldster: Poorman! Oh, the best thing about the W. years was definitely the liberal blogosphere.
HRA
I cannot even try to pick the year I first came to Balloon Juice. I got here after looking at the other few blogs at that time. What I remember is black helicopters, green balloons, a boy who had to live in a bubble and a photo of someone who was in a room to save him from the bends after diving too far down in the ocean There were no FPs then. I guess we were too either boring or too nice when someone would say Doug is here to cause trouble. General Stuck was on then and I don’t remember any controversy from him. I had some good conversations with him.
I did leave a few times and then came back after reading other blogs. I probably have the title of being dissed by every FP except for one and lost track of how many BJers. I read in the AM and later in the day.
The Lodger
@oldster: “Outweighs” is a pretty apt verb when referencing the Orange One, though.
catclub
@RCMAN:
Well put.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I have no freaking idea how I got here or when.I think it must have been a link from somebody on DailyKos, because I used to read that pretty regularly. I have a pretty low Kos user number as I recall, around 1300. By the time I came over here, I think Cole had already had his conversion. And I liked the front page here a lot better than the diaries that got featured at Kos and gradually stopped reading over there. And here I am. Wherever this is.
Edit: Just logged in to Kos to look at my profile and check some of my facts. I see that I misremembered my User ID, I’m actually #11078. Also I see that I was awarded trusted user status in 2012. I no longer recall what that means. That’s probably about the last time I was there.
More edits: I remember Tunch and a number of Tunch-related incidents (including his sad passing).
catclub
@dr. luba:
I got here before LIly but was not here for the Schiavo awakening.
Wasn’t about the first Lily adventure a broken shoulder fall on ice.
If you would like proof I can send my credenzas.
beef
I’ve been looking at those old blogs with the Wayback Machine. Turns out that memory is not reliable. I’d swear I can recall reading Kos on a certain university computer in the winter of early 2002. Couldn’t have been any later than June that year, because I moved cross country. But Kos didn’t start the site until late 2002. So what was I reading then? TalkingPointsMemo, I suppose. Andrew Sullivan by late 2002. That one I’m sure of, because I remember arguing with a particular housemate about how blinkered his morality was.
Likewise, I thought I first came here in 2003, but I remember it being near in time to FDL, and they didn’t start until 2004.
Didn’t start commenting until much later or this would be easier to figure out. Oh well.
I miss reading Billmon. I remember he was on Kos again in the mid Obama years. Not sure what became of him after that.
ChuckInAustin
mid C+ Augustus era, No lie, I searched for a post by Juan Cole. Not what I expected!!
citizen dave (aka mad citizen)
@oldster: Thanks, google didn’t show me swamps, that’s a great word! I did think of “outranks ” on my own. Sad thing is I either used that t word word or hear it about once a week in work meetings.
Another Scott
@ChuckInAustin:
[snort!]
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
lurker
Lurked really hard here starting around 2007. Long enough ago I do not recall. Saw a little of Cole’s transition, so that argues for a bit of an earlier date. Had found the baby blue satan (atrios) and liked the eschaton name because of some old sci-fi I read in my long ago mis-spent youth (I think it was on papyrus). Had also found LGM around then. Dailykos and TPM were part of my existence previously, so the exact path is beyond hard to pin down. Was watching from a distance for happenings with billmon and a few other blogs now lost to time.
First comment was likely about soccer referee stuff, which I did not start until the early Obama first term – actual first comment was much later than that. Pretty much have enjoyed seeing a community of people who had a similar level of snark (sometimes less) to my own personal sarcasm, and an evolving approach to the world. Also, realizing Cole was likely close to a contemporary in terms of age while on a vastly different life path leading to similar thoughts about the world was a nice touch.
Am also pretty sure the email address I started using does not exist now, so I might have to do something about that sometime. At any rate, I am happy to have filled in the blanks for you … or whatever this was
Yutsano
@Jimu, Foolish Literalist: Oh jeez he would play act the alte kacker like no one’s business! But we really WERE all beneath him from his perspective. After all, he was a columnist from a prestigious magazine and don’t you forget that plebes! I also remember how Alex would get IRRITATED for being misgendered! But K-Tum was always the most fun. Even when she mock threatened to kick me off once!
