Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

We won’t go back.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The revolution will be supervised.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Moving On

Moving On

by | 228 Comments

This post is in: 

WordPress tells me that I have posted 820 posts, starting in April 2017, in Balloon Juice’s total of almost 70,000. That’s about 200 a year. I’ve tried to explain the science of current events and commented politically when I felt I had something to add to the general noise.

And now it’s time to move on.

I need to write and think some new things, and that means I need to be in a new space too. Many things were broken or going in the wrong direction before the pandemic, and the pandemic has uncovered more and sometimes shown us alternatives. I hope to point out where we need to go, or at least what isn’t working.

Why couldn’t I do that at Balloon Juice? I’ve felt like I’m in a rut and need new virtual surroundings. Lawyers, Guns & Money feels congenial.

I’ll lurk here from time to time – hard to say if I’ll comment. And of course I’ll continue on Twitter – @CherylRofer.

I’ve appreciated the constructive feedback and having a place to try out ideas. Many thanks to John in particular.

Reader Interactions

228Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I’m sad to see to you go but bitter that you are leaving us for LGM of all places. :-)

    Good luck with wherever life takes you.

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    Sorry to see you go; you’ll be missed! Your posts were smart, educational and insightful. Wish you all the best. The Lawyers, guns, and money blog is a must read, too.

  4. 4.

    p.a.

    ? gorram now I have to add LGM back to my (too occasionally pruned) linkylist. Thanks for your work here!??????

  5. 5.

    Denali

    Sorry to see you go. You have provided valuable insights from your experience and knowledge. These are strange times, and we need people like you. Thank you for your contributions.

  7. 7.

    Divf

    Thanks for everything. Since LGM is the other window I have open in my browser I will continue to read your work. But not comment though. Disqus, threaded comments – shudders.

  10. 10.

    Mousebumples

    Sorry to see you go, Cheryl. I’m often late to your threads so I don’t comment much but i appreciate your insight. All the best to you!

  11. 11.

    Geminid

    Thank you, Ms. Rofer, for your informed and thought provoking posts. Your attentive work is much appreciated. You will be missed here.

  12. 12.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I value your grounded, knowledgeable perspective on important issues and thoughtful insights. Will be checking in at LGM for your posts!

  13. 13.

    beef

    Good that you’re challenging yourself. I look forward to seeing links to your posts elsewhere.

  14. 14.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Well you will be missed. Your posts were always quite informative.

  15. 15.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    Sorry to see you go, but looking forward to your contributions at LGM.

  16. 16.

    JMG

    I will miss you. You have one of the highest information to word ratios in the blogosphere. Good luck at whatever comes next.

  17. 17.

    PaulWartenberg

    NOOOOO get back here!
    You DO realize that political pressure from Congressional Republicans will force John Cole to hire Tucker Carlson as your replacement?!?!
    /unholy scream

  18. 18.

    Quinerly

    Already missing you, Cheryl. Always look first for your posts if I have missed a few days reading BJ.

    Hope to stay in touch with you. Let’s be sure to get together for lunch/dinner on Marcy Street in Oct/Nov. Plus, JoJo hopes to meet you

    Take care. Best wishes, brilliant lady!!

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @JMG:

    You have one of the highest information to word ratios in the blogosphere.

    Haha.  This this spot on. It’s a rare talent.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: And @Cheryl Rofer well worth checking out. Besides all the access to good writing on nuclear matters, the scenes from your yard are great. I love New Mexico! I can never travel there as much as I want, but I can at least visit  from afar through your twitter feed.

  25. 25.

    Pete Mack

    I can’t actually say i will miss your posts, since LGM is another of my 3 daily blogs. (With digby)

  26. 26.

    DonnaK

    BJ and LGM are my go-to daily reads, although I comment more at LGM. You’ll be a great fit with Lemieux, Loomis, Campos, and the rest of the LGM gang. There are some brilliant commenters there, too.

  27. 27.

    Betsy

    Your material is always insightful and I’ve learned a lot from it.  Good to know that you are finding your new or adjusted direction. Looking  forward to enjoying your posts in a new space. Keep up the good work including the toxic masculinity inventory.

  29. 29.

    Nelle

    Thank you for all you have given us.  The pandemic has shaken things up and given us new perspectives and avenues, hasn’t it?  Best wishes and i suspect the door here will be open for you, should you wish to come back and visit.

  31. 31.

    schrodingers_cat

    I will miss you and your lovely kittehs. I just started following you on Twitter.

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    Sad to see you leave here, but since I read LG&M as well it’s not a huge imposition on me. And also, it’s great to see someone with deep scientific expertise take up residence over there; that hasn’t been a strong point so far.

  33. 33.

    WhatsMyNym

    Your insights will be missed here.
    Any chance that you can convince LGM to improve the layout of their website, 4 words per line on a smartphone is a bit tiring to read.

  34. 34.

    Immanentize

    Thank you and good luck! But I’ll still be reading you.

    BTW — you are the first person I ever heard referring to LGM as “congenial.”

  37. 37.

    Percysowner

    Sorry to see you go. Fortunately I already follow LGM, so I’ll see you on the flip side.

  39. 39.

    HeleninEire

    Thank you for everything. Good luck. Stop by and say Hi in the comments every now and again! ❤

  40. 40.

    Aurona

    Sorry to see you leave BJ, although I do follow you on Twitter. LGM is nice, but I won’t comment there on that platform. I only occasionally post here, but you know, I’m going through some things and kind of busy with life at the moment. Three surgeries in two months with good outcomes anticipated by my surgeon so there’s that. During this time of stress, I am re-reading Asimov’s Foundation series with pre/post and positronic robots all included. It’s been almost 50 years since the last readings, so when I’m done I’ll pop over to LGM. Hope all goes well for you there.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    Ah.  The shoe drops.  Another commenter had noticed that you did not list Balloon Juice in your bio for Duck of Minerva.

