The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - The Stone Zone ｜ 01-14-26

00:00:00.000 Every week, the Payne family cuts straight to the real financial story.

00:00:04.480 The one question, Bob, everyone's asking is, are we in an artificial intelligence bubble?

00:00:10.080 You've been through boom and busts. What do you think?

00:00:12.860 No hype, no myths, just what actually matters to your money.

00:00:17.440 Does feel very similar to what we experienced in the 90s. Where are we, though? Are we in 1995,

00:00:23.000 1997, 1999? Listen to the Payne Points of Wealth on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:00:30.000 Nova Scotia Canada is a technology powerhouse with top-tier talent, thriving innovation,

00:00:35.880 and limitless opportunity for growth and success. Be part of it at investnovascotia.ca.

00:00:44.860 The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:00:52.200 You are now entering the Stone Zone. Well, all eyes worldwide are focused on the

00:00:59.720 teetering, brutal Islamic regime in Iran. There are speculation that U.S. forces have

00:01:08.040 massed near the Iranian border, and there's a real possibility of action in the next 24 hours.

00:01:14.860 Although, amid a days-long nationwide internet blackout, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk,

00:01:22.620 has valiantly waived subscription fees for Starlink inside Iran, allowing users with satellite

00:01:29.240 receivers to access uncensored internet for free. According to Bloomberg, the move was confirmed

00:01:35.500 by sources familiar with Starlink's operations and by Elon Musk's own allies, who have worked diligently

00:01:42.080 to keep Iranians connected and able to effectively communicate as they wage revolution against the

00:01:48.700 despised Islamic theocracy. The development comes as President Donald Trump escalates his rhetoric

00:01:55.640 against the Iranian scourge, urging Iranian citizens to continue protesting and to reclaim 0.88

00:02:01.520 their institutions from the ruling clerics. What began last month as economic protests in Tehran's

00:02:08.380 marketplaces has now involved in widespread unrest targeting police stations and government buildings.

00:02:14.700 I don't need to remind you that the betrayal of the Shah in 1979 by the peanut farmer Jimmy Carter, 0.97

00:02:24.240 who didn't have much understanding of international affairs, is what allowed this brutal Islamic regime 1.00

00:02:30.420 to rise. Under the Shah, who was no exemplar of human rights by any means, Iranian society was still 0.77

00:02:38.920 cosmopolitan, pro-Western. Women were allowed to be educated, students were allowed to study abroad,

00:02:46.940 and Iran was a much safer place. At the same time, the Iran government did also brutalize its citizens, 0.85

00:02:56.180 which is why I'm opposed to the idea that should the current regime fall, or perhaps I should say

00:03:02.140 when the current regime falls, that the house of Pahlavi and the Shah's son should be restored to power.

00:03:10.780 The answer to this theocracy is not a new monarchy. Iranian officials are becoming increasingly 0.74

00:03:17.020 desperate, whining about armed rioters attacking law enforcement with firearms and improvised weapons.

00:03:23.400 This is a reckoning that's been a long time coming. Meanwhile, Iran's regime is responding with

00:03:29.460 electronic warfare. According to the Wall Street Journal, authorities are actively jamming Starlink

00:03:35.000 signals, confiscating satellite dishes, and hunting down users, particularly in the protest-heavy

00:03:41.920 neighborhoods of Tehran. Starlink's presence will help expose the regime's brutality and shows,

00:03:47.780 yet again, authoritarian governments fear free information and the truth more than anything else.

00:03:55.240 With the free and open internet, it's hard for government tyrants to keep

00:03:59.240 populations ignorant and under control. God bless Elon Musk for his work in empowering Iranians to 1.00

00:04:05.440 forge a better life for themselves and their posterity. Bad news for one would be presidential

00:04:14.140 candidate. The federal government is now reopening one of the most troubling death cases in recent

00:04:19.840 Pennsylvania history. That would be the 2011 killing of Ellen Greenberg, a 27-year-old Philadelphia

00:04:27.720 schoolteacher whose death was officially ruled as a suicide despite overwhelming red flags.

