The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - The Stone Zone ｜ 07-02-26

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00:00:30.000 this is the stone zone with roger stone people love him and respect him roger stone

00:00:46.320 now get in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone

00:00:52.340 You are now entering the Stone Zone.

00:00:58.240 Remember back in 1976 when America had an oil crisis

00:01:03.500 and the response was President Jimmy Carter urging Americans to just wear a sweater if they were cold?

00:01:10.200 Well, welcome to New York, where the newest frontier of progressive governance is your thermostat.

00:01:16.780 As temperatures zoared into the upper 90s and low 100s

00:01:20.140 and the city's concrete canyons radiated like a blast furnace, Mayor Zoran Mamdami offered New

00:01:26.580 Yorkers what may become the single most unintentionally hilarious municipal guidance

00:01:32.380 in modern memory. To ease pressure on the electrical grid, residents were encouraged

00:01:38.320 to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees. That's almost 80 degrees, with City Hall promising

00:01:46.480 that municipal buildings will do likewise. It presents an enlightened civic responsibility,

00:01:52.480 they said. The public treated it as if it was an opening of a comedy act. What's the point of

00:01:58.440 air conditioning if it's set at virtually 80 degrees? New Yorkers, of course, responded with

00:02:03.960 precisely the level of decorum one would expect from a city that once booed Santa Claus, heckled

00:02:09.880 mayors to their faces and perfected sarcasm as both an art form and a survival mechanism.

00:02:16.740 Within minutes, social media resembled a farm alive fire of ridicule. The memes multiplied

00:02:23.180 faster than rats on the Lexington Avenue subway. Every comedian in the five boroughs may suddenly

00:02:29.040 find themselves unemployed because the mayor himself has begun writing the jokes. Perhaps

00:02:35.020 the finest response came not from a political commentator, but from one ordinary citizen who

00:02:41.160 posed the single most devastating question of the entire controversy. After hearing someone boasts

00:02:47.300 that all of her co-workers had proudly voted for Ma'am Dami, she demanded proof that every one of

00:02:52.820 them, every one of those same co-workers, had faithfully set their own thermostats to the

00:02:57.840 prescribed 78 degrees. There it was, one sentence, one glorious challenge. Produce the thermostat

00:03:05.500 receipts. Send us a screenshot of your thermostat. Political virtue is wonderfully inexpensive

00:03:11.480 until it requires personal discomfort. One strongly suspects that many of those

00:03:17.060 proudly proclaiming solidarity with the people's thermostat commissar are sleeping beneath

00:03:23.120 comforters in apartments cooled to a crisp 69 degrees while publicly extolling the moral

00:03:29.880 superiority of perspiration. It is one of the things to post a hashtag celebrating shared

00:03:36.520 sacrifice is quite another to awaken at three o'clock in the morning stuck to one's Egyptian

00:03:41.940 caption sheets like a postage stamp. There's always existed a remarkable gap between progressive

00:03:48.480 rhetoric and progressive air conditioning. One can imagine the conversations taking place

00:03:53.880 across New York City tonight. Darling, we absolutely support reducing energy consumption.

00:04:00.520 Splendid, but set our thermostat to 70. But the mayor said 78. The mayor doesn't live in this

00:04:07.140 apartment. Case closed. There's also something deliciously ironic about asking ordinary New

00:04:14.020 Yorkers to ration cool air while Times Square blazes with enough electronic illumination to

00:04:20.320 signal the International Space Station. Towering office buildings remain brilliantly lit long after

00:04:26.360 their occupants have gone home. Giant digital advertisements consume electricity with the

00:04:31.660 enthusiasm of a casino in Las Vegas. Yet, we're told, salvation allegedly depends upon 95-year-old

00:04:38.960 Mrs. Goldstein out in Brooklyn surrendering eight precious degrees of comfort while attempting to

00:04:44.900 survive a heat index approximately approaching triple digits. Forgive New Yorkers if they found 0.98

00:04:51.620 the arithmetic less than persuasive. This episode reveals something far more profound than an

00:04:58.020 argument over simply air conditioning. It exposes a governing philosophy increasingly convinced

00:05:04.200 that virtually every private decision requires official guidance.

