Will the Trump – RFK Alliance Prevail?
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 1 minute
Words per Minute
152.30159
Summary
Roger Stone joins host Troy Smith to discuss celebrity endorsements in the Kamala Harris campaign, including LeBron James, Alicia Keys, and more. Stone and Smith discuss the impact celebrities like LeBron James and Alicia Keys have had on the campaign and whether or not they are actually helping to elect a woman to the Senate in 2020. Stone also discusses the impact celebrity endorsements are having on the election and if they are a good or bad thing for the campaign. The Stone Zone is a production of Slingshot News, a rapidly growing alternative media site that is quickly emerging as the number one alternative media outlet in the country. Slangshot's mission is to inform, inform, and empower readers to make informed decisions about politics, public policy, and everyday life by focusing on the most important issues facing Americans on November 6th, 2020. The show is produced and hosted by Roger Stone and Troy Smith. Roger Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents. He is a New York Times best-selling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald Trump. As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless events, and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society. Due to his 4+ decades in the political and cultural arena, Stone is a pop culture icon and has become a pop-culture icon. He is an outspoken liberty advocate. in addition to being a prolific writer, pundit, commentator, and political strategist, and is a frequent guest on conservative media outlets, including CNN and The Weekly Standard, and a regular contributor on Fox News. The Hill Street Journal. He has been described as . and The New York Magazine. in a recent profile in the New York Sun. and the Hollywood Reporter. on his new book, on the latest edition of his new novel, , The Devil Next Door . in the new book , which is out now out in paperback, The Other Way . and much more! to be found on Amazon Prime and wherever else you get your copy of his work is also available on the internet. to help you find the best copy of the book, The Stonezone Podcasts The Stonez Zone. the best of the best book on the best thing you can read and listen to the best bit of what s going on in the best podcast on the web, the most authentic and most authentic, the truth you can do.
Transcript
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The Stone Zone with legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit
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Roger Stone. Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents.
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He is a New York Times best-selling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald
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Trump. As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts,
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spoken at countless venues, and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the
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Cambridge Union Society. Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena,
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Stone has become a pop culture icon. And now, here's your host, Roger Stone.
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Welcome. I'm Roger Stone. And yes, you are back in the Stone Zone. Well, I think President Donald
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Trump put it best last night at a rally when he said that what we're going to see in roughly 48
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hours has been in the works for over nine years. Nine years of hard work, nine years of victories
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and defeats, nine years of deep state skullduggery. But the effort to save this country will culminate
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in less than 48 hours. That assumes, of course, that the secretaries of state in Wisconsin,
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Pennsylvania, and Michigan don't plot together to thwart the will of the American people.
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We want to get right into it with politics, so I'm bringing in my co-host, Troy Smith, of the
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incredibly successful Slingshot.News, which is quickly emerging as the number one alternative
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media site in the country for people who want to read things that are important, but they can't read
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anyplace else. Troy, welcome back into this. Roger, an honor to be back with you, as always. And,
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you know, we started this journey with me being here, you know, every day in January. And to think
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we've come all the way now to Election Day, it's pretty unbelievable. It seems like the blink of an
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eye. We have so much to get into today, Roger, but I want to start off with the push from the Kamala
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Harris campaign. Yesterday, I was watching a rally in North Carolina where Jon Bon Jovi was present,
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along with several other artists of a more modern nature. And we saw people like LeBron James come
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out and endorse Kamala Harris recently. All the celebrities, it seems, are now rallying behind
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Kamala Harris. We saw Alicia Keys in Pennsylvania, which we're going to get to in a second here.
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But I have a clip of LeBron James endorsing Kamala Harris. We want to get your thoughts on this push
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by the celebrities to get out the vote for Kamala Harris. I want to ask you, you have so much
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experience in electoral politics. Are these endorsements helping her at all? Because if
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they are, it seems that Trump may be in trouble. Let's roll those clips and get Roger's opinion.
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It'll be a good day. Everything's kind of silent. I want to make sure it is seen, heard, and heard with
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force. So, you know, having a daughter, a wife, a mother, you know, and things of that nature.
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What she believes in when it comes to women's rights. When it comes to the future, you know,
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my kids and where I see our country should be. You know, I feel like that endorsement is only right.
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Look at this. Come on. You guys know me. I'm damn sure I won't go the other way.
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What is your experience in 2020 with him? Teach you about politics, show you about politics,
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show you about the impacts you can have in a very specific way.
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Well, I mean, it all started with, you know, the shut up and dribble thing, obviously,
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and to be able to be in a position where you can have some influence and you have a lot of people
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who, you know, who wanted to be in a position to have influence, you know, to be able to speak
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outside of their realm of sports or, you know, music or movies or whatever, whatever it is,
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whatever the industry is, to be able to have a platform where, you know, I was able to gather,
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you know, a lot of men and women to be able to speak out from that moment. And then, you know,
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more than a vote campaign, obviously, initiative.
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Great commonality between celebrities who have endorsed Kamala Harris and celebrities who attended
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to P. Diddy's pre-golf parties. And you just saw one right there. Look, political support in America
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is not transferable. Kamala Harris has to trot out some of these celebrity endorsements because she's
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so vapid. She has no substance. She can't draw a crowd by herself. My family members who still
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live in the Cleveland area tell me that Donald Trump just went up three points in Ohio because
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there's still deep resentment in that state about LeBron leaving Ohio behind. Now, I don't think
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having Lady Gaga endorse you is going to get you a single vote that you didn't already have. In fact,
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my guess is that most of Lady Gaga's admirers are probably not registered and probably aren't going
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to vote. She has to use them, you see, because she has to fill the hall. Donald Trump didn't fill
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the hall. We've seen record crowds at all of his events. And they're coming to see Donald Trump and
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J.D. Vance. And then when he teams up with Robert Kennedy or Tulsi Gabbard, it's not just standing
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room only. There are tens of thousands of people outside the venues listening to, you know, on big
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loudspeakers who can't get in. So, no, I really don't think it does make a big difference.
