Jedediah Smith

In recognition of the decision made [by whom?] not to run Joe Biden for President, I am posting the faction “Hur’d.” As Marjorie Perloff wrote of it, “Leaving aside the jejune maxim that all things are political (if everything is, then at the same time, nothing is), this is not a political text, and most emphatically, not a polemical one. The use of appropriated text takes this tool out of the borrower’s hands, leaving the finished piece curiously free of all moralizing or invective. Instead, the poet uses erasure and rearrangement, based on an Oulipian alphabetic constraint, to transform the aphasic stuttering of the original into a rhyming nightsong, made musical with its anaphora, alliteration and cadence, and made poetic with its ellipsis, indirection, and elusive referents.”

Hur’d
 
(Indiscernible)
(Indiscernible)
(Indiscernible)
(Indiscernible)
(Laughter)
(Laughter)  
(Laughter) (Makes car sound)
(phonetic), that (indiscernible)
A lot of business got done as Vice President from the residence
ALL right
All right
All right
Am I making any sense to you?
And -- but and if I was going to take something home to continue to study it, or have staff over to the house to continue the discussion, I would say, I'm taking this with me
And -- but it's not unusual to have those meetings
And also, I was my sister was helping me
and apparently, there's -- my recollection is there's people competing
and are one box?
And because they meet in Dover and dah, dah, dah
And I -- it was a secure call
And I didn't realize no one my age ever started his own law firm
And I still communicate with the Pope, you know what I mean
And I think -- I don't know if it was to embarrass me or to make a point, but I get handed the bow and arrow
And I think, I think that one of these things is marked careful mirror or something on the other side
And I won it
And I'd ask, can you do me a memo on that? And they'd go back and -- and, anyway
And I'd hand it back to whoever the staff person was that had the clearance that I was talking to about it
And if I did know, I wouldn't know how -- how could you raise money anyway while I'm a U
And it may be -- I don't remember the purpose of the meeting, but lots of times that I meet and say, well, what do you guys think, you know, rather than just selling something
And it was solidly democrat, southern democrat
And next thing you know, I'm in a tough position
And remind them tomorrow when I talk about it
And say, why do you think that would work, et cetera
And so I have them hanging on the walls all over the downstairs, the television room, and some in the library, because they -- you know, they tell stories
And so I, I amassed a lot of material making the case why the party had to change and, and they -- and it ended up that about  months in, the group from the area where I lived came to me and said they wanted me to run for the state senate
And so I'd keep it and then I'd have, I'd have it with me in the office for a day, or whatever
And so that stuff would travel wherever the hell I was --
And so there was a whole -- it was, it was, like, a machine, you know
And so they walked over and they had a target with bales of hay a hundred yards away, and these guerrillas were, you know, taking shots
And so we're out in the middle of nowhere and they're looking up on the hill and we see this tiny line
And the one thing I did want, as pure ego, I wanted my kids, grandkids to have a building on the -- in the mall
And then I took my papers, looked at what I need, put them in a pile, and they're sitting in the middle of my desk
And then next thing that happened was I came back about three weeks later
And there I remember standing looking out over the public and they said how about running for the county council
And there's a lot of -- excuse me
And they -- and then show what a normal day was, or how they, how they bivouac
And they're building a building there, and I wanted to build the Biden Center, kind of like the Kennedy Center
And where they put it, I don't
And you know, there are sumo wrestlers doin' everything they do
And, and so I, I don't, I don't consciously remember -- it's kind of like my wife asked me the other day, she spoke down at the Truman Library
And, by the way, a lot of this stuff would come back and whoever if my intelligence team came in, and they gave me something, they, they'd come and pick it up, whatever it was
and, I don't know what that is
And, you know, when I got finished -- I mean, it was much more routine, because it was all in one place
Anyway
Anyway
Anyway, okay
Anyway, some of it I may have had her pull - from because I was working on cancer initiatives on my own
At the lake house
At the Penn Biden Center
At Walter Reed
because -- so I ran in a district that no one's ever won, a Democrat had never won
Breakfast is mine
But (indiscernible) where I can pull it back, so I -- and pure luck, I hit the goddamn target
But I did work with Penn, because they had a helluva cancer center there
But I didn't -- but it wasn't out like this?
But I don't ever recall taking pieces of the binder out