00:05:08.740 Once, politicians confined themselves to balancing budgets, paving streets, reducing crime, and ensuring the lights remained on.

00:05:18.980 Today, however, they aspire to become nutritionists, transportation planners, environmental counselors,

00:05:26.700 parenting consultants, appliance instructors, and now certified residential climate technicians.

00:05:33.660 One half expects next month's directive to include mandatory limits on ice cubes, perhaps no more than two cubes per beverage, maybe sparkling water only on alternating Tuesdays, pizza ovens permitted to operate exclusively during off-peak electrical hours, window shades synchronized according to municipal sustainability guidelines.

00:05:56.560 The satire here practically writes itself because reality has become determined to outperform comedy.

00:06:03.260 To be fair, electric utilities have long recommended voluntary conservation during periods of extraordinary demand.

00:06:10.080 But requests are hardly unprecedented.

00:06:12.220 What transformed this particular suggestion into political fertilizer was not the engineering.

00:06:17.880 It was the symbolism.

00:06:19.280 Americans instinctively recoil whenever government appears more interested in supervising private conduct than solving public problems.

00:06:27.880 They recognize, often before politicians do, the subtle difference between governing a city and managing its residents.

00:06:35.720 New Yorkers, of all people, have earned the right to enjoy cold air.

00:06:39.780 They pay some of the nation's highest taxes, they endure some of the nation's highest rents, they navigate construction, congestion pricing, delayed trains, potholes, scaffolding that survives longer than some marriages, and utility bills capable of inducing mild cardiac distress.

00:06:59.400 The least city government can do is refrain from turning down every thermostat into making an ideological statement.

00:07:06.720 There's an old saying that the road to serfdom is paved with good intentions and might now be

00:07:12.140 updated for the modern metropolis. The road to political comedy is apparently cooled to exactly

00:07:18.020 78 degrees. Meanwhile, somewhere across the city, millions of New Yorkers quietly reach for their

00:07:24.500 remote controls. They press the downward arrow once, then again, then perhaps a third time for

00:07:30.380 good measure. Some acts of civil disobedience require marches. Others require nothing more

00:07:35.660 than setting the thermostat to 70, pouring a nice cold glass of iced tea, sitting comfortably

00:07:41.820 beneath a ceiling fan, and enjoying the latest episode of municipal absurdity from the cool

00:07:47.520 comfort of one's own living room. If City Hall truly wishes to know how many New Yorkers embrace

00:07:53.360 the people's thermostat, there's a simple solution. Don't ask for polling data, ask to see the

00:07:59.420 thermostats. One suspects the truth is considerably cooler than the rhetoric. Thanks for joining us

00:08:05.740 in the Stone Zone. Americans rightly celebrate July 4th as our nation's Independence Day, but it 0.76

00:08:11.560 was 250 years ago today that history records another date that deserves equal reverence.

00:08:19.140 Before Thomas Jefferson's immortal words were formally adopted, before the parchment declaration

00:08:24.420 that would be engrossed and signed over the weeks that followed. There was July 2nd, 1776. It was on

00:08:31.260 that extraordinary summer day in Philadelphia that the Continental Congress voted to sever forever

00:08:37.380 the political bonds that had tied the American colonies to Great Britain. It was on July 2nd

00:08:43.100 that independence became a legal and political reality. John Adams himself believed that July

00:08:48.640 2nd, not July 4th, would forever be celebrated by succeeding generations as America's great

00:08:54.620 national holiday. In a prophetic letter to his beloved wife, Abigail, Adams envisioned parades,

00:09:01.600 bonfires, illuminations, bells, music, and joyous celebration from one end of the continent to the

00:09:08.520 other. The only thing he was wrong about was the date. To understand July 2nd is to appreciate

00:09:13.760 the extraordinary courage gathered inside the Pennsylvania State House, now revered as Independence

00:09:19.760 Hall. These were not reckless revolutionaries intoxicated by lofty ideals alone. They were

00:09:26.500 merchants, physicians, lawyers, farmers, jurists, ministers, printers, planters, scholars, and

00:09:35.540 businessmen, as well as blacksmiths. They were husbands, fathers, grandfathers who knew precisely

00:09:41.460 what they risked. By voting for independence, they signed what was, in effect, their own death

00:09:47.180 warrant, should the revolution fail, of course. Every man present understood that conviction for

00:09:52.320 treason meant the hangman's noose. Their property would be confiscated, their families ruined,

00:09:58.080 their names erased from respectable society. Yet one after another, they chose liberty over safety.

