Episode 691 Scott Adams: Talking About Winners and Losers From This Week

Date: 2019-10-12 | Duration: 55:50

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK goes on sale 11/5. Pre-order: https://bit.ly/2NRammu Pirelli Tire company…winner or loser? Jacob Wohl’s latest prank Iranian oil tanker hit by two missiles…from Iran? Eliud Kipchoge runs marathon in under two hours, sets world record Bill Maher thinks homeless problem is a housing cost issue? News silo situation? Don Jr. tweets clip of Kamala cackling in a non-leader way Kamala responds with a pretty good dig Who “won” the exchange? AOC tweets legalizeit Matt Gaetz replies Shepard Smith quit FOX News Kurds and a lack of understanding about their situation They wanted a homeland Were they helping the US, or was the US helping them? Gavin Newsom signs 15 new guns laws, and a curious stat Is it a good sign when you’re running for President and… …your kid has to hide? Preliminary China trade deal reached What did China agree to give up? The Steve Kerr situation

Rough Transcript

This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.

Transcript

[0:03]

[Music] what’s up pom pom pom pom pom pom pom oh what a day Oh what a great day this is this is one of the best days all day I don’t think I’ve had a better day since I woke up and that’s because we’re all here together for the simultaneous hip I know that’s why you came grab your well let’s be specific let’s not leave it to chance if you’d like to participate in the simultaneous lip all you need is a couple more glasses Stein the chalices tacular thermos the flask canteen Grail goblet vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine the end of the day the thing that makes everything better the simultaneous epic I’ll sublime well today we’re going to

[1:11]

I’ll sublime well today we’re going to talk about the winners and the losers I will be grading people winners and losers today I’d like to start with the Pirelli tire company losers losers I say that because I was trying to inflate my tires the other day and so I was looking for the inflation number on my tire now Pirelli decided to put that in a very very micro tiny lettering coloured black on a black background surrounded by a tire that had other tiny lettering all around the perimeter so you couldn’t even narrow it down what zone the tiny writing was in I broke two flashlights because I smashed them on the ground out of anger trying to find the tiny writing on the black on black tyre the third lighting solution in which I used a painters

[2:11]

solution in which I used a painters light to light up the whole room also didn’t work it wasn’t enough I had to put a mat on the ground so I could get low to the tire two flashlights broken paint or light still can’t see it it’s too small I’ve checked all the tire so I took a piece of paper and a pencil and I thought I’m just gonna like use the pencil while holding it against the tire and maybe I can surface the PSI count by by the little piece of paper I got mostly around the tire when Christina came out and noticed that I wasn’t happy apparently she picked up on my lack of happiness and said hey can I help you out with her younger eyes and she got down there and she looked and she looked and while she was cursing in order to make my point of how abusive this book tire company is I pointed to her car

[3:12]

tire company is I pointed to her car which also has black tires and also has the tire inflation written in black on a black tire except that the Continental Tire Company made a big I could see it right away it was like that big easy to say even even black on black we did eventually find the Pirelli number and it was written smaller than well smaller than a little about half the size I think of this little writing here on this pencil I’m showing you that if you’re listening to it you can’t see at all so Pirelli tire losers Continental Tire winner winner more winners and losers did you see the Jacob Wall prank about Kamala Harris okay this might be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time now let me start by saying I’m not defending or disavowing Jacob wall

[4:16]

defending or disavowing Jacob wall because I don’t know anything about him really except that he seems to be associated with the right and has a lot of critics but I don’t know details of it so forget about that for a moment he’s got a let’s say he’s a controversial character but I don’t know the details so I don’t have an opinion on any of the controversy I’m only going to tell you the recent story apparently he’s somewhat famous for shall we say generating fake news and he tried to generate some fake news out of a story that apparently he just made up about some somebody accusing Kabul Harris of having an affair with them now that’s not the fun part the fun part is how he pulled off the prank he and I’m calling it a prank but you could call this some other word if you like so

[5:17]

call this some other word if you like so what he does is he runs an ad in Craigslist for an actor an actual actor and he tells the actor he’s going to be playing a part in which he’s going to be playing the part of somebody who’s confessing that he’s the lover for somebody named Kamala Harris who and this is the fun part the actor who answered the the ad had never heard of the name Kamala Harris and so believed we found out later that it was just a name of a fictional person in a script oh it gets better if you think that wasn’t good it gets better so take of wall and announces that there’s giving like a press conference and he actually gets like cameras and like a crowd so crowd forms with the press and cameras and everything apparently they tell the actor who still doesn’t know but he still doesn’t know that it’s a prank they eat they tell the

