Episode 760 Scott Adams: Shampeachment Theater, Peak TDS, Future Crimes

Date: 2019-12-18 | Duration: 36:57

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Senate Impeachment Trial: Opening statements and then a vote Do we need more witnesses? Adam Schiff says impeachment is because… President Trump MIGHT commit a crime in the future? Hugh Hewitt notes we are at Peak TDS today Mitch McConnell says Senate’s job is to JUDGE the case …as presented by the House’s TRIAL Senate’s job is NOT to RETRY the House’s case

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## Transcript

[0:11]

bum bump oh hey everybody come on in here it's time for another episode of coffee with Scott Adams featuring the simultaneous sip which is coming up coming up fast coming at you coming at you fast and hard and all you need all you need for the simultaneous step well it doesn't take much not really all you need is a cup or a mug or glasses snifter sty and chela's tankard thermos last Kantian Grail goblet a vessel of any kind family with your favorite liquid I like coffee enjoyed me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine hit of the day the thing that makes everything better this simultaneous sip yes it's that good go Oh for those of you made it to full simultaneity pretty good pretty good those of you joining later I think you'll find that the asynchronous sip is

[1:13]

you'll find that the asynchronous sip is pretty darn good as well all right so let me do a little check here and how many people are paying attention when the discussion started about the about the house likely improving a Pete impeachment and then turning it over to the Senate for something like a trial President Trump said yeah bring it on let's have witnesses and let's have a full trial a lot of people who support President Trump said well if the president's asking for a full trial we support it too so a lot of the president's supporters both on in the press and in the real world and social media they sort of joined with President Trump and they were saying yeah give us give us some witnesses we'll put Joe Biden down there we'll put hunter Biden we'll put Adam Schiff on there yeah bring it on bring it on

[2:13]

bring it on bring it on who was who was the only person that you saw huh say that you should not do that who was the only person you know who told you from the beginning President Trump should not have a trial because you don't want to introduce new evidence when you've already won the case we already know that the Senate will vote vote the impeachment away so why introduce new risk when you don't need to now do you remember when I was saying that and absolutely nobody else in the world was saying it okay can we get a confirmation here in the comments so those of you who are new know that I'm not just making stuff up
yes from day one I said no no no no no just voted away don't have a trial how many of you said you're crazy Scott you're crazy and even the president is

[3:14]

you're crazy and even the president is saying we should have a trial here if you don't get the following thing you're missing a big part of the play and when I say the play I mean the show president Trump knows how to put on a show he knows headed to a defense both legal and politically but at the same time he's putting on the defense he's always putting on a show it's always intentional and it's always a good show here's how this works and this is some advice you can take with you if you are ever accused of something and you are but it looks like there's not enough evidence to really convict you you should demand a trial even if you're sure that a trial would show there's no evidence in you know there's not enough evidence to convict you of anything you should demand a trial you should demand witnesses you should

[4:14]

should demand witnesses you should demand that all the information get out onto the following conditions you've got a lawyer who's telling you don't do that
yet the perfect situation the perfect defense is that the person who's accused is screaming at the top of his lungs from the start to the finish I want more witnesses I want more evidence I want to prove my innocence bring me the facts bring it all the facts spend as much money as you want spend as much time as you want bring anybody in to testify that's how innocent I am as long as your own lawyer is saying no we're not going to do that we're definitely not going to do that because there's no case here and it would just be dumb to to do something when you've already won the case so Lindsey Graham soon after soon after was

[5:15]

Lindsey Graham soon after soon after was the first in the political realm that I saw anyway say let's not have any witnesses let's just vote this thing away and now it looks like Mitch McConnell is on that page and it looks like that's where we're heading looks like they're gonna hear the opening statements and then they're gonna say okay fine we got it voted away now I heard a Greg Gutfeld say something on the 5:00 yesterday that has made me I've laughed and it's made me angry for almost a day because it wasn't obvious until he said it I ready so you could have the same probably the same reaction I had as soon as you hear it you're gonna say well okay that was obvious why did I not see the obvious and the artist as Greg explained if the Democrats are so sure that they have already shown that the president should be impeached because they had all the witnesses they

