Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This is how realignments happen…

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Four legs? good! two legs? we’re not so sure…

Just a few bad apples.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

How has Obama failed you today?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

Wetsuit optional.

Good luck with your asparagus.

… down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

Trump is going to draw a dick on that dog with a sharpie, isn’t he?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Gastritis broke my calculator.

Everybody saw this coming.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week.

This is a big f—–g deal.

This really is a full service blog.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

Reality always wins in the end.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

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Site Maintenance

Site Update: Back Arrow, iPads, and Ads

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It’s a quiet day here at Balloon Juice, so maybe this is a good time to check in.

I have three questions for you guys:

Back Arrow:
Can you see if the back arrow is working for you?

iPads:
Are iPads still having major issues with the front page?

Ads:
Are the full-page ads still coming up when you click on a post from the front page?
Are there still ads within the banner with Balloon Juice and the balloon man?
Are there still ads within the post itself?
Are there ads in the comments – how frequently?  Every 10 comments, 5 comments, 2 comments?

And a bonus Tucker.

Site Update: Back Arrow, iPads, and Ads

Open thread.

 

Site Update: Back Arrow, iPads, and AdsPost + Comments (131)

Alrighty, We Are Done

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Ok, we have raised enough to pay server costs through the end of May, so we are closing down the fundraiser. Thanks to everyone! I also feel confident enough in our financial status that I will be working to remove the one banner ad from our mobile site that you fatfingered fuckers apparently simply can not tolerate, so YAY this means you will be happy and also I will be happy because I will not have to talk to Watergirl about it every week.

In all seriousness, thanks to everyone who gave! I am also not adding anymore ways to fund the site- if it can not be done with paypal, zelle, venmo, patreon, and snail mail, it just ain’t happening. Hell, I think the only thing left is an Onlyfans account.

Also, someone shit in the shower while I was sleeping and I did not notice until after I turned the water on and the steamy smell covered the entire second floor. Happy fucking Saturday.

I just know it was Thurston, the bastard.

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Semi-Annual Site Fundraiser

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Just got my billing for hosting, and we are good to December, but our rate went up slightly (a couple hundred a month), but that is good news because the rate is determined by traffic. So that means there are more of us reading and out there, and hopefully that will translate into more members of this special little shitshow community we have here.

At any rate, it’s time to rattle the cups to get us through winter and spring, so if you are able to, please hit the paypal, and if you want to mail a check, email me and I will send you the snail mail address. BTW, several of you have set up recurring paypal monthly donations for a buck or two- if you do that, PLEASE do not set it up for services because PAYPAL hates that. Just set it up for sending money to a friend or something.

PayPal


You can also give through Venmo: @john-cole-94  (as long as you see a photo of Lily, you’re in the right place, and you can click the “I don’t have the phone number” button and send anyway.)

You can also give through Zelle: jgriffincole at the google mail place.

Soon you will be able to give through Patreon, but it’s not set up yet.

You can also give through Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/balloonjuice

This is my absolute least favorite thing to do for the website, so I will just pin this post until we have met our needs and then take it down and that way I will not have to do multiple posts.

I’m off to take a nap. Just got back from four hours at the hospital for mom’s colonoscopy. Everything was fine, before you ask.

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Site Update: Good News

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I promised an update before tomorrow, and there’s some good news.

Here’s the site update thread from Sunday, if you want more details.

WordPress Search plugin – Yay!

The new code for the Search plugin was installed late this afternoon, and the site is being indexed as we speak.  The graph of Search plugin activity – before and after the new code was installed – is like night and day.  In a good way.  So I believe that one is resolved.  Happy dance.

🌟

The Custom Twitter Feed plugin – Boo!

I gave you a heads up that I would need to turn on this trouble-making plugin on at some point for the plugin developers to see the problem in action.  I turned it on today for them as requested, and we lived with the site slowness for most of the day, and they never f-ing looked at it.

We’ll get it figured out.  But that plugin will stay off until next week.  In case you missed the thread yesterday, that’s why you don’t see John’s twitter feed in the sidebar.

🌟

Impossibly slow site loading on some older iPads, sometimes – Better?  Or not?

My suspicion was that the WordPress search plugin issue was affecting iPads, particularly older iPads, more than other devices.

Now that the new code for the search plugin is in, we should know right away whether the two issues were related.  I know I can count on you to let me know either way, right?

If it’s not resolved, I’ll be in contact with the folks who offered to help with testing. NEXT WEEK.

🌟

Ads turned off until Thursday!

John has graciously agreed to turn off all the ads until Thursday.  So we get to be ad-free until then!

Open thread.

 

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Site Update: Election Night & More

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There have been two, or possibly three, things going on lately with the Balloon Juice site.

If you don’t care about the details, know that I am working with the developers to resolve the issues. You can jump to the bottom and watch the Bob Bauer video.  Bob Bauer heads Biden’s vote protection effort.  After that you can click the link to listen to Letitia James (the New York AG) message to voters. You won’t regret it.

Open thread.

🌟

Details about the site for anyone who is interested:

show full post on front page

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Site should be behaving again…

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The site was maddeningly slow earlier.  Sorry about that!  It should be better now.

The same two plugins were acting up again, so one plugin is turned off again, and the other was adjusted.   We will file a ticket with the plugin developer tomorrow.

Open Thread, 60 Minutes, I Will Vote Concert

This is the perfect representation of how I feel lately.  She really is my spirit animal.

 

 

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Calendar Charity Choices

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As you all know, every year we have the annual Pets of Balloon Juice calendar, which raises money for an animal rescue outfit named MARC, the Marion Animal Resource Connection. We try to find a small animal charity that is just starting out or struggling, but has good leadership and good people running it, so we know the money will not be wasted or misspent. It’s been almost a decade with MARC, and they have grown to the point that I think it is time for us to move on to a new charity.

I have spoken with Satby about an organization she works with, but I would like some input from you all to know if any of you are involved with or know a small operation that could really benefit from our patronage. The goal is to find someone where a couple thousand dollars from store items and calendar sales would REALLY make a difference. So if you have someone like that in mind, let me know. They do need be a registered nonprofit, though. I think it is 501C3 but I forget.

Additionally, and this is SUPER IMPORTANT. Some of you have signed up to send monthly donations of a dollar or two through paypal, which is great, because it pays for stuff that comes up when we need to buy apps or have Bizbudding do some quick coding, etc. However, some of you send them as PAYMENTS for a product, and not sending money to friends/family, and now Paypal is up my ass to show that I have shipped you something. I had to go through and fill out a dozen forms and explain they were donations, then show the receipts to bizbudding, but my account is still locked and everything is a mess. So if you have a monthly donation set up, make sure it is not as a payment for services. Or just cancel the damned thing.

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