Episode 800 Scott Adams: The Bolton “Bombshell” and Coronavirus

Date: 2020-01-27 | Duration: 29:55

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Bolton “bombshell” Our government is failing us on the CORONAVIRUS situation SHUT DOWN THE AIRPORTS President Trump’s tweet called “threatening” to Adam Schiff Rocket attack on US Baghdad embassy

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:11]

hey everybody come on in here yeah it's time to talk about all the stuff in the news while having coffee with Scott Adams and as luck would have it I'm Scott Adams and if you'd like to enjoy simultaneously sipping it's one of the great bonding experience of your life all you need me as a cup or a mug or a glass a tanker challenger stein the canteen jug or flask a vessel of any kind filling with your favorite liquid I like coffee enjoyed me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine for the day thing makes everything better the simultaneous hip go oh yeah oh yeah yeah so here's a weird thing last night I had yesterday I had decided to rewatch the original Star Trek series do you remember the original Star Trek with William Shatner from the 60s or whatever

[1:13]

William Shatner from the 60s or whatever it is and I haven't seen it in so many decades that it was like watching it brand new and I was really enjoying it because it's it's sort of a Eclipse a glimpse into the past of how society was and you know on board the Starship Enterprise if you don't remember the original series I'm watching the first several episodes rewatching them and it was just me too all over the place the entire Starship Enterprise was just everybody be chewing each other so that part was hilarious but here's the funny part so I'm watching I've never done this before my entire life I have never sat down to rewatch all of the original Star Trek's since I saw them when I was a kid and I wake up this morning and there's a message on Twitter from William Shatner my life is so weird because I guess it was yesterday he had asked on Twitter

[2:14]

was yesterday he had asked on Twitter and I follow him on Twitter and he had asked if people had seen the new Picard TV show it's a series and it's on I think it's only on Amazon you know it's on CBS all access which you can see through Amazon and probably directly and I think I was probably the first person to responded and aside that I watched it I liked it it was actually really well done better than I thought actually and this morning I wake up to see a tweet from William Shatner saying that Dilbert likes it I mean referring to me of course the Dilbert likes it with a smiley face and I'm thinking William Shatner knows who I am and I thought that might be the coolest thing that ever happened to me in my entire life and I've had a pretty cool life but anyway I'm just I'm just being a fanboy here and enjoying that a little bit all right everybody's here let's talk about the news I'm not going

[3:16]

let's talk about the news I'm not going to talk about the COBE stuff I think day two should be just about the family I just want to point out one just one positive thing about that you know everybody feels the same it was like a it was quite a punch in the gut for the entire country but I was watching one replay of where he had said that when he was 15 years old he made a promise to himself that someday he would be remembered as a talented overachiever now what he meant was that he would work hard so that whatever talent he had he would take it to its you know maximum overachieving level and I thought that's that's very much what I talk about when I talk about the differences between wanting something and deciding because when I got my original contract to be a syndicated cartoonist there was a long

[4:18]

syndicated cartoonist there was a long long path from getting a contract to actually succeeding and I made myself a similar promise I promised myself that I would never be able to look back and say that I didn't I didn't succeed because I didn't work hard enough and I think Kobe made the same promise that he would never look back and say I didn't work hard enough and it looks like he and I both kept our promises to ourselves so I point that out because it's the difference between wanting something in which you don't dedicate your life to getting it you just want it versus deciding Kobe decided that's if you could take away one story from Kobe it's not about wanting all the things he got it was about deciding it's a big difference and once you get that difference suddenly life is more approachable alright that's enough about that sad topic today we have a Bolton

[5:21]

that sad topic today we have a Bolton bombshell it's a bombshell I tell you and I feel as though the world had to wait for me to wake up to put this in perspective so the alleged bombshell is that Bolton's book manuscript was floating around and got leaked seems to indicate that Bolton had conversations with the president in which the president said he had you know great concerns about Ukraine and thought they interfered in the election in 2016 and that he wanted to withhold the aid until they agreed or until they did that until they looked into the Biden burr yzma election stuff now the way it was being reported until I woke up was that this is bad for the president and I kept reading it and thinking well what am I not understanding here this isn't bad for the president why is everybody saying it's bad for the president way am

[6:22]

saying it's bad for the president way am I missing something two things number one have I not been telling you from day one that the president's lawyers are making a mistake and engaging on the details because if you're going to be arguing the quid pro quo you're in the weeds and there might be something that comes out that makes your argument a little less strong over time and there it is all right so the very reason that I said it was a mistake to get into the weeds just happened this is exactly what you didn't want to happen arguing that there was no quid pro quo and then the most credible person with the most information comes out toward the end of the process and says oh yeah there was plenty of it worse you know I'm no legal expert but to me that looked like the trap all along and it looked like the worst strategy to depend on that no quid pro

