Sunday, September 30, 2018

Vanishing Occupations Is Nothing New

From an Arabic periodical I follow on line I found a rich taxonomy of occupations in the Arab world made obsolete by progress & technology. This list reminds us that human occupations have been coming and going for many years. The principal challenge of what we call "progress" is not how best to achieve it, but how to share the fruits equitably with those whose vanishing jobs were part of the price of getting there. (I did the best I could with a browse translation.)

Directory of trades, occupations and extinct jobs in the Arab world ... about 100 career-driven progress

Mohamed El Feky
26.08.2017

The 22


Evolution is the year of nature, and work, like any other human activity, is no different from this social law. Each era comes under its own new patterns of occupations and jobs, and may soil on other occupations.
Adam Smith's market is not far from the Daron Forest, so there is nothing left to stay. The Arabic-speaking world has known many professions that have flourished and flourished in ancient times, and then became extinct or almost extinct.

Extinct Artificial Crafts

Including the extinct crafts by the change of public taste, such as Tariq Kachia, in the "Dictionary of Professions":

Gaooggi: a maker of rhymes that have been extinct for more than a century, and Alqawq a hood of the Gok worn by scientists, and the army of the Corps and the heart.
Tarabishi: seller of Tarabeesh. This profession has emerged with the disappearance of the guo industry.


Tabarashi

Al-Qarabibi: The maker of clogs of willow wood and walnut, and his quality was made in Shubra, Egypt, and he had a market in Homs and Hama.
Albozi: professional ice cream industry, and was the Bozian shops "hassled Sundae", according to the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi. The ice cream syrup was sold in Egypt until the last century.
Ice cream in Constantinople

Swords: the maker of swords
Including the crafts extinct by the change of age and the development of goods and tools, such as: 
Sayyaf in Damascus [???]
Alqawas: maker of the bow.
Al-Ashnani: The seller of the perfume, which is used for cleaning and washing hands before the invention of soap.
Tents: the maker of tents and pavilions, and was the best Khiamin in Aleppo, Istanbul and Cairo.

Including extinct characters thanks to the control of the machine and its superiority:
Kabariti: the maker of sulfur and its seller.
Squid: ink maker.
Wells: needle and needle manufacturer for sewing.
Enviroment: Glue maker, cowhide glorified cooker .
Study: Who studies wheat or barley.



Among these are what Olaya Chalabi said in Sayhatnahama:
Al-Khalal: The maker of vinegar.
Al-Zayyat: The one who strays seeds to extract edible oil or serge oil, which is used in lighting.

Including what Barakat Refinery in "titles Ottoman functions" such as:
Kyomji: In Turkish means gold and silverware maker (Qayyum).
Kazanji: "Kazan" in Turkish any garment or utensils, the maker of pots.

Extinct service occupations
Mahmoud Amer in the term "lingering terms in the Ottoman Empire" mentioned the following occupations:
•  The person assigned to transfer news from one place to another, the highest ranking of mail couriers.
And what Olaya Chalabi said in "Sayahtnamah":

Miller: A professional milling, especially grinding coffee in Egypt or wheat in the Levant, he had a special shop that includes stone hueines.

And what Ahmed Amin said in the dictionary of customs and traditions:
AlSaqa: Who distributes water to houses before entering faucets.









Maslakati: Who knocks nets or acorn.

Among these are what Tariq Kachia said in the "lexicon of professions":

Lala: the educator of the children of ministers and dignitaries in Syria.
Al-Bayar: Who isolates the sweet wells in the houses.
Ass: Who leases his donkey or driven to transport.
Porter: Whoever carries the goods on a paid wage.
Qabbani: Who weighs heavy things.
Sprinkler: Whoever sprinkles water with the land of the markets so that the dust does not fester and the goods are distorted.
Abrajee: who drives a cart of two wheels towed by a transport and carrying animals, to transport the public or furniture, and similar to the turban Sham, and Arab in the Levant, the driver at the dignitaries.



