New York City wants you to set your thermostat to 78 degrees, but what's the point of air conditioning if it's set at virtually 80 degrees? To ease pressure on the electrical grid, officials at City Hall decreed that residents be encouraged to set their air conditioners to 78, that s almost 80 degrees.
00:00:58.240Remember back in 1976 when America had an oil crisis
00:01:03.500and the response was President Jimmy Carter urging Americans to just wear a sweater if they were cold?
00:01:10.200Well, welcome to New York, where the newest frontier of progressive governance is your thermostat.
00:01:16.780As temperatures zoared into the upper 90s and low 100s
00:01:20.140and the city's concrete canyons radiated like a blast furnace, Mayor Zoran Mamdami offered New
00:01:26.580Yorkers what may become the single most unintentionally hilarious municipal guidance
00:01:32.380in modern memory. To ease pressure on the electrical grid, residents were encouraged
00:01:38.320to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees. That's almost 80 degrees, with City Hall promising
00:01:46.480that municipal buildings will do likewise. It presents an enlightened civic responsibility,
00:01:52.480they said. The public treated it as if it was an opening of a comedy act. What's the point of
00:01:58.440air conditioning if it's set at virtually 80 degrees? New Yorkers, of course, responded with
00:02:03.960precisely the level of decorum one would expect from a city that once booed Santa Claus, heckled
00:02:09.880mayors to their faces and perfected sarcasm as both an art form and a survival mechanism.
00:02:16.740Within minutes, social media resembled a farm alive fire of ridicule. The memes multiplied
00:02:23.180faster than rats on the Lexington Avenue subway. Every comedian in the five boroughs may suddenly
00:02:29.040find themselves unemployed because the mayor himself has begun writing the jokes. Perhaps
00:02:35.020the finest response came not from a political commentator, but from one ordinary citizen who
00:02:41.160posed the single most devastating question of the entire controversy. After hearing someone boasts
00:02:47.300that all of her co-workers had proudly voted for Ma'am Dami, she demanded proof that every one of
00:02:52.820them, every one of those same co-workers, had faithfully set their own thermostats to the
00:02:57.840prescribed 78 degrees. There it was, one sentence, one glorious challenge. Produce the thermostat
00:03:05.500receipts. Send us a screenshot of your thermostat. Political virtue is wonderfully inexpensive
00:03:11.480until it requires personal discomfort. One strongly suspects that many of those
00:03:17.060proudly proclaiming solidarity with the people's thermostat commissar are sleeping beneath
00:03:23.120comforters in apartments cooled to a crisp 69 degrees while publicly extolling the moral
00:03:29.880superiority of perspiration. It is one of the things to post a hashtag celebrating shared
00:03:36.520sacrifice is quite another to awaken at three o'clock in the morning stuck to one's Egyptian
00:03:41.940caption sheets like a postage stamp. There's always existed a remarkable gap between progressive
00:03:48.480rhetoric and progressive air conditioning. One can imagine the conversations taking place
00:03:53.880across New York City tonight. Darling, we absolutely support reducing energy consumption.
00:04:00.520Splendid, but set our thermostat to 70. But the mayor said 78. The mayor doesn't live in this
00:04:07.140apartment. Case closed. There's also something deliciously ironic about asking ordinary New
00:04:14.020Yorkers to ration cool air while Times Square blazes with enough electronic illumination to
00:04:20.320signal the International Space Station. Towering office buildings remain brilliantly lit long after
00:04:26.360their occupants have gone home. Giant digital advertisements consume electricity with the
00:04:31.660enthusiasm of a casino in Las Vegas. Yet, we're told, salvation allegedly depends upon 95-year-old
00:04:38.960Mrs. Goldstein out in Brooklyn surrendering eight precious degrees of comfort while attempting to
00:04:44.900survive a heat index approximately approaching triple digits. Forgive New Yorkers if they found0.98
00:04:51.620the arithmetic less than persuasive. This episode reveals something far more profound than an
00:04:58.020argument over simply air conditioning. It exposes a governing philosophy increasingly convinced
00:05:04.200that virtually every private decision requires official guidance.
