Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans do not trust women.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

American history and black history cannot be separated.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

“But what about the lurkers?”

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

It’s possible to be a liberal firebrand without crapping on the party.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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171Comments

  5. 5.

    different-church-lady

    IF YOU WANT ME TO SHOUT IN ALL CAPS FROM THE FRONT PAGE I CAN TRY TO MAKE SOME TIME!!!

  8. 8.

    Suzanne

    @Chief Oshkosh: Definitely the better move.

    I started watching The Brutalist last night. I’m about halfway through it (it’s long). There’s no Brutalism yet. Plenty of Modernism. I am hoping for some awesome Brutalist architecture.

  15. 15.

    sab

    We moved last summer. New house needs curtains and noe of mine fit. I have been sewimg all summer and fall, but a lot of curtains is handwork.

    I found an amazing source of fabric since apparently the Ohio Fabric staple Joanns Fabric is going belly up for the second time. I don’t know where I will ger notions and weird fabric ( pelon).

    I q+.got all kinds of ideas for our library (my office). My preferred one was pale grey and brown books on shelves, looked like a library,  so that was used for curtains across the front.

    There were many bookcase alternatives for the side window. My husband’s preferred alternative had kittens on libray shelves. Very very cute.

    ETA Fabric came, and now I have to decide which kitten loses its head and which loses its paws for the fabric to fit the window. Choices can be difficult, and these little guys are just fictional.

  16. 16.

    zhena gogolia

    @Suzanne: I scrutinized the reviews of that to see if it was going to be of any interest to people interested in architecture, and I concluded, nah.

  18. 18.

    bbleh

    @m0nty: @Suzanne: all this.

    Meanwhile, will observe that it was actually kinda nice on the sunny side of the street this afternoon.  Thinking maybe moods will improve generally as winter goes away.

    Also, too, a shout-out to Senator Tina Smith!  More of this, please!

  21. 21.

    different-church-lady

    @zhena gogolia: I read that thread. Most of the arguing I saw didn’t even involve him. If that’s really all it is, it’s a pretty thin-skinned reason for leaving.

  23. 23.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Baud:

    Sad thing is, I have a clip file full of “best posts/best comments” in the history of this Almost Top 10000 Blog.

    For example, this comment from 2011, from a MM post:

    An even better way to truly understand Rand’s magnum opus is to simply recognize that it is the badly written scribblings of a bitter hypocritical old goat with the morals of a meerkat on crystal meth and the literary talent of the people who write tampon ads, and then you don’t actually have to subject yourself to the pain of reading the fucking piece of crap.

    balloon-juice.com/2011/04/15/galt-as-text/

    And from another MM post, this one from 2013 describing Tea Turd Congresspersons:

    They’re like impalas on the savannah: twitchy, always looking over their shoulder, and ready to bolt to the right at a moment’s notice upon the barest scent of tea.

    balloon-juice.com/2013/10/18/existential-dread-has-no-season/

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    @zhena gogolia: It’s very good, so far, So I am definitely going to finish it. I’m just a little bit surprised, so far….. in the movie, the character mentions that he attended the Bauhaus, which was the crown jewel of International Style modernism, not Brutalism. And the furniture and design that has been in the movie so far is all modern.

    So maybe the Brutalism comes in the second half!

    I love Brutalist architecture. One of the best design movements of the last century.

  26. 26.

    Doug R

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     
    I dunno what all these people expect from Jeffries.
    His main job is herding cats. And he is supposed to work in the house to help pass sensible legislation – he can’t always be a firebrand.
    AOC and Bernie are stepping up – when we see what gets traction then we can go all-in.

  27. 27.

    Jay

    @different-church-lady:

    Since Biden quit, skins here have been getting thinner and thinner.

    Mistermix “carried” the front page through the daylight hours for months now, and for that there was always someone giving him grief in the comments, and it came to a head yesterday.

