Enough with the classics, out with the old, in with the new.
I am very excited to announce that we have two new front pagers who will be contributing to the blog, promoted from the comments section. It’s our 20th and it is time for some new blood and new perspectives.
Everyone say congratulations to Woodrow and the Thin Black Duke and welcome them aboard this hell bound shit show.
Baud
Nice choices!
frosty
Agreed, good choices. Their comments are well thought out, I look forward to their posts.
ETA #2 for the first time!
Dorothy A. Winsor
That’s good news!
Almost Retired
Excellent choices!
Ohio Mom
Congrats to you both!
Have appreciated your comments, and also the links to the Thin Black Duke’s writing elsewhere (if Woodrow has given us links, I missed those posts).
Sister Golden Bear
Congratulations! Looking forward to the upcoming posts from both of you.
Quinerly
EXCELLENT CHOICES! ????
grumbles
Welcome!
> hell bound shit show.
How did you know what I named my car?
Sure Lurkalot
These are excellent words!
eddie blake
hey, that’s great! congratulations!
different-church-lady
Welcome aboard this hell bound sh… now wait just a second, what is this thing I’m on?
DFH
I for one welcome our new BJ overlords.
Matt McIrvin
Congratulations! I’d say welcome but they’ve been here all along, posting excellent comments.
Ksmiami
Seriously Cole; this high quality writing deserves rewards. I hope you’re paying these new contributors top dollar…/runs away
Lavocat
Welcome to the jungle, people.
WaterGirl
Most excellent choices!
realbtl
I’ll tentatively agree pending pet pix.
zhena gogolia
? great news
WaterGirl
@Baud: Woodrow recently lost his beloved cat, so maybe don’t lead with that when he shows up? :-)
MisterDancer
Hey, it’s Woodrow/Asim, under my new not-really-a-anonymous nym!
I do have a pet, who’s celebrating this moment by actually being in my lap, which she never does! So she, at least, gets the gravity of this situation (sigh).
And I will take a bit to share cat pics. We just lost our beloved Theda Bara, and honestly I’m still grieving that. (ETA: Please don’t fret asking though! I didn’t talk much about her passing here or anywhere, and I don’t expect people to read my mind – – thus why I write so many words.)
Also: I actually have a dusty old, vaguely embarrassing newsletter which I’ll share in the future. Most of my energy for this kind of writing work’ll be here, going forward, as human cloning is still banned, I hear…
Thanks, again, everyone. I’ll try not to be too much of a wanker. :)
Kristine
Congrats! Looking forward to your posts.
Gravenstone
Both have been very insightful commenters for a long time. Excellent choices.
Tony Jay
Good choices.
Congratulations, chaps. Now would be a good time to blast out “The Heat is On” from the soundtrack to that 80s movie (with the planes and the oil and the tiny wee man smiling) and suddenly feel the full weight of expectation pressing down on the back of your neck(s) like Meatloaf’s bare foot in an otherwise empty sauna.
SpaceUnit
Thin Black Duke and Woodrow? But why? What did they do wrong???
Kidding of course. Congrats to you both.
JPL
Great choices and I look forward to their posts.
WaterGirl
@SpaceUnit: They know what they did.
UncleEbeneezer
Congrats to both!
lowtechcyclist
Great choices! They’re the sort of writers I’d like to be.
Congrats, both of you!
Another Scott
Excellent choices. Just excellent.
Cheers,
Scott.
NeenerNeener
Woo hoo! Congratulations to both of you!
Spanky
Individually, or together? I suppose you mean individually, but reading their back-and-forth in the comments make me think they’d be great together.
Benw
In honor of your promotion, can I be the first to say, “what crappy content, and so infrequent!”
:)
MisterDancer
@Spanky: Individually. No one’s ready for that Voltron action. :)
WaterGirl
@Benw: Nice, BenW.
Kalakal
Congrats to you both! Good choices
Other Other Other John
Yessssss….. great choices! Welcome folks!!
FlyingToaster
Excellent! (Mr. Burns, rubbing his hands)
debbie
Great news!
laura
Lucky all of us! Two of the commentariate call up to the big league. ???
Suzanne
WOOHOO, great!
West of the Rockies
Prediction?… Pain.
Welcome aboard! You will be great.
Josie
Very happy for both of you. Looking forward to your posts.
Spanky
I hope their contracts are like Adam’s, and they’re getting paid by the word.