EDIT: Oh and I couldn’t even begin to tell you what my first comment was.
catclub
Maybe around the Schiavo times. When WAS Schiavo? I would guess 2005 before Katrina. I could look it up.
Lige
Probably around 2008 – John Cole had def converted by that point. I remember thinking of it as a conservative leaning blog before then. Probably followed a link from LGM. Lurked here ever since!
Another Scott
@NoraLenderbee: Say hello to the newest member of the vast left wing conspiracy.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Punchy
2006, from some political blog summary shit on nbc.news. And Steve Clemons (whoever that was). Back when Idiot Cole was a Repub taking crazy idiot GOP stances. Good times.
lurker
@lurker: thinking a little further, I was looking at kos early for its time – around 2003/4 – in the runup to the shrub re-election. Found balloon juice prior to the midterms in 2006, but not a lot before then. I had also found fdl before then. Pretty sure I found TPM first, as I discovered it when it was not much more than josh at a cafe. Was done with kos by sometime in 2008 – it was just too exhausting.
Of all the places I have lurked, this is the only one where I comment, and that is pretty rare. Glad to have the outlet and the perspectives I see here.
SFBayAreaGal
I found my first posting in Balloon Juice and it was a post by John Cole called “About Those Conservative Principles” which was about Ted Cruz
14.
SFBayAreaGal
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 AT 4:11 PM
He put Trump before his wife. What a piece of dirty rotten maggot pile of sh*t. No that is insulting to a pile of sh*t.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Adam Lang
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from a friend of mine, Tommaso Sciortino, in… god… 2004? 2005? and I thought it was ‘a place where there was still a nearly-sane Republican or two’. My first comment was in 2010, a request that some folks from here come by my year-old dog blog and help suggest names for a puppy. Which y’all did, so thanks, although the owner didn’t end up taking any of the suggestions.
The first commenter was some weirdo named ‘TBogg’. I had absolutely no idea who that was at the time. Funny that.
Dog blog is still going strong, 10 years later.
FelonyGovt
I saw one of John Cole’s posts about Bernie on Facebook- someone had reposted it- in 2016. It perfectly encapsulated my irritation with Bernie and his fans. I then investigated Balloon Juice and I was hooked.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Around 2005, pointed to here by someone at Daily Kos who said that John had gone crazy and was letting TimF post here. It was while John was undergoing his conversion, during the right’s love affair with keeping Schiavo alive despite her husband’s wishes.
Fun times! Also great to see TimF posting again recently.
Tazj
I first started lurking over here after Obama was elected during the fights over Obamacare. My older brother told me to come here. I think I was lurking on FDL and Daily Kos and probably driving him crazy asking him questions about everything. He said something like this was a place for sensible pragmatic liberals.
Anyway, I’ve been hanging around here ever since and I have really appreciated the community even though I don’t comment that much.
Punchy
@HumboldtBlue: anyone remember Princess Sparkle Pony?
Juliet
First came here when Sadly No and Atrios challenged John in some kind of YouTube song battle. Pre Lily. Stopped visiting Eschaton and stayed here instead.
iami
Around 2002 or 2003 when i started hate-reading this blog due to its advocacy of the Iraq war….
I was ultimately pleasantly surprised by its subsequent evolution.
worn
Late to the party (as always) but I was directed here via Mark Kleiman’s blog Same Facts when he made a point of approvingly linking to a post of Cole’s, saying that we needed to give credit to reasonable conservatives. At the time I was in search of a reasonable conservative voices in the blogosphere, so I clicked through. And I kept coming back. I Ithink this was back in 2004, which is hard to believe.
This was before pre-Schavio/arrival of Tim F, back when John was the sole proprietor. At some point in the intervening decade and a half, this joint became my first and lost stop of the day.
I haven’t commented much over the years because I am usually reading threads long after they have died (left coast night owl), but BJ & the community here is much valued.
PJ
I probably found my way here through Sullivan, who, though while obviously a blinkered asshole, was one of the few prominent columnists decrying Bush’s torture regime (though of course he had been gung-ho for the war in the first place.) I remember reading stuff here in the run up to the election in 2008, but might have been reading before then. I resisted commenting for several years but then something made me angry enough to add my very important opinion, and, well, here I am, corrupted by the overpowering desire to correct people on the internet.
