Episode 713 Scott Adams: Boos That Sound Like Cheers, Laundry List Persuasion, Reverse Cover-Ups

Date: 2019-11-03 | Duration: 34:41

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK goes on sale 11/5. Pre-order: https://bit.ly/2NRammu Should Senators running for President recuse themselves… …from impeachment votes? “Inconsistent rewards” concept and addicted never-Trumpers Political activist Alyssa Milano’s laundry list for impeachment 9 items…but are ANY of them impeachable offenses? Interesting conspiracy theory from zerohedge.com CA electrical grid was shutdown for FAKE REASON David Graham article in The Atlantic…”Reverse Coverup” A Purple Heart for Conan? Thoughts from veterans, Purple Heart recipients

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:05]

bump bump bump bump bump bump oh hi I didn't see you there I was just reading my brand-new book that's just out well technically it delivers on the 5th but you could buy it today and it would be at your doorstep right on time hey are you here for the simultaneous sip have you all set your clocks correctly it looks like it cuz you're here on time but you know the simultaneous it is not something you do alone oh no that would make it non simultaneous and all you need to connect with your fellow and fellow and lady citizens is you need to enjoy the simultaneous hip with any one of these things could be a copper margaret glass snifter stein chalice tanker thermos flask canteen Grail goblet vessel of any kind solo with your favorite liquid I like coffee enjoyed me down for the

[1:08]

like coffee enjoyed me down for the dopamine hit of the day the thing that makes everything better it's gonna be a great day the simultaneous em go I feel us all as one now I'm sure you can feel it it's very visceral I'm looking at the number of people were on live right now I think a lot of people didn't set their clocks if you know what I mean alright let's talk about a few things in the news so three years ago or so I coined the phrase two movies on one screen and every time you see it it sort of reconfirms that that model of the world and I guess last night President Trump and Melania went to see a UFC match at Madison Square Garden and depending on who was reporting it he

[2:09]

depending on who was reporting it he either got booed or he got cheered so I thought to myself well how hard could it be to distinguish between boos and cheers so I play the video and I listen to it and I think I can't tell it's one of those you know obviously there were there were boos and there were cheers and people decided to see whichever movie they wanted to see so one more example of two movies playing simultaneously on one screen here's a provocative question I asked on Twitter yesterday and I want to tell you before I give you the question that sometimes questions are meant to be answered and sometimes questions are meant to simply take your mind to a different framework and that's what this one is this one doesn't need an answer it just requires you to take your mind to a different place just to deal with it here's the question if there is an impeachment vote in the

[3:10]

if there is an impeachment vote in the Senate let's say it gets to the Senate and they have to vote on impeachment should all of the Senators who were running for president actively running for president so who would that be that would be Warren Harris Cory Booker Klobuchar did I remember them all should they recuse themselves from the vote for a conflict of interest would you feel that the system was fair if four of the people voting were actually running from the job of the person they're trying to get rid of and they'd been trying to they've been trying to get him impeached before any of the the alleged offenses even happened
Sanders yes Sanders as well thank you for that now probably what you say to yourself is Scott Scott Scott there's no

[4:11]

yourself is Scott Scott Scott there's no such thing as recusal the Constitution describes you know what impeachment is and I guess I guess the house and Congress have some a lot of flexibility about the specific rules but there's no there's no rule that says you have to recuse yourself but for all the same reasons that people are arguing about the process so far should you have a hidden process where the where the Republicans don't get the same rights as the majority so these are all fair questions now I ask the question not because I think there's much chance that the Senators would consider recusal would take recusal I don't think there's any chance of it happening but put your head in that frame for a minute if people are saying that the president should not have made that ukraine phone call for what they consider naked political reasons should a senator be

[5:15]

political reasons should a senator be able to vote for impeachment for what looks to the public again the public doesn't have to be right but it looks to the public like naked political interests aren't they similar so the whole point of the question is to ask yourself how much can a politician do in the quest to get reelected can they do their normal job now if the Senators just go in and vote on senator business whether it's an impeachment or anything else are the Senators not just doing their job yeah they're just doing their job but that vote would also be very important for their personal quest for election than power so can you let somebody do something that's their job taking a vote in the Senate if at the same time it's clearly and unambiguously good for them on a naked ambition level is that okay