    Best to you, Cheryl.  I have enjoyed your levelheadedness and not getting all worked up at whatever is big in the blogosphere.  Perhaps you will be a corrective at LGM.  Waiting for a few more facts is never a bad trait.  I tire of “the sky is falling, no really, it is … this time” types.

    I hope you will visit us from time to time.  Happy August.

  43. 43.

    Betty

    Thank you for sharing your knowledge, your insight and your kitties with us. Best wishes!

  46. 46.

    Reboot

    Delurking to say that if anyone can break through the ladies’ auxiliary vibe I get for female writers at LGM, it’ll be Cheryl Rofer. Here’s hoping. A lot of things to like about LGM, but that’s not one of them.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    Nothing wrong with LGM, other than the commenting system.  This may motivate me to read it more often.  Fare well, Cheryl.

  48. 48.

    Don K

    As it happens LGM is one of my frequently-visited (as in several times a day, same as BJ) blogs, so I’ll be looking forward to your posts there.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for all you have shared with us.  I’ve found it thoughtful and learned quite a bit.  Sorry to see you go.  Happy trails!

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  51. 51.

    H.E.Wolf

    Many thanks for all you have contributed here: expertise, perspective, level-headedness, optimism, and kindness. I’m very glad you shared that with us.

    Warmest good wishes for the next turnings on your path!

  54. 54.

    Kristine

    Thank you for your thoughtful insights over the last few years, and best of luck at the new digs. Will you still post at Nuclear Diner?

  58. 58.

    guachi

    Thank you for the posts. I’ve enjoyed reading them.

     

    LGM has a terrible commenting system, though.

  59. 59.

    Sandia Blanca

    I will miss you, Cheryl–your posts are always worth reading. Now where will we find news about Estonia? See you on Twitter, for sure.

  60. 60.

    Ohio Mom

    Cheryl, I was the one who noticed you did not list Balloon Juice in your new bio so I feel bitterly validated.

    I’ll miss seeing you here — I do visit LGM most days but it will never have my heart the way Balloon Juice does. I could list all the reasons for this (I started to and then deleted them) but that would be churlish. Both places have their pluses and minuses.

    I remember your frustration here that we don’t always stay on topic well. We go quickly from discussing say, nuclear waste to our pets’ medical conditions without skipping a beat. We aren’t as bad as Atrios’ commentators, who as far as I can tell, are never on topic, but the threads at LGM do tend to stay on topic. I can see why that is appealing to you.

    We’ve all learned a lot from you. I particularly appreciate your measured, dispassionate approach. It’s a lens that too many of us, too often, forget to use. It’s good to have you model that for all of us readers.

    I won’t say goodbye, I’ll say, See you around, because that is my hope.

  61. 61.

    geg6

    Congratulations and sorry to see that you are leaving us. I’ve pretty much given up on LGM but I still check it now and again. Maybe I’ll catch your stuff there. But whatever I do, I’ll be staying out of the comments there. Just awful for my mental health.

  62. 62.

    Noskilz

    I’ve really enjoyed your posts over the years. Best of luck with the change of scene.

  64. 64.

    MisterForkbeard

    This is one of those “sad to see you go, happy to see you moving onto something you’d like to do” moments. Congratulations Cheryl!

    I suppose the saving grace is that LGM is literally the only other blog I still read regularly, though their commenters have about twice the assholes per capita that we do :)

  67. 67.

    randy khan

    @Divf:

    Disqus, threaded comments – shudders.

    I’ve discovered over the years that both the BJ approach and the LGM approach stink have annoying limitations, but they’re both better than Twitter.  It’s just hard to replicate a real conversation online.

  69. 69.

    laura

    They’ve rolled out the welcome mats for you over at the LGM so it’s “a go.” I wish you success and the intellectual stimulation that hanging out around various smarty’s should bring. You’ll be missed around here for so many reasons in addition to your big beautiful brain and the important work you’ve done. Good on ya Cheryl, good on ya.

  71. 71.

    Ohio Mom

    Schroederings_cat:

    LGM is the Lawyers, Guns and Money blog (be sure to included “blog” when you are googling or you will get Warren Zevon hits).

    It’s a lefty group blog, it’s been around since the early days of blogs, and the front pagers are academics. A couple of political science profs, a very prolific historian, a law professor, and now a retire nuclear scientist, along with a sporadic smattering of others.

    They hate Bernie Sanders, you’ll appreciate that. They are generally a prickly and pessimistic bunch though I will give them props for deep content knowledge.

  72. 72.

    randy khan

    I want the real scoop – what kind of signing bonus did LGM offer?  (Or did they have to pay a transfer fee a la soccer?)  Did Cole try to bribe Cheryl to stay with things he’d canned?  Will Cole challenge Eric Loomis to a duel?

    Anyway, I’m sorry Cheryl is leaving here, but glad she’ll still be somewhere easily accessible where many of us already spend some of our time.

    Also, I thought the trade deadline was last Thursday.

  73. 73.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Another Scott: I have read posts linked by FPers and commenters from LGM. Their blog layout gives me headache. They seem to be not as funny as BJ used to be.

    @Ohio Mom:

    They hate Bernie Sanders, you’ll appreciate that. They are generally a prickly and pessimistic bunch though I will give them props for deep content knowledge.

    I will read them more often then.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @Ohio Mom:

    They hate Bernie Sanders, you’ll appreciate that.