[6:19]

that it’s a prank they eat they tell the actor that all the people with the cameras and the crowd are also actors so so the actor comes out and he does his performance and for other cameras thinking that all the other people he’s talking to are also actors no yeah that’s not the funniest part yeah but funny is fart yes I was trying - have you ever seen professional actors talk about how they they performed in some play or in the movie and there was some famous you know award-winning actor or actress that they were that they were acting with and they always say the same thing they always say you know I think acting with so-and-so famous actor you know made me better I felt I needed to raise my game and I was thinking about that how actors can raise the game of the other actor simply by doing a really good job the

[7:21]

simply by doing a really good job the other ones you know rises to the level and I thought this poor actor who answered the crying says that he walks out and he sees all these people he thinks are actors and he must have thought to himself damn these guys are freaking nailing it they look exactly like actual reporters and the people in the crowd they don’t even look like they’re acting they look like they’re totally nailing person in crowd and I and I had this this funny thought my mind that he went out there and he’s he’s delivering his lines pretending that he was a lover of Komal Harris and he’s probably looking at the crowd at the same time like any actor would to get you know response because you’re you’re sort of you know you’re sort of connected to the people you’re acting with if I understand acting and he’s probably thinking they’re killing it I’ve got I could’ve raised my level so here’s the funniest part of the story Jacob wall might have gotten the best

[8:23]

Jacob wall might have gotten the best performance from an actor of any direction just because the poor guy was trying to raise his level of acting to the level of the people who were actually real people but he thought were acting all right and then it gets better apparently the guy was promised five hundred dollars for his acting performance and he never got paid [Laughter] he’s never got paid and he didn’t find out he didn’t find out it wasn’t he didn’t found out none of it was real until he saw the news so I’ll say once

[9:30]

until he saw the news so I’ll say once again I’m neither supporting nor condemning a Jacob wall in general I don’t know what he’s done he’s accused of stuff and I just I haven’t been paying attention so I don’t know don’t have an opinion on any of that but damn that was funny so Jacob wall gets the win oh my god all right remember you remember you saw the story of the Iranian oil tech remember

[10:41]

story of the Iranian oil tech remember you saw the story of the Iranian oil tanker that apparently was hit by a missile and did you say to yourself the same thing I did you saw the story and you’re like huh somebody said two missiles at an Iranian oil tanker and did you have the same reaction I did which was who did that who in the world in the entire planet wanted to send two missiles at an Iranian oil tanker and the thing was in the Gulf and I said to myself I can think of only one country that would want two missiles to hit an Iranian oil tanker named the country who is the only country who would want an Iranian oil tanker to be hit with two missiles go ahead who’s the only country who would want that to happen Iran of course because nobody else would

[11:44]

Iran of course because nobody else would do it and then you know you wait a couple days it turns out that story that story might not be quite the story you thought it was so apparently that was fake news so sometimes fake news looks exactly like you think it looks huh name all the countries in the entire world who would want to send two missiles into an Iranian tanker in the Gulf only one country I could think of the only one I could think of as a ramp do to cause trouble and make it look like it was somebody else there’s nobody else in the right mind who would do that under any conditions so Iran loser if you’re keeping score Pirelli tires losers Jacob wall he wins this round Iranian oil tanker losers alright let’s go on biggest winner there’s a

[12:47]

go on biggest winner there’s a marathoner who had just broke the two-hour mark oh my god he ran a marathon in under two hours what are you kidding me you ran a marathon in under two hours now you have to watch the video if you want to if you want to have a feel good moment it’s everywhere on the Internet just check the news his name is Elliot Kip chogi Kip chogi and watching him get cheered on by the crowd who understood he was gonna break the record I guess everybody knew he was on the verge of breaking one of the hardest records you could ever break or maybe the hardest I know maybe it’s the hardest record you could ever break and the crowd knew it and used to watch him running that final mile with the crowd cheering him on was really inspiring