    When you are working for free and putting yourself out there, pile on’s aren’t worth suffering.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    USWNT 2-1 vs. the Matildas, setting up showdown with Japan in final Shebelieves Cup round.

    Japan looking like the team to beat, treating Colombia and ‘Stralia like whatever is Japanese for pinatas.

  29. 29.

    Suzanne

    @kalakal: Oooooh that concrete is sexy.

    I went out to the Flight 93 memorial a couple of years ago. The light was amazing and I got some fantastic pictures. I sent them into the Facebook group “Brutalist Concreteposting” and they got featured.

    Among their myriad other sins, the Trump Administration has terrible taste in public architecture.

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    @Jay: I agree, but if he thinks people giving him grief will stop on Bluesky (or any other platform) he’s probably wrong.

  35. 35.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @different-church-lady: People have been complaining about mistermix posts in his comments for weeks and weeks. They were apparently emailing him to make sure their complaints were heard too so the issue is much bigger than just that one thread.

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    Innnnnnteresting….

    Several administration officials tell workers not to reply to Musk email
    Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Hannah Natanson, Carol D. Leonnig

    ~1 minute

    Elon Musk’s demand that all 2.3 million government workers justify their work prompted confusion and resistance on Sunday, as several government agency leaders told their staffs not to reply to a mass email requesting bullet-point summations of their accomplishments.
    Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard instructed personnel in U.S. spy agencies not to respond, according to the text of an email she sent to the workforce on Sunday, citing the agencies’ sensitive and classified work.

  37. 37.

    Bupalos

    This is the internet, a disembodied space of supreme anonymity where people can claim and be whatever they want. Vladimir Putin can be an ANC veteran.
    How is “I suffer from the psychic wounds of the last election more than you because of my claimed identity as X” something that happens here and is willingly and encouragingly suffered?

    A first principle for any real interaction: know where you are.

  40. 40.

    Doc Sardonic

    @sab: Watch JoAnn online, my wife got a bolt of white and a bolt of black for 50% off/ 2 for1 however you want to slice it and free shipping.

  42. 42.

    brendancalling

    My band, The No Good Crowd, opens for Poland’s Trupa Trupa this Friday, 2/28/25, at Silk City, 435 Spring Garden St. If you live near Philly, this is a must-see show. Only 4 US dates.

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    So, a bit of cordiality: I’d like to profusely thank Winter Wren for the On The Road about Halibut Point in Rockport. I’ve always wanted to see a Harlequin Duck, and Wren’s post alerted me to the fact there were some a mere hour from me. Today was the day!

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    Considering just one of them speaks English, I don’t see this going well.

    “The most negative thing would be a gruesome sell-out of Ukraine and we get slapped with tariffs,” says a source involved in working out the best moves for No 10 as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to head to the White House to meet President Donald Trump.

    “The better version is Trump returns to a bit more robust behaviour with the Russians, Britain gets patted on the back for making a move on defence spending and we avoid all the tariffs – a Trumpportunity.”

    With Whitehall-style understatement, a different official predicts the PM “has a really big decision to make about what to say to Trump in private” – remember, just this week the president accused Sir Keir of “doing nothing” to try and stop the Ukraine conflict.

    A decision on defence spending is the big focus. The drumbeat of demands for the UK to boost spending was getting louder even before Trump moved into the White House.

    The government hasn’t yet committed to when it will hit its target of spending 2.5% of the size of the economy, let alone if it will go a lot further as military leaders, Nato, Trump, and now even the Liberal Democrats are calling for.

    A senior government source says the PM is “pushing the system” to get to a stronger position on spending, but in recent days it’s suggested the Treasury’s still asking about the spending consequences. The dilemma is obvious: public money is tight as a drum, and Downing Street doesn’t want to take cash from the NHS or other priorities at home.

    But a Treasury source acknowledged “the world is changing”, and sources describe a “phenomenal” opportunity to take the European lead and please Trump with cash promises.

