Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

In after Baud. Damn.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

This blog will pay for itself.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

When we show up, we win.

This fight is for everything.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

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

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

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

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Balloon Juice – It’s That Time Again (Daytime Peeps Version)

Balloon Juice – It’s That Time Again (Daytime Peeps Version)

by | 65 Comments

This post is in: ,

Posting this again this morning for the daytime and weekend Balloon Juice peeps.

 Thanks to everyone who jumped in yesterday!

Balloon Juice went ad-free over 2 years ago, and I hope you guys still appreciate that as much as I do!

It’s been quite awhile since we’ve had one of these posts, but it’s time, because we have on-going expenses.   Web hosting is monthly, and it’s not cheap.  Other expenses are annual (dropbox, design software for the calendar and postcards, Balloon Juice email addresses, Zoom, etc.)

And we like to keep the safety net so Cole doesn’t have to worry about the “what-ifs” of surprise expenses in a no-ads world.

If you donate, I promise that not one penny of what you donate will be used to supply Henry with a never-ending supply of furry friends to snuggle with.  Pinky swear!

Balloon Juice Is Still Ad-Free

How can you help?  (But only if you can afford it!)

°If you have signed up for a monthly donation but you’re in a different financial position than you were when you signed up, please feel free to cancel your monthly donation, with our thanks for having supported the site.

°If you keep thinking you’ll set up a monthly donation, but haven’t gotten around to it, or if the timing is right for increasing your donation, this would be a great time to do it.

°  If you have a monthly donation set up through PayPal, please consider switching that to Patreon. Patreon takes taxes off the top before the funds go into John’s account, so there are no surprises at tax time.

°  Make a one-time donation to the Safety Net. It turns out that having the safety net has already been helpful, as John gets clobbered with the tax bill for the the donations that come through PayPal, etc. Before you ask me exactly how much the tax bill was, I do not know the actual amount and Cole hates to talk about money, so I am not going to press him on that.

° If you want to send a one-time check for expenses or for the safety net, send me an email message I will send you Cole’s address.  (P.O.box)

You can donate to the safety net with Patreon, Venmo, Zelle, and paper check.  And even PayPal if that’s your only option, but please mark it as personal / gift and not payment for services.

Big thanks to everyone who helps keep Balloon Juice going!

If you have any questions, let me know!

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    I closed the comments on the similar post from last night.

    I believe I have replied to all the people who asked me to send them John’s address so they could send a paper check.

    So if you asked for Cole’s address to send a paper check, please look for an email with his P.O. box address. If you don’t have that, please add a comment in this post.

    Or send me email, that works, too!

    Thanks, everybody!

  3. 3.

    TBone

    @WaterGirl: I need the box # address.  I might not chip in as much as I’d like this time (R.E. tax bill, Chewy boxes, plumber invoice plus) but I want to contribute!  I do not like online paying and still use paper checks whenever I can.  Please say who to make payable to.

  4. 4.

    la caterina

    My hubby (Johannes) just donated via Patreon because I am a Luddite

    eta: he’s trying to donate via Patreon

    eta: Victory! He got Patreon to work!

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @TBone: checks are payable to John Cole.  The bank doesn’t accept checks payable to Balloon Juice.

    I will look up your email address, but going forward it’s easiest for me to just have an email to reply to.

    edit: Just sent you John’s address.

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    I wish I could pitch in, but…sigh. The government bites. Once they eventually get their act together, I will be able to throw a few bucks in the pot.

    I will say that Henry is the sweetest little fuzzball and I don’t know how you get anything done with him around. That curly fur just demands to be snuggled!

  10. 10.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Done via Paypal with appropriate “friends/gift/whatever” moniker to the transfer.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: We’ve all been there when money is tight.   It all works, because money is tight for different people at different times.  So right now, there’s probably someone giving who couldn’t afford it last time around, and vice versa.

    That’s the beauty of a community like Balloon Juice.

    I fought pretty hard not to have subscriptions, which would have created a world of haves and have nots, which is totally antithetical to BJ.

    Kudos to Cole for taking the leap to go ad-free!

  21. 21.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Been doing Patreon for a while and will just stick to that. I honestly don’t know how people do PayPal. Paypal’s always been a hassle for me and then you have to worry about being scammed. I am impressed by the number of people who mentioned checks here. I hope Biden wins a second term and goes after junk payment fees. $15 for “convenience” monthly rent payment fees. $15 for “convenience” monthly mortgage payment fees.  I used to think $2 convenience  via phone  charges for utility payments were scammy. Its like these companies don’t want to bear any cost of doing business.

