Und plötzlich zum ersten Mal sah ich drei Schwedinnen. Daß das ein Heuhaufen war, belehrte mich der Katalog. Erkennen konnte ich ihn nicht. Dieses Nichterkennen war mir peinlich. Ich fand auch, daß der Maler kein Recht hat, so undeutlich zu malen. Ich empfand dumpf, daß die Schwedin in diesem Bild fehlt. Und merkte mit Erstaunen und Verwirrung, daß das Bild nicht nur packt, sondern sich unverwischbar in das Gedächtnis einprägt und immer ganz unerwartet bis zur letzten Einzelheit vor den Augen schwebt, weil sie ohne die französischen Retuschen, Parfüme und Toilettekünste arbeiten. Das alles war mir unklar, und ich konnte die einfachen Konsequenzen dieses Erlebnisses nicht ziehen. Was mir aber vollkommen klar war — das war die ungeahnte, früher mir verborgene Kraft der Palette, die über alle meine Träume hinausging, nicht mit Puder und Rotstift, sondern von Gymnastik, mit ganz famosen Beinen und Aprikosenteint. Die Malerei bekam eine märchenhafte Kraft und Pracht. Unbewußt war aber auch der Gegenstand als unvermeidliches Element des Bildes diskreditiert, denn egal ob im Heuhaufen oder auf den Almwiesen: gelobt sei, was scharf macht.
Kandinsky : 3 Schwedinnen in Murnau [ungebar]
33. Mr B has taken the last picture of Mrs D (for Dead).
34. Mrs D is always dead when Mr B takes her death picture, a second later.
35. Mrs D existed only in her last image and her last words, which arrive, of course, from Pitman's Commonsense Arithmetic some hours later … so shut off the recorder … expose the negative.
36. Mrs D's word and image never existed.The Death of Mrs D in The Third Mind, by W.S.Burroughs and Brion Gysin
I do seem to remember at least two occasions on which he claimed success [of his methods] … The first was in the Beat Hotel still, and William decided to “take care” of an old lady who sold newspapers in a kiosk, and she was of absolutely incredible malevolence, and the only kiosk around there at that time that sold the Herald-Tribune, so that William found that he was having to deal with her every day, and every day she would find some new way to aggravate him, some slight new improvement on her malevolent insolence and her disagreeable lack of … collaboration with William in the buying of his newspaper …
So, one day the little old lady burnt up inside her kiosk. And we came out to find that there was just the pile of ashes on the ground. William was … slightly conscience-stricken, but nevertheless rather satisfied with the result as it proved the efficacity of his methods, but a little taken aback, he didn't necessarily mean the old lady to burn up inside there …
Here to Go: Planet R-101. Brion Gysin interviewed by Terry Wilson [abridged]
“Assange has been imprisoned throughout the period of ‘these proceedings’ and has certainly not absconded. The government and media have an interest in conflating ‘these proceedings’ with the previous risible allegations from Sweden and the subsequent conviction for bail violation, but we need to untangle this malicious conflation. We have to make plain that Assange is now held for publishing and only for publishing. That a judge should conflate them is disgusting. Vanessa Baraitser is a disgrace.”
“Because of this surveillance, including ‘unlawful copying of their telephones and computers’ as well as ‘hooded men breaking into offices,’ Assange's lawyers needed more time to prepare his defense, Summers argued. But Baraitser refused the request, and ordered Assange back in court for a second management hearing on Dec. 19.”
“The worst moment was one of a number of ‘worst’ moments. I have sat in many courtrooms and seen judges abuse their positions, This judge, Vanessa Baraitser—actually she isn't a judge at all; she's a magistrate—shocked all of us who were there.”
“All the while, the obstruction of justice continues with a show trial in U.K. Last week Assange was back in Westminster Magistrates Court, where the Judge Vanessa Baraitser had denied his legal team's request for a trial extension a month earlier. This time, Judge Baraitser once again dismissed concerns brought by Gareth Peirce, representing Assange, about her client not being able to adequately prepare for his ‘very challenging case’ as the computer he had been given was not suitable.”
“in the courtroom itself, Julian Assange is confined at the back of the court behind a bulletproof glass screen. He made the point several times during proceedings that this makes it very difficult for him to see and hear the proceedings. The magistrate, Vanessa Baraitser, chose to interpret this with studied dishonesty as a problem caused by the very faint noise of demonstrators outside, as opposed to a problem caused by Assange being locked away from the court in a massive bulletproof glass box.”
“Baraitser flat-out denied any knowledge of such a practice, and stated that Fitzgerald should present her with written arguments setting out the case law on jurisdiction over prison conditions. This was too much even for prosecution counsel James Lewis, who stood up to say the prosecution would also want Assange to have a fair hearing, and that he could confirm that what the defence were suggesting was normal practice. Even then, Baraitser still refused to intervene with the prison. She stated that if the prison conditions were so bad as to reach the very high bar of making a fair hearing impossible, the defence should bring a motion to dismiss the charges on those grounds. Otherwise they should drop it.”