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Troy, one thing I want to talk about is this incredible new ad by Robert F. Kennedy's people
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about the Liberty League, the alliance of Donald Trump, Senator, pardon me, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
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Tulsi Gabbard, and of course Tucker Carlson, Vivek Ramaswamy, who I think are being extraordinarily
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effective on the campaign hustings. Yesterday, our mutual friend Laura Loomer attacked Robert Kennedy
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on Twitter, saying that the money he was raising was being used to pay his debt. Unfortunately,
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first of all, I don't think he has a debt. But secondarily, if you understood federal election
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law, you would know that this is all general election money. It can't be used to pay debt.
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I checked in with the Kennedy campaign for a comment, and I learned that the money they're
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raising is being used to contact Kennedy voters, particularly in Michigan and Wisconsin, where the
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Democrats at first fought to keep RFK off the ballot. Then they successfully fought to keep him on
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the ballot. So for example, the money is being used to contact those voters by telephone and by text
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messaging to make sure they know that Robert Kennedy urges them to vote for Donald Trump. So I think Laura
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Loomer is wrong in her assertions. But I do know this. Here, in the last 48 hours before the most
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consequential election in our lifetimes is not the time to be attacking other people who are on your
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own side. Let's run this amazing clip that was just dropped by Bobby Kennedy's people. What will we do with
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this moment? How will we be remembered? Look at the opportunities before us.
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This election really isn't about the left versus the right. It's about we the people choosing our
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government and the choice between freedom versus tyranny. Nobody has a chronic disease burden like we
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have. Why are we allowing this to happen to our children? Ultimately, the only thing that will save our
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country is if we choose to love our kids more than we hate each other. What is going on here is deeper
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than politics. It is deeply spiritual. We are being called to rise above the hatred and the fear and the
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evil. We need to remember above and beyond that we must love our neighbors, that we must treat other
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people as we hope to be treated. You want to be a rebel? You want to be a hippie? You want to stick it to
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the man? Show up on your college campus and try calling yourself a conservative. America is going to
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reach heights that it has never seen before. The future is going to be amazing.
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Don't you want healthy children? Don't you want a president that's going to make America healthy again?
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I come to you today as a former Democrat. I will be a first-time Trump voter tonight.
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The people dreamed this country and it's the people who are making America great again.
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Extraordinarily powerful ad. I think it describes perfectly this moment that we are in. As you and
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I have discussed here on The Stone Zone, we are at the cusp of a complete and total political
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realignment. A realignment in which the warmongers, the globalists, the neocons, the elitists,
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those who would really seek to start World War III so we can gin up the profits in the defense
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contractors and begin erasing the U.S. Constitution are embracing Kamala Harris, where common sense
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Democrats like Robert F. Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, Governor Rod Blagojevich, and others are rallying
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to Donald Trump. This is a moment in history. Troy will never see this moment or this opportunity
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again. The time is now and the stakes are extraordinarily high.
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Well, Roger, I agree with you. I think it's tremendously powerful that we have somebody.
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I want to point out, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is somebody who I think I've studied him pretty
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closely because I examined his independent candidacy. I covered that on Slingshot News.
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Even when I was working for past publications, I had covered him. Here's a guy that speaks to the
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independents. Roger, I talk to election integrity groups across the country, and what we have to
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understand is that as Democrats lose registrations, as Republicans lose registrations in a lot of
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places, the people that are gaining steam, the people that are consistently gaining across the
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board in most states are the independent voters. The independent voting bloc is becoming bigger and
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bigger with each election. You know this is somebody who looks at polls and polling. The group becomes
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bigger and bigger. I have never seen a candidate that more embodied the independent voter in my
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lifetime than Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I may disagree with him on some major issues, including energy and
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some other things, but the fact that he appeals to the independent voter and that he has stated that
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President Trump aligns with him and he's endorsed President Trump, that can't be taken for granted.
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His endorsement and his ability to reach the independent voter, Roger, in this election is
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something I have never seen. And I wanted to ask you, have you ever seen anybody that speaks to
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independent voters in a more effective way than Robert F. Kennedy has during this election cycle?
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It's really been tremendous what he's done, no?
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It's been an extraordinarily selfless effort. I mean, look, he had a hard choice to make. I always
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thought that his running as a Democrat was futile because they would never let him fairly compete
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for the Democrat nomination against Joe Biden. They canceled the Iowa caucuses. They essentially
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canceled the New Hampshire primary. They really couldn't do that because it's required by law, but
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instead they stripped New Hampshire of all of its delegates to the Democrat National Convention
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to make the primary meaningless. When he correctly surmised that they were going to do the full Bernie
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Sanders on him, they would cheat to make sure that Joe Biden was renominated. He bolted to become
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an independent. Now, having left the Republican Party myself in 20, I guess it was 2012,
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when the party foolishly nominated Mitt Romney, a man who believes in nothing whatsoever to run for
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president. I briefly joined the Libertarian Party, where frankly, at least philosophically,
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I felt more at home. And I'm proud to say that I helped Governor Gary Johnson, probably their strongest
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nominee in history, get on the ballot in 48 states. So I knew how difficult getting on the ballot would be
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as an independent. I mean, remember, in Johnson's case, at least there was a Libertarian Party infrastructure
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in virtually every state and experienced people who knew the ropes in terms of the difficulty and
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procedures of getting on the ballot. So I knew they would seek to kneecap him there. Indeed, they did.
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The criminal Democrat attorney, Mark Elias, essentially spearheaded the effort to make sure that
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Kennedy could not get on the ballot. He was still incredibly successful in a number of states.
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And now the Democrats, of course, went into court to make sure that his name remained on the ballot
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in Michigan and Wisconsin, where they had previously spent millions of dollars trying to get his name
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taken off the ballot. Shows you the hypocrisy of the Democrat Party. I do want to say another thing
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here that disturbs me, and that is these stories over the weekend about the New York State government
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under Kathy Hochul, who, frankly, I think, needs to submit to an IQ exam, going into the private home
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of an individual and seizing his pet squirrel, Peanut, and euthanizing that pet.
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This has a larger symbolism, in my opinion. Yeah, I'm an animal lover. People know that.
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But who was Peanut harming? Who was being harmed here? Why this overreach to an animal who had been
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domesticated and had thrilled on TikTok? God knows how many children brought a little joy into people's
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lives. This was a beloved pet. If somebody came into my house, seized my dog, and killed my dog,
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I can't think of anything more horrific. But this is today's Democrat Party. I think it is disgraceful.
