Episode 810 Scott Adams: A Rip-Roaring Tour of the SOTU, Iowa’s IOU, Shampeachment
Date: 2020-02-05 | Duration: 35:17
Topics
My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a The State of the Union Fake fact checking? Pete Buttigieg’s win in Iowa Bernie’s policy appeal Who wins a brokered Democrat convention? MSNBC Zerlina Maxwell speculates Iowa Democrats are racist CNN Van Jones warns Democrats to wake up
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
>
> This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.
## Transcript
[0:05]
pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom Alexa turn on studio hey it's time for coffee with Scott Adams you came to the right place boy do we have a show for you oh my god it's gonna be so good I know you can't wait but first the simultaneous up the thing you're all here for I know you are and all you need is a cover of Margaret glass a tanker chelators died in the canteen juggler flask a vessel of any kind I like coffee and drive me down for this simultaneous sip that's the thing that makes everything better is that dopamine hit of the day go oh yeah hmm peachy well there's a lot of news today we'll be hearing a lot about the vote on
[1:06]
we'll be hearing a lot about the vote on the articles of impeachment I have the articles of impeachment right here I don't know if you've seen them article wad is some but article 2 is well it's some other so these are the articles of impeachment
how about that alright let's talk about the dues some things that happen as Jake Novak points out today on Twitter the Democrat the Democratic primaries have given Trump his secret weapon and by that he means that by winnowing the list of
[2:06]
means that by winnowing the list of Democrats it's making the Democratic voters think about the specific specific candidates for the first time because Democrats used to have the luxury of thinking well there are lots of good candidates and they're all better than Trump so you know I like one in particular I'll tell the pollster but basically they're all better than Trump because you have that luxury when they're a group but that's it gets window down and yet you're forced to think about the top two or three people suddenly Trump has a target in this case a few targets and you haven't seen the fun start until Trump has a target so we're at the beginning of the destruction of whoever the ultimate candidate will be but that's some fun by the way I had the first person I heard make that observation was Mike sort of edge he was
[3:09]
observation was Mike sort of edge he was talking about laughing when people were saying that Trump would lose the election without knowing who he's running against because who he's running against really makes the difference all right so of course everybody wants to talk about Nancy Pelosi wrapping up that document we'll talk about that but let's talk about the State of the Union more generally there is a there is a sentence that every State of the Union includes and it always gets me and I wanted to see if it gets you to there's no matter what else is in the State of the Union no matter which president is reading it this is independent of presidents by tradition they have this line where they say some version of the State of the Union is strong now President Trump said the state of the union is stronger than ever before same thing for some reason that
[4:12]
before same thing for some reason that always just hits me in just the right way because you know you spend a year you know at each other with political you know partisan bickering and you're busy with your life and you know the news tells you everything's falling apart but then you get in this this room and the the leader of the country says this sentence the State of the Union is stronger than ever and then he goes through the proof and you hear the you hear the evidence about the economy and you say to yourself yeah I mean if if the population of the United States is ripping itself apart if the if the structure of society is is being unwound would we have this economy I don't think so I don't think so at all I think that the state of the economy is so good because the State of the Union is so good no matter what your news or your
[5:15]
good no matter what your news or your political pundits tell you things are getting better all the time our ability to work with each other to you know get past whatever you know any biases we have we're just getting better at that all the time and then when it comes right down to it we are on the same team and it just always feels good when the president whoever the president is tells me that the State of the Union is strong there's something powerful about that well what a show the greatest showman on earth gave the greatest State of the Union we've ever seen now not just because of what he did Pelosi was part of the show in a productive way I thought at least in terms of entertainment but I don't know will we ever see a better state-of-the-union than that first of all it was pretty much all good news which i thought was perfect place to you know it was a perfect time for that how much did you love the fact that Trump
[6:15]
much did you love the fact that Trump never even mentioned impeachment even though he won or he's going to win today he never mentioned it there was exactly the right play exactly the right play because it not mentioning it he puts it in his proper place unimportant the best thing he could do was not mention it so and that was the way he played it so good job on that I thought that Pelosi ripping for that if anybody didn't watch it at the end of the State of the Union Pelosi pointedly ripped up her copy of the speech while the president was still standing there I thought Pelosi's paper ripping was impulsive possibly chaotic and proof she thinks she's above the law I think he helped Putin and I think we ought to impeach her before she commits crimes that she hasn't even thought about doing it that's the sort of thing that the
