I woke up super-groggy today, not uncommon when the alarm goes off at 5 a.m. I didn’t have enough time before my workout class to hit Starbucks for a cappuccino with an extra shot, but I did have time to hit the McDonald’s drive-through. Small black coffee, please. It was 5:45 a.m.
Pulled around to the window, where I was asked for 96 cents. “Really?” I said. “That seems low. I’m sure it’s more than that.”
“Well, with the senior discount, that’s what it is,” the window lady said, prompting me to ask how she knew I was a senior, goddamnit. (I didn’t say the goddamnit.) “Do you have cameras back there at the menu board?”
“This early, small black coffee? I just figured,” she said, handing me back a nickel. So really, 95 cents.
This is my life now, I guess. Little encounters with McDonald’s employees.
The class was good, but insanely hot and muggy. The weather is supposed to break tomorrow. And this is the rest of my life, I guess: McDonald’s and the weather.
This blog, too. A story hooked me the other day with its headline.
The Website at the End of the Internet: Reddit is one of the last thriving islands of the old web. Can it survive AI?
The question remains to be answered. Also:
The World Wide Web from which Reddit grew, and for which Huffman expresses so much reverence, has been going through something akin to ecological collapse after being poisoned, then abandoned, by advertisers that have little use for independent websites anymore. At the same time, the rise of generative AI suggests a lot of people are just as happy — if not happier — getting life advice, news, and conversation from a robot that has read a bunch of sub-Reddits as they are chatting with internet strangers themselves.
It gets way more into the weeds of Reddit and the internet than I’m interested in, but the bottom line is the same thing you’ve no doubt read elsewhere, because it’s an old story: Humans are a disappearing feature of the internet, steadily being replaced by bots and AI garbage yammering at one another. If you spend any time at all online, you’ve surely noticed it. If you’ve been online as long as some of us have, well, you really know. It’s easy to remember the early years of everyone being connected; oh, you like this obscure artist or singer/songwriter or movie or hobby TOO? Let’s be friends! Send me an email! I’ll write you back!
No more.
On the other hand, I have become oddly fixated with some Reddit groups — or subreddits, I guess. The amount of time people have to waste online talking about the stupidest shit imaginable is almost awe-inspiring.
Anyway, here you are: Human-powered blather since 2001. Fool that I am.
I would generally have a little more bloggage for you, but the news these days has been so depressing, I feel a little overmatched by it. You know, of course, that Ghislaine Maxwell is cruising toward a commutation or pardon, right? Emil Bove, lying thug, cruising toward a late-term Trump appointment to SCOTUS. Israel is run by thugs, and also liars. Even the coming of pleasant weather will be prefaced by a storm. Earthquake in Russia, tsunamis in the Pacific — it’s just not a good-news kinda week.
But there’s this: David Von Drehle is quitting the WashPost. Here’s his last column. It’s short, elegant and good.
That’s what I got.
FDChief said on July 30, 2025 at 9:54 am
I miss the Blog Era.
There was a lot of crap there, but there’s always a lot of crap in everything, and what was good was GOOD; political stuff like Steve Gilliard’s News Blog. Military sites like Phil Carter’s Intel Dump. You here.
It was literate. It was complex. It was engaged, and engaging. It demanded you think, and was pretty merciless if you didn’t (I still shake my head and cuss at the way people who showed up at Intel Dump with muttonheaded Bush Regime propaganda got flayed. Utterly pantsed. Beheaded)
Now?
That stuff is still there. But holy Hell do you have to sort through piles and piles MORE shit to find it. My issue with AI isn’t so much the babbling idiocy of it – I can ignore that and do – but that inevitably the first half-dozen search results are some sort of AI gibberish you have to scroll through to find anything substantive.
Like so much in the post-Truth Era…it feels like it did before, only slightly smaller. Fussier, poorer, dirtier, more needlessly complicated. And I don’t see how that changes for the better.
Enshittification isn’t just for the internet.
(NB: got a followup comment to this in “Link Review Jail”. Hopefully you can let it loose. Thanks)
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basset said on July 30, 2025 at 11:06 am
Predicted heat index of 107 in Nashville today, down from 113 yesterday but still.