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Let's run a little clip on Peanut because Troy and I, we insist on justice for Peanut.
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There's a party downtown near Fish Street. Everybody had to bargain tips.
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I've been boozy since I live. I ain't change it for a chick. Tell my ma I ain't forget.
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Woke up drunk at 10 a.m. We gon' do this again. Tell your girl to bring a friend.
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Here comes the two, to the three, to the four. Tell them bring another round, we need 30 more.
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Who's stepping on the table, she don't need a dance floor. Oh my, good lord.
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Someone pull me up a double shot of wings. They don't need a dance, gotta hit stretch back.
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Look, Troy, a party that will burst into your home and seize your pet and kill them will ultimately
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burst into your home to seize your children, to vaccinate them, and therefore, perhaps,
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to kill them. This is a heartbreaking story. And I actually think it's going to move votes in this
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election, in an election that is this close and this volatile, to have the heavy-handed New York
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State government raid this guy's home. They also killed Fred the raccoon. May they both rest in peace.
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They both brought joy to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans, particularly kids.
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This is really disgraceful. Well, you know, Roger, that's just the way that the government goes.
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You know, we've seen these people doing this for a long time. They feel as if they have the right
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to burst in your home for whatever reason and take you away. I mean, you saw this when they
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sent FBI agents to your house for literally no reason. I mean, they made up a crime and then they
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accused you of covering up for something that you didn't do. And there was no evidence that
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ever happened. So, you know, this is what they do. And we have to be aware of this. And that's why
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this coalition of Republicans, Democrats, you know, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump,
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J.D. Vance is so special, Roger, because the foundational element of this is freedom,
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liberty. And we don't say that in the traditional, you know, Republican get out the vote sense. We say that
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in the let's address the foundational problems in this country as it pertains to threats to our
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constitutional liberties. And I think, you know, any review of Robert F. Kennedy's work,
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particularly as it pertains to health freedom, reveals that this guy is so involved intricately
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in how in the process by which Americans rights are eroded away, which is why it's so exciting to
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think that this guy might actually have a chance to go to Washington to try to take away
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those elements that erode away our constitutional liberties. Another player, like we talked about
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this, Roger, is Tulsi Gabbard. She has put out over the last few days a couple videos that I think we
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want to show here because they're so great, kind of destroying Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, and these
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warmongers that really make up the resistance to this political reformation that we've been talking about
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here for the last year. So we want to roll these two clips of Tulsi Gabbard basically taking apart
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the chain. He's taking apart the Washington, D.C. establishment war machine that opposes Donald
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Trump and is working so hard to elect Kamala Harris. We want to roll those clips, Roger,
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and then let you roll on these because Ms. Gabbard really putting out an incredibly effective
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message here. Let's roll that. You know, Tulsi, when Mark Cuban says
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Donald Trump doesn't like to surround himself with smart, intelligent,
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independent women, it's hard not to see that's a direct shot at Kellyanne Conway,
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Kayleigh McEnany, Linda McMahon, a whole host of other women as well, including you, Tulsi.
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It seems like it's a direct shot at someone like you. You know, there's actually something much
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darker that he is, he is implying there because the premise of his statement is that he believes
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that Liz Cheney and female warmongers like her are what defines strong women. They are, they are
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hypocrites and cowards because when you look at people like Liz Cheney, she is eager to send our troops
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into harm's way. She is eager to advocate for more stupid wars, but she and other warmongers like her
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will never volunteer to put their lives on the line for these military adventures they're advocating in.
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I just finished a couple of days of Army Reserve duty at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and yesterday morning,
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I stood there on the graduation field and saw a few hundred brand new soldiers graduating from basic
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training. Probably a thousand family members there to celebrate them. And it was so moving.
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And I was thinking about people like Liz Cheney when I was watching them because these are the young
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men and women who will pay the price potentially with their lives if people like Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney,
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and Kamala Harris are allowed to be in power. This is one of the many reasons why I'm so strongly advocating
00:21:25.980
for and supporting for President Trump to go back to the White House to end wars, not start them.
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President Trump was absolutely right when he said that Dick and Liz Cheney are always eager to go and
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waste the precious lives of our brave men and women in uniform, sending them off to go fight in stupid
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military adventures. And yet they themselves are too cowardly to put themselves in a position where the
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enemy's guns are pointed at them with their lives at risk. So instead they sit and hide in their ivory
00:21:57.100
towers without hesitation, sending others into harm's way. So President Trump speaking this truth is not
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a threat to anyone. It's the truth that voters need to know before this election is over. Listen to Trump
00:22:12.540
say it in his own words and make your mind up for yourself.
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President Trump speaking this truth. But the reason she couldn't stand me is that she always wanted to
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go to war with people. I don't want to go to war. She wanted to go. She wanted to stay in Syria. I took
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them out. She wanted to stay in Iraq. I took them out. I mean, if it were up to her, we'd we'd be in 50
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different countries. She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine
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barrels shooting at her. Okay. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained in her face.
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You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building saying,
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oh, gee, well, let's send, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.
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But she's a stupid person. And I used to have meetings with a lot of people. And she always
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wanted to go to war with people. Well, Troy, we know how those comments
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by President Trump got distorted. No, he did not suggest putting Liz Cheney up in front of a firing
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squad. He's making the point that how easy it is for her to push war because she's not the one who
00:23:22.940
has to go fight it. It's our family members. It's our young people. It's our young servicemen and women
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that she's so anxious to put in harm's way. But in the final 48 hours, 72 hours of a presidential
00:23:38.540
campaign, you see this every four years. I've seen it for 13 presidential cycles. The media,
00:23:45.260
which is hostile and corrupt, will take anything the president says and seek to twist it into something
00:23:53.260
he didn't say. As for the question of strong women, this is an absurdity. Susie Wiles,
00:24:00.380
who I've known for over 30 years, going back to her service for Ronald Reagan, Congressman Jack Kemp,
00:24:07.900
almost principally responsible for the election of Rick Scott to the US Senate, has been leading
00:24:14.700
Donald Trump's campaign. This is, I can tell you from experience, the most efficient, effective
00:24:22.140
presidential campaign in US history in either party. And the president has relied on Susan Wiles,
00:24:30.300
a strong, very intelligent, experienced woman. Back in his real estate days, all of his top executives
00:24:38.860
were women. So this is a smear. But speaking of women, is Mark Cuban transitioning or what's going on
00:24:46.460
there? Because he looks kind of weird to me. He is bizarre looking. You know, I think they're losing
00:24:52.380
the Mavericks for him. You know, I understand he made a boatload of money and that's got to make it
00:24:56.460
a little bit easier. But that was such a part of his personality. To me, he looks like a lost puppy.