[7:15]
it that's the sort of thing that the Democrats say about Trump every day and people are actually questioning wait a minute did she plan that paper ripping or was it impulsive and impulsive isn't a really a thing everybody thinks about what they do sometimes they think longer than other times they always think about it excuse me again I am going to get surgery on these nasal polyps so I don't have to be blowing my nose on periscope every day but I'll schedule that don't let you know about that anyway is this the best year any president ever had I would love to see the historians weigh in on this but you know of course you'd have to you'd have to look at it through the lens of the Democrats versus the lens of the Republicans but in terms of the people who voted for this president is it that the best 12-month performance of any president am I wrong about that if you look at the trade deals the
[8:17]
if you look at the trade deals the killing of top terrorists the you know introducing a peace deal which I think actually has more potential than most people imagine you know the economy is zooming we're safer better I mean really what a year incredible really incredible
by the way when after the I'd like to get you all in on a prank can you play what you know can you cooperate with me this is going to be a national prank and all you have to do is after the Senate votes to acquit the president for impeachment you have to continually say that he was not impeached it will drive the Democrats crazy now it has the advantage of being true ish you know in our two movies on one screen I mean it's it's it's as certainly as true as their claim that an impeachment is forever it's just as true
[9:20]
impeachment is forever it's just as true meaning that neither of them are totally true it's some kind of Schrodinger's cat situation where he's sort of a beach but sort of not but as a prank don't waver from your opinion that he was not impeached just because it will drive the Democrats crazy there's no other use to this it doesn't really have a political angle to it whatsoever I mean not really but just keep it up just saying no I don't know you're talking about there was no impeachment what what news are you watching the news I watched is that they tried to impeach him and failed miserably didn't even get close so what's this about he's impeached that's the opposite of what happened Bob or whoever you're talking to all right so some of the the highlights which made
[10:23]
some of the the highlights which made this the greatest show on earth the State of the Union was not only you know did we have Trump not shaking hands with Pelosi when he comes in and there's a little ambiguity about whether he did that intentionally or not I tend to think it was intentional that's that's my feeling I think it was intentional because I don't think he wanted to look at her see her and by the way do you have a problem with that do you have a problem that the president the legally elected president of United States who's doing a great job according to his supporters and Nancy Pelosi leading a coup attempt against him for nothing but political reasons really as far as we can tell did did she have a right to eye contact and a handshake I don't think so I don't think she earned that I don't think Pelosi earned any respect and so
[11:26]
think Pelosi earned any respect and so the president didn't give her any I'm ok with that now so we also we saw that we saw the paper ripping we saw the reunion of the the family of the service member who came back that was great that was just great TV good everything about that was just perfectly executed we saw Rush Limbaugh get his ward it was very emotional and my favorite part is that when the president misspoke he slurred a word he was trying to say sanctuary city but it came out statuary city to which I said to myself he's a natural he can make up a nickname kill shot for a person you know with two minutes of thought and it'll be like a permanent nickname that we all use but he came up with a San Francisco linguistic kill shot it's no longer just the sanctuary city
[12:28]
it's no longer just the sanctuary city that has human feces on the sidewalk it is quite properly a stank chew Airy City thank you very much ace Thank You Ari City
I'm gonna say that Nancy's ripping of the paper was a win for Nancy Pelosi I realize if you look at social media that is exactly the opposite of what all the smart people are saying that I mean that all the smart people people were in my opinion very smart are playing this like Nancy has sort of lost that round bye-bye dishonouring the occasion and by being disrespectful and it's all going to blow back on or etc well here's my take on it and I want to be consistent I want to be consistent with what I say about Trump so that I don't get into the the hypocrite category accidentally I
[13:29]
the hypocrite category accidentally I often separate with Trump his technique from his policies etc so persuasion wise Pelosi ripping up that paper at the end just persuasion wise really good really good possibly an a-plus and here's why what are we talking about we're mostly talking about her and what are you gonna remember about the State of the Union a year from now maybe only that might be the only thing you remember remember you remember about 10 percent you might remember that Rush Limbaugh got an award maybe you remember about the the service people who got or the service person who got reunited with his family maybe you don't maybe remember this is the handshake but you're not really gonna remember the content of the speech except you know that the president bragged and that people said he was lying right you know basically that's just background noise these days but you