    Huh?  I’ve never seen that there. At most, they have been willing to be critical of Bernie’s campaign strategy in 2020.

  80. 80.

    randy khan

    @schrodingers_cat:

    They seem to be not as funny as BJ used to be.

    They’ve never been as funny as BJ, although I will say that the Eric Visits an American Grave series has its moments.  They need more Elizabeth Nelson and Shakezula (who’s pretty serious, but in a less, uh, grinding way than Loomis or Campos).

  81. 81.

    lowtechcyclist

    Cheryl, I’ve learned a lot from your posts here!  I may have to start lurking at LG&M just to see what you’re thinking about as things progress.  Good luck with everything!

  82. 82.

    wenchacha

    I will check out LGM to see what you are sharing. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate your insights. Best wishes for all your future doings.

  84. 84.

    randy khan

    @Baud:

    Huh?  I’ve never seen that there. At most, they have been willing to be critical of Bernie’s campaign strategy in 2020.

    Yeah, I don’t think it’s Bernie they hate so much as Bernistas, which is a definite view in common with BJ.

    In fact, at one point not long before the South Carolina primary, there were a couple of posts about how Sanders was going to win and people who supported other candidates needed to get over it.  I think they were more “eyes on the prize” kinds of posts than anything else, but still Bernie-haters would have been posting something else.

  86. 86.

    frosty

    Good luck and sorry to see you go. You brought a good perspective and topics that weren’t covered by others. I may have to check out LGM (as if I don’t waste enough time on blogs and news already!)

  87. 87.

    cope

    I don’t Twit but I do LGM so not much of an issue for me. Your departure from this portal will increase the percentage of posts that are just boxes of Twitter crap so my time on BJ will likely decrease but that also is a non-issue as far as I am concerned.

    Fare thee well.

  88. 88.

    Antonius

    Sorry to see you go Cheryl, but I’ll certainly follow you over to LGM.

    Thanks so much for your smart, perceptive, and informative posts over the years.

  89. 89.

    grubert

    @MikefromArlington:
    same here, LGM and Juice are my daily check-ins.
    Would like to find a few more blogs in the same vein.
    Only beef with LGM is the commentariat too often gets into pointless “clever quip battles”
    Only beef here is.. well, the ratio of news analysis posts to personal lifestyle posts has been declining.  Way more kittens and flowers.  Nice stuff, but not my interest.
    On the other hand, nothing can compare to a good Cole rant..  his rants are the best!​
    ​
    ​

  90. 90.

    laura

    @Ohio Mom: Jumping back in to highlight LGM’s Strong Focus on Unions and the state of organized labor in the US and beyond. Though he is indeed prickly, Loomis is solid on his labor history and his calling bullshit on deplorable working conditions worldwide – and how capital flight fuels a global race to the bottom. Also, American Graves is interesting as all get out.

    There’s music and other stuff but no pooties or woozles, no Baud, no Amir Khalid and to date, no Betty Cracker, but there are bj commenters you may recognize. Don’t go there looking for comfort in a community, but definitely check them out.

  91. 91.

    Mary G

    Never have gotten into LG&M probably due to my short attention span and not knowing the inside Jokes, but if you promote your pieces on Twitter I will come and read them. Always appreciate your deep feminist perspective and admire your science career.

  92. 92.

    jeffreyw

    I skim LGM daily but seldom get to the comments. I do click on posts when my interest is piqued. I’ll make sure to keep an eye peeled for your ‘nym.

  93. 93.

    Haroldo

    Thanks, Cheryl.  Your posts were/are one of the things that had/have me coming back to Balloon Juice.

    See you in the funny papers.

  94. 94.

    Baud

    @laura: The Graves and Labor History posts are great.  Sometimes it’s nice to read factual information without (as much) commentary.

  95. 95.

    Faithful Lurker

    I will really miss your calming entries here. A nice antidote to Silverman’s anxiety making comments. I used to read LGM but gave up in frustration with their format. I’ve lived with an academic for 56 years and don’t really need to be lectured by more of them. I just went over to the LGM site  and checked it out. That reminded me why I quit reading it but I’ll try again to follow Cheryl.

    Going to work at the food bank now and will be back later to see if there is any blowback from the academics here.

  96. 96.

    Darkrose

    @Another Scott: I was surprised at first, but in a way, I think Wonkette might be more suited to Loomis’ style. The conversation there is mostly between readers; on LGM it’s expected that the front pagers will be in the trenches with the readers, which is not really Loomis’ forte.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    Thank you very much for your always insightful comments.

    Best wishes to you with respect to all your future work.

  98. 98.

    Ohio Mom

    Yes, I was too quick to describe LGM as Bernie-haters. There is a group there that is very sympatico with Sander’s outlook. The dangers of trying to distill big thoughts into short comments.

    I agree that the history posts are meaty and have taught me a lot, including new ways to think about how the past got us to the present. The history posts are what keeps me going back to LGM.

  99. 99.

    Darkrose

    Congrats on the move, Cheryl. I’ll miss seeing you here, but having another woman’s voice on LGM will be good, and may make me considering engaging there again.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    I am going to miss your insights. You are such a smart and thoughtful woman. Thank you so much for all that you have done. Don’t be a stranger around here.

  101. 101.

    BC in Illinois

    Sorry to see you go. I’ve always appreciated your insight.

    (But I can still cheat and follow you on Twitter, right?)

  102. 102.

    Eunicecycle

    Best of luck, Cheryl! I do follow you on Twitter so hopefully I will see your posts highlighted there.

  107. 107.

