The StoneZONE with Roger Stone

00:00:00.000 this is the stone zone with roger stone people love him and respect him roger stone

00:00:16.100 now get in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone

00:00:22.140 you are entering the stone zone and here we talk politics we eat sleep and breathe politics i

00:00:32.300 think if i cut myself i would probably bleed politics once in a while we talk about food

00:00:37.880 that's the other thing i love beyond politics but over the weekend horrendous footage emerged of

00:00:43.820 the new syrian government embracing its jihadi roots and inflicting really depraved acts of

00:00:50.700 violence against christians and other ethnic minorities in the country you see the biden

00:00:56.120 administration toppled the regime of assad who was the dictator in control of syria previously

00:01:04.840 very much like what we did in libya when we toppled qaddafi leading to even worse chaos there

00:01:13.020 president donald trump 10 years ago said that while he had no love for assad he thought whatever came

00:01:20.680 next would be worse more recently tulsi gabbard the former democrat congresswoman

00:01:27.540 now our director of national intelligence was roundly criticized for visiting with assad several

00:01:35.140 years ago she visited with him to express her concern about uh the danger to the christian

00:01:41.760 minority in that country by the way nancy pelosi also visited assad she was not criticized

00:01:47.680 some of the scenes we have seen including men being forced to crawl like dogs as they await their

00:01:53.000 executions homes of alawite minorities being decimated due to a grudge against the former

00:01:59.500 president uh demeaning christians by having their face kicked into walls by armed thugs stores being

00:02:05.640 ransacked following the ethnic cleansing of christians men being executed in cold blood while begging for

00:02:12.560 their lives uh and jihadis posing next to mass graves filled with the strewn bodies of the unfortunate

00:02:18.720 victims over 7 000 christians and alawites have now been slaughtered in syria according to a greek

00:02:25.460 member of the european parliament that's nicholas ferrantouris who visited damascus on march 9th

00:02:33.420 the death toll now estimated to be between 7 000 and 17 000 this is what biden hath wrought this is what

00:02:42.540 anthony blinken and the central intelligence agency have brought us these scenes are just a taste of the

00:02:48.540 hell that syria is being forced to endure under the regime of the new president ahmed al-shara al-shara is a

00:02:57.180 veteran radical islamist with deep ties to al-qaeda who in the stroke of obvious story brilliance rebanded

00:03:04.380 his former terror front as jabhat al-nasura after al-nasura became nearly as infamous as al-qaeda

00:03:13.500 al-shara rebranded once again as hayat tahir al-sham uh when he finally hit the jackpot assistance with

00:03:23.580 the cia they quickly moved to topple bashir asad before donald trump became president uh under his

00:03:30.700 new front uh dubbed the hts uh he led a coup in syria they were successful in ousting bashar al-assad

00:03:38.860 from his post in late 2024 despite his multi-decade history as a jihadi seemingly although the world's

00:03:47.260 most respectable leaders eagerly congratulated jelani after his successful coup this is a

00:03:53.500 who's who of globalists fawning over a brutal murderer and his handiwork this includes the

00:04:00.220 united nations general secretary antonio guterres the international criminal court chief prosecutor

00:04:06.620 karim khan european union commissioner for equality preparedness and crisis manager hajad labid the eu

00:04:17.020 president ursula von layen canadian prime minister justin trudeau even the united kingdom's prime

00:04:24.300 minister kerr stermer and of course at the time u.s president joe biden but the operation to devastate

00:04:31.980 serious far from a recent occurrence has been a great many years in the making without major assist

00:04:37.420 coming from the military industrial complex in this country the obama administration has funded a

00:04:45.180 one billion dollar clandestine war conducted by the cia in syria with the explicit goal of regime

00:04:52.220 shames the program received bipartisan support from some neocon republicans in congress including

00:04:58.940 then senator john mccain and senator lindsey graham both of whom urged obama to arm terrorists and bomb

00:05:07.020 syria for the purposes of overthrowing assad after the war between russia and ukraine limited russia's

00:05:14.940 ability to provide support to the assad regime he was finally deposed uh a military inventionist the

00:05:21.820 world over could not have been happier we're talking about the brutal murder of christians including

00:05:28.380 the crucifixion of children as young as five years old the militarists were as ecstatic about they as

00:05:36.620 they were uh after the fall of baumar qaddafi in libya or saddam hussein in iraq but now the chickens

