Knee Recovery Final, and Doomscrolling, 28

So it ended today, Thursday. My physio sessions are over after seven weeks. I achieved 119° knee bend and, with a push from the therapist, got to 120°, the magic number to which patients are directed to aspire, and which usually mark their graduation from therapy. There was no ceremony, simply goodbyes. They should have a bell for people to ring when they finish their course, like radiation departments have for cancer patients who finish their course.

From now on, I am on my own: I am expected to continue to exercise three times a day until at least late November, the third month after my surgery (I try to, but some days I can only get in two because we have shopping, cooking and housework to do). Then I can reduce the number of times and even some of the exercises — as long as I continue to progress and gain flexibility and mobility. I could, if I do well enough, reduce them to once a day, but that’s a decision for the future. And after that, I expect to be doing my exercises at least once a day for many more months to come.

I feel a mix of elation and sadness. I enjoyed attending the sessions because I worked hard there, in the company of the critical eyes of the therapists and other patients. Peer pressure can be very motivating. And the friendly encouragement from the staff helped me improve my style and method. I will miss going to those sessions. But I also feel good that I, at last, accomplished that magic number. My efforts were not in vain.

I have great respect for the staff in the General and Marine Hospital’s rehabilitation department. They helped get me through this. Kudos and many thanks to them.

This post is also the end of my regular knee replacement recovery updates because I have graduated from rehab. But fear not: I will continue to post about other issues, just as I will continue doomscrolling and comment on the dictator Trump; the rage-farming Trump mimic Pierre PoiLIEvre; about MAGA politics and the rightwing assault on democracy; about pseudoscience and pseudo-Christians; about woohoo, flat-earthers, and creationists; about books and movies; about my home town; about local, national, and international politics and history; and about anything else that crosses my mind and attention these days. Given that the world seems to be heading in the proverbial hell-in-a-handbasket to its rightwing-implemented totalitarian doom, I expect will always have something to comment on. And maybe I’ll throw in some updates about my knee, too.

I shared a video from Culture Catz last post. Here’s another. I don’t know where or how he finds the loonies and wingnuts whose video clips he includes, but I admire his effort to capture them. I haven’t the patience to do so. I like this guy because he’s sarcastic and funny, and takes no prisoners among the crazies. Not that these loonies affect me personally, but keep in mind they both vote and breed. And that doesn’t bode well for our collective future (the same concern is true of creationists, anti-vaxxers, and pretty much all of the MAGA and Maple MAGA political parties).

Doomscrolling: The dictator Trump has illegally destroyed the historical and protected East Wing of the White House, without getting permits or submitting plans as the law requires. And the cost of his vanity ballroom (which no one but him wanted) has escalated to $300 million (update: now tops $350 million…). And the dictator pardoned another convicted criminal: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in 2023. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is also the host of the Trump crime family’s crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, which has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for the utterly corrupt Trump family. This pardon, as CNN mildly writes, “generated some concern that Trump was helping a man who had helped his family reap financial benefits.” Some concern? The Grifter-in-Chief continues his unchecked reign of kleptocracy. Don’t forget that “the day after his inauguration, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht — the infamous creator of the dark web marketplace Silk Road, which ran on crypto payments.” MAGA representatives won’t stop him, of course, because they are all collaborators. Where are the guillotines and tumbrels when we need them?

Friday Doomscrolling: The vohzd (Russian for leader) Trump announced he has “terminated trade negotiations” with Canada because he didn’t like an Ontario ad against tariffs running on American TV. As he always does, Trump’s announcement on social media was rife with lies, including that former president Ronald Reagan didn’t make statements against tariffs, although he did: the speech was recorded and is available online. But calling dealing with the Great Leader and his vile administration “negotiating” with Canada is a stretch. He and his cabal of MAGA sycophants bully, lie, threaten, take back promises, change the rules, insult Canada and Canadians, and lie more about us. We’re more like frogs like trying to talk to scorpions than negotiating. You cannot negotiate with scorpions or MAGA officials.*

Saturday: Today I managed a 2km walk, and for my second pedal session, I did a full 30 minutes. I’ve also started applying heat to my knee as well as ice (in the form of a well-used bag of frozen peas, most of the time). Not sure if it is making a difference yet, though. I also managed to walk downstairs using alternate feet, although I still need to hang onto the banister while I do it. Now I can go both up and down stairs like that, although not when I am carrying a cup of tea or a bag of books.