00:04:34.520 Greenberg was found dead in the apartment she shared with her fiancé, with 20 stab wounds, including 10 to the

00:04:41.740 back of her head and the base of her skull. A 10-inch knife was still lodged in her chest when she was found.

00:04:49.380 The medical examiner initially ruled the death a homicide, then reversed course and labeled it as a suicide,

00:04:56.040 a decision that has baffled medical experts and enraged her family for more than a decade.

00:05:03.160 Now, the U.S. Attorney General's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has quietly requested

00:05:08.480 and obtained all case records signaling renewed federal interests. According to NBC10, those documents

00:05:15.560 were turned over last month. In a stunning development, the original medical examiner signed a sworn statement

00:05:21.900 in January of 2025, admitting the death should not have been ruled as suicide. Medical records also

00:05:29.280 contradict the suicide ruling. Greenberg's treating physician wrote that she was not suicidal

00:05:34.640 and noted bruising consistent with domestic abuse. One stab wound was reportedly inflicted after she would

00:05:42.160 have already been dead. Yet suicide's rulings have been publicly defended by then Attorney General,

00:05:49.360 now Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is clearly planning a 2028 presidential campaign.

00:05:57.100 I predict to you here in the Stone Zone that this case is going to dog Josh Shapiro and any campaign

00:06:03.920 for president. Greenberg's parents settled a lawsuit with the city of Philadelphia for $650,000

00:06:09.660 in exchange for an independent review, one that again upheld the suicide finding. But with federal

00:06:17.280 prosecutors now circling the central question remains unanswered. Was this a tragic miscarriage of justice

00:06:24.760 or a cover-up that has lasted 14 long years? And how intimately involved was Governor Shapiro in this

00:06:31.960 cover-up? And there is no doubt that the fiancé's family are large donors to the former Attorney General

00:06:39.160 and now governor. And what would compel Governor Shapiro to suppress the truth in this case?

00:06:46.420 The American people really deserve to know. A shocking security breach has also been exposed

00:06:53.380 within the United States Secret Service, showing how little has changed within that organization

00:06:58.520 since President Trump's near assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania. An undercover journalist

00:07:05.160 with O'Keefe Media Group, run by my good friend James O'Keefe, obtained sensitive information

00:07:11.680 about Vice President J.D. Vance after a Secret Service agent revealed protected details during what

00:07:18.400 he believed was a Tinder date. According to the O'Keefe Media Group founder James O'Keefe,

00:07:26.740 Chief Agent Thomas Escotto discovered non-public information, pardon me, disclosed non-public

00:07:32.660 information, including future travel plans, details about guarding the Vice President's children,

00:07:39.700 and confidential elements of Secret Service operations. Portions of the video were deliberately

00:07:45.380 censored to avoid endangering Vice President J.D. Vance or his family. Escotto openly expressed

00:07:52.660 hostility towards President Donald Trump, telling the undercover reporter for O'Keefe Media that he

00:07:57.900 hated Trump's immigration policies, and dismissively referring to protecting the Vice President's

00:08:03.360 children as babysitting. James O'Keefe said the goal of releasing the footage was to send a shockwave

00:08:09.740 through the federal government and to force accountability inside agencies entrusted with

00:08:14.440 important national security interests. While the Secret Service has not confirmed a criminal violation,

00:08:20.680 it acknowledged the conduct may violate its internal code of ethics. I certainly hope it would.

00:08:27.900 This revelation comes amid growing scrutiny of the United States Secret Service. We've never received

00:08:33.420 any answers as to how they could possibly have left Thomas Matthew Crooks get up on a roof of that

00:08:38.980 building and allow him to get off potential kill shots against President Donald Trump, who was only

00:08:44.900 being saved by a quarter of an inch in the grace of God. Perhaps Eric Prince needs to be called in to

00:08:51.580 overhaul the Secret Service. It appears that that branch of government is as corrupt and ineffectual as

00:08:57.740 any bureaucratic entity operating out of Washington, D.C.'s sewer. Recently, President Donald Trump's motorcade

00:09:05.540 in Palm Beach had to be rerouted when a suspicious device was found in the roadway. Every single night,

00:09:13.020 I pray for the safety of President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and their families and all

00:09:18.580 the key members of their administration. As the radical left is perfectly prepared to use violence,

00:09:25.060 we saw two attempts on the life of President Donald Trump, but what we don't have is answers.