[14:31]
just background noise these days but you got to remember that ripped up paper and that goes into the annals of history as one of the great you know moments and politics I would say so in so doing Nancy Drew attention away from the speech which was one of the greatest victory laps of all time on to her protest and the protest yeah somebody sang in the comments it was visual and you could see the emotion so people who had the same feeling that she did were probably you know really bonding with her at that moment which she ripped it up there were probably people at home thinking man I hate that speech or rip it up and then she rips it up so I think for her base it was probably good and it will it reinforces the there's something horrible and icky about this president but we can't put her finger on it there's just something horrible and Mickey yeah rip up his document we don't need to be specific we don't need to get
[15:32]
need to be specific we don't need to get it into the details it's just all rip it up
up so I think she came out ahead actually with that play and I acknowledged that a lot of people are disagreeing with me on that but that's my take all right I wish there were some way to measure it so you could actually know whose take is better but you can't let's talk about the candidates Oh so of course the anti-trump press of which is most of the press they did their fact Jackie and I I don't know I can't tell if the fact Jackie is fake anymore I mean I don't really trust anything any of the politicians say but I also don't trust the fact-checking and here's a perfect example of that so I think this was I don't know it was either CNN or MSNBC I forget but one of the fact-checking facts was soper Trump said he was
[16:33]
facts was soper Trump said he was pleased to announce the last year for the first time in 51 years the cost of prescription drugs actually went down all right that's a big claim the cost of prescription drugs went down and the fact checker said this is false that's very that's a very clean statement it's not mostly false of Little Falls it's just false this is false and the explanation is prescription drug costs are on the rise exactly the opposite particularly for name-brand drugs according to The Associated Press analysis but do you see this clause particularly for name-brand drugs that's that's your little red flag there because I only know a little bit about this topic but here's what I'm suspecting I know that the is it it was
[17:33]
suspecting I know that the is it it was the FDA the FDA I think who was speeding up the approval of generics now if you speed up the approval of generics there's sort of a rule of thumb that when you get to the third generic that's offered for the same drug it's that third one that makes competition you know it really increases the competition when the third one gets in and then the price drops pretty quickly so what the government did Trump's Trump's administration is they sped up that process so you can get 2/3 generics quickly my assumption is open to fact jacking gear my assumption is that that process worked because they've announced it worked I haven't seen any pushback on that and that the cost of of generics probably did go down now here's the clever part how many total dollars are spent on generics in any year and how many total dollars are spent on
[18:35]
many total dollars are spent on name-brand drugs which are usually the newer ones and the ones you really need because you know maybe that drug didn't exist until then well I don't know the answer to that if it turns out that people are spending more on the name-brand drugs but they're spending less on the generics then you really kind of need to know what's the mix of name-brand to generics because if all the generics are going down but the name-brand might be going up that would suggest that the Trump administration had a big win on at least half of those that they could control the generic part and then the other part apparently there's some hope to get some some kind of legislation it would maybe help with the other stuff I don't know you do that exactly I don't know what kind of legislation interferes with the free market in that way but they've got some kind of idea anyway so my point is I don't know if that's exactly false or if it's a little bit
[19:37]
exactly false or if it's a little bit true it a little bit false or even if the generic the amount that people spend for generics if it's if it's more than they spend for the name-brand drugs or it could be more than you know in other words if more people could be moved to the generic it might be true so I'm not sure I trust the fact checkers on this all right congratulations to Pete Buddha judge for his win in Iowa or what looks like to be a win once they've counted all the votes I have a lot of good things to say about Peabody judge so first of all he might be the smartest person in the game right now just pure intellect he certainly has the drive and he's he's moderate for a Democrat seems to be you know evidence-based he's not going to do stuff that doesn't have where the math doesn't add up there's not there's no science behind it there's a lot to like about them you know I
[20:37]
a lot to like about them you know I realize most of your Trump supporters so you can't go that far but to to go from a small mayor you know mayor of a smallish city to winning Iowa that's really impressive that is really impressive I gotta say congratulations Pete Buddha judge now I've said this before and I know it makes you crazy but I do think there's something good for society when you get for example your first black president you get it you get two benefits you know if the president also does a good job you get a good president and then you also break through you know an important social psychological barrier that's very important I'd love to have a female president someday for the same reason and I would love to have a you know LGBTQ president same reason every time we push through one of those artificial psychological barriers I think we we become stronger as a country because it