00:05:43.020 are coming home to roost in the form of these gruesome killings what is the response from the western

00:05:49.180 allies who cheer on the rise of islamic terrorism in syria deafening silence the media sources who have

00:05:57.020 helped in the propaganda effort to rehabilitate jolani's image are either silent or they minimize

00:06:03.020 the scale of the crimes that are taking place at the hands of his regime only the raw videos that

00:06:09.020 we can see on social media show the vicious war crimes uh that have been uh visited on the syrian

00:06:17.340 people the united states and russia have taken the lead in demanding that the u.n security council meet

00:06:23.180 immediately to address this spike in violence as most world leaders are willing to ignore convenient

00:06:29.500 amnesia and rank moral cowardice reigns ironically it is a donald trump and yes vladimir putin who are

00:06:38.300 taking actions to address this terror in syria trump and putin two men who supposedly authoritarians and

00:06:46.220 threats to democracy according to almost every supposedly respectable western analyst are the only men

00:06:52.300 with the courage to stand up for persecuted christians in syria most of the globus would let the

00:06:57.740 christians be brutally murdered without a second thought while mainstreaming the spread of jihad

00:07:03.740 throughout the middle east to satiate the false idol of multiculturalism the tragedy in syria

00:07:10.940 demonstrates exactly why the west has surrendered the high moral ground the decaying west embodied most

00:07:17.900 appropriately empathetically by the out of touch european and human bureaucrats and muscles never learns

00:07:24.620 from his mistakes and continues to usher in death and destruction across the planet without even a hint

00:07:32.620 of self-awareness they brutally impose their will on third world nations causing untold mystery misery and

00:07:40.380 then they misplace humanitarianism unleashed aggrieved hordes upon the west to manifest their

00:07:46.220 ethnic vendettas only trump and strangely putin and a handful of others have resisted this impetus to

00:07:53.260 commit civilization suicide europe must reinvase its nationalistic roots and readopt the common sense

00:08:00.460 policies of strong borders economic sovereignty non-interventionist foreign policy and put its own

00:08:07.980 people first for the west to regain the high moral ground when it comes to syria shockingly

00:08:15.820 also learned this week about the brutal murray murder of jamie white jamie white was a reporter at infowars

00:08:22.860 someone i worked with when i did a show at infowars over a two-year period the tragic news was that white was

00:08:31.580 brutally murdered near his austin texas home after coming home late from work at sunday night almost one

00:08:40.300 o'clock in the morning this past monday alex jones the founder of wars broke the sad news saying only

00:08:47.020 we are deeply saddened to inform you that infowars reporter jamie white was brutally murdered around

00:08:52.140 midnight sunday night due in part to the policies of soros austin texas da jose garza we pledge that jamie's

00:09:02.140 traffic tragic deaths will not be in vain and those responsible for this senseless violence will be

00:09:07.500 brought to justice jones uh who worked obviously uh with white described him as a good friend

00:09:14.540 i knew him he was an excellent writer a prodigious writer uh and a valued colleague when i had a show

00:09:22.380 at infowars uh white it turns out was on a ukrainian kill list along with jones himself chase geyser

00:09:30.380 and several other staff members at infowars incidentally geyser then was swatted only

00:09:36.620 yesterday and again last night uh by police officers sent to his own home at 2 a.m under a false report

00:09:44.380 that geyser was going to kill his entire family while it is unknown whether these incidents are

00:09:49.660 connected to the death of white general mike flynn said that there was a plan to kill alex jones and again

00:09:56.780 all of these men uh were on a publicly published ukrainian kill list white's family is accepting

00:10:04.140 donations at give send go hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this tragic murder when they start

00:10:09.580 killing journalists that is a serious problem uh rest in peace uh jamie white uh up in the uh 30 21st

00:10:21.260 district of new york uh there is a growing contest for in the special election for congress now

00:10:27.500 remind you republicans only control the house uh by three seats but that's really on paper because

00:10:34.460 two of those seats are currently vacant matt gates uh and uh mike waltz both resigned their seats in

00:10:42.860 congress uh gates to initially accept an appointment as attorney general from which he withdraw now to go over

00:10:49.500 and helm his own show on oan uh and waltz to become national security advisor that means that in reality

00:10:57.820 republicans only have one a one seat advantage with congressman elise a congresswoman elise defined

00:11:05.260 expected to vacate her seat in congress uh in april after special elections in florida fill that seat

