Episode 589 Scott Adams: The Truth About UFOs, Campaign Strategy, Biden Gaffes, Dignity, Character

Date: 2019-07-06 | Duration: 37:39

Topics

Hilarious explanation by President Trump about “airports” gaffe Also demonstrates his mastery of communication skills President Trump is genius at disarming through humor UFOs are NOT real…a hint from President Trump Michael Shellenberger’s cost analysis for nuclear 2/3 of CO2 issues could be offset by simply planting trees Joe Biden FORGETS he was VP during Russian election interference Dems are focused on end-state words… “dignity”, “human right”, “bully” Democrats are experts at demonizing words, inciting VIOLENCE Things you can’t wear, can’t say, can’t attend How do you counter word-based attacks?

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:08]

bum-bum-bum hey everybody come on in here yes the weekend and it's time for the weekend edition of coffee with Scott Adamson all you need to enjoy it is coffee with Scott Adams fortunately I got the second 1/2 covered for you you just need to take care of the coffee part Kapiti could be a different beverage it doesn't really matter but whatever it is grab your cup your mug your glass grab your stein your challenge your tankard your thermos your flask your container if any kind of vessel if you will fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure that I call the simultaneous sip oh good good good stuff all right I know you're here to find out the truth about UFOs people say Scott we don't know if we should believe in UFOs should we and I

[1:09]

should believe in UFOs should we and I have a definitive answer for you no you shouldn't and here's why so the president was recently asked on an interview by Tucker Carlson if UFOs are real essentially and President Trump said and the first thing you need to know is that the President of the United States would presumably know all that could be known so everything that could be known he knows about UFOs and he said quote I'm not a believer but anything is possible now about the details he said I don't want to get into it so that does open the possibility that there are things which are unexplained which might be some other countries military you know might have to do with some things we can detect that we're not supposed to be able to but I think when the president says I'm not a believer but

[2:11]

president says I'm not a believer but anything is possible the way he phrases that guarantees that there's nothing to be seen now as Greg Gutfeld has pointed out on his show the five with all of the cameras in the world you know everybody's got a phone in your hand there are high quality cameras everywhere somebody would have gotten a picture a nice clearer picture the the one thing that seems to be I would say it seems to be the most convincing bit okay for all of you saying the volume is a problem the volume is not a problem so you can stop saying it please whatever the problem is is on your end so you've seen the the video of the ship that they lock onto you and then I'm not going to get closer

[3:14]

you and then I'm not going to get closer to the mic I have exactly the same setup as always okay I'm gonna start I'm gonna start blocking all the people who are talking about the volume okay so just know that if you're complaining about the volume there's nothing wrong with it and then just gonna block you because you're you're holding up the show at this point so you've seen the video of the jet apparently locking on some kind of a thing that they think was moving at great speed and it was moving this way and then it moved this way and it was still moving at the same speed okay that didn't happen that didn't happen if I had to guess what that is the one where the jet seemed to be locking on to an object it was moving faster than her she didn't move I would guess that there was something stuck to the plane so here's my guess that just a guess so if you imagine let's say this let's say this box of Kleenex is the jet and the jet

[4:17]

box of Kleenex is the jet and the jet thought it was looking at some kind of UFO they were slightly a gray speed below it right so that's what I thought so I've got a feeling that it wasn't something big but rather it was something small that got stucked by some kind of a wire or string or something it was literally just flapping back and forth under the plane and I think it was just an illusion it was a piece of fuzz or a piece of debris or just something stuck to the plane so I think that nothing was flying at all I think there was just something stuck to the plane and the camera was seeing something that was stuck to it and it made it look like it was somewhere else or it was a practical joke or something but whatever whatever it was I don't think Trump would word it this way can you imagine the Trump would ever say I'm not a believer if there was some actual information he would say something like

[5:18]

information he would say something like well you know I can't get into that or you know it's fun to believe he would have done something more indirect but to put himself on record as saying I'm not a believer that's a weird way to say you know that would be a weird way to deflect so just his choice of words tells me there's nothing there that's my final my final ruling UFOs are not visiting the earth as far as we know all right Michael Shellenberger expert on all things nuclear energy had an interesting tweet that feels like one of the the types of tweets that the the idea of it could change things and here's what he said exactly he said Germany in California are held up as models for action of climate change but had they invested 680 billion into new nuclear power plants instead of renewables they

