Episode 723 Scott Adams: A Simultaneous Sip, Better Late Than Never

Date: 2019-11-12 | Duration: 38:24

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Understanding the Ukraine phone call issue…or non-issue If IRS has no problem with the President’s taxes, why release? AMA with viewers, various topics

If you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link: https://interface.my/ScottAdamsSays

> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:10]

oh hey everybody if you're wondering why my sound quality is so bad there's a reason for that can't find my microphone but will that stop me from the simultaneous snip I don't think so no I don't think so I've got a Wi-Fi problem in my hotel I'm on the road and hotel Wi-Fi doesn't work so I am hot spotting it today so this is your hotspot simultaneous sip the best there could ever be at when it's late is better than ever because it made you eight all right grab your copper mugger Steiner chalice your beverage holder of any kind it could be a canteen shot glass thermos it doesn't matter fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine hit of the day the thing that makes everything better and gets better every time you do it the simultaneous it go soo um I'm on the

[1:22]

simultaneous it go soo um I'm on the road again promoting my book which I know by now every one of you have F acquired most of you have read some of you have acquired several versions of it from Kindles to hardcopy to one of your book yes I'm going out and Dave Rubin today I'm not sure exactly when his show airs I'll I'll find out and I'll tweet it at you but what is better than being in Southern California and getting to talk to Dave Rubin nothing nothing it's the best thing ever I'll let you know when the episode shows so we'll be there in a few hours so I've been trying to figure out I swear I've been trying really hard to understand this whole Ukrainian phone call situation and I've been with people on Twitter to try to get a better sense of where am I my blank spots are you know where do I have a gap in my understanding that needs to be

[2:23]

in my understanding that needs to be filled in and it's it's you may be having the same the same experience I'm trying to understand it but it's really hard so here's here's where I am at the moment this is my current take the question of whether there was a quid pro quo or not is irrelevant you got it the question of whether there was a quid pro quo is a complete distraction and irrelevant because if the president were asking for something totally appropriate that he's allowed to push we would want him to do that so if he's asking for something appropriate he's allowed to push but let's say he was asking for something there was inappropriate is he still allowed to push doesn't matter because if you're having a conversation with the man who controls the biggest military in the world and

[3:25]

the biggest military in the world and has the fate of your country and your administration on the line and you've got to make him happy how could he turn off the quid pro quo is there a way to turn it off so the question is not whether or not there's a quid pro quo because you couldn't turn it off if you wanted to if Trump walks in the room its quid pro quo all around everybody watching everybody who's an assistant everybody has acquitted acro a quo or they wouldn't even be there so arguing about whether the quid pro quo exists in the in this specific instance is just loser think because he can't matter either way it doesn't matter if he said or else or if he didn't say or else the the implied relationship it is always at stake in every conversation there's an implied quid pro quo so the arguments about that may have some

[4:27]

arguments about that may have some legal significance but because as far as I know there's no claim of a law being broken so what if quid pro quo did have meaning in a legal context would it matter well not in this case because there's no there's no allegation of a crime the president is not accused of an actual crime by at least by people who know what they're talking about so I think the whole quid pro quo thing is a complete waste of time the only question we should be asking is did the president do something that was appropriate or inappropriate and hearing it's interesting because I've been debating with some people who are smarter than the normal people on line to try to see their point of view I'm actually really trying to understand because I'm having some trouble just really grasping the other point of view and so I argued with somebody using placemark yesterday and we we went all the way down the rabbit hole and in the end this is where I came out he said the

[5:29]

end this is where I came out he said the president violated a norm a norm that it wasn't what it wasn't a question of whether this particular request was good or bad but rather the problem was that this type of request is bad so it wasn't about so the best my opponent could come up with to argue that the president should be impeached and then sounds like I'm making this up the most he could come up with is that this sort of thing not this specific thing but this sort of thing would be violating a norm and there should therefore he should be impeached and I thought to myself do you know what else is violates a norm everything how about everything violates the norm if it's this president there's no norm he hasn't violated so the question should be you know keep going down the rabbit hole quid pro quo is irrelevant because it's just there all the time then there's is it appropriate well is