00:11:14.620 we're looking at a special election now in new york state uh the special election is a little

00:11:20.780 different in that republicans and democrat primary voters are not allowed to choose their nominee nominees

00:11:28.780 for the special election the nomination will be chosen by the republican county chairs who meet in

00:11:36.460 convention with each county having a weighted vote based on population uh there is a big field

00:11:44.620 uh sticker mule ceo anthony constantino who has appeared on this show uh has emerged as a leading

00:11:51.340 candidate uh he has funded his own campaign putting three million dollars into his campaign coffers from

00:11:57.980 the sale of tesla stock but yesterday it was reported uh that even though there is no vacancy uh that

00:12:06.860 district republicans are calling a meeting of the chairs to select a nominee that would be a

00:12:14.460 violation of both state party bylaws and state law uh it is rumored that they are preparing to

00:12:21.740 quote unquote designate uh two-time failed congressional candidate liz joy joy does not live in the district

00:12:30.460 she lives in an adjourning district where she ran twice for congress uh this is going to be an important

00:12:37.580 seat because this seat was held by a democrat as recently as 2015 democrats have nominated a dairy

00:12:45.980 farmer blake uh again bendian uh who has two million dollars immediately on hand that money having come

00:12:54.140 from hakeen jeffries and aoc if the republican convention uh either excludes some county chairs or

00:13:03.420 does not allow a vote for any registered republican well i would say that certificate of nomination will

00:13:09.900 get challenged we'll be following this special election very closely here on the stone zone again uh crucial

00:13:20.060 that the house majority be kept there's the possibility of vacancies in texas where a congressman in the

00:13:26.700 28th district a democrat is under indictment with 14 uh different charges of corruption uh we will be

00:13:35.660 watching the house majority very closely in the meantime you're toned in tuned into the stone zone

00:13:42.140 here on the red apple audio networks and if you love politics don't go away because well we'll be

00:13:48.780 right back this is the stone zone with roger stone not just stepping stone the stone zone

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00:15:37.260 this is the stone zone with roger stone they went after a guy named roger stone who's sitting in the

00:15:50.540 office and i'll say this in front of roger he's no baby and right now he's cleaner than anybody in this

00:15:55.900 place now as they treated him very unfairly now get in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone

00:16:05.260 and we're back in the stone zone this is the place for politics you know last season i was at mar-a-lago

00:16:15.260 attending an outdoor reception out by the swimming pool and who should i see but senator lindsey graham

00:16:22.620 one of my least favorite republicans graham had his back to the swimming pool and only about two feet

00:16:28.540 from the pool and while my wife saw a devilish grin come across my face and she said don't you dare don't

00:16:38.140 even think about it and for a nanosecond i admit that i thought about pushing everyone's favorite

00:16:44.700 rhino into the pool but my wife correctly said if you do that the secret service will nab you they will

00:16:50.860 throw you out and you will never be allowed into mar-a-lago again so some nights in my dreams i do

00:16:58.700 push the good senator in the pool i don't really understand why the president tolerates him he

00:17:05.180 undermines the president through much of his term who can forget that on january 6th he was calling the

00:17:11.340 white house council demanding that trump be removed from the president under the 25th amendment of course

00:17:17.820 the senate has no such rule in the 25th amendment which requires a majority of the cabinet and the

00:17:23.820 vice president to remove a president and then even then it is subject to a vote of the congress but now

00:17:30.620 lindsey graham faces something he has not faced in many decades he's actually being challenged in the

00:17:36.780 republican primary for the u.s senate by mark lynch who is a businessman and a christian certainly not a

00:17:45.340 career politician lynch has put five million dollars into his own campaign showing that he's indeed

00:17:53.020 serious the the obstacle here uh is that uh south carolina has what is known as an open primary

00:17:59.820 that means a a voter of any party or no party at all can vote in the republican primary meaning that

00:18:07.180 liberal democrats could cross over into the republican primary to save lindsey graham whether they're going

00:18:13.900 to do that remains to be seen uh but lynch is a serious serious contender uh beyond that i noticed

00:18:21.500 that bernie sanders uh who used to criticize billionaires and millionaires now only criticizes

00:18:27.660 billionaires i think that's because he and his wife quite legally skimmed millions of dollars off of his

00:18:33.660 two presidential campaigns uh in quote unquote media commissions not illegal but you wonder whether his

00:18:41.340 donors knew about it uh when it comes to bernie sanders well it's socialism for thee but not for comrade