[6:19]

power plants instead of renewables they would already be generating a hundred percent of their electricity from carbon free energy sources so given that we roughly know how much it costs to build a nuclear reactor and given that we know how much has been spent on renewables we don't have to guess anymore we don't have to guess we could just say well if you'd done if you've got nuclear in the first place just look at the numbers you'd already be done so that's a pretty powerful argument now if I were to push back about against the argument it would look like this the whole argument about renewables is that in the early days renewables are way too expensive but if you spend a lot of money on renewables that the last unit of renewables will be a fraction of what the first units cost so when Michael schellenberg says 680 billion

[7:21]

Michael schellenberg says 680 billion that's 680 billion that was really front loaded meaning that the cost of solar etc was much higher when they started doing it and those costs are built in there yes they started today I would ask the question I don't know the answer to it but I would ask the question given that renewable started real expensive and they got cheaper cheaper cheaper if you start today the first dollar would be that cheap dollar so you'd be buying solar real inexpensively and the ones after that might even be less expensive so I don't know that this you know back-of-the-envelope comparison of if you'd spent this you would have had this result is as let's say logically unassailable as it sounds on first blush but it might be true like completely true that if they'd spent 600 to 80 billion on nuclear they would be done

[8:22]

billion on nuclear they would be done because we know a nuclear costs it is not necessarily true given that the cost of those renewables so presumably come down a lot all right you start blocking all of the people who complain about the sounds still so so it might be that if you started today you still wouldn't know what the comparison would like so if you started today you'd be starting with cheap solar for example and you don't know what nuclear would look like in the future but it's probably true that if they've done nuclear the first place they'd be done and they'd have everything we wanted I saw a news article that said something like two-thirds of all of the two-thirds of all of the co2 that humans are putting in through the air could be remediated by planting trees in all of

[9:23]

remediated by planting trees in all of the places that had been deforested so think about that - think about the fact that we could get rid of 2/3 of human co2 by planting trees now I saw separately I saw another article not too long ago that apparently there's one type of tree that is a really fast and growing tree and somebody say you can get kratom trees I don't know if that's a joke or not but there's some kind of special tree that is extra thirsty for co2 and if you plant a lot of them you would get there even sooner and I here's the question I asked myself you got 7 billion people who have this shared problem of you know there might be a climate change disaster coming what if every person got a few seeds you know what what if every person received in the mail a little packet of acorns or or

[10:25]

the mail a little packet of acorns or or whatever whatever is the seed for these trees that grow quite quickly so everybody just gets a package of seeds in the mail and they can go plant a tree in their backyard they could go plant a tree and the bark you know as long as it's a place where the tree belongs yeah or you could just say hey we got a forest over here that's been deforested so I guess it's not a for us anybody who's got a package of seeds drop on by and drop a seed yeah plant a tree with us yeah like like an arbor day situation it makes me wonder it
it would be one of those very few things that you could get everybody to do because everybody likes to plant a tree right yeah there's probably nobody who is against the idea of planting a tree well just nobody nobody hates a tree so that would be an interesting thing to see happen to see some mass movement for

[11:25]

see happen to see some mass movement for planting the right kind of trees in the right places all right so let's look at so Trump explained his problem with the teleprompter and when he referred to this Revolutionary War and he referred to the airports and people said wait a minute there were no airports during the Revolutionary War and Trump explained that the teleprompter was going in and out but what I'm gonna call out is not whether or not that's a realistic sounding explanation I would say it does seem likely that the problem was the teleprompter because he was reading it so if he's reading something and he reads something wrong it probably was either he couldn't see the teleprompter or or something but here's what I'm

[12:26]

or or something but here's what I'm gonna call out the president's explanation of what happened is just hilarious and it's hilarious because it's effective it's hilarious in the way that only the president handles things if somebody if you had done what he did let's say if you had been giving this speech and you had said airports when you're talking about the Revolutionary War and everybody said hahaha there were no airports how would you handle that well some of you would said I would have said ok you got me I misspoke I'm so dumb hahaha that's not good because it makes you look dumb some might you lie and say oh I didn't say airports you heard me wrong and then that would just look dumb there's almost nothing you could do that makes it better except maybe what Trump did here's what Trump did and I swear you could take a thousand people and put it in the same situation he was with this Airport of

[13:27]

situation he was with this Airport of thing and and only one of them would have handled it as well as he did now there will be some argument about whether this is the way to handle it but I'm telling you it is all right and here's why here's what he said he first of all he said that the rain he said that's not a good feeling when you're standing in front of millions and millions of people he said this is the president I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter so the first thing he does is he puts you in the scene right so he goes that's not a good feeling when you're standing in front of millions and millions of people and the rain knocks out the teleprompter he puts you in the movie all right so that's the first thing he tells you how it feels to be standing up there that's really good really really good because when he says that it just puts you right the scene now how do you feel when it's you he put