It’s interesting to see the names of people brought up, who, over the years, used this site to exorcise their rage and decide what was correct thought and what wasn’t, but who have now mostly faded away.
danielx
Might have been back in FireDogLake days of yore.
worn
@Odie Hugh Manatee: And good to see you, too – a nym that dates from around the time of my arrival. Don’t I remember that you reside in Oregon as well?
Actually that goes for Just Some Fuckhead, too. Good to see you back!
cain
@p.a.:
I was here I think a few months before the conversion. I heard about Balloon-Juice through the a blog aggregator that for some reason I can’t remember right now. But like everyone else I wanted to associate with a reasonable conservative.
I was active – I enjoyed the commentary and still do. Which is why I am still here – after.. uh.. nearly 15 years? I think I joined when I was still in my mid 30s :D
HumboldtBlue
@Another Scott:
There it is
danielx
Weird looking at posts from back then and automatically classifying them as from “before”. You know, back when you’d make sure you had your wallet, phone and keys before getting in the car, as opposed to wallet, phone, keys, masks, hand disinfectant, holy water, samurai sword….okay, not the katana on every trip.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@worn:
Yup on Oregon, Brookings… Nice place but too many tRump supporters. I do have fun baiting some of them though, I can’t help it. I first posted here under some random nym and then quickly changed to Conservtively Liberal, later to Ivan Fookinov and then this one for the last few years.
It’s good seeing some old nyms pop up here.
oldster
@BigJimSlade:
Yeah, the Bush years were truly horrible, and we were *so* far from the levers of power that all we could do was point and laugh, to keep from crying.
Atrios talks about this sometimes — that as bad as the recent Russian Puppet was, in some ways the Bush era was even worse. The RP was never popular — did he even break 45% approval once? — and the opposition was strong and public from day one (I was there for the women’s march, one of the best days of the last few decades).
But during the Bush maladministration, liberals were deeply unpopular. We had to watch our backs at every turn, or be called treasonous scum who were objectively pro-terrorist. By 80% of America!
The Russian Puppet was by far a worse person. But the degree of rigid uniformity and groupthink was worse during the Bush years. Bush-lovers were not generally quite as crazed as MAGATs (with certain notable exceptions), but there were so many more of them, and the popular press would allow no suggestion of dissent.
Poe Larity
No idea from where or why, but it was whenever Tunch got tired of Oliver and ran him off.
worn
@cain: Did you ever satisfy your dõner jones from a few weeks back? There’s a joint Spitz over here by my crib in NoPo that serves up several takes on them. Meant to mention it back then, but was a day late and a dollar short…
Anya
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from Andrew Sullivan by way of Ezra Klein, in 2008, and I am somewhat embarrassed to admit it but it was John’s “I can no longer rationally discuss the Clintons” rant the got me here. I don’t remember my first comment. But I remember loving the commenters. Everyone seemed super knowledgeable, wise and angry (the right anger), hopeful, passionate to me. I’ve never seen anything like it before. My kind of crowd. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from you lot. My first political awakening (if you discount when my parents used to drag us to Iraq war protests).
Desargues
I found this blog back in the day when blogging was cool. Before it went mainstream or something, and “Get a Brain Morans” was the hot meme of the day.
I can’t remember how I came across it. Around 2004 or so. I think it was off the blogroll at Hammer Of The Blogs, a foul-mouthed funny guy I still read. Back then, I used to drop by for posts by John coming to his senses, Tim writing smart stuff, and DougJ losing his shit on the regular–about slatepitches and dumbass Broderite shit. Funny as all hell.
‘Twas the best of times, it was the worst of times. Or sumpin.
Also, why can’t I insert a picture in my comment?
Starboard Tack
I found BJ this summer while I was reading a lot of things online because of pandemic ennui. I think it was a link in a comment on Crooks & Liars. I started reading regularly and making a few comments after the election. The japes helped keep my mood up until the inauguration.
PJ
@oldster: The lockstep support by the media for Bush, even before 9/11, and the Republican agenda was a big shock for me. I mean, I could see the rightward drift through the ’90’s, particularly in nominally “liberal” media like NPR, but the complete dismissal of liberalism and human rights was something else. I started reading the Guardian because that was only place I could get accurate information about Afghanistan and Iraq.
sab
I was lirkimg here just before Cole got Lilly. I don’t know how I got here, except that it was through some blogroll, possibly mustang bobby’s. My first comment wasn’t a comment, it was a photo of my dog back when BJ did pet picture posts. July 15, 2009. German shepherd in a purple kids pool. Cole thought she was a he.