Copper bleach: It is professional whitening pots, starch, sand and coal ash to clean them from fatty substances.



The pigeons, the Dalakon, the Albanians, and the pigeons: the owners of the public baths and the workers, the donkeys are the heads of the bathroom servants, and the Balan cleans and decorates the berm.

Extinct administrative functions
Including Suhail Saban, in the "encyclopedic dictionary":

Pasha: meaning the king, the governor of the state during the Ottoman rule.

And what d. Mustafa Barakat in "Ottoman titles and functions":

Shah Bandar Traders: "Shah Bandar" in Persian means: the head of the port, an officer appointed by a state in another country to take care of its business interests. He served as consul.
Secretary of beatings: "hit" in the sense of sack and "square" in Persian means: Dar, he is the Secretary of the House of money. He was taking money.
• The word "diphthera" is a Greek word for "diphthera" meaning "animal skin". It was used in writing, and "Dar" in Persian also means "companion". He oversaw the collection of income and expenses, and all matters related to the financial funds of the Sultanate. And he knew before the Mamluk headmaster of money .
• The program "Rose Naama" in Persian means the journal, and the Turkish "G" refers to the ratio to the industry, so it means the writer of the day. Al-Ruznaji was the head of the Diwan's calendar and was the head of the finance department.

The governor: The officer in charge of the affairs of the province. The governor was entrusted with the task of collecting taxes, along with the obligor.

Judicial functions extinct:
Including what Mustafa Barakat, in "Ottoman titles and functions":

Qazi al-Askar: This position appeared in the Abbasid state, and moved to the Seljuks, then the Atabeks and then the Ayyubids, and in the Ottoman era he did not hold a contract and did not stop a stop and did not write a will and no excuse or Ijara and no argument or other legitimate matters until he was brought before the military judge.

According to Tariq Kachia, in the "Dictionary of Professions":

My presentation: Who writes presentations or complaints to parents and they sit near government departments.





Extinct medical professions...
Including what was said Tariq Kakhia, in the "Glossary of professions":

Al- Raqeeq: Whoever recites al-Rukiyya is reading and exhaling in the patient and the lawful and suspending the veils.
Sizes: The blood is absorbed by the cylinder.
And what Ahmed Amin said in the dictionary habits:
Al-Kahhal: It is difficult to treat sick eyes for treatment.

Women's extinct careers

Including Tariq Kachia, in the "lexicon of professions" such as:
The hatchery: A woman clothed the heads of the branches, whose heads are covered with redheads.
The midwife: A woman who practices obstetrics.
Washing machine: washing clothes in the homes of the rich. [Washer-woman?]
Breastfeeding: It feeds the children of the rich, or those who do not produce milk. [Wetnurse?]
Mahatia: "Called the Day in Egypt," and decorate the bride to her husband.

According to Ahmed Amin, in the "Dictionary of Egyptian customs, traditions and expressions":
Balana: A woman cleans the women to remove hair from the body, and take care of the girl at the time of marriage, and clean and clean, and the girl on henna night.

The sniper: or the scars are called in the numbered Egypt, and in the Levant, the lava, and it sighs on the dead in balanced sentences that raise tears.

Extinct professions of pilgrimage
Including what Mustafa Barakat, in "Ottoman titles and functions":

Amir Haj: Abu Bakr was the first of the guardian of this post in the year 9 AH. The most important duties of Amir Haj in the leadership of the pilgrims to Mecca and return them, and pay the damage of the Arabs and the preservation of the wealth of the Haramain.

According to Tariq Kachia, in the "Dictionary of Professions":
RECTIFIER : Who undertakes Bmashal behind Hijazi, Nuncio to the Holy land, Vaghanna hires Takhta and medium concha and the poor Hbrah or camel.
Mahtar: Used during the Hajj season and its function to erect and dismantle tents.
The maker of the lathes: Who made the hodgepodge for pilgrims.