Jean
Good news! Congratulations!
trollhattan
Welcome! First writing assignment: Donald Trump, great president or greatest president? Go!
khead
My apologies to Thin Black Duke – as I am not familiar with their work. But Woodrow has been on a roll for some time now. I was going to say something nice to (about?) him just today. So, good choice there. Congrats to both folks.
HumboldtBlue
Does this mean we get beer?
Are Woodrow and The Thin Black Duke now made men, or is this a Yakuza thing and they each lose a knuckle?
schrodingers_cat
Congratulations to the new FPers.
Benw
@WaterGirl: thanks, tip your server!
planetjanet
Just totally awesome! That is quite exciting news. I look forward to both official first posts. No pressure, folks.
BruceFromOhio
Well done, I look forward to reading both
HeleninEire
YAYAYAYAY. Welcome.
WaterGirl
@khead: The Thin Black Duke had two guest posts this fall:
Guest Post: The Thin Black Duke – An Injustice!
Guest Post: The Thin Black Duke – The Rittenhouse Acquittal Normalizes Vigilantes
*Woodrow was also invited to do a guest post!
Hildebrand
Awesome news!
jackmac
Congrats! Looking forward to reading both on a regular basis!
gwangung
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
(Can you tell I’m excited?
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
OHMIGOD
!
quakerinabasement
Hey, new people.
WaterGirl
@gwangung: So, how do you feel about this news? I couldn’t quite tell. :-)
raven
Cool!
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: What raven said.
hueyplong
Theda Bara is a great name for a cat.
Now considering Clara Bow, the “It” Cat.
satby
Wonderful choices!
H.E.Wolf
This is great news! Congratulations to the Duke and the Dancer, and thanks to both of you for agreeing to post on the front page! Looking forward to it.
Quiltingfool
Yes! I look forward to reading the posts. Welcome, and thank you for sharing your wisdom.
lashonharangue
Congratulations (I think)! Looking forward to reading you both.
geg6
Excellent news! Two great commenters who will be great frontpagers!
Yutsano
Well well well… new meat for the sacrifice?
Seriously, welcome to the front page! I look forward to your insight and your candor.
Mary G
Yay. Not dissing the other FPS when I say the new blood keeps the blog alive. Hoping for many great posts from all.
Mike E
Just want to tell you both good luck, we’re all counting on you.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: Check out comment #58 in the post right before this one. It’s your first comment.
WaterGirl
@Mike E: hahaha
hedgehog mobile
Yeah!
There go two miscreants
Great choices! Two writers who always have something interesting to say. (Among the list of folks I generally toggle to read even if their response is second-order pied.)
stinger
Excellent news! I look forward to reading their posts!
bluegirlfromwyo
Best news I’ve heard all year. ;) Congratulations!
Starfish
@MisterDancer: Are you going to teach us belly dancing? I wrote belly dancing, and the autosuggestions corrected it to bellyaching.
Ajabu
Truly Great choices. Will be nice to get some perspective from Our side of the ethnic. tracks. Absolutely no disrespect to the other front pagers but it’s truly different when you’ve lived it… Congratulations to you both!
VeniceRiley
Fresh meat! Yeahhh! I mean, um … Congratulations and I look forward to new fresh front page posts. Try not to Bigfoot them until they’re settled in.
MisterDancer
Heck yeah. It’s the people who have gone before that built a platform for us new folx to ramble upon!
OK, gang. I was going to post an introduction thing, but the lack of sleep is catching up, and I want to make a good first front page impression, if you will. :)
Thanks again for all the support, and I’ll see you here, soon.
dww44
I’ve long read both the new front pagers’ comments and look forward to their long form comments, if you will. Great additions to the front page.
zhena gogolia
@Mike E: Surely you must be joking
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Don’t call me Shirley.
mali muso
This is wonderful news! Both insightful and eloquent writers with viewpoints and perspectives we desperately need to hear more of. Congrats!!!
Quiltingfool
This is OT, but if you have a minute or two, wander over to Stonekettle Station (https://www.stonekettle.com/) and read Jim Wright’s essay re 1/6.
JoyceCB
Looking forward to reading both your works, from this mostly-lurker!
Ruckus
Great choices, both good, smart writers with positive things to say.
The Pale Scot
Intro tune…
HAPPY & PEPPY & BURSTING WITH LOVE!
Felix Unger’s best compositio
Klugman’s a good stand in for JC
HRA
Congratulations Thin Black Duke and Mister Dancer!