[21:39]
become stronger as a country because it is that it is our ability to marshal all that diversity and still be a coherent unit with the strongest economy in the world the strongest military I mean obviously we make that work so every time we every time we make that work a little better in other words we're tuning the psychological engine if you will of the country because the country runs on psychology it's not just materials you know it's how we think about it so how you think about your place in the world that you think about your nation etc and I feel like we would have a better feeling in the long run about our country if we've cycled through some people who who represent you know the the full let's say the full talent and breadth of the country so a very pro beep boo judge as a human as a candidate etc but he is a Democrat I don't know that his policies would appeal to me I haven't looked at him that carefully
[22:40]
haven't looked at him that carefully let's talk about whether he could win apparently he has trouble getting the black vote how could he possibly win as anybody ever turned around a weakness that glaring in you know nine months could anybody turn around the black vote in nine months without actually doing anything because keep in mind too you won't be president he doesn't have any power for the next nine months so we won't have any accomplishments what exactly is he gonna promise the black community who seems to believe that they have an issue with him I don't think it's real by the way I don't think there's any reason the black community should not like butta judge I don't think there's a reason that I can say but that's the way it is so I think that would be hard to get past burning I don't think Bernie can win in the general and I'm seeing lots of again very smart people and I mean that
[23:42]
very smart people and I mean that literally people who were very smart and good at predicting say that the Bernie can win and that we should take him seriously because he's sort of the Democrats version of Trump which is the change agent the one who's going to burn everything down you know he's sort of a protest living protest vote here's my take I do not see the Bernie equals Trump connection because there's something missing now I get I get why people feel there's a similarity so I understand the comparison but here's where there's a big difference and this is the big difference that matters Trump had policies that were Republican friendly from the start right so some people maybe had to get talked into his stronger border security stand etcetera but Republicans were largely right there
[24:43]
but Republicans were largely right there anyway they were sort of in that you know zip code and he just consolidated him until now he has 94 percent supported and Republicans so Trump had two things he was that you know change age MT was the you know he was the Molotov cocktail thrown into the into Congress and so is Bernie but Bernie's policies only appeal to half of Democrats and I don't think the other half are going to get there do you know why because half the Democrats and I'm not speaking mathematically here so don't don't get on me about the next thing I'm going to say roughly half of Democrats are above average in income all of the people who were above average and income are going to lose it'll be good for the people were below average for a while until the entire economy implodes because he has all the incentives set up wrong but I don't see
[25:46]
incentives set up wrong but I don't see a world in which Bernie can win all of the Democrats and you would need to do that to be Trump I think there is there going to be a solid 25 percent of Democrats who say I'm out I'm out I pay enough to I'm out I don't need to be a sushi socialist country I like my health care I'm out so zero Republicans will vote for Bernie I think you know or some small number and I don't think you'd win Democrats so I think he has no choice the even the Democrats talk about Biden fading out everybody's talking about it like it's inevitable like it's just gonna happen there's no doubt about it it's gonna happen and here's my question suppose we have a brokered convention which is not impossible the odds of that are growing every day if the smartest people in politics selected their leader from the group that's running for president let's let's
[26:47]
that's running for president let's let's just say they're limited to the people who are running who would they pack if they could ignore the will of the people and just pick the strongest candidate to be Trump who would it be because I can't think of anybody I can't think of anybody in this group I'm going to say maybe Klobuchar yeah I'll put myself in the in the minds of Democrats let's say I'm a Democratic leader and nobody nobody wins in the regular ballots and it looks like it's going to be a contested convention who would I pick if not if there were no other influences on me you know I didn't have to answer to anybody I just want the person who's going to win might be Klobuchar might be because she hasn't offended anybody and she has a good record and she's a woman I think that Klobuchar could get you know basically all of the woman vote that you know Hillary got and that puts
[27:48]
that you know Hillary got and that puts her within striking distance so I think she's the only one who could get within striking distance there might be some flaws she has that I don't know about yet so we'll see what happens