00:05:08.740Once, politicians confined themselves to balancing budgets, paving streets, reducing crime, and ensuring the lights remained on.
00:05:18.980Today, however, they aspire to become nutritionists, transportation planners, environmental counselors,
00:05:26.700parenting consultants, appliance instructors, and now certified residential climate technicians.
00:05:33.660One 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.
00:05:56.560The satire here practically writes itself because reality has become determined to outperform comedy.
00:06:03.260To be fair, electric utilities have long recommended voluntary conservation during periods of extraordinary demand.
00:06:10.080But requests are hardly unprecedented.
00:06:12.220What transformed this particular suggestion into political fertilizer was not the engineering.
00:06:19.280Americans instinctively recoil whenever government appears more interested in supervising private conduct than solving public problems.
00:06:27.880They recognize, often before politicians do, the subtle difference between governing a city and managing its residents.
00:06:35.720New Yorkers, of all people, have earned the right to enjoy cold air.
00:06:39.780They 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.
00:06:59.400The least city government can do is refrain from turning down every thermostat into making an ideological statement.
00:07:06.720There's an old saying that the road to serfdom is paved with good intentions and might now be
00:07:12.140updated for the modern metropolis. The road to political comedy is apparently cooled to exactly
00:07:18.02078 degrees. Meanwhile, somewhere across the city, millions of New Yorkers quietly reach for their
00:07:24.500remote controls. They press the downward arrow once, then again, then perhaps a third time for
00:07:30.380good measure. Some acts of civil disobedience require marches. Others require nothing more
00:07:35.660than setting the thermostat to 70, pouring a nice cold glass of iced tea, sitting comfortably
00:07:41.820beneath a ceiling fan, and enjoying the latest episode of municipal absurdity from the cool
00:07:47.520comfort of one's own living room. If City Hall truly wishes to know how many New Yorkers embrace
00:07:53.360the people's thermostat, there's a simple solution. Don't ask for polling data, ask to see the
00:07:59.420thermostats. One suspects the truth is considerably cooler than the rhetoric. Thanks for joining us
00:08:05.740in the Stone Zone. Americans rightly celebrate July 4th as our nation's Independence Day, but it0.76
00:08:11.560was 250 years ago today that history records another date that deserves equal reverence.
00:08:19.140Before Thomas Jefferson's immortal words were formally adopted, before the parchment declaration
00:08:24.420that would be engrossed and signed over the weeks that followed. There was July 2nd, 1776. It was on
00:08:31.260that extraordinary summer day in Philadelphia that the Continental Congress voted to sever forever
00:08:37.380the political bonds that had tied the American colonies to Great Britain. It was on July 2nd
00:08:43.100that independence became a legal and political reality. John Adams himself believed that July
00:08:48.6402nd, not July 4th, would forever be celebrated by succeeding generations as America's great
00:08:54.620national holiday. In a prophetic letter to his beloved wife, Abigail, Adams envisioned parades,
00:09:01.600bonfires, illuminations, bells, music, and joyous celebration from one end of the continent to the
00:09:08.520other. The only thing he was wrong about was the date. To understand July 2nd is to appreciate
00:09:13.760the extraordinary courage gathered inside the Pennsylvania State House, now revered as Independence
00:09:19.760Hall. These were not reckless revolutionaries intoxicated by lofty ideals alone. They were
00:09:26.500merchants, physicians, lawyers, farmers, jurists, ministers, printers, planters, scholars, and
00:09:35.540businessmen, as well as blacksmiths. They were husbands, fathers, grandfathers who knew precisely
00:09:41.460what they risked. By voting for independence, they signed what was, in effect, their own death
00:09:47.180warrant, should the revolution fail, of course. Every man present understood that conviction for
00:09:52.320treason meant the hangman's noose. Their property would be confiscated, their families ruined,
00:09:58.080their names erased from respectable society. Yet one after another, they chose liberty over safety.