But I don't ever remember packing up written material to go anywhere
But I don't know
But I don't know
But I don't know that for a fact
But I don't recall any specifics about that
But I don't recall ever saying, you
But I don't remember saying, you know, don't take or take this or send this
But I finally said, Jake, only mark those things which really are
But I hired them and paid them more than I was going to make, and I started this firm
But I wanted to be sure that I was going to lose
But I'm -- it may very well -- if they've been at the Penn -- these look like stuff that that may have been in - file drawers or I don't know
But I'm not certain
But is it constant? No
But it would not be -- it was too big to put the outbox and two boxes on my desk, an in-box -- you probably do too if you're ever able to keep up with what you're doing - and an out-box
But it would not be it was too big to put in the outbox
But it would not be unusual for me to be provided them
But not squirreled away
But she said, Joe, but that's going to be --
But there was different stuff in there on both sides, I think
But they're all stuff that I've worked -- I worked a hell of a lot on law enforcement, I worked on marriage equality
But this is, you know -- For example, I often had disagreements on policy matters with some of the foreign policy team that -- really good people that Barack had
But today, I had a briefing with about what's going on in Israel, a detailed briefing, in my residence upstairs in a room that's not dissimilar to this off of --
But, I mean, that's how I would do it if I was going to do anything
By their first names
by two feet, and there's great pictures of all kinds of different things
Can you read it for me (indiscernible ::
Come back in and take a look at it with me
could have been a guy that worked for me for many -- when I was senator
don't recall going through anything that wasn't truly personal and should be up next to my bed or my bedroom --
Excuse me
Excuse me
Eyes Only Eyes Only
Genealogy -- I got a lot of genealogy stuff all around
Generically, yeah
Get (Laughter) (Asides)
going through that stuff
Got it
Gotcha
Gotcha, yeah, I'm
Hang on a second
Have you ever been to Delaware? It's like University of Virginia
He said, they meet right across the street there only twice a week at night
He's my ticket
I assume they locked it up in their, in their drawers in their desk, or there may be a safe, I don't know
I came home and all of it was on the garage floor
I can't -- I don't ever recall saying, you know -- I don't know
I can't read that one
I did -- you know, it was, like people who work with me even now, like, when I walk out of the office and I want to get something done, I what I'll do is I'll ask -· - doesn't have to do it all
I do not recall specifically being provided them
I don't even want the President or the Secretary of State or anyone
I don't ever recall the binder alone being left on the desk
I don't ever remember -- I'm sure there were things that -- boxes we
I don't have the slightest idea in the world
I don't know
I don't know
I don't know
I don't know -- I can't remember who
I don't know -- I can't remember who
I don't know where the hell
I don't recall any --
I don't recall doing that
I don't recall going through anything that wasn't truly personal and should be up next to my bed or my bedroom
I don't recall that
I don't recall that
I don't recall whether they were
I don't recall, because I was so damn busy trying to get set up in a job and what my responsibilities would be
I don't remember --
I guess that's who came and got them
I had a desk -- I had an office that I turned one of the rooms
I had a fight with Charlie Schmedlap
I had most of it at my house in that office
I had no freaking money
I had now started my own office
I had two boxes on my desk, an in-box -- you probably do too if you're ever able to keep up with what you're doing and an out-box
I had two desks
I have my arm around Lindsey Graham
I have no idea
I hired two lawyers
I just can't remember who the individuals were doing it
I just I'm thinking of starting my own law firm and it's going to -- no, I can't do that
I just wondered what you're saying, that's all
I knew that in order to get the Penn Biden Center established, I had to --
I know, what are the dates?
I may have to call him to ask him for some information and recollection
I mean contemporaneous
I mean, a lot of business got done
I mean, I don't know how the staff decided what papers
I mean, it could be mine, but I don't know
I mean, it really is gorgeous
I mean, not for Penn, but
I mean, the briefcase is this big
I mean, there are things that were things that continued
I mean, they look like they could be current things I would be working on or around
I might put Eyes only, like, you know, this is not -- this is --
I never asked
I never asked anybody
I never asked anybody, I just it just got done
I never did, but sure
I probably still have it somewhere
I really can't read some of the others
I really had no idea
I remember the -- Senator Warren's stuff on Black Lives Matter