00:18:50.220 bernie this is roger stone we're in the stone zone and we'll be right back with joshua sear the chief

00:18:58.140 executive officer and founder of the company empower we'll be right back

00:19:11.340 you

00:19:20.060 and

00:19:20.380 you

00:19:24.060 you

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00:19:41.340 this is the stone zone with roger stone they went after a guy named roger stone who's sitting

00:19:49.300 in the office and i'll say this in front of roger he's no baby and right now he's cleaner

00:19:53.720 than anybody in this place now as i treated him very unfairly now get him a zone it's the stone

00:20:01.600 zone here's roger stone welcome back you are in the stone zone joining us now is joshua sear he is

00:20:12.460 the founder of empower empower is transforming ride shares as we know them with empower drivers

00:20:21.880 set their own rates and get 100 of the fare and riders can usually get more affordable rides from

00:20:28.200 drivers they trust this is a decentralized ride share system drivers earn more and riders pay less

00:20:34.760 and feel safer but it's not at all like competitors uber and lyft and well they have already had

00:20:44.620 drivers working within power earn over a hundred million dollars the 15 000 drivers in dc have

00:20:54.860 provided over six million rides but the dc government uh isn't having it so this upstair upstart ride

00:21:03.900 share app founded by our guest today joshua sear is facing a lawsuit from dc's attorney general and an

00:21:10.580 investigation from an irate city council member about and facing about a hundred million dollars in fines

00:21:16.920 from regulators but joshua sear is not backing down and he joins us now welcome joshua to the stone zone

00:21:24.500 well thank you for having me roger let's start from the beginning and explain how empower is

00:21:31.360 different than your competitors sure um well look uh you know uber and lyft uh they run a very

00:21:40.280 centralized model where they provide transportation services to riders uh at this point in time they

00:21:46.740 basically try and charge riders as much as possible and they pay drivers as little as possible to

00:21:51.180 provide rides on behalf of uber and lyft uh we we basically flip that model upside down uh we have

00:22:00.200 made the driver our customer uh they run their own business uh they get to set their own rates as you

00:22:07.240 explained they get a hundred percent of the fare uh and they pay us a subscription fee for software and

00:22:14.260 support services that we provide to them so that they can run and grow their own business

00:22:19.160 and and and with that business model because they're you know getting a hundred percent of of the fare

00:22:25.920 they're able to charge their own customers riders about 20 percent less on average uh than what uber

00:22:33.880 and lyft would charge to riders uh and they're still able to make more money uh again they get a hundred

00:22:39.280 percent of the fare instead of being paid 40 or 50 percent of what uh uber um collects from riders

00:22:47.340 so you're essentially a software business you're not really in the transportation business correct

00:22:53.740 right i kind of liken it to um you could liken it to open table uh you could like you could liken it

00:23:00.220 to expedia or to etsy or shopify or even substack right we're providing our customer is the service

00:23:10.200 provider uh it's not the end user consumer we want to sell software and other support services

00:23:16.700 that make it so that individual professional hard-working drivers who want to work for themselves

00:23:23.480 and don't want to work for uber lyft or for anybody for that matter um who want to pursue the american

00:23:28.840 dream and running their own business can do so and can compete with those much bigger transportation

00:23:34.220 providers so i think the real story here not just uh the innovative nature of your company but

00:23:40.840 the pushback you've gotten from the mayor of dc from the u.s attorney from dc they even at one

00:23:49.240 point threatened to throw you in jail uh which seems to be a little excessive to me tell us what's going

00:23:55.660 on here yeah so i just want to correct it's not the u.s attorney in dc it's the dc attorney general

00:24:01.620 pardon uh uh uh no no no problem at all uh his name is brian schaub um and and as you correct mayor

00:24:09.420 bowser um look they have very very uh strong both personal and financial ties to uber uh

00:24:19.840 a.g schaub uh ran venable a large law firm am law 100 firm he was the partner in charge of the dc

00:24:28.860 office for i believe 17 years right before he became uh dc attorney general uh kamala harris's

00:24:37.020 husband uh mr emhoff ran the uh san francisco and la offices of the same firm at the same time

00:24:45.820 they are very very close uh and doug emhoff's brother-in-law uh and kamala harris's brother-in-law

00:24:52.800 is tony west who is basically the number two uh at uber uh and uh venable also represents uh uber