00:09:32.800 We've seen the video footage and the fact that the alleged gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks,

00:09:39.040 was allowed to get off at least one shot before taken out by a counter-terrorist,

00:09:44.140 and he was actually hit first by a county sheriff's officer. But how is it that all of those in law

00:09:51.580 enforcement, the state police, the local police, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland

00:09:57.760 Security were all on different radio frequencies, so they could not communicate with each other?

00:10:05.000 How is it possible that the fact that Thomas Matthew Crooks was seen inside the perimeter of the area where

00:10:13.720 President Trump spoke that day for a full 90 minutes, yet Donald Trump's direct Secret Service

00:10:21.340 detail was never informed? I can tell you, having worked for three American presidents, that the

00:10:27.760 that the regulatory norm here would have been to remove the presidential candidate and former

00:10:34.220 president from the premises immediately. But we still have are more questions than answers,

00:10:40.660 and that doesn't even speak to the subsequent attempt on the president's life at the West Palm Beach

00:10:47.160 Trump International Golf Course, where a man, Ryan Ralph, with very clear connections to the Central

00:10:54.980 Intelligence Agency, was able to get into the parameter, obtain a weapon, and come very close to

00:11:03.740 shooting our president. Once again, the American people need more answers. Tomorrow on the Stone Zone,

00:11:11.580 we're going to be joined by none other than my very good friend, the editor and publisher of the

00:11:20.220 Illinois Review. Mark Vargas is going to join us with really an earth-shaking report exposing how

00:11:27.860 Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, you know, he despises Doge. That's because he himself is corrupt, 0.53

00:11:34.680 and the disclosures by Mark Vargas of the Illinois Review will involve taxpayer money, insider business

00:11:42.840 interests, and cashing in at the expense of hard-working Illinois families. You're going to

00:11:48.160 want to tune in for this. We are going to break some news right here in the Stone Zone. I appreciate

00:11:54.660 you joining us today in the Stone Zone on the Red Apple Audio Networks. We're here five days a week

00:11:59.720 talking politics, news, history, and, well, more politics. This story coming up on J.B. Pritzker

00:12:07.280 exposes exactly why he hates Doge. If you think this Somali scandal in Minnesota is big,

00:12:14.580 wait until you see what's going on in Illinois and how the billionaire governor has pocketed millions

00:12:22.080 from Illinois taxpayers, supposedly through his blind trust. Of course, if he knows what's in the trust,

00:12:28.380 how blind can it be? I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to the Stone Zone right here on the

00:12:33.700 Red Apple Audio Networks. If you want to hear more politics, whatever you do, don't touch that dial.

00:12:38.860 Every week, the Payne family cuts straight to the real financial story. The one question, Bob,

00:12:46.120 everyone's asking is, are we in an artificial intelligence bubble? You've been through boom

00:12:51.660 and busts. What do you think? No hype, no myths, just what actually matters to your money.

00:12:57.780 Does feel very similar to what we experienced in the 90s. Where are we, though? Are we in 1995,

00:13:03.120 1997, 1999? Listen to the Pain Points of Wealth on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:13:11.840 The Stone Zone. Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:13:18.860 Welcome back into the Stone Zone. Could Greenland really become our 51st state? President Donald

00:13:26.940 Trump has talked openly about his desire to have Greenland join the United States. Later on in the

00:13:32.820 program, Rod Martin of the Rod Martin Report is going to join us to break that question down. I

00:13:38.820 pointed out that there are at least two Canadian provinces, both Saskatchewan and Alberta, moving

00:13:45.700 swiftly under their constitution towards independence, which could be the first step to either one of them

00:13:53.180 applying for statehood. Saskatchewan, one of the wealthiest provinces in Canada when it comes to

00:14:00.720 rare earth minerals, oil and gas, smaller and probably the most conservative province in Canada,

00:14:07.520 moving swiftly to put that question on the ballot. Under the Canadian constitution, any

00:14:13.400 province can declare its independence by a simple vote of the people. And then, of course, they would

00:14:18.840 have to apply for American statehood. But perhaps Greenland will get in ahead of them. Rod Martin is going to

00:14:26.320 join us later in the program to talk about that. You can find him at rodmartin.org, one of the great

00:14:31.900 thinkers of our time. Now, nearly half of American adults are rejecting both major political parties

00:14:38.740 in the sign of deep public dissatisfaction with the political system and the uniparty that lords over it.