[7:22]

strategy to depend on that no quid pro quo thing as that being at the key to your defense now of course that's not the only key to their defense because Dershowitz is going to come on today I think or tomorrow I'm not sure the schedule but Dershowitz will argue we believe that it doesn't matter if any of its true doesn't matter what the President did or did not do even if you stipulated it's all true it doesn't rise to impeachable that's the argument that I've been making since day one but it's even better I woke up this morning and realized that Bolton had proven the president's case why if it's not or if it's not obvious to you then you've really been bamboozled if you will and let me tell ya you've been bamboozled Jonathan Turley made this observation though you'll notice that this is similar to things I've said which is of course why I think it's genius and he was talking about Stephanopoulos was

[8:25]

was talking about Stephanopoulos was interviewing senator Lankford and this is what totally tweeted he said stéfano Stephanopoulos just asked the senator Lankford if he thinks it is okay to solicit the foreign government to interfere in our elections see where I'm going with this much like CNN's bias question on Sanders the question assumed the Trump was asking for election interference in asking for a corruption investigation that's right Jonathan Turley has accurately because I said the same thing so I I think is accurate said that they're using a magic trick and the magic trick is to keep presenting things as though the question of why the president was acting the way he was acting is settled and and the trick is to make you think well there was only one reason only one reason only one possible reason the president could be doing what he was doing visiter Ukraine and that was for his own

[9:27]

Ukraine and that was for his own political gain and / and totally points out that's not in evidence it's an assumption not in evidence John Bolton just filled in the Assumption John Bolton if the if the manuscript is accurate and if what Biden says as reported in the manuscript is accurate he's reporting that the president really believed that Ukraine had interfered in the election in 2016 now if that is established and we and we take that as true then according to Bolton it was very clear that the president was genuinely concerned because he said it you know have to read his mind he actually said in words that he was concerned about that he thought to Ukraine screwed up in 2016 or whatever so now that we have an evidence that the president had a genuine concern about Ukraine we're done we're done because

[10:29]

Ukraine we're done we're done because that's all you needed to know that the magic trick was to make you not think about that question but the question is was there any legitimate presidential reason good for the country good for the nation for Trump to press Ukraine and the answer is yes and Bolton just confirmed it yet least indirectly through the bandage script so given that I think the defense just got a lot easier now that we know the president had a genuine concern that was outside of his own political advantage that's the end of the story as long as he had a politically as long as he had a national interest there's nothing else to ask so I think that we know where that's all heading now is it my imagination or as Adam Schiff putting the entire country in danger Adam Schiff and Pelosi and Nadler and all the people pushing the

[11:29]

Nadler and all the people pushing the impeachment because correct me if I'm wrong but our government is failing us right now for this coronavirus they are not doing what we know has to be done the you know you and I are not experts but even we know all travel has to be shut down which I know even we know that now as as the government done that I've not heard that is the government checking people coming from those destinations that are problem yes though they say they are and that's very good but we also know according to today's reporting there might be as many as 44,000 people who are carrying the virus who have not yet shown symptoms let me say that again there might be as many as 44,000 people who don't have symptoms which means screening won't catch them shut down the travel if our government

[12:30]

shut down the travel if our government is not shutting it down and as far as I can tell they're not and they're not telling you why they're doing what they're doing because it could be they have good reasons and we just haven't heard them but if they're not doing one of those two things shutting over the shutting everything down or explaining to us why they're not there is no argument can be made that the government is doing the work of the people none now I don't know you play is that just Trump is that Congress I don't know shouldn't Congress be you know beyond the president every day to close the airports shouldn't they be you know stepping up I always see it I don't even see them talking about it and so I think we have a genuine example and I don't know if anybody could argue this is already counter-argument to this I'm open to it but I'd like to hear the counter-argument what is the argument that says that the Schiff and closely

[13:32]

that says that the Schiff and closely and Adler have not put this country at tremendous risk by taking our entire government off off the field during a crisis this is one of the this is one of the worst things I've ever seen it's one of the worst things I've ever seen any government do they they have made themselves irrelevant by concentrating on this one political thing while leaving the country exposed it's complete food Uschi air irresponsibility collapse complete collapse at the moment we barely have a government at least this week until this this stuff is over all right but so let's and of course we we have to imagine that whatever is being reported about the severity of this kurodo virus outbreak it's probably a lot worse it's probably worse one expert says that it

