Episode 838 Scott Adams: Biden’s Brain, How to Stop Coronavirus, Bernie’s Math

Date: 2020-03-03 | Duration: 58:03

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Biden in a home and someone else running the country Biden Beto after your guns Regulations, emergency situations and coronavirus Paul Singer and Twitter Helping Bernie explain his health plan economics

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

[0:11]

hey everybody come on in it's time for a coffee with Scott Adams and you came to the right place especially if you have your coffee DJ doctor funk juice good to see you good see the rest of you is it my imagination or are all of you more attractive than yesterday I think it's true Oh smarter wiser more attractive
excuse me not coronavirus I swear well if you'd like to enjoy the simultaneous if all you need is a cup under glass attacker jealous or Stein the canteen injector flask vessel of any kind fill it 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 it's called the simultaneous if go I can feel it protecting me from the coronavirus I believe it did alright

[1:15]

coronavirus I believe it did alright let's talk about the news some of its fun some of its not Chris Matthews of MSNBC went on air yesterday apologized for his past comments about the appearance of women and then he quit and they left I guess and so there's a I don't want I guess I called a rumor but there's there are people on the internet shall we say who believe that there are other MBAs out there multiple MVAs and you know stuff was going to come out now I don't know if that's true but I always have this question when one of these situations comes up and it goes like this how many NDA's would it take for you to stop your bad behavior so imagine you're the host of some national TV show not like this hasn't happened before or

[2:17]

not like this hasn't happened before or you're a big movie producer and you get called up by your management and they say hey we've got this complaint you work it out and there's an NDA the company pays some money you settle how in the world do you do that again how the world do you do it three times how in the world do you do it four times how in the world do you do it five times you know which is the sort of thing that's being alleged so I there's something about the personality type that just doesn't stop pushing it apparently so I don't know what that's about but I feel as though it would only take me one warning before I said oh I get it now I'm doing stuff that's bad you know the first time I obviously think that the first time you know a guy like Chris Matthews or you know could have been Matt Lauer I always feel like the first

[3:19]

Matt Lauer I always feel like the first time this sort of thing comes up that they're actually surprised and they say something along the lines of oh I was just kidding around I didn't realize you were taking it that way I'm so sorry yeah I had no idea there was having that effect that's the first time but after that how many warnings does it take all right enough that the funniest line from your funniest president is this one and I've been laughing about it for two days he's used it a few times he says essentially Brett Trump does he says they'll put Biden in a home and someone else will be running the country now there are a million ways to express this thought that Biden's losing a step you've heard that one before people say that is losing a step you know he's aging maybe he's got some dementia going on there are a million ways to say the

[4:19]

on there are a million ways to say the same thing and out of those million ways Shrub picked the best one out of him million he reached in and said oh I think I'll say this that he's gonna be put into home and somebody else will be running the country now remember what I told you about Trump does visual persuasion as soon as you say he's gonna be put in a home don't you see it you'd see it right you can see the the people with suits and clipboards and stuff and their cell phones you know wheeling have been into the old folks home and then you can see you almost it's like a movie you can almost see the the people behind the curtain who are running the show you know through his vice-president who may or may not be Kamal Aris Kabul Harris so I I could not be more impressed with just the way he picks out of a million ways you could say something he picks the best one it's visual it's

[5:20]

the best one it's visual it's unforgettable it's a it's a movie in one sentence because you can you could almost see the whole movie about the people behind the curtain and anyway it's just beautiful President Trump also suggested God he's having fun it must be a great time to be Trump right now because he's sort of be back all of the the big hoaxes looks like he's a favorite to win reelection and all he's doing is dropping bombs on on his critics and it could not be more amusing so yesterday he said he suggested that Amy Klobuchar R&P Buddha judge that they they may have dropped out to endorse Biden because they were promised jobs in his administration and then Trump says that's called a quid pro quo right quid pro quo and I have to I have to admit I