Deprived, extinct occupations
Including what Ahmed Amin, in the "Dictionary of customs and traditions":
Accountant: a job was hated by the owner, and was watching the markets, it is soft in the kilo or raise the price punished severely.
Bully: The bully was formed after the Crusades in equestrian mode, and then turned into an abhorrent profession over the years. The young man protects the neighborhood in which he lives, and enforces his power over him.
Ellisargy: slave and slave neighbor.
Al-Jalab: The slave of black slaves, and sometimes the work of pimps.
Al-Qawwas: It was a disgraceful career in Egypt, a rascal who is standing before his master's horse and shouting and begging people to make way for him.
Al-Mukas: Dirhams are taken from the seller of goods in the markets. The taxis were standing at the entrance to the cities to collect the tax imposed on the food needs.
Children of Spars: Children who picked up cigarette butts from the streets and emptied tobacco into them for recycling in new cigarettes.
Al-Tafaji: The seller of pastries and shavings, which includes cannabis and opium.

Including what Tariq Khaya said in the "Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Professions":
Al-Nakhas: Those who sell slaves.
Auctioneer: Who sells people's needs for a certain percentage.
Dumatji: Who digs in the rubbish shops of cashiers and forging, to extract silver fillets.

Extinct rural functions
Including Jamal Kamal Mahmoud's "Commitment System":
Commissar: In al-Sham the public person, the person in charge of the administration of the village and collecting taxes, and handing it over to the central treasury or the state treasury.
Direct: An employee, who guarantees money changers, and registers money registers and village tax records.
WITNESS: Whoever records the village and the names of the peasants, and his book the basis on which the funds are collected.
Khouli: He surveys and measures the land, helps the sheikhs of the country distribute the land to the peasants, and supervises the drainage of the canals and bridges.
Surveyor: The area of ​​cultivated land is restricted each year.
Al-Qasab: Surveyor's assistant during the agricultural land survey.
Tensile: An employee of the village elder brings the peasants to the office at the time of asking for money. He served as a village concierge and was punished by peasants who were late in paying what they had.

Extinct functions related to palaces and government buildings
Including what Mustafa Barakat said in "Ottoman titles and functions":Agha : He differed in the origin of the word and called the leader and the eunuch who is permitted to enter the women's rooms. And the task of guarding in the hours of ablution and prayer.

Agha, called the leader, & the eunuch who is permitted
to enter the women's rooms. And the task of
guarding in the hours of ablution and prayer.

Ktkhda (Persian) means: 
Lord of the House, the back of the post in the Seljuk era, and was associated with the Pasha and stay with his companions Saraya and receive the calls and others and help the Pasha.
Month of Amini: Responsible for supplying and maintaining palaces and government buildings.
Arie Amini: Responsible for the management of barley for the Royal Stables.

And what Mahmoud Amer in the "terminology used in the Ottoman Empire":
Shubqji or Shubakshi, who is the holder of a smoking rod and a combinator in some prominent people.
Tawashi: The servant of Harem al-Basha is required to be consecrated.

And what Suhail Saban, in the "encyclopedic dictionary":
Bashi Mine: An employee in the palace prepares the annual calendar, chooses the right time to declare the Sultan's sitting, declare the war, give the seal to the Great Chest or drop the ships to the sea, based on astronomical calculations.

Extinct military functions
Including what he said d. Mustafa Barakat, in "Ottoman titles and functions".
Slider: Persian owner of weapons. The post began with the reign of Sultan al-Zaher Baybars. His most important task was guarding the weapons. The post was abolished in 1830.
Topji: In Turkish artillery, the defender is made and repaired.
Kundaqi: "Kundak" in Turkish, meaning the heel of the gun and the torch. He is the manufacturer of weapons, and he maintains the guns and repairs the boats. It is called in the Levant.