[13:48]

cheering him on was really inspiring really inspiring so Elliot Kip Jogi winner I grade you a winner seemed like a nice guy also in his interview so I’m happy for him bill maher his show last night produces always produces some interesting clips of highlights one of them is he was talking about the homeless in LA in particular I guess and he was talking about how the housing costs go up because of all the scammers and I don’t he was blaming bad behavior for the housing costing too much and even when they tried to build inexpensive housing it becomes too expensive to which I say Delmar what news are you following because you would have to be in quite the news bubble to say that the homeless problem in Los

[14:48]

say that the homeless problem in Los Angeles is a housing cost to problem that’s something you could only believe if you were in a bubble what kind of bubble you say oh ho this kind of bubble a loser think bubble now loser thing doesn’t mean that the person is a loser I’ll say that as many times as I need to I’m talking about the technique of thinking about your world if your technique is wrong you’ll get a wrong solution what does Bill Maher do wrong technique-wise which left him in a bubble in which he couldn’t see reality clearly because the reality is if you are if you follow the news sources on the right let’s say Fox News as one example you would know that it’s not so much a cost of housing problem that’s always a variable but it’s more a mental health and a drug problem meaning that even if you took those

[15:49]

meaning that even if you took those people who are on the streets and said to him hey here’s a free house they would say no thank you and they would choose to live in their tent on the street and do drugs or maybe they have mental problems the housing wouldn’t make any difference Phil is their problem it’s not what they’re trying to solve so Bill Maher apparently watches the news in silo that is more associated with his point of view I would imagine and that makes him blind to what people who are watching the other silo consider common knowledge I mean if you’ve seen dr. Drew talk about it if you’ve seen Michael Shellenberger write about it or talk about it if you’ve watched Tucker Carlson if you’ve watched the guff elde you know the greg gutfeld show there’s a lot of shows on the right that if you watch them you know it’s a mental health

[16:50]

watch them you know it’s a mental health problem a drug abuse problem so that’s that’s a perfect example of loser think is limiting your exposure to one side or the other doesn’t matter which side you’re limiting to if you’re not watching both you’re definitely in a bubble that’s something I can say with complete certainty if you’re not sampling the news from both sides you don’t have really any chance of knowing what’s going on in your world there’s not even any hope at all all right so bill mara for getting one of the most important problems in the country wrong which is the homeless problem and what is its primary cause you get loser loser for the week Don jr. tweeted a short clip of Camilla Harris laughing about her own jokes a little bit too hard now you know I’ve been making that case for a while there she laughs at her

[17:51]

case for a while there she laughs at her own jokes too hard but there was an interesting little exchange because um so down juniors quote that accompany the video of Camilla laughing too hard at her own jokes he said why is cobble Harris the only person that laughs at her jokes always way too long and way too hard the most disingenuous person in politics after Hilary all right so so here’s the setup Don jr. tweets around a clip of Camilla Harris laughing too hard into her own jokes and if you look at the clip it’s just not a good look because it’s just her guard ha ha ha ha and sort of that unattractive and I don’t mean in the male/female way unattractive but just as a human being unattractive laughs so what does cobble Harris do to respond there’s a response alright so now we have a good chance for a winner and a loser here because we’ve

[18:52]

a winner and a loser here because we’ve got something back and forth so kabbala retweets Don Jr’s entire tweet including the video of her laughing too hard unattractively and then calm allah says this which was actually pretty good she says to Don jr. you wouldn’t know a joke if one raised you pretty good right you wouldn’t know a joke if one raised you and I thought to myself not bad pretty good joke but here’s the thing when Don Jr who is smart and understands how the world works when he tweeted around calmly Harris’s video of her cackling at her own joke he knew that that would be a bad look for Kamala and the people who saw that would have a non critical reaction to it they would have a visceral reaction to it it would make her a little less interested in her as a

[19:52]

her a little less interested in her as a leader but it looks on literally the way she’s laughing at her own joke just again in an irrational sense that’s how we process it I’m not saying there’s any rational reason that laughing at your own jokes makes you less of a leader it just feels that way and so the way people respond to you as the leader matters and so Don jr. knows that and so he tweets that and it’s very effective in my opinion so persuasion wise Don Jr has the advantage she tweets out a visual visuals are always and that comes with an audio and if you said something as a visual and audio element that strong strong persuasion alright so so far Don jr. has the strong advantage in this original tweet but then Carlo comes back with a good response pretty funny I would say you know certainly she probably had a little help with it maybe because it seems a little funnier than what she normally produces but it’s solid so whether or not a you know