00:14:45.400 According to a new survey from Gallup, a record 45% of U.S. adults identified as political

00:14:52.400 independents in 2025, while 27% each call themselves either Democrats or Republicans. This is a seismic

00:15:01.540 shift from the past. Gallup surveyed more than 13,000 adults over the course of the year. This trend is

00:15:08.660 being driven primarily by younger Americans who do not feel served by our current mainstream politics.

00:15:16.420 Firm majorities of Generation Z and millennials now identify as independents along with more than

00:15:22.860 4 in 10 Gen X adults. Older generations remain more partisan, but even there, party loyalty is beginning

00:15:31.780 to weaken. Importantly, many independents still lean one way or the other. Of that 45%, Gallup found that

00:15:39.520 20% said they leaned to the Democrats, while 15% said they leaned to the Republicans, and 10% leaned

00:15:47.160 neither way, in particular, according to the survey. Gallup issued a critical warning that this is not a

00:15:53.480 surge of enthusiasm for Democrats. Favorable ratings for the Democrat Party remain historically poor,

00:15:59.060 and frankly, no better than the Republicans. Republicans can win over these independents by

00:16:04.240 fulfilling the promise and agenda put forward by President Donald Trump. That means we must see

00:16:11.240 deeply corrupt, deep state officials thrown behind bars for their illegal and unconstitutional efforts

00:16:17.480 to destroy Donald Trump and his family. It also means we have to double down on tariffs and get better

00:16:25.700 trade deals, as President Donald Trump has been doing. Add that to the largest tax cut in American

00:16:32.560 history, and the regulatory cuts, not to mention the upcoming interest rate cut we'll get when we no

00:16:39.920 longer have a completely and totally politicized Federal Reserve Board. It's interesting that when Jerome

00:16:48.280 Powell, the current chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, clearly lied under oath to Congress about the

00:16:54.480 expenditure of millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money, while those in the mainstream media say

00:16:59.820 that should just be excused. That's not what they said when they accused me, falsely, of lying under

00:17:05.860 oath about Russian collusion that never actually happened. So I believe that the key to extending

00:17:13.540 President Donald Trump's electoral coalition is to fulfill the promises that he put forward in the last

00:17:21.700 campaign, and he is doing that. Inflation is down, food prices are down, gas prices are down sharply,

00:17:30.160 and Uncle Sam is no longer being taken as a sucker around the world. The answer to the 2026 elections is

00:17:38.580 to fulfill the promises of 2024, and the president is doing that. Now, whether Republicans in Congress are

00:17:46.280 smart enough to follow that lead remains to be seen. But the way to galvanize his independents and to win

00:17:52.240 the midterms is to keep the promises made in the 2024 election. Don't go away. Coming up on the other

00:17:59.060 side, Rod Martin of the Rod Martin Report joins me to talk about whether it is feasible or whether it could

00:18:05.460 actually happen that Greenland would become our 51st state. Don't go away. We'll be right back.

00:18:11.940 Welcome back into the Stone Zone. So could Greenland, a Danish colony in our hemisphere, 1.00

00:18:31.400 actually become America's 51st state? Joining me to talk about that is one of my favorite public

00:18:38.100 intellectuals. That's Rod Martin. He's the founder and CEO of Martin Capital, but he also helms

00:18:44.140 the Rod Martin Report. I like Rod Martin because he's a technology entrepreneur, an investor, and a

00:18:50.320 futurist, but he's also a realist and a thinker. So when he writes, I love to read it. I love to repost

00:18:56.900 his stuff, and I always like to get his take on these things. He's been way out ahead of others

00:19:01.520 in analyzing the situation regarding Greenland. Rod, welcome into the Stone Zone.