Another Scott
@Desargues: (Only “front pagers” can post graphics.)
Cheers,
Scott.
FredW
I don’t remember the exact year, but Cole was still a Republican. I always try and read some alternate viewpoints and he seemed to be non-crazy (at least in a political way :) )
Funny thing: Of the 4 or 5 “conservative” blogs I followed back then, three are now on the “right” side (as I see it). It was the power of my positive thinking…
cain
@cain:
I remember now – it was the Daou Report. John was on the “conservative side” – and it was wonderful to read. I did enjoy the conservative and liberal commentators.
cain
Did you mean dõner kebabs?
Credenzal Clearwater Revival
<Fake Gary Rupert> The fact is, there’s nothing like a nostalgia thread to de-lurk the fan-base. Even if true Patriot parroty isn’t funny anymore since peek wing nuts have far surpassed both the righteous fervor and mispelled grammer of Gary Rupert </Fake Gary Rupert>
I’m more Sadly, No! flotsam that got hooked on your pet photos, sharp badger tongues, Oxford commas, and surprising number of my fellow Longmonsters around the time of the great musical crosspost confluence.
zeecube
Cannot remember when I first bumped into this site. It was after some kind of mustard event but before John’s Subaru ended up in a field. Stayed for the snark. I rarely comment. First time was about the True Detective series (first season set in Louisiana – some scenes shot on my old stomping grounds).
worn
@cain: You were probably speaking of kabobs, yes, but Spitz really does wraps. So not the same jam exactly. But seeing the nym reminded me of your comment.
JoyceH
I was referred here from some blog I can no longer remember. I recall that John Cole was described as a conservative who wasn’t crazy and you’d sometimes agree with.
When I got here John was still a Republican and had no dogs! Hey, remember how that went down? First John said he was thinking about another cat and was going to go to the shelter to look at cats. Then he comes back and posts a picture of Lily and says, “I think I’m going to get this dog.”
BigJimSlade
@jl: same here.
lurker
…stroking chin … i might have found the blog after knocking on doors for baud in ’92… hard to remember
; – )
BigJimSlade
@M31: Tacky but fun. The site is still up, but the last post is from 2014.
BigJimSlade
@oldster: Damn! Forgot all about Fafblog!
NotMax
@JoyceH
You omitted the word “blurry” before “picture.”
:)
mvr
First heard on Daily Kos about some not entirely crazy R guy who who blogged and was starting to realize the war in Iraq was a bad idea. Started reading then. My memory is that this was before Kerry lost in 2004, but I could be wrong. I only started commenting at DK in 2005 and I lurked here for a long time before I ever commented, and my comments are few and far between. But you kept me sane in the dark days of the mid zeros. Nothing has kept me sane for the last four years, but you at least gave me comfort.
Felanius Kootea
I found out about Balloon Juice in 2002; I’m not sure how. Might have been Daily Kos. I was trying to find a conservative voice that made some sense so I could understand conservatives a bit better. Several nyms later, I’m still here and BJ is no longer part of Pajama (?) Media and has no blogroll links to Michelle Malkin. I still don’t understand conservatives. Thanks John.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Boy, it seems like a long time ago. I used to read Fire Dog Lake mainly for Christy Hardin Smith and Emptywheel but one time Jane Hampsher was raving about Cole’s conversion and she said ‘John Cole, come on down!” so I clicked the link – and here I am. Good times.
Spanish Moss
I found Balloon Juice from Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, which I had been reading from pretty much its inception in the early 2000s. I was a lurker here until recently so it is hard to know exactly when I started visiting regularly, but it was early days, well before Lily. At the time I was also reading Obsidian Wings, The American Prospect, and Talking Points Memo.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Kirk Spencer: or homemade paint recipes.
BigJimSlade
@HumboldtBlue: Sadly, No used to be a shot of irreverence that was, and is still, sorely needed (that sort of thing is mostly on twitter these days).
mvr
@HumboldtBlue:
BJ is still one of my four “home pages” on Firefox.