00:25:02.220
Now he walks around and it's so obvious to me, Roger, that the guy is so jealous of Donald Trump
00:25:07.660
because he looks at himself. He says, I'm a billionaire. I'm on TV. I'm on reality TV.
00:25:12.940
Why am I not president? Well, Mark Cuban is because Donald Trump is a special talent. He's really,
00:25:18.700
I think, and Roger, you would probably agree with this, probably the most talented individual
00:25:22.700
we've ever seen in American politics. He is the only person that's ever been in American politics
00:25:27.980
to become president without being a general or some kind of elected official beforehand. So really,
00:25:33.660
he's done more with nothing than many people have done with being senators and congressmen. I mean,
00:25:40.220
I think that angers the political class and it also angers Mark Cuban because he looks at himself,
00:25:45.100
he says, I should be president. And we know that he was on the phone with Larry Hogan and all these
00:25:49.820
people with the no labels thing. They weighed that. I mean, he eventually decided not to do it. Maybe
00:25:54.140
he's a little smarter than he looks and he knows that he would get obliterated if he ran for president,
00:25:59.340
especially as a third party. But, you know, he's a very bitter guy, Roger, and that goes into
00:26:04.780
the Democrat strategy. You know, he's been doing interviews, by the way, and they told him to stop
00:26:11.020
because the backlash he's getting from the interviews is so tremendous that he's really
00:26:15.260
hurting the campaign. So a lot of stress. He may be going through a stress-induced transition there.
00:26:20.780
But there is something I wanted to bring up to you, Roger. It's very interesting. You predicted long
00:26:26.700
ago that it would be Michelle Obama that would be inserted into this election. Now that didn't end up
00:26:32.620
happening, but you, you know, the first half of your prediction where you predicted Joe Biden would
00:26:36.380
not be the nominee, you got that one right. And we've seen Michelle Obama kind of come out of the
00:26:42.380
woodwork here and start campaigning for Kamala Harris. I found it tremendously interesting. Kamala
00:26:47.580
Harris was out west of this weekend while it was Michelle Obama and Alicia Keys that were campaigning
00:26:53.900
for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the crucial key state of Pennsylvania. We have a clip of Michelle
00:27:00.380
Obama campaigning. And I want to get your thoughts. You know, this was Josh Shapiro,
00:27:05.340
the Pennsylvania governor and Michelle Obama, along with Alicia Keys. Why was Kamala Harris not in the
00:27:11.660
most important state? And what does that say about how the Democrats feel about their own nominee?
00:27:17.100
For so much of this election cycle, we have been inundated with voices and forces that tell us another
00:27:27.420
story about who we are. The folks telling us that things may not be as they appear,
00:27:35.100
that we should be suspicious of our neighbors, that military service and sacrifice is for suckers,
00:27:43.900
that there's an enemy from within. See, we've had this noise buzzing in our ears for over a decade now.
00:27:53.020
But at least for me, y'all, it's still not normal. It is still unsettling. Every time I hear someone say
00:28:01.580
that the hope and pride that I feel for the country I love is misplaced, that down is up and right is wrong,
00:28:09.820
my God, it's bewildering. It is dangerous. It is shameful.
00:28:20.220
Now, of course, we've been battling for the soul of our democracy for a very long time.
00:28:27.100
And the tactics to tear it apart are not new. Sadly, they have become more insidious,
00:28:34.940
more cunning, led by a more skilled con man who is more brazen and bombastic.
00:28:43.740
But this, too, is part of the great experiment that we call democracy.
00:28:50.620
Can people who strongly disagree still find common ground?
00:28:56.460
And throughout our nation's history, we haven't always been able to answer that question with a
00:29:01.900
resounding yes. We have had our fair share of dark moments, some lasting for decades,
00:29:10.060
stretches of time that have been hard and scary. But for anyone who's ever endeavored to build or do
00:29:18.220
something hard or scary, erecting a skyscraper, scaling a mountain, even a child building a sandcastle,
00:29:26.860
you learn very quickly that it's a lot easier to destroy than to build up.
00:29:33.900
Well, first of all, there she goes again, recycling the suckers and losers claim
00:29:40.380
by the bitter, not credible General John Kelly. You remember him. He was briefly Donald Trump's
00:29:48.700
chief of staff. When he tried to control total access to the president, he tried to control who
00:29:55.020
the president could see, who he could talk to on the phone, and began undermining his America First
00:30:00.940
agenda. He was fired for insubordination. That's when he dreamed up this idea that Trump had referred
00:30:08.860
to military members who had lost their lives in the service of the country as suckers and losers.
00:30:15.180
But, Troy, there were 20 other people present at the cemetery where Kelly claims this happened.
00:30:22.300
None of them recall Trump saying anything of the kind. And then recently, with Bob Woodward,
00:30:28.380
the congenital liar whose books I have decimated, you can go to stonezone.com and look up a piece
00:30:35.420
I wrote called The Lies of Bob Woodward. He came up with another lie that Trump praised Adolf Hitler.
00:30:42.780
And John Kelly says he's known this for five years, but he just decided to bring it up in the last two
00:30:49.580
weeks of a presidential campaign. Once again, he can't find anybody who will corroborate this.
00:30:55.820
In fact, the Secretary of Defense, who's not supporting Donald Trump, has been a critic.