I said I don't know where they locked -- there's things that I've said that I might need this tomorrow
I said, guys, we got to follow up on boom, boom, boom, what's going to happen here
I said, I have no idea where I've got -- I mean -- and I don't think I'm supposed to while I'm President think about the library
I said, I want to see this one with what tomorrow says
I said, Jake, I'll read it, go through it, mark it up, ask questions on it for him to get back to me
I said, no, no, I can't go down
I said, no, no, no, I can't do that
I still communicate with the Pope, you know what I mean
I think it's fair to say Barack relied on me to do a lot of foreign policy
I was probably categorizing that
I worked on Papal visits
I would often have breakfasts like this on a whole range of issues
I, unfortunately, embarrassed the hell out of the leader of Mongolia
I'd bring senators down
I'd drop it on top of those two boxes, and/or on my desk when I left
I'd joke
If I put the bag on my desk, it says, take it away, I'm finished with it
If I took it and I left it, and I left it next to my desk, that meant hold onto it till tomorrow
If it was on my desk, they'd take it
If it's spelled right, it's probably not
I'm -- it may very well -- if they've been at the Penn -- these look like stuff that that may have been in file drawers or -- I don't know
I'm deadly earnest, not a joke
I'm finished with it
I'm looking at the spelling
I'm not a bad archer
I'm not being facetious
I'm not being facetious
I'm not being facetious when I say that
I'm not mistaken
I'm sure I did
I'm talking about -- you know, I had a long conversation with Eikenberry, yes,
I'm the guy that got that changed
In other words, a lot of this stuff has nothing to do with, with my being Vice President or with anything
In other words, I think it is, but I'm not sure
Is that how the stuff got in my, my -- didn't get in my garage until much later
Is this it, Private Schedule?
It could be eyes only
It could be though
It doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I just don't remember any of that
It finished, and I ordered one of my papers, what I want, and I got on the phone, I said, Jake and Tony Blinken
It looks like my handwriting
It must have been something I was, I guess, it had to do with the deal to prevent the government shutdown
It must've been after -- anyway
It was locked, and the staff would -- I don't know where they put it, but the actual, the actual case it was in was actually -- it had a lock on it
It was on my desk
It was the same process
It was the same thing
It would be, it would be, you know, sitting against the drawer or on the end table behind me
It's a beautiful mall
It's hard to tell whether that of
it's possible
It's possible they're in my writing
keeping the binder till this afternoon, and I want to talk to you about this
King was assassinated, and that's really what got me going
leave something on the desk that I was working out of in the office I set up in the Vice President's office, and they'd come and clear it out
Let me see here
Long story, and I'll end, because it relates
lot of business got done as Vice President from the residence
Matter of fact, I hired the woman who ran the Kennedy Center to come down to help me bring in speakers and things like that
mean, I don't know how the staff decided what papers
Means I'm writing this for you
My -- they could very well have then given it back to the staffer who wrote it
My generic point was there was a lot of material that I had amassed that I wanted to save
My sister was helping] me with -- Delaware wanted to know whether or not I wanted Biden Library built there or a Biden Center
Never -- no
Never -- PDB binders were treated in a completely different way
No
No
No
No
No
No
No pay
No, about years
No, I -- well -- what dates
No, I'm not being facetious
Not nearly as many, but, you know, and so, you know, that's all -- I mean, that's how I remember it
Not the shutdown, reneging on the debt, the national debt, the deal we made
Nothing
Now, somebody now -- it would probably be - would come along and pick those up, or another -- or Tony may come in, or whomever, and it's even though it's in the residence, and grab whatever it is that I wanted
Of the document itself? see there a number of pages
Of the document itself?·
Oh
Oh
Oh, and something about restoring the middle class
Oh, okay
Oh, that
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay
Okay?
One thing I remember on that was furniture, because I wanted to make sure they didn't take anything out of the VP residence that wasn't mine, you know that was federal government property
or  minutes
Or just leave it there for me to be able to review when I get back
Or Sensitive
or, you know
out of my stuff
percent of it has nothing to do with anything I couldn't pick up and read out loud to the public
Private Biden,  (indiscernible ::
senator to do that - I mean President
she doesn't do the statement
She said, Joe, have you decided on your library
She's smarter than I am
So I don't know what the topic was