And what Mahmoud Amer in the "terminology used in the Ottoman Empire":
Amin get off: the person in charge of securing Supply in the road that will Tzlkh military forces.

And what Suhail Saban, in the "encyclopedic dictionary":
Nazer Ammunition : The person assigned to provide the necessary wheat for the army, the Emirate and the city's ovens. The post was abolished in 1837.

The occupations of snooping, begging and extinct extinction
Including what Ahmed Amin said in "Dictionary of Customs":
Poet: Qassas is a cafe and tells the story of "Abu Zeid al-Hilali", or the story of "Saif ibn Yazin" or "Thousand and One Nights" by heart or from a book, and is similar to the "Hakawati" in Syria. And became extinct with the appearance of the radio.
Acrobat: A ratio of a group that was walking on high ropes. This class was often called in grand weddings.
Al-Jaidi: A ratio of a group of people, two of them walk, one of them carrying a doorbell, the other carrying the shackles, cheating the shops, and singing the most offensive songs. Including a sect called "Adabatiya".
Ticks: or Alqirdati, from trained monkeys and Alaabh games taught them, in front of people, often with a bear trained Drumming. In the so- called al-Sham from the monkey or bred Bear "Jaidy."



And what Tariq Kachia said in the "lexicon of professions":
Rifai: the proportion of the way "Refaiya" was the throwing snakes at home and give it paid in the Levant and parallels " Serpentine ". My scorpions take the scorpions from their places.
Wondrous wonders: the career of Shamia carrying a box in which the holes on the size of the eye compound with the crystallization of glasses for the scale (zoom) and the ends of the box and two posters with pictures of trouble. And fell apart after the cinema.





Karakosati: In the Levant was playing images made of skin on the human character as a shadow and the owner works in cafes.
Eulogist: The parallels in the Levant Kawal , a profession came out of Egypt, the owners sang praises to earn.
Moualidi: A career known in the Levant. The author recites the story of the birth of the Prophet poetry and singing to win.

And what Olaya Chalabi said in "Sayahtnamah":
The imitator and the funny: Almdkkatih are the people known circumstance and were working clowns in cafes, ice cream bars.

References and sources:
  • Gamal Kamal Mahmoud, The Commitment System in Rural Upper Egypt in the Ottoman Period, Master Thesis, Cairo University, 2001.
  • Ahmed Amin, Dictionary of Egyptian customs, traditions and expressions, Cairo: Dar Al Shorouk, 2010.
  • Mustafa Barakat, titles and functions Ottoman, Cairo: Dar Ghraib for printing, publishing and distribution, 2000.
  • Mahmoud Amer, The Terminology of the Ottoman Empire, University of Damascus, Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. 117, 118, January, June, 2012.
  • Olya Chalabi, Cairo, National Library and Archives, 2009.
  • Suhail Saban, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Historical Ottoman Terms, Riyadh: King Fahd Library, 2000.
  • Tariq Kachia, Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Professions until the 21st
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Friday, September 28, 2018

Kavanaugh Hearing: C-SPAN Callers Share Personal Reactions

Dr. Ford's appearance at the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh was a riveting testimony. I watched on C-SPAN. Callers were able to share their impressions and opinions over three phone lines -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents. And the testimony drew an unexpected number of deeply personal stories in real time, unfiltered, as the C-SPAN host did the delicate work of screening, prompting, interacting and listening. It was memorable enough to merit this blog post.
Here is a sprinkling of remarks from callers, followed by a link to the clips collected by BuzzFeed News.
•  As a victim of sexual assaults that occurred 45, 35, and then again 30 years ago, I could not begin to tell you the dates or exact locations of any of those assaults. I do not even remember the names of two of my abusers. I, however, will NEVER forget the details of the pain, confusion, fear, shame, or physical nausea I experienced during the assaults and during the many years following them. F*** you for being so ignorant, insensitive, and incompetent. YOU feel ambushed??? F*** you again. How in the hell do you think Dr. Ford felt when she was fearing for her life? 
•  This could be my statement. 3 assaults in my life. Well actually more because it happened by the same boy several times when I was 4, yes FOUR years old.
•  I can’t bring myself, yet, to post the sexual assaults that happened to me but Lindsey Graham put me over the edge today. So many women (and men too) have been reliving their sexual assaults over the last few weeks as well. So many tears.
•  ALL Men, politics aside, who covertly or overtly, support this ignorance need to do u.s a favor and NEVER serve in ANY leadership position...elected or otherwise.
•  Graham seems to be a common southern bigot... who genuinely believes that America is best when old bigoted white men run it. Sadly, his kind are aligned with evangelicals like Franklin Graham! Smdh