[6:21]

pro quo and I have to I have to admit I don't know if that's illegal do you because my first instinct is well it's of course it's legal to promise somebody a job right and in the world of politics everything's you do this I'll do that but is it legal in the context of politics to get somebody to drop out of a race and endorse you with the promise of an administration job I'm looking at your comments because I actually don't know somebody says it's not illegal somebody says it's legal legal yeah I believe it's legal but it's hilarious right because even though it's legal we the public look at it and we we say well okay it's legal but should it be you know am I happy that that's legal because sometimes things are legal just because you can't prove them or or it

[7:21]

because you can't prove them or or it would cause some other problem things are not always legal because they're right didn't good and moral sometimes it's just hard to make things illegal I think this is one of those cases where you you wouldn't want you wouldn't want to know this is happening but I'm B if I had to guess I'd I'm sure it's it's completely illegal but I love the fact that that Trump just dropped that little troll bomb in there to make you think about it
I tweeted yesterday a little cryptic tweak that I'm not sure if everybody understood the full meeting so let me unpack it I tweeted that I pray to the simulation you know just joking that we see abide in the Harris ticket calmly Harrison's the vice president in which Joe in which Joe Biden attracts the black vote and khamel Harris attracts the white vote think about it what's really interesting about Joe Biden he is

[8:22]

really interesting about Joe Biden he is kind of the the Bill Clinton thing about him which is that he's an old white guy who's very popular with black voters so Biden actually doesn't need anybody to help him with the black vote right there's a there's a fun point coming up it's not as obvious as you think right so I think Joe Biden doesn't really need to pick a vice president to help him with the black vote so why do I think that he would pick Connell Harris to help him with the white vote and here's the thinking the thinking is that black voters are more safe let's say black voters are more flexible and independent than the white voters and the Democratic side so this this is my starting assumption could be wrong could be wrong but I'm just telling you and why I'm thinking about this way it seems to me that we're at a point where black voters are going to vote for you know whoever they think they think the

[9:23]

whoever they think they think the Democrats will do best they'll vote for them I think a lot of them are gonna vote for Trump because I think he now is doing a little better job but the white democratic voters they're gonna need somebody on the ticket it's not an old white guy because I think it's the white democratic voters who care the most about having a diverse ticket think about it I'll bet they care the most and it would actually make it safe for the generic white Democrat to vote for a ticket that at least had a woman and a person of color on the ticket it just makes it safe so here's the the weird simulation reversal that by didn't the white guy would be really good at forgetting the black vote calm lares female a person of color would be really good at getting the white male Democrat vote am I wrong about that and people

[10:26]

vote am I wrong about that and people who said that calm low will not help with the black vote I don't think it matters because Biden's Biden's probably got that so here's the good news what a what a wonderful time to be alive that everything you just thought about people in the world just turned inside out which is black voters far more flexible and open-minded then maybe most of you assume are going to look at Joe Biden and say I don't care what color is can he do the job and then they vote for him apparently that's what they're thinking because why would they vote for if they didn't think he could do the job and at the same time you've got white voters who were probably more interested in having a diverse ticket that even the black voters who apparently seem to be comfortable with Joe Biden so honestly could that be better could it really I

[11:28]

could that be better could it really I mean seriously could you live in the better world where the black voters are supporting the white guy and the white voters are supporting the person of color that's it's kind of a perfect situation honestly it is I don't want them to win but it would be great if they could run all right how's my prediction looking that combo would be the the chosen as the candidate dad to actually run against Trump well of course she's suspended her campaign and she won't be at the top of the ticket but what if Joe Biden is the top of the ticket and picks Kamla don't you think at least half of the world you know that the conservative half that half of the world is going to say more figuratively than than tactically they're gonna say that she is the candidate because people are gonna say that Joe is so weak and mentally unstable that you're really