00:10:04.840 On July 2nd, 1776, the chamber was filled with debate, prayer, anxiety, and determination.

00:10:13.080 Richard Henry Lee's resolution declaring that these united colonies are and have a right ought to be free and independent states came before the Congress after weeks of discussion.

00:10:24.720 Twelve colonies voted in favor, New York, lacking final instructions from its legislature, abstained rather than impose independence.

00:10:32.020 The resolution passed. At that moment, the United States of America was actually born.

00:10:37.720 The remainder of the day was devoted to refining Jefferson's Declaration, which would explain to

00:10:43.160 the world why independence had become both necessary and just. Delegates carefully edited

00:10:49.420 language, deleted passages, strengthened arguments, and weighed every sentence with biblical seriousness.

00:10:56.380 They understood they were writing not merely for their contemporaries, but for countless

00:11:00.380 generations to come. John Adams emerged with the day's proceedings convinced that history had

00:11:05.860 forever changed. Tireless throughout the debates, Adams had spent months persuading hesitant

00:11:11.120 delegates that reconciliation with the crown had become impossible. As darkness settled over

00:11:17.040 Philadelphia, he composed a remarkable letter to his wife predicting that that day would be

00:11:22.820 celebrated forever with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations. His vision reflected not

00:11:28.820 arrogance, but profound gratitude that Providence had permitted him to witness the birth of a new

00:11:34.780 nation. Thomas Jefferson spent July 2nd watching his carefully crafted declaration undergo rigorous

00:11:42.060 revision by the delegates. Congress struck several passages, softened others, removed an extended

00:11:48.700 condemnation of the slave trade that Jefferson had included in his original draft, but some of

00:11:53.620 Southern delegates objected to. Though undoubtedly frustrated by many of these edits, Thomas Jefferson

00:11:59.260 recognized that unanimity among the colonies mattered more than personal authorship. His

00:12:04.320 masterpiece would ultimately survive with his central truths gloriously intact. Benjamin Franklin,

00:12:10.660 then 70 years old and already among the most famous men in the world, lent both wisdom and

00:12:15.900 calm to the proceedings. His wit frequently relieved moments of unbearable tension, yet no

00:12:21.320 delegate better understood the gravity of the hour. Franklin had devoted decades of diplomacy,

00:12:27.320 science, philosophy, and public service, and he had an eye for the ladies. Now he watched those 0.62

00:12:33.140 lifelong labors culminate in the creation of an entirely new republic. Richard Henry Lee of

00:12:39.900 Virginia, whose resolution had brought Congress to this defining vote, saw the principle he had

00:12:44.800 championed become law. Although absent during portions of the day because of his family

00:12:49.800 obligations, he carefully worded resolution that he put forward became the legal instrument that

00:12:55.540 transformed 13 colonies into sovereign states. John Hancock presided over the Congress with quiet

00:13:02.360 authority. As president of the Continental Congress, he supervised proceedings that would

00:13:07.420 forever alter world history. Already one of Britain's most wanted men because of his defiance

00:13:13.380 during the Boston Resistance, Hancock knew full well that independence meant there could never be

00:13:18.900 any return to the old order. Samuel Adams, often called the father of the American Revolution,

00:13:25.900 and by the way, he was never a brewer, had spent years preparing the colonies for precisely this

00:13:31.160 moment. Through committees of correspondence, newspaper essays, speeches, and relentless

00:13:36.540 political organization, Adams had helped awaken an American identity distinct from British rule.

00:13:42.660 July 2nd represented the fulfillment of decades of sacrifice by Samuel Adams.

00:13:48.360 Roger Sherman of Connecticut stood among the other few men who would eventually sign all four great founding documents of the young republic.

00:13:56.320 Quiet, practical, deeply religious, and remarkably influential despite lacking formal education,

00:14:03.400 Roger Sherman worked tirelessly to forge consensus among delegates whose personalities frequently clashed.