    AM in NC

    Thanks for all of your posts here-I’ve learned so much from you.  See you over at LGM!

  108. 108.

    Wag

    I’m sorry to see you go, but will look forward to continuing to follow you on Twitter.  Best of luck!

  109. 109.

    CaseyL

    Well, rats.

    I’ve loved your posts; you’ve been informative, readable, and – while being very clear about the hellscape we find ourselves in – less prone to hellscape rhetoric, which has been MUCH appreciated in these par’lous times.

    I admit I’m a little surprised to hear you’re going to LGM, since they’re consistently downright apocalyptic.  Hopefully, adding  your work will make them a little less so. (I prefer not to think that you’re becoming downright apocalyptic, too!)  I guess I’ll be a more-frequent visitor there to read your articles.

    You’ve been a real star in the firmament here, and I’ll miss you very much.  Best wishes for your tenure at LGM!

  110. 110.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Elizabelle: My opinion — which is mine — is that LGM doesn’t need a “corrective”. It’s my main online home (used to be this place) and I very much appreciate all the FPers and their GOAT commentariat. BJ is fine, LGM is better.

    BTW, do you read Adam Silverman here, or do you avoid his typical “sky is falling” posts (as you would see it) like yesterday’s “McCarthy Jokes About Hitting Pelosi”? Or anything by John Cole that’s not about canning sauerkraut or This Fucking Old House?

    We’re all on the same anti-fascist side, anyway.

  113. 113.

    West of the Rockies

    Thank you, Chery, for your insights, wit, and wisdom!  You truly will be missed.  I will explore LGM for future writings.

  114. 114.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @randy khan: I agree with you on the commenting platforms, I prefer Disqus at LGM because I find threaded/nested comments more conducive to back and forth conversation than WordPress here. I get why people don’t like that (it does, as you say, have annoying limitations) but having commented on various blogs going back 20 years it’s overall the best for me.

  115. 115.

    SFBayAreaGal

    I am going to miss your posts. Thank you for all that you have done here.

    I wish you all the best Cheryl. I will see you on LGM.

  116. 116.

    way2blue

    Oh no!  Cheryl, I’ve so enjoyed your contributions to Balloon Juice.  And am surprised you feel in a rut.  (But understand the urge to break out of the pandemic doldrums as I type this from Kenya…  ).  Your posts have helped clarify for me the context of complex inter/national security issues.  Congratulations on your new gig at LGM.

  118. 118.

    Technocrat

    I’ve always looked forward to reading a post with your name on it. I read LGM occasionally, and will now look forward to seeing them there.

  119. 119.

    geg6

    @Baud: ​ Completely agree. I’ve never much seen any criticism of Bernie there other than tactical. And don’t get me started on the comments. I never read the comments there anymore because it’s toxic to any kind of optimism for anything.​

  121. 121.

    Bupalos

    @randy khan: maybe not the front pagers, but the commentariat over there is on the whole the most sharply witty bunch I’ve encountered online. I’ll visit over there just specifically to check responses from some of them, WJTS is like Betty Cracker level.

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    Cheryl, we all need to move on at times, this is your’s. Best of luck to you, you will be missed here as a front pager, informative, thought provoking, with a slant that none of the rest of us can have. You have a far different range of experience than most, a perspective that is valuable because of that and who you are. Good luck and hopefully will see you online, you add huge value to where ever you are.

  125. 125.

    Baud

    @geg6:

    When efgoldman was still with us, he would comment there, and often called Bernie “Wilmer.”  I’m sure the other LGM commenters were confused AF.

  127. 127.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @schrodingers_cat: “What is LGM”.

    I’ve spent a lot of time reading (and occasionally commenting on) many political blogs going back 20 years (my primary online presence, don’t do social media) and LGM is overall the best I’ve experienced. BJ used to be my main home for quite a while, but LGM supplanted that some time ago. Still enjoy my visits here, I get why some would prefer BJ to LGM, but for both FPers and the commentariat (and the commenting format) my preference is LGM. Suggest checking them out, anyway.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @jeffreyw:

    I used to follow LGM, about as religiously as I do here. But the comment style and the posting style just isn’t a fit for me. Often good information but, I don’t fit in there.

  131. 131.

    geg6

    @Baud:

    I’m sure the other LGM commenters were confused AF.

    They often are, I have found.  Other than about ketchup.  They are correct and Loomis is nuts.  Otherwise, I haven’t seen much of anything very witty in the comments.
    I do like the graves series.  Pretty much the only reason I stop by there.​

  132. 132.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Thanks, all, for the kind words.

    I know I have a number of Balloon Juice followers on Twitter, but most of you use different nyms, so I’ve had a hard time figuring out who you all are!

  134. 134.

    prostratedragon

    Thanks and best of luck.  I do read there regularly,  though don’t comment,  partly because I’m another nonfan of disqus and threads and partly because,  while I know full well what the abyss is like, I don’t find it wise for me to stare into it too much.  I do like the informational series,  and you will certainly be a terrific asset to them there.  Stop by if you can.

  135. 135.

    chopper

    @schrodingers_cat:

    the ones who put up most of the posts are white dudes, more often than not speaking about topics they have no relevant experience in (they haven’t really covered themselves in glory as to covid this last year).

  136. 136.

    peter

    I have learned so much from your incisive and thought-provoking posts. Thank you for sharing your expertise on nuclear issues and security matters, and your constructive outlook. All of the above have helped a lot over the past 18 months. I’m very sorry to see you go.

  137. 137.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Baud: Likely some, sure. Many of us frequent both places, though (LGM and BJ are my only online homes anymore, used to visit a ton more sites going back 20 years with The Horse and others).

