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This video interview is a testimony that electing Biden is electing his entire cabinet of most able people to deal with both domestic and global needs, and for the continued prosperity of America.

Electing Trump is the complete opposite. Professor is one of a few journalists who can meet with the busy SS one on one. Thank you Professor.

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So clear and sincere. Acknowledging things that we don’t know, asking good concrete questions and humbly proposing possible solutions… very positive. Good to hear the content and the manner… Thanks 🙏

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So appreciate getting the second part of this Professor ⭐

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Yes - thank you!

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Wow, I was curious just where your interview took place and did a little research based on the location potentially being in one of the diplomatic reception rooms. Amazing museum collection! That desk behind Mr. Secretary is known as Bombe desk and bookcase (1753). Hope you had time to tour around and view the wonderful collection there.

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https://tour.diplomaticrooms.state.gov/index.html

(take the virtual tour and turn your sound on, you can listen to the chimes of the clock located in one of the many rooms).

I'm guessing the interview was held in the Thomas Jefferson Room based on the paint color of the walls and the furnishings.

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Thank you Heather for bringing the interview to us. It was so informative and helpful. Getting to know our Secretary a little better was a really wonderful experience. I wish more of our various leaders would make themselves available for substantive conversations.

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Wonderful, thoughtful, conversation.

So much packed into a short amount of time. Thank you to you both.

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Thank you so much, Heather, for doing and sharing this …. A beautiful presentation whose ending touches my heart, as a member of the Baha’i Faith and our belief in the oneness of mankind. I appreciate your ongoing efforts to direct minds and hearts.

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As a Baha'i also, I appreciate these efforts.

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Thank you for this. Secretary Blinken is a beacon of hope and reason.

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The summation against demonization is key -- we have to acknowledge the humanity in people, especially the fact that people are not clones of each other just because they share something in common. Everyone has different experiences, different situations that lead to differing perceptions. We have to focus on what we have in common in those experiences, situations and perceptions -- for example: living safe and healthy lives which takes a village, a team, a shared quest. This conversation said much about these realities and possibilities. Thanks!

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Trusting another person allows the other person to gain an advantage by betraying that trust. And yet, on the count of three, if we erase trust from civilization, then on the count of three, civilization does not exist. The question to ask is how do we have civilization? A clue is in the behavior of preverbal infants who have had no opportunity to absorb cultural norms and thus demonstrate our innate nature in controlled experiments in which they have a strong preference for puppets who treat other puppets with respect and who protect other puppets from the bully, along with a strong repulsion toward the bully.

"We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us." —Jo Cox (1974–2016)

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How exactly do you do that when you call your political opponents fascists, Hitlerian, evil, deplorable?

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You know perfectly well where the calling-names and labeling comes from, James.

People do it by default (stereotyping, abstracting, group-setting) unless schools teach the skills to see others as individuals.

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No one learned in 3rd grade trump is evil. They were told that by people like Heather. There are consequences to that kind of rhetoric and we saw it yesterday. Especially when Heather STILL refuses to condemn the shooting

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I told myself Trump is evil by observing Trump. He harms others without regard for the harm, he criticizes what he does not understand, and he makes it clear he does not want to understand. And neither do you. That's as obvious to me now as it would have been in kindergarten.

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This exactly how you get to a civil war. If Joe Biden is evil too, then

you won't have a problem with guy showing with bad intentions at his rally too.

According to your stupid logic, as long as YOU say he is evil you are justified to do what happened yesterday.

Thats disgraceful. BTW a good man died yesterday. He was a firefighter.

Is he evil too?

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I saw an interview with a coworker of the firefighter who died, and he called his fallen coworker a hero. So, I knew he was a Trump supporter, and now I know he was a hero.

I was invited into the home of a husband and wife who support Trump. We didn't talk politics, but the wife told me about an incident her husband encountered as a police officer, at which point I called him a hero, I haven't changed my mind.

If I disagree with someone, I have three options. I can assume I'm right and they're wrong, or I can assume they're right and I'm wrong, or I can make an attempt to resolve the conflict. But the other person has the same three options, and we won't resolve the conflict unless we both choose the third option.

I know many people who choose the third option, I view them as mature, and we always resolve the worthy-of-resolving conflicts. I know many people who oppose Trump, and many who support Trump, and refuse to choose the third option. But I don't know anyone who chooses the third option and continues to support Trump.

So, if you want to stay a Trump supporter, stay away from that third option.

To answer your question, no. The firefighter was not evil, just immature, like many on both sides of the political spectrum. And Trump is not intrinsically evil. But he acts in a way that causes great harm to innocent victims, and he makes sure we all to know that doesn't care about the harm that he is causing. We have a name for that. We call it evil.