[6:18]

naked ambition level is that okay because if it's okay for the Senators certainly it should be okay for a president who of course is tasked with looking into foreign interference and elections and Biden again is still at the top of the polls not only not only pulling ahead of other Democrats but pulling ahead of the president in in a general election poll are they not the same I think you have to pick a side if you pick the side that the president should not have made that phone call and or the least the way he did it because it was too much of her personal gain and not enough of doing his job even though it was both if you think that the balance falls on the personal gain side then you think maybe it was wrong but she got to take that logic to the Senate and say all these people running for president do you think they're voting on the facts I don't think even the Democrats would believe that do you think the Democrats would really believe that there was five

[7:20]

would really believe that there was five politicians running for president would be basing their vote on the Pietschmann on the facts I mean seriously nobody would believe that so pick a side either either you can do your job or you can't do your job if it helps you if you can't do your job because it helps you somebody says try flonase I have flonase in me it doesn't my if you're wondering about my continuous and nasal problems there's a sinus infection trying to work through I'm on my third or fourth antibiotic but anyway I apologize for that SML is mocking Elizabeth Warren and her health care plan and doing a really good job so kate mckinnon does an incredible Elizabeth Warren impression very funny if you haven't seen the replay of it it's pretty good I gotta say she's really talented and but here's the interesting thing

[8:21]

interesting thing SML is sort of a window into what's a liberal thinking would they mock Warren's health care plan they're blocking the the expense part of the fact that you know it's impractically expensive would they mock her for that if she was their candidate probably not so it feels like even the left has kind of a problem with Warren and I don't know that SNL has picked a favorite to you wouldn't you think that by now you can identify who's who SNL as a group wanted to be President and I'm gonna give them a compliment I can't tell I would say that at this point the the SNL correct me if I'm wrong but I would say this season on SNL this season not any past season but this season is the most

[9:24]

past season but this season is the most fair they've ever been I'm hitting both sides with you know with good humor first of all I think it's a very strong season it's a pretty great political season for them so they've got good material but I feel like they're being completely unbiased at least in the way it's presented to the public now if you looked at last season there was an anti-trump anti-trump anti-trump but this season looks kind of balanced actually does their feel to you like a lot of the impeachment writing that you see I hate to use this phrase but it feels like impeachment porn doesn't it does it not seem that the people who hate the president that they want to live in the imaginary world where impeachment is not only likely but for obvious reasons and I think that that when they live in that world of all it's just a matter of time can't wait for

[10:25]

just a matter of time can't wait for that impeachment vote all things would be good don't you think that if you well actually I'm gonna propose this experiment so let me propose a scientific experiment we have various monitors and sensors you can hook up to someone's body and you can find out if they're experiencing something like happiness or something like stress so you put the sensors on them and then you take some anti choppers and you present them some headlines from what I would call the impeachment porn kind of literary field and and then see if their body registers pleasure because I think it would I mean common sense says it would right but I wonder how much you know when it would it be off the chart would it be would it be the best thing they felt all day I don't know because I feel like they never seemed to get tired

[11:27]

feel like they never seemed to get tired of reading the story where he's doomed tomorrow to only wake up and find out that he's still president and then reads some more stories that really he's doomed tomorrow tomorrow and then he wake up again and he's still president but it doesn't make the impeachment poured any less enjoyable apparently because there's a gigantic market for it and doesn't seem to be diminishing so it's hard for me to even look at a lot of the stuff that the anti-trump per se as being even political because it doesn't feel political anymore does it it feels as though people are participating in the political process meaning you know on Twitter or social media arguing and stuff because of how it feels and what they're chasing is the the good feelings so the the anti-trump are are being fed this continuous stream of dopamine hits it's like Oh headline

[12:30]

of dopamine hits it's like Oh headline yeah we got him now they get their little dope to being hit and they feel connected to all the other anti Trump errs at the same time I'd be I wouldn't be surprised if there's like an oxytocin he had to this is serotonin is it dopamine oxytocin but there seems to be a genuine addiction phenomenon and when I say that I'm not speaking I'm not speaking in a non literal term I mean actual literal addiction in the same way you know you can you can train chickens to peck on something to get a reward and they'll just be addicted especially if if the rewards are in consent that's where you get the best addiction consistent rewards we'll just bore you but in consistent rewards the chicken will just keep trying to get that next reward and all the impeachment stuff feels like that it feels like inconsistent rewards of like yeah this