00:14:10.000 You're listening to the Stone Zone and I'm Roger Stone. When we come back, we'll continue the story of the path to July 4th. Don't go away. We'll be right back.

00:14:20.240 The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

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00:15:02.940 this is the stone zone now get him a zone it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell

00:15:15.860 but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but

00:15:22.220 people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone here's roger stone

00:15:27.780 Welcome back into the Stone Zone. We're talking about the extraordinary events of July 2nd, 1776, in the run-up to July 4th.

00:15:39.160 And we've talked about the role of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and now it was Robert Livingston of New York who remained a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, although New York's delegation still lacked the authority to vote affirmatively for independence.

00:15:56.060 Like many delegates, Livingston balanced personal caution with an unmistakable recognition that history was moving inexorably towards complete separation with Great Britain.

00:16:06.760 Was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the wealthiest man in Maryland and the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration,

00:16:14.280 supporting independence despite knowing that his immense fortune would make him a specially attractive target for the British confiscation.

00:16:21.040 His faith, patriotism, and courage proved stronger than worldly security.

00:16:26.060 George Wythe, the brilliant Virginian jurist and mentor to Thomas Jefferson, devoted himself to creating a constitutional republic governed by law rather than arbitrary power.

00:16:36.240 His legal scholarship profoundly shaped a philosophical framework upon which the new nation would rest.

00:16:41.980 Then there was Benjamin Rush, the distinguished Philadelphia physician who believed liberty and education were inseparable.

00:16:47.800 As delegates debated independence only blocks from his medical practice, Rush viewed the revolution not merely as political separation, but as a moral awakening capable of elevating human dignity itself.

00:17:01.140 Then, of course, there was Edward Rutledge, only 26 years old, the youngest delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence, who represented a generation prepared to inherit extraordinary responsibility.

00:17:11.300 Although initially cautious, he ultimately joined the unanimous movement towards independence once South Carolina resolved its concerns.

00:17:20.380 Several eventual signers were not physically present on July 2nd.

00:17:24.020 Some were absent because of illness, family obligations, military duties, or delayed travel,

00:17:29.800 while others, including delegates from New York, still awaited final authorization from their colonial legislatures before formally endorsing independence.

00:17:38.340 Nevertheless, all would soon embrace the cause and ultimately affix their names to the Declaration, binding themselves to the same perilous destiny.

00:17:47.620 General George Washington remained with the Continental Army in New York, preparing for what he knew would be Britain's overwhelming military response.

00:17:55.980 Washington did not participate in the congressional debates, yet every decision made in Philadelphia ultimately rested upon this soldier's ability to survive the campaigns that lay ahead.

00:18:06.560 Without victory on the battlefield, the eloquence inside Independence Hall would become nothing more than evidence presented at treason trials.

00:18:15.360 Now, it's fashionable in some academic circles to reduce the Founding Fathers to imperfect men whose personal shortcomings somehow diminished this incredible accomplishment.

00:18:25.220 Such revisionism profoundly misunderstands both history and human nature.

00:18:30.020 They were on the verge of creating the greatest nation God has ever known, the United States of America.

00:18:36.560 And many thought it would be celebrated on July 2nd rather than July 4th.

00:18:40.960 But today in the Stone Zone, we've told you exactly why.

00:18:43.700 Don't go away because we'll be back with more on the other side.

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00:19:20.000 This is the Stone Zone.

00:19:37.860 Now, get him a zone.

00:19:39.800 It's the Stone Zone.

00:19:41.760 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going, and he's smart, and he's strong, and people love him.

00:19:48.720 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.

00:19:51.320 Roger Stone. Where's Roger Stone?

00:19:53.620 Here's Roger Stone.

00:19:57.020 Welcome back into the Stone Zone.

00:19:59.660 I'm Roger Stone.

00:20:01.840 Is the United States going the way of Rome?

00:20:05.120 Every generation imagines that the political maladies confronting its own age are unique.

00:20:11.180 Newspapers proclaim unprecedented crises.

00:20:14.400 Politicians assure the public that the dangers of the moment have never before threatened the survival of liberty.

00:20:21.000 Commentators speak as though history itself began only yesterday.

00:20:25.460 Yet the student of civilization quickly discovers that human nature changes very little, even as governments, technologies, and empires evolve.