00:10:04.840On July 2nd, 1776, the chamber was filled with debate, prayer, anxiety, and determination.
00:10:13.080Richard 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.
00:10:24.720Twelve colonies voted in favor, New York, lacking final instructions from its legislature, abstained rather than impose independence.
00:10:32.020The resolution passed. At that moment, the United States of America was actually born.
00:10:37.720The remainder of the day was devoted to refining Jefferson's Declaration, which would explain to
00:10:43.160the world why independence had become both necessary and just. Delegates carefully edited
00:10:49.420language, deleted passages, strengthened arguments, and weighed every sentence with biblical seriousness.
00:10:56.380They understood they were writing not merely for their contemporaries, but for countless
00:11:00.380generations to come. John Adams emerged with the day's proceedings convinced that history had
00:11:05.860forever changed. Tireless throughout the debates, Adams had spent months persuading hesitant
00:11:11.120delegates that reconciliation with the crown had become impossible. As darkness settled over
00:11:17.040Philadelphia, he composed a remarkable letter to his wife predicting that that day would be
00:11:22.820celebrated forever with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations. His vision reflected not
00:11:28.820arrogance, but profound gratitude that Providence had permitted him to witness the birth of a new
00:11:34.780nation. Thomas Jefferson spent July 2nd watching his carefully crafted declaration undergo rigorous
00:11:42.060revision by the delegates. Congress struck several passages, softened others, removed an extended
00:11:48.700condemnation of the slave trade that Jefferson had included in his original draft, but some of
00:11:53.620Southern delegates objected to. Though undoubtedly frustrated by many of these edits, Thomas Jefferson
00:11:59.260recognized that unanimity among the colonies mattered more than personal authorship. His
00:12:04.320masterpiece would ultimately survive with his central truths gloriously intact. Benjamin Franklin,
00:12:10.660then 70 years old and already among the most famous men in the world, lent both wisdom and
00:12:15.900calm to the proceedings. His wit frequently relieved moments of unbearable tension, yet no
00:12:21.320delegate better understood the gravity of the hour. Franklin had devoted decades of diplomacy,
00:12:27.320science, philosophy, and public service, and he had an eye for the ladies. Now he watched those0.62
00:12:33.140lifelong labors culminate in the creation of an entirely new republic. Richard Henry Lee of
00:12:39.900Virginia, whose resolution had brought Congress to this defining vote, saw the principle he had
00:12:44.800championed become law. Although absent during portions of the day because of his family
00:12:49.800obligations, he carefully worded resolution that he put forward became the legal instrument that
00:12:55.540transformed 13 colonies into sovereign states. John Hancock presided over the Congress with quiet
00:13:02.360authority. As president of the Continental Congress, he supervised proceedings that would
00:13:07.420forever alter world history. Already one of Britain's most wanted men because of his defiance
00:13:13.380during the Boston Resistance, Hancock knew full well that independence meant there could never be
00:13:18.900any return to the old order. Samuel Adams, often called the father of the American Revolution,
00:13:25.900and by the way, he was never a brewer, had spent years preparing the colonies for precisely this
00:13:31.160moment. Through committees of correspondence, newspaper essays, speeches, and relentless
00:13:36.540political organization, Adams had helped awaken an American identity distinct from British rule.
00:13:42.660July 2nd represented the fulfillment of decades of sacrifice by Samuel Adams.
00:13:48.360Roger Sherman of Connecticut stood among the other few men who would eventually sign all four great founding documents of the young republic.
00:14:03.400Roger Sherman worked tirelessly to forge consensus among delegates whose personalities frequently clashed.
00:14:10.000You'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.
00:14:20.240The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:14:27.940The Marine Toys for Tots foster care program is bringing hope to children who need it most.
00:14:32.940Every two minutes, a child enters foster care, often with only a small bag of belongings.
00:14:37.780More than 400,000 children face trauma and uncertainty, many before age eight.