[6:32]

then there's is it appropriate well is it legal that's the next question that apparently it is the next question you should ask yourself is was he trying to hide it well he did it in front of a lot of
of people and here's the key not only did he do it in front of a lot of people he asked Ukraine to to announce it in public or Rudy did or somebody did now do you think the president if he were trying to keep it a secret would have would have asked Ukraine to announce it because obviously that would be tracked back to the president asking for it began there were plenty of witnesses so could you really say that the president was trying to keep this a secret it looks like the opposite it looks like he was trying to make it as public as possible he'd made the phone call in front of people now there's a question about the the transcript of being on the server and I think that was probably just a cover-your-ass sort of thing where they didn't want to you know maybe they didn't want people to look at the language and pick it apart because they

[7:33]

language and pick it apart because they you could always find something so I think that that should be looked at is just normal bureaucratic cover our ass put this on the secret server a kind of thing but in general and I don't think that was Trump's decision to put it on that server that doesn't sound like something he gets involved with but in general the president wasn't tried to hide anything if you asked for it to be publicly announced and it's obvious who was behind it you're kind of asking for it to be right out there all right so quid pro quo doesn't matter because it's always there no matter what yeah you can't take it away if the if the godfather asks you for a favor he doesn't need to say or else if your boss asks you to do a project the boss doesn't say or else it's just always there right it's not illegal nobody's claimed that it's not hidden because he clearly didn't do the things you would do if you were trying to hide it and

[8:33]

do if you were trying to hide it and then you go down the rabbit hole and then it becomes you don't want it to be a norm and what they mean by that is you would not want it to be a norm in their words for the sitting president to use his power to dig up dirt this is this would be their hord's on an opponent now that enorm you would want to avoid or is that in norm you would want to normalize let me ask you this if Don jr. had been taking money from let's say Russia would the Democrats want to look into that yes if Dodd jr. were taking money from Russia let's say an oligarch connected to Putin and had some kind of sweetheart deal now this one's harder to imagine because dog jr. is already rich so you probably wouldn't be involved in something like that you wouldn't need to wouldn't make any sense but just imagine

[9:36]

wouldn't make any sense but just imagine it would you want to know you mostly Trump supporters on this periscope wouldn't you want to know what was up with that if dog jr. was taking a bunch of money from a Russian oligarch you stock as far as hit no he's not but if he were that's not democrat or republican is it so so the next thing is you have to be consistent if this very specific situation you were reversed I would want it to be a norm in other words if President Obama while still in office had learned that candidate Trump who was listening the nominee by that time if if President Obama had learned that somebody in the media Trump family was taking a lot of money from Russia would he want the public to know what do you want that investigation to you know tell us what we need to know probably that to me that would seem like an entirely legitimate thing for a president to want

[10:37]

legitimate thing for a president to want to know so when somebody argues we don't want to make this a precedent or we don't want to make it a norm that's looser think because this specific case is something you would want to be a normed you would want your government to look into anything that is so clearly and publicly known to be potential conflict so I would apply that both sides I think it would be entirely appropriate now some might take this too well what about looking at Trump's taxes and I think that's a special case as well you can't take every case and say well that's just like his taxes if the IRS doesn't see a problem with his taxes and nobody else is complaining about something specific then I'd say sort of up to the candidate but if New York State or somebody else found something that was evidence of an actual potential

[11:39]

that was evidence of an actual potential problem that I would want my government to look into it well I wouldn't want to be saying supportive things of a candidate who had some big problem with an entanglement somewhere in a foreign country so first of all you've got to be consistent you've got to say that whatever your whatever your stand is about Joe Biden and the president asking for whatever he asks for you've got to say would you do the same if the roles were reversed and I think you would why wouldn't you why would you not want to know if your leader is owned by another country how could we possibly not want to know that so here's my summary of all that and I've said this a number of times I saw today that the apparently the GOP has for talking point defenses about what the president did or did not do and one of the defenses is that there's technically no quid pro quo and I guess they can make a good case for that because the president is on record