    A Trump backer warns against anything lukewarm: “a proper commitment, not just a road map, or a path – be more specific, say ‘Yes we’ll hit it by this date,’ and throw in some more”.

    “He’s going to have to do 3% [or more],” one Whitehall insider suggests, “so the choice is, does it do it now, for the right reasons, make a virtue of it, or does he end up getting browbeaten into it by Trump?”

  46. 46.

    Bupalos

    @Starfish (she/her): no question. The real hubbub there was about the way he’s implying the current orthodoxy could be politically deficient (duh.)

    So his posts were being parsed for insufficient fealty to these orthodoxies. Which I think he was aware of. But when he (barely) made a criticism of Jeffries for monetizing anti-trumpism on a dumb book tour instead of working on messaging as the head of house dems, and that  was turned into a charge of racist microagression, he just said “naw.”
    this will all be forgotten in a week, and Balloon Juice will be a more harmonious place.

  47. 47.

    sab

    @Suzanne: Brutalism. Do you know Akron Ohio’s Knight Hall? Poured concrete right beside the railroad tracks. With droppable ceilings for the balconies. The top one won’t drop anymore because they so rarely use the equipment.

    If you like brutalism you might like the whole campus. I don’t much brutalism but I do like their version.

  49. 49.

    sentient ai from the future

    IVE HAD IT. I AM RESIGNING MY FRONTPAGE ROLE AT BALLOON-JUICE. I DONT NEED THE MONEY AND YOU PEOPLE ARE THE WORST.

  50. 50.

    Eric S.

    I have something to say on the topic du jour. But who am I. I am a 52yo white male working in middle management for a utility. I’m the demo so often, often rightly, criticized in comments. Not all gen-xers etc etc.

     

    I’m also a long term jackal. Since before it was a term. I got here from Andrew Sullivan (fuckem) in 2002/3. I’ve never left. I can’t tell you the last day I didn’t stop by here at least once. Usually I start and end my day here.I’ve seen front pagers and commenters come and go. I choked up when ergoldman was taken from us. I openly cried about Ozark and am tearing up again. Take those bona fides for whatever you think they’re worth.

     

    The nation hit all of us on the back of the head with a frying pan last November and DJT2.0 has been kicking us in the gut, while we’re down every since. We all understandablely hurt.

     

    We’ve been debating what the hell happened. There’s no one answer. One thing that often gets short shrift is, in November, the GOP comes together and pulls in one direction.

     

    I haven’t read anything to know what happened with Mistermix, who was involved or whatever else, but he is one of us. I know full well what Will Rogers said, but we need to quit shitting on each other if we’re going to recover. I suggest we start here, at Balloon-Juice.

  51. 51.

    Bupalos

    @different-church-lady: well yeah but not for long. I’m mostly hanging to see how my predictions pan out about who makes loyalty pledges

    except I always forget when I want to storm off and stop marinating in toxic online polarization rituals that this site somehow still distributes Cracker.

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    @sab: I don’t know that building, but I will check it out the next time I am in Akron! (Which is not often…. maybe I will make a trip.)

  55. 55.

    Bupalos

    I think one of Trump’s insights is seeing that no matter what is at stake we’re going to have a very hard time switching off a certain kind of academic discourse that leaves us vulnerable.

    He’s in our base killing our dudes.

  56. 56.

    sab

    @m0nty: My husband who loved his posts is sad. I liked his posts but  found his comments had been pied by me. Cranky with his commenters.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    @Bupalos:

    we’re going to have a very hard time switching off a certain kind of academic discourse that leaves us vulnerable.

     

    We should consider using more picture books.

  63. 63.

    sab

    @Suzanne: We are extremely proud of it but we are known to be hicks. I think they built poured it in the 1970s. I remember when it went up. Moved our symphony from the National Guard Armory to an actual concert hall.

    I love it. You should see it. Accoustically not bad either.

  66. 66.