00:20:34.380 The names of nations differ, the language spoken in their capitals change, their banners, constitutions, rulers, politicians, they come and go.

00:20:44.820 But beneath those superficial distinctions, however, there persists a remarkable familiar phenomena.

00:20:51.420 Every great civilization eventually creates a permanent governing class more devoted to preserving its own authority and power, as well as their comfort, than fulfilling the purpose for which it was established.

00:21:03.840 So long before Washington, D.C. possessed a swamp, every civilization has already cultivated a swamp of its own.

00:21:12.000 The modern expression, the swamp, has become shorthand for an entrenched political establishment, resistant to reform, insulated from accountability and convinced of its own indispensability.

00:21:24.840 Critics often treat this condition as though it were uniquely American, an affliction born somewhere between the New Deal and the present day.

00:21:32.580 Such a conclusion reflects a profound ignorance of history.

00:21:37.120 That's what we're here to talk about in the Stone Zone.

00:21:39.660 Bureaucracy is among mankind's oldest inventions.

00:21:43.080 Institutions created to serve the people gradually acquire lives and budgets of their own.

00:21:49.740 Offices established to execute laws slowly became influencing the laws themselves.

00:21:54.580 themselves. Administrators entrusted with implementing public policy often become

00:21:59.960 persuaded that their own judgment supersedes that of the citizens from whom their legitimate

00:22:05.820 authority originates. This transformation rarely occurs without conspiracy. It emerges through

00:22:12.540 accumulation, habit, institutional inertia, and the timeless temptation to exchange liberty for

00:22:19.360 administrative convenience. What was it that President Ronald Reagan said, the most dangerous

00:22:24.980 warrants in history? I'm from the government and I'm here to help. The first great civilizations

00:22:30.840 recognized that information itself constituted power. In ancient Egypt depended not merely upon

00:22:37.460 the authority of the pharaoh, but upon the remarkable influence exercised by his scribes.

00:22:43.040 Those educated officials recorded harvests, they assessed taxes, they managed royal storehouses, they supervised construction projects, they maintained census records, and they preserved the governmental memory upon which every subsequent decision depended.

00:22:59.240 Pharaohs came and went, but the machinery administration endured. Dynasties collapsed

00:23:05.780 beneath invasions or internal conflict, while the bureaucracies, the bureaucratic apparatus,

00:23:12.420 adapted itself to new rulers with astonishing resilience. Governments discovered thousands

00:23:18.100 of years ago that whoever controls the records, the procedures, and the information frequently

00:23:23.980 exercises influence exceeding that of those who occupy the throne. The Persian Empire expanded

00:23:31.720 upon vast territories stretching from the Mediterranean to Central Asia because it

00:23:36.860 mastered administration as skillfully as conquest. Provincial governors, tax collectors,

00:23:44.120 royal inspectors, military administrators, and civil officials enabled the empire to function

00:23:50.520 upon enormous distances. What began as an efficient means of governing an expansive realm

00:23:56.740 gradually produced an increasingly elaborate administrative hierarchy required supervision

00:24:03.020 of its own. Every additional office demanded another office to oversee it, you see. Every

00:24:08.820 new regulation produced another official responsible for interpreting that regulation.

00:24:13.640 Government slowly became occupied with managing itself as much as managing the empire entrusted

00:24:19.240 to its care. The seeds of bureaucratic expansion were planned not through malice but through success

00:24:25.080 itself. That is precisely what has happened in America. Americans often regard the Roman Empire

00:24:32.100 with a particular admiration because so many of our constitutional principles were inspired by

00:24:37.340 Roman precedents. Rome achieved greatness through discipline, civic virtue, private enterprise,

00:24:44.120 military excellence, and a republican system designed to prevent concentrated authority.