Fifty-some years ago around this date and in these conditions I woulda been detasseling in Greene County, or laying railroad ties on the C&O main line down around Tunnelton and Fort Ritner. Sure couldn’t do that today, or even watch for very long.
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Mark P said on July 30, 2025 at 11:56 am
I still have a blog, but I haven’t posted since last November. That one was titled “Bye bye Five Eyes.” For those who don’t know, Five Eyes is the intelligence-sharing organization of the Anglo world, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US. My point was that none of the other countries is likely to share sensitive intelligence information with the US, given Trump’s history with classified information. That was written before Trump took office, and things have only gotten worse since.
Those days seem like a lifetime ago. It’s amazing how quickly the New World Order has completely taken over our (my) consciousness. It seems like this has always been the way it is, and will always be the way it is. Brainworm Bobby is busy killing Americans, and Donald “Cheater” Trump is busy making a fool of himself and a tragic laughingstock of the US. The government is being dismantled, and all that remains will be incompetent loyalists. Well, incompetent, or dedicated to destroying what’s left.
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Dexter Friend said on July 30, 2025 at 1:52 pm
I have been getting senior coffees at McDonald’s for 15 years, now $1. Last year I discovered Burger King’s senior coffee is 59 cents. Caveat: BK coffee is hot piss. For a short while we had a Tim’s across the drive from McD’s, and a small coffee was like $2.49, and the donuts were second-rate to local John’s Son’s Donuts Depot, 2 miles away. Bye-bye Tim Horton’s. Now it’s a Marco’s Pizza, damn fine pizza.
Back to Bove…fucking vampire, yes, Deborah gets that right. Liar, creep, better hang on to his new job because who would hire this ugly fuck in the real work-world? Oh yeah…a morgue. Better have cameras, this monster would fuck a corpse in a minute,.
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Sheryl Prentice said on July 30, 2025 at 2:37 pm
“Enshittification” for the win. It perfectly describes all the endless marketing crap from all the little communication directors of non-profits, public schools and everybody with something to sell.
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susan said on July 30, 2025 at 3:32 pm
Sheryl @5 — Here’s the history of the word/concept “Enshiitification,” coined by Cory Doctorow.
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Brandon said on July 30, 2025 at 4:27 pm
tsunamis in the Pacific
It could have been far worse. The advisory has been called off, but there still might be strong ocean currents. Otherwise, it’s back to normal.
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Jeff Gill said on July 30, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Brandon, thanks for the update.
There is no small coffee at McDonalds, only senior coffee, medium, and large.
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alex said on July 31, 2025 at 6:55 am
Don’t recall if I mentioned it here, but on a recent grocery store visit, a Gen Z guy assisted me with an alcohol purchase at the self-checkout. He didn’t take my ID. He just swiped his badge to open a touch screen and pressed an option that said “obviously over age 50.” Then he thought better of it and said “Omigod, I’m so sorry you had to see this.”
Speaking of enshittification, I keep getting texts from all sorts of unfamiliar Dem fund-raisers who are obviously scammers who figured out that I supported Dems in the last election. Yesterday I got one that said “We are just a few thousand votes shy of blocking Trump from getting the Nobel Prize. Please help.”
Krugman had a great piece a few days ago about enshittification: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-general-theory-of-enshittification?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=277517&post_id=169092636&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=43a8hi&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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Alan Stamm said on July 31, 2025 at 7:45 am
Thanks for the gift link to David Von Drehle’s exit essay. “. . . the privilege of gratifying my curiosity in exchange for a paycheck” is a good distillation of journalism’s lure, at least back in flush times.
And laginappe is a treat for the ear.
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Jeff Gill said on July 31, 2025 at 8:11 am
I hope y’all will forgive an Xwitter link, but I can’t find this anywhere else. Sally Jenkins’ farewell message to her coworkers is great journalism in its own right; she’s leaving for The Atlantic.
https://x.com/BenMullin/status/1950602766046330904
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Dave said on July 31, 2025 at 1:00 pm
I kept getting texts from the Hamilton County (IN) Repugs. I finally responded with a strongly worded text about what I think of them and the cretin in the White House and then put STOP at the end of it. Haven’t received any more.
