Episode 638 Scott Adams: Trump’s China Tweet on Overstock CEO

Date: 2019-08-23 | Duration: 24:01

Topics

*** WARNING *** This video is F-bomb heavy *** WARNING *** Is China using 50,000 American Fentanyl deaths per year… …as a bargaining chip for a trade deal? China said they would take care of the Fentanyl pushers…and didn’t Two problems: China Fentanyl and immigration One solution: Move production to South America President Trump: “Our great American companies are hereby ordered”

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:05]

bum bum bum bum bum bum bum come on in here everybody we're gonna try this again with better sound with any luck whatsoever I'll remind you they're complaining about the sound non-stop will and end the periscope it's not because I think you're not telling me the truth although in some cases the trolls are just trying to derail things it's not that it's just that I don't want to do the periscope if everybody's just complaining it doesn't matter that you're right or wrong I just don't enjoy the experience so I bill them let's try it again with better sound and
we should do the simultaneous up again I know you're not prepared but if you've got a beverage let's do this right now go and now you're complete all right let's let's start with the overstock CEO

[1:07]

let's let's start with the overstock CEO is it Patrick Byrne and the question you're all wondering is is the overstocks ex CEO he just quit is Byrne crazy is he lying and you're probably wondering what's going on because his story is quite incredible the basic story is that he says members of the FBI who he names including Comey and struck asked him to do some counterintelligence some you know so spying if you will on Hillary Trump Marco Rubio and Cruz but mostly Trump now is it true because it'd be an amazing changes everything kind of a story if it is here's what I feel I can say with confidence I've watched several of his interviews

[2:07]

I've watched several of his interviews with confidence I tell you he believes it's true so maybe you were already there but let me say that there isn't the slightest chance that in his mind he's lying because the way he talks about it is the way you don't talk when you're lying I'll give you a couple of tells now as far as I know these tools are not scientific these are these are me talking so take this with whatever credibility or lack thereof you want to put on it one of the questions that Chris Cuomo asked him asked a burn was are you going to be able to prove this allegation you just talk about something in particular and burn instead of saying what a liar would say which is um I couldn't but my dog ate the documents or yeah yeah I'll get around to that he looked he looks at Cuomo and I'm

[3:08]

he looked he looks at Cuomo and I'm paraphrasing but he says basically I'm not in the business that convincing you I'm just opening the door I'm telling you what I tell you what I know that's all I'm doing I'm not in the business of trying to convince you of anything and I thought that was a really powerful answer because if he believes his story is giving enough information by far so that other people could investigate it and find out if it's true or not he's actually saying I was in a room with other people here are some of the people go check for yourself so yeah he named Warren Buffett for example the Warren Buffett part could be true without the rest of it being true meaning that it could be true he talked to Warren Buffett and it could be true that Warren Buffett said well if that's your story you should go to the go to the authorities which is what I imagine

[4:09]

authorities which is what I imagine anybody smart would say when they heard that story but that doesn't mean the rest of it's true so definitely he's telling the truth the way he talks about it the fact that he mentioned names of number of people who would suggest there were lots of witnesses there would tell the opposite story even Maria boo Tina presumably would have the ability to verify or not verify a story so Liars don't tell stories that have that many witnesses unless they believe it's true now this leaves open the possibility that he's not connected to reality so it definitely leaves the possibility that he believes it's true but he's got a some kind of mental issue in order to get some penetrating insight into that we would need to know the following things has he ever been accused of hallucinating facts before

[5:10]

accused of hallucinating facts before because if nobody comes forward in the next two days to say you know this isn't the first time he imagines something that wasn't true if you hear that and maybe hear from more than one source then yeah I think you got to say that it's a little more likely that there's something going on with him and maybe the story is not true even if he believes it to be true but if 48 hours go by and that's sort of arbitrary you know a few days go by and nobody comes forward to say you know on other topics he has been just as crazy then I would say the odds strongly favor it being an accurate version of why he believes to be true and may largely be true but wait for that so that's the key thing wait for other people to talk about other topics that he may or may not be having a break with a reality the other thing

[6:15]

a break with a reality the other thing is I won't tell you where I first heard this but let's say there's some questions as to whether Maria boo Tina is 30 years old or is she the age that her pictures without makeup would suggest on the Internet she doesn't look 30 years old to me I would guess mid 40s so another test would be hey Patrick how old is Maria Bettina let's see if he can get that one right all right but I really wanted to talk about the president's tweets on China I'm gonna read them they're very long but I really need to read the whole thing because I'm having kind of a moment with this maybe you'll have the same if you've already seen it you know what's what's gonna come but if you haven't this is really big news so president tweets just a little bit ago

