Episode 304 Scott Adams: The Psychic News Network

Date: 2018-11-16 | Duration: 41:21

Topics

Gossip and mind reading on the Psychic News Network Kamala Harris asked if nominee saw parallels between ICE to the KKK Neither political side is now able to persuade the other side Politicians now seek to persuade only their own side What to do if your relatives don’t like President Trump Don’t contradict your relatives Just talk about the things where you agree Prison reform is a very big deal Jobs should not go to an invading army at our border Available jobs and resources should go to help prison reform How do you reconcile that mentally, if you have TDS

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:04]

[Music] bum-bum-bum bum-bum-bum oh hey everybody hey Martin hey Duncan come on in here you know why of course you do because it's time for coffee with Scott Adams possibly the best time of the day now why are you coming in and I'm gonna give you a peek of the fire condition where I live you look out that window you will see that it's still totally white out after well after you get past my neighbor's house it's complete smoke conditions the schools are actually closed I believe I'm something like a hundred and seventy miles away from the fire and a hundred and seventy miles away it's too dangerous to walk you outside so just imagine what it's like if you're 50

[1:04]

just imagine what it's like if you're 50 miles away you're I don't know probably wearing a mask
so it's getting pretty ugly here schools are closed and it's time for the simultaneous up join me please raise your mug to your glass you cup your sign your chalice your container fill a fill full of your favorite fill it full of your favorite fluids fill it full of your favorite fluids no I don't think that's going to be one I'll keep but join me for the simultaneous imp now let's talk about the what I like to call the psychic news network and the reason I called that is because a lot of the news on this one network seems to center around the the ability to read minds let

[2:09]

around the the ability to read minds let me give you an example the top headline on the psychic news network is Twitter tirade suggests Trump has an inkling so the headline news is about Trump's interstate that he's got an inkling about Muller the Muller might have something coming for Trump here's another headline for Trump there's no easy way out of his funk so it's a story about Trump's inner thoughts he's in the funk I don't know how you define funk but I guess he said one then there's something about Julian Assange that doesn't make sense and I don't understand then there's Anderson Cooper Ponder's why Trump is so angry it's another headline about president Trump's inner thoughts ken starr says there's another one about Ken Starr on Trump's tweets please stop it

[3:09]

please stop it well we've never seen anybody tell Trump he should stop tweeting before that's news then there's an opinion piece on Melania Trump it beats Donald at his own aim so it's not all psychic news some of it is gossip and then why is Trump talking about serial and voter ID it's a news about his hyperbole and they're treating it like it's real when the president said you need ID to buy cereal I think everybody watch it now understood that if you're gonna pay there was a lot of money and you were gonna write a check you might have to show your ID now my grocery store doesn't even make me sign for the credit card purchase so he's a little out of date but it's not real yeah it wasn't meant to be literally true that you show

[4:11]

meant to be literally true that you show your your ID to buy groceries it was hyperbole and apparently that hears the word the weird thing the psychic news network gets the news wrong because they don't read his mind and it's not very hard to read his mind when he's singling here's a joke watch here comes a joke watch me give you a joke and then the psychic news network says hey no that's not a joke that one that's real he really believes that you need to show your idea to buy cereal so the psychic news network goes that way now remember my prediction about the recount who remembers my prediction about the recount my prediction was yeah there would be some problems here and there so there would be definitely some small stuff they find because of course they would it's a big

[5:12]

because of course they would it's a big job and there are seasonal workers am I wrong about that I would assume that now seasonal about temporary wooden election workers be people who don't do election now you stuff every day they only do it every few years that probably lots of people hadn't done it it seems to me that losing some ballots shuffling in some questionable ones with some real ones it's probably pretty normal we just don't look everywhere so it seems like it's all in one place so my prediction was that there would not be massive voter fraud but there would be some little stuff so far I'm right that doesn't mean I'll stay right maybe they still find something but so far now let's switch over to the other Network I don't even have to put names on these networks do I you if I just tell you the headlines you could tell me the network couldn't you alright so one of these oh