00:19:07.160 Great to be here. So do you believe that Greenland is a key part of effectuating what we're calling

00:19:16.860 the Don Rowe Doctrine in this hemisphere? And if so, why is that?

00:19:23.420 Well, the president's exactly right to be concerned about acquiring Greenland, and of course, he's not

00:19:30.340 the first president to do so. To listen to the intermedia, you would get the idea that he's off on some

00:19:36.700 crazy bender, but Dwight Eisenhower wanted to acquire Greenland. He wasn't even the first, and there has 0.98

00:19:44.440 been a consistent understanding of the need for this. There just hasn't been a lot of attention.

00:19:51.240 Well, it's a new day. We live in an age in which either through global warming, which I think many of us

00:19:59.000 are properly skeptical of, or through the advent of growing nuclear power capabilities resulting in the

00:20:07.740 likely prospect of a lot of nuclear icebreakers on the part of China and the United States and Russia,

00:20:16.080 you actually have sea lanes in the north that are of increasing vitality. And Greenland commands those

00:20:24.300 sea lanes very much as it did during the Cold War and World War II between itself and Iceland

00:20:32.840 and the UK. These are absolutely vital to American security, but there's more. Greenland is also a source

00:20:42.340 of a tremendous quantity of rare earth minerals and other natural resources, especially oil and gas

00:20:51.740 offshore that are vital to the future. And they are all difficult to access. They are all far beyond

00:20:59.260 the technical and financial resources of Denmark to exploit. So what we have is a situation where the

00:21:06.200 57,000 Greenlanders are stuck in needless poverty under colonial domination by a European power,

00:21:14.000 if you can call it that, and really have no hope of any of this ever happening for them, apart from a

00:21:23.260 major power coming in and developing it. So the president's right. If we don't act, China or Russia will,

00:21:32.020 and there's not a lot Greenland, I'm sorry, Denmark can do about it. This is a money pit for them,

00:21:37.920 a billion dollar subsidy a year, and accomplishing absolutely nothing. So at the outset, you said,

00:21:45.660 should they become 51st state? Probably not. They want to be independent. There's a way to achieve

00:21:51.840 everything for everybody. We can end Denmark's need to subsidize them. We can take over that role of

00:21:59.540 patron. Greenland can become independent, and we can form a compact of free association with them

00:22:06.980 as we have with the Mariana Islands and with the Marshalls and with Palau. They get all the

00:22:14.220 benefits of independence with none of the costs, and everybody's happy. As you know, President Donald

00:22:20.720 Trump has identified the Greenland question as a question of national security. While Denmark's

00:22:27.340 leaders have downplayed the threat to Greenland posed by the Russians or the Chinese amidst President

00:22:33.040 Trump's outspoken desire to acquire this frozen island, Denmark's own intelligence agency recently

00:22:39.160 released an assessment bluntly warning of Russian and Chinese military ambitions and expansion towards

00:22:46.080 Greenland and the entire Arctic. You've also written very compellingly about the importance of the

00:22:52.640 development of nuclear power in the Arctic in this new frontier. So for those who try to say,

00:22:59.060 well, Trump's bellicose language, his desires to obtain Greenland are similar to the war in Iraq,

00:23:09.660 let's say, under the neocons. I don't believe that. I believe that this is, in fact, a national

00:23:15.060 security question confronting our country. It absolutely is, and there's nothing neoconservative

00:23:22.560 about it. This is, this is the same kind of moral realism we saw under Ronald Reagan, where you use

00:23:31.060 short, sharp uses of American power, such as we just did in Caracas, to achieve a multiplicity of

00:23:37.260 ends. Well, there's no need for a short, sharp use of power here, but there is a need for a very

00:23:43.740 Trumpian, maximalist position going into a negotiation that compels the people on the other side of the

00:23:52.060 table to get creative about actually solving the problem. And the end result of that is always a

00:23:58.280 good deal for everyone. Anybody who wants to play ball with Donald Trump is going to win in the

00:24:05.300 process as he wins in the process. It's the people like the Ayatollah and Putin and Xi Jinping who are

00:24:15.200 going to lose, because if you don't want to play ball with Donald Trump, he's going to whack you,

00:24:20.580 and it's going to really actually be incredibly entertaining for many of us, and it's going to

00:24:26.140 be a very effective course of action for the United States. So that's just not going to be in the cards

00:24:32.160 here, but it is going to get these guys to sit down and talk, and we saw the beginning of that today

00:24:37.000 with the foreign ministers from Greenland and Denmark coming to meet with Marco Rubio.