[20:54]

solid so whether or not a you know wouldn’t matter if an advisor came up with it or she came up with it she gets the she’s the one who tweeted it and it’s solid you wouldn’t know joke if one raised you and I’m sure her base thought that was pretty funny but here’s what Carla did wrong her retweet exposed her own followers not just Don Jr’s followers on Twitter but all of her own followers to the video of her cackling too hard and looking unpresidential so Don jr. gets the most solid win you’ve ever seen ever because what he obviously wanted to do was to have more people see this video of Cobble harris cackling in a non literally way calmly Harris’s worst response ever was a clever witty joke that part was good I’ll give her a plus for the for the clever witticism but to deliver it she had to retweet her own

[21:54]

deliver it she had to retweet her own insulting video they couldn’t possibly work in her favor winner Don jr. in a knockout that one was not even close Kamala doesn’t seem to understand how anything works she doesn’t understand that retweeting her own cackling video no matter how cleverly she responded is not a winning strategy that’s a losing strategy every time Don jr. for the win all right here’s a weird one AOC hired somebody who has had some involvement with legalizing drugs you know as an issue and she tweets hashtag legalize it in demand justice for communities ravaged by the war on drugs now when AOC says legalize it I don’t know if she’s talking about just marijuana or maybe something beyond that

[22:55]

marijuana or maybe something beyond that but that’s less important than what happened so Congress Congress person Matt Gaetz sees a o’seas tweet in which she’s calling for legalizing drugs and he responds you had me at hello this is interesting now in terms of tweeting is there a winner and a loser a o’seas tweet calling for legalizing at least marijuana I think that’s probably the context I would say winner AOC winner because that’s a topic that the public likes and it’s exactly where she should be be so it’s smart tweet right place right policy AOC winner Matt Gaetz comes in and she says you had me at hello very clever tweet very clever because

[23:56]

very clever tweet very clever because they’re both you know young good-looking people and so you automatically you know your mind goes to a place right because if it were a movie these two would end up getting together right if this were a movie and so using this movie reference you had me out hello it’s hilariously provocatively flirty without going too far in other words it’s not unprofessional it’s like boom he hit you know he hit the crease like it’s just provocative enough but it’s definitely not over the over any kind of a line he’s still in the cleverly professional zone which is very thick it’s very hard to hit cleverly professional you can be professional by being boring and you can be unprofessional by being provocative but there’s just a thin little zone where you’re provocative and still

[24:57]

where you’re provocative and still professional and gates in it so Matt Gaetz winner this one wasn’t a competition it was specifically two people agreeing with each other so somebody most associated with Trump and the right and ASAE most associated with anti Trump on the Left agreeing on this topic and it’s a topic that the American people both agree with him double winner American people as well as both politicians on the same side see you then is reporting that Trump lost had a terrible week a terrible week I say there was some court ruling about yet to show his tax returns but that will be appealed there’s something about funding using military funding for immigration uses specifically building the wall that apparently got stopped by the cords but that will probably be appealed something about public assistance being required to get a visa

[25:59]

assistance being required to get a visa or something like that that will be appealed or something so you had three court situations that could be appealed CNN calls there was a bad week for the President and maybe so so I’m gonna say that at least in the courts the president had a bad week losing but is the game over I’ll say no he’s losing so far he’s behind on the scoreboard but these are all subject to appeal so may still come in and out all these Shepard Smith quit did you all see that it was big news so Shepard Smith quit Fox News there was there will be plenty of speculation some of them probably correct in which people say he just couldn’t stand it anymore because he was trying to do the real news and the opinion people were on the other team and blah blah blah but you’ve got to be

[27:01]

and blah blah blah but you’ve got to be pretty you’ve got to be pretty angry to walk away from a reported fifteen million dollars per year salary you gotta be pretty unhappy with your situation to do that I will say and I had said this before that Shepard Smith was the best breaking news guy I’ve ever seen so if there was a new thing there’s no script it’s breaking news and you want one person in the world to be up there talking about it intelligently keeping the viewers engaged keeping and moving along giving lots of context and stuff nobody was better he’s the best I’ve ever seen and specifically I’d called this out months ago when there was a helicopter that fell in the bay or fell only in the water in New York City and Shepard Smith was on covering the breaking news that was the best performance of a news person on breaking news I’ve ever seen I mean it was just breathtakingly competent like it would