[12:41]

that because the president is on record as saying directly it's not quid pro quo he used the word favor and apparently the some of the cranes according to pro Trump GOP types apparently the Ukraine didn't know anything was being held up so there was no and then they got the money anyway without doing the thing so they're arguing that the quid pro quo doesn't exists and I think I think that might be a losing argument because although it may not technically exist there's no way any normal voter is going to say he was talking to the President of the United States the only one who had the power to save his country militarily in case you know Moscow got out of control I think it's a losing argument to argue quid pro quo doesn't exist because although it may be a does exist it's a losing argument because it's just always there it's in the atmosphere you can't say it's not

[13:43]

atmosphere you can't say it's not sitting on the table it doesn't matter if it's sitting on the table where you can see it it's in the atmosphere you can't you can't remove it it's there with every conversation so I would go to the next argument which is was it illegal and was he trying very hard to hide it and it wasn't illegal it wasn't trying very hard to hide it so then the next question is was it appropriate and appropriate comes down to is it good for the country and can you imagine any situation in which you as a voter be you Republican or be you independent or be you a Democrat can you imagine not wanting to know what's going on there wouldn't you want to know as a voter Biden is leading in all the polls he's leading in a min ahead head-to-head at least of the polls he's leading head-to-head against Trump he could be our next president don't you want to know as much about that guy as possible that's how it works you know when you're running for

[14:43]

you know when you're running for president and you're the number-one guy people can ask a lot of questions and the public wants to know so the only thing I would want to know under this whole thing true or false it is in the public's interest the voters interest that we have more information about whatever it was going on there with Biden that's the only thing I would argue everything else is sort of not understanding the question because if you're arguing quid pro quo it's like you don't know how anything works because you couldn't take it out eat even if the president had no intentions of quid pro quo you can't erase it from the situation it is the situation you know it's not the situation then you can take this part out it's the situation two leaders talking and especially in this specific situation where you create the United States and will need us probably for a lot of things and for a lot of years all right so that's my

[15:45]

lot of years all right so that's my that's my take on this that's my audio quality by the way I'm surprised this live stream is working because I'm just I'm just hot spotting it off Am I quid pro quo threats are violations of labor negotiations irrelevant oh so one of the arguments is it wasn't actually the president's job so what what law does that violate so it wasn't the president's job is that a law no it's not law what is it when you say it wasn't the president's job what is it it's a norm it's a standard practice that the president doesn't get involved in investigations and then doesn't get involved especially with investigation of an opponent but if that investigation of the opponent isn't happening what

[16:45]

of the opponent isn't happening what should the president do let's say the let's say bill bar or whoever it goes over there and talks to the Ukrainians and isn't getting the kind of response he needs what do you do does Bill Barr just go back to the President and say I tried but they're not answering my questions would bill Barr do that and if he did what would the president do would the president say gosh I can't get involved in this because that would be against the norm or would the president say oh well we do have a legitimate right to know what's going on over there and if you can't get if you can't get it done through your you know more official sources you know justice to justice and so to speak what do you do you always kick it up to the boss do you think that the president would have made this call if bill Barr could have just gone over there and done it himself the only people who think that bill Barr can do it without the president's help

[17:47]

can do it without the president's help or people who have very little experience in the real world in the real world if you work for a big company and you even want marketing to talk to sales sometimes the bosses have to talk first in fact normally in order for people to get anything done have you ever tried to get another organization to work with you without the the agreement of the boss it's hard because the people in the other organization work for their boss they don't work for you they just report to their boss and if the boss isn't saying to do it why would they waste their time just because you want it you only do things because your boss tells you to do it or you know your boss wants it so until the bosses have talked the underlings are a little bit toothless and obviously you know and let me ask yes if you think that the bill bar could have gotten it done on his own do you think do you think Trump would have gotten involved no obviously it wasn't