00:24:50.560 Yet, as the republic transformed into the Roman Empire, administrative complexity expanded alongside

00:24:56.940 territorial conquest. Governors, magistrates, tax officials, legal administrators, financial officers,

00:25:06.400 and imperial clerks multiplied with extraordinary speed. What had once been a republic governed by

00:25:13.140 citizen statesmen, increasingly became an empire sustained by professional administrators whose

00:25:18.860 permanence often exceeded that of the emperors themselves. Rome ultimately confronted not only

00:25:25.240 external enemies, but the immense burden of supporting institutions that had grown so large,

00:25:31.000 so expensive, and so detached from the ordinary citizens that they consumed the very vitality

00:25:36.580 they had originally been created to preserve. The Byzantine Empire refined bureaucracy into

00:25:43.060 an astonishing, intricate instrument of governance. Layers of ministers, palace officials,

00:25:49.560 legal scholars, financial administrators, military secretaries, and court functionaries

00:25:55.440 developed procedures so elaborate that even modern historians today struggle to trace their

00:26:01.340 complexity. Emperors frequently discovered that issuing commands differed greatly from ensuring

00:26:08.820 their implementation. Those controlling access, information, documentation, and procedure

00:26:16.160 frequently possessed greater political influence than those wearing the imperial crown. Political

00:26:22.440 power increasingly flowed through offices rather than personalities. Bureaucracy became an

00:26:28.220 institution unto itself, capable of surviving rulers, wars, dynastic disputes, and even

00:26:35.500 national decline. No civilization elevated administration more successfully than imperial

00:26:41.860 China. For centuries, scholars who have examined the select rigorous civil service examinations

00:26:49.420 governing one of history's most sophisticated states have concluded this. Their learning,

00:26:54.600 discipline, and continuity contributed significantly to China's longevity. Yet even

00:27:01.240 this remarkable achievement revealed an enduring paradox. Dynasties rose and fell while the

00:27:07.820 bureaucratic class remained largely intact. Emperors might proclaim sweeping reforms,

00:27:13.620 but implementation rested in the hands of permanent bureaucrats and officials whose

00:27:18.600 institutional interests frequently differed with those of the transient rulers. The machinery of

00:27:24.420 government demonstrated once again that permanence possesses its own peculiar form of power.

00:27:30.960 The monarchy of the Bourbon French likewise offers another enduring lesson. During the 18th century,

00:27:38.280 overlapping ministries, tax farmers, provincial administrators, royal councils, and privileged

00:27:45.500 officeholders had produced a government increasingly detached from the people it purported to serve.

00:27:50.940 The complexity of administration bred inefficiency, favoritism, and public resentment.

00:27:57.900 Citizens found themselves navigating an incomprehensible labyrinth of regulations,

00:28:02.860 exemptions, fees, taxes, and overlapping jurisdictions.

00:28:07.740 Confidence in government steadily eroded long before the first stones were hurled during the French Revolution.

00:28:14.080 Institutions had become preoccupied with preserving themselves

00:28:17.500 rather than connecting their own excesses or providing the people with bread.

00:28:23.280 The Soviet Union, of course, carried bureaucracy to perhaps its most oppressive modern extreme.

00:28:28.740 While communist ideology promised equality, liberation, and the triumph of the worker,

00:28:34.760 daily existence became governed by an immense administrative class known as the nomenclatura.

00:28:41.240 Employment, education, housing, production, transportation, commerce, and even artistic expression required approval from unelected officials insulated from public accountability.

00:28:54.660 The entire career is dependent upon navigating bureaucratic favor rather than demonstrating merit.

00:29:00.460 The state no longer serves society. Society increasingly existed to sustain the state.

00:29:05.840 The result was stagnation, corruption, economic decline, and ultimately collapse beneath the crushing weight of institutions incapable of reforming themselves.

00:29:16.760 The framers of the American Constitution, who we celebrate this very week, devoted extraordinary attention to trying to prevent precisely this concentration of permanent government authority.

00:29:28.420 James Madison understood that ambition must counteract ambition.

00:29:32.780 Thomas Jefferson repeatedly warned that liberty survives only where government remains the faithful servant of the people rather than their master.

00:29:41.260 George Washington presided over a federal establishment so modest that its entire civilian workforce could scarcely occupy a single modern office building in Washington, D.C. today.

00:29:53.560 The Constitution established three carefully balanced branches of government precisely because the Founders distrusted the concentration of political power regardless of the noble intentions accompanying them.

00:30:05.080 The Founding Fathers were even reticent about having two political parties.

00:30:09.300 America's administrative state did not emerge overnight.

00:30:12.080 Its expansion unfolded gradually across generations.