  138. 138.

    Baud

    @Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:

    I have never commented there, but I do sometimes see nyms I recognize.  I still have a bunch of blogs on my feed, but LGM is the only other blog I regularly lurk at.  Although sometimes I have to take a break from them when they get in a mood about something or another.

  139. 139.

    Bumper

    I love your posts and learn so much.  BJ is my daily go-to blog but I check in with LGM frequently too, so I’ll still be able to read you.  But, yeah, the commenting system/layout don’t work so well on my phone so I tend to only read the first few comments, if that.  You’ll bring a much needed balance to the male/female ratio there, so yeah!

  140. 140.

    WereBear

    Can’t say I’ll miss you or our insights because I’ve just followed you on Twitter. Go where the passion leads, you, Cheryl, and I’ll be happy to follow.

    (It’s my own @WayofCatsBook account, which is creativity, books, film, and cats… )

  141. 141.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @chopper: Hard disagree, including the notion that their COVID coverage was poorly done. My infectious disease specialist wife (and most, though not all, of her colleagues with whom we’ve had many discussions about the pandemic going back to Feb 2020) are far more on the same page with the majority of the LGM FP takes regarding COVID than they differ. That’s my gauge.

  143. 143.

    Wvng

    Thanks for all of your deeply informative posts here. I look forward to reading you at LGM.

  144. 144.

    feebog

    LGM is right up there next to BJ on my favorites.  But you will be sorely missed here in Jackal Central.  Thanks for all your insights and contributions, you have been a treasure.

  145. 145.

    Soprano2

    Best wishes for at your new digs, Cheryl. I’ve enjoyed your calm, measured posts. I don’t read LGM except when it’s linked for a specific post, but I may seek it out now. I don’t mind Disqus, either.?

  147. 147.

    StringOnAStick

    @Baud: i find LGM to be tough on my depression issues and ability to end up paralysed by doom so I started limiting my time there.  Now everywhere is fairly heavy on the doom quotient because, well, it looks like that’s where we’re at.

    Cheryl, thanks for your stellar work here and I will look for you at LGM.  Lots of my old buddies from Roy Edroso’s place comment there and some of them are brilliant and funny as well, though I just limit myself to FP posts now.  It is a good home for a scientist and they need more women there so do us proud, which I am sure you will!

  149. 149.

    DB11

    Sorry to see you go Cheryl, but I can understand why it might feel stale for you hanging here at BJ.

    The larger and more varied commentariat at LGM will give you the opportunity for fresh interactions and, hopefully, newly-stimulated cognition.

    I’ve long been an admirer of your scientific experience and knowledge — and your calm, reasoned approach to large-scale / existential problems.

    I especially appreciate that you avoid giving ‘hot takes’ on emerging issues, instead taking the time to survey the landscape, follow the data, and think things through… before jumping into the fray. That, plus the fact that you avoid using your expertise as a cudgel, (i.e. through appeal-to-authority or credentialism),  but rather as a guide for how to unravel seemingly-intractable problems.

    I also lurk at LGM so I will follow you there and wish you all the best your new digs!

    ETA – Note to moderator: I seem to have mistyped my email, so it threw my comment into the mod queue. Is there a way to correct your email in edit, or is it too late to avoid dreaded moderation at that point?

  154. 154.

    Captain C

    @PaulWartenberg:

    You DO realize that political pressure from Congressional Republicans will force John Cole to hire Tucker Carlson as your replacement?!?!

    Do you really think Cole would do anything but tell them to go shave a cat’s ass while mopping naked?

  155. 155.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Baud: I use a different nym on LGM from here (for reasons) and I know a couple others who do the same. Used to hit up many blogs back when, now it’s just LGM (mostly) and here (less so) with a very occasional stop at Edroso’s place.

    I’m essentially an optimistic nihilist (really is a thing) so the “mood” that often pertains at LGM that is off-putting to some here suits me just fine. I’m about as doomy as it gets regarding climate disruption, and after being politically active and engaged for over 50 years now I find that the fascists have gained quite an advantage. For examples of the sorts of outlooks that the Elizabelles and many others here disdain as unhelpful.

  157. 157.

    Bumper

    @Ohio Mom: regarding staying on topic at LGM – the second comment on her intro post is about someone seeing a bear and wanting to plant stuff in their yard to attract them.  And they actually got responses! That MUST beat our record for off-topic comments, right??

  158. 158.

    Baud

    @Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:

    I think it’s all good. The important thing is to stay away from daily kos. :-)

    I probably have more of Elizabelle’s outlook, but I’m not going to pretend to walk in your shoes or anyone else’s who have been fighting the fight for too long.

  159. 159.

    cain

    Thank you for all the valuable contributions and comments. You’ve been a powerful voice and I as the others will miss you.
    That said, it’s important to keep things fresh, and I think everything has an expiration date and when it is time to move on then it’s time to move on. Best of luck to you and I will definitely see you on twitter, and will be joyful when you comment here.

  160. 160.

    BigJimSlade

    Cheryl, thank you so much for all you’ve done here!  See you over at LGM, the other blog I check 5 times a day.

  161. 161.

    VeniceRiley

    But I feel like I just got here! *sob*
    I’ll keep following on Twitter and looking for your links no matter where they’re hosted, Cheryl.
    Good luck with the bear and microwave situations.

  162. 162.

    JimV

    Damn. This is Hilzoy leaving “Obsidian Wings” all over again. How much more can I take?

    Was it those un-nuanced sayings that circulate at the top of the page, over and over?

  165. 165.