[18:50]

gotten involved no obviously it wasn't happening for whatever reason it wasn't happening so he violated a norm and he got involved now again if this were reversed and and Trump and Don Jude you're I hate to throw Don jr. under the the analogy boss because he hasn't done anything he's done nothing except produce a book people like apparently but if you imagine it the other way I'd feel the same you'd want to know what's going on and you'd be happy that the president got involved if there wasn't any other way to make it happen it's not perfect it's not perfect but we don't live in a world where everything can be buttoned up and perfect all right that's way too much on that isn't it but it seems like that's the only news today
will you be able to visit with James Woods wall in LA well it wasn't on my itinerary I have to admit that was not on my top hundred

[19:52]

admit that was not on my top hundred list of things to do in LA although James Woods is kind of awesome in his way
probably you know we'll have to see how they go the Nick ele thing so nikki Haley said that Tillerson and john kelly were trying to undermine the president and I think Tillerson at least has said that didn't happen so once again it's she said she said and I'm not sure any of it matters I'm not buying the not buying the theory that nikki Haley is playing this game where she's trying to replace Mike Pence and then hang around at old Trump gets an itch to take over the presidency maybe seems on seems unlikely somebody said how often do I change or

[20:53]

somebody said how often do I change or update my glasses way too infrequently I should do it more often and Christina was one who picked these out so you would have to you would have to give her credit if you like them my old ones I think made me look older these these at least make me look more current if not younger am i buying DJ tees book triggered many books behind but I'm sure that would be a good woman we're losing you somebody said are you having problems with the connection yeah I haven't seen the climate change Greta Thornburg mural in SF but I did see the Babylon B version where they they altered a so it looks like lasers are coming out of her eyes to shoot SUVs I'll tell you the Babylon B is just killing it lately if you're not following the Babylon be

[21:55]

if you're not following the Babylon be you're missing some of the best viewer that you'll see so it's sort of like the onion except they have a conservative bent which makes them the you know they're usually in the political realm that is pretty pretty hilarious I did a podcast for them coming up I'll tell you about when it's out
connection is fine good that's good to know Ari's anything else going on that most of you saw me on the Greg Gutfeld show I hope and you know is interesting if you heard me on the Greg Gutfeld show when I played it back I noticed that everybody has a better voice than I do they have a more commanding powerful voice you know Greg Greg has a really you know powerful voice that kind of takes over a room as does cat you know she has a different

[22:56]

does cat you know she has a different kind of voice but it really it cuts through the noise it really gets your attention Tyrus of course and then Dave Smith comedian who was there he has a great voice and I would listen to my voice it was for the the end of my day you hear me in the morning one of this periscope and it probably sounds a lot better but by the end of the day I've been talking all day you know I could do 25 interviews a day at a book tour and I know that much left on the tank by 6 p.m. you know because my day starts 3 or 4 in the morning will i watch the hearings only if I'm around that was up again do you say somebody says be more natural be more natural on the Greg Gutfeld show I don't know what natural would mean in that case it's important to match the energy of the show so anybody in fact in my book in my book

[23:59]

anybody in fact in my book in my book lose I think one of the things I teach is that some of the worst advice you'll ever get is to be yourself or to be natural because that never works you you should be whatever the situation calls for and who you are is what you do so if you're the person who comes into a room and simply acts happy you're that guy it doesn't matter what your internal thought is that's who you are that's what you become so for whoever said I should have acted more naturally maybe act natural is not be natural I couldn't be more natural but I suppose I could act natural in other words I could put other different kind of performance that look to you more natural but that's the best you can do acting natural would be the worst advice because I would just sit there low energy mumbling like I usually do if you're on the TV show you're not supposed to act natural you're supposed to crank it up to

