{"id":34049,"date":"2025-10-23T16:36:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=34049"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:36:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:36:45","slug":"recovering-knee-and-doomscrolling-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/recovering-knee-and-doomscrolling-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Recovering Knee and Doomscrolling, 27"},"content":{"rendered":"
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T<\/span>uesday morning, not long after I finished my morning knee exercises, I drove to Barrie <\/strong>for my annual visit to my urologist \u2014 and the surgeon who removed my cancer-riddled prostate, back in 2020. You can read more about my journey with prostate cancer here<\/a>. I also visit my oncologist once a year, usually in the spring. Both visits involve a prior PSA blood test to check if I have any of that hormone showing. And I don’t. Haven’t had a positive PSA result since my surgery. What matters for me about today’s visit is that I drove there and back, alone. It’s the furthest I’ve driven since my knee surgery. I was a little concerned that I would be uncomfortable, keeping my leg in a fixed position for so long. However, it was only mild discomfort, and a little motion of the foot helped relieve it.<\/p>\n

On the way back, I stopped at Centra<\/a>, Barrie’s excellent Asian supermarket on Bayfield Street, where I bought myself three jars of kimchi (all different, but I have had one of them previously; I really<\/em> like kimchi and can have it with almost every meal), a coconut curry sauce, Kikkoman wasabi sauce<\/a> (a personal favourite for sandwiches), and some “sweet” olives (a type I’ve never tried; my current favourite are Sicilian Casteltrevano olives<\/a>, but I’ll eat all of them). I have also bought ice cream there, too, including red or black bean, ginger, green tea, and other flavours. I’ve also bought cream corn and condensed milk popsicles there. Interesting, but neither really appealled to my taste and were too sweet. Ginger ice cream remains my favourite ice cream, but green tea is a close second.*<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After I returned, we walked Bella (800m), and I did my second set of exercises, starting with my second 21-min\/150 cal pedal of the day. I started my third set just after 6 p.m. with a 15-min\/120 cal pedal, and finished the rest at 6:55. Just in time to watch the end of Predator 2<\/em> before we had dinner. Next film? Maybe one of the later Terminator<\/em> films, maybe Valerian<\/em>, maybe it’s time to watch a Godzilla film again. But I might settle on seeing Conclave<\/em> again.<\/p>\n

Doomscrolling:<\/strong> The Wannabe-King-Dictator Trump has a new grift: he has demanded the Justice Department (aka the American taxpayers) pay him $230 million for the indignities of being investigated for his criminal activities, such as hoarding classified documents and sharing them with his cronies. The Independent<\/a> headline reads, “Trump demands DOJ pay him $230M for cases against him. His ex-lawyer Blanche could decide the claim.” Forbes adds<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Any settlement received by Trump may be greenlit by DOJ officials who have defended the president or are in his orbit, the Times reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the cronies he appointed to high places get to decide if their boss gets the money and the taxpayers get screwed. The corruption in the White House reaches new levels every day. Meanwhile, Trump is illegally destroying the historic East Wing of the White House (a designated heritage building the law says cannot be altered, let alone demolished) so he can build his vanity ballroom (a $200 million travesty that no one but him wanted). And he continues to fight and win against court orders not to deploy the National Guard against American citizens: soon he will be able to implement martial law across the country and start shooting Americans who oppose him.<\/p>\n

And Trump commuted the sentence of the convicted criminal conman George Santos<\/a>, who was in jail for more than seven years after pleading guilty to fraud, fleecing people, and identity theft of 11 people \u2014 including his own family members \u2014 to make illegal donations to his campaign. Never a day goes by without some outrage against democracy and justice by Trump and his MAGA minions.<\/p>\n

And on the Maple MAGA side of things, the rage-farming Trump mimic Pierre PoiLIEvre is taking heat for calling the RCMP “despicable”<\/a> for not charging Justin Trudeau with alleged crimes. PoiLIEvre can’t stop hating Trudeau even though Justin is no longer PM, no longer leader, not even in politics these days. Barack Obama lives rent-free in the dictator Trump’s head, and Trudeau does the same in the puerile PoiLIEvre’s head. PoiLIEvre continues to drag the CONservative party into the MAGA mud with him. As podcaster Billy Kelly writes:<\/p>\n

Members of his party are flocking to the media to try and soften the backlash, as Poilievre shows no remorse. Clearly, he has fully embraced his role as a Maple MAGA icon, and the divisive political tactics are only going to get worse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n