West of the Rockies
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
My ex is from Brookings. Pretty town. You know Lee Riddle?
As for me, I found this place back in about ’07 when I was enraged by Bush and looking for a like-minded community.
West of the Rockies
@Felanius Kootea:
I read Frum Forum when looking for a not insane Republican perspective.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano: Yes. She was the one who really made Swampland a community. You wouldn’t have seen me there in the comments, though: I was only a lurker.
Do you remember that it was you who inspired my very first comment at Balloon Juice?
Felanius Kootea
@West of the Rockies: Sadly, my tolerance for Republicans has dropped to zero and I struggle even with never-Trumpers. The 2016 election radicalized me.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I am amazed at all the folks who found this blog while looking for a reasonable Conservative. Not me. If JC hadn’t been a liberal (i.e “sane”) I probably wouldn’t have stayed. Although I did get here from Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish. But I did only read his screeds against torture, and ones about his beagles, and a cool feature (I think called “View From a Window”) where people sent in pictures and everyone guessed where it was taken. There was some amazing detective work done on those pictures. Sullivan did pontificate about boring British Conservative icons I didn’t care about, but I would just scroll by them.
Since I got here after Lily, during Iraq torture, it was apparently more like 2004-5-6? I really have no idea. Been a long time, anyway.
mvr
@Evap: Very in sync as to when first read BJ, and within a year of the same age!
PatrickG
Lurked here since the Obama-Clinton wars on Daily Kos. Not that things weren’t fierce here, but once I got here I never looked back. I think I’ve read almost every post and most of the comments for more than a decade,
I don’t know if that makes me proud or profoundly sad, but either way: thank you Balloon Juice!
Jean
@Scout211: Same for me. I saw FDL going bad and left for Balloon Juice. FDL was also where I met Emptywheel. I’m not a fan. After Obama was elected the whole place went wacky. EW wrote long detailed negative stories about Obama. Most of the regulars were Clinton supporters, as I remember. There were some very good commenters there, however, and many of them I’ve seen here over the years.
Agoners
I have been daily lurking (first read of the morning and often last read of the night) on this blog since late 2007 or early 2008. I think I found it through DKos. I stopped visiting there during the ACA fights but stuck around here. Found this blog to be much more enlightening and much less annoying. Love the frontpagers and many of the commenters. It’s kind of wild that this has been one of my main internet “homes” for 13 years. This is my second comment ever, I believe.
piratedan
affecting a Brooks Hatlen (Shawshank) persona…..
I believe that I got incarcerated in The Big House here back in aught seven when a bunch of us were rounded up in the big Kos board meltdown and were looking for a place that was just a tad less histrionic. While I did my fair bit of lurkin’, over the years I dropped a few of the lesser known and appreciated nuggets o stuff via Mizz Annie L over the years. Now, I can even remember the days when we’d get some Libertarian blow-hard in here (Mad Eddy) and some lesser than Rose twitter precursors but some of my fondest bittersweet days revolve around the antics of ABL and JC at the Dem Convention. Made us all feel alive to live thru them vicariously, almost as if this WAS a nearly top 10,000 ranked blog… heady days indeed. Now, I hear we’re gonna build a library and fill it up with choice entries from commenters past (Higgs Bosun Mate, General Stuck, efgoldman, schlimazel and others) and I’m guessing if we call it the Trump Presidential Library it would be a fine joke indeed by having the GOP pay for a place immortalized with commentary telling them to “go fuck themselves”.
NotMax
Upon further probing musty crevices of memory, my route here *may* have been via either Connecting.The.Dots. or via Jon Swift. Maybe Orcinus or Billmon. It remains a mystery destined never to be solved.
Agoners
I have been daily lurking (first read of the morning and often last read of the night) on this blog since late 2007 or early 2008. I think I found it through DKos. I stopped visiting there during the ACA fights and stuck around here. Found this blog to be much more enlightening and much less annoying. Love the frontpagers and many of the commenters. It’s kind of wild that this has been one of my main internet “homes” for 13 years. This is my second comment ever, I believe.
cbear
I first wandered into this hellhole in 2004 (via Tbogg) liked the look of the place, and have stayed ever since. I can’t remember my first comment but (unlike Just Some Fuckhead,) it definitely didn’t involve anal sex—unless telling someone to GFY or to “shove your comment up your ass” qualifies. There was a lot of that back in the early days. Pretty much every 3rd or 4th comment. Good clean fun, you know.