  22. 22.

    Jean

    I joined Patreon when you first suggested it, and I am a member with a password.  I thought I contributed a monthly, but I don’t see how to get to my account.  From here, I’m directed to set up an account.

  24. 24.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Jean: they’ve changed the website. I had to play around with it a while to figure out my stuff as well.    I think its because they want you to use the app instead of just going there on the browser.

  28. 28.

    TBone

    @WaterGirl: thank you, and D’OH on the ease of reply email, sorry.  I KNOW why to do that from being gainfully employed in the past but my brain is somewhat still fuzzy.

     

    @NotMax: OH THANK YOU!!!!  LOVE HER!

  30. 30.

    Zelma

    I think I am giving monthly via Patreon but I have so many regular subscriptions that I’m not sure.  Can you check easily?  If not I will get out my statement and try to figure it out.

  32. 32.

    Ivan X

    WaterGirl, is there any way of verifying that our donation was received? It was Zelle, so I don’t have any reason to think that it *wasn’t*, but still, it would be nice to know that it arrived. I’m not asking for some sort of grand celebration or a toaster or anything, I just wanna know that the guy who is supposed to get it, got it.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @Zelma: John i the one who could check, and with the big painting project, I doubt that he’ll even answer the phone if I call.

    Are you set up for online banking?  That could tell you just by looking at last month.

    If not, please send me an email with your name and email address you use for Zelle, and I can ask Cole to check on that this week.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @Ivan X: Hey Ivan.

    If it were me, I would have a nice little spreadsheet with info about who donated, how much, one time or monthly, how they sent the funds.  Cole is pretty much the opposite of that.

    Can you send me an email with your name and the email address you use for Zelle?   I can ask Cole to check on that this week.

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    Big thanks to everyone who is able to chip in, either one time or on an ongoing basis.  I’m sure Cole is feeling much more at ease today than he was yesterday!

  41. 41.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @WaterGirl: its the companies to the consumers not the banks. I don’t mind paying a couple of bucks for convenience fees but $15 I believe is excessive for a mortgage or rent payment. The other part of the rent piece is the landlord/lender not being local so you would have to mail the  check which you have to certify mail(another $5) because the landlord/lender pretends they didn’t receive it in time so they charge you a $100-$150 late fee. Don’t even get me started on late fees. Its just the nickle and diming garbage – the $20 shop fee at a.car repair place. Dude thats your freaking cost of business. Okay, I’m gonna stop before I start sounding like the dead 60 minutes guy.

  43. 43.

    Ron from MN

    Hi WaterGirl, I would like to send a check also,

     

    thanks a bunch

     

    PS: your pup looks like our two Coton de Tulears!!  cute pup!!!!

  46. 46.

    MattF

    I’ve signed up on Patreon, so there should be a monthly payment set. I had a $10 monthly Patreon, but it stopped in September— not sure why. The website says new payments will start in March, we shall see…

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @MattF: You are not the first person to mention your Patreon monthly donations stopping on its own.

    Seems like that wouldn’t be good for Patreon, either.  Inexplicable.

  48. 48.

    Sandia Blanca

    I just increased our monthly Patreon account. As others mentioned above, it took some poking around the site to figure out what we’re currently giving, but I did finally find it.

  50. 50.

    VFX Lurker

    New monthly supporter here. I just signed up for the default $5/month Patreon donation. Wishing this site continued success.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    I believe I am all caught up on the requests, so far, for Cole’s address for paper checks.

    So if you asked for that and don’t have email from me, please add a comment here or send me an email message to let me know.

  56. 56.

    Timill

    I do think the Patreon could use more levels of contributions – I picked the $5 as it was the default, and haven’t changed it. But it could be Maxwell ($5), Steve ($10) all the way up to Henry ($500) – and you know someone would choose that level Just Because…

    I’m not going to increase right now because we had 2 cats in ICU ($8-10K probably) over New Year, but making it easy for people to pay more will lead to people paying more…

  58. 58.

    Timill

    @WaterGirl: They’re both fine now. Thor turned out to have been severely anaemic, but UT Vet Hospital fixed that.

    Leonidas was an 8-ish week old kitten picked up off a street locally in bad shape. UTVH advised euthanasia, but we persuaded them to treat him and see how he did. Answer: he did well, but nearly lost one eye due to ulceration. Our vets were willing to try stuff and managed to heal it.

    Small ginger kitten with two eyes (Facebook pic)

  63. 63.

    Jean

    Thanks for some help. I think I’ve renewed my monthly contribution, which I did originally.  I have no idea how I finally made it happen.

Comments are closed.