    No One of Consequence

    @Chief Oshkosh: I don’t have a good excuse, but haven’t been following everything the last 24 odd hours or so.

    I take it we are in the midst of another self-immolation? My burns hadn’t really healed overmuch since the last one.

    Be cool people. Be kind. Don’t feed the trolls. Fuck Russian Shit-Stirrers of digital and analog varieties. Some of the worst people here are better than most of the best Trumpublicans, so let’s take some heart in that.

    We don’t need to walk on eggshells, but perhaps file away the spiked elbow guards and other Rollerball-adjacent accoutrements, no?

    An appeal from one who carries no weight here, but enjoys the banter and information, and who pinky-swears he will vote for Baud next time.
    -NOoC

  67. 67.

    Suzanne

    @sab: One of the things that is cool about being into architecture is that there are these jewels in unexpected, sometimes out-of-the-way places. It’s a fun thing to make a detour on a road trip or a layover.

  72. 72.

    Eric S.

    @Ohio Mom: it goes against my nature and my introvertedness and my social anxiety but I’ll try. But to answer WG’s question, I’m not going anywhere either. I’ve been part of this community for 40% of my life. I’m in for the long haul. I’m in to fight and defeat the GOP.

  73. 73.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: Y’know…. as I recall, the covers of those Little Golden Books were made of some pretty sturdy cardboard. Could make for a significant wallop to the back of a head…

  75. 75.

    Bupalos

    The reason to pie people is because you need things to look a certain way. This is already a curated and sanitized space you’ve chosen because it tends to be comfortable for the things you already think.

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I read that differently.  I read it as he was getting emails  from people who were upset by toxicity in the comments, and mistermix felt it too and had enough.

    I don’t know which way is the right read, and I haven’t gone back to parse exactly what mistermix wrote.

  79. 79.

    LAC

    @Suzanne: I am a fan of brutalist jewelry and have some pieces.  The juxtaposition between the soft and hard in the few pieces I own is delightful.

  81. 81.

    No One of Consequence

    @Eric S.: Though laid off about 14 months ago, I mirror closely what you posted. Similar demo and consumer. The insane part of this blog has always been tastefully presented and adjusted. The wisdom part of this blog has occurred to me over years. The humor and the tongue in cheek jackals probably are what I enjoy the most. Would hate to see it go.

  82. 82.

    Eos

    Another German election update: the denominator remains 86 — but barely, as the latest projection puts the BSW at an uncomfortable 4.972%.

    Accordingly, a black-red coalition remains feasible, with the Union (28.6%) and SPD (16.4%) adding up to 45.

    And yes, under other circumstances, it would probably be less than ideal to see 14% of the electorate disenfranchised (between the BSW, the FDP, and the rest), but the alternative (both capitalized and not) would be worse.

    (Specifically, the BSW entering the Bundestag would mean that the only viable coalition would be black-red-green — a recipe unlikely to produce anything appetizing.  One more failed government later, and the next election would be catastrophic.)

  83. 83.

    Bupalos

    @Suzanne: if you’re ever in buffalo, the Sullivan(?) FLW house is the epitome of this statement.

    it actually became a flophouse for a decade or two during the collapse of rust belt industry, and I often think of how bewildered the drugged-out squatters must have been by the meticulously constructed space.

    were they tempted to use the conservatory?

  90. 90.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl: That was what I understood. Not that the people he didn’t like were e-mailing him, it was the people on his side who were writing him to complain about the rest of us.

  91. 91.

    Suzanne

    @LAC: Ooooh! I am not much of a jewelry girl, myself, but I always admire it on others. The interplay between Brutalism’s geometry and roughness with the delicacy of jewelry sounds fantastic and beautiful.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Not more toxic than the usual comments RECENTLY, and that is the problem.  The problem is that the new normal has gotten more toxic.  That’s my take.

    You guys likely have no idea how long it takes to put together a well-sourced post.  Which that one was.  So bullshit on a post that took a lot of time and effort is a particularly bad combination.