[Edit note: Duplicate cameos follow because I don't know enough about coding to eliminate the duplicates. I think the BuzzFeed link brings the videos so when I copied the embed code duplicates were made. It's a tech problem but and I'm just an amateur. Sorry. The content is what's important. JB]

BuzzFeed News:

People Called And Told Their Own Sexual Assault Stories During Ford’s And Kavanaugh’s Testimonies And It Was Powerful


🤬





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Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Alaa Al-Aswani: Who harms Egypt's reputation?


In his article in Deutsche Welle (Arabia edition) Alaa al-Aswani explains the importance of mocking the head of state. He underscores the point by relating an encounter of himself and his daughter, people from another country, with the New York City Police. This is a browser translation from Arabic at the link.

Alaa Al-Aswani: Who harms Egypt's reputation?
September 11, 2018

In New York, I called my daughter Mei to see a play by David Carl, a well-known American actor and director. David Carl compares the play between King Lear to Shakespeare and the character of US President Donald Trump. We were there before the show, and we found the hall full of spectators. For two hours, the president of the world's largest country was ridiculed and described by David Karl as stupid, ignorant, trivial and racist because he was hostile to Muslims, Mexicans and African Americans.

Alaa Al-Aswani is one of Egypt's leading public
 intellectuals. I transcribe his weekly columns
 at Deutsche Welle for future reference.
The irony of the audience was a lot of laughter, enjoying David Carroll's caricature of Trump's way of talking, and he wore a wig that made him look exactly like Trump. This show is presented by David Carl in the heart of New York and has been praised by most American newspapers. No one has filed a complaint with the US Attorney General against David Carl on charges of insulting state symbols and inciting hatred of the regime. Military intelligence has not arrested him or tortured him in the State Security Service. I do not think that David Karl has felt the slightest concern and ridicules the head of state because he lives in a democratic state. If David Karl was publicly ridiculed by an ordinary citizen in this way, he would be tried for libel and insult. The head of state or any public official, his criticism and ridicule no matter how hurtful, is guaranteed to all in the framework of freedom of expression for the public good.

I went out with Mai from the theater and rode the Metro on our way home. The subway was not crowded, and in the penultimate station the subway door opened and some passengers got out. In a moment someone jumped into the subway and grabbed the mobile phone from my daughter's hand and jumped out. There was a thrill and a run down and we ran down to chase the thief. Some of the passengers ran around running behind the thief who turned out to be a runner. No one could follow him, so the phone disappeared before our eyes forever.

Mai asked me to tell the police and I was not enthusiastic about that. What would the police do to us? New York is a giant city inhabited by millions of people and this thief disappeared into the crowd and we could not even distinguish his face. After pressing from Mai, I called the police and they told us to wait. We stood up and soon two officers appeared and took the words of Mai and the witness who pursued the thief. There was an administrative problem because the theft took place inside the subway vehicle and therefore it belonged to the Metro Police and not to the regular police. Two police officers appeared quickly and one of them said "Please do not expect to find the phone easily because the thief often breaks it and sells it as spare parts."