[13:32]

inconsistent rewards of like yeah this is gonna work okay that one didn't work but let's keep pecking peck peck peck peck peck chickens pecking yeah there's there's an image for you imagine if you will every anti-trump were that you know is that chicken that's pecking on something and trying to get a reward and can't understand why the reward doesn't you know every single type but every now and then group would be an article that they'll say oh there's a pellet let me eat this pill oh wow is he still president what I just ate a pellet are you kidding me and he's still president back back back back so this was looking like me in my book have I mentioned my book loser think I talked about laundry list persuasion and I also teach people to take a photograph of the

[14:34]

teach people to take a photograph of the book any any page of the book just take your camera poop and use that page as your argument on Twitter or social media I I model this and you can see it in my I think it's my pinned tweet today because Alyssa Milano I was gonna call her actress Alyssa Milano but I actually have a lot of respect for her and I don't want to do to her what people do to me all the time like I'm writing books about politics I'm going on TV about politics I'm talking about persuasion but when people want to diminish me they say the Dilbert cartoon is that you know to to make it seem as if if you do one thing you can't possibly do a second thing like that's that's not allowed and I almost did the same thing to her so I almost said actress Alyssa Milano now obviously she has a has a career as an actress but she spends so much time and and I compliment

[15:35]

spends so much time and and I compliment her for the energy and the effectiveness she puts into politics I don't think it's fair to say that I don't think it's fair to say actress Alyssa Milano anymore when you're talking about politics so I'm gonna say political activists political activists how about that political advocate so I like anybody who works hard is well-meaning has you know has the country's interests in mind I don't think she's got some personal benefit that comes out of this in fact it probably costs and roles I would imagine it's probably bad for her career by the way so I don't agree with her on most of the Trump related stuff but I have complete respect for for changing fields which is another topic in lose I think so one of the one of the topics in there is about the most looser ish advice anybody could ever give you is stay in your lane you know keep your

[16:38]

is stay in your lane you know keep your day job it's literally the worst advice anybody could ever give you because you met can you imagine what civilization would look like if people just stuck to what they were good at you wouldn't have anything you wouldn't have any Apple computers airplanes you wouldn't have any you inanity automobiles you wouldn't have anything if people stayed in their lane and never tried to do the new thing well there'd be no Dilbert Dilbert wouldn't exist this book wouldn't exist my last 11 books wouldn't exist and this periscope wouldn't exist but almost everything good comes from somebody leaving their lane you can't have worse advice of that and what I hear anybody say that I just say to myself well there's somebody who is locked in a what are they locked in a bubble that's one of the ways you get locked in a bubble if you believe that what you're good at is all you should do you're trapped

[17:38]

you're trapped because if you believe about others certainly you believe it about yourself so that's one of the bubble walls all right but anyway back to Alyssa Milano she she listed nine reasons that the president should be impeached now so I took I took a photograph of a page from my book a laundry list persuasion that's called and what to do about it now when people have one good reason to make their point do they give you a ten they don't if somebody has one or two good reasons let's say three at a most they'll give you those reasons but if they don't have any good reasons they'll give you ten reasons and the reason is that they don't have any compelling reasons so you have to try to compensate with volume so if you've seen ten reasons from something not a hundred percent of the time but very reliably you can assume that this is not a credible point of view no it's it's a

[18:40]

credible point of view no it's it's a probably a confirmation bias point of view so you're her Alyssa Milano's nine things that the president should be impeached for obstructing justice violation of the emoluments clause collusion advocating political violence abuse of power predicting political predicting political opponents predicting the must been a typo in that attacking the Free Press violating due process for immigrants and quid pro quo with Ukraine now these are all impeachable offenses now if you believe that these are all in peach' below offenses and there are nine of them are you are you confused why there are zero Republicans who are willing to believe any of them nine reasons and lots of Republicans you can't get one Republican not one you can't get a single

[19:42]

not one you can't get a single Republican to say that there's anything on the list any of the nine things that is impeachable doesn't that make you wonder now if you were ELISA or anybody on the team do you wake up and say man those Republicans are really unified in what world in what world our Republicans unified well yeah there's like 95% like the president you know the job Easter and etc but don't we have we have people peeling off for pretty much almost everything it's pretty hard to get even all the Republicans on the same side but there's nine serious charges of impeachment and you can't get one Republican not one who is actually you know in office that should make you wonder about the strength of your things anyway the tech technique I advise in the book and here on periscope is that