00:25:02.480 it's these one of their law firms it's one of their largest lobbying firms as well and so there

00:25:07.100 are very very close ties uh between uber and uh mayor bowser and and ag schaub uh i did a quick

00:25:18.000 search on the federal election commission website to see how many uber executives had donated to

00:25:24.280 uh donald trump uh and how many had donated to kamala harris the answer was none for trump a very

00:25:31.580 substantial number of donations to harris i've seen this same thing in other states uh uber is

00:25:38.960 extraordinarily political they hire the toughest meanest most influential lobbyists uh and they

00:25:45.960 try to drive the competition uh out of town tell us about your your typical driver your typical

00:25:55.520 uh what would you call a subscriber i guess yeah yeah subscriber customer absolutely so so i mean our

00:26:02.180 customers are you know over 90 percent are black and brown individuals individuals of color uh many of

00:26:10.860 them are are immigrants or legal immigrants here who have left places uh that are you know very

00:26:18.360 difficult many of them are you know communist type countries and regimes and they've come here

00:26:23.280 uh for the ability to you know have freedom um and and frankly uh you know it's been it's been

00:26:31.180 really sad to see um you know politicians that claim to represent these folks uh to to think that

00:26:38.880 you know plumbers electricians doctors lawyers accountants lobbyists barbers all these other

00:26:44.480 professions they're all more than free to work for themselves determine their own worth uh and compete

00:26:50.480 uh but apparently uh folks in the district the mayor and the ag don't think that these hard-working

00:26:57.260 drivers who are trying to put food on the table uh and make a better life for themselves and their

00:27:01.560 families that that they don't that they're not entitled to those same rights and i i think that's

00:27:07.760 it's simply wrong yeah it seems outrageous to me i see that the uh that the dc's department for

00:27:15.800 higher vehicles citing so-called safety concerns uh because they say that your drivers are not

00:27:23.360 registered with them uh have sought to uh to stop you from serving uh customers or i should say serving

00:27:31.900 drivers uh who affiliate with you use your software uh and get a hundred percent of the the light the

00:27:39.940 ride cost it seems to me like common sense oh it's total common sense and and they have even

00:27:46.000 admitted uh we have had numerous conversations with leadership at the department of four higher

00:27:51.740 vehicles i do think that the the director there would like to do the right thing but he doesn't have

00:27:57.260 any power at the end of the day he can only do i mean he's admitted effectively to me you know in

00:28:03.120 multiple occasions that he has to follow the instructions of of mayor bowser uh they have

00:28:08.580 admitted in writing they have admitted in over the phone in zooms that the drivers who are our customers

00:28:16.340 are in compliance with virtually as is the company with virtually all of the regulations that uber

00:28:23.600 is subject to now we believe that we shouldn't be forced to be compliant with them but but there's

00:28:28.500 a lot of common sense some of them are common sense regulations for example we require all of

00:28:33.920 our customers uh all these drivers to be subject to a background check literally every single one they

00:28:39.800 have to pass a background check now that's not because we think that we're required under the law to

00:28:44.540 do so but it's really we do it because we know that most riders probably wouldn't feel that

00:28:50.140 comfortable using and requesting rides from a platform where the drivers weren't subject to

00:28:55.140 a background check and drivers understand that too and they get that well if there weren't very

00:29:00.540 many ride requests well the software that we're selling them won't be worth very much and they're

00:29:04.920 not going to pay us we won't make any money they won't make any money so it just makes sense but at

00:29:09.920 the same time you've got a a dc attorney general who has publicly lied and said that we don't do

00:29:16.760 background checks and he's continued to repeat that lie even though he knows that it's not true

00:29:21.700 uh you know and and so again yeah it's it's it's you know upsetting um and we're certainly fighting it

00:29:29.620 um and you mentioned fines you know they claim oh we owe them 100 million dollars i have an email

00:29:34.620 right now from a couple days ago where they suggested if we would just basically uh fall in line

00:29:40.440 they'll wipe out the fines they'll drop it from 92 million dollars to 300 000 dollars and by the way

00:29:46.760 i guarantee you they would drop it to zero in a heartbeat if we would just fall in line and do

00:29:51.320 what they want and basically be an uber clone if you're just tuning in we're talking to joshua sear

00:29:57.100 the ceo of empower and we'll be right back

00:30:00.160 this is the stone zone with roger stone they went after a guy named roger stone who's sitting in the