[14:29]

now how do you feel when it's you he put you in the scene now you're the one standing in front of millions of people the whole world is watching and your teleprompter goes off right that's like the scariest thing in the world for most people so the first thing he's done is without was saying so he's told you how brave he is compared to you but he didn't have to say it he simply said it's not a good feeling when you're standing in front of millions and millions of people I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter he wasn't bragging he said it was a bad feeling but by putting you in the scene for most of you it scared the pants off of you because you imagine what that would be like that would people are afraid of public speaking and this would be the worst thing that could happen in public speaking by the way this this has happened to me when I've been doing public speaking I've had problems with the AV etc and it's not a good feeling he's right so that's the first thing he does

[15:29]

so that's the first thing he does but that he gets better like this that's just the beginning all right second thing he says but he said that his memory of the speech otherwise served him well so this is the part where he brags without bragging well this is sorta bragging he goes he goes I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter he said and it was actually hard to look at look at anyway because of the rain so so he he he makes the claim that the teleprompter was going in and out the whole time so the first thing you think is okay this isn't a person that was reading a teleprompter and then got a word wrong this is somebody who is so talented and he knew this speech so well that he was doing it without the teleprompter and you only noticed it once that's right the whole time he was basically doing it without the you know the consistent help

[16:30]

without the you know the consistent help of the teleprompter but he only noticed it once you have to admit that is the best answer anybody ever gave so he's making he's introducing this new is introducing a new thought but maybe he memorized the speech oh that he knew it so well he was doing it and I just got that one thing wrong okay you have to admit am I wrong if a thousand people answered this question out of a thousand people he's the only one who would have this good of an answer because it's it's patently ridiculous but it's ridiculous in a fun way like it's just ridiculous of it in a way that I don't know how you could not laugh at that I swear everything that

[17:31]

laugh at that I swear everything that Trump does it's at least a little bit of funny you know even even when he's negotiating with North Korea he found a way to make it funny I'm not about that right he how about Putin so Russia interferes with our elections and it's you know it's it's a big serious problem but somehow finds a way to make that funny it's like he just turns to Putin he goes stop interfering with our elections you have to admit he's turned the most serious things in the world into things that are still serious but they're also a little bit funny there's no way this isn't an improvement in society alright so the Taliban is heading off to Qatar or someplace for some for some peace talks now I don't know what are the odds that there will be peace with the Taliban but they seem pretty serious about it so that golden age might be coming up now one of the

[18:34]

age might be coming up now one of the things that I think historians will like about this president is apparently he's given more control to the generals in the field and although we don't have a big presence in Afghanistan something tells me that the president's we do have in Afghanistan is so effective for whatever reason so effective that the Taliban is willing to say alright let's just talk you've got to be pretty effective with your military to make the Taliban say yeah you know maybe we won't fight now maybe maybe we'll talk it out you know it could be a trick maybe the Taliban are just trying to you know reduce our presence there but we'll say it looks like good at Sai Natha mode so
[Music] Brit Hume tweeted about Joe Biden's gaffe if you didn't see it Joe Biden was

[19:35]

gaffe if you didn't see it Joe Biden was being interviewed I forget who Chris Cuomo I guess and Biden actually said this it's amazing Biden said Russian election interference wouldn't have happened on my watch in Barack's watch
Biden actually said that Russian election interfere wouldn't have happened on his watch and Barack's watch as he watched television for the last three years every single new show was about Russian interference during his administration all of it it was the main show the the primary a political story for the last three years is that it did happen on his watch that's this whole story and but so the fact that he said something that's untrue is you know a little bit interesting but it's it's the political season so everybody's saying things that

[20:37]

season so everybody's saying things that are untrue so that the fact that is untrue is not the interesting part here's the interesting part what brit hume put on his tweet when he retweeted it so brits only comment was quote the poor guy can't help himself
now if you want a hue if you want to see a period on the end of a sentence in this case it's the period on the end of the sentence that says joe biden tried to run for the nomination for the Democratic nomination this is the period at the end of the sentence that says he didn't make it he didn't get there when your competitors and I'm not you know Bray Hume is not a political competitor but you would be associated with Fox News and Republicans and conservatives on the right so without label over labeling bruh Hume he