[14:33]

probably worse one expert says that it could be doubling every six days doubling every six days it doesn't take many days of doubling to to get to global pandemic and I would argue we're already there actually all right let's talk about let's talk about Trump's tweet that is being considered threatening Trump tweeted that shifty Adam Schiff is a corrupt politician and probably a very sick man he likes to throw that in there and then he said he has not paid the price yet for what he has done to our country and of course you know he is not paid the price makes it look like he's threatening him from the office of the president so it looks ominous and he's a dictator and you know that but isn't that the right question you know

[15:35]

isn't that the right question you know if you sue somebody and you lose you have to pay the legal fees right there's always an expense of attacking somebody and being wrong if you kill somebody because you thought they were robbing your house and they weren't well you're still in trouble right so going after somebody and being wrong which is what impeachment looks like at this point because we know how it all ends yeah it looks like something that needs to be punished in other words there has to be repercussions now that doesn't mean you know you put him in jail but there needs to be represents I mean there ought to be big ones I mean the Russian a collusion thing alone given that Schiff was telling us he's seen evidence that we haven't seen and the president's guilty I mean that should be automatic removed from office for that performance and then he just

[16:36]

for that performance and then he just does it again he just does it a second time he does something that anybody should be fired for the Russian collusion thing and yet he just gets to do it again what kind of system do we have where the guy who made the biggest mistake in American politics that wasn't let's say attacking or a iraq for weapons of mass destruction probably shift has made the biggest you know collectively the biggest set of mistakes any politicians made and muttered history except for that one the Iraq one and and he got promoted for it maybe that actually happened right I mean in a sense he got promoted because he's now the star of the the new Ukraine thing in what world does complete failure and lying and damaging the country gets you promoted well I guess that's the democratic model he gets a participation trophy no matter how well he does

[17:38]

all right yes so the system seems totally corrupt and let's let's hope that things get cleaned up a little bit today now here's here's some extra questions about this Bolton manuscript how reliable is it now I'm saying that if it is reliable that's the end of the case because the president's cleared it would clear him but can you believe what's in the transcript let me give you a little context cuz you know I'm an author so I see enough of the industry that I have a sense of what's going on now I have not had the experience that Bolton probably had because I don't write that kind of book that's a tell-all but probably there was some point at which Bolton and his publisher had a conversation like this hey there are a lot of books about Trump you need to stand out like what's what's your claim that's really gonna make your book

[18:38]

claim that's really gonna make your book get a lot of attention and stand out and of course the obvious thing would be something around the Ukrainian situation that would be the the thing that would sell this book now I'm guessing that Bolton is not the only author of the book this is just a guess probably there's a ghostwriter because unless Bolton has a background as an author probably it's hard to sit down and write a whole book he'd probably get a ghostwriter now the ghostwriter would be working with an editor or two at the publisher so there would be at least three authors involved there there's the editors the ghost writers and then there's Bolton himself is one of the odds that the way the the current draft is written is exactly what Boldwood have written if nobody else had been involved one of the odds that the way it's presented is just

[19:40]

odds that the way it's presented is just exactly the way Bolton would have done it on his own lo ya the odds are low because there are two other people involved who are going to want this to be a big book now of course he wants it to be a big big book too or else he wouldn't be doing it probably but the publisher really wants it to be a big book and those conversations go like this alright do you remember exactly what the president said in that meeting no I don't remember exact words because I don't remember exact words who does really so now now Bolton has to write about an event in which in all likelihood he would not remember exact wording yeah he has a memory of basically the idea that happened so he words it one way and then the editor looks at it or maybe the ghost writer writes at first then the editor looks at it they say you know if you change the sentence a little bit I really it would sell more books now

[20:43]

really it would sell more books now would that change to the sentence this is all speculative hypothetical I'm not saying that this happened I'm saying that it would be normal in this process that there's a bit of a committee approach to every sentence if the sentence is the bomb the bombshell sentence so I would say that that little bit of writing that gets to the point of what the president was talking about with Ukraine and withholding the money etc is probably a combination of one person's faulty memory plus two other people trying to shade it a little bit so it was the most provocative is this still accurate is it could be you can't rule it out it's it's totally possible that it's a it's a perfectly clear and accurate explanation of what happened that's possible you know the other possibility it's not there's not an accurate explanation of what happened

[21:44]

accurate explanation of what happened how would you know will you and I ever know the answer is no what have I told you about situations where we have a lot of money at stake and here's the key part no way to get caught what do I tell you always happens when there's a lot of money at stake if somebody does something sneaky or illegal in this case just sneaky and there's no chance of being punished for it none no chance suppose it was just a private conversation between Bolton and the president and it wasn't recorded and maybe he didn't talk about it directly afterwards and there's no way to prove it happened or didn't happen Bolton would have the opportunity to make a gigantic amount of money by wording the meeting which cannot be verified in just the way that makes that book sell now do I think that Bolton is the kind of guy