Sphex
Delurking to say how thrilled I am with these two new choices (as well as with the blog in general!).
Alison Rose
hells yes
Felanius Kootea
Great choices! I read Thin Black Duke on Medium and appreciate his work (my husband follows him there and had pointed out several of his articles to me before I realized that he was a commenter on Balloon Juice). I have loved Woodrow/Asim’s insights on the ways in which African Americans have strategized to fight authoritarianism (Jim Crow laws, etc.) and won, understanding that it’s a long game. He’s made me rethink my Nigerian impatience for quick wins on more than one occasion. Looking forward to reading you both!
Mary G
@WaterGirl: Thank you, WG. You must be working double overtime putting together the big anniversary!
p.a.
??????????????????
Madeleine
Yay yay yay!!! I’ve been hoping you’d join the front page. Congratulations!
lowtechcyclist
Aw, c’mon! We’re already up to a Classics III thread.
If we don’t have a Classics IV thread, I predict things will get stormy around here.
Ken
I really must re-read Robert Bloch’s “That Hell-Bound Train”. One lesson of which was “Hell for the company,” which works for Balloon Juice too
Congratulations to the new front-pagers!
SFAW
Congratulations to the bot’ of youse!
kindness
Front pagers sometimes need thick skins. Hope they’re good there.
And Congrats!
Mike in NC
Outstanding choices. Please proceed.
CaseyL
Oh, wonderful! I’ve definitely enjoyed the Thin Black Duke and Woodrow’s commentary, and can’t wait to read their front page posts.
The Dangerman
Fresh Fish!
/shawshank
phdesmond
laudable
applaudable
always audible
— Peter H. Desmond
eclare
Awesome!
Mai Naem mobile
Congrats TBD and Woodrow. Good additions to the FP. Mo pet pics is my only request, since Cole is so stingy with his.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: No kidding! That’s why I named tonight’s post Classics III
john will just have to get over it. :-)
Kropacetic
TBD’s guest posts were good reads and I’m excited for both new contributers ?
Mike E
@Quiltingfool: Thanks for this. The comments are very good too, especially this one.
BeautifulPlumage
@Mai Naem mobile: just going to ditto this comment. Yay!
Gin & Tonic
Really good choices, but I hope, for their sake and ours, that things don’t end up like they did for ABL’s stint on the front page.
As a white dude, I really appreciate their commentary and look forward to more of it.
opiejeanne
Great choices! I look forward to their contributions to this lovely blog.
Congratulations to both.
prostratedragon
Congratulations to the new front pagers, both already valued commenters.
WaterGirl
@Mike E: That comment describes how i have come to feel about some of my family members who supported Trump.
How can they possibly be who I thought they were?
O. Felix Culpa
Just what the doctor ordered. Thank you, Uncle Cole and new FPers!
James E Powell
To quote the Gin Blossoms, Congratulations I’m Sorry.
Slings & Arrows coming your way.
Welcome. Look forward to your posts. Best of luck!
N M
Congrats new front-pagers!
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: No one wants that to happen.
Mike J
I really thought the time had come for a pivot to yacht racing for this blog. Until that time, I’m sure the new front pagers will do a salutary job.
HumboldtBlue
comment deleted at commenter’s request.
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: That seems like a very odd comment to make, and
at least slightlyoffensive, given how much racist crap ABL got on this blog.Gin & Tonic
@Mike J: Not that much yacht racing in mid-winter, so it’s ok.
You haven’t been around that much lately, eh?
Martin
Don’t know Woodrow much, but Thin Black Duke is a great pick.
Starfish
@Martin: Woodrow has been here a long time, and he is also awesome even if he does go to bed when I ask him if he is going to teach us how to dance.
phdesmond
@WaterGirl:
i missed this episode. who is/was ABL?
Felanius Kootea
@Quiltingfool: I read and appreciated his post, but it didn’t start with Obama. His election definitely triggered something, but the roots of this particular madness go way deeper. They’re right there in the less noble parts of US history.
It’s impossible to enslave people for generations and rip mother from child for sale without losing some of your own humanity. To get thousands of men who could never afford to own a slave to die for the rights of other men to keep owning them requires a deep belief that those fighting have something that elevates them above the enslaved. The invention of race-based slavery in the US was a master stroke of genius – it prevented Irish indentured servants from finding common cause with enslaved Africans and we’re still feeling the repercussions of that today.