I did win the Bronze Medal for the COTY (comment of the year) back in 2008 and I was briefly an internet star, but fucking Cole never sent me the goddamn trophy and I’m still pissed about it.
HumboldtBlue
We read this blog for a skeleton of my granny.
Just Some Fuckhead
@cbear: The commenters call themselves jackals these days but it used to be rough around here. I lost count of how many times I cried myself to sleep. And not just because of the anal sex.
HumboldtBlue
@piratedan:
Killin’ me.
Tim in SF
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from DKos, probably, about six months before Terri Schiavo. I got to see John leaving the GOP over it. That was cool.
My first comment was … I have no idea. I can’t remember. Is there a way to find out? I’ve always been Tim in SF but I hardly ever comment.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@West of the Rockies:
The name sounds familiar, I’ll ask my wife later today if she knows him as she pretty much knows or knows of just about everybody in the area as she’s probably helped them, their spouses, kids and grandkids at her work (retail apparel here since ’94).
Beautiful place to live and I like the pace of life here. Our informal county motto is “There’s no hurry in Curry”. I strive to live up to that motto. ;)
fuckwit
Oh god, could it have been 2003 or 2004? Did it exist back then? I probably found out about it from GOS. I thought it was a bunch of former Republicans like me who had just had more than enough of Bush, neoliberalism, PNAC, the surveillance state, fundamentalist christians, supply-side voodoo economics, warmongering for the sake of oil, racism, and ego… and the Democratic party’s complete spinelessness and uselessness under the Clinton/Biden/McAucliffe sellout model. I liked the vibe.
I have ducked in and out over the years but I still like the vibe.
piratedan
@HumboldtBlue: didn’t think I could have gotten away with “Hedley days”, but that’s totes dependent on the audience I suppose…
NotMax
Checking through various old links which have not visited in many a year, I see Bob Somerby’s “Daily Howler” is still active. April 1st will mark his 23rd anniversary of blogging.
And a fast glance shows he’s still slagging on the stories about Al Gore’s earth tones .
cbear
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yeah, I remember what a modest, self-effacing, gentle soul you were back then and how I tried to comfort you in all those late night threads until you toughened up and learned to take it like a man. Of course, once you realized that life on the internets is nasty, brutish, and short–you quickly blossomed into the “Thought Leader” you are today. I’m so damned proud of you!
sab
@NotMax: Wow. I had completely forgotten about the daily howler. I met my husband for the first time standing in line to vote in 2000. I thought at the time and I still think that Al Gore would have sucked as president (he picked Lieberman) but that Bush would be worse. Soon to be husband thought Gore was okay and that Bush was the antichrist.
Just Some Fuckhead
@cbear: I came over from Slacktivist. It was like Bible debate club at Slacktivist. Balloon-Juice was just a fucking melee. It finally calmed down a bit during the Obama Clinton War and it’s been pretty tame since.
West of the Rockies
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
He ran the lily farm south of Harbor. My ex FIL.
cbear
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yep. During the day BJ was somewhat civil, but Late Night here was definitely not for the faint of heart. BUT, Jebus, it was hilarious and fun.
Geminid
I’m pretty much a newbie here. In the winter2018-9 I had a grudge going against Justice Democrats, and a post by Adam Silverman lead me to the oddly named blog Balloon Juice. I lurked most of a year, then first commented a year ago about Stacey Abrams and how Georgians need a good Governor. I hope I’m learning here, about how to communicate better; about other people, and about myself.
206inKY
I found balloon juice through Andrew Sullivan around 2012. Didn’t post until 2016, under a different pseudonym, when my old neighbor’s dog was left outside on a freezing cold Kentucky night and I was beside myself about what I should do. Started posting again during Andy Beshear governor’s race in 2019, when I was all-in. Embarrassed myself with support for Bloomberg that December. Mostly AWOL ever since. Life has been a hellscape, I lost my mom and cat, and it’s hard to know how I’ll make it sometimes. But thank god the Orange Menace is gone.