[21:37]

without label over labeling bruh Hume he would be associated with folks in that universe more than the people on the left when when you find the even the people on the other side are saying the poor guy can't help himself that's actually a genuine expression of amused sympathy if what you were invoking from voters is amused sympathy you don't have a chance because think about what people were saying about Trump he's dangerous he's gonna be too powerful if somebody is complaining about the candidate you like by saying that they're too powerful they're a bully he just takes what he wants and that sort of thing well that's a competitor you know that's a politician you have to you have to worry about that's somebody who's gonna make a make a dent in the universe and sure enough president Trump made a

[22:38]

and sure enough president Trump made a pretty big dent in the universe but if people if what people are saying about you is poor guy can't help himself that's actually pity that's actually just feeling sorry for him and I have to admit that when I first heard it make that gaffe I felt a little bit of that normally when you see a candidate you don't want to get elected make a mistake don't you normally feel a little shot in Freud a little a little bit of joy and seeing the other side make a mistake it's just human nature right we like to see the other team have an error but I had the same feeling that I think Brett did which was a little bit of feeling sorry for him and it's I hate to say it but it's age-related it feels like an age issue that doesn't mean it is but that's the way it comes across so I did

[23:41]

that's the way it comes across so I did feel sorry for him so he doesn't have a chance all right one of the things that amuses me about how the election is shaping up the 2020 presidential election is that the Democrats seem to have abandoned most of their arguments and when I say abandoned their arguments it means there are old arguments about Trump or that he would do something bad we expect him to do something bad I'm sure that if you elect him you'll do something that but unfortunately their argument fell apart because of the lack of something bad because he's actually been president and the things didn't materialize now the exception to that is the kids and cages and the detention centers now you might say to yourself yes but those were those were Obama detention centers but it doesn't

[24:43]

Obama detention centers but it doesn't matter like nobody nobody really cares about that you know nobody cares about the facts nobody cares that Kamala Harris's opinions on busing look hypocritical when she criticizes Biden because those are facts and nobody cares about the facts all right nobody cares about the facts so I've watched the Democrats go from predicting that something bad would happen with Trump to having to react to the fact that that most of the bad things like the economy and starting nuclear war and stuff like that didn't happen and then of course Trump keeps doing things which are so unambiguously good for the black community for example in in terms of everything from prison reform to low in employment to continually saying the right things at least lately more lately I guess so what if the Democrats done as a sort of a response they've turned to

[25:48]

a sort of a response they've turned to words they've given up on arguments entirely and they have actually turned to just words and Frank Luntz was pointing this out on Laura a groom's show and there are two words that they two phrases that are lighting on one is dignity you know so dignity is sort of the stand-in for a reason meaning that you have to give people socialism in various ways to protect their human dignity and then also human right right so the other phrases health care is a human right and that there's a number of parts of socialism that get to people's dignity but then they also use words for why you shouldn't support President Trump and you hear that your Biden especially call him a bully a bully so they're reduced to words and I've said this a million times but Republicans seem to be more

[26:50]

times but Republicans seem to be more interested in systems you know how can we build a system that gets us the best outcome we can we don't know how good that outcome will be but if we have a good system it will give us the best outcome that's possible we just don't know exactly what it will be whereas the Democrats go right to the end state without knowing how to get there so they'd like dignity but how do you get there you know what's your process for getting there they'd like to everybody to have you know the human rights but what's the process what's the system how do you get there that's always the the missing part now the exception would be health care because the Democrats do have a number of specific plans you might say are impractical and maybe they are but at least with health care they do have some systems but otherwise the Republicans tend to own all the systems but here's the other thing that's impressive about what the Democrats have done that doesn't seem to be available

[27:50]

done that doesn't seem to be available for Republicans Democrats seem to be able to consistently demonize words and images so that so the other team can't use them you're just some of the things so Democrats have made the the Maggie hat a racist symbol according to them now what I say according to them and the racist symbol that only means in their minds and here's the important part it weaponized is the craziest among them so that they they feel good attacking people in public so they've demonized the Maggie hat to the point and the slogan to the point where the where the craziest among them will actually attack people in public one of the one of the two Republicans have anything like that
they've demonized the the okay signal hand signal by saying that that's racist they've demonized Confederate statues I'm against Confederate statues but just

[28:53]

I'm against Confederate statues but just putting in the list to show how effective they are they've demonized any image with the founders on it because there were slave owners and they've and you can't use the wrong language for transgender for gay for people of color etc and so we've got this massive list of things you can't say and can't do and can't wear and can't be near but but the Republicans don't have that do they we've got your you know don't burn the flag but even that's a lot of Republicans are saying well that's freedom of speech so the the summary of all this is that the Democrats have completely built their a message around words just words without without the structure that would make something happen in the real world because they say for example that Trump is a bully well that's a word what would