    Not speaking for mistermix, but speaking from my experience.

  94. 94.

    Eric S.

    @No One of Consequence: I’ve learned so, so much at this blog. While I was never as far right as Cole, my politics has paralleled his. From front pagers to commenters, they’ve helped me in my journey. I can’t imagine B-J not being here.

  96. 96.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Eric S.: Thank you for this. I also am a long-timer (also came over from Sullivan) and share your feelings. MM has been doing yeoman work on the daytime front page for months (as AL does in the evening). I thank them both.

    This is not to minimize the very legitimate anger of our black and other POC jackals at the obvious racism etc. of the Trump admin. But please show grace to all of us jackals who post or comment in good faith.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    I don’t know about the level of toxicity over the years. I seem to remember toxic posts in the past.

    I don’t know how anyone can control comments on a post, if people are allowed to comment freely.

    ETA: TaMara would put up information about what type of comments she wanted and didn’t want.

  98. 98.

    Bupalos

    @WaterGirl: he freaked at what is actually just standard practice here. But I feel like I saw it coming. He’s not been ‘in the club’ for some time. It was going to happen.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Mistermix has put up plenty of well-sourced posts but yesterday’s wasn’t one of them. I thought he kinda tossed that one off.

    Ed. But I’m thinking about tbe comment about Hakeem Jeffries that people reacted to so strongly. That was a part of the post.

  100. 100.

    Nukular Biskits

    @WaterGirl:

    Given the couple of Zoom meetings I’ve been on with you guys and just general observation, I honestly don’t know where you front-pagers find the time to put together posts.

    I’ll use Adam as an example, although he’s by no means the only front-pager who works his ass off to present us with some quality, publicly-verifiable information and analysis.  I’m sure Cole would perma-ban my ass for even suggesting this but you should be paid for that effort.

    It’s one thing for commenters to offer constructive criticism and even object to a front-pager’s opinion on an issue. It’s quite another to make it personal, hurl accusations of bigotry and the like and to hound the front-pager off the platform.

    I personally wouldn’t blame any of you for saying “Fuck it” and spending your personal time doing something else.  I, for one, appreciate the work each of you put into your posts here.

  101. 101.

    Bupalos

    As someone much more amenable to mistermix’s mind than the general reaction here… totally unsurprising. He completely overreacted to something that is absolutely standard practice and happens in literally every post. He was itching to go, and calling him out for racism against one of the top .0001% most powerful people in the country because you can’t criticize a picture-book book-tour monetizing anti-trumpism was a chef’s kiss.

  102. 102.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: And TaMara has said she stopped posting for stretches because people were mean, overly aggressive, etc. to one another.

    In general, I feel that it has gotten more toxic. More grudge-hold-y. There used to be a norm of leaving stuff behind in a thread, not bringing it up again in subsequent threads… but now there’s commenters who carry their grudges around and who are not engaging in good faith. The vast majority of commenters here are smart and funny and on the side of right, though.

  108. 108.

    sab

    @Bupalos:  Husband reads the fromt pages but not the comments. Very sad mistermixx left.

    I was shocked, but then found I had pied him. Routinely rude to commenters. Your work is free but the platform costs somebody else a lot of money.

  113. 113.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    It’s been building since Nov 6th,

    There are a bunch of people I read online, I never read the comments, because 99% of them are garbage.

    But here, Front Pagers are “expected” to respond to comments of a sort.

    It takes a toll, that is often cumulative.

  115. 115.

    Bupalos

    @sab: and everyone their time. I can’t say I know enough about his etiquette to have an opinion on right and wrong here. But the objection that ostensibly caused his exodus is indeed about as ridiculous an application of hyper identity politics as you’d want to find.

    He left because he’s become convinced of an idea that clashes with the orthodoxy here, and he has no interest in fighting that. It wasn’t because of one incident. That one incident just distilled the general disagreement.

  121. 121.