Boussinesque
I think I first wandered over to Balloon-Juice via a link from either Pandagon or Pharyngula, somewhere around 2008 while I was still in graduate school. I enjoyed reading the snark and educated comments, and it has more or less been my homepage since then (along with Wonkette in recent years). I didn’t start commenting until sometime after 2015-2016; I was trying to comment on a David Anderson post with a question about health insurance (I was recently unemployed at the time) but was having my comments eaten by the system, which lead to some troubleshooting emails and phone calls with Alain Chamot. He got things straightened out for me so I could comment, and even encouraged me to write a couple guest posts about ocean-related topics (my graduate degree was in ocean sciences).
OzarkHillbilly
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from somebody somewhere, in 20 something or other, and I thought it was…. something. My first comment was probably really stupid.
MazeDancer
2007 or 2008. Not sure exact linkage. Was reading a lot of blogs, most of which no longer exist, so one of them got me here.
MazeDancer
@206inKY: Please consider getting more cats. Committing to them can bring joy and hope.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@West of the Rockies:
I used to know one of the lily farm families years ago but they sold out and moved away long ago, but I can’t recall their last name.
Tony Jay
It’s been a looooonnng time since I first came upon this esteemed site, but it was back around 2003/4, pre-Coleversion, when there were still Redstaters backslapping each other, DougJ was tweaking them, General Stuck and Corner Stone were waging their protracted struggle for supremacy and Darrell was a presence. Hung around because it seemed more interesting than the usual US politics blog and witnessed the long walk to freedom in real time.
Can’t remember my first comment, though I do recall getting told to shut the fuck up during a VERY lengthy back and forth with early-stage Tengphule about the validity of the ‘Hitler invaded the USSR to pre-empt Stalin invading Germany in 1941’ myth. Good times.
scribbler
@206inKY: Just wanted to say I’m sorry for the loss of both your mom and cat, and that I’m sending warm and peaceful thoughts your way. I’m hoping 2021 will be a year of healing for you.
Chris Johnson
Earliest post I can find is from 2008: it looks like I was trying to promote a webcomic I was doing at the time :) it no longer exists, which is just as well.
Then in 2010 my first real post was ““Fuck you, I’m short your house” is possibly the most awesome burn ever :)” on a bankster/financial-collapse post. The more things change, the more they stay the same?
brantl
@206inKY: You’re always welcome here.
normal liberal
I’m reasonably sure I found Cole and his pets in late 2007 or early 2008, in the run up to the 2008 primaries, and not long after Rosie joined JC’s household. I think I got here via FireDogLake or Atrios. I rarely comment, and as in this thread, I’m always late to the party.
This place got me through the last four years, and I’m grateful.
Penn
I have no idea where I first heard about Balloon Juice. I think it was not long after John switched party affiliations, and I thought it was a good place to see smart people commenting about US politics. Having only made probably a dozen comments total I have no idea what my first one was, but I lurk pretty well. :)
lowtechcyclist
I have no specific recollection of how I found my way to Balloon Juice, but certainly found my way here from other blogs that were active in the mid-aughts. I was definitely here by late 2007 (I was definitely here by the 2008 primary season), so probably 2007, maybe as early as 2006 was when I initially found my way here.
I’d definitely been here awhile when Cole posted about tire rims and anthrax. We’re coming up on the twelfth anniversary of that post, and it’s way more true now than it was then, which is scary.
mere mortal
Early 2000’s, via Kevin Drum. Maybe Atrios. Maybe both. It was the sort of thing where if they took someone’s comments seriously, then that person might be worth a glance.
John was one of a ridiculously small number of conservative bloggers whose site had comments, one of a smaller number of those who would actually address criticism, and nearly unique as one who could admit that he was ever wrong about anything.
I needed some insight into the conservative thought process that saw Iraq as anything but utterly insane.
donnah
@WaterGirl:
I adore Betty Cracker. I first read her on Rump Roast. And now I see her on Twitter.
Other MJS
For many years in Chicago, there was a radio talk program on WGN called “Extension 720” hosted by U Chicago prof Milton Rosenberg. Initially, one of its themes was taking on the Daley machine. I generally thought of it as “liberal”, but 9/11 shook the host and the program took a sharp turn right. Balloon Juice was added to the blogroll before Cole’s “conversion” and remained there as John evolved, which was an interesting anomaly; I wonder if Rosenberg noticed.