over at MSNBC Zerlina maxwell decided that the problem with the Iowa caucus is that the Democrats in Iowa are racist and she was saying quote the the reason why you see a drop in turnout because I guess the vote was kind of low turnout in Iowa she says I'm just speculating here it could be perhaps the white children are not in cages so the suggestion here is that the white Iowan democrats democrats a lot of them must be racist because they don't care about kids in cages if they're not if they're not white like that now she's just
[28:50]
not white like that now she's just speculating but what's important is she's not speculating about Republicans which you'd expect so the Democrats continue to eat their own and they're they're really suffering after that Iowa debacle and it's even funnier now because it looks like Bernie's go win the popular vote at Iowa well Budaj edge gets the delegates I mean that's just perfect talk about a talk about kissing your sister result there's a nothing to be happy about there let's see what else we got here this is what Van Jones tweeted he said wake up folks the Iowa caucus was a debacle followed by a strong State of the Union so one of the things I like about Van Jones and I like it a lot is that he's one of the few people who you know opposes Trump politically who can actually say something that Trump did well it's weird
[29:50]
well it's weird well there's he's so well he's so unusual because he can actually speak objectively even though you know exactly what he wants his preferences are clear and yet he can still talk objectively it's very rare so he's saying it's a strong State of the Union with no qualifier strong strong speech laying out Trump's strategy to win which includes and this is Van Jones interpretation that includes going for black voters this was a warning shot from Trump campaign to liberals and we need to take this very seriously in order to win so Van Jones has noticed that the in the campaign ads from the president and the speech itself are very clear that he's going after the black vote there's no longer any any doubt about it but here's the problem here's why Trump is going to succeed in getting more of the black vote than probably most people expect Trump explicitly puts African Americans
[30:54]
Trump explicitly puts African Americans first and I'll give you some examples Democrats do not put black Americans first and I'll give you some examples to make the point when Trump black brags about the economy what does he usually say first black unemployment is better than it's ever been you know he doesn't always say at first but 85 percent of the time he says it first it's the first thing he says doesn't that show you that it's a priority he's bragging about it it's the first thing out of his mouth black unemployment you know it's getting better second thing and by the way do you ever hear the Democrats bragging about black unemployment being great you don't you know how about the opportunity zones that Tim Scott led and the administration approved these are primarily you know people of color and of course this probably weighted toward the black community which which white
[31:57]
the black community which which white people have got an opportunity zone did you did any of you white people get your own opportunity zone you didn't and now I'm not saying it's a good idea or a bad idea it's probably a good idea but it's a clear example of putting the black community in this country first right there's no Jewish Community Opportunity Center and there's not one for women there's now one for white people there's basically the one there is which is targeted at areas that are high population of black people
and what about immigration President Trump puts black America's first because they are the most impacted by you know the competition of labor coming in he puts them first and says I'm gonna build a wall even no matter how much this costs me politically I'm gonna put you first what are the Democrats put first the immigrants not Americans coming in there won't give them health care etc I think
[33:00]
won't give them health care etc I think this is just the cleanest play you've ever seen Trump consistently puts the black community first whatever there's oh and including the prison reform was prison reform primarily to help white people no not at all it's very clearly weighted toward helping people of color but everybody but it's weighted that way so Trump has consistently put black Americans first even above other Americans Democrats consistently and and very consistently put immigrants non Americans first and then after immigrants who's their next priority after immigrants I want to see in the comments if you tell me if you're the Democrats immigrants are your top priority who's second women women right where are black people on the priority of Democrats not in the top two not in
[34:04]
of Democrats not in the top two not in the top two based on actions and policies so I think Trump is could have an amazing amazing successful time the strategy is right on he's got you know Candace Owens has been the superpower forever you know pushing this Kanye effect has to be included I think this is going to happen so when when Van Jones says you know wake up this is their strategy it is his strategy and what are you going to say if you're a black person and you're watching President Trump consciously and methodically putting you at a high priority so he can win you vote why should you be afraid of that who in the world should be afraid of Trump serving the black community better than it's ever been served before I know fan Jones maybe you should vote for him if he is the one helping all right and I got to go do some of the things and
[35:05]
got to go do some of the things and until then let us get ready for the state of get ready for the impeachment vote good times talk to you later