[29:56]

is a bully well that's a word what would be the bad thing that happened because Trump was a bully what what would be the logical outcome since you say he's a bully and you're saying that's bad what's what did he do specifically did it make the economy worse did it make Isis win what did it do it's not obvious to me and how about the dignity you know you could argue that dignity is the you know freedom to take care of yourself etc but you can't really argue against dignity it but it's just sort of a word and the concept and generally speaking you know somebody who's mentioning che guevara Guevara shirts the the Democrats could even wear a Che Guevara shirt and even that won't get them beat up in public imagine you know anything like that the other direction so I hate myself for saying that because

[31:00]

so I hate myself for saying that because I don't like to talk about hypocrisy it's always when you talk about hypocrisy you're operating at the lowest level of political analysis you know your sign did it to that that's the lowest level of political analysis all right so the question would be what does the president need to do in order to counter the human rights and dignity arguments well I don't think you want to counter them because you can't argue against dignity and you can't argue against human rights but you can say we embrace all of those goals but we have a better system to get there that's sort of the kill shot I don't expect President Trump to say anything like I just said but if I were running for president and my competitors were saying you know we need dignity and human rights and and all those things and you

[32:04]

rights and and all those things and you know we need more income equality whatever they're saying I would say you know I want all of those things I I embrace every one of your goals but the only way to get there is with free markets the only way to get there is by cutting some regulation if you think that's what what is necessary so I think the very best thing you can do is accept the strongest argument from the other side let me give you an example that do you remember when Bob Dole was running against Clinton for for his second term you know the Clinton who was running for re-election against Bob Dole and Bob Dole was saying things like well I'm gonna you know bring back the the awesomeness of the greatest generation I'm gonna bring back you know respect and you know duty and all those great qualities of the the older generation and at first that seemed like a really

[33:06]

and at first that seemed like a really strong approach and you notice how similar that is - dignity and human rights very similar to the Bob Dole approach because he was running against Clinton who was accused of having low moral character for a variety of reasons so what did Clinton do did Clinton say no I that's not fair or you're bad - no he didn't what Bill Clinton did was he embraced doles message and he actually said out loud that Bob Dole is a great guy a great citizen and those are you know why he's promoting our or our awesome ideas but and here was the kill shot Clinton said dole is planning for the past were planning for the future think about that that pretty much ended the election

[34:07]

that pretty much ended the election right there as soon as Clinton said that he respects Dole and everything that he stands for but it's a message about the past and we're and we're about the future that's the end of it so sometimes the best thing you can do with your opponents message if it's if it's if it's in the terms of character and you know dignity and duty you know being a good person if that's their best argument the best thing you can do is embrace it let's say those are great things we've got some plans to get us closer to those things our opponent doesn't have any plans but they have lots of hopes they had lots of hopes but country doesn't run on hope country doesn't run on words we're not a country of words we're a country of systems that's why we have a constitution that's why we have capitalism that's why we have you know a republic so systems are

[35:10]

have you know a republic so systems are what matters and I'm going to give you some systems that will get you a good result the Democrats are going to give you some really good sounding words and I agree with all of them I'd love to have some dignity I'd love to have as much health care as possible and cost I embrace every one of your objectives and unlike you I have a way to get there that would be a powerful message so sometimes this is this is the the basic idea is that sometimes the best thing you can do is embrace everything about your competitors message because that makes them look weak if you oppose your competitors message that makes their message look strong it's something that that must be opposed if you embrace it and say I accept every part of that now let me show you how I'm gonna do something good but they're they're gonna be kind of silent over there they don't have any

[36:10]

silent over there they don't have any way to get there that's a strong message
all right somebody says I reject the notion that poor people are inherently undignified that would be that would be a good message yet I assume you're saying that as something that the president should say I'm gonna repeat that through those of you didn't see the comment somebody somebody was saying that I assume this is why you meant in the comments is that if the president was accused of not doing things that would give people dignity that a good responses that would be I refused to see the world as poor people lacking dignity you know I I don't see people that way I think they're completely dignified they're just in a bad situation and here's how I'm gonna make it better that would be devastating that would be really devastating especially in if you if you heard that in the context of a debate it

[37:11]

heard that in the context of a debate it would be just yeah it would be the thing they courted the next day all right there is very little news happening at the moment because the holidays and so I'm not going to go longer than I need to all right I think we got it enough for today and why don't you go have a great day because that's what I'm gonna do bye for now