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Dexter Friend said on July 31, 2025 at 1:57 pm
I just remembered that a senior coffee at McDonald’s in 2000 was 29 cents. I have actually been getting cheap coffee there for 25 years, not 15 years.
I always have my first coffee at home, and daughter Vanessa gifted me a huge box of Keurig pods from Black Rifle Coffee Company, which I had never heard of. They are also a big merch outfit, looks look a lot of faux patriotic shit to me. The coffee is super-strong. I quickly learned to brew a large cup and mix it with a little decaf to offset the uncomfortable feeling I get when dosed with a caffeine bomb.
I am throwing in a shout about Folger’s K-pods. Really perfect for my taste anyway.
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jim said on July 31, 2025 at 3:51 pm
Propublica documents ICE crap:https://projects.propublica.org/trump-ice-smashed-windows-deportation-arrests/
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Scout said on July 31, 2025 at 4:07 pm
We recently replaced our old, dead Keurig style coffee maker (it was a Mueller) with a new Keurig from Costco that included a milk frother. I use Estilo espresso pods to make a shot, then stir in some honey, some lavender syrup and frothed barista oat milk. It is so damn good we haven’t stopped for lattes at a coffee shop since we bought it. Fabulous lattes at a fraction of the cost.
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Sherri said on July 31, 2025 at 8:04 pm
Shoutout to Greysteel Strength and Conditioning, a barbell gym catering to folks who qualify for the McDonald’s senior coffee!
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/well/move/greysteel-powerlifting-senior-gym.html?unlocked_article_code=1.a08.Ot5d.33QXt8kKMb8t&smid=url-share
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Mark P said on July 31, 2025 at 9:19 pm
I might have missed it earlier, but I am reading that starting in 2026 original Medicare will be testing prior authorization for certain procedures in six states, including Ohio. They are going to be using that great and potent elixir that will cure all that ails you, AI, to help speed things along. I have some friends in Colorado with Medicare Advantage plans, and their biggest complaint is prior authorization requirements. I assume this latest is one of the early steps towards privatizing Medicare by forcing everyone into Medicare Advantage plans. Thanks Mehmet. I wonder how far gone we will be by January 2029, and whether we will be able to get back to where we were.
I keep expecting to see a giant, blazing eye atop a pillar of smoke and fire, and dark clouds covering all of DC.
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DavidC said on August 1, 2025 at 6:56 am
We’re moved in. It’s been hellish, but things are looking better after ten hours of sleep. Yesterday, we thought one of the cats slipped away. We spent the afternoon wandering around the neighborhood hollering “Petey, Petey”. We finally gave up. Two hours later he walks across the living room, seemingly refreshed after a good, long nap. He clawed through the crappy fabric underneath our couch and was sleeping in there. The little shit. We had a plumber here to hook up the dishwasher. He asked if we just moved in. It seemed obvious from all the unpacked boxes. Then we figured out that this degree of chaos is normal for some people. So we’re semi settled in. Today is going to be a day of rest and recovery. We’re going to explore the nature preserve just down the street. The unboxing can wait.
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Jeff Gill said on August 1, 2025 at 8:00 am
DavidC, glad it went (relatively) well. Are you having your gold guy come in now and add gilded filigree around the cornices and any flat surfaces? I hear with plaster and the right color paint you can tart up any living space for faux-opulence.
Having waited in line twice in my life in the East Wing for an Executive Mansion tour, I’m looking at Trump’s impending plans for a gutted renovation of that two floor space into his long-anticipated White House Grand Ballroom with a certain amount of democratic despair.
““They’ve wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms — really good, in fact,” Trump said at a news conference Thursday, adding: “When they have big events — you entertain the president of China, the president of any place — and you have big crowds, they’ve always had a tent.”” [WaPo 7.31.25]
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David C said on August 1, 2025 at 9:04 am
How the hell do they let the President treat the White House as his personal property that he can do to any damned thing he wants. Please let his arteries get him before he does this abomination.