[6:19]

couldn't you alright so one of these oh there's some more news about the election that's the top headline and the other network and there's Korean American GOP trailblazer who's whose name is she has an interesting name young Kim so she's not only young but she you know she shares that popular Kim name so it would be very confusing for her to be in the news but apparently her lead switched so again I don't think there's evidence of massive fraud and she's not in Broward County anyway which was the subject of it well we'll keep an eye on that one might be something there you heard that P Diddy's the mother of his three children died unexpectedly at age 47 did you all hear that so I you know condolences to Diddy I'm not sure Sean Combs whatever he wants to be called now I lose track but feeling very

[7:23]

called now I lose track but feeling very bad about that and I hope the family has some privacy I'm not going to make a prediction about cause of death but most of you already know what I'm predicting and none of it's good all right the Fox News has an article about Kamala Harris Kamala Harris would be most famous for the fact that many people think she would be the front-runner for the Democrats for 2020 for president and apparently in some hearing she compared ice to the KKK now whenever you see the headline that somebody compared something to something else your antenna should go up and you should say what does it mean to compare compare is usually when there has been fake news about me I can tell you that

[8:25]

fake news about me I can tell you that that word compare is often in the is often in the headline so let me give you an example of what it means to compare things I like let's see I like what would be a good example I like babies everybody likes babies right I like babies dogs I love dogs dogs are cool so here are some of the things I like I like babies I like dogs and I like let's say nature there are three things I like I like babies babies are cool I like dogs I love dogs and I like nature do you know what the headline it would be

[9:25]

you know what the headline it would be cartoonist compares babies to dogs did you see that coming if you didn't see that coming then you have never been a famous person that articles are written about the most trouble I've ever been in was because somebody used the compared word and took something out of context and said oh you use these things in the same sentence therefore you've compared them but when I say I love babies I love dogs and I love nature did I compare a dog to a baby I did according to the way trolls and critics think if they were in the same sentence and they had something in common in this case that's something I like I like dogs I like babies I like Beecher if they're in the same sentence and there's something in common and you put them in the same sentence because there's something in common your critics will say you compared a baby to a dog

[10:28]

will say you compared a baby to a dog now that's not necessarily exactly what happened with Kamala Harris right so don't take my analogy to mean that means the same thing as what your situation is but trust me when I tell you that if you say if you see a headline that says somebody compared something to something else it's probably fake news not necessarily but that's a red flag that's like BEP BEP compared to in this case Kamala Harris was I guess she was in a committee talking about it doesn't matter who let's see if she has somebody in a committee she asked what's the did let's say did it that I want to see what the so her question was this are you aware of the perception of many all right so remember that the first part of recept her statement is that other

[11:28]

recept her statement is that other people have this perception this is important so the first part of your statement is not I believe this she's saying other people have this perception she goes are you aware of the perception of many about how the power and the discretion at ice is being used to enforce the laws and do you see any parallels with the KKK so she's asking him does he see any parallels with the KKK now that's a pretty despicable question isn't it because however this guy answers what's going to happen when he answers let's say this innocent I don't know if he's innocent but poor guy is asked this question do you see any parallels between the KKK and ice and let's say he says no I don't see any parallels what could be said of this

[12:28]

any parallels what could be said of this guy the headline could be that he compared KKK to ice because that is literally what he was asked to do now in the comparison he said there's there's nothing in common but would it be true if he answered that question could it be said completely truthfully that he compared the KKK to ice yeah that would be exactly what he would be doing because that was exactly the question can you compare ice to the KKK and tell me what you see so when you see the word compare big flag don't don't trust anything you see after compare all right fake news coming so so there are two things that I'm going to call out here first of all the question Kamala Harris asked is despicable in my opinion you can all have your own opinion but to me it's reprehensible and disgusting and