00:31:00.780
He said he was there and Trump said nothing of the kind. I'd like to know the last time
00:31:08.460
Michelle Obama built a skyscraper. When was that? I know one guy who has built skyscrapers,
00:31:14.780
the guy who changed the skyline of New York. That's Donald Trump. Once again, everything they
00:31:22.220
accuse us of is exactly what they themselves are doing. One final question for Michelle. How's your
00:31:29.980
chef? All right. We're going to have to go to a quick commercial break here. And when we come back,
00:31:36.060
we're going to talk about how Donald Trump unleashed America's ingenuity and economic enterprise when he,
00:31:46.060
in the 2018 Farm Bill, legalized hemp in America, creating a $30 billion industry, as well as
00:31:55.740
320,000 new jobs. Take a look at this and then we'll be right back.
00:32:01.500
Roger Stone This is Roger Stone. Remember when AT&T's
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Get your Iridium 9555 phone now. All right folks, we're back. And as I indicated, we're going to have
00:34:32.380
a discussion now of the phenomena that took place after President Donald Trump pushed and signed an
00:34:40.700
amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp in America. Joining us now, A.J. Fabrizio,
00:34:49.260
who is a cannabis scientist and to whom I'm deeply grateful for helping me understand all of the
00:34:57.420
state and federal issues surrounding the cannabis industry. And we're also joined by Brett Worley,
00:35:04.940
who is the CEO of Vivamoo.com, one of the country's leading hemp companies. Gentlemen, welcome
00:35:13.420
to the Stone Zone. Hey Roger, thank you for having us. Thanks for having us, Roger.
00:35:18.940
Good to see you, A.J. Good to see you too, Brett. All right, A.J., we're going to start with you
00:35:24.220
because you have this innate ability to try to make complicated issues understandable. Tell us
00:35:31.340
what happened when Donald Trump signed the Farm Bill. Well, to keep a long story short,
00:35:39.260
as we've spoken last time I was on here with you, Roger, so basically the way that you have to look at
00:35:46.140
the plant cannabis, the organism cannabis. President Trump in 2018 signed an iteration of the Farm Bill,
00:35:56.540
which passes about every five years, which redefined the two subcategories legally for the,
00:36:05.020
or distinctions legally for the organism cannabis. The legal determination, which is defined as the word
00:36:11.820
hemp, and the illegal determination, which is defined as the word marijuana. And prior to 2018,
00:36:18.860
the definition of what can, what varietals of cannabis could be considered marijuana were vast
00:36:25.660
and virtually, I mean, you would say almost every iteration or phenotype of the cannabis plant would be,
00:36:33.580
would be considered illegal marijuana. But in 2018, there was language that was added to the Farm Bill,
00:36:41.180
not by accident. It was done purposefully, which was recodified in the final rules that came out in 2021,
00:36:49.020
which redefined what would turn legal hemp into illegal marijuana. And that distinction
00:36:57.580
is one chemical, or one constituent, delta-9 THC, in which when that constituent rises above a level of 0.3%
00:37:12.620
by dry weight, or 0.3%, it becomes, it goes from hemp to marijuana. Now, it's important to note,
00:37:21.740
and a lot of people will be confused by this, because I think there's a certain interest in
00:37:28.700
those opposing hemp to keep it that way. Delta-9 THC is not produced by the plant. It actually is a
00:37:36.940
degraded product of what is produced by the plant, THCA or tetrahydrocannabinic acid. And under specific
00:37:45.340
conditions such as heat, light, or UV light, oxygen, and time, THCA can decompose into delta-9 THC.
00:37:55.900
However, the distinction is that the plant itself at no point actually produces delta-9 THC or the
00:38:02.060
controlled substance that would then determine whether or not it becomes illicit marijuana. And
00:38:07.340
just to explain to what that did a little bit to the marketplace is, because the plant itself doesn't
00:38:15.340
produce delta-9 THC, virtually all cannabis that grows up until a very specific set of circumstances
00:38:24.540
is legally determined. It could be legally determined as hemp, which means it is a federally legal
00:38:31.820
commodity. And just to add why I said commodities, because also in the Farm Bill, what it specifically
00:38:38.700
did is not just redefine that limit that determines whether or not it's hemp or marijuana, but it also
00:38:46.300
took hemp out from under the jurisdiction of the DEA or the Controlled Substance Act and put it solely
00:38:54.140
I think people need to recognize that hemp has multiple uses. It can be used for clothing,
00:39:04.540
building materials, fuel, and so on. It has a very broad application, which is why it has
00:39:10.860
so much great potential. Brett, next question to you. The hemp industry does find itself under attack,
00:39:19.900
some of it controversial. Why is this, and why should the average American care?
00:39:27.580
Well, the short answer is it shouldn't be. Cannabis sativa L was descheduled, as A.J.
00:39:33.100
was said, and it was magical for lack of better terms. Extracts, derivatives, and salts. The whole
00:39:41.740
plant was descheduled and removed from the Controlled Substance Act. And with that,
00:39:47.180
that allowed for the innovation of cannabinoids for consumption, whether it's for nutraceutical
00:39:53.100
purposes or for medicinal purposes or for recreational purposes. But it also allowed
00:39:58.940
us to get back to the economy that once was, which we had a hemp economy in the United States of America.
00:40:05.180
Our ropes were made out of hemp. Paper was made out of hemp. All types of products were made out of
00:40:13.500
hemp. For example, don't quote me on this, but hemp pallets are about 60 times lighter and three times
00:40:20.380
stronger. So if FedEx and UPS and Amazon use pallets, you would see a huge cost savings over the next decades
00:40:29.580
of fuel, given that how much freight they ship. So what we're starting to see in this economy,
00:40:36.780
although MC Nutraceuticals and Vivimo are just cannabinoid companies, is we are starting to
00:40:42.460
divest or reinvest into these next segments, which are allowed under the Farm Bill.
00:40:49.660
Now, going back to your question, the marijuana industry, which is federally illegal and just
00:40:55.580
legal in typically Democratic states, Democrat states, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado,
00:41:02.780
they've decided that they don't like interstate commerce. They don't like federal legalization
00:41:07.580
because they cannot control it. It's not a monopolistic regime. So they've used lobbying
00:41:13.100
powers or lobbying power and dollars in order to ban these products in a lot of those Democrat states.