    Suzanne

    @sab: People were bringing their pissiness from other threads into hers, and she asked for it to stop, and it didn’t.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @sab: TaMaa has also done posts on clean energy, regenerative agriculture and the like. She complained about people jumping in to explain how nothing can work.

  124. 124.

    sab

    @sab: But midday around here ( EST)  had been mostly missimg, and there he was five (or many many) posts a day.

    I am sounding snarky, but I did love his posts and I thought he was a lot hard on commenters.

  125. 125.

    Jackie

    @Suzanne:

    @different-church-lady: I’m bummed, too. It’s a loss to this community.

    “This community” is responsible for running off multiple Front Pagers over the years. Pisses me off that it’s “acceptable.” If someone doesn’t like or agree with a FPer, why not skip that thread instead of going at him/her?

  126. 126.

    sab

    @Geminid: Yes she has. Yeomanswork. I hadn’t forgotten. I am old and my house is equipped. I can’t afford better. So I pretemd to ignore

  128. 128.

    different-church-lady

    @WaterGirl:

    You guys likely have no idea how long it takes to put together a well-sourced post.

    I can guess, and my guess would be “pretty long.”

  129. 129.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: TaMara also does climate change posts.  And political posts at times.  Hopefully TaMara is still just taking a break and not gone for good.

  130. 130.

    Jackie

    @different-church-lady:

    Elon Musk’s demand that all 2.3 million government workersjustify their work prompted confusion and resistance on Sunday, as several government agency leaders told their staffs not to reply to a mass email requesting bullet-point summations of their accomplishments.

    Wormbrain told his staff to comply with Muskrat’s orders.

  131. 131.

    Suzanne

    @Jackie: I don’t think it’s okay, either. Multiple commenters have noted in various threads today that they’ve been coming around here less because of the change of the general atmosphere we’re describing. It makes me sad.

  132. 132.

    Glory b

    @Bupalos: BUT that was the point, he was incorrect.

    The book tour sessions weren’t little kid book circles, they were in adult spaces and included local black rejected officials in the discussions.

    In fact, several of them took the title of his OTHER recent book, ironically called “From Chaos to Community.”

    There were adult conversations planned, the incorrect characterizations as a grift for a kids book were perpetrated by folks organizing protests.

    It only took a little bit of research to find this out.

  133. 133.

    different-church-lady

    @Jackie: ​You know what all 2.3 million government workers need to do? Strike until this shit stops. They can’t fire them all.

  134. 134.

    kindness

    Tempers have run high here lately.  Rejecting someone else’s pov sometimes comes across as rejecting that person.  I blame Trump.  He twists the guts of those of us who care.  Trump’s doing it much harder this time around.  I hope there’s a country left because I do fear the nuts Trump surrounds himself with.

    Some people I pie.  Mostly I try to ignore those that are going over the top too much.  When I can’t ignore it any more…pie.  Lord knows I’m pied here and sometimes I don’t blame ya.

    You know the Eric Clapton Crossroads festivals he’s done over the years?  I bought 3 of them and have been binge watching them.  Love all the musicians he brings out.  It’s better than the WaPo or the NYT, that’s for sure.

  138. 138.

    Eric S.

    @Geminid:

    Mistermix has put up plenty of well-sourced posts but yesterday’s wasn’t one of them. I thought he kinda tossed that one off.

    I’ll repeat that I’ve not read the posts in question. So this is not an accusation or anything personal but a stepping off point for me to say something.

    Front page posts have multiple purposes. One is to give commenters a space to talk, on topic or otherwise. MM, as multiple people have said, has provided the community that space during the midday for months now. Generally his work was very well sourced which means MM spent a lot of time preparing those posts. If not everything was perfect… well, none of us are. No doubt, people should call out those misses. If MM took constructive criticism badly then that’s on him. (That’s not my understanding of the situation but I could be wrong.) I just think people should be respectful and not alienate our teammates.