[13:30]

it's reprehensible and disgusting and despicable and it's not because she compared them I don't want to use that word it's because she brought it into the conversation at all bringing bringing the KKK into the conversation is horrible now did she have a point she kind of did she kinda did the point is not one that should have been brought up it should not have been framed that way it was it was disgusting and reprehensible and ice doesn't have anything to do with the KKK all right so as clearly as I can say it that was a horrible comparison shouldn't have been brought up her point was that the way people feel about ice is not that different than how people felt about being threatened by a racist group so in other words she was making the

[14:31]

so in other words she was making the point that there are people in the country who regard ice as a racist group now if she had phrased her question in some way like that that's actually a good question because she started out by saying do you understand that there are a lot of people who feel this way she's not saying it's they should feel this way that would have been Tripoli wrong she's saying that people feel that way that's actually true so she was starting with a fairly good point which is from a brand perspective ice has a big brand problem with a substantial segment of the population whatever percentage that is so her question wasn't so far off that that's crazy it just didn't belong in this in this situation and it was unnecessarily provocative but of course

[15:33]

unnecessarily provocative but of course everything is amped up a little bit because of her potential race not race in terms of race but race in terms of the election yeah and then so in this case the headline that says Kamala Harris compares ice to KKK is that what she did do you think the headline is fair did Kamala Harris compare eyes to KKK well not exactly she said that there are people who feel the same the same way is that comparing them is it because it's comparing them the same way that when I said I like babies I like dogs I like nature I didn't compare a baby to a dog they're

[16:34]

I didn't compare a baby to a dog they're just part of the same conversation so some of you are saying yes you did compare not really she found one element about how people feel about it and she was clear about that was the first part of the question people feel this way it's about feelings it is valid to say that some people in this country have a bad feeling about Isis and it's a racial kind of a bad feeling I'm not sure this headline is doing is doing the work it should be doing all right so let's look at another headline there's nothing else interesting happening right now so the fire in Northern California I think is killed 56 people what's the last natural disaster that killed 56 people can somebody do me a fact check on that

[17:35]

somebody do me a fact check on that let's say deaths by not us deaths by natural causes let's say American deaths natural is that a natural disaster how many died from natural what is the dead list and that she'll do what natural disaster kills the most
Wow in 1931 there was a flood in China that killed between 1 and 4 million people did you know that have you ever heard that I have never heard this so according to Google the number one death toll from a natural disaster could have been four million people in flooding in China 1931 how in the world

[18:39]

flooding in China 1931 how in the world have I never heard that that four million people died I was somebody saying the 66 or 67 people have died so far theirs Wow it looks like China's China has got some ginormous disasters and the in the million people range a million people that's that's almost inconceivable
anyway I'm not gonna look anymore because apparently there are lots of natural disasters that are bigger but I can't think of one it was bigger well Vegas wasn't a natural disaster I'm not sure if you call a fire that's caused by power lines a natural disaster but when was the last time that 67 people died in one event in this country Puerto Rican Oh Puerto Rican hurricane what was the death toll in Puerto Rico oh it's pretty high wasn't it

[19:50]

22,500 last year number missing is over 600 yeah that the California number with the number of missing I don't know what to think about that yet because I think I think that's just throwing every name on there that at least a neighbor hasn't heard from a neighbor so that that 600 missing should be deeply deeply inflated I hope
hurricane Michael yeah alright did you hear there was a who was the representative was a Jackie Spears or somebody who actually had traveled to Jonestown and got shot um and she was talking about don't call it don't call it drinking the kool-aid and she was saying that people have it wrong about Jonestown the Jonestown was a mass killing far more than it was a mess suicide I think she's right about that

