"The principle job of the President is to keep us out of war." - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at the inaugural Children's Health Defense conference in Knoxville on October 23, 2022 https://gettr.com/post/p1vkc7cdaba
I love how smart and educated you've become on the historical traditions of politics and our Constitution. Not sure if this was always your wheelhouse but I recently returned to get a masters in public policy and it's been so interesting to hear from people IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Citizens have no idea how complicated and strategic politics is. They think they have all the answers. Granted this government has become something the founders never intended or could fathom, particularly the control of the Executive branch. However as it was originally constructed it was a genius system. The problem is not necessarily Washington - it's US. As we became more comfortable economically we started to look to the government to protect these comforts for us and everything became a "right" rather than a responsibility. I wrote in a piece that we've been sitting on our collective couch, eating bons-bons with our head buried in screens and all of a sudden wake up to find we are "sick." Freedom is much easier to lose than it is to gain. While we had our heads up our asses, corporations took over our government and they now respond to them rather than to the people. So much to delve into. THANK YOU for being a guiding light.
Well said; there has always been a blurry line between confidentiality and transparency, and I think those who argue for complete transparency are naive. The issue I have with total transparency is that it assumes that the public is more ethical than those in government. Sadly, this is far from the case at this point in world society. Moral underpinnings in many societies around the world have been under assault for centuries, and such supposed bastions of ethical behavior as journalism have been subverted for maybe a hundred years or more. Journalistic ethics, if not dead, is certainly in intensive care at least in the corporate world.
There are always good people in the public, but like you mentioned, there are always many, many, nefarious actors who would (and do) selectively edit and pervert what would seem to be honest deliberations of policy for the purpose of maintaining the power of their tribe. Will the real truth of policy debates be self-revelatory? I doubt it will in today's world of myriad massive deceptions.
The Obiden Regime is destroying Executive Privilege to obliterate the American First Movement. They have no regard for the Constitution, Religion, The Family, Small Business, Individual Rights and the Sanctity of Human Life. This is a play for Permanent Power in D.C, America and Western Civilization. So the Obiden Regime does not consider that their abuse of Political norms could be used against them. They don’t plan on losing. But, they will.
I did enjoy your essay very much. You made so many valid points supporting executive privilege as it relates to communications. Your reasoning is sound and logical. However, we are living in a world that has said to hell with tradition, logic, and systems that are work. All of it is being bulldozed by the left. I haven’t given up hope that we can fix this mess, but it will not be easy!
The substance of Bannon’s sentencing… and I wish this was fiction… His failure to comply with the Jan 6 supoena AND teasing Adam Schiff as “ Shifty Schiff” and Eric Swallwell as “ Fang-Fang Swalwell”. These were the DOJ’s sentencing guidelines.
“If the role of President is thus made into one that no person in that position’s solid judgment can reasonably endure — and if the context around a President’s speech is made so litigious that decent advisors refuse to serve him or her, and thus refuse to serve the nation— we cannot have future leadership with any integrity or coherence — from any party.
Without Presidential confidentiality, we will barely have a meaningful American Presidency, in the future, at all.
And just consider: that situation would suit our existential enemies — long into the future — just fine.”
Head of nail meets hammer here.
Naomi, that’s part of the plan. And the present “Principal”, I will submit, though he be scarcely cognizant if it or much else, is serving admirably to that end.
Thank you for the work you do to let us see what is really going on.
I taught art, and art history years ago in school of all grades. I noticed about the 6th year of teaching that children , young as 4th and 5th grade, not all but a good number, would say rude and disrespectful to me that I would have never done as as young child myself. Most of the people in this generation have no respect for people in authority at all.
I allow that I hadn't considered some of the points you mention.
But they are dwarfed by my concern that "executive privilege" is a license to cover up corruption -- and it seems apparent that this has been a common use to which "privilege" has been put for a long, long time.
Frankly, my inclination is to oblige ALL our representatives to wear bodycams 24/7 and stream the footage to the internet.
It is my experience, and to the best of my knowledge and information, that good and noble things seldom require secrecy to be done, but dark and bloody deeds nearly always do.
The President is not specifically granted the power to with-hold information from the People -- nor is the congress or the judiciary. I think that is not an accidental oversight. Would you hire a lawyer to represent you who refused to disclose to you information about your own case?