  139. 139.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Starfish (she/her): Actually MM said he was getting emails in support, which is a bit different:

    That all said, I’ve been contacted by numerous commenters via email, people lamenting the rigid orthodoxies of the comments and the nasty accusations that take hold there.

  142. 142.

    sab

    @sab: There was a point last year when we had maybe three frontpages a day. MMIx fixed that. Sometimes some of us were annoyed, but we were reading, and it was never anything that any normal jackal couldnt accept as acceptable.

  144. 144.

    PJ

    @Jackie: ​
     If you can’t take criticism, you shouldn’t read (or allow) comments. Nobody “ran off” Mistermix – he didn’t want to deal with people calling him on his BS, so he took his ball and went home.

  145. 145.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Baud:

    To be frank, MM could be pretty toxic.

    Yep. I appreciate his bringing the fire recently, and his boosting trans issues. But he’s also been a bit thin-skinned and defensive, dismissive of those who disagreed with him, and generally cranky with commenters ever since I started reading him here years ago. I’ve also been the target of his ire more than once. (Honestly I shrugged it off so I don’t remember the details anymore.) Don’t get me wrong, he’s did a lot of good stuff, but there’s a reason I started reading him less and less (or at least skip the comments in his posts).

    OTOH, some of the commenters here gotten more and more toxic as well during the past year. With some repeatedly flogging issues into whatever the horse flesh equivalent is of gold leaf, and reopening the same damn arguments from thread to thread to thread.

    As some other folks have observed, there’s some complex dynamics going on. Some interpersonal, some grudge holding, some people being freaked out and taking it out on front pagers and other commenters.

  147. 147.

    Bupalos

    @Glory b: it has nothing to do with whether his book selling your was for adult books or kids books. That’s just where the ridiculous hyper-identity politics accusation was grounded. Trying to create an image of MM as saying Jeffries has a childish black mind.

    The actual criticism is he’s not sufficiently engaged as the top democratic representative in the house in messaging and discipline, at a time when the opposition seems to have no coherent message. People may have different opinions and takes on that (I do! It’s that we’re intellectually bankrupt because we’ve been rolling on an autopilot we can’t switch off singe Clinton) but the accusation was a way to short circuit that discussion and replace it with more navel gazing ethnic performance art.

    Jeffries really is literally selling books, as planned, prior to the emerging reality that this is a constitutional and democratic crisis. Which wouldn’t be unique, most politicians are actually in this for themselves, to get paid and get out.

    again a throwaway line. The reason mm doesn’t want to post here is this is not a generally receptive audience for his content because his content does not center ethnic identity and racial justice but rather practical politics.

  148. 148.

    bjacques

    @Countme: re the video of Proud Booger Tarrio shit-talking Michael Fanone: black and yellow are the colors of rotten bananas.

    That’s all I’ve got.

  149. 149.

    Another Scott

    @Jackie: Yes, too many FPers have been driven off here.

    In reading MM’s post, the thing that immediately struck me at the time was:

    Fan favorite Bernie Sanders …

    He knows that many folks here don’t like Bernie, and are quite vocal about it. Why was he poking the bear, so to speak, like that? It seemed unnecessary to me.

    He’s a gifted writer. He has strongly held opinions. That’s great. But poking the bear has risks.

    Anyway, it’s just something I noticed. Maybe I’m making too much of it.

    I hope he returns, and I hope more join him. And I hope we all give our FPers and our fellow commenters more space to disagree without being disagreeable.

    FWIW.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  150. 150.

    New Deal democrat

    @PJ:

    If you can’t take criticism, you shouldn’t read (or allow) comments. Nobody “ran off” Mistermix – he didn’t want to deal with people calling him on his BS, so he took his ball and went home.

    Okay, I’m 3 vodkas in, and I already deleted the first version of this comment, but as someone who, along with Hale Stewart (Bonddad) was virtually run off Daily Kos 15 years ago by a cadre of imbecile wasps, do you have the *slightest* idea what it is like to put a lot of effort into creating substntive posts, often with hours of research, only to be met with a dozen early commenters posting that you are a dishonest GOP troll or worse???