[6:15]

because they had all the witnesses they wanted all the evidence they wanted and they're sure they have everything they need so why do they need more witnesses in the Senate why are the Democrats even asking for it they've already made the case not only that they made it they're happy with it it's exactly what they wanted to show that they believe that all the evidence that they thought was worth showing and you know in the house it's so remind me again why they need more witnesses because they think they're done and if they think they're done and they've shown all that they need to show and the Republicans are not interested in seeing more either because they think it's done as well remind me which side wants the witnesses because both sides say they don't need any both sides say they don't need any and yet they're arguing about whether they should have them the whole thing is just theater it's just she impeachment theater all right now are you mad is the the moment

[7:16]

right now are you mad is the the moment you hear it framed that way you say to yourself oh oh yeah that's kind of all you need to know if they wanted more witnesses they would have called them nothing new happened in the last week they didn't find some new information in the past week all right so it appears that we have reached the the entertainment phase of the Sham page meant and I made the following tweet this morning that I'm going to stand by and let's call it a prediction and it goes like this that President Trump will change what impeachment means far more than impeachment will change what we think of the presidency because he's a unique character let me give you an example did the presidency change President Trump or did President Trump

[8:17]

President Trump or did President Trump change what the presidency was yeah Trump changed the presidency we now understand a whole different range of actions and options and strategies and just his entire approach has changed what the presidency means he he tweets instead of using when he called the press briefings etc he's changed everything so instead of the presidency changing the candidate which is the normal way it goes he changed office did you see him do the same thing to the entire Republican Party when President Trump was running to be the nominee for the Republican Party what did everybody including Republicans say they said you're not even a Republican you're barely a Republican you're so non Republican it doesn't even make sense that you're running to be the leader of

[9:18]

that you're running to be the leader of the party that you have nothing in common with what do you say now 95 percent approval within the republican party and everybody smart says the same thing it's his party now he changed the Republican Party into a drum party now I've may change back when he's gone but you you see this over and over again in in every situation the president was not simply the subject of the news reporting on him right that's the way every other president was every other president was Here I am and then here's the news and the news is gonna report on me and that's the whole relationship he changed everything he turned it into fake news and he started reporting on the news think about that he changed the news business so radically that it was no longer than news reporting on Trump it was just as

[10:18]

news reporting on Trump it was just as much Trump reporting on the news and essentially deal agenda mised the entire industry now in my opinion it needed to be diligent amazed because that was actually the more accurate way to to see what was really happening but he did that could another president have D legitimize the entire press I don't think so so every time that the president enters a situation whether it's becoming a Republican whether it's becoming the president or now whether he's becoming one of the few impeached president's impeachment is not going to change him he he is right now even as we speak changing what the word means he's changing impeachment here's here's one of the ways that this all fits together what the president understands and I said this a million times is he he knows how to put on a

[11:18]

times is he he knows how to put on a show for the country for the world it's always a show now the show is productive meaning that he's putting your attention where it's most productively you know put you know he's making you think about border security he's making you think about trade with China so the show is to move your attention where your attention is most productively suited so so he's doing this all the time so part of the show is who he is so he's a character the main character the most important character in the show but what is his character his character is the bad boy am i right wouldn't you say if you were if you were writing the movie about this and you were just a dispassionate Hollywood film writer and you were gonna write the story of this you know you always have sort of a a stereotype idea in your mind of who your character is the stereotype is that he's the heel the

[12:21]

the stereotype is that he's the heel the bad boy he's the bully he is that he's the the rebel they he's he's the rule breaker right that's who he is that's his character now what fits the rule breaker better than being impeached and continuing to do his job nothing there's almost nothing that could make president Trump's his story better better than getting impeached and staying in office now being removed from office would obviously be bad unambiguously but staying in office while impeached is exactly on character and what I say character I don't mean his actual human being character so much I mean the character he plays in in the in the show so I think the Democrats are delivering to him basically a metal that he's gonna wear

[13:23]

basically a metal that he's gonna wear on his chest during the rest of the show meaning the rest of his term and that metal on his chest is completely compatible with the character he formed intentionally to give you a show it's very much like you know don't throw me in that briar patch oh no don't impeach me that's the worst thing that could ever happen to me well it's the worst thing that could happen to someone else it just isn't the worst thing that could happen to this specific president in this specific case for him he's gonna wear it like a badge he's gonna use it like a club to beat the Democrats senseless for the next year now I'm not going to say that somebody saying 40 chest you know we we have fun over subscribing his his luck as you know strategy and I do that too I usually I like to think that you know

[14:25]