00:24:42.780 That's a good development, and they can say whatever bellicose things they want, but at the end of the

00:24:48.040 day, they came to Washington, and they're talking about the problem, and we're going to get to a

00:24:53.860 good solution. This president will see to that. Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to

00:24:59.780 Rod Martin of the Rod Martin Report. You can go to rodmartin.org. I strongly recommend you subscribe,

00:25:06.720 either at Substack or at Rod's own website. Always incisive analysis of the political developments

00:25:13.900 and economic developments around the globe. You know, Rod, I'm a political animal, and therefore,

00:25:20.020 I don't see what the harm would be to putting this question up before the people of Greenland

00:25:25.240 in a referendum. Why are the globalists so doggedly opposed to democracy and letting the people of

00:25:32.380 Greenland speak about their future? Well, it really is odd, isn't it? Because polling has long

00:25:39.900 shown that the Greenlanders want to be independent of Denmark. Denmark has not been a good colonial

00:25:47.800 master, and there is, of course, this inherent bellicosity in the president's approach, so of

00:25:55.680 course, that makes people nervous, but the truth of the matter is, they would be independent if they

00:26:01.860 could, and they've been very clear about that, and the unhappiness with Denmark is widespread and

00:26:07.820 longstanding. So, if they could be independent without the costs of independence, that would

00:26:16.180 solve the problem for everybody. Again, a compact of free association, such as we've already entered

00:26:23.100 into with three separate independent countries in the Pacific, all island countries, I might add,

00:26:29.960 is perfect for them. It's expensive to have a military. It's expensive to have embassies in 195

00:26:38.700 countries, or even a fraction of that. It's expensive to be part of the United Nations and all these

00:26:44.740 different things, and the United States just takes care of that for the people in free association with

00:26:51.100 us. So, they get to be free. They get to do whatever they want internally. America gets appropriate

00:26:57.500 defense considerations, and we pay the freight on all those foreign policy matters. This would solve

00:27:04.640 the problem, and yes, once the Greenlanders fully understand that that's an option on the table,

00:27:11.640 I think you get to a referendum, and I think this is exactly what they're going to vote for.

00:27:17.240 Yeah, the EU and NATO talk tough, but I don't think they have much to back it up, and I think the

00:27:23.660 president's going to call their bluff here. Rod, while I've got you, I've got to ask you your take on

00:27:30.820 the developments swiftly happening there in Iran, where the regime, which is extraordinarily brutal,

00:27:37.660 people need to understand that mass public executions are part of their bag of tricks. This is

00:27:43.720 one of the most brutal governments in the world. It's not really a government. I think former

00:27:49.320 president Richard Nixon, when he was at the Shah's funeral, correctly appointed this as a mob, 1.00

00:27:55.640 which is what it really is. Your take on the situation in Iran.

00:28:01.020 Well, the crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, was interviewed today. He says that his best information suggests

00:28:08.180 that the regime has murdered 12,000 protesters. These are unarmed people, and this is exactly why we have a

00:28:16.980 second amendment in this country, because the truth is, if only the state has guns, then everyone

00:28:24.900 is at the mercy of the state, and that's exactly what's happened in Iran. So the president came out 0.52

00:28:30.740 very strongly, I thought, you know, said very clearly, keep protesting, help is on the way. Well, we don't

00:28:38.140 know exactly what that means. It certainly includes the 25% tariff he just slapped on any country that

00:28:44.220 continues to do business with Iran. But there are a range of military operations that are available

00:28:50.700 that he is strongly implying we're going to employ. And the only question is, what is the mix? And what

00:28:56.900 is the date? And when he says, help's on the way, and then it doesn't happen within 24 hours, we

00:29:02.980 shouldn't be unnerved by that. The truth of the matter is, Iran's halfway around the world, and it's not 1.00

00:29:08.520 as easy to do this as it would be in Caracas. But what is certain is, this military under this

00:29:17.200 president, and Pete Hegseth, and the team that Trump has assembled, is absolutely going to be

00:29:24.160 successful in what they do. And I think we could be on the brink of this regime toppling.