00:14:42.460This May, during Foster Care Awareness Month, Toys for Tots is creating room for joy.
00:14:47.460In 2025, nearly 375,000 children receive comfort through toys, books, and essentials, reminding them they are not alone.
00:15:02.940this is the stone zone now get him a zone it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell
00:15:15.860but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but
00:15:22.220people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone here's roger stone
00:15:27.780Welcome back into the Stone Zone. We're talking about the extraordinary events of July 2nd, 1776, in the run-up to July 4th.
00:15:39.160And 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.
00:15:56.060Like many delegates, Livingston balanced personal caution with an unmistakable recognition that history was moving inexorably towards complete separation with Great Britain.
00:16:06.760Was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the wealthiest man in Maryland and the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration,
00:16:14.280supporting independence despite knowing that his immense fortune would make him a specially attractive target for the British confiscation.
00:16:21.040His faith, patriotism, and courage proved stronger than worldly security.
00:16:26.060George Wythe, the brilliant Virginian jurist and mentor to Thomas Jefferson, devoted himself to creating a constitutional republic governed by law rather than arbitrary power.
00:16:36.240His legal scholarship profoundly shaped a philosophical framework upon which the new nation would rest.
00:16:41.980Then there was Benjamin Rush, the distinguished Philadelphia physician who believed liberty and education were inseparable.
00:16:47.800As 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.
00:17:01.140Then, 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.
00:17:11.300Although initially cautious, he ultimately joined the unanimous movement towards independence once South Carolina resolved its concerns.
00:17:20.380Several eventual signers were not physically present on July 2nd.
00:17:24.020Some were absent because of illness, family obligations, military duties, or delayed travel,
00:17:29.800while others, including delegates from New York, still awaited final authorization from their colonial legislatures before formally endorsing independence.
00:17:38.340Nevertheless, all would soon embrace the cause and ultimately affix their names to the Declaration, binding themselves to the same perilous destiny.
00:17:47.620General George Washington remained with the Continental Army in New York, preparing for what he knew would be Britain's overwhelming military response.
00:17:55.980Washington 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.
00:18:06.560Without victory on the battlefield, the eloquence inside Independence Hall would become nothing more than evidence presented at treason trials.
00:18:15.360Now, it's fashionable in some academic circles to reduce the Founding Fathers to imperfect men whose personal shortcomings somehow diminished this incredible accomplishment.
00:18:25.220Such revisionism profoundly misunderstands both history and human nature.
00:18:30.020They were on the verge of creating the greatest nation God has ever known, the United States of America.
00:18:36.560And many thought it would be celebrated on July 2nd rather than July 4th.
00:18:40.960But today in the Stone Zone, we've told you exactly why.
00:18:43.700Don't go away because we'll be back with more on the other side.
00:19:06.560We're making every corner of Ontario safer to make all of Ontario safer.
00:20:14.400Politicians assure the public that the dangers of the moment have never before threatened the survival of liberty.
00:20:21.000Commentators speak as though history itself began only yesterday.
00:20:25.460Yet the student of civilization quickly discovers that human nature changes very little, even as governments, technologies, and empires evolve.
00:20:34.380The names of nations differ, the language spoken in their capitals change, their banners, constitutions, rulers, politicians, they come and go.
00:20:44.820But beneath those superficial distinctions, however, there persists a remarkable familiar phenomena.
00:20:51.420Every 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.
00:21:03.840So long before Washington, D.C. possessed a swamp, every civilization has already cultivated a swamp of its own.
00:21:12.000The modern expression, the swamp, has become shorthand for an entrenched political establishment, resistant to reform, insulated from accountability and convinced of its own indispensability.
00:21:24.840Critics often treat this condition as though it were uniquely American, an affliction born somewhere between the New Deal and the present day.
00:21:32.580Such a conclusion reflects a profound ignorance of history.
00:21:37.120That's what we're here to talk about in the Stone Zone.
