The Bitter Roots of "Sugarcane"

X (formerly Twitter): Dr. Gator

My wife never came home last night. This is a little surprising because she is normally scheduled to have a full workday on Wednesday's at the Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time ─ if she was partying last night after work and spent the night wherever she was partying, today would not likely be a kind one for her.

I never required my 3 a.m. cellphone alarm, checking the time and rising a little before 2:30 a.m. for my planned ¼-mile or so walk to the elementary school playground where I wanted to attempt one or more further pull-ups and chin-ups to seek the slow restoration of my body's familiarity with these exercises after having laid off them since March 1st when I damaged my right knee and was too lame for much walking.

I basically rose just in time to suddenly hear a bit of a burst of rain on the sundeck roof just below my open bedroom window.

The sound of rain did soon enough relent, but it was soaking wet outside when I set off just past 3 a.m., and it was still lightly drizzling ─ not sufficiently to wet me, but I knew the playground equipment would be drenched.

And 'twas so, but at least even the drizzle had ceased, and only some inconsequential spitting was taking place. I was able to wipe a jungle gym monkey bar dry enough to secure a decent hold.

Then I began, with a 30-count between sets.

My first two sets were pull-ups with one in each; the counts were the same in the next two sets of chin-ups. But over at the gymnastics-style rings, I could not even lift myself from the ground in the first set, but I did just manage that slight lift in the second set.

Back at the monkey bars, I managed a pull-up between two of them; and at the descent, I held a hang for a 50-count.

Managing two sets of a pull-up in each, and then two sets of a chin-up in each, is my best showing at the playground since my accident. I am hoping that a combination or tandem of muscle memory and increased strength are going to quickly enough kick in.

However, my walk back home was awkwardly slow for my damaged leg. Possibly that was due to having squatted right down while between a set of two 45º-sloping bars. I cannot squat due to the damage to my lower quadriceps musculature around the top of my knee, but apparently with this sort of assist I am able to assume the lowermost squat posture without too much issue.

Nevertheless, I could not rise after a 60- or 100-count while maintaining that squat. To even work my hands up the sloping bars to elevate myself in that fashion was not possible ─ it still required work that my right leg's lower quadriceps muscles cannot provide.

I had to get to my bad leg's knee in the wet sawdust, and holding the bars and using my good leg for the necessary supporting work, struggle to my feet in that fashion.

But at least I now see that it is a matter of trying to force the quadriceps to strengthen their ability to achieve that range spanning from a straight or unbent knee to that of a fully bent knee in a squat.

Once back home, I may have been back to bed by 5:30 a.m., but I am now fuzzy about that. Likewise for when next I rose ─ my thinking is that it was not too much after 8 a.m. My brother had not yet emerged from his bedroom for coffee and morning T.V., but he did so by 8:30 a.m., I would say.

As usual, I waited until after 9 a.m. before joining him.

And upon receiving his invitation to put our Android TV Box to work, I led us off with a 13-minute (13:56) video uploaded yesterday to YouTube's AnitaK channel: Hey, I'm right here! Trump shreds Freeland in Carney's face.

Next was a 10-minute (10:39) video published yesterday to Rumble's ProgressiveTruthSeekers channel: Donald Trump Switcheroo Just WIPED OUT So-Called DOGE Savings.

The Jimmy Dore Show

Donald Trump is proposing a 13 percent increase in defense spending for fiscal 2026, pushing the budget plan over $1 trillion for the first time ever, according to a budget document described by Maine Senator Susan Collins.

“The budget increases Defense spending by 13 percent, and prioritizes investments to: strengthen the safety, security, and sovereignty of the homeland; deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific; and revitalize America’s defense industrial base,” the document outlining a “skinny version” of the President’s Budget Request states.

Original: https://youtu.be/r3BcwS8HmwM

That was followed by an excellent 31-minute (31:19) documentary published October 10, 2024, at Rumble's StarlightBright channel: The Bitter Roots of "Sugarcane".

How a Shock-u-mentary Blood Libels Catholics and Canadian History.

National Geographic Needed a Factcheck — Here it is.

“Sugarcane” reviews are all over the press, all positive, and all are super spreaders of more deceptions about Indian Residential School history in Canada. National Geographic picked up this documentary for distribution after its win at the Sundance Film Festival. Carolyn Berstein, Executive Vice President of National Geographic Documentary Films said at the time: “National Geographic Documentary Films has a long track record of championing epic and important stories that awaken audiences and transcend their moment.”

According to a report in “Deadline” of Feb. 21, 2024, “Deadline understands that the Disney-owned factual brand has struck a deal in the low seven-figures.”