00:30:15.520 The Philosophical Foundation appeared during the Progressive Era when Woodrow Wilson argued that government should increasingly rely upon trained experts operating with substantial independence from ordinary political pressures.

00:30:29.000 The New Deal then dramatically accelerated this transformation by creating agencies entrusted with broad authority to promulgate regulations carrying the practical force of law.

00:30:40.060 Congress increasingly delegated responsibilities once exercised directly by elected legislators.

00:30:46.180 Administrative agencies expanded their jurisdictions across virtually every aspect of American economic and social life.

00:30:53.600 So what had originated as a constitutional republic emphasizing limited government

00:30:58.320 slowly evolved into a system in which unelected administrators exercised remarkable influence

00:31:04.100 over industries, businesses, education, energy, agriculture, health care, finance,

00:31:12.840 transportation, communications, and, well, virtually every sector.

00:31:17.460 None of this should be interpreted as an indictment of every career public servant, of course.

00:31:22.000 Millions of dedicated Americans enter government service motivated by patriotism,

00:31:27.160 professionalism, and sincere devotion to the public good.

00:31:31.360 With our contributions due to recognition and gratitude, the danger resides not in individual character but in institutional incentives.

00:31:40.460 Every bureaucracy naturally seeks larger budgets, broader authority, additional personnel, expanded jurisdiction, and greater permanence.

00:31:50.520 This tendency reflects organizational self-preservation rather than partisan ideology.

00:31:56.260 Businesses pursue profits. Universities seek larger endowments. Labor unions pursue additional membership. Bureaucracies pursue expanded authority. Human nature remains remarkably consistent regardless of institutional setting.

00:32:10.980 History demonstrates with extraordinary consistency that bureaucracies seldom surrender authority voluntarily.

00:32:19.760 Every proposal to consolidate agencies, eliminate obsolete regulations, reduce spending, simplify administrative procedures, or restore authority to elected officials encounters vigorous institutional resistance.

00:32:33.520 Those benefiting from the existing arrangements understandably defend them.

00:32:38.920 Careers, prestige, influence, and organizational identity become intertwined with preserving the status quo.

00:32:47.480 Reformers throughout history have consistently discovered that changing government through elections

00:32:52.700 proves substantially easier than changing governments through administration.

00:32:56.740 This broader historical perspective helped explain the extraordinary resistance encountered by President Donald Trump in both of his administrations.

00:33:06.460 His efforts to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, to reassert executive authority over administrative agencies, to eliminate unnecessary regulations, to reorganize departments and challenge long-established institutional practices represents more than ordinary partisan disagreement.

00:33:24.260 Donald Trump is challenging a governing culture whose permanence often transcended electoral outcomes.

00:33:31.260 Whether one supports the president or every one of his policies or not, the larger struggle here reflects a contest repeated throughout recorded history between electorate leaders accountable to the voters and the permanent administrative institutions or what we call the deep state or the military industrial complex.

00:33:49.940 Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone as we lay out the truth about every great civilization and we examine the question whether America is going to go the way of Rome.

00:34:01.320 The central lesson of civilization is not that bureaucracy constitutes an inherent evil.

00:34:06.340 It's that every modern nation requires competent administration.

00:34:10.760 Roads, of course, have to be maintained.

00:34:12.840 Borders must be protected.

00:34:14.260 Laws must be enforced.

00:34:15.800 Can Donald Trump tame the swamp?

00:34:18.120 We shall soon see.

00:34:19.480 I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to Stone Zone. Don't go away.

00:34:23.560 The Stone Zone. Entertaining and informative.

00:34:27.700 On the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:34:40.980 This is the Stone Zone. Now, get in the zone. It's the Stone Zone.

00:34:47.000 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going, and he's smart, and he's strong, and people love him.

00:34:54.540 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.

00:34:56.980 Roger Stone. Where's Roger Stone?

00:34:59.280 Here's Roger Stone.

00:35:03.040 Welcome back into the Stone Zone.

00:35:05.440 This just in, a newly revealed District of Columbia fire and EMS dispatch call is raising fresh questions

00:35:12.680 about the health of Kentucky Senator and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

00:35:18.420 According to a June 14th call, first responders were sent to the 84-year-old Republican's

00:35:24.120 Washington residence after reports of a possible cardiac arrest,

00:35:28.820 with dispatchers told that CPR was in progress.