00:21:39.660Bureaucracy is among mankind's oldest inventions.
00:21:43.080Institutions created to serve the people gradually acquire lives and budgets of their own.
00:21:49.740Offices established to execute laws slowly became influencing the laws themselves.
00:21:54.580themselves. Administrators entrusted with implementing public policy often become
00:21:59.960persuaded that their own judgment supersedes that of the citizens from whom their legitimate
00:22:05.820authority originates. This transformation rarely occurs without conspiracy. It emerges through
00:22:12.540accumulation, habit, institutional inertia, and the timeless temptation to exchange liberty for
00:22:19.360administrative convenience. What was it that President Ronald Reagan said, the most dangerous
00:22:24.980warrants in history? I'm from the government and I'm here to help. The first great civilizations
00:22:30.840recognized that information itself constituted power. In ancient Egypt depended not merely upon
00:22:37.460the authority of the pharaoh, but upon the remarkable influence exercised by his scribes.
00:22:43.040Those 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.
00:22:59.240Pharaohs came and went, but the machinery administration endured. Dynasties collapsed
00:23:05.780beneath invasions or internal conflict, while the bureaucracies, the bureaucratic apparatus,
00:23:12.420adapted itself to new rulers with astonishing resilience. Governments discovered thousands
00:23:18.100of years ago that whoever controls the records, the procedures, and the information frequently
00:23:23.980exercises influence exceeding that of those who occupy the throne. The Persian Empire expanded
00:23:31.720upon vast territories stretching from the Mediterranean to Central Asia because it
00:23:36.860mastered administration as skillfully as conquest. Provincial governors, tax collectors,
00:23:44.120royal inspectors, military administrators, and civil officials enabled the empire to function
00:23:50.520upon enormous distances. What began as an efficient means of governing an expansive realm
00:23:56.740gradually produced an increasingly elaborate administrative hierarchy required supervision
00:24:03.020of its own. Every additional office demanded another office to oversee it, you see. Every
00:24:08.820new regulation produced another official responsible for interpreting that regulation.
00:24:13.640Government slowly became occupied with managing itself as much as managing the empire entrusted
00:24:19.240to its care. The seeds of bureaucratic expansion were planned not through malice but through success
00:24:25.080itself. That is precisely what has happened in America. Americans often regard the Roman Empire
00:24:32.100with a particular admiration because so many of our constitutional principles were inspired by
00:25:06.400and imperial clerks multiplied with extraordinary speed. What had once been a republic governed by
00:25:13.140citizen statesmen, increasingly became an empire sustained by professional administrators whose
00:25:18.860permanence often exceeded that of the emperors themselves. Rome ultimately confronted not only
00:25:25.240external enemies, but the immense burden of supporting institutions that had grown so large,
00:25:31.000so expensive, and so detached from the ordinary citizens that they consumed the very vitality
00:25:36.580they had originally been created to preserve. The Byzantine Empire refined bureaucracy into
00:25:43.060an astonishing, intricate instrument of governance. Layers of ministers, palace officials,
00:25:49.560legal scholars, financial administrators, military secretaries, and court functionaries
00:25:55.440developed procedures so elaborate that even modern historians today struggle to trace their
00:26:01.340complexity. Emperors frequently discovered that issuing commands differed greatly from ensuring
00:26:08.820their implementation. Those controlling access, information, documentation, and procedure
00:26:16.160frequently possessed greater political influence than those wearing the imperial crown. Political
00:26:22.440power increasingly flowed through offices rather than personalities. Bureaucracy became an
00:26:28.220institution unto itself, capable of surviving rulers, wars, dynastic disputes, and even
00:26:35.500national decline. No civilization elevated administration more successfully than imperial
00:26:41.860China. For centuries, scholars who have examined the select rigorous civil service examinations
00:26:49.420governing one of history's most sophisticated states have concluded this. Their learning,
00:26:54.600discipline, and continuity contributed significantly to China's longevity. Yet even
00:27:01.240this remarkable achievement revealed an enduring paradox. Dynasties rose and fell while the
00:27:07.820bureaucratic class remained largely intact. Emperors might proclaim sweeping reforms,
00:27:13.620but implementation rested in the hands of permanent bureaucrats and officials whose
00:27:18.600institutional interests frequently differed with those of the transient rulers. The machinery of
00:27:24.420government demonstrated once again that permanence possesses its own peculiar form of power.