Let’s awaken National Geographic’s factual brand and its audiences with some behind-the-scenes facts.

That documentary was then followed by a 44-minute (44:25) video streamed earlier today at Rumble's Grant Stinchfield channel: Trump Floats $5K Birth Bonus to Fight America’s Baby Bust - MAGA Success Will Work Better.

It is one of the most pressing and underreported crises facing America today: plummeting birth rates. With fertility at record lows and young couples choosing careers and convenience over family, we explore how this demographic decline threatens the nation’s economic stability, cultural continuity, and global standing. Drawing on historical trends and conservative values, "Stinchfield" questions the long-term viability of a society that increasingly deprioritizes traditional family life and children.

Also former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is our guest as he announces he is leaving the Democrat Party and officially becoming a Republican. He has more than a few choice words for the radicals that have taken over the Democrat Party.

We never finished the final video I tuned in ─ my brother departed it for his bed rest this day of Sun and lots of white cloud everywhere. I am unsure that we will sit all the way through the very long documentary, for it is over 2¾ hours (2:47:35), and the subject matter is hardly exciting to my brother nor even I. We'll see how it goes tomorrow if I find the time to tune it back in ─ I'll report on the result then.

I resisted seeking my nap after I had eaten my day's main meal because I had a strong hunch that my brother was going to go grocery shopping and I wanted to enlist him to get a few things on my behalf ─ I had failed to address him about it in the morning.

Well, he had his bed rest; and then without a word to me, he left.

This can prove exasperating.

I then pursued a needed nap, for I have felt as nearly poorly today as was the case yesterday following the late night and four cans of Cariboo Malt (7.9% alcohol); but I behaved last night ─ I only shorted myself on proper sleep by walking to that elementary school playground.

My brother meantime returned from his shopping, as evidenced by new additions in the fridge. But he was gone again ─ he had left for public transit so he could go social drinking.

Concerning my state of unwellness, I feel like I am constantly on the verge of eyestrain and the headache that goes with it, but this latter has not manifested. I had wanted to maybe visit the backyard tool shed for a little exercise there ─ maybe even attempting a full squat with a pair of ladder-like exercise apparatus I have suspended from the sides of the children's slide ladder that I have stretched across some rafters. I could stand between the two narrow exercise 'ladders' and use them for support, carefully lowering myself into the squat position, and then doing similarly in seeking to rise.

But I have not felt the motivation ─ not just to go out there and try it; but to even just use the stairs here and go below, placing each foot on every step of the stairs in full view of Bev where she spends her entire day parked in the living room watching T.V.

I just can't goad myself to go through that potential display for her ─ it is a shame to me to be disabled like this, unable to go downstairs by alternating each of the steps instead of having to securely place each foot on every one of the steps as I laboriously make my way down.

So I tend to only go below when absolutely necessary; and my further encouragement is when I hear her go outside to have a smoke break ─ if I have a need to go downstairs, I will quickly take that cue and avoid putting on a performance for her.

Fortunately I can climb stairs almost normally, doing so with a bit of a lurching effort.

At least I had my late afternoon (sometimes early evening) bit of exercise in my wife's vacant bedroom that is larger and less cluttered than the one I sleep in.

Enough griping. I am going to take a break from blogging now at 7:07 p.m.

🟤🟤🟤

After 8 p.m., following some research in trying to choose what to watch here on my bedside computer once I had shut my bedroom door (my brother had still not returned home), I settled upon a series new to me titled The Beautiful Life: TBL ─ the premiere episode ("Pilot"), obviously.

At first I was well concerned that I was wasting a can of beer on the show, for the background to the series was meaningless to me, and I fathom nor identify with none of it.

But darned if I didn't warm up to character "Raina" as played by cute actress Sara Paxton; the actress looks somewhat familiar, but I cannot see why from her acting credits.

I also found myself fast liking the exceptionally good-looking character "Chris" played by actor Ben Hollingsworth, who also seems familiar to me; but again, I cannot see why that might be.

So I enjoyed the show, and will not mind watching the rest of the single season comprised of five measly episodes.

My source was this Archive.org link, but for whatever reason the video stopped playing ─ possibly around the 32-minute mark. Each time I pressed the play feature again, it would jump and then reset to where it was stalled.

I finally just moved the player a minute or so further along the scroll bar, and it carried on without a problem from there.

I want to have another overnight go at the elementary school playground, so I am going to try to be in bed soon after 10 p.m., with my cellphone alarm set for 3 a.m.

At present it is 9:56 p.m.