Are the grackles gone? We’ve hardly seen any these last few days. Around this time of year, they head south. When they are here, they flock around our bird feeder and empty it quickly. Some of them nest in the cedars and pines close to our house (as do some doves). They are noisy, funny, and somewhat aggressive towards other birds, especially predators and competitors, like crows. We’re now seeing blue jays at the feeder, which is a sign that grackles are not near. For us, the disappearance of grackles marks the real start of fall; when the weather cools, days are short, frost can occur, and the leaves have changed or even fallen. Winter is coming…
The photo at the top was taken in Harbourview Park. I wanted to capture the swans flying.
Tuesday: I finished the exercises in the evening before dinner, with a 15-minute pedal, followed by the rest of the session. During that time, I watched a commentary on the dictator Trump’s disastrous, lying, meandering press conference with the Argentinian dictator. Trump is bailing his foreign friend’s economy out with $20 billion from American taxpayers, although he can’t find any money for American healthcare. So much for “America first,” eh? And, of course, some of Trump’s and Bessant’s billionaire friends will also benefit from the taxpayer-funded handout. The corruption never ends.
We did some more shopping today, and aside from the necessities and groceries, I bought a DVD copy of The Expendables 4 (aka Expend4bles, released in 2023). We’ve seen and enjoyed the franchise films 1-3, so I hope this one lives up to the previous movies. They are fun, action-packed, violent in a comical over-the-top way, and full of action stars. However, the critics on sites like Rotten Tomatoes gave it a low rating. Sometimes critics seem to forget that not all films are great art, or even low art, and some are just for entertainment. Popcorn films: meant to amuse, not inform or educate. Update: rather than starting with E4, we decided to watch E1 again and the next two after that, with a few days in between each viewing. It was okay; not as good as I recall, and fairly predictable, but okay. E2 maybe on the weekend…
Wednesday: Exercises at home followed by a 2 p.m. physio session. I won’t know how well I have progressed until my next session, at which time I will either be booked for more sessions, or turned loose to keep up the effort on my own. I like the physio sessions because they encourage me to try harder. Besides, it gets me out of the house. But this morning I went for coffee with a neighbour, then in the afternoon got caught up in housework, so I didn’t get a long walk with Susan and Bella as we usually do. Today marked seven weeks since my knee surgery.
Doomscrolling: The Dictator Trump and his violent, pro-Putin fascist administration are working overtime to paint the upcoming No Kings protests as anti-American, hate protests, funded by George Soros, violent, terrorist, and they are setting it up so they can provide a violent, probably lethal, response using the armed services and ICE to attack peaceful American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. The administration tried to use the hatemonger Charlie Kirk’s murder as their Reichstag moment, but they fumbled with their gong-show “memorial: and the clown acts, gift shop, and GoFundMe page. Now they have another chance to turn an event into the civil war they really want… but the protests are as pro-American and anti-authoritarian as could possibly be. The administration, on the other hand, is deeply pro-fascist and anti-American, and is doing its best to help Putin achieve his agenda to destroy American democracy.
Plus, the Ten Commandments from the Bronze Age scriptures (aka the Bible) may soon be allowed in Louisiana classrooms, despite lawsuits that declared it unconstitutional. Pseudo-Christian Talibangelists in the USA are pushing hard to turn American classrooms into theological training grounds for Christofascists. Ironic, given how many of those commandments their dictator Trump — surely the moral and ethical model for MAGA — has personally and frequently broken. Which of course makes me wonder, why these Talibangelists don’t demand that the full list of their deity’s commands (the 613 mitzvot) also be displayed.
Thursday: Two 20-min pedals, a long walk in Harbourview Park (>1 km) in the morning, plus an 800m walk by mid-afternoon. Walking a little better today, although by the end of the long walk I was limping more. But it was nice to see the trees changing colour, including some brilliant red maples. We always enjoy taking Bella there, especially to the arboretum. Third set completed after 6 p.m.
One of my favourite magazines has long been Skeptic. I’ve long enjoyed how they debunk pseudoscience and superstition, unveil con artists and hoaxsters, and promote logic, science, and critical thinking. However, I took umbrage at some of the articles and opinions in their latest issues (Vol 30, No 3, 2025). The lead article, The Siren Song of Influence, is about the public’s declining trust in science and scientists. It notes:
Science earned its authority not by telling people what to believe or how to live, but by serving the public in offering high-quality information that helps people solve problems and achieve their goals. But in the age of social media, a growing number of scientists appear less interested in the patient work of discovery and more interested in being political influencers. They post partisan hot takes, endorse candidates, and signal ideological commitments, often leveraging their authority as scientists to advance personal or political aims. This doesn’t just alienate half the country (usually the right-leaning half); it undermines the hard-won and always precarious reputation of science as a dispassionate arbiter of truth. The more we scientists insert ourselves into political battles, the more we risk losing the very authority we seek to protect.
Let me underscore that the loss of faith in science — and in experts in general — is predominantly among the rightwing side of the political divide, exacerbated because the populist ideology from parties like Trump’s MAGA and PoiLIEvre’s Maple MAGA, attacks the intelligentsia as elite and self-interested, attacks education (making it both weaker and more expensive to obtain), attacks science and learning as tools to foster hidden agendas or conspiracies, and dismisses research as mere opinion. Rightwing administrations want an uneducated, illiterate base because such voters are more gullible to their propaganda than anyone who uses critical thinking and fact-checking. Rightwing administrations want the populace to believe in their leaders alone, not outside experts who may contradict them with facts.