00:27:30.960The monarchy of the Bourbon French likewise offers another enduring lesson. During the 18th century,
00:27:38.280overlapping ministries, tax farmers, provincial administrators, royal councils, and privileged
00:27:45.500officeholders had produced a government increasingly detached from the people it purported to serve.
00:27:50.940The complexity of administration bred inefficiency, favoritism, and public resentment.
00:27:57.900Citizens found themselves navigating an incomprehensible labyrinth of regulations,
00:28:02.860exemptions, fees, taxes, and overlapping jurisdictions.
00:28:07.740Confidence in government steadily eroded long before the first stones were hurled during the French Revolution.
00:28:14.080Institutions had become preoccupied with preserving themselves
00:28:17.500rather than connecting their own excesses or providing the people with bread.
00:28:23.280The Soviet Union, of course, carried bureaucracy to perhaps its most oppressive modern extreme.
00:28:28.740While communist ideology promised equality, liberation, and the triumph of the worker,
00:28:34.760daily existence became governed by an immense administrative class known as the nomenclatura.
00:28:41.240Employment, education, housing, production, transportation, commerce, and even artistic expression required approval from unelected officials insulated from public accountability.
00:28:54.660The entire career is dependent upon navigating bureaucratic favor rather than demonstrating merit.
00:29:00.460The state no longer serves society. Society increasingly existed to sustain the state.
00:29:05.840The result was stagnation, corruption, economic decline, and ultimately collapse beneath the crushing weight of institutions incapable of reforming themselves.
00:29:16.760The 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.
00:29:28.420James Madison understood that ambition must counteract ambition.
00:29:32.780Thomas Jefferson repeatedly warned that liberty survives only where government remains the faithful servant of the people rather than their master.
00:29:41.260George 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.
00:29:53.560The 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.
00:30:05.080The Founding Fathers were even reticent about having two political parties.
00:30:09.300America's administrative state did not emerge overnight.
00:30:12.080Its expansion unfolded gradually across generations.
00:30:15.520The 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.
00:30:29.000The New Deal then dramatically accelerated this transformation by creating agencies entrusted with broad authority to promulgate regulations carrying the practical force of law.
00:30:40.060Congress increasingly delegated responsibilities once exercised directly by elected legislators.
00:30:46.180Administrative agencies expanded their jurisdictions across virtually every aspect of American economic and social life.
00:30:53.600So what had originated as a constitutional republic emphasizing limited government
00:30:58.320slowly evolved into a system in which unelected administrators exercised remarkable influence
00:31:04.100over industries, businesses, education, energy, agriculture, health care, finance,
00:31:12.840transportation, communications, and, well, virtually every sector.
00:31:17.460None of this should be interpreted as an indictment of every career public servant, of course.
00:31:22.000Millions of dedicated Americans enter government service motivated by patriotism,
00:31:27.160professionalism, and sincere devotion to the public good.
00:31:31.360With our contributions due to recognition and gratitude, the danger resides not in individual character but in institutional incentives.
00:32:10.980History demonstrates with extraordinary consistency that bureaucracies seldom surrender authority voluntarily.
00:32:19.760Every proposal to consolidate agencies, eliminate obsolete regulations, reduce spending, simplify administrative procedures, or restore authority to elected officials encounters vigorous institutional resistance.
00:32:33.520Those benefiting from the existing arrangements understandably defend them.
00:32:38.920Careers, prestige, influence, and organizational identity become intertwined with preserving the status quo.