[28:01]

breathtakingly competent like it would just be hard to match but it was also the Fox News production team everything from the graphics do the producers it was just that should have won an Emmy I don’t know how that works is there some kind of award for news business but he should have warned an award for just that coverage alone so but I don’t think he fit at Fox News I don’t think he was a quite the fit that he should have been so maybe he’ll find a better deal I wish him well alright let’s talk about so Shepard Smith a winner or a loser well I don’t know he it was his idea to leave so I’d say the game is incomplete if he ends up somewhere that he wants to be if it’s better well he’s with her I think Fox News might be a loser in that because he was he was a strong talent even if you didn’t like his politics let’s talk about the Kurds once

[29:07]

politics let’s talk about the Kurds once again there is a complete lack of information about what’s really going on over there but you’re watching the news start to change your opinion of the Kurds are you was it maybe two weeks ago if I had asked you hey you watch the news you’re one of these people who is well-informed tell me what you think of the Kurds you probably would have said something very positive about them being you know strong fighters of allies and the only people we could rely on over there and all that now President Trump says well we’re gonna get out of the way and Turkey is gonna have its way with that border area that the Kurds are in and the Kurds are in a lot of trouble and the bombing has already started now what are you hearing about the Kurds this week it’s changing isn’t it now you’re getting more shall we say nuanced view of the Kurds now what the Kurds wanted more than anything was their own homeland let me ask you this for the

[30:10]

homeland let me ask you this for the people who say it was a mistake for us to pull our troops out because it gave Turkey a free pass what was the alternative because the only thing that the Kurds wanted was a homeland you know sooner or later they wanted their own their own land now let me ask you this how well would that have worked out let’s say the Kurds had declared that this is our land this will be our homeland how are they defend it could the Kurds defend a homeland not as long as they had terrorists in their midst who who whoo turkey found threatening so there wasn’t really any chance that the United States was going to make any permanent let’s say Israel type commitment to occur - homeland because it’s very

[31:11]

occur - homeland because it’s very expensive and it lasts forever you know once you’ve decided you’re gonna form a hostile homeland surrounded by people who wish you hadn’t it’s gonna be this is gonna be an expensive situation so I think I think that the zeitgeist on this you know the public opinion is going to start to evolve really already has from Kurds or our allies to I think we were just helping the Kurds get rid of Isis weren’t we just helping them where the Kurds helping us I mean we we were fighting the same enemy so in a sense you know enemy of your enemy is your friend sort of Thank You Kurds were never our enemy I shouldn’t say that that analogy so back that out and delete it but we have a much more nuanced opinion and apparently some of the Kurds we consider meaning the United States

[32:12]

we consider meaning the United States considers terrorists they do seem to be associated with the ones that are not considered terrorists what kind of Association is too much it’s all getting a little bit grey nail seemed like it was black and white a week ago but yeah well it’s getting really gray and so so there’s your situations now we’re also hearing that the Kurds might be releasing or not necessarily intentionally but some Isis folks are getting out during the bombing so people who are in prison let me ask you this if the Kurds decided to slaughter all of the prisoners who are Isis who are Isis and now maybe including the families or maybe not I don’t know because there are family members there too if the Kurds decided to just go all genocide and simply slaughter the prisoners because they wouldn’t be able to keep

[33:13]

because they wouldn’t be able to keep them in prison and letting them out would be too dangerous what would be public opinion on that I’m not suggesting it and I’m also not just a variant because think about it think about your the Kurds you just fought this war lost a lot of a lot of people the courage took massive losses and but you won and part of what winning meant is that your mortal enemy the ones who raped and killed your brothers and sisters you finally put them in prison and now they might get out because the Turks are attacking you and if you stay and try to keep them in prison you might die what do you do you kind of know what they do right now if the Kurds are unusually moral people maybe they do let them out because you

[34:14]

maybe they do let them out because you know they I don’t know maybe they just think life is more important it’s possible I don’t know that much about the Kurds apparently they’re somewhat sectarian they’re not they’re not you know they’re not running their deal on a religion alone so I don’t know but doesn’t seem to you that the most likely outcome is that all the lice is that all of the Isis prisoners will be killed in prison doesn’t it seem the most likely outcome I I don’t see the outcome where we’re either the Turks or or the Kurds allow them to get out of prison and go free I don’t see that yeah it could happen accidentally if the bomb falls in the wrong place people can get free well I don’t see the Kurds letting the Isis prisoners got one I just think that they’re gonna slaughter them let me let me put it this way well let me tell