I usually I like to think that you know what I'm doing it for fun because sometimes I'll attribute something that sort of happened at luck I'll say well that was his 40 you know chess stuff some of us just luck you know people get lucky but I do believe that his strategic sense is it was extraordinary but this is just a case of him being in the right place at the right time they just delivered to him a win that they didn't know they were doing I don't think that was a plan by the president certainly and what's making it even better and when I say better I mean again the show to make the entertainment of the show maxximum here's a tweet by Adam Schiff and I swear you if you were to read this without knowing the whole context of everything that's happened you would be so confused let me just read the tweet so Adam Schiff tweets this is why we had to move forward with articles of impeachment

[15:26]

forward with articles of impeachment okay so he's going to tell me why we have to move forward with the articles impeachment here comes the threat okay okay the threat tell me more which threat the plot goes on okay okay Adam the plot and the threat are persisting all right what is it what is the plot what is the threat and your point is here is career comes and Trump's effort to cheat in the next election what what the next election Trump's effort to achieved in the next election will never stop the president and his lawyer continued to make the case for his own removal well that's lacking a little bit of detail how are the president and his lawyer making the case for his own removal by looking for evidence that would confirm that everything the president did was a good idea okay but here's the the chilling line it was the one I just read the Trump's effort to cheat in the next election will never stop literally talking about future

[16:28]

stop literally talking about future crimes that haven't happened mental crimes imaginary crimes hallucinate 'add speculative hypothetical crimes are you kidding me some somebody John in the comments says wow it's like listening to someone describe their dream it really is this if you were to say all right let's let's turn this into a movie and there's going to be a plot in the movie a place in the movie where the the the evil nemesis you know Adam Schiff playing the role of the evil nemesis there's gonna be a part in a movie where he just becomes a ridiculous character and the things he said are laughable even to his own team well this would be it they've actually given up on finding past or current crimes I'm not making that up he's actually decided to fight and you've heard you've heard the other Democrats say something similar it's not just shift saying this they've actually I guess they've coordinated

[17:30]

actually I guess they've coordinated they've coordinated to have the similar message that the real problem is not what he's already done or doing that the real problem is that he might commit crimes in the future because he's that kind of guy are you kidding me that is so far from what our system recognizes as a problem that it doesn't even look like it's serious when I read this I I swear the difference between this and parody it's completely merged right if I if I were to do a like a joke about how ridiculous the Constitution had gotten and I did a joke let's say in the Dilbert comic about how people were gonna be punished for things they had not yet done what would you think of that you think no that Scott you can't write a comic about somebody getting punished for crimes they have not yet done because that

[18:32]

they have not yet done because that doesn't sound close enough to reality though people will you know get it because comics and humor works best when people say oh yeah that's that's what happens yeah I've been in that situation that's when jokes work well who has ever been in the situation where a leader one of the leaders in the house is saying in public shamelessly in public that he wants to remove a president for what he might do in the future that's actually happening right now like we're living in the world I think yeah unless it's all an illusion it feels like we're living in a world where this is actually happening he's actually saying remove the president because there's something he might do in the future and by the way we just spent years looking for his crimes in the past and we couldn't find anything in P chable obviously since they don't have anything at P chable at this point um unbelievable

[19:33]

this point um unbelievable Hugh Hewitt sum this off would up with a tweet today I think he nailed it and he said quote today today maybe peak TDS meaning Trump derangement syndrome starting off that way more than half of the country is laughing at the afflicted but they are oblivious their their Twitter feeds reassure them that it is a crucial sign of canonization so that is exactly how I see my version of reality now remember I think reality has a deep subjective quality even if there's some objective reality that's unavailable to us but in my subjective reality it looks like half of the country is suffering as Hugh Hewitt says peak TDS because when you start shamelessly saying that the real problem is not what the person has done

[20:34]

problem is not what the person has done but what you imagined they could do in the future that's no longer attached to the real world right that is no longer attached to rationality the Constitution it's not attached to anything it is completely free-floating you have this free-floating reality with no connection to any any part of the world that I can observe and so just as Hugh is saying I woke up and started reading the news and let me ask you if you did as well I read the news as comedy today and I've been doing this for a while but today is I felt exactly like you he would felt I and I don't know how much is coincidence and how much is the sneeze I think there are few more