00:30:18.320 office and i'll say this in front of roger he's no baby and right now he's cleaner than anybody in this

00:30:23.720 place now as i treated him very unfairly now give him his own it's the stone zone here's roger stone

00:30:33.020 if you're just tuning in uh we are talking to joshua sear the founder uh and i believe ceo of

00:30:44.740 empower which is uh transforming the ride share business ride share business to the consternation

00:30:50.600 of dc city officials joshua i've read online about a demonstration tomorrow outside the white

00:30:57.360 house uh i imagine this is many of your drivers uh many of your subscribers i guess i should say

00:31:03.420 tell us about that yeah uh so there is a uh earring that we have to go to tomorrow that you know

00:31:11.380 connection with those efforts by uh dc ag shop uh and as part of that uh we will be having a civil

00:31:19.240 rights march for for drivers and for riders as well uh outside of uh judiciary square and we'll be

00:31:28.220 marching up uh and going towards the white house uh we expect there'll be hundreds of both drivers

00:31:34.460 and their customers riders because riders you know they care deeply about this as well this is a

00:31:39.840 pocket a huge pocketbook issue for them and and and it's largely folks in underserved communities as

00:31:46.060 well uh you know they're able to save you know a couple bucks on a ride twice a day going to and

00:31:51.960 from their work as a janitor or as a nurse or as a teacher or a student um and that adds up for folks

00:31:59.960 and and i get perhaps you know some of these city officials who are making 160 200 000 a year don't

00:32:06.560 get um how being able to save 20 30 bucks a week on transportation uh can can make a big difference for

00:32:13.700 folks but it does and not only that these riders also they like the fact that the driver gets 100

00:32:18.820 percent of what they pay you know nobody likes you know when they get in the back of an uber

00:32:23.400 and you know the fare's 30 bucks and if they ask the driver hey how much did you make on this and the

00:32:28.580 driver says you know 15 bucks right obviously the driver you know is upset but but riders don't like

00:32:35.260 that either um you know that's not a good feeling uh they they really like the fact that the driver's

00:32:41.400 getting paid all of what they pay for the ride uh and so yeah we're we're gonna have a march um and

00:32:47.880 and we're expecting a big turnout uh and and again part of the reason we need to have this march is

00:32:53.280 we've had uh riders uh have sent over 10 000 emails in the last few weeks to mayor bowser uh her chief of

00:33:02.900 staff um and and they have cc'd a lot of members of well i guess like you'd call it the traditional press

00:33:10.840 and they don't want to cover it um and she hasn't responded she hasn't answered she's not responding

00:33:16.960 to her constituents um and so you know we're going to continue to raise attention to this issue

00:33:24.380 and it is a civil rights issue for for folks um and it's an economic rights issue for folks people

00:33:30.920 should have a right to be able to work for themselves and compete uh and and frankly i think

00:33:35.560 the fact that the overwhelming um the majority of these folks are are individuals of color uh you

00:33:41.740 know and you've got supposedly a city that's supposed to represent them doesn't seem to be

00:33:45.760 listening very well uh what you say is absolutely truth true when i take uh uber uh i haven't used

00:33:52.000 lyft but when i use uber i ask the driver so what percentage of today's ride are you going to get and

00:33:57.780 it's it's such a pittance that i always over tip because i feel bad particularly when the driver's you

00:34:03.580 know polite the car's clean uh he knows where he's going uh when you have a smooth trip then you find

00:34:09.700 that he's getting a tiny he or she i should say getting a tiny portion of the overall cost i always

00:34:16.100 think it's kind of inherently unfair but just want to confirm this and power takes zero commission

00:34:22.360 from the driver correct correct we don't make a penny from riders we charge drivers a subscription fee

00:34:29.140 we've got a few different subscription options um but that's it um and so our incentives are very

00:34:35.860 much aligned with drivers we want drivers to be as successful as possible obviously the more value we

00:34:41.180 can add to them frankly the more we can charge for our subscription and you know that may sound weird

00:34:47.000 coming from a ceo saying that we might charge our customers more but drivers respect that we let them

00:34:53.440 know that right they've been lied to so much that they just like to hear the truth which is look if

00:35:00.640 we're a you're our customer and you don't need to trust that we're going to do you right because if

00:35:04.880 we don't do you right you're not going to stay our customer very long and so our incentives are aligned

00:35:09.480 with drivers to make sure that they're able to make more money uh make a living be treated with respect