As for keeping secrets from foreign enemies, me, I personally don't have any enemies outside the US. And the main reason that the US has enemies in the world is that we have committed atrocities - conceived and executed in secret -- against too many peoples in too many places, most or all of which were kept secret from the American people with the help of "privilege." This suggests to me that we need LESS "privilege," not more.
I also find it ironic that the same folks who want LESS privacy for me, want MORE secrecy for themselves.
There MAY be some degree of privilege necessary for doing business, but if there is, it must be extremely limited and extremely temporary, and it's misuse should result in immediate impeachment.
I do find your arguments interesting, but not persuasive.
Oct 23, 2022·edited Oct 23, 2022Liked by Dr Naomi Wolf
Join me, please. Explain to me the reason you capitalize President, which by convention is done when personalizing the office -- say, President Biden or President Trump -- when it could be written, perhaps more properly, in lowercase, which generalizes the office so as, in my sense of the matter, to both broaden and strengthen your essential argument.
Anyway, I fully agree with both the gist and periphery of this, another great piece, and, as always, applaud your timber as a most sensitively, intuitively intelligent sociopolitical commentator.
PS: SPQR, ie, the Roman People and Senate; in toto, its Republic (maybe in contrast to earlier Greece's city-state-centered democracies); but our American republic (in plain, prosaic, non-titling usage) -- both seem to follow our linguistic convention.
I’m not sure I agree with all of this. While I agree it would be good to be able to bounce ideas off of one’s advisers in private before reaching a public decision without fear that such discussions would leak and then be misconstrued by the public or one’s enemies. However, the office of President, Pope, king, chieftain, dictator, Prime Minister or whatever is not the office of God. These are public leadership roles that humans have placed into such positions for the purpose of governing large groups of people where those large numbers make it difficult to rule from a consensus-based position. Some of those methods work better than others. None of them are sacrosanct. They should all be transparent more than not. It is in secrecy that darkness most often arises. The secrecy of child and spousal abuse is a case in point. Neither child nor spouse are motivated to speak against the abuser for any of a number of reasons. And what goes on at home is ALWAYS reflected elsewhere in society. An adult in a home who says “if you don’t shut up I will beat you senseless or kill you” might or might not mean that extreme. But it shouldn’t be said, either. And if it’s said often, someone should speak to that person and teach them better ways to express oneself lest the spoken word becomes deed. But that would require that SOMEONE in the household says something to someone outside the household. And while that can misconstrued and set off all sorts of sad and sometimes inappropriate interventions, MOST of the time, some intervention is needed.
I believe we are in the mess we are in because too many hidden thoughts and discussions have remained hidden and have created the darknesses we see, now. “Well, we were just hypothesizing but...why couldn’t we do it for real?” “If they don’t know it’s happening until it’s too late, we could get away with this crazy idea.” Words carry great power for good. And also for harm. We should not let too much of that hide in dark, secret corners or discourse. If you can’t say something about We The People in the light of day, maybe you shouldn’t say it at all.
I don’t believe I do and I don’t have a problem with what is said in this household if someone we’re to listen in. Which I suspect is happening given all of the electronics we have. But Spartacus Jones is right. I’m not making public decisions that affect millions of people. And my very military husband pointed out the same thing about not bringing discussions of possible warfare into the public. I think we should. Or have some input of such things. We are where we are because of all of the secret dealings and closet discussions where We The People do not get a voice. Our representative style of government on,y works when those representatives are honest and truly working on behalf of those who voted for them. That is no longer the case. Politicians are in business to stay in power for themselves and their agenda. Not for anyone else. And because of that, it all ought to be transparent since we cannot trust them anymore. When we dropped the atom bombs on Japan we let loose a Pandora’s box onto the entire world and we are now at the brink of WWIII. What we did was wrong. It killed innocent people and not just once but over many months and years. And it only put one country into submission while unleashing an arrogance in this country and elsewhere that looks to destroy us all. That being said, Bannon shouldn’t be going to jail. That is just more politicking and it’s also setting us up for the tyranny to come. Which, by the way, got here because it’s all been hush hush and kept in the dark.
Tulsi Gabbard, Naomi Wolf, Jonathan Turley, Dave Rubin, Joe Kent, Terrie Turchie, Drs Malone, Ladapo,McCullough,Risch,Buttacharaya,Kuldorff Ladapo,Levitt,Ionnides,Alexander,Atlas,Kory +, Jim Hanson, Dave Reaboi,Lawrence Jones,Asra Nomani,Zudhi Jasser,Peter Pyet,Darrell Scott,Sonnie Johnson,Charles Payne, Lara Logan,Mike Flynn, KT McFarland, Nan Hayward, Patrice Onwuka,Steve Hilton,Daniel Greenfield,Jim Kallstrom… Trump took the worst advice, rejected the best advice and was sabotaged by the collective. In many cases, by his own device.