[20:59]

well thank you all right let's start and stop talking about disasters it's it's a bumming me out a little bit have you noticed that the news is slowed down it might slow down and keep slowing down between now and Christmas or maybe not oh there were some news about kim jeong-hoon developing some kind of a new weapon but we don't have details on that so you should see anything that comes out of North Korea right now should should be seen in the context of negotiating weed reform I don't know that that's in the works it seems like we would have heard about it by now right yeah I don't know if weed reform is gonna happen I don't know what's happening with Julian Assange that's all confusing to me so it looks like all the Roger stone stuff is gonna turn into a lot of nothing because Roger stone turned over his emails and the

[21:59]

stone turned over his emails and the emails seem to indicate he didn't really have any connections with WikiLeaks so yet another giant story in the headlines turns out to be nothing
Bitcoin prediction well some of you may not know that I started getting jealous of all the Victorian millionaires because they were they were getting filthy rich without doing anything and I thought to myself I'm gonna stop so I bought myself some Bitcoin BAM just destroyed the whole market you're welcome yeah I don't have enough to make a difference but as soon as I bought it that was the end of Bitcoin it went up a little bit after that but now it's it's it's underwater so I alone have found a way to lose money on Bitcoin but I'm sorry I had to take the rest of you with me
his trumped not smart now he didn't he never did anything with marijuana reform well Jeff Sessions was probably the

[23:02]

well Jeff Sessions was probably the problem here so getting rid of just that Jeff Sessions has to be considered partial credit because he may have there's some reports and I don't know if they're reliable or not they that Jeff Sessions might have been one of the problems to get this bipartisan prison reform thing going so maybe that was a step that had to happen and then maybe something on a weed can happen but yeah I saw a question there I'm not going to answer today but if you ask me is it a mistake for the president not to have acted already on weed I would say yes so you could add that to my list of things I think are a mistake so for the Trump administration I would consider that a glaring mistake that the that the feds have not acted on weed because it's a it's a free pass or a

[24:02]

because it's a it's a free pass or a free punch or it's money on the table that's it's found money there isn't any way that could go wrong because all you'd be doing is kicking it to the states and he could kick it to this nation with the warnings and say look here's the news it's not all good but it's up to you do you have the best news do we you can I did warn you this snapchat stock would go from 27 to something less last I looked it was around 7 that was actually Christina's prediction
how the feds did it do you think he risks losing re-election if he goes after weed issue the weed issue should just help I don't see how it could possibly be bad because it's so popular

[25:08]

the Acosta situation is kind of boring oh yeah you know the whole Acosta thing you're thinking of that as a as a freedom of speech or access issue it's really none of those it's just it's just really good theater it's good for the White House it's good for CNN it's good for ratings
whatever what do you say to those people who say Trump doesn't persuade them oh good question what do I say to the people who say Trump does not persuade them and therefore he must not be persuasive to which I say we no longer live in the world in which you can persuade the other side that's a really big point we no longer live in a world in which it's possible to persuade the other side the most you can do is get as close as you can to a hundred percent of

[26:09]

close as you can to a hundred percent of your team because if you can do that you can be President but that's the only thing you can do you can't get the other votes the Democrats will get you know almost no Republican votes the Republicans will get almost no Democratic votes the variable of how persuasive you are not even and it's just not even a variable because people don't cross anymore it has become such a team sport that that people don't cross over for example yet let's say your favorite team is the the LA Lakers basketball teams if you're watching the Lakers play and they're not doing well do you ever just start rooting for the other team never right even if your team is losing even if your team is stupid you might now support them as much you might not watch them as much you might not buy the hat but what you don't do is turn on the TV

[27:10]

but what you don't do is turn on the TV to root for the other side you just don't change teams and because politics has gone from something like politics to something more like team sport but you know politics has has merged because of the when you include the the theater elements that the president brings to it and the theater elements that Acosta brings to it and the theater elements that a lot of the the big celebrities would bring to it what you have is a gigantic team sport reality TV show right if you're watching a reality TV show people don't change sides they win or they lose but nobody says I think I'll just you know it looks like the Mets aren't doing well I'll just go over that team for a while you know just walk out of the dugout and say hey guys I used to be in that dugout over there I'm just gonna join your dugout for a while I'll just play on