00:35:32.120 McConnell's office has declined to comment on the call,

00:35:34.780 although his spokesman said at the time that the Senator was receiving excellent hospital care

00:35:40.040 and staying engaged with Senate and Kentucky business through his health scare.

00:35:45.220 Senate Majority Leader John Thune also said that he spoke with McConnell and he remained dialed in.

00:35:50.760 But this latest episode adds to a growing list of public health concerns.

00:35:55.400 McConnell suffered a concussion and a fractured rib in a 2023 fall,

00:36:00.500 later froze twice during public appearances and experienced additional falls and hospitalizations since then.

00:36:08.580 McConnell has served Kentucky for seven terms and says his current term will be his last, ending in January of 2027.

00:36:16.620 He called representing the Commonwealth the honor of a lifetime.

00:36:20.640 Now, the Stone Zone does not revel in McConnell's downfall, and it's sad to see his decline,

00:36:26.000 but does not change the disgraceful decades in Washington, D.C., serving the swamp.

00:36:31.760 McConnell is the poster child of the career politician staying long past their prime.

00:36:36.740 Public office is not a lifetime entitlement. It's a duty. Voters deserve leaders who are vigorous, transparent, and fully capable of fighting for them every single day. McConnell has never come close to living up to that mark. I honestly question whether he's still even with us. He's had no public sightings and no further reports. This is a very, very sad story.

00:37:01.200 Meanwhile, J.D. Vance, the vice president, says the Trump administration is using its memorandum of understanding with Iran to buy time, rebuild leverage, and protect America's interests.

00:37:12.540 Speaking on the Michael Knowles show, Vance said that President Trump wants to use the agreement to help refill global oil supplies and stockpiles,

00:37:20.960 then assess whether Iran is actually living and willing to change its behavior.

00:37:26.360 Vance said that if Tehran makes a real commitment and backs them up with verifiable milestones,

00:37:31.660 the United States could pursue a different relationship.

00:37:34.360 But, he says, if Iran refuses, then nothing has changed,

00:37:38.120 except for America has already banked major wins from recent military campaigns.

00:37:45.280 Knowles summarized Vance's message bluntly.

00:37:48.120 America is replenishing its oil coffers, and Iran has roughly 60 days to behave or face fire and brimstone.

00:37:55.700 This is exactly how peace through strength functions.

00:37:59.040 The Trump administration is not leading with apology, weakness, or wishful thinking.

00:38:04.120 It is telling Iran that there are two paths, verifiable compliance or consequences.

00:38:09.580 America will protect energy markets, support its strategic position, and keep its military options on the table. 0.94

00:38:16.440 Iran now understands that its malignant terrorist behavior will no longer be tolerated.

00:38:20.960 No other presidents had the courage to come after them and take out their leadership like President Trump. 0.84

00:38:26.940 So now Iran has one final opportunity to comply or be bombed further back into the Stone Age. 0.64

00:38:33.120 The ball is clearly in their court. 0.55

00:38:35.900 Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced its withdrawal from the U.S., Mexico and Connecticut trade agreement.

00:38:44.180 The Trump administration is simply refusing to rubber stamp another round of North American trade rules without putting America workers first.

00:38:52.480 On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer said the United States did not agree to renew the USMCA, the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, at least not in its current form.

00:39:04.420 Greer said the agreement remains in effect for now, but the administration will continue talks with both companies to address what he sees as shortcomings in America's trade deficits.

00:39:16.180 They're still too large, according to President Trump.

00:39:19.100 A senior Trump administration official said the president chose not to rubber stamp renewal without fixing the existing agreements.

00:39:28.020 That's Donald Trump putting America first.

00:39:30.960 Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.

00:39:33.080 I'm Roger Stone. Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.

00:40:03.080 If you like the podcast, share it with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the WABC Radio app.

00:40:12.260 Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms.

00:40:15.760 Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.

00:40:21.500 See you next time for a new episode so you never have to wonder.

00:40:25.340 What the heck is going on here?

The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - July 03, 2026

The Stone Zone ｜ 07-02-26

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