No society is perfect. Nazi Germany studied US Jim Crow laws in creating the Nuremberg Race Laws, as Woodrow pointed out and writers like Wilkerson have documented extensively. Verwoerd in South Africa studied the Nuremberg Race Laws to create the laws underpinning South African apartheid.
There has never been a nation-wide reckoning in the US of the kind seen in post-WWII Germany or in post-apartheid South Africa, so yes, the election of the first black president was bound to absolutely drive some insane. This is because their notions of US citizenship do not extend to those of African descent.
We still haven’t had that reckoning. It’s not clear whether we will. The insurrectionists definitely don’t believe we need to and there are over seventy million people who share that view. I truly believe that some kind of reconciliation commission is necessary for the US to move forward in a healthy way.
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
I’m sorry, I meant no offense at all, I was just trying to bring some dark humor (I’m watching an absolute gem of a dark Danish drama/comedy Riders of Justice) to the joint.
The phrase just caught my eye.
Starfish
@HumboldtBlue: This attack is very weird and overly personal. It is like the type of attack that a man might make against a woman for disapproving of nonsense, and it is also an attack on religion. I don’t really know if Watergirl has written about religion here.
John Cole was very opposed to blocking for a long time, but then at some point we received the power of pie so that we can block at will.
I am saying that I believe the blog has shifted views on moderation.
Being protective of the new front pagers so that commenters being jerks do not scare them off seems reasonable.
I don’t expect them to have the experience that ABL had. Black women experience a highly potent misogynoir.
chopper
i approve of both of these choices
mvr
Congratulations to Woodrow and the Thin Black Duke. No really. Not just because Cole told us to. This is a good place to be part of and this is in fact an honor.
WaterGirl
@phdesmond: Maybe that’s a story for another day.
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: i don’t see how you could have written that intending no offense, but i will accept your apology. Would you like me to remove your comment?
Another Scott
@phdesmond: Imani Gandy / AngryBlackLady. She was a front-pager here and did a great job, but left when too many trolls posted too much crap in her threads.
She and Cole took a road trip to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
She’s done great things since leaving the nest.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
scav
Congrats all round and aren’t we lucky! (thus the congrats to the rest of us — congrats to the front pagers should probably be accompanied with cattle prods, asbestos mitts, a variety pack of stiff beverages and a first aid kit)
Matt McIrvin
@phdesmond: Imani Gandy, aka Angry Black Lady. Expert on reproductive rights law. She still holds forth on Twitter and still offends all manner of horrible people who she trolls without mercy.
WaterGirl
@Starfish: Things that won’t be tolerated, from the comment policy:
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
Yes please.
Starfish
@phdesmond: AngryBlackLady. She used to write here and now has a very large Twitter following now.
One time, John wandered out of his house to go to NetRoots Nation or something like that, and he forgot to bring pants.
Imani gave someone drinks to get some recommendations for places to buy pants.
The whole road trip was hilarious, and also almost ten years ago. I am ancient in Balloon Juice years.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: We have a comment policy?!
The two aspects of Balloon Juice commenter culture that I wish would change:
1) I wish people would quit misgendering Lindsey Graham. It is not funny if it ever was.
2) I wish people would quit prison rape jokes. “I see prisoners as less than human and find their rape to be humorous” is also less funny than people think it is.
guachi
@Matt McIrvin:
ABL is really good at insulting and attacking. But terrible at taking even minor disagreement. I gave the blandest of disagreements on Twitter to one of her tweets a few years ago and was instantly blocked. I don’t miss her posts here in the slightest.
Another Scott
@Starfish: Nobody reads the page footer.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: ExcellentMy spouse doesn’t read comments ( I am grateful, because I would have to pipe down.) So now he gets to read them.
WaterGirl
@Starfish: It’s in the footer!
I find it appalling that our society accepts with a shrug that men and women are raped in prison. How is that not cruel and unusual punishment?
stacib
@phdesmond: I know you were asking WG, but if I may…
ABL is Angry Black Lady aka Imani Gandy, and she is the reason I started reading this blog, and then left for a very long time. She used to have her own site, but now I think she’s most visible on Twitter. She’s amazing, and you would be doing yourself (if you do Twitter) a huge favor to read a bit of her stuff.
WaterGirl
@phdesmond: @stacib:
If you go to the Past Authors page in the sidebar (or you can click the link I just added here) you will find links to ABL’s twitter and to rewire where she currently writes.
That’s true of all our past authors – assuming that we know what they are up to, anyway!
stacib
@WaterGirl: Thank you. You are really one of the most kind and gracious people on here, and as mentioned, I’ve been around for a while.