DeSantis would have taken down the entire Swamp UniParty duplicitous duopoly. He does his homework.
I’d love to see a DeSantis/Gabbard ticket. They’re both far more pragmatic independent than partisan status quo
Oct 23, 2022·edited Oct 24, 2022Liked by Dr Naomi Wolf
Thomas Paine is quoted as saying: "A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." This current "administration" is clearly in servitude to the multi trillion and billion dollar corporations and institutions (among other unchecked entities) that festoon the landscape. It's been this way for decades. (Lincoln even talked about it, for goodness sakes.) For someone to think that the "government" is keeping this dumpster fire burning on its own is either extremely naive, in denial or unfamiliar with history. The role of the mainstream media to lull the masses into mindless complacency (social conditioning) keeps humanity distracted, divided and constantly at each other's throats. Thanks for your dedication and hard work!
You are one of the very top commentators and I deeply appreciate every post. Narrating your own content is a fantastic addition and will improve your reach. So many people don't freaking read (which means they might as well not be able to read!). IMPORTANT suggestion: you don't seem to have this podcast hooked up to the Substack RSS feed, which distributes it widely and mostly without censorship. This is easy, and if you do it, your fans like me will be able to download your messages on any platform. Thanks for all you do.
"The principle job of the President is to keep us out of war." - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at the inaugural Children's Health Defense conference in Knoxville on October 23, 2022 https://gettr.com/post/p1vkc7cdaba
Thanks. I urged other people to read the The Bodies of Others at the Children's Health Defense inaugural conference in Knoxville on October 23, 2022.
I love how smart and educated you've become on the historical traditions of politics and our Constitution. Not sure if this was always your wheelhouse but I recently returned to get a masters in public policy and it's been so interesting to hear from people IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Citizens have no idea how complicated and strategic politics is. They think they have all the answers. Granted this government has become something the founders never intended or could fathom, particularly the control of the Executive branch. However as it was originally constructed it was a genius system. The problem is not necessarily Washington - it's US. As we became more comfortable economically we started to look to the government to protect these comforts for us and everything became a "right" rather than a responsibility. I wrote in a piece that we've been sitting on our collective couch, eating bons-bons with our head buried in screens and all of a sudden wake up to find we are "sick." Freedom is much easier to lose than it is to gain. While we had our heads up our asses, corporations took over our government and they now respond to them rather than to the people. So much to delve into. THANK YOU for being a guiding light.
Well said; there has always been a blurry line between confidentiality and transparency, and I think those who argue for complete transparency are naive. The issue I have with total transparency is that it assumes that the public is more ethical than those in government. Sadly, this is far from the case at this point in world society. Moral underpinnings in many societies around the world have been under assault for centuries, and such supposed bastions of ethical behavior as journalism have been subverted for maybe a hundred years or more. Journalistic ethics, if not dead, is certainly in intensive care at least in the corporate world.
There are always good people in the public, but like you mentioned, there are always many, many, nefarious actors who would (and do) selectively edit and pervert what would seem to be honest deliberations of policy for the purpose of maintaining the power of their tribe. Will the real truth of policy debates be self-revelatory? I doubt it will in today's world of myriad massive deceptions.
The Obiden Regime is destroying Executive Privilege to obliterate the American First Movement. They have no regard for the Constitution, Religion, The Family, Small Business, Individual Rights and the Sanctity of Human Life. This is a play for Permanent Power in D.C, America and Western Civilization. So the Obiden Regime does not consider that their abuse of Political norms could be used against them. They don’t plan on losing. But, they will.
I did enjoy your essay very much. You made so many valid points supporting executive privilege as it relates to communications. Your reasoning is sound and logical. However, we are living in a world that has said to hell with tradition, logic, and systems that are work. All of it is being bulldozed by the left. I haven’t given up hope that we can fix this mess, but it will not be easy!
The substance of Bannon’s sentencing… and I wish this was fiction… His failure to comply with the Jan 6 supoena AND teasing Adam Schiff as “ Shifty Schiff” and Eric Swallwell as “ Fang-Fang Swalwell”. These were the DOJ’s sentencing guidelines.