[28:11]

dugout for a while I'll just play on your team that doesn't happen because it's a it's a sport it's a team you don't change teams in the middle of the game and so any thought that people analogies are very good for explaining a new concept how many damn times do I have to say that I I don't know I might lose my frickin mind if I have to explain this one more time and allergies are great great for explaining a new concept as I just did the concept of the the two teams all right they are terrible for persuading if I try to use an analogy to get you to change from one team to another then I've done it wrong if I use that analogy to tell you that two teams exist I've done it exactly right I've explained a new concept or why is it that that idea is so resistant the to

[29:13]

it that that idea is so resistant the to understanding it's a little to two concepts not enough picture I think maybe it needs a simplification because that that little bit of complexity makes it hard too hard to get across just a little bit of complexity it's amazing anyway so if you're gonna judge the president's persuasion and persuasion talents you would say how well has he persuaded within his own team it's the only measure that counts today in the old days you could persuade a little bit you could get some independence etc but basically the people who voted for last time for the most part the people who vote for them next time you know give or take some probably the only thing that's gonna change is turnout you know almost all of the energy for persuasion is going to be on turnout for people who had already made up their minds which way they're gonna go anyway any advice

[30:17]

way they're gonna go anyway any advice for dealing with family members won't talk to you because you support Trump yes tell them you do not support Trump and then support him that's my advice probably a lot of you have the same problem if if your relatives are mad at you for supporting Trump then just talk about the parts you don't like and and agree with them as hard as you can when they say race relations are bad in this country you should say man they really are bad that President Trump should do more to help race relations why because it's true he could do more why do I think that the president could do more for race relations because he's the most persuasive person on the planet and it would not even be hard to persuade better on that like so of course he could what about health care are you happy are you happy

[31:17]

health care are you happy are you happy with your health care if you're not complain about it over the holidays with your with your family and say yep president Trump has not nailed it on health care and health care really costs a lot so if you do that you can pace them yeah somebody's using the word in the comments pace your relatives agree with them as hard as you can on the things where you do agree where there are certainly elements that aren't working as well as they could just a great do not directly contradict their belief so if you think for example that the economy is doing well and they think the economy is doing poorly do not say you fool why are you so blind the economy is clearly up when other people think it's not instead you could agree that the deficit is too high and you don't like it right because if you agree

[32:17]

don't like it right because if you agree that the deficit is too high you're in a much better position to get your relative to agree that the unemployment rate looks great and then if you can get them to agree that the unemployment rate that looks great you could say to yourself you know immigration is really not not really being done well the Republicans aren't doing well Democrats aren't very well it's just not doing well the the government has failed us on immigration but here's one thing we can agree on wouldn't it be great to get the people coming out of prison productively employed before we bring in people to take those jobs you know wouldn't that be better because you you might be able to sell that to your relatives because that is the proposition and by the way I don't I don't know if all of you quite understand what a big deal this prison reform thing is because if you look at it and it's you know in isolation if you

[33:19]

it and it's you know in isolation if you look at it in isolation it's just a good idea you know looks like good people do a good job and let's give credit where credit is due taking Van Jones statement about Trump yeah as so credit to the to the Democrats for being on board credit to Van Jones credit to the president this was one thing that apparently every once in a while something goes right and it works the way it's supposed to so this prison reform thing apparently is a good idea but here's the thing it's really not even about that imagine if you were in Trump derangement hysteria let's say you were suffering from TDs what is the primary thing you think if you're suffering from Trump of derangement syndrome you think the president's a big ol racist and he doesn't care about black people wouldn't that be the primary thing you think and then he joins with the he joins with the