[21:42]

sneeze I think there are few more sneezes coming so bear with me so I feel exactly the way Hewitt Hugh Hewitt explained it although I didn't you know I had not crystallized it in my mind this way but today feels like pure comedy it feels like pure comedy thank you everybody why that's a good way to get a lot of blessings this is sneeze on camera
so do the Democrats understand do you think there's anybody who's a Democrat who is waking up to what's actually happening today because if you're a Democrat you should be waking up to the realization and I have no optimism this is actually happening but you should be waking up to the realization that your team just devolved into pure silliness but probably that's not going to happen

[22:43]

but probably that's not going to happen all right so it looks like we are gonna get something like a Senate trial with no witnesses the way Mitch McConnell explained it and I can't believe it took me this long to hear this explanation I believe that McConnell's interpretation of the Constitution is that the Senate is just supposed to judge the impeachment they're not supposed to retry the case because the case was tried in the house so McConnell's saying it's not even our job to retry the case that's not even our constitutional duty we're supposed to judge it so we can we can just vote on it we don't need to have witnesses and I thought to myself why am I just hearing that interpretation I mean I love the fact that we're getting educated on the the nuances of the Constitution because that's not something I knew before I

[23:44]

that's not something I knew before I didn't quite understand the nuance of that I think the Trump is changing the definition of impeachment into a modern definition I just tweeted before I got on here the new definition of impeachment modern is a process by which the party out of power shows the world how they got that way happens most commonly right before a landslide re-election you've seen the polls turn haven't you so you've seen the polls just go you know they were sort of right down the middle well maybe we want to impeach him maybe we don't and suddenly they just went boink and suddenly the the impeachment is just underwater especially in the swing states and apparently the president's approval on the economy has reached a new high today how would you like to be the the poor Democrats you're trying to push impeachment at exactly the same time the

[24:45]

impeachment at exactly the same time the stats are coming out that that you have the highest approval of the president's handling of the economy since he came in office and it's been pretty good the whole time I mean handling the economy is the one thing that even the Democrats grudgingly you know not by a majority but at least grudgingly some Democrats would even say well okay he gets that right he's not ruining the economy I just don't like this other stuff all right
there's not much else going on except this impeachment it seems to have wiped everything else off the what's happening to the stock market somebody is somebody saying stock market stock market let me check well stock markets up a little bit today in general it's been up way up now the other problem that the Bitcoin is up today too and Twitter Twitter's up so

[25:50]

today too and Twitter Twitter's up so one of the problems that the Democrats have goes like this and it's sort of a again it's just luck what could be worse than trying to impeach a successful president toward the end of the year which is also the end of the decade because there's something that happens at the end of the year that doesn't happen the rest of the year do you know what it is what happens at the end of every year that doesn't happen too much or at all during most of the rest of the year what happens is that the press stops doing new news because a lot of people are in vacation last few weeks of the year and they start doing summaries of how the year went that's something you only do at the end of the year how do the summaries of how our year went look for president Trump really really good so the press because that's

[26:50]

really good so the press because that's what they do every every year they talk about how the year looks so they're gonna have to look at how did the economy do this year how much Isis is left over how many judges got appointed how many you know what is the rate of flow of immigration on you know how how many trade deals have we done so imagine imagine this conflict you are the enemy press and you're trying to get rid of this president and at the same time you are forced by tradition and just expectation and resources to some extent you're forced to speak continuously about how everything is going well on to this president at the same time you're talking about impeaching him it's gonna be it's gonna be lit yeah Epstein who somebody says you know I saw a replay of

[27:55]

somebody was you know you're seeing a lot of the compilation clips in which you see the Democrats saying the same thing over and over and being wrong about it for years and why am I forgetting his name who was the the male host of The Today Show Matt Lauer so in the compilation clips of people talking about the president I think it was about impeachment is shown in battle hour and I thought to myself has Matt Lauer not been retired for ten years because my sense of time is so distorted down but in the in the Trump era that I thought there was no way that Matt Lauer was still working during any part of the the Trump candidacy or or presidency and I thought really but just my whole sense of time was completely distorted all right I don't know what else we got

[28:57]

all right I don't know what else we got going on because there's nothing else to talk about except impeachment and we're beating that to death is there anything else happening oh so it looks like the budget the next budget is going to include many millions for researching gun control researching gun control now that's almost where we need to be I think we do need to research gun control to find out better do you get a much better idea what works and what doesn't but shouldn't we also be testing some things can we not find you know a state or a county who wants to just do a five-year test and say alright we'll make this change or that change at the end of five years we'll reverse it if it didn't work but let's just test it let's test a few things see if it works I asked in Twitter would it be legal under the current laws to put a rifle on a on