00:35:16.900 and dignity um and we try and do everything we can to help them run and grow their own business and we

00:35:22.080 take nothing from the rider uh looking at your website it appears so far you have provided uh

00:35:28.560 uh you have generated eight million dollars in revenues for your subscribers you have had over

00:35:35.840 three hundred thousand dollars worth of rides or three hundred thousand rides uh and driver part

00:35:42.720 drive i got this wrong driver earnings were what 125 million am i reading that correctly that was just

00:35:47.920 last that was just last month those numbers that you were so drivers in uh the dc metro area have now

00:35:53.780 provided uh nine million rides to over a quarter million riders they've earned close to 150 million

00:36:01.060 dollars uh and and we're growing and it's growing pretty fast and it's terrifying uber uh drivers in the

00:36:07.920 district are now providing over 15 percent of all of the rides all the private for hire transportation

00:36:13.960 rides drivers working for themselves setting their own rates uh using our software last week uh they

00:36:19.620 provided over 130 000 rides to uh over 35 000 riders they earned two million dollars and that was just

00:36:27.120 last week alone just in the dc uh metro area we've uh recently expanded into baltimore that market is

00:36:34.220 growing incredibly fast um we we have a presence down in winston-salem and greensboro north carolina as well

00:36:41.680 it's actually the first market we launched uh and we have a very very small presence um in in new

00:36:46.820 york city but uh there's obviously some very very close ties uh between some of the folks in uh

00:36:53.160 new york new york city and uber as well as you can imagine now uber is inherently a political

00:36:58.500 company company i've seen i've seen the way they operate uh in those uh other locations where you have

00:37:05.300 already expanded starting your presence are you putting aside new york are you

00:37:10.400 experienced the same kind of resistance that you were experiencing in dc

00:37:14.000 we're not um in north carolina we haven't had any uh resistance um uh in virginia because it's

00:37:22.120 obviously in the dc metro area rides in virginia we haven't had any we've had a little bit of pushback

00:37:26.940 in maryland um but that seems to be being pushed by folks in dc who are trying to push folks in

00:37:34.380 maryland they don't seem to really have their heart in trying to stop things uh really extraordinary so

00:37:41.280 uh here's an obvious question this has to be costing your company a fortune in legal fees no

00:37:47.620 it's it definitely that's part of uber's strategy um is to try and divert our resources divert our

00:37:54.500 attention i used to be a lawyer so that helps a little bit um uh i i can help a little bit with

00:38:00.240 respect to to some of those things um but yeah it is it is expensive um and and it's a clear effort

00:38:07.320 not just to cost us money but to cost us time and attention from growing the business and they're

00:38:13.420 prepared to um do away with this alleged hundred million dollars in fines that they're trying to

00:38:19.280 levy on you but what do they ask you just to go away shut down disappear they they want us basically

00:38:26.900 to register in the and in and comply in the exact same way as uber does to basically say

00:38:34.520 our business model is the same as uber's they want us to effectively determine how much drivers can

00:38:41.020 charge for rides i mean let me rephrase that they want us to charge riders for rides and pay drivers

00:38:46.800 right they want us to copy basically uber's business model which we think is not a good business model

00:38:52.760 uh and force us into a bad business model and force us to try and compete with uber on uber's terms

00:38:59.160 using uber's business model and if we're willing to do that then sure no problem right um but that's

00:39:05.840 that's like asking open table to register as a restaurant uh or asking expedia to become an airline

00:39:13.100 or or shopify to be the same as its customers i mean it just literally doesn't make any sense and

00:39:19.860 you know we don't want to be a transportation company and and drivers our customers don't want

00:39:26.180 to work for us they want to work for themselves um you know and they should have that opportunity

00:39:31.500 we're not we're not requiring you know that everyone has to work you know for themselves if

00:39:37.040 drivers want to work for uber they can work for uber uh and it isn't about hey we think that there

00:39:42.640 should be no regulation of transportation we've proposed legislation in dc that would provide a pathway

00:39:48.240 for drivers to individually register with the district and be in compliance with whatever

00:39:53.220 reg the district thinks are appropriate for drivers who want to work for themselves all right i'm afraid

00:39:57.860 we have to leave it there our thanks to joshua sear from empower for joining us this has been the

00:40:03.120 stone zone until tomorrow god bless you and godspeed

00:40:06.800 you

The Stone Zone ｜ 03-12-25

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