    Interstadial

    Thanks for all your great posts over the years, Cheryl. I’ve always enjoyed your insights and takes on the things you write about.

  167. 167.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    I probably have more of Elizabelle’s outlook

    Yeah, it’s when the unduly bleak rears its head that puts me off. It isn’t particularly productive to slather doom on with a trowel.

  168. 168.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    Every thread here is an open thread.

    That is much more difficult with the LGM commenting system. I think in over all terms there are two types of blog commenters, people who like this open style or those that like a threaded ask and answer style. I see the threaded style as limiting and the open style as conductive to a more open general response style. One can have discussions here but the system allows them to go where ideas take them, while to me it seems that threaded style as LGM stays much more on point for the original poster. Posts here often veer off topic, my experience at LGM is that this happens much less often. Which is one reason I don’t go nearly as often and haven’t commented at LGM in years.

  169. 169.

    Bill Arnold

    Re disqus, there is a substantive difference between the flat unthreaded comments here (and a few places elsewhere) and disqus-based comments – disqus comments are not indexed by google, at least in the tests I just did. Comments here are, though sometimes the ends of older threads are not indexed.

    That means that comments at LGM are like farting into the vacuum of the void; they won’t be read by automation, and they won’t be indexed by search engines (or crawled by spiders) and so e.g. in LGM comments, any mentions of a name won’t attract the attention of the Named.

  170. 170.

    funlady75

    Thanks Cheryl – will bookmark LGM – enjoyed you & Adam S. perspectives on certain subjects….Good luck!

  171. 171.

    Nutmeg again

    Best of everything. Thank you for all the thoughtful posts. I’ll see you over at –that other place– which is also a favorite hangout of mine.

  172. 172.

    kindness

    Good for you Cheryl.  I guess I’ll still be able to read you as I (mostly) lurk over at LG&M.  Don’t really post there so much as so many of their readers like to play up their boni fides by slamming those they consider less pure than they are.

  173. 173.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     

    What is LGM? This is pretty much the only political blog I read.

    “Lawyers, Guns and Money” is a blog, mostly front paged by professors and artistes — the name is from a well known song, IIRC by Warren Zevon a late great musician from Louisiana. Died way to young!

    Cheryl, you scurvy dog, abandoning a nearly top-10,000 blog for those pirates at LGM>! You won’t excape (sic) me that easily, I’ve been on LGM as long as I’ve been on Balloon Juice.

    It’s just like Rocky and Bullwinkle moving from first ABC then to NBC in 1961. The horror!!

    I guess you would be Natasha Fatale in that example… only smarter and more experienced in atomic chemistry. Best wishes, hope you have fun and are challenged by all the other professors writing over there. At least Farley answers his email!!! Take that Cole!

  174. 174.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Baud: “The important thing is to stay away from dailykos”

    Most definitely!

    It is pretty much all good between here and LGM, these are just somewhat different online communities still primarily dedicated to opposing fascism, I appreciate them both for what they are.

    It’d kinda like I don’t expect the same outlook and approach from the Democratic Party here (Maricopa County — now that everyone knows where that is) and, say, Chicanos Por La Causa (both of whom I’ve spent a fair amount of time volunteering for and otherwise supporting going back 4 decades). Similar thing with various environmental groups I’ve worked with (like PAWS — an organization I’ve worked with that was important to wolf reintroduction to eastern AZ — which has different priorities from our state’s Sierra Club chapter, where I’m a long-time member)

    I’m doomy as hell in how I view the world anymore, but that doesn’t hamper my fighting spirit one iota. If anything, it makes me angrier with the evildoers who are hell-bent on making my mixed-race grandkids’ future so difficult, and so even though I’m old enough to maybe back off I won’t be doing that. On the electoral front, I will be right back with Mark Kelly’s campaign to keep the Senate seat he won last year (he has to run again right away in ’22) and I’ll be joining whoever primaries Sinema in ’24.

  175. 175.

    dww44

    @JMG: ​
      This is what I will miss most. The so very accessible information that you so freely provided to us at BJ . I was afraid that you were leaving this blog when I saw your post over at LGM. God Speed. You will be missed.

  176. 176.

    dww44

    @geg6: My favorite thing there as well.  I also appreciated how strongly Lemieux defended HRC, and long after the election as well. And you know, Loomis may be a bit nutso, but he does write those graves posts.

  177. 177.

    geg6

    @Spinoza Is My Co-pilot: ​
     

    after being politically active and engaged for over 50 years now I find that the fascists have gained quite an advantage. For examples of the sorts of outlooks that the Elizabelles and many others here disdain as unhelpful.

    I, too, have been politically active for almost 50 years. I still maintain a position of hope most of the time. And doomsayers are never very helpful in bringing about change, in my experience. They either just piss everyone else off or drag them down into the pits with them.

  178. 178.

    Ruckus

    @StringOnAStick:

    @Baud:

    I agree with both of you about the differences between BJ and LGM.

    And life does seem at times to be depressing, because it is. But look around at all the bits and pieces of life that are amazing. When I was in the navy we were in port in Athens for 2-3 weeks, something was needing work on the ship. But every afternoon that I could I walked into downtown Athens and went to a sidewalk cafe and had a bite to eat and sit in a modern town and a block away was an ancient building, one of many in Athens, more a museum than a building. No fences, no turnstile to collect fees, just ancient Athens, open to the world. That bit of history, of life lived differently than mine, that was the the thing then that told me that the life that I live, is not the only one, that I’m the person that limits my life, not anyone else. Because we often limit our lives, sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly. I could see the navy as very, very limiting in my life or I could see it as a way to see and experience things that I might otherwise never get to do. I chose the second path and I am so glad I learned that at a rather young age. Five more decades of the same has given me some wonderful experiences. Not all grand, I’ve been hit head on by a truck, and no I wasn’t in a car at the time. I walked away. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. Take the good with the bad, it’s there, sometimes you have to look/search for it, but it’s often right in front of you.