[35:16]

let me put it this way well let me tell you a story I heard once to put this in perspective I heard this story from a gentleman who is passed away so I wouldn’t I wouldn’t tell the story except that he’s dead right he was he would be in his 90s probably now if he had lived and he told me about his world war two experienced in which he was leading a group of American soldiers who are the first ones to free a prisoner of war camp it was in German held prisoner of war camp and they were the first ones there and the the war was basically widening down and the Germans knew that they were going to lose so the the German soldiers who were guarding the prison camp sort of surrendered as soon as the Americans got there in force because there was no point they they were outnumbered so the Americans go in and they take control of the prison camp and all the the German soldiers all surrendered and they said okay where are

[36:18]

surrendered and they said okay where are the prisoners because they couldn’t find the prisoners they had just liberated a prison camp in Germany but they couldn’t find any prisoners and one of the guards points in that direction to a train car it was a train that had bullet holes in it they had loaded all the prisoners into a train in order to move them when I thought I guess they thought that they they could move them to another place to keep them prisoner and when they realized that they couldn’t they couldn’t move them in time to get away from the advancing American forces they machine-gun them so when so this is this is the person I talked to in person he’s tells me the story in person they opened the train cars and all of their dead American soldiers fell out they were all dead all of the prisoners were killed as the Americans approached and

[37:21]

killed as the Americans approached and the reason that he was telling the story as I had asked him in World War 2 tell me the truth did you take prisoners because my my assumption was that in world war ii things were more barback and there wasn’t as much press and they probably just killed prisoners but you know everybody I’m not saying any particular army did it it just seems to me there was probably more killing of prisoners than taking of prisoners whenever it was hard to keep them as prisoners you know if it was if it was easy let’s say a whole army surrendered or something maybe there were cases where it was easy to keep him and then they just kept them but I said in general did you take prisoners so here’s what he said and he was remember he was a he was very young I think he was it was actually 19 but he was commanding his unit because all the other officers had been killed so he ended up in command just by default and he said yeah we took prisoners all the time yeah we

[38:23]

we took prisoners all the time yeah we absolutely took prisoners and then he said except once except once and that’s when he told me the story about the prison camp that he liberated they liberated the prison camp the German sold the German guards all surrendered but that was revealed that they had just killed all the American prisoners and then this this very elderly gentleman who served in New York in the war he turned to me and he looked at me and he said he looked me in the eye and he said that day we didn’t take any prisoners that’s war that day we didn’t take prisoners think about it I looked in his eyes when he told me that he wasn’t joking and it’s a story he had never told he told me he’d never told the

[39:24]

told he told me he’d never told the story I was the first person who ever heard it did you read about it in the news nope you didn’t you didn’t read about that story in the news and you never will all right so let me ask you this if you’re the Kurds and you see an army approaching and your worst enemies Isis are in your prison what’s gonna happen what happens if that if the Turks find them alive let’s say the Turkish army gets there first and Isis prisoners are still alive does Turkey want them to live I don’t know maybe depends who is watching right so I think here’s my prediction my prediction is that we will never hear definitively what happened to the ISIS prisoners we just won’t hear

[40:28]

that’s all that’s all you need to know all right gavin newsom signed 15 new gun laws in california but here’s an interesting stat between 1993 and 2017 which I guess is the latest available information there was a 62% decline in the gun murder rate in California which is nearly twice the the national average of declined so gun gun violence declined everywhere but California was has been aggressive with gun control bills and the claim is that that collective action must be some collection of different smaller gun control bills including the 15 that are well the 15 order brand new ones so we don’t know how they’ll do yet but the claim is that it reduced gun violence by 62 percent now what’s wrong with that statistic I know you’re way