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Ah, but we teach our 3rd graders to stand up to bullies.

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By trying to murdering them and the people around them?

What disgraceful comment

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I reported "James A's" multiple violations of the Substack Inc's 2024 Terms & Conditions twice as of 7/15/24.

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Heather has never said he is evil. For that matter, neither has Biden.

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Many Republicans, Candace, feel embittered, paranoid, under siege, victims.

Billionaire money, dark money, bribed and perjured justices on the Clarence court, demagogues across the land, and Putin agents all exploit these fellow Americans of ours.

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Are you talking about Soros billions? The payments made by the Chinese, Russians, Ukrainians, and Romanians into the Biden family?

As for siege, what do you call an assassination attempt? Especially when the Secret Service run by the Biden administration refused to increase security? How was a shooter allowed to scale a building in plain view? Why was no one there? Where did a 20 year learn to shoot a target at 150 years?

This was coordinated. No 20 year old learns to shoot that distance without a scope? Infrared target?

How did he know the building would be empty?

Secret Service protocol is to secure any area up to 1000 yards where a shooter could aim. THis was less that 150 yards with a plain view?

Why is the FBI already releasing a statement 3 days after the attempt that its a lone gunman. I thought they didn't comment on active investigations

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Are you kidding? When invoke Hitler, dictator, and the end of democracy you are describing evil. You are delusional and naive to believe otherwise

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So clear, precise - elegant ! Such a pleasure to have the opportunity to hear Mr. Blinken explain, once more, the issues in which he has engaged on our behalf. Thank you Dr. Richardson for another terrific interview!

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Two great minds!

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Great work, Heather. How do you even find the time? You pull the information out seemingly without effort. The consumate pro.

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Many thanks, Professor, for bringing our government closer to us as you have done here in this conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken!

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I am so proud and feel so safe knowing Secretary B is active, Biden chose well. thanks HCR for asking the needed questions.

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Informative and hinestly as smart as any conversation I have listened to in a long time.

Thank you our dear HCR and Mr. Blinken. Thank you

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Given the impact of AIPAC exerting influence by money on our two political parties, we may not as a nation operate under a routine policy to "buy people off," but there is more than enough example to show that there is plenty of enthusiasm from the candidates shown by both parties for being bought, which means they are selling governance over the American people to the operatives of a foreign nation. Deny deny deny all you want. We can see this clearly with our own eyes.

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It's not as simple or cut and dried as you present it. US policy discourages bribery and preferential treatment. Does it happen in isolated instances? Yes, it's undeniable. But it's done between susceptible individuals and whoever bribes them.

Over time, we have created a civil service system that operates to rules established by "agency law". It's not dependant on human whims! Compared to, say, Russian Systema where every step in a civil process is viewed as transactional and policies vary according to department heads, we have a stable stucture whose rules don't change unless the enabling laws change. Equal treatment of all customers is expected. Preferential treatment is discouraged.

Is it 100% reliable? Oh my no. But in comparison it functions better than most.

Beware. This is what the conspiracy addicts who talk about The Deep State want to un-do. As when Trimp hollowed out our State Department in 2016, and with his current plan to replace civil servants with "loyalists", that is what we'd lose, and in short order it'd all default to Systema or a financial appeal to The Leader for an exemption from the rules. The doors to bribery and preference would open wide.

The recent SCOTUS Chevron ruling was precisely such an attack which is why it caused such alarm.

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"....Trimp hollowed out our State Department in 2016.." He hollowed out a lot more than that. All departments were on notice, cowered, and scarcely functional. * Some Americans paid a dear price; I am one.

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"Is it 100% reliable? Oh my no. But in comparison it functions better than most."

Compared to WHAT? Enough with the two-party vacuous cheer-leading of our mythical "exceptionalism." Go to scholars who study this and they are just as good as it as history professors are at history.

At the start of this year we were listed as a "flawed democracy" at # 26 to #40 depending on whose list you use...at best, one step above Netanyahu's Israel. After the SCOTUS decision this year, we are certain to fall much farther.

I don't like being gaslighted by those who think their pontifications about "Russia" matter more than evidence or paying attention to scholars and investigative reporters. They do NOT. Our two cartel parties have not passed mandatory "loyalty oaths" to Putin's Russia on American citizens in 38 states, but they fell all over themselves to do that for Bibi Netanyahu's gangster government. Consult Open Secrets for a partial revelation of AIPAC's legalized bribery and influence buying. Google "world's ranking of democracies" to gain information---NOT pontifications—from several sources about how we rank in comparison to other countries and on what basis.

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Individuals have weaknesses; Blinken was talking about policy. Nothing is perfect, and it's always a struggle; but the focus remains.

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