[12:29]

mentally unstable that you're really voting for the vice president you know the Republicans are going to say it so how is my prediction that Camelot let's say she becomes the vice president pick for Biden it's gonna look a lot like she's the top of the ticket and it will be the greatest prediction I've ever made you're welcome of course he could pick Stacey Abrams of the whole thing goes to hell that could happen to Michael malleus if you don't follow Michael Valles on Twitter you really should because he's one of the funniest people there and he had a tweet yesterday I think he said it's a pretty glaring red bill to realize that as someone sat down with someone with a capital S someone sat down with both hello Bashar and Buddha jegeon told them to fall in line and I'm thinking well who is someone well we did hear that Obama called and kind of talked to

[13:29]

Obama called and kind of talked to Buddha jej right after Buddha judge dropped out I think after so there's speculation you know Obama is the hand behind the curtain in these he's he's engineered this current situation maybe could be but here's my question and I think it's everybody's question what sit there for a listen to the Warren because if Elizabeth Warren dropped down today and through all of her well not today it's Super Tuesday but if she dropped her race and threw her support behind birdie what he wouldn't he get over the finish line where he'd be closed and why would she do that see here's the mystery part the Bernie by far has the closest policies to Warren and in fact Warren borrowed Bernie's health care plan I mean it's that close so if you knew you couldn't win but you really cared about

[14:30]

couldn't win but you really cared about your policies if you're Elizabeth Warren how could you morally logically justify staying in the race and almost guaranteeing that the policies you care so much about will not be implemented because Bernie will lose if she stays in the race so what's in it for her well of course the the speculators will say oh she's getting bribed somehow it could be that she's holding out for a sweet job Secretary of State could be what about Supreme Court I think Supreme Court is ruled out as somebody somebody responded to me on Twitter yesterday and I think that was a good point though she's too old for to get as many years out of a Supreme Court justice as you'd like ideally you want somebody who's seasoned but young enough to be there for 50 years so she's she's

[15:31]

years so she's she's sort of an age down to that window so I don't think it's the Supreme Court but there must be something must be something she wants we'll find out Joe Biden in his continuing quest to lose the election promised being a better O'Rourke that O'Rourke could be kind of his his guy to control guns and of course Beto is famous for wanting to take away your your assault rifles I shouldn't call him that but he wants to take away your your guns and I'm thinking to myself that doesn't even feel like trying if you're Joe Biden isn't the whole point you're trying to win this thing I thought that's the whole point of being the moderate is that a moderate can attract enough people to win but as soon as he throws in this better or Rorick thing that doesn't even look like trying to win that looks like trying to lose its who

[16:32]

that looks like trying to lose its who know does he need Texas what's up with us it doesn't make any sense that you would do that president Trump's getting some heat for continually saying that a corona virus vaccine might be available quote in a few months but then the expert goes up you know six seconds later and says now we won't have a vaccine that can go through the tests and the trials for a year to 18 months and then the president gets up and says yep we'll have a vaccine available in a few months and then the experts say well more like a year to 18 months now there's the president wrong is the president lying what's happening so so what how can you explain that the president it's been more than once right he's obviously heard the experts does it happened right in front of him the other day so he knows what the experts are

[17:34]

day so he knows what the experts are saying there's no mystery there and yet he says we'll have it in months how do you explain it well here's my hypothesis it goes like this because the coronavirus is an emergency global situation yes you know we're not calling it a pandemic yet I guess but it's certainly a global emergency under a global emergency the rules and the risk management are different so we're also conditioned that you can't have a drug you know unleashed on the public without going through all of the rigorous testing but that's in a non-emergency situation in an emergency situation and you already see it happening you see regulations immediately being dispensed with because it's an emergency we saw that with apparently there were some regulations around what type of

[18:35]

some regulations around what type of profession could test somebody for coronavirus and that was limiting the number of people who could go out and test normally that would be okay you'd want your most qualified people to be doing the tests but it's an emergency so the first thing the administration did is say oh that rule is in the way let's just get rid of it so they just got rid of the rule and now other people can can do testing and that'll be good so we know that in an emergency rules are dispensed with now could you imagine that we would ever dispense with testing a vaccine unless seems crazy right I'm just on the surface we're not going to inject 300 million citizens or whatever with a vaccine that didn't go through testing are we maybe maybe and so here's some questions / comments on that number one suppose another