00:29:29.760 I agree with your analysis. I'm not sure Americans fully appreciate the courage of the Iranian 0.81

00:29:37.820 people. This is an incredibly brutal regime with a vicious secret police. Now there's huge

00:29:45.300 disinformation that those protesters who are being killed are being killed by Israeli agents who are

00:29:52.120 doing it as a provocation. I reject that entirely. This is a manifestation of the fact that

00:29:59.620 conditions in Iran have really eroded to the fact that people's quality of life has been badly

00:30:05.600 disturbed. There's a lack of food, there's a lack of fuel, there's a lack of gainful employment. This

00:30:13.380 is a society that is collapsing before our very eyes. And I don't think you're going to have

00:30:19.580 an invasion. I'm not sure that's going to be necessary. I think this brutal regime is going to

00:30:27.060 topple on its own. And then the question becomes, what comes next? I am opposed to moving from a 0.99

00:30:34.580 theocracy back to a monarchy. I don't think that's the answer. Obviously, I would like to see that I

00:30:40.480 have to see the nation have free, fair, open elections, and a democratic process to select a

00:30:47.740 way forward. I'm not sure that that is immediately realistic. What do you see coming up in Iran post-regime?

00:30:56.140 Well, you and I have friends on both sides of the question of, is Reza Pahlavi the right guy to lead a

00:31:04.620 transition? And some of our friends are concerned that he may be in league with the Revolutionary

00:31:11.900 Guard, and other of our friends poohoo that. And the truth of the matter is, we can't know until

00:31:19.720 something happens. But Reza Pahlavi has consistently called for a transitional government that becomes a

00:31:28.700 secular democracy. And he seems to be patterning what he has in mind on Juan Carlos in Spain. After

00:31:36.600 Franco died, he had decided to bring back the monarchy, and Juan Carlos was the next one in line.

00:31:43.580 And so he sets up Juan Carlos, who immediately calls elections and creates a constitutional monarchy

00:31:53.020 not that different from the one in Great Britain. So if Reza Pahlavi were able to bring that to pass,

00:32:00.300 it would be just unbelievable for the region. First of all, the main threat to every Gulf state and to 0.98

00:32:11.220 Israel would just be gone. Iran would become not just a free country, but an ally of the United States

00:32:18.500 and of Israel as it was before the Islamic Revolution in 79. But we're also seeing some interesting

00:32:25.980 developments on the religious side. People have clearly rejected the Islamic theocracy. And in the 0.98

00:32:36.040 process, a great many of them seem to be rejecting Islam itself. So we're seeing a rise of Zoroastrianism, 0.92

00:32:44.540 which is the historic religion of Persia. We're also seeing a rise of Christianity in a lot of places.

00:32:50.460 So this could really be a staggering development for the Middle East. And we could see the resumption 1.00

00:32:56.920 of the westernization of one of the most important countries in the region.

00:33:01.760 Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to Rod Martin of the Rod Martin Report. Go to

00:33:07.240 rodmartin.org. And when we come back, I want to get Rod Martin's views on the events in Venezuela.

00:33:13.720 So whatever you do, don't touch that dial. We'll be right back.

00:33:20.420 The Stone Zone. Entertaining and informative.

00:33:24.340 On the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:33:26.380 And we're back in the Stone Zone. We're going to wrap up our conversation with

00:33:31.860 Rod Martin. Rod Martin produces the Rod Martin Report. You can go to rodmartin.org.

00:33:38.620 Some of the most incisive analysis you'll find anywhere on the internet.

00:33:42.600 And we're very pleased to have him with us. Rod, while I have you,

00:33:46.080 I have to get your assessment on the situation in Venezuela.