WaterGirl
@stacib: That’s kind of you to say.
I didn’t mean to put off phdesmond; I just didn’t want to spoil this congratulations thread with details about ABL’s treatment by trolls.
Sometimes things are best not dredged up. We plan to do everything we can to make sure that nothing like that happens again.
Elizabelle
Great news. Two people whose comments I look for and read in full. Who know the room and will not spring fake conventional wisdom and, to prove their creds, the usual bashing of Democrats (the only politicians who have agency) on us. That type of commentary is all over the internet, and tiresome in extreme.
Balloon Juice adds two more writers with memories longer than a goldfish’s. Good luck to both the Duke and Woodrow! Look forward to your posts.
piratedan
congrats to our new front page peeps. Appreciate the opportunity to have my biases challenged and myself being better informed by reading you.
Yutsano
OT: Peter Bogdanovich has left the mortal coil. I know I’ve seen his movies but it has been awhile.
cain
@Another Scott: We are very proud of her! She even follows me on twitter! (cause I make her laugh, unlike the people here ;)
I’m so thrilled to see two amazing new writers who can provide a perspective on the front page that will be different. I’ve very much enjoyed the eloquence of Thin Black Duke and Woodrow/Asim.
I hope they have pets – I see that Woodrow/Asim has a cat! Yay!!
We STILL need a slot for a black woman though.. ! Nobody is off the hook for that!
cain
@WaterGirl:
I hope that we don;t get the same with our newest front pager. I think as a group we will need to be more aggressive against trolls on their posts.
Yutsano
As demanded of all front pagers, photo evidence will be required. :P
Origuy
Looking forward to their voices on the front page.
WaterGirl
@cain: I love ruemara’s posts.
Primer Gray (formerly Yet Another Jeff)
And now they go mad with their moderate amount of power….
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: I am really not into sanitizing threads.
WRT the ABL posts and the trolling there: are those in full form, or have they been cleaned up?
Because this blog can also stand as a record of what was actually going on at a given point. Unless it’s being sanitized, after the fact.
C Stars
Glad to see some new voices here, and from what I’ve read in the comments, I’m really glad it’s these two voices.
FelonyGovt
Excellent choices! Excellent, thoughtful writers. I’m really looking forward to their posts.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: i am not aware of any cleanup that was done after the fact. Certainly nothing like that was done as part of the data transfer and the site rebuild.
MomSense
?????????
Miss Bianca
Yay!
That is all.
Alison Rose
@Starfish: 1000% agree on both
marcopolo
Whew, dodged a bullet.
Ha ha, welcome aboard to the new FPers!
Man, I just spent several hours in our local newspaper’s comments section for an article on our towns overloaded ERs/hospitals. Wow, hadn’t done that (participated in an article’s comment section) in a couple years. And now I will not be doing it again. However, I do think I may have made inroads with one person. After a little back and forth they started posting links to where they were getting their misinformation from so I could actually point out why it was wrong. And direct them to places that might be a little more honest & forthright about, you know, what’s real vs what’s bullshit. Fingers crossed a little of my critique may stick.
Time for bed. Goodnight all.
rikyrah
Congratulations!!!
Great additions???
Thor Heyerdahl
Congrats to you both. Looking forward to the new perspectives.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Congratulations, well earned, good luck and now… fuck off! I think that’s how it usually goes here, right? Seriously, , congrats to you both!
?BillinGlendaleCA
Great choices, welcome!
Brachiator
I was away from the Internets all day today. This is a big fucking deal.
Congratulations!
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
Great minds think alike!
Asparagus Aspersions
What wonderful news, congratulations ! A well-deserved promotion
Laura Too
How wonderful! Congratulations to both.
Miss Bianca
@H.E.Wolf:
Ooh, late back to this thread, but can’t help myself noting that “The Duke and the Dancer” would be a GREAT title for something. Romance novel? Western? What?! Oh, where’s Mnemosyne when we need her?!//
Or maybe just an awesome joint post team-up sometime between the Duke and the Dancer.
OK, that’s enough.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I know, I loved the phrasing of the Duke and the Dancer, too, but by the time I had re-read that comment last night I figured i had missed the moment to point that out.
Glad you took the time to write this.
I think that should have been the title of Cole’s announcement post last night: The Duke and the Dancer
Maybe not as dramatic as Very Big Major Announcements, but major style points!