[41:30]

with that statistic I know you’re way ahead of me on this right somebody says let me see the stats right that’s exactly right I’d like to see those stats so the first thing you should say to yourself is yeah you don’t believe any stat you hear from a politician right so that’s the first thing you should say is like well let me see those stats so that’s your that’s the first thing here’s the second thing where’s the stat for how many extra people got killed because they didn’t have a defensive weapon that’s why you want to ask me right where’s the stat for the people who did get killed but would not have been killed if the victim had been armed don’t have that but is that baked in and I don’t know the answer this question so that’s a real question is it baked in because you’re comparing it to the other states in the rest of the country that had only half as much of an improvement those other states have the same same

[42:30]

those other states have the same same effect right that their number also does not include anybody who died who didn’t need to because they didn’t have a defensive weapon so I think this might actually be a valid comparison but I don’t know I don’t trust it on its surface but here’s my general statement I’ve said that the states should be laboratories and even if I might not like living in the state that has a certain set of laws I do appreciate the fact that California is becoming a little laboratory so I’m gonna surprise you here no matter what you think of gun control I kind of like the fact that some states can try some stuff just see what happens compare it to the other states so as a system I’m highly supportive without having an opinion on the specifics of these new gun laws you could have to put arguments against them but if you’re testing them in one state and you can look at your stats compared

[43:32]

and you can look at your stats compared to other states and you can find a meaningful way to compare isn’t it worth knowing you know at least like to know what the outcome is so one of the changes was you couldn’t get an ar-15 until you’re 21 so you can’t get an AR at 18 between 18 to 21 do you have a problem with that do you have a problem with somebody waiting until they’re 21 to get a weapon I wait til 21 to buy alcohol that seems it seems at least based on biology like that seems a factual thing because we know that human brains are not quite evolved so that the longer you can make somebody wait the less we’ll do something with a semi involved evolved brain so that’s good now is that you know of course you’ve got your Second Amendment problems and I’m not giving you an opinion that that’s good or bad but I’m just saying that it would be it would be based on a biological

[44:34]

be it would be based on a biological truth that between 18 and 21 you’re not as developed as after that so it’s not crazy you you you could a reasonable person could disagree with that law but I don’t think it’s crazy it’s based on solid thinking I think and then there’s more about red flag laws etc I don’t know too much about that so I won’t talk about it here’s a question for you if you’re running for president and your adult son has to hide is that a good sign so Joe Biden’s son hunter he literally can’t be found at least by the press you know I don’t think he’s a missing person he just he’s hiding does that say anything good about your campaign because if your son has to hide and it’s the only way you could get elected that’s a little red flag right

[45:36]

elected that’s a little red flag right there somebody I haven’t seen anybody asked that question specifically but I’m pretty sure what President Trump ran for office none of his children had to hide none of the Trump children had to hide no I’m just saying compare so President Trump announced yesterday that they have some kind of a preliminary at least verbal trade deal with China for what he calls phase one so I don’t know all the tenants but it includes some kind of agreement by China that if an American company opens up shop in China there they will not be forced to have a Chinese partner because it’s the Chinese partnership that gets all the IP stolen that’s one of the big ways that happens now trying to agree to that why do you think trying to agree to that why would trying to give that away you know why would try to say okay we’ll

[46:38]

know why would try to say okay we’ll drop one of our key requirements that our Chinese company is a partner with you if they wanted to steal intellectual privacy or intellectual property do they need to have a Chinese company involved yeah somebody says they’d steal it anyway it makes me wonder if they don’t know that once a company is physically in China that is easy to monitor as their electronic communication right now I know you can do VPNs and stuff but wouldn’t you assume that the Chinese government has the capability to steal all of the intellectual property from any company that moves into their territory do they need to partner with them and have somebody as an insider steal it I think China may have agreed to this this clause because they can steal it other ways they may have given them nothing we don’t know but maybe

[47:40]

them nothing we don’t know but maybe they may have given up nothing all right how about this other one Chinese agreed to buy you know I don’t know 40 or 50 billion dollars more of foreign products now why would China give up something that big answer they didn’t give up anything as if my interpretation is correct all they did to say all right we’ll buy less stuff from I don’t know Vietnam and we’ll buy more stuff from America so what does it cost China to buy our stuff instead of somebody else’s stuff probably nothing probably all they did is change who they bought it from they just bought it from us instead of buying it from somewhere else so is China giving up anything by saying they’ll buy more from us probably not they’re probably just getting the same price in the same product but they’re buying it from us instead so it looks like China