[34:21]

joins with the he joins with the Democrats to strongly promote something that is absolutely positively focused focuses too strong a word but strongly strongly in favor of black and Latino population in this country it's very directly money and of the pockets of white people and into the pockets of prisoners who unfortunately are skewed toward the minority population now if you're suffering from Trump derangement syndrome and you see this guy who you thought was a big old racist coming out he's not just coming out in favor of black people he's coming out in favor of black people who were too strongly punished by the by that judicial system wrap your head around that for a minute if you had Trump derangement syndrome and he just came out with something that

[35:22]

and he just came out with something that says the people coming across the border I'm going to bring the military down there to Peru to prevent to prevent people from another country from taking the jobs that we want black and hispanic people even with prison records to have it's just hard to hold those thoughts in your head at the same time you're saying well all the evidence suggests that he's a giant racist this is so counter is a counterfactual it's it is impossible to hold this in your head at the same time you're holding in your head he's that he's whistling to the racists can you make any story in your head in any way can you construe this story about prison reform to make it sound like a racist whistle it's so obviously the opposite of that it's like it's like a secret dog fu if there's such a thing as a secret

[36:27]

fu if there's such a thing as a secret racist dog whistle shouldn't there be whatever is the opposite of that this prison reform thing is like a it's not even secret it's like a an fu dog whistle to racists because this thing actually takes money out of the pockets of the racists you know indirectly because it's taxes and puts it into the pockets of black and Latino people getting out of prison and everybody else right I don't even know if there's the majority in prison but they're they're over-represented in the prison population so anyway you look at this this is the opposite of a racist dog whistle this is a racist F yu no whistle needed he's saying it right to their faces in public with a smile on his face his entire family is behind it the administration's behind it and the same week the same week that it gets rid of

[37:28]

week the same week that it gets rid of Jeff Sessions what was the biggest knock on Jeff Sessions he was a racist now I don't think Jeff Sessions was racist but that's the biggest complaint about him right so the same week that he fires the guy who had the biggest you know the bad reputation as being a racist he gets on board with prison reform and sends a big ole fu to the racist who are watching him how in the world do you hold that in your head if you had Trump derangement syndrome you can't I'll get rid of racist
goodbye racist did you see your Costin news is there news on Acosta I haven't seen that yet I don't I don't read all the all the news but or I don't read all

[38:29]

the all the news but or I don't read all the comments but I can see a lot of them all right so that's my point on prison reform it's way bigger than prison reform it is the biggest poke to TDS that we've seen yet and it might be why the you know I just read you all the news right so what did you notice was missing on CNN's coverage so here's your question if you have another screen open open up CNN's top page and show me the article about how President Trump is a racist it's not there when was the last time the CNN did not have a headline piece of news about that president accused of being a racist I don't even know if it happens very often does it at least one of the stories it seems like at least one of the stories is always the

[39:31]

one of the stories is always the president's a racist it's totally off of the page now it's about Muller and what's he what's the President of thinking and a little bit about Melania and something about what stormy and avenatti and right it's the dog that didn't mark this prison reform thing just wiped racism off the page because it debunked everything they've been saying for three years it just doesn't fit if you were trying to figure out which movie was the real one one movie says he being misinterpreted and he's not racist the other one is a racist all the way every single thing he does is racist it's just one racist thing after another which of those movies just got proved out well in my movie prison reform absolutely made sense as long as you know that the law itself as long as the legislation made sense doing it was completely compatible with who I

[40:32]

completely compatible with who I imagined president Trump is my impression of who he is is completely compatible with his actions half of the country has an impression of the president that doesn't make any frickin sense if he's also behind prison reform it doesn't make any sense that our whole movie just blew up that's the story that's the biggest story in the country and you know it's the biggest story because there's nowhere it's nowhere you've seen this story nowhere it's the biggest story in the country all right I don't have much else to say today so I'm going to end on that note positive note stay out of the smoke if you're in California and I'll talk to you later