00:41:20.300
Luckily, people like myself and others were able to start in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
00:41:26.140
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, these Republican strongholds, a lot of these being
00:41:30.780
tobacco states, and explain to the state legislatures how important this crop is going to be now and also
00:41:38.220
how important it's going to be in the future to where it could be a trillion dollar economy.
00:41:42.860
This was taken and scaled up into D.C. with Amendment 35 in the Farm Bill that was rolled
00:41:49.820
into Chairman Thompson on the ag committees on block. And this was a complete decimation into
00:41:56.620
the entire hemp industry. It didn't just get rid of the rope. It got rid of the CBD. It got rid of the
00:42:01.100
Delta-8 THC. It got rid of everything, which was a blessing in disguise, in my opinion, because it
00:42:07.260
allowed the hemp industry to unify and, you know, people like me and AJ to eventually meet ourselves and
00:42:12.220
Roger yourself, too, and us to come up with a defense plan, which is we want to protect the
00:42:18.220
current $30 billion industry, but we also want to grow into that trillion dollar industry that we
00:42:22.700
really think and we truly believe is going to be possible over the next 30 years. And Congress has
00:42:28.860
really, you know, been able to take that up and been very receptive of that because they feel like
00:42:34.540
they got tricked into this Mary Miller Amendment.
00:42:39.580
AJ, if you would, kind of outline for folks the potential health benefits of hemp. Brett sent me a
00:42:48.940
couple of great products, CBD products. Frankly, they help me sleep. They help me sleep. They help me
00:42:56.220
recover. I don't get, you know, they're so much, they're so superior to say Xanax or Valium or Halcyon
00:43:04.380
or any of these other pharmaceutical drugs. I find them actually indispensable and also far less
00:43:11.980
expensive. So I'm not sure folks realize the great potential health benefits here.
00:43:18.220
Sure. So there's actually a direct health benefit and then there's indirect health benefits when you talk
00:43:24.700
about hemp as a whole and being reutilized in the economy. So to get a little crash course on the
00:43:31.820
science or the biology and the biochemistry. So I personally also, the reason why I got into the
00:43:39.100
industry, as you know, Roger and Brett is I have epilepsy and cannabinoids were the only thing that
00:43:45.180
seemed to be effective for me. In addition to a lot of other patients who have epilepsy, that was one of
00:43:51.580
the driving forces to see broad and broad embrace or the crossover from blue to red states for medical
00:43:59.660
marijuana, like states like Florida. But to answer your question, Roger, first, firstly, the direct
00:44:06.460
benefits are these, these, these chemicals, these 120 some odd chemicals, depending on which author you
00:44:12.700
read, specifically about cannabinoids. So THC, CBD, CBG, their acidic counterparts, CBN, a degraded or a more
00:44:24.780
oxidized counterpart to THC. They all interact on a system that was actually rather recently, I mean,
00:44:32.940
I say recently discovered, but it was discovered in 1988, the endocannabinoid system. It's comprised of,
00:44:40.540
it's two of its major components are the CB1 or CB and CBT receptors. These are some of the most
00:44:47.420
densely populated receptors in the, in your body. So it was very surprising when we discovered these,
00:44:54.380
these receptors. And what's very interesting is that the endocannabinoid system, it has other
00:44:59.980
receptors in addition, but to simplify, what these receptors actually do is they deal with regulation
00:45:06.780
and homeostasis in the body, which is basically the amount of equilibrium your biochemistry has.
00:45:12.300
And to say it simply, and one of the reasons why people, you know, are probably a little,
00:45:18.700
maybe a little bit standoffish, especially when I started 15 years ago, is it sounds like a cure-all,
00:45:23.180
a snake oil. And the reality is, is that it doesn't cure everything, but because of the way the
00:45:29.020
endocannabinoid system works in the body, it does, the endocannabinoid system does have a say in
00:45:33.820
virtually every process that occurs in the body and every bodily system, whether it's reproductive,
00:45:38.460
whether it's metabolic, whether it's the way the cell cycle works. I mean, if it's the nervous system.
00:45:47.420
So one of the things that you find with these cannabinoids in general is they have certain
00:45:52.460
properties and they all vary slightly, but you know, the main ones, for instance, a really interesting
00:46:00.540
product that's our set of chemicals that are being studied now. First of all, they show extremely
00:46:08.540
potent anti-inflammatory effects. So potent that they're more effective than over-the-counter
00:46:15.020
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. But they also can be more
00:46:21.660
effective than steroids. The second plus to administering cannabinoids over these traditional
00:46:28.780
products is that they are resoundingly non-toxic. And I really want people to understand and
00:46:33.900
emphasize that point. There have been no overdoses, or I should say lethal doses,
00:46:43.420
of cannabinoids ever. Researchers, when they were trying to actually establish a lethal dosage amongst
00:46:50.940
lab rats and things like that, found it quite difficult, actually, because the content and the
00:46:56.540
doses just got so high that they became nonsensical. So you've got this resoundingly non-toxic ability
00:47:06.060
inside the body. So the liver load that usually accompanies taking anti-inflammatories isn't there.
00:47:12.220
In addition, you know, for everyday use, a lot of these chemicals are very good sleep regulators.
00:47:20.460
They allow for better sleep, deeper sleep, more restorative sleep. And then when you start getting
00:47:27.660
into, you know, our category of as you start getting a little bit older and start dealing with the
00:47:34.140
symptoms of aging, and in some cases, if you're very unlucky or unfortunate and you start developing
00:47:40.140
age-related illnesses like cancer, you know, autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative disease,
00:47:45.100
things like that, it isn't a surprise based off of the data that these cannabinoids are extremely
00:47:50.860
effective in helping treat a lot of these symptoms, if not the underlying condition itself. And
00:47:57.660
obviously, that would be a whole other show to talk about. Now, the indirect health benefits,
00:48:05.420
as Brett was saying, you know, the cannabinoid conversation has been going on for a long time,
00:48:09.020
and it's the most divisive of these conversations. But, you know, my interest now that we have not
00:48:16.620
only a federally legal cannabinoid market derived from hemp, and a state legal cannabinoid market
00:48:23.180
derived from medical and recreational marijuana, is the other applications and usages of hemp in the
00:48:31.740
economy that history can show us, in addition to the very exciting new technologies that could be
00:48:37.580
derived utilizing hemp as a resource. For instance, you know, you've heard me use this analogy before
00:48:46.860
that the hemp industry is where I believe is basically where the, very similar to where the
00:48:53.580
oil industry, the oil and gas industry was in the late 1800s. It reminds me very much of standard oil,
00:48:58.860
where the gasoline and kerosene were enough to actually, for Rockefeller, for him to fund his whole
00:49:05.180
operation, you know, find the wells, drill the wells, pump it, move it, refine it, and then sell it. And
00:49:10.780
about 50% of what he was moving, depending on, you know, the oil, the crude oil, was, quote, trash.