[7:17]

president tweets just a little bit ago you said our country has lost the stupidly trillions of dollars with China over many years they have stolen our intellectual property and a rate of hundreds of billions of dollars a year and they want to continue I won't let that happen we don't need China and frankly would be far better off without them the vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States a year after year for decades will and must stop our great American companies are hereby ordered our great American companies are hereby ordered our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China including bringing your companies home and making your products in the USA I will be responding to China's tariffs this afternoon this

[8:17]

to China's tariffs this afternoon this is a great opportunity for the United States it is also here's my favorite part I am ordering all carriers including FedEx Amazon UPS and post office to search for and refuse search for and refuse all delivered deliveries of fentanyl from China or anywhere else fentanyl kills a hundred thousand Americans a year President Xi said this would stop it didn't
our economy because of our gains the last two enough years is much larger than that of China we will keep it that way this is the answer to the question why I support this president a lot of people say to me Scott this president said something that I'm offended by yeah

[9:17]

said something that I'm offended by yeah he did that people say to me this president said some things that maybe you think is funny but other people are pretty upset about yeah that's true Scott this president may not be paying attention to some of the smaller issues yeah that's true this president may have made this mistake in that mistake in this mistake in that mistake this President may have said 11,000 factually inaccurate things maybe so but man he gets the big stuff right and that's what I thought I thought he gets the big stuff right I thought he'd do well with the economy I thought he'd do well with international relations at least the you know the dangerous ones like North Korea yes and I thought he would do well on soft stuff like this dealing with China

[10:18]

like this dealing with China what other president would have said what this president said he just called President Xi a liar in public just said they're murdering our people just shut down their mail their mail stuff to the United States and just told the citizens of the United States to get behind him I don't know what it means when he says he's ordering US countries to look at moving their production here I don't know that that has a real meaning in terms of ordering as in the authority to do it maybe I know maybe in some ways he does but I don't care he's speaking to the country as commander-in-chief it looks like he's speaking to you as you know negotiator in chief and certainly that's part of it but this is commander in chief the hundred thousand Americans a year that are killed by fentanyl that may be an exaggeration but

[11:18]

fentanyl that may be an exaggeration but it's heading in that direction that's that's a security problem that's a military problem that's a homeland protection problem this tweet it's about trade but it's not about trade this is commander in chief commander in chief just told the country to mobilize just like world war ii in this case mobilizing to pull our resources away from a dangerous murderous murderous and on let's say unreliable country he's asking the country to mobilize well that will the country listen to their commander in chief will they understand that this is not an economic request this is a commander in chief request requests I know he says he's ordering it when the

[12:21]

I know he says he's ordering it when the commander in chief tells you to pull your companies back to the United States do you say well this doesn't apply to me because this is just economics and you know I have the freedom to do this well you maybe you could maybe you could as an American company just say well I choose not to take this guidance from the president but if you choose not to take the guidance you're taking it as an economic suggestion it's not this is commander in chief if you get that wrong you really missing the story your commander in chief just told you if you want to avoid a hundred thousand people getting killed by our nemesis China pull your companies back pull them all back because I'll tell you when China promised to take care of the fentanyl situation and you know I take this personally because my stepson died less

[13:21]

personally because my stepson died less than a year ago from drug overdose and fentanyl was in this system you know I take this personally but that's a military problem if they say they're gonna deal with it and they do well that's an you know dealing with another country productively but if they say they're gonna do it and they don't it becomes a military problem and and the president is dealing with this and what I consider a military framework he just told American companies to come home if they don't you know that and some of them will have different risk profiles you know not everybody can do it and it might be hard might take a long time it's gonna be tough but anybody who can do it I feel as a patriotic responsibility to do it at this point anybody you can bring their companies home or move their move their suppliers to another country needs to be looking at that pretty hard right now so let me

[14:25]

at that pretty hard right now so let me say it again everything you want to say about this president this negatives may be true maybe he's offended some of you maybe we wish he had spoken differently maybe we wish that the country was not divided by not only his rhetoric but the way it's treated in the news you need both of them to get a get a problem maybe all of that's true maybe maybe he's departed from the fact-checking way more times than you think you think is healthy maybe that's true but people were supported this president from the start supported him for this reason this reason not just being China this reason meaning big that he can do the big stuff that he can think big he can get you a space force he can pull production at China I mean just think about that who else would even talk about that who would even say that out loud nobody nobody would say something

[15:26]

nobody nobody would say something this big out loud except him he's the only one who else would talk to Kim jong-un nobody who else would say yeah I can deal with Putin you know we just have to get what we want at the same time he's sanctioning the piss out of them Trump all right so I'm gonna use this as my answer to the question for all of you said you know why would you why would you be supportive of a president who makes us so so angry and offended this is why this is why you're not gonna get this from the Biden certainly you're not gonna get this from Biden you nothing you can ask him to get this from a Democrat you're not gonna get it from Bernie and he's the most hard-ass Democrats about the Chinese you won't even get this from another Republican there was one person who could write this to eat and one person who could you know cause some action to happen I don't