This is justice in the Soviet States Of Amerika”
Da!
“If the role of President is thus made into one that no person in that position’s solid judgment can reasonably endure — and if the context around a President’s speech is made so litigious that decent advisors refuse to serve him or her, and thus refuse to serve the nation— we cannot have future leadership with any integrity or coherence — from any party.
Without Presidential confidentiality, we will barely have a meaningful American Presidency, in the future, at all.
And just consider: that situation would suit our existential enemies — long into the future — just fine.”
Head of nail meets hammer here.
Naomi, that’s part of the plan. And the present “Principal”, I will submit, though he be scarcely cognizant if it or much else, is serving admirably to that end.
But the Two Wings will somehow unite.
It is written.
A shepherd.
Thank you for the work you do to let us see what is really going on.
I taught art, and art history years ago in school of all grades. I noticed about the 6th year of teaching that children , young as 4th and 5th grade, not all but a good number, would say rude and disrespectful to me that I would have never done as as young child myself. Most of the people in this generation have no respect for people in authority at all.
Very interesting.
I allow that I hadn't considered some of the points you mention.
But they are dwarfed by my concern that "executive privilege" is a license to cover up corruption -- and it seems apparent that this has been a common use to which "privilege" has been put for a long, long time.
Frankly, my inclination is to oblige ALL our representatives to wear bodycams 24/7 and stream the footage to the internet.
It is my experience, and to the best of my knowledge and information, that good and noble things seldom require secrecy to be done, but dark and bloody deeds nearly always do.
The President is not specifically granted the power to with-hold information from the People -- nor is the congress or the judiciary. I think that is not an accidental oversight. Would you hire a lawyer to represent you who refused to disclose to you information about your own case?
As for keeping secrets from foreign enemies, me, I personally don't have any enemies outside the US. And the main reason that the US has enemies in the world is that we have committed atrocities - conceived and executed in secret -- against too many peoples in too many places, most or all of which were kept secret from the American people with the help of "privilege." This suggests to me that we need LESS "privilege," not more.
I also find it ironic that the same folks who want LESS privacy for me, want MORE secrecy for themselves.
There MAY be some degree of privilege necessary for doing business, but if there is, it must be extremely limited and extremely temporary, and it's misuse should result in immediate impeachment.
I do find your arguments interesting, but not persuasive.
I know, it's a vexed question --
Join me, please. Explain to me the reason you capitalize President, which by convention is done when personalizing the office -- say, President Biden or President Trump -- when it could be written, perhaps more properly, in lowercase, which generalizes the office so as, in my sense of the matter, to both broaden and strengthen your essential argument.
Anyway, I fully agree with both the gist and periphery of this, another great piece, and, as always, applaud your timber as a most sensitively, intuitively intelligent sociopolitical commentator.
PS: SPQR, ie, the Roman People and Senate; in toto, its Republic (maybe in contrast to earlier Greece's city-state-centered democracies); but our American republic (in plain, prosaic, non-titling usage) -- both seem to follow our linguistic convention.
Style guide...Strunck and White...
E B taught me, too. I found his little white book at once revelatory and logical, authoritative and most reasonable.
He convinced me, keep it smart, orderly, and most of all concise. I try to honor his high wisdom every day. Sometimes I succeed.
Thanks for the reminder.
PEANUTS….Goldman Sachs has been stealing us blind for decades. How about $10 Trillion dollars.
How Quickly They Bury the Truth - The Aging Viking
https://theagingviking.substack.com/p/how-quickly-they-bury-the-truth
I’m not sure I agree with all of this. While I agree it would be good to be able to bounce ideas off of one’s advisers in private before reaching a public decision without fear that such discussions would leak and then be misconstrued by the public or one’s enemies. However, the office of President, Pope, king, chieftain, dictator, Prime Minister or whatever is not the office of God. These are public leadership roles that humans have placed into such positions for the purpose of governing large groups of people where those large numbers make it difficult to rule from a consensus-based position. Some of those methods work better than others. None of them are sacrosanct. They should all be transparent more than not. It is in secrecy that darkness most often arises. The secrecy of child and spousal abuse is a case in point. Neither child nor spouse are motivated to speak against the abuser for any of a number of reasons. And what goes on at home is ALWAYS reflected elsewhere in society. An adult in a home who says “if you don’t shut up I will beat you senseless or kill you” might or might not mean that extreme. But it shouldn’t be said, either. And if it’s said often, someone should speak to that person and teach them better ways to express oneself lest the spoken word becomes deed. But that would require that SOMEONE in the household says something to someone outside the household. And while that can misconstrued and set off all sorts of sad and sometimes inappropriate interventions, MOST of the time, some intervention is needed.