Speaking of books, I was browsing through Archie Brown’s The Myth of the Strong Leader ( Basic Books, 2014. P. 362.) last night and thought this was a relevant quote to share (emphasis added):

Leaders who believe they have a personal right to dominate decision-making in many different areas of policy, and who attempt to exercise such a prerogative, do a disservice to both good governance and to democracy. They do not deserve followers, but critics.

I have several sections in his book marked with stickies where I believe there are repeatable quotes about leaders and leadership, democracy and autocracy, and the history of totalitarian leaders like Stalin, Mao, and Hitler (all of whom failed). While the book was written before Trump became president (2016) and then dictator (2024), Brown has a lot of significant content that relates to Trump’s style of authoritarian, rudderless, and destructive leadership. For example, Brown talks in detail about the cult of personality around these historical leaders (emphasis added):

The cult of the leader, which emerged in fascist and in many (not all) Communist states, was pernicious. But there have been unconscious echoes of what in Nazi Germany was the Führerprinzip (the leader principle) and what in Stalin’s Soviet Union, from the early 1930s onwards, was known as edinonachalie (one-person command) also in democracies. We encounter it in the attitudes of politicians and political commentators who want to place more powers in the hands of the top leader nationally and who also prefer one-person rule at the local level to more collective leadership.

Sound familiar? Aside from the obvious Trump, it also applies to the management/leadership styles of the rage-farming Trump mimic, Pierre PoiLIEvre, and the treasonous MAGA-loving Alberta premier, Danielle Smith. And here’s a good comment on PoiLIEvre’s upcoming leadership review: **

Sunday: I’m now doing 30 minutes each of my first two sessions on the bike, plus another 10-15 minutes at night before bed. We did a nice walk through Harbourview Park (1.5-2 kms) this morning, with another 800m walk in the afternoon. I continue to push my exercises to stretch my knee to bend even more. I cannot do more than that.

Doomscrolling: The dictator Trump continues to have tantrums over Ontario’s anti-tariff ads running on US TV. Andrew Chang on CBC explained why Trump was so thin-skinned about it and the use of Reagan’s own words. But even though the ad wasn’t from Canada (federally) — it was from Ontario, but Trump is clueless about how Canadian governance works — and Premier Ford promised to pull the ad from TV on Monday, Trump’s hissy fit escalated because Canada didn’t bend the knee fast enough, so he announced another illegal 10% tariff on Canadian goods. The ketchup will explode on the remaining White House walls when he learns that British Columbia is planning to launch its own anti-tariff ads next month…

I’ve said it before: any Canadian who still vacations in the USA is a collaborator, a quisling. Any Canadian who still supports Trump is a traitor.

Notes:

* From Wikipedia:

A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: “I am sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.”

** While I generally eschew AI-generated content, while I was looking online for a link to the book via the publisher, I stumbled across this AI summary of the book, which I felt was worth sharing (emphasis added):

The myth of the strong leader represents one of the most persistent and dangerous misconceptions in modern politics. By equating strength with dominance, decisiveness with unilateral action, and leadership with personal control, this myth has justified the concentration of power in ways that undermine both democratic values and effective governance. The evidence consistently shows that leaders who marginalize colleagues, bypass institutions, and rely primarily on their own judgment typically make catastrophic errors that more collective decision-making processes would have prevented. From foreign policy disasters like the Iraq War to domestic policy failures like the poll tax, the pattern is remarkably consistent across different political systems.
Effective democratic leadership requires a delicate balance—combining clear vision and principled commitment with intellectual humility and institutional respect. Leaders who master this balance can achieve significant change while maintaining democratic values and processes. They recognize that their role is not to dominate but to harness collective wisdom, build consensus around shared objectives, and work through established channels that incorporate diverse perspectives. This collaborative model not only aligns with democratic principles but typically produces superior outcomes by preventing the cognitive biases and isolation that plague supposedly strong leaders. The path forward lies not in celebrating dominance but in cultivating leadership that strengthens rather than undermines the institutional foundations of democratic governance.

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