The officer gave his phone to Mai and asked her to tell the mobile company about the theft of the phone with a telephone number. I did what the officer asked. After about a quarter of an hour, someone called me and said that the phone was in his possession and he wanted to return it to us for $50. The officer responded and agreed to the offer. Then, as in the movies, the two officers disappeared and I and I stood in front of the station door. 

A shabby man came and told me "Your phone is with me. Give me fifty dollars..."                    Before completing the sentence, the two officers surrounded him and one of them said to him "before you answer my questions you should know everything you say is on video recorder."
(Here I noticed a small camera installed in the officer's clothes)
The officer began questioning the man who confirmed that he had bought the phone and did not know that he had been stolen and that he found it closed and called us back for $ 50.
In the end the officer said "You bought something stolen and this is a crime. I'll catch you." [i.e. You're under arrest.]

Came up and put his hands in the clippers [handcuffs] and stopped him tied in front of the wall and then returned to Mai to make sure they recovered her phone and then said to me "This man will be tried if you decide to continue the communication, but if you just retrieve the phone we will be released.

We asked him to release the man because we do not want more than the phone. The officer removed the claws from the hands of the man who seemed unconfirmed that he had survived. The officers warmly thanked us and went home and found me wondering...

Why did the officers show all this interest in the theft of a telephone? We are ordinary passengers and we are not influential and we do not have the recommendation of an important figure, but we are not mainly Americans and then why the officer treated the accused with respect, so he did not slap him and not accuse him when he is arrested?

The answer is that the task of the police in a democratic state is to protect people, not to protect the regime. There is a certain connection between the play that ridicules the head of state and respect for the law and citizens by the police. To make fun of the president means to take away any holiness, and confirms in the minds of people that he is not the inspiring leader nor the symbol of the nation, but is just a public servant in the service of the people, he took office with real elections not to buy the votes of the poor oil bags and sugar as the Brotherhood does not In which the state apparatus biased to one candidate such as Sisi, arresting all other candidates and fabricating charges against them.

When we mock the president, we affirm that the citizen is much more important than the authority and that the prestige of the state is never embodied in the president, but in the law. People who are incapable of ridicule their presidents are governed by dictatorships whose inevitable end is disaster, defeat and total deterioration that brings the country to the bottom.

Democracy is the solution
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Reflections on the Kavanaugh Drama

As I write Brett Kavanaugh is President Trump's nominee to join the Supreme Court as Justice Kennedy's replacement. We are learning an elaborate backstory, an ongoing narrative with many moving parts is in progress and we don't know the outcome. Every day brings more details about his days in an elite prep school, stirred together with a closely watched political slurry. I have linked his name to the Wikipedia article which will update readers to whatever happens next, but this blog post is to record personal musings at this moment as we wait to find out what happens next.

I have a feeling we are hearing too many of Kavanaugh's high-school and prep-school peers, both men and women but especially women, reacting quickly to speak in his defense, denying the antics being described. Drunken parties including both men and women were and continue to be the social currency of extracurricular life. Dormitory social groups have always been part of a transitional stage to adulthood, especially important for those destined to become the power-brokers, movers and shakers of society -- business and politics especially. Keg parties and hazing rituals are so ordinary that occasional casualties are barely mentioned in local papers.

Students continuing in academia, research, technology and research don't need tough leadership skills thanks to specialization. But those destined for political, corporate and executive leadership roles need a tougher skill set. They are the peer group from which Brett Kavanaugh and others in his milieu are cut. The "old boys club" consisting of virtually all white males has become more diverse over the last few years. It now includes minority men and women who fit the profile and exhibit the same level of group identity. They can be counted on to close ranks whenever necessary to "protect their interests" which have more to do with maintaining power and control than embracing ethics simply for the sake of doing what is right.