00:49:17.100
He, that he, you know, it wasn't the gasoline and kerosene. And as time went on, he went and he said,
00:49:22.140
look, half of what I'm transporting and paying to transport is useless. And I want to see if there's
00:49:27.260
something I can do with this. And that was, he started investing in university systems and chemical
00:49:32.620
companies. And that was the advent of the petrochemical industry. 80% of what you touch
00:49:36.860
has a petroleum product in it. And THC and CBD, you know, you could argue are the gasoline and kerosene
00:49:43.180
of the resurgence of what Brett was alluding to, the most important resource throughout
00:49:51.580
the beginning of our history in the United States and the history around the world of hemp. And so these
00:49:57.500
indirect health issues, for instance, if we were to start feeding livestock hemp again,
00:50:05.260
like they used to before we had corn fed and there was just grass. There are studies that show that
00:50:11.180
the quality of the meat increases, the veterinary bills decrease for the animals. You get access to
00:50:19.100
these precursors to endocannabinoids and to cannabinoids themselves through the actual animal meat.
00:50:26.380
Now you don't get the actual THC and CBD directly, but you get those fats that can then be converted
00:50:32.300
to similar molecules inside the body that help promote the health, the direct health
00:50:38.140
effects that we had first discussed answering this question. So.
00:50:43.820
Brett, next question to you. Which states have legislated these products properly
00:50:49.980
and which have not. And then the second part, what regulations does the hemp industry support?
00:50:59.340
Yeah. So Tennessee was the first really good bill. It had a milligram caps, 21 plus license licensing
00:51:07.180
requirements that are very limited, which I'll explain in a second, but $250 for a retailer, $500 for
00:51:13.820
a manufacturer, um, safety standards, uh, with testing requirements for third party ISO accredited
00:51:21.660
lab, which is fairly standard in a nutraceutical standpoint. Um, so Tennessee was the framework
00:51:27.580
of a lot of bills that came after it. So the bills that came after it were Florida, Georgia,
00:51:32.780
um, South Carolina made it through one of the chambers, but then got stalled. And we expect to get
00:51:37.660
that through this year, North Carolina had the same thing going. So we've kind of just had an evolution
00:51:43.180
of the Tennessee bill. There's also bills in Kentucky that will be reworked this session and Alabama,
00:51:48.780
which just had a 21 plus, but obviously we want more girth. Um, and the places where bills were bad,
00:51:56.060
um, they're complete bands for, and for example, in Nevada, um, Roger, I sent you a product called CBN.
00:52:02.540
Uh, it's a sleep product. It's has a psychoactivity profile of one 20th of Delta nine THC.
00:52:11.500
And it essentially doesn't get you high. It's banned, um, because of the way it was made. California,
00:52:17.900
all products are banned at the moment. Oregon, all products are banned at the moment. Um, and the same
00:52:23.900
with Washington. So, I mean, again, you kind of see this red versus blue divide of the hemp versus
00:52:29.980
marijuana industry, which just comes down to pure monopolistic play. Um, a license in Kentucky,
00:52:37.660
um, although it has a hemp program, they just gave out 10 licenses. That license could be $5 million
00:52:44.780
where a license for hemp could be a hundred. So you're really talking about a small business farming
00:52:51.340
community, which is hemp versus a large monopolistic corporate structure, which we call multi-state
00:52:58.380
operators called marijuana. So for example, that, you know, a company spent a hundred million dollars
00:53:07.100
trying to make sure that they got more licenses, um, in a certain state recently. And that is kind
00:53:14.380
of how the marijuana guys played their game. And that is the difference between marijuana and hemp.
00:53:19.500
We want labeling requirements, testing requirements, 21 plus and milligram caps. And then we want to be
00:53:27.900
left alone because that's all that's truly required for this plant when it comes to consumption.
00:53:34.460
Yeah. I want to talk about that product, uh, for just a moment. Uh, this is the sleep product put out
00:53:40.700
by Vivimu.com. This stuff has really saved my life. Believe me. I tried Ambien,
00:53:47.580
gave me horrific nightmares. I tried Xanax. Ultimately you become depressed. I tried Halcyon,
00:53:55.740
uh, worked for a little while, all pharmaceutical drugs, all very expensive. By the way,
00:54:00.540
this product is inexpensive. You can go to the website, which is Vivimu, which is V-I-V-I-M-U.com.
00:54:09.100
There it is. Uh, and order their sleep product. Uh, by the way, Brett didn't ask me to do this.
00:54:14.700
This, this has literally me going, uh, through this campaign season because I've been able to get
00:54:21.740
a good night's sleep. Uh, I, I like your other product as well, which is relief. You get it at
00:54:28.460
the same website folks. These are great products. They're inexpensive. They work no hangover in the
00:54:35.820
morning. None of that kind of, uh, slow start in the morning. Can't say enough great things about
00:54:42.300
them. Uh, and, uh, Brett, I thank you for introducing me to them. They're, they're truly,
00:54:48.060
really great. And Roger, I appreciate the plug. And the thing is, is in the hemp industry,
00:54:53.820
the dosage is very important. We're the only company that has a truly scientific dose, which is in that,
00:54:59.900
in the, in the CVN products is 15 milligrams. Every other company would be at 10 and it's just not enough.