[20:43]

the book and here on periscope is that you you ask them to give give you your best the best the strongest point on the list and you get an agreement in advance then once you have debunked the strongest point okay we both agree that everything else is less important than the one that wasn't even real so you don't do them all that's a trap because you'll just be playing whack-a-mole and until you do Punk all nine of them and then the first one will pop up like you'd ever debunked it so don't even bother that just go after the strongest one how do we know what would be the strongest one here's a here's an interesting conspiracy theory I am NOT presenting this as true I'm just saying it fits the observations so well that I had to scratch my head and wonder and it comes from article on zero hwedge.com where they are there's some speculation without evidence right so there's no concrete evidence list this is just speculation that the real reason that

[21:44]

speculation that the real reason that the California electrical grid was being shut down was not really because of fire risk but rather because we get our energy from windmills and one of the qualities of windmills is that they only work within a band of wind power if the if the wind is too strong which was a problem that we were told about with turning off the power this story was that the wind was so strong would knock down power lines and that they would spark fires so it's better just to turn them off while the wind is blowing but there's speculation that was a fake reasons and that the real reason is that so much of our energy is now produced by windmills wait for it so much of our energy in California is produced by windmills that we can't have energy when the wind is blowing too hard because the

[22:45]

the wind is blowing too hard because the windmills don't work when the wind goes above a certain miles per hour so the thought was it would be too embarrassing to say you know we don't have any electricity because our windows don't work when it's really windy now even though there's a solid engineering reason why they don't work when it's really windy that's not a good look and so you have to ask yourself is the state that has made such a brand and moving to green green energy did they find themselves in a pit in a pinch that would have debunked one of the most important California priorities which is to go green would it have exposed their going green gave us too much exposure to undependable energy sources in this case now again there is no direct evidence that that was part of any part of the

[23:45]

that that was part of any part of the calculation but you have to wonder because we use a lot of wind power here I asked yesterday if there's anybody is switching topics here so Coble Harris was reducing expenses and reducing her footprint for her campaign at least in New Hampshire and I asked is there anybody who's ever decreased their campaign spending during the primaries and then went on to Wed at least win the primary and the answer is yes historians are telling me that both Kerry and McCain did some pairing back the processor than wouldn't win the nomination before losing in the general
so apparently they're just the fact that you've pared back your operation is not enough to take you out so kabbala is still alive barely just

[24:47]

so kabbala is still alive barely just for fun I'm gonna keep my original prediction that she'll get the nomination I think all of you would agree the odds of that happening are really small they'll like vanishingly small but for fun I'm just gonna keep the prediction until we actually know until she till she drops out I would say your odds are very very very very low but if you would ask me one of the lot but here's the question if you were to ask me what are the odds that one of the other candidates even one of the high-ranked ones gets the nomination I'd say low isn't there a whole bunch of people who have very little chance of getting nominated because I think Biden will fall apart Warren is unelectable than the general Bernie's unelectable in the general somebody's gonna have to get the nomination mayor Pete doesn't do well in a poll of you know the entire country

[25:56]

all right here here's a sign that the other team is running out of material so in the Atlantic which is well known as a probably the most virulent virulent aggressive anti Trump publication David Graham writes or at least the headline I don't know if he wrote the headline it might have added editor who wrote the headline but they talked the headline is Trump's reverse cover-up Trump is being blamed for what they call a reverse cover-up by telling us what the transcript of the Ukrainian call was before anybody really asks for too much I mean I'm sure people are asking for it but he gave it up easily and they're saying wait a minute what kind of trickery is this when you're not covering stop I'm not making this up the Atlantic just wrote an article saying that he's trying to hide his crime by showing us all the evidence it's called a reverse coverup and the

[26:57]

it's called a reverse coverup and the thinking is that the public won't understand the details so the very fact that he's made a public and he's offering to do a fireside chat to read it out loud for anybody who hasn't heard it this is what I talked about yesterday I said it lead it gives the impression that there's nothing there to worry about because he's being so transparent about it and says I'll do a fireside chat I'll read the damn thing to every one of you in the country that's how not a problem it is and and then David Graham in the Atlantic says quote the partial transcript is deeply incriminating capturing the president pressuring the szalinski to investigate a political rival and to intervene in Americans election as part of a quid pro quo what does deeply incriminating mean deeply incriminating does that mean in law was violated no it doesn't mean that