I believe we are in the mess we are in because too many hidden thoughts and discussions have remained hidden and have created the darknesses we see, now. “Well, we were just hypothesizing but...why couldn’t we do it for real?” “If they don’t know it’s happening until it’s too late, we could get away with this crazy idea.” Words carry great power for good. And also for harm. We should not let too much of that hide in dark, secret corners or discourse. If you can’t say something about We The People in the light of day, maybe you shouldn’t say it at all.
I don’t believe I do and I don’t have a problem with what is said in this household if someone we’re to listen in. Which I suspect is happening given all of the electronics we have. But Spartacus Jones is right. I’m not making public decisions that affect millions of people. And my very military husband pointed out the same thing about not bringing discussions of possible warfare into the public. I think we should. Or have some input of such things. We are where we are because of all of the secret dealings and closet discussions where We The People do not get a voice. Our representative style of government on,y works when those representatives are honest and truly working on behalf of those who voted for them. That is no longer the case. Politicians are in business to stay in power for themselves and their agenda. Not for anyone else. And because of that, it all ought to be transparent since we cannot trust them anymore. When we dropped the atom bombs on Japan we let loose a Pandora’s box onto the entire world and we are now at the brink of WWIII. What we did was wrong. It killed innocent people and not just once but over many months and years. And it only put one country into submission while unleashing an arrogance in this country and elsewhere that looks to destroy us all. That being said, Bannon shouldn’t be going to jail. That is just more politicking and it’s also setting us up for the tyranny to come. Which, by the way, got here because it’s all been hush hush and kept in the dark.
Disingenuous of you, I think.
Forest is making private decisions and doesn't have a finger on the nuclear button.
The President is making public decisions that have staggering ramifications for the whole world.
Of the two, which should we care about?
Tulsi Gabbard, Naomi Wolf, Jonathan Turley, Dave Rubin, Joe Kent, Terrie Turchie, Drs Malone, Ladapo,McCullough,Risch,Buttacharaya,Kuldorff Ladapo,Levitt,Ionnides,Alexander,Atlas,Kory +, Jim Hanson, Dave Reaboi,Lawrence Jones,Asra Nomani,Zudhi Jasser,Peter Pyet,Darrell Scott,Sonnie Johnson,Charles Payne, Lara Logan,Mike Flynn, KT McFarland, Nan Hayward, Patrice Onwuka,Steve Hilton,Daniel Greenfield,Jim Kallstrom… Trump took the worst advice, rejected the best advice and was sabotaged by the collective. In many cases, by his own device.
DeSantis would have taken down the entire Swamp UniParty duplicitous duopoly. He does his homework.
I’d love to see a DeSantis/Gabbard ticket. They’re both far more pragmatic independent than partisan status quo
Amen, sister. I'm with you!
Thank you! I’ve had it.
Who would be AFRAID of giving honest, LAWFUL advice?
In my opinion, when someone suggests mass murder, or considers it, a few "problems" damn well SHOULD arise..
Thomas Paine is quoted as saying: "A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." This current "administration" is clearly in servitude to the multi trillion and billion dollar corporations and institutions (among other unchecked entities) that festoon the landscape. It's been this way for decades. (Lincoln even talked about it, for goodness sakes.) For someone to think that the "government" is keeping this dumpster fire burning on its own is either extremely naive, in denial or unfamiliar with history. The role of the mainstream media to lull the masses into mindless complacency (social conditioning) keeps humanity distracted, divided and constantly at each other's throats. Thanks for your dedication and hard work!
What a powerful and informative case Dr. Wolf has made.
You are a true patriot and we are very lucky to have your commitment and talent for our cause.
I 2nd that! Let it therefore be resolved . . .
You are one of the very top commentators and I deeply appreciate every post. Narrating your own content is a fantastic addition and will improve your reach. So many people don't freaking read (which means they might as well not be able to read!). IMPORTANT suggestion: you don't seem to have this podcast hooked up to the Substack RSS feed, which distributes it widely and mostly without censorship. This is easy, and if you do it, your fans like me will be able to download your messages on any platform. Thanks for all you do.
oh thank you! I will ask my team to help me do that!