[22:46]

I think that Bolton is the kind of guy who would sell out his integrity to sell a few extra books actually no I have no I have no reason to believe that he's that kind of guy do you uh-huh have you ever heard anything in his entire history that would suggest he would just make some crap up to sell some extra books it doesn't really sound like him does it I mean there's one thing you know being wrong there's one you know you can criticize him for being a hawk but I don't know that anybody's ever called him a liar it feels like you would have heard that by now right so he's probably quite credible but I don't know if he would back the version in the book if you put him under oath would he say that exactly the way it's written in the in that draft manuscript which my dad might not even be the final thing would he say that's exactly what happened don't know because two other people were probably involved in writing those sentences so we have a mystery

[23:50]

those sentences so we have a mystery will any of this cause more people to be called as witnesses I say no because I think whenever Dershowitz talks he is going to basically say it doesn't matter what the details are even if everything that is alleged even if everything Bolton said is true completely irrelevant because first of all it was within the job description of the president given that we have evidence he really believed Ukraine was a risk to our elections and and that's all the evidence that's what it says and that it wouldn't matter because it's it's not impeachable anyway so I don't think yours there's any chance of calling witnesses yeah you know although the Republicans might even want it more because if all Bolton has is this what if this is all Bolton has and it completely clears the president that's it wouldn't you be willing to trade more of that you know because presumably if

[24:52]

of that you know because presumably if Bolton were called the worst case scenario is that he says the same thing that's in the book because if there were even worse things in the book you'd already know about it so that's got to be the worst thing because that's why it leaked if that's the worst thing it basically totally clears the president because it says the president's clearly was indicating that he actually cared about Ukraine not just the political fallout from it that's what we know so far do you have the quote from the book I do not I do not have the actual quote and I don't know that there is an actual quote maybe somebody can find that when I was looking quickly before I got on live here I was looking for the actual quote and I only saw paraphrases of it so I don't know if we even have the right quote so that's the other possibility is that it's simply being misquoted and if you looked at the manuscript yourself you might say to yourself that's not what it says because

[25:52]

yourself that's not what it says because we've seen this happen over and over we saw people look at the transcript of the Ukraine call and people had different opinions we know that shift looked at the stuff in this gif and at a different opinion than newness and they were looking at the same documents so it's a hundred percent unbelievable that the quote doesn't sound exactly the way people are saying it sounds totally possible at least fifty percent possible
so this is the least bombshell thing I've ever seen but it's all they got yeah so the I understand there was a least one rocket attack on the embassy in Iraq I don't know if we know where it came from I did predict the even if things settled down a great deal after the killing of generals how many the even if things settled down a great deal that there was a hundred percent chance you're still going to see random rocket attacks because I don't think that Iran

[26:53]

attacks because I don't think that Iran necessarily has a hundred percent control over every rocket that gets fired by every proxy group you know some some groups may be more loosely attached to the government some more so there was no chance that would drop to zero but you know if it doesn't get much worse I think we're in good shape I'm still predicting that there will be a Middle East peace plan because we've never had this situation before we've never had the people who need to agree so weak compared to the people who want them to agree who are very strong you know where we're energy independent we have really strong leaders from you know Israel to the United States to Saudi Arabia say what you will about if you like how they act but there's strong decisive deal-making leaders and if they can't get this done it's not doable because it's a strongest team that's ever been involved so I think there's

[27:56]

ever been involved so I think there's entirely a good chance that by the end of this year you're going to see a Middle East peace plan mostly involving the palestinian situation that it looks pretty good then you might say to yourself that looks surprisingly good and we're down to one person who has to agree just the Ayatollah just one person and you have Middle East peace that's it just one have we ever been at a point where only one person has to decide for peace instead of war and war is disastrous how hard would it be to decide you want peace when the alternative is complete destruct it's the hard and I think we're right there all right Scott a Middle East peace plan will never happen come on stuff the BS stranger says in all caps you know you might not know this but screaming at me in all caps did not make

[28:57]

screaming at me in all caps did not make your point more believable now I'm completely open to the possibility that there could never be a Middle East peace yeah if you're saying you believe that based on all the history you've seen it can just never happen yeah you might not be wrong you might not be wrong in fact the odds probably are in your favor but what's what's different is we've never had this set of variables all in place we've never been this close and we've never had this strong a team team meeting all the different leaders they're all strong leaders it's just never been this close we're the team that's strong who could push it over the line if they wanted to I think it comes down to whether they want to honestly I think if everybody in this story wants peace they're gonna get it alright that's all for now I will talk to you later