“That Baraitser is acting under instructions seems to me certain. She has been desperate throughout the trial to seize any chance to deny any responsibility for what is happening to Julian. She has stated that she has no jurisdiction over his treatment in prison, and even when both defence and prosecution combined to state it was normal practice for magistrates to pass directions or requests to the prison service, she refused to accept it was so.”
“Baraitser dismissed concerns by Assange's lawyers, that given previous health issues, including a lung problem, a prison was a breeding ground for infection. There have been so far no reported cases of coronavirus at Belmarsh Prison. But neither have there been reports of testing at the prison.”
“Baraitser on Tuesday again followed her usual path of refusing every single defense motion, following pre-written rulings (whether written or merely copied out by herself I know not), even when the prosecution did not object. You will recall that at the first week of extradition hearing proper, she insisted that Julian be kept in a glass cage, although counsel for the U.S. government made no objection to his sitting in the body of the court, and she refused to intervene to stop his strip searching, handcuffing and the removal of his court papers, even though the U.S. government joined the defense in querying her claim she had no power to do this (for which she was later roundly rebuked by the International Bar Association).”
“Baraitser has insisted through the entire process, including the four days of extradition hearings now passed, that Assange deserves to remain caged and monitored. The farcical show of hobbled justice must go on, including the risk posed to his frail being by Covid-19. … For Baraitser, the patent inadequacies offered by restricted video links were simply not patent at all; Assange and the witnesses would still be able to participate.”
“On Tuesday Judge Baraitser announced that the Assange extradition hearing will resume on May 18, as previously scheduled and that it may drag on into July — Covid-19 notwithstanding. The big question is whether Assange, if he is kept confined in Belmarsh prison, will live that long. Meanwhile, thousands of other nonviolent prisoners are being released from other UK prisons in a humane step to reduce the chances of infection.”
“Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that there was no reason not to reveal her [Stella Morris, JA's companion] identity, despite threats made to her and the children.”
“Now while there is no evidence that judge Baraitser is giving any serious consideration to the defence case, what this has done is show the prosecutors the holes in their argument which would cause them serious problems should they get Julian to trial in the United States.”
“Declassified UK has discovered that Julian Assange's judge, Vanessa Baraitser, has ordered extradition in 96 percent of the cases she has presided over for which information is publicly available.”
“There is still every possibility that when the last word is said in court, Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser will decide that the United States has not made its case and that Assange will not be sent to stand trial in Alexandria, Virginia.
But judging from the first week of hearings in February at Woolwich Crown Court, all signs point to a decision already having been made to extradite Assange, and that the next three to four weeks will be simply justice going through the motions to make it appear that the WikiLeaks publisher is getting a fair trial.”
“Judge Vanessa Baraitser has rejected the defense's application for an adjournment of the hearing until January to give it time to gather new evidence to defend against the prosecution's superseding indictment. She said Assange lawyers had ample time to apply for postponement and that it was wrong for them to argue to have new evidence excised from case and then after losing, to try to delay proceedings until January. The judge has bought the prosecution argument.”
“A frustrated [prosecutor Clair] Dobbin then appealed to Judge Vanessa Baraitser for more time, but the judge snapped back: ‘I won't hear that from you. You've taken a very long time to develop your line of questioning and the witness has done his best to try to answer your questions.’ It was the harshest Baraitser has been to the prosecution since this hearing began.”
“Baraitser had raised the issue of the election and how it might impact the hearing. … Reacting to her decision, Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said: ‘District Judge Vanessa Baraitser has acknowledged what has been clear since even before the first indictment against Julian Assange was unsealed — that this is a politically motivated prosecution.’”
“However Baraitser may try to hide it, [prosecution counsel] Lewis attacked [defence witness] Kopelman over the existence of the blade [found in Assange's cell] when Lewis gave every appearance afterwards of a man who knew full well all along that there was compelling evidence the blade did exist. For Baraitser to try to protect both Lewis and the prosecution by pretending the existence of the blade is dependent on the outcome of the subsequent charge, when all three people in the cell at the time of the search agreed to its existence, including Assange, is perhaps Baraitser's most remarkable abuse of legal procedure yet.”
“That a judge so intent on shutting down or refusing to hear defence evidence is suddenly so preoccupied with ‘open justice’ when it comes to hurting Assange by release of his deeply personal information, is a great irony. Baraitser will rule on this on Monday and I hope humanity has prevailed with her.”
“The judge, Vanessa Baraitser, who is overseeing the case, without a convincing reason cut the access to the video stream that had previously been authorized to nearly 40 human rights organizations and international observers, including Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and PEN International.”
“In her 132-page ruling on Jan. 4 against extraditing Assange, Baraitser discussed the evidence of a plot to kill or kidnap him. She exhibited a high indifference to Assange's safety and even displayed sympathy with the U.S., saying that plans discussed to poison or kidnap him from the Ecuadorian embassy were essentially understandable. […] She did not condemn such a potential extrajudicial killing or abduction in the heart of London, just steps from Harrods, and within the sovereign territory of another nation with which Britain has diplomatic relations. Baraitser notes that she did not make an effort to discover if ‘the allegations are true.’ But then says if they are true, it would not demonstrate a high level of concern about the commission of a state crime, but rather shows just how upset Assange made the Americans.”