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Deborah said on August 1, 2025 at 9:30 am
David C, your story about your cat had me laughing out loud. Also, I heard that the Whitehouse ballroom will be paid by Trump and some of his donor’s the cost is supposed to be $200 million for construction. Of course it will be maintained forever after by American taxpayers. And it will probably be ugly, gilded up to the max.
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Jeff Borden said on August 1, 2025 at 10:24 am
Artist renderings of tRump’s ballroom are typical of his tastes: gaudy, glitzy, gold. He’s made the Oval Office over to look like a second-rate bordello in Reno. Also, look at what he’s done to the Rose Garden. As Joni Mitchell would observe, “They paved paradise and put in a parking lot.” Ugly beyond measure.
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Icarus said on August 1, 2025 at 11:40 am
I still have a blog as well. Every January I wonder what I should do with that space. I’ve been blogging here for 15 years with 937 posts to show for it. While blogging isn’t dead, it has definitely taken a back seat to other forms of social interaction.
Coffee Makers: We are on our 3rd Alexa-enabled coffee maker because I didn’t want to have to program once for the weekdays and once for the weekends. The problem with the first two is that if the Alexa component goes, it bricks. This 3rd one functions without Alexa, but you cannot program it. The trade-off is it comes with a knockoff Keurig feature as well.
You don’t create a ballroom like that if you are only expecting to be living there for 3+ more years. It’s almost as if Mango Mussolini thinks he’ll be there much longer.
Finally, we are under construction with the Bathroom Reno. We waited too long to order tile so this will take longer than the contractor would like. ETA for finish is Aug 15, it could have been a week sooner if we had our act together.
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Mark P said on August 1, 2025 at 11:47 am
I suspect that Trump’s personal event horizon seems infinitely distant to him, but in reality is very close. I don’t think he foresees his own death. To him, he is always a reasonably presentable (“handsome”) 35-years-old who can get any woman he wants because he is reasonably presentable and appears rich. He is that today, and will be that forever. So, of course he thinks he will be parading around in his gold-painted ballroom forever, with his sycophants panting after him telling him how big and beautiful he is.
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Suzanne said on August 1, 2025 at 1:58 pm
So now, apparently Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved to a minimum security prison in Texas.
I remember watching a tv series years ago about Ancient Rome (pretty sure it was Masterpiece Theater’s “I, Claudius”). One scene stood out, a scene in which people were required to bring their daughters to the palace for the emperor and his people to abuse as they wished. The young woman who was being forced to go was terrified and protesting to no avail. Nothing graphic was shown but it was clear what was happening. I recall thinking how horrible that had to have been for the young women and their families.
And now, I read the news and realize we are there. The Epstein child trafficking network has not been stopped but strengthened. And MAGA parents will undoubtedly be happy to supply their children for the honor of serving the Supreme Leader.
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Bob (not Greene) said on August 1, 2025 at 3:18 pm
Funny thing about Maxwell being sent to the low-security camp in Texas. Type her name into the BOP inmate search engine (all you need is first and last name) and see what the result is: https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/byname.jsp#inmate_results
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Jeff Borden said on August 1, 2025 at 4:05 pm
POOF! MAGA has successfully destroyed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s closing on September 30. These fucking people…
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Brandon said on August 1, 2025 at 4:18 pm
Speaking of mansions: https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/ex-google-chief-eric-schmidt-pays-110-million-for-l-a-s-spelling-manor-ebab5efd
According to its Wikipedia article, “The Manor is the second largest house by official living space in the Los Angeles metropolitan area; the mansion is also bigger than both the White House and the Taj Mahal.[1]”
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Sherri said on August 1, 2025 at 4:37 pm
Eric Schmidt needs lots of big houses for all his girlfriends. Yes, he’s still married to Wendy Schmidt, but he openly dates other people while she runs the philanthropies.