So I was doing a lot of that, and that wasn't -- among other things is I was leaving the vice presidency
So I would drop it it's big
So my guess is it probably was a partial source to what I ended up sending as well on the, or whatever date it was
So these are criticisms of the proposal that being made to the President by, by others in the administration wanting him to double down in Afghanistan
So to make a long story short, I ended up doing it
So, for example, now, I'm trying to think back years, but -- or more than  years, I guess
Somebody pulled it out?
Someone went and pulled that out
Sorry
Syracuse University would like it, University of Delaware would like it
Taking anything out of the PDB binder, you know
that  was working out of in the office I set up in the Vice president's office, and they'd cone and clear it out
that (indiscernible ::
That meant I'm finished with this, this particular --
That was a discussion we had
That was a joke
That was a joke
That's something to do with, either a mirror or some something that its furniture related, I think
That's what I meant
The answer is I'm not sure
The answer is, I don't recall being provided them, but it doesn't surprise me I would be provided them
The bad joke is, with President Obama, I would always say to him,
the bedroom
The binder would be in the bag
the last things I have on that tab
The Moon Shot was cancer, and __ was one of docs who operated on me --
The one behind AS is ?
The one on, on , cancer I've done a lot of work on cancer research
The only thing that rings a bell is you're making my point
The Penn Biden Center
The subject matter, yes, like cancer, JESSIE
Then all of a sudden, it will say launch
There was a library -- there was a bookshelf in the Vice President's office, and I remember -- I think it had things in there like genealogy of the I said make sure that -- you know, that all gets taken care of, I mean, as I'm walking out
There was stuff one day
There were personnel on the ground like there are now
There's the Biden Center
These are all in?
They all look the same to me
They could have put it somewhere
They decided that there should -- that what should be done, you know, that they should help Biden move boxes or whatever
They got locked up -- when I finished reading it, they get locked up, they get handed to whoever is going to take them, and it's usually people from the intelligence community would come and get them
They said we want -- to the office I was in at the time
They were showing -- they were doing a -- what they would do at the time of the invasion of the Mongols into Europe
They'd come to me and say, what do you want done with A, B, C or D, and I can't remember, quite frankly, even any of those questions, but I didn't, I didn't pay any attention to how they packed it up
They'd hang onto it till the next day
They'd hold it next day
They're the old days
This may not be my handwriting
This was a more current one, Leader Kevin McCarthy
This was just to get the building built, which was still a process
This was later though
This was not the first time and the first time was, I think, back when I moved out of either my Vice President's office, or when I moved out of the Vice President's residence, or I moved out of the Penn Biden Center, moved stuff out of the Penn Biden Center
threw clothing in, threw pictures in, threw -- you know
to maybe some of the other things you may ask about, is that I had a lot of material that I did recent
to speculate, but if this was -- I received this before I wrote the other, it was added argument why he should listen to my argument
to work for me
was I there? I don't remember
We were just doing work on the house
We were the only state in the nation occupied by the military for  months with drawn bayonets at every corner
We'd lock it back up
Well, I can tell that by the fans to start with
Well, I remember -- you know, -- the Papal visit in
Well, there may be
What I would do is, I'd say, I'm --
What would happen is, whoever the person who wrote the memo that I want, they would probably come back to say, do you still want to talk about this? That's more likely
What? I'm sorry
When you're the youngest guy in the room, you get to turn the lights on and off
Where, where did you see that?
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah, --
Yeah, I got that
Yeah, sure
Yes, they would take it
you --
You can do this
You can tell it's old
you do this, you do that
You know what I mean? I don't recall --
You know, I'd just rather -- Anyway, so it's -- there's nobody in particular other than the people who I can read it to right outside the office and say, we've got to get this done
You know, it's a mile horse race with all these kids under the age of __ on bareback racing to come down
You know, McConnell, --, I don't know what's going on there
You said beyond PDE?
You step your foot on the accelerator all the way down
You think I'm kidding, I'm not
you're kind of talking about, you know, material, what would go to the residence and what would go to -- is that how the stuff got in the garage?
Yup
Yup
Yup
Yup

