No News is Not Good News, the Lying Bastards

John’s latest missive through the mailing list, after the update today.

I’m officially depressed.  I feel so helpless and there is simply nothing I can do to get the website back.  I just have to sit here and wait and hope they come through.

I am glad that there will be a lawsuit, because that at least will put some pressure on the fuckers.  But it doesn’t help me get the site back.

I feel like someone whose house has burned down with all their shit in it.

I am, however, once the site comes back, get more involved in the day to day operations of things, because i never want to feel this helpless again.

That’s all I have.  Miss you guys.

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Sad Commentary

I wish I didn’t agree with this.  Yes, I’m going to keep trying to change peoples’ minds, because we have to keep trying, but…

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Georgia Election Thread

I just got out of the zoom and have another meeting, but there’s no action in the back room, so here’s your Georgia election thread!

Good news all around?

Update from Our Site Host

Hey everybody,

In quotes below you will find the latest update from our site hosts.  In case you haven’t been following along, our site hosts are the good guys, and “354” Data Denters are the ones who are stonewalling and withholding information.  Our site hosts pass on what information they have from 354 Data Centers, which is usually meaningless word salad.

As a visual cue, you can pretty much assume that any text that refers to them as 365 Data Centers was written by someone besides me!

I’m sorry my message to you yesterday might have seemed confusing.

The confused mixture of phrases and updates from 365 sounds like word salad to me and has made it difficult for me to communicate clearly and effectively with you. I’ve done my best to accurately relay their communications to you.

I am fighting hard for your business. My primary focus has been to get our backups from 365. My secondary focus has been to create a temporary landing page system for your website so that you could communicate to your customers and audience.

Late last night I received some new information that I did not have before that has caused me to pause and consider taking legal action.

I’ve reached out to and started discussions with a law firm that specializes in corporate liability and class actions and we are in the process of initiating a class-action lawsuit against 365 Data Centers – for everyone’s benefit. Several customers in our blogging community have stepped up to co-lead the class-action lawsuit on your behalf.

I’ve been fighting hard for our clients. This has really gone on way too long and it’s beyond unacceptable. The damage being done to our brands is devastating.

I do expect to have the timeline from 365 this week and I do anticipate that timeline includes 365 Data Centers turning back on the cloud services and releasing our backups – at least that is what their team has repeatedly been telling me.

We do not yet know details of the new information that David found disturbing, but it’s surely nothing that would make us feel better about the situation.  My hope is that we’ll be back up with Balloon Juice within a week or 10 days.

In the meantime, I’m trying to make this site as comfy as possible since our 3-hour tour has turned into a much longer one than that!

Another school shooting

Here’s the horrifying news from Jake Tapper’s Twitter feed:

What else is there to say except this is a deeply sick fucking country? That’s all I’ve got anyway.

Open thread.

Why Pence Runs + Primary Races (Open Thread)

Some pundits seem mildly surprised that Mike Pence is stumping for Kemp in the Georgia GOP primary. That race is a proxy for Trump’s grudge match against Kemp, and Trump’s enmity toward Kemp is a proxy for Trump’s grudge match against the reality that he, Trump, is a losing loser who lost.

But is Pence’s defiance of Tangerine Baal in Georgia really surprising? Jonathan Martin in yesterday’s Times:

After four years of service bordering on subservience, the increasingly emboldened Mr. Pence is seeking to reintroduce himself to Republican voters ahead of a potential presidential bid by setting himself apart from what many in the G.O.P. see as the worst impulses of Mr. Trump. He’s among a small group in his party considering a run in 2024 no matter what Mr. Trump decides.

BORDERING on subservience? Pence steamed over that border and occupied the entire country of Subservientstan! He was the most obsequious toady in the history of servility!

And I think that’s why Pence is absolutely compelled to run again, even though Trump Republicans were baying for his blood on January 6 and it’s clear the party prefers loud-mouthed lib-owning authoritarians rather than the prim, Bible-humping variety. For Pence, it’s just too much to have endured that pride-swallowing nightmare for naught.

Pence simply cannot accept the fact that 4.5 years of starting every sentence with “Under President Trump’s exceptional leadership,” that all the ceaseless ass-kissing he lavished on a gross orange pervert was undone by one day’s adherence to the law. The smooth brain beneath the neatly clipped, fly-attracting white hair just cannot compute that fact. Pence is in denial.

Anyway, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving lickspittle, and I hope the forthcoming series of rejections causes severe psychological distress. Fuck that guy.

Also, there are some interesting primary races today. It looks like Georgia Republicans really will put a domestic-violence prone serial liar up against Senator Warnock. Will Hice prevail over Raffensperger, perhaps setting the stage for overturning fair elections in the future? Could be!

Will terrible Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey avoid a runoff? Maybe. Will Mo Brooks overcome Trump’s un-endorsement to prevail for the U.S. Senate race? That would be funny. Will felonious TX AG Ken Paxton finally put the desiccated Bush dynasty out of its misery?

The only race I’m personally invested in is Cuellar vs. Cisneros in the TX 28th. The anti-choice, possibly corrupt as fuck Cuellar is favored to win, but I hope Cisneros kicks his ass.

Which races are you watching? Open thread!

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, May 23-24

Drip, drip, drip…

… The U.S. Food and Drug Administration set June 14-15 as the new meeting date to review Moderna Inc’s emergency authorization request for its COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 6 months to 5 years and Pfizer Inc’s vaccine for those aged 6 months through 4 years…

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said on Sunday he expects a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision on authorizing Moderna’s vaccine for children under age five within the next few weeks.

Moderna completed its application and FDA experts are looking closely at the data, Jha said on ABC…

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Late Night Open Thread

I am on my way to bed and I don’t have anything in particular to get you all started, but I have one idea.

It’s been a few days since the Ukraine update from Adam.  How about if we crowd source information about Ukraine and supply any good Ukraine links that you have?

Or even just talk about what you’ve been thinking and how you feel about what’s happening.

I loved this photo that Subaru Diane sent me.

But if crowd-sourcing Ukraine info doesn’t grab you, that’s okay.

Totally open thread.  Talk about whatever you want.