[25:01]

you're supposed to crank it up to unnatural and entertaining so I tried to do that but the others the others who were you know with me or more experienced at that sort of thing you can tell you seem kind of nervous you know it's you know it's funny I wasn't nervous at all I don't get nervous for most things I mean I visited the president of United States in the Oval Office and I don't even think my pulse was elevated so I've sort of reached that point in my life where things like this don't embarrass me they don't I don't I don't treat them as a risk and when something isn't a risk then you're not really too worried about it I mean I was you probably detected that I was concentrating to try to remember what I thought I was going to say in case I got the questions I was hoping to get that sort of thing but my pulse was probably baseline do I like cat timpz

[26:03]

probably baseline do I like cat timpz humor yes very much I think cat is incredible would like to hear you and Rush Limbaugh talk well I I sent my book to sturdily and we don't know if if if Russia will want to talk to me but if he ever does I would love to do that all you got to do is act naturally yeah you seemed a little nervous but it wasn't you you may have seen me looking unnatural which is different from being nervous because I didn't have any any nervous at all actually you look taller on periscope that's true I noticed the same thing when you see me on a couch with normal-sized people I look smaller especially if Tyrus is with the one on the end

[27:06]

you like my epic Times interview Thank You boob do you always I do I always operate at maximum persuasion no it's hard to turn it off because it just becomes the way you act you know some people ask me are you trying to be persuasive and any particular context and I always say the same thing which is persuasion is something that you know it's something you've become because all communication is an attempt to be persuasive sometimes you're persuading people to just have a good time so you're trying to entertain them sometimes you're persuading them to change the moment sometimes you just want to like you but all communication is persuasion and once you know the right way to communicate you're also just automatically persuasive so you can't turn it off it's just who you become what would you do differently next time I get failed I

[28:07]

differently next time I get failed I would smile less I would smile less when I was actually really happy and when you're there in person it's even funnier than it is on TV because there's also stuff that happens during the commercial breaks which is just as funny as the stuff that you see on screen sometimes sometimes the good stuff happens in the breaks and so the entire time you're there from the from the moment I reached the green room ahead of time it's all fun people by now I knew most of them and and the Energy's high everybody's joking around everybody's in a good mood so it's just a really good time it's a by far the most fun to do
did anything get edited out yes but only for time so we went a little bit long and edited a few minutes out I assure you and how does it is there online

[29:09]

you and how does it is there online training you recommended for learning hypnosis there is not I'm not aware of any way to learn it from a book or from a website I've never heard of that I'm not saying it wouldn't work but there's something about the in-person experience because it's you know it's it's a physical process where you have to do things and somebody has to watch you and all that and you need practice yeah Don Jeter got heckled by Trump supporters for not taking questions and not much of a story your book Kindle versus audible well that's a personal personal choice what about brexit you know I just can't get interested in brexit I want to be but I'm not all right just looking at your comments I'm gonna have to get ready to do my first thing

[30:10]

have to get ready to do my first thing today and I will need to run and I did what to miss the simultaneous it so no so so Kay for teens to quit vaping hypnosis would not work on your teen to quit at vaping here's a little tip about hypnosis hypnosis does not work better than any other well-known method for quitting cigarettes or vapes or losing weight this secret is and you learn this as Adventist that the person has to decide to quit once the person has decided to quit every method works yep and and maybe one of the three people actually have decided the other 203 want to quit or maybe somebody else wants in to quit there's no method that will make them quit hypnosis cannot make somebody change their mind to want something too at least in this unit context in other

[31:10]

at least in this unit context in other contexts yes but no hypnosis would have no value in stopping somebody from vaping because the reason they vape is that they want to vape now if your teen came to you is that damn I really super want to quit I'm not kidding I just can't quit can you find me some help now under that condition hypnosis would work the same way everything else would work it wouldn't matter what method you picked once the decision is made the rest just happens so what we often confuse wanting to quit with deciding to quit and those are completely different wanting to quit means you're not gonna quit deciding to quit means you're gonna quit and sometimes you can tell the difference either there are probably been times in your life where something happened you know there was the last straw and you said to yourself okay all the other times I wanted to stop doing whatever it is but I just decided and