J R in WV
I’m using the TEXT mode, as the Visual mode isn’t working right now.
I first came here in the vasty long ago, before the Subaru went into the field, while Tunch was sitting on John’s lap often, and life was good. It didn’t take long for me to comment, I was obviously as capable of typing and speling as well as the next viewer of Balloon Juice.
I liked being able to chat with someone at 2 or 3 am. Still do. LGM is another place I go — no right wingers to infuriate me there either. And if they do I explode in flames. Not as bad as I used to be, calmer. But for Trumpism, which still ignites me, so glad we don’t have anyone here who believes and says out loud that Trump is a great leader that we should all obey. So not true!!
I can’t put a date on it, though. I’m really bad about dates. I remember some big ones, like when I retired, but I don’t remember which year I got my shoulder points replaced, for example. Don’t remember what year I found this intellectual hive, though. Dates, what do they mean, really?
J R in WV
@Viva BrisVegas:
Not so! There are many dog people here. Don’t you remember John ‘s rescue of Walter? We have 3 dogs and only 2 cats here at our rural home!!
kmax
I mostly lurk. I came here after John’s conversion… not sure maybe 2006.
I was an Atrios reader in those days and followed a link over here. A quick read told me this was where I wanted to be.
Never left.
Miss Bianca
Late to this thread as usual, but hey, here goes:
I can’t remember how I first came to Balloon Juice – probably either through Crooks and Liars or Daily Kos, two blogs I used to read a *lot* more often. Probably Kos, because “Miss Bianca” was my nym over there way back in the day. So…hmm…2007-2008?
I *do* remember my first post, in part because Subaru Diane found it the other day: it was a little ode to Betty Cracker, on finding a lizard in her ukelele. (I started frequenting this place *daily* when Betty came over from RumpRoast). But I didn’t start commenting regularly until Adam came on board talking about the Malheur invasion. So, you have him to thank (or blame). ; )
Jenny Howard
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I first heard out about Balloon Juice from Kos, in 2010 and I thought it was a better fit for me. My first comment was 201007.10:
Mike in Oly
What a trip down memory lane this thread is! I don’t remember the specific year I started following BJ, but I probably got here from Sadly, No or Daily Dish about the time of John’s conversion. It was pre-Lily and Tunch was still a regular topic. I was hooked with the intelligent and snarky content. It was years before I ever even bothered reading the comments and years later that I ever posted. I still rarely comment, but I do contribute photos and comments for garden, pet and photo posts. I love reading the comments threads now but often find them overwhelming and hard to follow, so there’s limit as to how far down I read. This thread was really fun, just for all the memories of blogs gone by.
Kirk Spencer
@Just Some Fuckhead: yeah, could have been that too.
Poe Larity
@Tim in SF:
To search for your first comment, try something like this in teh google:
site:balloon-juice.com “Tim in SF” 2006
And change the year as appropriate. Then add a month. Not exact.
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): How could I have forgotten about mclaren???
lurker
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): how far out there are you that you are just now getting the blog posts – traveling at light speed they have to go really far to take that long to get to you
… also, getting comments back in real time with the light speed delay must make for a crazy time travel function
DaveInOz
I’m definitely an import from the old Daily Dish with Andrew Sullivan. He used to link to BJ regularly and in the end I bookmarked it directly. I can’t remember the year but John had shed his Republican ties and Tunch ruled the site.
Motivated Seller
In my early lurking years I started out at Talking Points Memo. At some point they did something to the comment-reading format, and I just couldn’t cope. Eventually my spouse recommended that I start reading from this ex-military guy who used to be a Republican. The first post I can recall with clarity is the “tire rims and anthrax” post that Cole did in 2009.
However, my earliest comment on this blog appears to be an eager-to-comment-first posting in 2006, back when I still identified as another Nym.
No One You Know
I was with Democratic Underground for a while, BartCop (añejo forever and ever, amen), KOS for a bit, Driftglass… think I found this place probably via a blogroll. Didn’t comment for a while.
m.glafmer
@oldster:
I think the poorman got me here too. Or I may have been here earlier. I seem to remember looking to BJ for a reasonable RW perspective, but stopped looking when JC went wingnut. I wandered back, eventually.
Shame that some gambling idjit has thepoorman.net now.