00:55:05.020
And, and AJ can speak to this with CBD. When CBD came out, all the dosage was 10,
00:55:10.140
20 milligrams. Where if you look at the Epidiolex study per kilogram, you're talking
00:55:16.780
about for an adult male to be anywhere from like 200 to 400 milligrams. So we really took a look at that,
00:55:22.060
the studies of how much milligrams we, we thought you would need in order to get an effective dose. And
00:55:28.220
PBN is the reason why I'm in the industry. I tried it. I couldn't sleep. It worked.
00:55:35.580
And here I am. So, you know, me and AJ, although AJ, I don't have a, I don't have a, you know,
00:55:40.860
disability like epilepsy, but you know, these cannabinoids play a role in everybody's different
00:55:45.660
lives because of our endocannabinoid, you know, system to be that highway for these molecules.
00:55:50.620
Um, and they, the other product that was shown is an anti-inflammatory that has
00:55:55.500
little, you know, it, it, it truly gives you anti-inflammation and pain relief. So
00:56:01.500
there's a, there's a lot of science that needs to be done, but there's a lot of
00:56:04.940
very good products out in the market that are extremely pure. We make these all to 99%
00:56:10.540
plus. And, you know, they're essentially pharmaceutical API, but you know, we're not
00:56:15.260
pharmaceutical companies. Uh, we got about three minutes left, but it's a big and important
00:56:21.340
question. So let's try to address it. There is an amendment, uh, put forward by a congresswoman
00:56:26.620
from Illinois, who is a Trump supporter, uh, that would completely change. And based on what I've read,
00:56:33.100
essentially gut the hemp, uh, industry, uh, right now, it doesn't appear that that's going to pass,
00:56:39.420
but, uh, what exactly are they trying to do? Uh, and why? Either one of you. Uh, well, just let
00:56:49.340
me jump in real quick and then you can go, Brett, you can finalize it, but, uh, to, to actually,
00:56:53.420
that's a great question. And to add on to Brett's answer earlier, uh, about what's the divisiveness
00:56:59.820
between, you know, it's cannabis and, and I bet 10 years ago, a, we, I don't think anybody think we
00:57:06.300
would think we would be having this conversation so soon, but B, I don't think that people would
00:57:10.140
think that you would have an, a, a fight, uh, you know, between the two industries hemp, uh,
00:57:16.620
legal hemp federally and illegal marijuana federally, but legal on the state level. Um,
00:57:21.820
you know, I, I'm looking at it from the dollars and, you know, the, the, the dollars and cents
00:57:26.860
perspective. Uh, I've been a part of the, the full cannabis movement. Uh, I worked, started off in
00:57:33.260
medical marijuana, recreational marijuana, doing legislative efforts, building laboratories,
00:57:37.340
doing education. I started in California, built one of the first labs, uh, that was public in the
00:57:42.460
country before they had the licensing, uh, for recreation as we see it. And one of the things,
00:57:49.100
uh, that I have empathy for with the medical and recreational side is that they are stuck to a
00:57:55.660
broken business. Uh, it was useful at the time, uh, you know, the taxes associated with operating as
00:58:03.180
a medical and recreational business were useful at the time to be able to get business going.
00:58:08.140
Uh, uh, but the reality is, is that, you know, throughout the process, and I would say this
00:58:12.540
when we were in legislative, uh, you know, meetings, uh, throughout the country is we're more than
00:58:17.660
willing to pay a tax, but let's not forget the fact that these taxes come from the idea of a syntax,
00:58:23.580
uh, you know, similar to alcohol. And, uh, you know, when we repealed prohibition,
00:58:28.940
we knew we didn't want to create more criminal enterprise, but we also knew that alcohol causes
00:58:33.020
damage to society. And therefore we tried to offset some of that damage to the syntax,
00:58:37.660
uh, that we all still pay today with, with cannabis, we, we paid it, uh, in more ways than
00:58:44.300
not as a bribe. Uh, when you think about it, it allowed for the industries to go, but what you
00:58:49.340
notice that that's contrary to alcohol is that there's actually savings that the states have from
00:58:53.420
health and, and, and, and safety, uh, standards. And so you can make an argument that that tax may not
00:59:01.900
be necessary from a syntax perspective. Now medical recreational companies on the state level are
00:59:09.260
stuck. They have to pay those extra, that extra overhead and those taxes to the state. Whereas
00:59:16.860
how are they supposed to compete with a federally federal commodity like hemp, uh, you know, that
00:59:22.860
is similar to alfalfa or corn in which there are no taxes associated with it. And I, and I don't think
00:59:28.540
there should be, um, and you know, they don't, we, we, although we do, uh, as, as Brett said, uh, regulate
00:59:38.220
ourselves to the highest degree, uh, compared to other food and drug, uh, industries, um, we find
00:59:45.340
ourselves in a situation that the cost for us to do business is much lower than the artificially
00:59:51.740
inflated costs of the state systems that exist. And so, uh, I have some empathy for these companies,
00:59:59.340
uh, because, you know, capitalistically in a free market, there's no way that they can actually compete
01:00:03.900
with hemp companies. And so you see quite a bit of these companies, uh, as Brett could tell you, looking
01:00:09.420
to convert and become federal hemp companies, because if you have a situation in which you can be a
01:00:13.500
federal legal product, as well as a state legal product, why would you not do that?
01:00:17.340
Unfortunately, we have to leave it there. So here's what I'd like to do. Uh, we can do a full
01:00:24.540
hour show on this because the subject is so important. So I'm going to invite you all back
01:00:29.740
here, uh, uh, in the very near future for a broader conversation. Uh, but this has been very enlightening
01:00:36.220
and I appreciate both of your being here in the meantime, folks, uh, I have to, uh, kind of wrap this
01:00:42.220
up. So please pray for our president's protection, uh, and pray for victory. Thank you for joining us
01:00:49.260
today on the stone zone and look for our upcoming show on the hemp industry. So we can get into this
01:00:55.980
at an even deeper level, even perhaps with a broader panel. I want to thank both of my guests, uh,
01:01:02.300
AJ Fabrizio. We call him the mad scientist. This guy is so smart. It scares me. And Brett Worley,
01:01:08.860
the CEO of Vivimu.com for joining us today in the zone until tomorrow. God bless you. And Godspeed.
01:01:17.340
A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people
01:01:25.340
love him. Not everybody, but people love him and respect him. Roger Stone. Where's Roger Stone?