  179. 179.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: Yeah, that’s kinds where I’m at, too. Cheryl! Why are you making me go back to LGM, for all love? I had given up on that place as a wretched hive of doom porn. Will miss you here. : (

  180. 180.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Well, hell. I don’t like this one bit.

     

    Au revoir, Dr Rofer. I may just start clicking on that other blog.

  182. 182.

    raven

    @J R in WV: Zevon was from Chicago, not Louisiana. If you want to know what he was really like read “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: by his widow. He was a great musician and a fucking horrible human being.

    eta The song was Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

  183. 183.

    Ohio Mom

    The experience that highlighted the difference between the two sites for me was when efg died. BJ had an epic wake of a thread. IIRC, a commentator or two attended the funeral.

    On LGM (I was there much more in those years), someone asked in passing something like, “Has anyone seen efg lately?” And was answered, He died. A very few commentators expressed their sorrow and the thread went back to its usual one-upping.

    We are a community. LGM is a blog. They both have their place but as I said before, my heart is here. I don’t need every detail about the handbasket we are all in, hurtling to hell. I need camaraderie.

    Now other people need different things, viva la difference.

  184. 184.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Ohio Mom: We are a community. LGM is a blog. They both have their place but as I said before, my heart is here. I don’t need every detail about the handbasket we are all in, hurtling to hell. I need camaraderie.

    Well said.

  186. 186.

    JaneE

    Thank you Cheryl.  You will be an asset wherever you post, knowledgeable and informative.  Best of luck and will look forward to seeing your posts on LGM.

  187. 187.

    Ohio Mom

    So funny!

    The start of the thread at LGM (haven’t gotten far into it) is all about what’s wrong with BJ threads!

    Lots of people explaining why LGM is better.

    There is a moral hiding here, somewhere.

  188. 188.

    TriassicSands

    Ms. Rofer, you’ll leave a hole here at BJ, but since we know where you’ll be, you won’t disappear. I think I can find LGM on my Intertron dial. Good luck to you. Read you later!

  190. 190.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Noooooo! You better not disappear from her, Ms. Cheryl. You’re too smart and full of great insight to leave us all to ourselves. Besides, now the New Mexico crew is shrinking and we all know THAT’s no good!

    Hope your change to LGM is a great fit and you have fun over there. Guess I’ll have to hop on over from time to time. See you on the Tweeeter too!

  193. 193.

    Madeleine

    @DB11: I cannot express my appreciation better than DB11 already has. I’m grateful for what you’ve given us, Cheryl, and I wish you well.

  194. 194.

    Rusty

    Thank you for all the insightful posts and tolerance of the characters that inhabit this place.  LGM is my other must read place, so I am happy I will continue to get to read your commentary.  Good luck!!

  195. 195.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Ohio Mom: Well said, and agreed. LGM gets rather catty and snarky in the comments, like a “who is smarter” contest with the college debate team. Not my cup of tea, but I adore the FP’s, even that cranky SOB Loomis. It’s long been a daily read and will continue as such.

  196. 196.

    Ann Marie

    I will miss seeing your posts here.  They are always interesting and insightful.  I used to read LGM a lot, but wandered away.  I guess now I need to wander back.  I hope you have a good experience at LGM and I’m sure the door will always be open here.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    This.

    For me this is the important thing. We are a community, we willfully belong here. It doesn’t really cost anything, but it’s worth a lot.

    LGM is a blog, you comment there. Sure there is a belonging but it’s more like belonging to the Shriners, without the secret handshakes.

  198. 198.

    J R in WV

    Another blog I track every day or two is Emptywheel.net, where Marcy Wheeler dissects legal issues in politics. Lately the Jan 6th insurrection arrests and investigations, but anything related to the illegal or immoral acts of TFG SFB.

    And Whatever.scalzi blog for science fiction and weird stuff.

  199. 199.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    @J R in WV: Zevon was from Chicago, not Louisiana.

    Thanks for the correction. Not the only great musician who was a turd in his daily life, lots of them around. But with a name like Zevon, I thot that had to be cajun.

    But you know about assume, makes an ass of u and me.

  200. 200.

    raven

    @J R in WV: He wasn’t your run-of-the-mill asshole. I had no idea until I read the book. He asked his widow, Crystal, to tell it like is was. The most amazing thing is that no one shot his sorry ass before he died of cancer. I have his music on my playlist, Searching for a Heart is awesome (gun reference notwithstanding)

  202. 202.

    Ben Cisco

    Sorry to see you go, always felt smarter after reading one of your posts.  Been away for a bit so I’m glad I got back to see this.

    Take care out there and don’t be a stranger

  203. 203.

    MobiusKlein

    I knew I should have paid more attention to personal hygiene.
    I’ll own it- it was my Body Oder that drove Cheryl away.

    I’ll do better from now on

  204. 204.

    japa21

    Late to the thread, but I will join those that wish you weren’t leaving. I know there were times you could get frustrated with some of us and I hope that isn’t the reason for your departure. Just want you to know that you will always have my highest regard.

  205. 205.

    sab

    Well, I will miss you a lot, but not enough to endure nested comments at LGM.

    Your twitter is now on my list of go to sites. I know twitter is also nested. Normally I can’t make heads or tales of their threads. But I do read stand alone comments  by people I like to read.