[48:40]

from us instead so it looks like China has given up two things but as far as I can tell China has given up nothing now we might want these two things but it looks like China found a way to give us something without giving up anything which is kind of clever so what they gave up was business with another country which hurts the other country doesn’t her china and they gave up partnering with American companies which they probably don’t need to steal our IP they can just do it the old-fashioned way monitor all the digital communications but I was wondering also why this what seems like you should have been a major announcement and in fact seems to have moved the markets the stock market quite a bit why is it that it’s almost invisible on the news the news is treating it even the left and the right almost like nothing is happening the stock market is zooming you know went up one or two percent or whatever yesterday pretty big move for one day and the news is treating it like nothing

[49:42]

and the news is treating it like nothing happened why is that well it could be because nothing’s happening because one theory is there’s no deal that’s going to happen there’s just you know talk and maybe they’ll agree with some minor things like these two things that were announced but you didn’t hear anything about fentanyl right so if you don’t hear anything about fentanyl I don’t suppose I’m very confident that there’s going to be a deal after all so I would say China loser alright I may have at least one more thing to talk about no I don’t I will just remind you that my book loser thing is available wherever you buy books and if you preorder it it’s available in a few weeks if you preorder it it’s good for me so if you are thinking of buying it at all please pre-order because that’s good for me it

[50:42]

pre-order because that’s good for me it gets it closer to the bestseller list which is the important thing so thank you for for those of you who pre-ordered yes of we a be tested different colors and and this was the if you can see well this is the color that everybody seemed to like not everybody but most people seems like that’s what we went for all right oh yeah an update on Terra power still looking to make contact personally I’ve had some digital communications but we’ll talk with some more people at Terra power and maybe if I have any luck I’ll get somebody on the periscope but we’re trying to figure out what is stopping Terra power from getting a site developed in the United States you know if there is something that’s stopping them and has anything to do with the government or regulations or any of that or even persuasion I’ve offered to help and I’m gonna deputize all of you if we find a

[51:43]

deputize all of you if we find a specific target of our persuasion maybe we can help save the world save the world or at least make it less expensive to live in the world people are I see people asking you to talk about Steve Kerr I have mixed feelings about Steve Kerr and they go like this if your job is to be the leader of a team of mostly african-american athletes you have to act like that leader you’re not the leader of the country you’re not the leader of China you’re not the you’re not the Secretary of State Steve Kerr is a leader among mostly African American athletes he acts like a leader of African American athletes in the sense that he is adopting a political view which would be very compatible with theirs which is are

[52:45]

very compatible with theirs which is are concerned about racism in this country they’re concerned about President Trump in some cases but not all and he represents that view and his team very well now if he were not a coach of a team I would say hey Steve Kerr maybe we should talk you into being a little more unbiased maybe a you know maybe we should talk about your point of view but I’m having trouble faulting him I know that’s not what you want to hear because you want to dump on Steve Kerr right I’m having trouble faulting him because his job is the coach and leader of a specific group of people with probably on average a fairly compatible point of view with what he says in public he’s doing his job when somebody’s doing their job I don’t I don’t regard them the same as if they’re giving their unfiltered personal opinion it might be his personal opinion could

[53:45]

it might be his personal opinion could be exactly his personal opinion but he’s also doing his job secondly I don’t fault companies who already have a large presence in a working relationship with China I do judge differently people who would make the decision today if you’re just starting to make a decision about working in China you know maybe you should rethink that but if you’re already there like the NBA lots of money on the line you’re allowed to act like a company you know you you might want to do the best you can to stay out of politics but you are allowed to pursue profits and you are allowed to do what’s good for stockholders whenever stockholders are involved so I don’t judge harshly people who are doing their job the way the job should be done and I think Steve Kerr’s kind of aliens even if you completely disagree with what he says politically as a leader of that

[54:46]

says politically as a leader of that group of people a person who needs to have their respect in all ways I think he’s nailing it I hate to say that now do I agree with what he says about the president now not even close but I’m not a coach of an NBA team if you made me the coach of an NBA team and I care about politics but I also care about being a proper leader to the people I’m leading I’m gonna express the point of view that’s compatible with my team before I express a point of view that’s compare with you that’s the priority that I would take he is taking that priority I’m not going to criticize that even at the same time I have deep disagreements with what he says about some things in politics he’s doing his job I respect that and I don’t think you’re gonna talk together that all right that’s all I got for now I will talk to you later