I cannot fathom what any writer would join any of these so-called professional organizations. The World SF Society. The Horror Writers Association. The Mystery Writers of America. Or the worst of the bunch, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. All of them, seething pits of politics, infighting, nepotism, favoritism, and political correctness.

Writers write alone. If you have the respect, love, and support of your fellow writers, you’re a hack. If you get money in the form of grants, fellowships, awards, scholarships, etc, you’re a leech and a hack. Disgust, rejection, and hate are the correct tender to earn from such organized mediocrities.

The World Fantasy Convention used to give a bust of H.P. Lovecraft as a trophy to their award winners. Then they decided he was too unsavory. Forgettable people who will never write a memorable word saw fit to judge him, to cancel him. Would you really want an award from such people?

Now here’s George R.R. Martin being shunned by Worldcon because he hurt some sensitive types: “Martin was accused on social media and elsewhere of erasing the accomplishments of authors of color, glorifying authors and editors with regressive beliefs, mispronouncing lots of the names on the ballot, making off-color jokes, taking way too long to give his remarks, and generally doing a bad job as host.”

Uh huh. This from the people who kept writers off their ballot because the host of their convention, Communist China (you know, those stellar humanitarians who murdered 2 million people during the Cultural Revolutions – just one of their captivating performances), found their writing offensive.

I’ll give Paul Willis, just a fella who commented on the above article, the final word on this: “Reading Hugo or Nebula award winners used to mean you were virtually guaranteed a great story. Now it’s the opposite. The level of woke, preachy DEI story lines in the award winners is enough to make you retch.”

WCW in Spring and All period? Creeley making thought intersect with breath? Padgett’s Be Here Now objectivism? Coolidge in a whimsical mood?

the fact

of the 

matter

is how

can you

assure

you’re going

to be

out

on you

know

on your

way

to go

you

know

work

tomorrow

age age

wasn’t you

know the

idea

that I’m

too

old

 Naw, it’s our multi-talented Prez reassuring us that aphasia is not a threat. Joe Biden, President of the United States of America, is rapidly descending into senility and dementia. Biden mumbles, stumbles, and fumbles his way through the most important single occupation on planet earth. Yet his administration refuses to acknowledge what we all see.

I tend to bristle at scientific reductionism. For example Richard Dawkins, despite all his effusive claims to appreciate beauty, still argues that all our thoughts, all our feelings can be understood on mechanical grounds. This psychological study (Emily Dickinson Revisited: A Study of Periodicity in Her Work) interests me nonetheless because it leans toward expanding our appreciation rather than narrowing it. And while the stated conclusion is that the data suggests “a bipolar pattern previously described in creative artists,” the author takes a further step toward illuminating some specific poetic imagery on the basis of the analysis — creative critical analysis, or, as Harold Bloom would put it “strong misreading” (a plus for Bloom if you are unfamiliar with his work).

Of particular note is this passage: ‘There is no question that Emily Dickinson suffered painful losses, the deaths of family and friends whom she mourned in letter and verse. But her periods of grief appear prolonged and seasonally weighted toward the winter months. For example, a November 1858 letter to a friend stated, “I thought perhaps that you were dead.…Who is alive? The woods are dead” (12, L195). Even the end of summer marked the anticipation of winter—and of death as well. A September 1859 letter noted: “Indeed, this world is short, and I wish, until I tremble, to touch the ones I love before the hills are red—are grey—are white…”’

And he both wisely and generously give the poet the final word: ‘Perhaps Emily Dickinson had some insight into the secret of her own creative genius when she
penned the lines beginning

The Brain—is wider than the Sky…