Kavanaugh's year book page doesn't read like that of a
dull, sober academic type. He was clearly someone who
enjoyed those days at the edge of propriety.
When this whole matter broke sixty or more women came to Brother Kavanaugh's defense almost overnight. I couldn't help wondering if they had prepared in advance -- in case someone spilled the beans about what their social life was way back when. Kavanaugh's year book page doesn't read like that of a dull, sober academic type. He was clearly someone who lived at the edge of propriety. It would not be out of character to slip over the edge from time to time -- not just for him, but for some of his peers as well. I haven't read it, but I hear one of them even enshrined some of those experiences in something like a novel.

My impressions are informed not only by personal observations but by an excellent snapshot I heard on the radio last week, 'Incredible' Privilege At Elite Prep Schools Like Those Kavanaugh And His Accuser Attended.  (I recommend the audio at the link, less than ten minutes.)


I was never in a position to attend an elite prep school, but I have known more than my share of people who have. Most of those I know turned out impressively well and became exceptional role models. I don't agree with the politics of Kavanaugh and many his peers it's fair to say they, too, have become impressive, influential role models as well. They are the movers and shakers of our society and political ecosystem. But I sense they, too, have passed through a kind of social "hazing" to become the adults they later became.
Schools play an incredibly important role for elites. The core function of elite schools is to make and remake elite status. Parents and families contribute to that. But they need to send their kids off to elite schools in order to make sure that they maintain and hopefully even advance their class position.
And therein lies the rub. Maintaining and remaking an elite status sometimes calls for being tough enough to confront others with whom they disagree, even their social, political and economic peers. What we see playing before us at the moment is a power struggle. Confirmation of this nominee is not the main point. His name happened to be the one that came to the top of a twenty-plus list of others, arch-conservative candidates groomed for powerful positions in the judicial system long before Donald Trump came along.


Addendum...

A few hours after I put this post together a very smart piece by Lili Loofbourow appeared at Slate.
Brett Kavanaugh and the Cruelty of Male Bonding, her forensic look at the various parts to this puzzle, advances a rational explanation for the puzzle that is Brett Kavanaugh. Here is most of the opening paragraph:
I believe Brett Kavanaugh’s claim that he was a virgin through his teens. I believe it in part because it squares with some of the oddities I’ve had a hard time understanding about his alleged behavior: namely, that both allegations are strikingly different from other high-profile stories the past year, most of which feature a man and a woman alone. And yet both the Kavanaugh accusations share certain features: There is no penetrative sex, there are always male onlookers, and, most importantly, there’s laughter. In each case the other men—not the woman—seem to be Kavanaugh’s true intended audience. In each story, the cruel and bizarre act the woman describes—restraining Christine Blasey Ford and attempting to remove her clothes in her allegation, and in Deborah Ramirez’s, putting his penis in front of her face—seems to have been done in the clumsy and even manic pursuit of male approval. Even Kavanaugh’s now-notorious yearbook page, with its references to the “100 kegs or bust” and the like, seems less like an honest reflection of a fun guy than a representation of a try-hard willing to say or do anything as long as his bros think he’s cool. In other words: The awful things Kavanaugh allegedly did only imperfectly correlate to the familiar frame of sexual desire run amok; they appear to more easily fit into a different category—a toxic homosociality—that involves males wooing other males over the comedy of being cruel to women.
Pay particular attention to that word homosociality. It was a new term for me but it brings an important load of meaning. Those not familiar with the term will find it carries a surprising list of characteristics of a non-sexual nature.