[29:58]

the current laws to put a rifle on a on a drone if you owned the drone and you owned the rifle can you put your own rifle that you legally own on your own drone that you legally own and make a flying gun if it didn't leave your property let's say yeah maybe it would be illegal to fly it over your neighbor's property let's say you were flying a if you had a flying gun and you were a farmer could you have a flying gun on your own property and the answer is no apparently there our laws anticipated that and if you're flying you can't have any kind of a weapon basically but what that does is it makes me ask this questions is that not a form of gun control it is right it's gun control to tell you that your gun can't fly if I have the right to have a gun why do I not all also have the right to a flying gun now before somebody says this it makes this bad point I know it's

[31:01]

this it makes this bad point I know it's illegal to hook up an unattended booby trap in your home so if you if you booby trap your front door with a gun so there's somebody opens that the gun will automatically shoots them well that's illegal because you've taken the human being out of the decision process and apparently that's a bad thing but with the drone that you've attached a gun to you can still be the decision maker the drone is not making its own decisions you're the waters gonna have to push the button to shoot the gun under those conditions why can we not have a flying gun because the Constitution does not anticipate you know future designs of guns and if my gun can fly your gun can't I have an advantage right so I'm imagining that my flying gun my drone with the rifle attached to it is flying let's say somewhere over me and then I can see the the whole field and I can

[32:01]

can see the the whole field and I can see everybody and if somebody's coming at me maybe I can you know shoot some warning shots or something like but you could imagine that a flying gun would be a better gun and now you might say to yourself okay Scott that's sort of where I draw the line because even if you're in favor of guns maybe you're not so in favor of flying guns flying guns might be more of a problem but I think it's fair to say that gun control works in that limited case let's see if you agree would you agree there having a law that says you can't put your own gun on your own drone don't you think that there's a good chance that that law will be mostly obeyed because it would be hard it would be hard for you to to rig it up not impossible you know do it yourself or it could do it yeah I mean hackers could do it but don't you think that it would be far more widespread if if a company could

[33:03]

more widespread if if a company could just make it and sell it you know because there won't be that many people who want to attach a gun to a drone now let's say you you think that you need to protect the Republic against a dictator rising and trying to take over the country under that scenario wouldn't you like to have a flying gun yes you would because the flying gun would be more more powerful than a non flying gun all right
can us Joe and Kerry North Korean stick I don't know what that means
Narwhal tusks on drones yes if you put it a narwhal tusks on a drone is that legal can you use your your drone as a stabby device to just like fly right ask somebody with your narwhal tusks rule of

[34:03]

somebody with your narwhal tusks rule of holes you immediately get yourself in a hole when talking guns stop digging problem solved blocked it's a that's my new rule for blocking you can always tell me what I got wrong that will always be fair but if you tell me I'm over my head or I'm digging a hole or I shouldn't talk about a topic instantly blocked because that's what the Internet is is people who don't know what they're talking about talking Oh
Trump's letter yeah I was talking about Trump's letter to Nancy Pelosi well I loved the letter B just because it was classic Trump and it was insulting and it didn't mention her teeth falling out but it could have I don't think the letter has much impact it was sort of a little bit of a news news interest but it didn't it wasn't persuasive doesn't change anything really it's a nothing

[35:09]

now let me ask you this will we ever get to the point where where law enforcement cannot determine who is operating a drone where are we already there are we already a point well let me ask you this imagine if you will an anonymous encrypted system where you could have multi pull drone operators at least in this limited sense let's say the drone goes up and it hunts down let's say a cartel leader and there are lots of people remotely and they can all see the drums scream and everybody who sees the drones scream gets the vote shoot or don't shoot if you vote shoot you're just one of many people voting and you have no reason to believe that your one vote is the one that makes the difference and it's also untraceable nobody will know if you voted or you didn't vote under

[36:10]

if you voted or you didn't vote under those conditions could you have an assassination drone with a rifle in which you can't identify any specific person who is behind it because maybe there's somebody who built it but I don't think that's necessarily against the law well it is if you put a gun on it but I'm trying to imagine a situation in which you could have an assassination drone in which you would never be able to find out if there were which human in particular was behind it probably already there probably can already do that all right I don't have anything else to do anything else to talk about so I'm gonna make it short and I'll let you get back to your day and we'll watch the proceedings and I can't wait for the impeachment talk to you later