[27:57]

law was violated no it doesn't mean that because I don't believe there's an allegation of a law being broken so deeply incriminating of what because it's not incriminating he showed you the transcript there's no incrimination there's just what happened and we all know what happened so I don't know if incriminating is even the word doesn't feel like it fits here because even the accused is completely transparent about what happened on the phone call it's a weird situation where we're all looking at it and again it's two movies on one screen you know you see what you want to see LeBron James was playing somewhere yesterday I didn't really care but there were some spectators in the front row where you can't miss them you know the ones we were just sitting right with her feet on the court who had free Hong Kong t-shirts on

[28:59]

free Hong Kong t-shirts on imagine being LeBron James and of course you see the people whose feet are right on the court they often interact with them and stuff and you look over and there's somebody there with a free Hong Kong shirt on and several of them I guess does that does that get in your head I would think so I would think so
so I'm not a big sports fan but I thought it was interesting though Steve Kerr has been you know the head of the Warriors and very anti-trump had been loud it as one of the best coaches in the NBA so Steve Kerr one of the best coaches and he kept winning all these championships etcetera but this year he doesn't have good players he has weaker players than he did when he was the best coach ever and now I watched two of their games and they scored something like half of what the

[30:00]

scored something like half of what the other teams scored they didn't even look like an NBA team and so you have to ask yourself
somebody's pointing out that Steve Kerr coincidentally coaches Stephan curry so there's two Steve Kerr errors in there which is weird all right so how good a coach is Steve Kerr because as soon as he doesn't have the best players who have ever lived on the planet on the same team he doesn't win games it's just an open question just I just don't know how good he is because we've never seen him with bad players that way he's not doing so well with bad players not bad players but he doesn't have the championship quality had before
how are we doing here so Biden is leading in all the polls but there was and there's a recent poll that confirms that for leading in the polls not just

[31:02]

that for leading in the polls not just in the primaries but in a pathetic little general election and here's one of the findings of the polls people are not terribly concerned if if their preferred candidate has the right policies well let me say that again because you probably think I'd misspoke Democrats are not terribly concerned if the candidate they prefer has the right policies is that all you need to know that's all you need to know right there now I don't know what it wasn't not a majority to anthem but there was some some big choke a minority who were just like well I like the candidate even if the policies are wrong that's the world you live in I guess some combat veterans were asked about the idea of giving conan the hero dog the one that caused

[32:03]

conan the hero dog the one that caused i'll baghdad he didn't blow himself up they asked about giving the dog the Purple Heart what do you think the combat veterans who got Purple Hearts thought about the idea of a dog getting a medal that's reserved for human heroes what do you think they thought of that great idea yeah the only people who think that's a bad idea are people who were not in the military or have not served in combat who are justifiably concerned that it would show a lack of respect but I think it's telling and interesting that the people who have actually done those jobs people have been in combat people have been wounded people who got the you know Congressional Medal of Honor or whatever that the people who've actually been in war with dogs so far everyone that I've seen interviewed it seems to be a hundred percent the people who've been in contact combat especially if they've

[33:06]

in contact combat especially if they've had dogs in combat with them are saying hell yeah gives the dog a Purple Heart no question about it now I think there's a law about who can get a Purple Heart so they might to change the law uh or to give them a special maybe a dog Purple Heart that's got a little paw on it I think you've seen that a great idea at least the second dog to receive it I don't know about that something says that some other dog has received it but I don't have information on that I've got to get ready to fly heading off to New York on book tour you might get sick of me in the next couple of weeks but please buy my book lose to think because if you do it will push it above the anti-trump books which are ahead an event on a couple of the bestseller list now if I was feeling pretty cocky this morning because the category on Amazon of what is it business business humor books the the top three items in that

[34:06]

books the the top three items in that category right now or my book the Kindle version of my book and the Dilbert calendar so talk about owning a category io in that category that's like like an eagle Scott all right have a great trip thank you I will I don't know if I'll be able to do my periscopes everyday at the same time on the road we'll be in a different time zone and busy during the day but I'll try to do one a day if it's not at the appointed time it'll be sometime and I will talk to you all later