  206. 206.

    worn

    Sorry to see you go, Cheryl. I read Nuclear Diner a bit before you came on board and have made a point of reading all your postings here over the years. I consider myself a bit smarter for having done so. You will be missed!

    But unlike many others I doubt I will follow you to LGM. Ever since they did their site redesign – quite a while ago now – the primary post on the front page is half covered with an advertisement when visiting with my tablet. If they can’t be bothered to fix basic site legibility issues, I can’t motivate myself to bother either. And this is over and above the decision to restrict the display of each post to just a couple of sentences. This is poor document structure is a shame, for LGM used to be one of my daily reads (I’m only kvetching in case you might have somebody’s ear over there…)

    Otherwise, best of luck with the new gig!

  207. 207.

    mvr

    I’m sorry to see you go, though I will likely read your work again at LGM on occasion, though probably not as reliably. Good luck with your continued work.
    Thanks!

  208. 208.

    Ohio Mom

    @sab:

    One thing I found amusing in the comments to Cheryl’s inaugural post was the certainty that one of the big things that ails Balloon Juice is UNnested threads.

  210. 210.

    debbie

    @raven:

    We used to have silly conversations over beers, like what’s your very favorite songline? Mine was “Dad, get me out of this! Huh!”

  211. 211.

    The Moar You Know

    Thanks, Cheryl.  You’ve been a bright spot here and do good work.  You’ll be missed.

  212. 212.

    Ida Slapter

    Best wishes, Cheryl. You are an excellent writer. I’m especially interested in your feminist thoughts. I’ve learned a lot and you have given me a lot to think about over the years. This lurker will check you out on LGM but will be glad to see you pop up on BJ any time too!

  213. 213.

    cintibud

    Hate to see you go Cheryl. Thanks for all the insightful posts and comments. Best of luck!

  214. 214.

    dnfree

    Your posts and insights have been extremely valuable and have definitely brought a fresh perspective.  I’ll miss you here and might check out LG&M. All I need is another online site to check….

  215. 215.

    Laura Too

    I am sad to see you go. Thank you so much for all your amazing analysis. I was always too intimidated to comment, though that is on me not you. Good luck on your new endeavor, know you always have a big place here if they don’t treat you right.

  217. 217.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Sorry to see you go, Cheryl. I appreciated your analyses on nuclear and FP issues very much

  218. 218.

    chopper

    @Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:

    depends. the FP posts on how effective the vaccines are, and calling out the media for ignoring those stats, were spot-on.

    the posts arguing that “if you’re vaxxed the pandemic is over” and calling commenters worried about new variants brewing up “eeyores” were short-sighted and naive.

    loomis’s posts a year back saying that a vax was going to take years and years if it can even be made at all, so we’re all going to catch covid and we better get used to the idea, those were just plain stupid.

  220. 220.

    Darkrose

    @Ohio Mom: Well said. I took LGM off of Feedbin recently because I learned the hard way that it’s a blog rather than a community. I still read sometimes, but I found that it’s best if I keep my distance a little.

  224. 224.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @brantl: You’re being purposely offensive, and I don’t give a shit why. Shove your fake-magnanimous “benefit of the doubt” right up your ass where it belongs.

  225. 225.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @chopper: You make good points. I was more focused on the overall LGM approach as you mentioned in your first paragraph (which lined up well with the consensus of the infectious disease experts I know very well). A corollary to the (correct) view of just how incredibly effective the vaccines are (and how poorly the media was performing in relating that) was a swing a bit too far in the direction of “vaxxed = pandemic over” and being less concerned about variants. I didn’t find that last too egregious over there, but I get why others wouldn’t quite see it the way I did. Loomis’ post from way last year hasn’t aged well, of course, but neither has the initial guidelines on masking from the best experts. It’s called a novel coronavirus for a reason, lotta early takes all around weren’t great.

  226. 226.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Darkrose: “I learned the hard way that it’s (LGM) a blog not a community”

    That notion has been bruited about several times by various commenters on this thread. I’m sorry for whatever may have happened to you over there that made it a “hard way”, not cool to be made to feel unwanted or attacked (I’m guessing it was something like that).

    But this place (where I’ve been hanging out at regularly since even before John Cole had his epiphany in ’05) can be just like that, too. Neither place is immune to people being shitty to each other.

    For me, LGM is a community, in much the same way that many find Balloon Juice to be. Over the years I’ve come to prefer LGM to Balloon Juice (for a number of reasons) but I wouldn’t use that personal preference to diss BJ for not being up to my standards or something and thus worthy of disdain for being a mere blog and not a superior form of human interaction known as “community”. It’s only my preference between the two (the only two places online I go to regularly anymore) just like I prefer the Disqus format for commenting over WordPress. Others have the opposite preference, and that’s just fine.

  227. 227.

    Tim C.

    I really enjoyed your writing here,  your expertise and the solidly backed information you shared.   Thank you for hanging with us for so long and I look forward to reading you over there in the future.

  228. 228.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I read LGM, but it still feels a bit sad, like the end of an era.

    You’ve provided amazing information, answered some questions (including one that had bugged me forever – (re: how sneaky could one be with a basic uranium-powered atomic bomb if they have uranium mines) ), and sometimes provided that steady voice of calm, the sense that “there are people out here who know about this kind of thing, and can make sound decisions” which helped, even when “damn shame none of them are in the fuTrumpcking moron administration”.

    Okay, does WordPress have a search and replace script, or are my fingers that opinionated?

    Anyway: it’s been great seeing you here. It’ll be great seeing you there. I hope you find happiness and joy in your life. I wished that yesterday, and will tomorrow, but it’s especially poignant at times of change.

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