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Deborah said on August 1, 2025 at 5:01 pm
Alex, since you asked about our condo building in Santa Fe, we found out this morning that the guy who owns one of the units in our condo building that is trying to sell is going to ask somewhere between $350 -$400K, for his unit which is never going to go for that, he tried to sell a few years ago for $250K and got nowhere. Yes, prices are higher now but the place is not near worth that, it’s on the second floor with an outside stair and it gets hot up there in the summer, unless he insulates better, which I doubt he’s going to do. The woman who owns the unit next to his that has been empty for 13 years, who says she’s going to renovate and rent out but has been saying that for the whole 13 years. Granted the building has new windows and stucco and looks a lot better because LB and I did a lot of work upgrading the yards and is going to get a new roof soon. Maybe I’m wrong and his place will go for that amount, which means our unit is worth a whole lot more than we paid for it because it’s in way better shape than his, and it’s on the ground floor which stays cool during the summer, no need for air-conditioning. It stays warmer in the winter too because it’s on the south side. We’re not really sure how it stays so cool in the summer but it does.
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Colleen said on August 1, 2025 at 7:58 pm
I hate him so much. That ballroom is hideous. The rose garden is hideous. Everything he touches he destroys.
I’m heavily despairing today.
Oh, Nancy, if Shadow Show is interested, a podcast I listen to, The Bob Cesca Show, spotlights indie musicians. They just need to go to his website, Bobcesca.com, and fill out a form.
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Dexter Friend said on August 2, 2025 at 1:28 pm
A few years ago I watched the Edward R. Murrow interview with Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy as she showed how she tastefully decorated 1600.
Today nobody has the balls to stop Trump with this garish ballroom plan. No-boddddy….
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Julie Robinson said on August 2, 2025 at 4:49 pm
Completely off-topic, I just watched a few clips from Jesus Christ, Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend. In a move sure to twist MAGA panties, queer black woman Cynthia Erivo played Jesus. Adam Lambert was Judas, and Philipa Soo Mary. Everyone was fantastic, save the execrable John Stamos, a last minute sub for Covid-afflicted Josh Gad. Would have loved to be there to see this latest interpretation.
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Jeff Gill said on August 3, 2025 at 7:38 am
I follow Ted Neeley on social media, and he’s been posting up a storm from the Hollywood Bowl JCS with each of the stars, plus Yvonne Elliman was there, too. Nice pic of Ted, Yvonne, and Cynthia in his feed.
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Jeff Gill said on August 3, 2025 at 8:02 am
Ted just posted this:
https://x.com/TedNeeley/status/1951839922811494538
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Deborah said on August 3, 2025 at 10:43 am
I need some advice. Our upstairs neighbors feed the birds from the covering over the portale up there, it’s right above our patio and it’s attracting rodents on our level. Even though their feeder has a dish under it to catch the seeds and for birds to stand on, it swings around in the wind and lots of seeds rain down on our patio, and I mean lots, the seeds get stuck in the cracks between the pavers, I sweep a lot, all the time actually. I’ve had to haul out the shop vac to suck the seeds out. I had potted plants on the patio that I’ve had to move to another spot in the yard. The seeds blow all around on the walkway in front of the units, right in front of entrances, making it quite easy for a critter to run right in when entering or exiting. It’s particularly been a problem since the field on the other side of the fence got mowed last week, displacing the critters over there, they’ve found a handy spot to hang out since they can get food easily. It only gets mowed once a year so there are plenty of them over there.
To make it more complicated it’s rattle snake season in New Mexico. A friend of ours have a dog that got bitten by one, the vet told them not to let the dog hang out under their bird feeder, which is where the dog had been when it happened, because the snakes hang out there for the mice that are attracted to the dropped seeds. Now I’ve never actually seen a rattle snake around the building I know they’re probably out in the tall weeds in the abandoned field. This hasn’t been a problem before because the birds weren’t being fed up there.
I very nicely asked the roommates who were sitting out under the portale up there this morning if they would cease feeding the birds for a week or two because since the mowing of the field the rodents are coming over to eat the dropped seeds and maybe they would leave if there was nothing for them to eat for a while. They looked at me for a few seconds, didn’t respond and then lowered their heads and looked at their phones.