[16:28]

know cause some action to happen I don't know how much action will happen but that's it so I'm completely on board if this takes our economy down I'm on board if it makes this stock market the stock market at fault I'm on board if it raises my taxes I'm on board if it makes our deficit bigger I'm on board time to do it China had his chance there's nobody who can say China didn't have a chance they they need they had one job had they actually done something even anything visible on the question of fentanyl I would say let's keep talking to them but their refusal to move on this thing which they could do easily and there's really just a signal that you're that you are worthy of being part of the public conversation they failed repeatedly and at the cost of tens of thousands of American lives for what to

[17:31]

thousands of American lives for what to negotiate was this part of a trade deal negotiation you're going to kill 10,000 Americans every few months until we give you a deal not an our interest was that the deal China was that the deal because if it wasn't the deal you better tell us what was the deal because that's what looks like the deal so if murdering us until we give you a trade deal was the only deal you're gonna put it on the table you China you and your whole country you could all die okay that's a little too strong you can't all die I don't need a billion people to die because the Chinese citizens are not the ones making this mistake but let's say the government of China let's pull our stuff back let's let's shut down their goddamn shipments of everything let's let's tell the countries you know the businesses in this country to try to get their supply

[18:31]

this country to try to get their supply chains in order and then just shut them down I don't even want to take their mail I don't want to see a package come in that says Made in China if I see anything made in China from this day on I'm not buying it period period I'm not buying another thing from China I'm behind the president 100% shut him down if they had done anything unfenced no I wouldn't I wouldn't be talking like this anything anything at all if they'd said we're trying I'd say well let's keep negotiating there they're a credible partner we can deal with it they're not they're not credible they are our enemy we don't need a you know nuclear war nobody wants war but we should not do business with murderers who murder us while looking us in the eye if you can look us in the eye China and murder tens of thousands of our citizens because you think it might

[19:34]

our citizens because you think it might help you get a better trade deal you your products your economy your fentanyl the whole leadership of China can just go die alright you're out you're dead to us now no more Chinese products that's it period we're done I'm gonna be checking everything well I think what we need is some kind of a way to easily check what's made in China so we can just avoid that without hurting American companies so we do need a glide path so that we're not destroying American companies you know during the transition but we need to get out of China let's just get our stuff out of there now I did see an article I didn't read the whole article but I've skimmed it but it was the essence of it was that it would be really hard and maybe even impossible to move suppliers from China to some other country he has something

[20:35]

to some other country he has something to do with the interconnection of things and what companies are connected to what so it's not like you can just pluck one company and say oh yeah let's move this company from China to another country that would be hard but we could do it do you think there's a product that we can't build a factory for in Guatemala do you think Honduras wouldn't like to see a few factories pretty sure pretty sure they would so the president hasn't said this and maybe this isn't the important part but whatever we can do to encourage those companies to relocate to this hemisphere specifically Central America to absorb some of the some of the employment so that so that immigration is less of a problem let's do it we've got two of the biggest problems in the world one is China one is immigration from Central America let's solve them both what's let's do what we can to move those move there as

[21:36]

what we can to move those move there as manufacturers to Central America and help the Central Americans help the immigrants help our Hemisphere and China somebody says go smoke a joint and found Dan Scott well I think you would all agree that if China killed your son you might have an attitude about it and I do but China is also killing tens of thousands of other people's sons and daughters they're doing it intentionally meaning that they could stop it they promised to stop it they didn't you also saw in the last couple days that the US has gotten tough on Chinese nationals the actual you know individual people in China who were behind the fentanyl we actually know their names we know the name we about we know where they live about

[22:39]

we about we know where they live about we know the name and where they live of the top fentanyl murderers in China I've been saying I think we can kill them I think we can designate them as terrorists and I think we can kill him now would that be with that cause of war no no China is not going to go to war if we go into their country and kill their fentanyl dealers they're not we could take them out right in front of XI we could do it in front of them we could blow with this this guy's brains out this fentanyl dealer in China was killing tens of thousands American we could grab him by the hair hold him in front of she blow his brains out on she's carpet and she would not start a war because he doesn't give a about that one guy he doesn't want a war because he'd be dead so let's go get him if China doesn't

[23:42]

so let's go get him if China doesn't want to get him that does not clear our responsibility for protecting this country let's go kill that guy we could do that all right I probably broke a few laws here so I think I'll cut it short I'll talk to you tomorrow