00:32:47.480Reformers throughout history have consistently discovered that changing government through elections
00:32:52.700proves substantially easier than changing governments through administration.
00:32:56.740This broader historical perspective helped explain the extraordinary resistance encountered by President Donald Trump in both of his administrations.
00:33:06.460His 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.
00:33:24.260Donald Trump is challenging a governing culture whose permanence often transcended electoral outcomes.
00:33:31.260Whether 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.
00:33:49.940Thanks 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.
00:34:01.320The central lesson of civilization is not that bureaucracy constitutes an inherent evil.
00:34:06.340It's that every modern nation requires competent administration.
00:34:10.760Roads, of course, have to be maintained.
00:35:05.440This just in, a newly revealed District of Columbia fire and EMS dispatch call is raising fresh questions
00:35:12.680about the health of Kentucky Senator and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
00:35:18.420According to a June 14th call, first responders were sent to the 84-year-old Republican's
00:35:24.120Washington residence after reports of a possible cardiac arrest,
00:35:28.820with dispatchers told that CPR was in progress.
00:35:32.120McConnell's office has declined to comment on the call,
00:35:34.780although his spokesman said at the time that the Senator was receiving excellent hospital care
00:35:40.040and staying engaged with Senate and Kentucky business through his health scare.
00:35:45.220Senate Majority Leader John Thune also said that he spoke with McConnell and he remained dialed in.
00:35:50.760But this latest episode adds to a growing list of public health concerns.
00:35:55.400McConnell suffered a concussion and a fractured rib in a 2023 fall,
00:36:00.500later froze twice during public appearances and experienced additional falls and hospitalizations since then.
00:36:08.580McConnell has served Kentucky for seven terms and says his current term will be his last, ending in January of 2027.
00:36:16.620He called representing the Commonwealth the honor of a lifetime.
00:36:20.640Now, the Stone Zone does not revel in McConnell's downfall, and it's sad to see his decline,
00:36:26.000but does not change the disgraceful decades in Washington, D.C., serving the swamp.
00:36:31.760McConnell is the poster child of the career politician staying long past their prime.
00:36:36.740Public 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.
00:37:01.200Meanwhile, 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.
00:37:12.540Speaking on the Michael Knowles show, Vance said that President Trump wants to use the agreement to help refill global oil supplies and stockpiles,
00:37:20.960then assess whether Iran is actually living and willing to change its behavior.
00:37:26.360Vance said that if Tehran makes a real commitment and backs them up with verifiable milestones,
00:37:31.660the United States could pursue a different relationship.
00:37:34.360But, he says, if Iran refuses, then nothing has changed,
00:37:38.120except for America has already banked major wins from recent military campaigns.
00:37:48.120America is replenishing its oil coffers, and Iran has roughly 60 days to behave or face fire and brimstone.
00:37:55.700This is exactly how peace through strength functions.
00:37:59.040The Trump administration is not leading with apology, weakness, or wishful thinking.
00:38:04.120It is telling Iran that there are two paths, verifiable compliance or consequences.
00:38:09.580America will protect energy markets, support its strategic position, and keep its military options on the table.0.94
00:38:16.440Iran now understands that its malignant terrorist behavior will no longer be tolerated.
00:38:20.960No other presidents had the courage to come after them and take out their leadership like President Trump.0.84
00:38:26.940So now Iran has one final opportunity to comply or be bombed further back into the Stone Age.0.64
00:38:33.120The ball is clearly in their court.0.55
00:38:35.900Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced its withdrawal from the U.S., Mexico and Connecticut trade agreement.
00:38:44.180The Trump administration is simply refusing to rubber stamp another round of North American trade rules without putting America workers first.
00:38:52.480On 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.
00:39:04.420Greer 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.
00:39:16.180They're still too large, according to President Trump.
00:39:19.100A senior Trump administration official said the president chose not to rubber stamp renewal without fixing the existing agreements.
00:39:28.020That's Donald Trump putting America first.
00:39:30.960Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
00:39:33.080I'm Roger Stone. Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
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