    It’s like being stung by a hive of imbecile wasps. You know they are idiots, but it still stings. Why should anyone have to put up with that?

    I went back and read Mistermix’s post from yesterday that ignited the final straw. His comment about Jeffries was no more than 5% of the post, and was almost a throwaway line.

    I realize that commenters are generally intelligent people with strong opinions, and I try to take that into account, but it’s not on Mistermix to put up with the invective. 99% of blogs have turned off comments for a reason.

  151. 151.

    Jackie

    @PJ:

    @Jackie: ​
    If you can’t take criticism, you shouldn’t read (or allow) comments.

    Did you not read my entire post? I stated:

    If someone doesn’t like or agree with a FPer, why not skip that thread instead of going at him/her?

  156. 156.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Jay: amen, although I still liked the disemvowelment that Making Light used/uses.  You could still read the comment if you were really interested, but it was a warning to the rest of the readers that this may not be something that you wanted to read without taking your blood pressure medication.

  157. 157.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Gloria DryGarden: I’m not sure. Some Walmart stores have a craft section with fabric (fat quarters, yard cuts, and on bolts; I have one locally although I try not to go there) but not as good a selection as JoAnn’s. And there may be independent fabric/quilting stores as well, but that’s going to be a fairly niche market.

    Although I think what may have hurt JoAnn’s is that you need a fairly large space to fit a large selection of fabric, so it was not easy for them to find stores or to move stores around. I know that I didn’t physically go to the local JoAnn’s often because I would have to drive to a very busy and inconvenient location. Take that with a large grain of salt because I hate driving in general, I prefer to walk or bike everywhere.

  158. 158.

    cain

    @Jay: I work in open source software so I know.

    I would like to have have back. I don’t agree with him sometimes but it all good.

    I have seen a lot of front pagers attacked and I wish people would not attack.

    We have need to figure out how to disagree respectfully.

  159. 159.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Ksmiami: I agree with you on this. Brutalism is plain boring to look at all day every day. Human beings want to decorate their environment and will resort to graffiti to do so.

  164. 164.

    cain

    @Suzanne:

    Yeah it’s unfortunate. We need to start actively police ourselves.

    We got a lot of problems and we need someone to come in and tell us we are out of line.

  166. 166.

    Bulgakov

    I’m nearly a first generation BJer. I have an original Tunch T-shirt. I went on comment hiatus after Sandy Hook in 2012 when I posted a poem that no one reacted to. Then I sort of came back recently in comments. This shit saddens me. Everyone who takes time out of their lives to create content for Balloon Juice is important.

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @cain: TaMara is still around. She hasn’t post often on environmental stuff these last few months but I expect she still researches these areas.

  169. 169.

    cain

    @Geminid: I would love to nominate you as a front pager. Your grasp on foreign policy is pretty good.

    We could use more folks who are people of color talking about various things. I have nominated my wife to talk about education, I think you all need to listen to her.

    The way she gets non-white children to trust her and come to her as  a safe space. She’s a safe space for everyone and yet Oregon’s celebration of white men and women is why we are behind Mississippi in education.

  170. 170.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: I read MM’s post the way you did, that he was getting emails complaining/commiserating about the replies he was getting.

    Seems like he thought he was taking one for the team with his CBCW. OTOH he is under no obligation to post for our pleasure. I hope he finds peace or at least finds a more tolerable place.

    I think we could all take a breath.

  171. 171.

    sab

    @cain: Front paging is very dificult. Kay did it for a while many years ago but decided the effect was too much for the effort involved.

    Commenters need to be aware of the effort.

    Perhaps we commenters should start policing the criticizers, and stop leaving it up to the front pagers to defend themselves.

    Not criticizing every negative comment. A lot of those are well thought out and useful. Just criticizing the snide guys.

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