[32:13]

whatever it is but I just decided and you feel that moment if you don't feel the moment today's the day I decided don't bother there's no method that will help you you're not going to quit something you want to do yeah that's what Alan Carr stresses this book how to give up smoking you should that's I see a bunch of you who are having a realization of that the first time you hear that it's quite a mindful like I used that word it might blow your mind because we go through life thinking that our wishes and our decisions are somehow the same thing and they're not likewise when and this is stolen from somebody rich who once said this I wish I could credit the right person but I can't somebody said that the way to be successful is to figure out what the price is and then pay it now it the

[33:17]

price is and then pay it now it the first time you hear that you say to yourself well that's sort of saying nothing figure out the price of success and pay it yeah Great Scott put that in your bumper sticker you know put it on the bumper stick it means nothing to me but it's the most powerful thing you'll ever hear in your life when I first got an offer to be a cartoonist I knew that I would have to work pretty much every day every morning every weekend and every night for years to make it likely I would succeed and I actually made that decision on day one the day that I was offered a contract to be a syndicated cartoonist and by the way most people get that contract fail the overwhelming number 90% maybe 95% fail even after they get a contract to be syndicated in newspapers because you still have to perform and I made a promise to myself an actual promise in in real words a specific moment and I said Scott I make

[34:21]

specific moment and I said Scott I make a promise to myself I won't fail because I didn't try hard enough there will never be a time in my life when I look back and say you know that cartooning thing could have worked out for me if I'd worked a little harder and I said to myself I can't control everything but I'm gonna make sure there will never be a day in my future when I say to myself if I'd only done that a little bit more and so I read lined my effort for years and if you're wondering why so few so few cartoonists ever make it to the big time so to speak it's because they they don't or can't or won't do what I did which is I put my I put everything into it I left nothing on the table I didn't have a scrap of energy left at the end of every day and I would fall asleep for four hours wake up and I would run

[35:22]

four hours wake up and I would run actually run during the day to get everything done and that this is not a joke back in the days of fax machines that if I'd hear my fax machine going off and my other room that little condo I would run to get it pick it up and if I had to throw something away I would run to the garbage pail and then if I got a phone call I would run to the phone I would run to everything while I was inside by your home and the reason was that by running I could buy myself an extra three percent I left nothing I left nothing to to chance that I would ever ask myself why didn't I work harder I read mind for 10 years so I tell you that story some of you said that's inspirational I'll do something like that I have also my objective I'm going to leave it all out there I don't want to ever say I didn't work hard enough

[36:22]

to ever say I didn't work hard enough but others of you just said I don't want any of that I don't want any of that and that's a good choice for some of you this level of sacrifice is just not something that will never work for you don't do it but go back to my advice if you want to be successful find out the price and then buy it somebody says were you single yes I was in a relationship but I was not married how did you mitigate the stress that came with that persistent effort I exercised almost every day and keeping busy turns out is good for me so good things were happening and I enjoyed it it was mentally stimulating and I kind of like I kind of like pressure I've always performed well under pressure somebody says I did the same as

[37:28]

pressure somebody says I did the same as a heart hairstylist good for you you you figured out what it would cost and then once you knew the price you didn't ask yourself could I afford it you just went down did the damn thing sometimes you just have to decide it's not what you want it's what you decide the exact way I was able to retire forty-three cents Brad there you go drugs back then not in those days the there are periods of my life when I was more or less prone to smoking massive mirror amounts of marijuana but during the time that nil Burt was starting was not one of those times but yeah it was often done during that period all right that's all I got for now I'm gonna have to go get ready I would like to talk to you all day but I got to run and I will talk to you later