Big Schloss and Tibbet Knob – A child heroine – Completion of the Silver Line – Turgenev and the war in Ukraine – Campaign donors unenthusiastic about Trump (and who isn’t?) – Our senescent Congress – Evening statistics
I went with the Capital Hiking Club to hike along Mill Mountain to Big Schloss and Tibbet Knob, an area I have not seen for nearly a year. It was cold along the ridgeline of Mill Mountain, but very clear; and happily, the gusts of the weather forecast never materialized. The views of the Trout Run Valley to the west and of the Shenandoah Valley to the east had no haze or cloud cover to diminish them, while the wintry temperature (it was at least ten degrees colder than the DC metro area) and our relatively early start meant that we had the viewpoint all to ourselves.
The hike was somewhat shorter for hikers than usual (5½ miles for the moderate hike and 9 miles for the longer one) but I would say that we compensated for that deficiency in the vertical direction; the moderate hikers alone ascended nearly 2000 feet in elevation gain and the long hikers 1000 feet more. At all events, I heard no complaints about hikers receiving short measure. There was a risk in scheduling such a hike at this season. The drive to the trailhead is well over 1½ hours and the hours of daylight are becoming brief. But everyone came back to the bus well within the appointed time, and we were able to depart by 3:30. The members of CHC tend to be younger than the other hiking clubs of which I’m a member, and I was unable to keep pace with a couple of them going up the steepest climbs; but that is as it should be. One cannot expect to be the swiftest of the lot at 68 years of age.
Of late I have been focusing on those headlines that accentuate the negative (in my defense, I must observe that most of them do), but yesterday I came across one that is more heartening. Viola Fair went into labor unexpectedly three weeks early at her home in Jennings, MS. Her daughter, who bears the most appropriate name of Miracle, dialed 911 and then relayed the protocols given by the emergency dispatch operator to her mother so that the latter could ensure a safe delivery. After the baby emerged, Miracle, seeing that her mother was too weak at this point, picked up her newly-born sister, gently wiped her dry, and rubbed her back to enable the infant to make her first cry. Miracle is ten years old.
Afterwards the paramedics came and brought the mother and baby to a hospital, where both were given a clean bill of health. It seems very likely that without Miracle’s intervention, either or both of them could have been seriously impaired. Miracle was afterwards commended by the St. Louis dispatchers in a ceremony that presented her with a certificate citing the bravery and courage she demonstrated in helping her mother – and, they might have added, for her extraordinary presence of mind. She herself said that the best part of the experience is that it enabled her to be the first person to see her newborn sister, and also she expressed her desire to be a doctor. It is of course too early to make predictions about anyone’s future career at this stage, but I earnestly hope that she realizes this ambition of hers. If she does, she will undoubtedly provide miracles for many others.
The Silver Line has been completed at last! Actually, the Metro stations and the tracks connecting them have been built over two years ago, but the opening has been delayed on account of testing. Why such a testing phase should last over two years is something of a mystery (it generally takes place over the span of a few months). But no matter, it is open now, and at this point Dulles Airport is at long last linked to our city’s public transportation system.
Turgenev is generally recognized as one of the three giants of 19th-century Russian literature (the other two of course being Tolstoy and Dostoevsky), but he tends to be praised more in Europe and the U.S. than in Russia itself, possibly because his opinion of his fellow-countrymen is not particularly flattering – as in, for instance, the following passage from Virgin Soil: “it is a well-known fact, though by no means easy to understand, that Russians are the greatest liars on the face of the earth, and yet there is nothing they respect like truth – nothing attracts them as much.” I cannot say that respect for truth is very apparent in Russia at this juncture, but Turgenev might have added that in the art of suppressing evidence Russians are unsurpassed. They exceed even the Chinese in this respect – and that is saying a great deal.
Consider, for instance, the withdrawal from Kherson a bare month after Russia occupied it. The reasons for the retreat were delivered in a stilted television interview on November 9th by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s chief commander in Ukraine. But the orchestrator of this campaign was notable for his absence in this scene. Nor has Vladimir Putin made a single comment on the matter since that date. He has also refrained from speaking at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia. Not only did he decide not to attend, but he didn’t even join it by video conference or send a pre-recorded speech. He seems to be disassociating himself from the war that he originated. I can only suppose that he is intending to foist the blame incurred by its disappointing results (from Russia’s point of view) upon some unfortunate scapegoat or other among his administrators.
Donald Trump has declared his intention to run as a Presidential candidate in 2024, but the wealthiest donors – the mega-donors as they are called – are not exactly rallying to his cause. While Trump’s political machine is starting off with a war chest of more than $110 million, federal law prevents him from using most of that money to advance his White House campaign. In addition, the Trump campaign is also now being held responsible for millions of dollars in legal fees that were being paid by the Republican National Committee. Many of those who had donated to Trump’s campaign in 2016 have expressed wariness of committing to him again. The reaction of hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, the second-most prolific donor to Republican campaigns during the midterms, appears to be typical. “I’d like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser,” he said at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore, and has expressed interest in backing DeSantis if the latter declares his intention to run.
Nancy Pelosi has announced her intention to retire at the venerable age of 182. (On second thoughts, being in a calmer mood than I was when I first drafted the preceding sentence, I voluntarily knock 100 years off of that figure.) Whatever one may think of her career and its effects, she at any rate deserves credit for not retaining her position until overtaken by death, in contrast to several of our other politicians. How these worthies cling to their offices of power! Dianne Feinstein, Charles Grassley, Richard Shelby, James Inhofe, and Patrick Leahy are all well over 80 – and that’s only in our Senate. I have already mentioned in earlier entries that our Congress is the oldest it has been in history. And in this context it may be mentioned that Joseph Biden turns 80 tomorrow. If, as many people say he will, he decides to run again in 2024, he will be 82 at beginning of the campaign – and if, by some miracle, he wins, he will be 86 by the end of his second term, unless of course he is felled by cancer like the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 642,831,036; # of deaths worldwide: 6,625,413; # of cases U.S.: 100,162,437; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,102,457.