00:33:49.560 Now, I'm certainly not a neocon, nor am I an isolationist. I kind of consider myself a

00:33:55.960 non-interventionist, if you will. But this was a law enforcement action backed up by the U.S.

00:34:02.800 military. If this was regime change, well, then Delce would not be the current president,

00:34:10.160 at least on paper, of the country. Once again, you see Trump projecting American power,

00:34:15.200 but in a limited way, as he did in Iran when he disabled, at least temporarily,

00:34:22.260 their nuclear weapons development program. Once again, limited projection of American power.

00:34:28.400 No boots on the ground. No American casualties. No long-term presence in Venezuela.

00:34:34.260 But I'd like to get your assessment.

00:34:35.700 Well, the Iran operation is the template. It just couldn't be clearer what this president is

00:34:46.360 doing that's different from the neocons. The neocons wanted to go out into the world on a big

00:34:51.980 crusade and reshape the planet in their image. And there's not necessarily that much of a limit to

00:35:00.780 the American power to do that, but there's a tremendous limit to the American stomach for 20

00:35:07.680 years of occupying some foreign country somewhere. And Donald Trump is just never going to do that.

00:35:13.860 So first of all, in the Iran operation, the 12-day war, he got the Israelis to do the heavy lifting. 0.82

00:35:22.600 This is exactly what's going on with NATO when we're demanding that they actually pony up 5% of GDP

00:35:31.100 for their own defense. We want these allies, if you can call them that, to be true partners and not

00:35:39.740 dependents in our basement. It's just very simple. And so the Israelis took on the heavy lifting and we 1.00

00:35:47.440 showed up with the bombers at the key moment at Fordo and Natanz and Isfahan. Well, Venezuela is very 0.92

00:35:55.940 much the same. Here we didn't really have to do much bombing. We went in with a surgical strike. We

00:36:02.340 captured this man who has been indicted in a U.S. court. He is absolutely an international criminal.

00:36:12.000 He and his wife. And in capturing him, it's an entire domino effect. And the president is just 0.70

00:36:19.600 brilliant at this sort of thing. It's not just a de facto regime change without the troops and

00:36:26.880 without the occupation. Although it is that because every single member of the rump government in Caracas

00:36:34.260 knows that they're next and they can share a sale beside Maduro if they don't do what the president

00:36:41.080 says. So when he said the other day that he's the de facto acting president of Venezuela,

00:36:46.760 he's really actually, despite kidding, pretty serious. And that really is the reality. But it's not

00:36:54.860 just that. In cutting off Venezuelan oil to Cuba, that regime is teetering on the brink. In going after

00:37:03.500 the shadow fleet tankers coming in and out of Venezuela, you're sending a message to Vladimir Putin

00:37:10.300 that he's not going to have any resources to fight his war in Ukraine. He's got to come to the peace

00:37:17.640 table. It also hurts China because they're counting on Iranian and Venezuelan oil that travels in that

00:37:25.020 shadow fleet. And in all these ways, Donald Trump has advanced American interests.

00:37:29.720 Very well put. I want to thank my guest, Rod Martin of the Rod Martin Report. Again,

00:37:35.100 you can go to rodmartin.org and subscribe to his great work. Rod, thank you for joining us tonight

00:37:40.980 in the Stone Zone. And to our regular listeners, God bless you and Godspeed. Thank you for joining us.

00:37:47.060 Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone. You can hear the Stone Zone with Roger Stone

00:37:53.380 weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC. If you like the podcast, share it with your friends and listen

00:38:00.340 anytime at wabcradio.com and download the WABC radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all major

00:38:07.680 podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time

00:38:15.740 for a new episode so you never have to wonder. What the heck is going on here?

00:38:20.540 Every week, the Payne family cuts straight to the real financial story.

00:38:25.380 The one question, Bob, everyone's asking is, are we in an artificial intelligence bubble?

00:38:31.000 You've been through boom and busts. What do you think?

00:38:33.760 No hype, no myths, just what actually matters to your money.

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The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - January 17, 2026

The Stone Zone ｜ 01-14-26

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