I feel bad because they are both young and very anti-social recluses, they rarely leave the premises. They used to be a couple but are now just roommates. LB talks to them occasionally and the young woman has confided in her about the former relationship the couple used to have. He is a trust fund family member of Kennedy cousins, she works for the National parks and loves nature, they both don’t seem to have much to do and enjoy the birds as do we. Was I wrong in asking them to refrain from feeding the birds for a while? I thought I asked very nicely explained the mowing connection etc. What can I do if they don’t stop? Anything?
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Icarus said on August 3, 2025 at 12:31 pm
Deborah, not sure what you can do communication-wise. At the risk of using this as a catch-all excuse, they might have a type of neurodivergence that makes them more comfortable talking to LB than you (I’m assuming they are around the same age?)
Perhaps you could put more bird seed somewhere near that field so the critters don’t bother going for takeout when they can get delivery?
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Dexter Friend said on August 3, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Oz was on FTN saying Medicaid and Medicare were being massively expanded, followed by the Governor of New Mexico saying people in both the SE and SW corners of New Mexico will have no choice but to move because there will be no medical care facilities near when the massive hospital closures roll out very soon. Oz is full of shit.
Social Security was addressed on CBSSM. No changes as far as payments to oldsters until 2034, then likely a 20% cut. Also, Musk was screaming about illegals gobbling up SS funds when the opposite is true: they pay in, but cannot withdraw. These Republican politicians are so skilled at bluster and bullshit.
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tajalli said on August 3, 2025 at 1:31 pm
Deborah, you did not mention if these neighbors own or rent. If they rent, their landlord might be able to apply some pressure to curtail their behavior, which is creating obvious distress and physical danger for the other neighbors.
There might be a better bird feeder design that you could propose to mitigate the volume of dropped seed, one of those clear plastic columnar arrangements with the seeds becoming available only in small amounts at the bottom.
Bringing up the issue at a condo owners meeting might also be a step in moving the process forward as would be reviewing local and state laws regarding safety and nuisance behaviors. I certainly don’t envy you having to deal with the rattlesnake issue, gives me the willies just thinking about it.
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Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2025 at 2:11 pm
Know what else attracts rodents, especially rats? Oranges. Our next door neighbor has a tree behind her fenced in backyard, and she just lets them lie on the ground once they’ve fallen. Remember Templeton the rat at the fair in Charlotte’s Web? They are so happy!!!
She’s spent a lot of money on exterminators, and of course we’re concerned they might look for sunnier pastures in our yard. Have not seen one, nor ecidence of one, so far.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2025 at 4:54 pm
Yes, I think it would have been better if LB had politely asked those neighbors to hold off on bird feeding for a few weeks. I do think there are some neurodivergence issues with them, which LB has too so they are more on the same wavelength with LB. I regret now that I even brought it up with those neighbors this morning. I’m pretty sure I did more harm than good. They are good, quiet neighbors and I don’t want to alienate the rattlers.
Putting a feeder further away is better but then those renters (not owners) above us like to sit on their immediate portale area where they enjoy the birds in solitude, I get that. I think I will keep my mouth shut and continue to sweep and use the shop vac until the field issues get back to normal. LB and I completely rearranged the patio today to help, and moved some of our plants to different patios on the grounds to clear things out where the seeds fall. It actaully looks and feels better so win/win.
I wish we had a local harmless bull snake, we had one of those gigantic snakes near our cabin which enjoyed the delicious critter menu nearby, they are harmless and also keep the rattlers away.
Santa Fe is usually above what they call the snake line which I think is about 6,500 ft, we are at 7,200 but of course climate change is lowering that line. The local Santa Fe newspaper had an article warning residents about it. There are local trainers who now offer teaching pets to keep away from them.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2025 at 5:27 pm
Sorry, I should have said climate change is making the snake line higher. Warmer temps obviously are making higher altitudes warmer too, which makes it more comfortable for animals/reptiles in more southern areas to move north. We’ve noticed that with desert rats too. Creepy.
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