There follows a meticulous accounting of the many distortions and denials on the part of Kavanaugh and others that give this story a near-Gothic quality. She cites the term Omertà, derived from extra-legal codes of Mafia origin. Wikipedia has this:
The basic principle of omertà is that it is not "manly" to seek aid from legally constituted authorities to settle personal grievances. The suspicion of being a cascittuni (an informant) constitutes the blackest mark against manhood, according to Cutrera. An individual who has been wronged is obligated to look out for his own interests by avenging that wrong himself or finding a patron but not the state to do the job.[4]

Omertà implies "the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime."[5] A person should absolutely avoid interfering in the business of others and should not inform the authorities of a crime under any circumstances, but if it is justified, he may personally avenge a physical attack on himself or on his family by vendetta, literally a taking of revenge, a feud. Even if somebody is convicted of a crime that he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal, even if the criminal has nothing to do with the Mafia. Within Mafia culture, breaking omertà is punishable by death.[5] 
Omertà is an extreme form of loyalty and solidarity in the face of authority. One of its absolute tenets is that it is deeply demeaning and shameful to betray even one's deadliest enemy to the authorities. For that reason, many Mafia-related crimes go unsolved. Observers of the Mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus for the Mafia or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear, as implied by a popular Sicilian proverb Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci("He who is deaf, blind and silent will live a hundred years in peace").
There is more to this insightful piece than these short excerpts. The rest is recommended reading. She ends with a reference to Omertà.
Brett Kavanaugh is on the record instructing his buds to keep Omertà after a 2001 boat trip to Annapolis, Maryland—even from their wives. “Reminders to everyone to be very, very vigilant w/r/t confidentiality on all issues and all fronts, including with spouses,” he wrote after apologizing for a variety of things, including “growing aggressive after blowing still another game of dice.” By this time he wasn’t in high school. He was in the White House.

Another Addendum...


At this writing, October 10, a couple more links for the Kavanaugh file.

Washington Post link:
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has received more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints in recent weeks against Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice Saturday, but has chosen for the time being not to refer them to a judicial panel for investigation.
(...)
The complaints were handed over as scrutiny of Kavanaugh was intensifying amid allegations that he sexually assaulted a girl when the two were in high school. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations, as well as two other accusations of improper behavior. 
People familiar with the matter say the allegations made in the complaints — that Kavanaugh was dishonest and lacked judicial temperament during his Senate testimony — had already been widely discussed in the Senate and in the public realm. Roberts did not see an urgent need for them to be resolved by the judicial branch while he continued to review the incoming complaints, they said. 
The situation is highly unusual, said legal experts and several people familiar with the matter. Never before has a Supreme Court nominee been poised to join the court while a fellow judge recommends that misconduct claims against that nominee warrant review.
Roberts’s decision not to immediately refer the cases to another appeals court has caused some concern in the legal community. Now that he has been confirmed, the details of the complaints may not become public and instead may be dismissed, legal experts say. Supreme Court justices are not subject to the misconduct rules governing these claims. 
“If Justice Roberts sits on the complaints, then they will reside in a kind of purgatory and will never be adjudicated,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University Law School and an expert on Supreme Court ethics. “This is not how the rules anticipated the process would work.”
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Most of these complaints center on Kavanaugh’s answers about his work in the Bush administration, according to people familiar with them. They also accuse Kavanaugh of lacking judicial temperament in his partisan comments about Democrats, the people said. 
None of the complaints deal with the allegations made against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford, who said he had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. 
It is rare for a misconduct complaint against a judge to get as far as the chief justice. The chief judge of a circuit court normally reviews complaints against judges in his or her circuit. Most are dismissed because they lack a factual basis to make such a claim or are simply disagreeing with a judge’s decision. 
Henderson, whom President George H.W. Bush nominated to the bench, stepped in to review the complaints against Kavanaugh because Chief Judge Merrick Garland — whose nomination to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was blocked by Senate Republicans — recused himself from the matter. 
The way the complaints against Kavanaugh are being dealt with is unusual, because Henderson concluded that the D.C. Circuit cannot properly handle them, and referred them to the chief justice. This is done only in exceptional circumstances, under the judiciary’s rules on misconduct. 
Kavanaugh is a member of the D.C. Circuit Judicial Council, which normally rules on misconduct allegations in that court.


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Friday, September 7, 2018

Laurence Tribe Explains the Twenty-fifth Amendment

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