Plus, the pseudo-Christian Talibangelist (aka Christian Nationalist) religion that dominates the USA today wants followers to believe in their repressive and oppressive theology, not in science, nor in critical thinking. They demand faith, not facts. Just look at the creationist comments that follow any social media post about paleontology or evolution. And lest we overlook the stupefying effect of watching the firehose of rightwing lies and disinformation from propaganda outlets like Fox Newz and NewzMax.
And who says science is dispassionate? Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye are not dispassionate. In fact, it is their passion for science and for speaking out that made them inspirations for many people.
The results of these ongoing attacks we can see all around us: flat earthers, creationists, anti-vaxxers, health “influencers” pedalling quackery, measles outbreaks spreading, bogus claims by deranged officials (e.g. Tylenol causes autism), climate change deniers, chemtrail believers, book bannings, the Rapture, and the wholesale firing of scientists and researchers from government agencies and departments by autocratic regimes.
But for scientists and scientific organizations to sit back and let them get away with lies, disinformation, gaslighting, misinformation, and pseudoscience is, for me, unthinkable. Without vocal resistance, it suggests that science and its agencies condone these rightwing attacks and may even agree with them (because, without speaking out against them, how does the public know which are lies and which are facts?). It looks spineless to those who still believe in science, evidence, and facts, and who look to scientists to defend them against the rightwing disinformation campaigns.
The authors go on to state:
So long as scholars stick to their core mission—identifying and describing empirical reality—they can offer something genuinely useful to the world… In the age of social media, a growing number of scientists appear less interested in the patient work of discovery and more interested in being political influencers.
Which I think is utter piffle. The main form of communication today is via social media, where the noise from the science deniers, conspiracy believers, and MAGA cultists is almost deafening. Scientists have to weigh in with their counterpoint based on research and evidence to at least establish a base of facts and reality from which to continue to challenge the lies. And in the age of social media, everyone is an influencer. Social media is designed to be a combat arena for likes, follows, and shares (as well as a platform for data scraping and advertising).
I can’t imagine why anyone would imagine public trust would be greater for silence than for resistance. My respect for Skeptic has diminished as a result of that article. Rage, dammit all, rage against the rightwing anti-science campaigns!
Doomscrolling: The rage-farming Trump mimic, Pierre PoiLIEvre, is now openly spewing racist MAGA talking points about ending “DEI” (Diversity Equality Inclusion) practices in Canada, as well as ending “birthright citizenship.” PoiLIEvre has called for a “return” to meritocracy, which is deeply ironic, given that didn’t merit the electorate’s trust in his own riding and lost his seat in the last election, and then the weasel had to scuttle off to find a safe riding to run in thousands of miles away so he could get back into Parliament. Rachel Gilmore explains how the CONservative Party is just re-spewing Trump’s attacks on people of colour and anyone or anything they declare as “woke.” How far the party has fallen down the MAGA hole!
Friday: Seems I am destined for another week of physiotherapy. My knee bend, measured at the end of today’s session, was 115° with a push from the therapist up to 118°, but still a tad short of the desired 120°. I have to work harder at getting it bent, but am unsure what more I can do. I was heartened by having gained a 5° bend since the last measurement, but more than a bit disappointed I had not achieved more. And it’s not from lack of trying. Slow progress by mere millimetres can eat away at morale.
This week, I received a small box of books from my favourite wholesaler, Bookoutlet.ca, including How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, by Deb Chachra; The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig; The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality, buy Oded Galor; Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (20th Anniversary Edition), by Robert Putnam; and Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good, by Loretta Napoleoni. I have to stop buying new books, again, though. Not only have I no space for them, I simply can’t keep up with everything I have to read. Plus as inflation bites, as grocery and other prices rise, as taxes go up, I find books become more and more of a luxury I cannot afford.
John Milton’s impassioned declaration in the Aeropagitica that books are the means to achieving “life beyond life” assumes that a durable medium will be available to facilitate the transmission of knowledge.
Nicholas Basbanes, A Splendour of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World, Harper Collins, 2003*
Doomscrolling: Tomorrow, October 18, there will hundreds if not thousands of peaceful No Kings protest marches in cities across the USA, exercising their First Amendment rights as guaranteed under the US Constitution. Millions of Americans participated in the last protest, which was also peaceful. But this time, the dictator Trump and his MAGA sycophants are lying to the public about it: they frame it as a “hate rally” and “hate America rally,” and saying it will be violent and should be met with force. The spineless weasel, Speaker Mike Johnson, falsely claimed those attending would be “pro-Hamas“ and “antifa people.” Majority Whip Tom Emmer claimed the protest involved “the terrorist wing“ of the Democratic Party. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the event was “part of antifa.” All lies.
It looks like the dictator and his violence-loving subordinates are angling for a reason to invoke the ancient Insurrection Act, declare martial law, cancel midterm elections, and have the military attack American citizens. We already know how little respect Trump and his MAGA cabal have for the Constitution and the rule of law. Is the protest finally Trump’s Reichstag Fire moment? Will he start the second US Civil War tomorrow?
Notes:
* Basbanes also quotes Alain Schnapp, French art historian, who wrote in The Discovery of the Past (Harry N. Abrams, 1997): “We engage with the idea that other human beings, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a few hours’ time, maybe a few centuries from now, will look upon our traces.”
Words: 2,212