[19:38]

on that number one suppose another country let's call it Israel developed and fast-tracked the approval of a drug so it was legal in Israel but we knew that it would never be legal in the United States unless it went through our testing system and that could be 18 months can you imagine can you imagine a situation in which the president the leadership of the country says okay I know this is a risk you know nobody's gonna kid you this is a risk Israel believes that they have tested it this is just hypothetical right Israel believes they've tested it sufficiently we would test it way more than that but we don't have time and it's emergency so we're gonna make this available you don't have to take it it's optional all right nobody's going to force you but here's the deal it's not tested up to American standards it has been tested to X other countries standard that's the

[20:39]

X other countries standard that's the modern country and we we trust them they have real scientists can the president say it's an emergency we're just going to allow people to take this I think he can I think he can so could it be simultaneously true because apparently Israel is claiming that they will have some kind of a vaccine in 90 days so is the president correct when saying that in a few months we'll have a vaccine sort of yes sort of yes I think what we'll have is a vaccine option meaning that we can take on more risk than we've perhaps ever taken on but we'll have the option now you would never have that option if it were not an emergency but it's an emergency so and then here's here's an open question so my question to you is this all of our normal flu valeu vaccines go through a testing process can somebody

[21:41]

through a testing process can somebody tell me how many of those vaccines just the normal vaccines for regular flu for years that we test how many of those vaccines were found in human tests to cause harm to humans can anybody in the comments tell me that off the top of their head what percentage of all of the vaccines we've tested for flu virus and again I'm gonna I'm gonna limit it to flu virus that's the important part just flu virus those tests how often do we do a test and we say oh stop the test people are getting cancer that sort of thing somebody says 45% but I think you're wrong I think and again fact check me please I think that when a vaccine doesn't work it's because it's just not stopping the virus somebody says all of them 100% my guess is that every that every flu

[22:42]

guess is that every that every flu vaccine we test comes back safe enough but some of them but some of them probably are not effective in fact well the best flu vaccines are sort of like 50 percent effective sometimes so could it be and I'm just gonna put the question out there could it be that the nature of the way scientists do flu vaccines is that it's always a small tweak from the last one and the thing they're tweaking is not the thing that's dangerous suppose scientists came to you and said look we haven't tested this one but we've tested 25 of these that are just like it and then of 25 not one of them heard anybody oh okay well we did have this one case where people were hurt but we knew it was because this one element and we took that out 10 years ago suppose that's the story here we didn't test it but it's so close to the things

[23:44]

test it but it's so close to the things we have tested we think it's worth the risk I think that's what's happening I think the president is simply keeping the options open and I heard people say that his usual hyperbole is misplaced because in a medical situation you really really need to play it straight I don't know because the president is dealing with the psychology of the country and that's very important and when the president says we might have a vaccine in you know a few months I feel better than when the expert says now it's 18 months but does the way I feel it change whether or not it will be available in a few months or 80 it doesn't my feelings are disconnected from the stuff that matters so if the president is making me feel more comfortable by giving me a little over optimistic view of the vaccine but there's nothing I could do about it either way I mean you know what can I do

[24:45]

either way I mean you know what can I do I kind of prefer it I think I'd prefer a little happy talk as long as they're doing the right stuff I don't want a happy talk that leads me to do the wrong stuff but if it leads me to do the right stuff [Applause] what the hell is up with a one-term president for the Democrats correct me if I'm wrong but the Democrats are intentionally running if you're looking at birdie or Biden or even Bloomberg are they not one term presidents by definition just because of age I'm not being a just right don't you think that none of them believed their two-term presidents now here's the thing that's a big deal because if you have a one-term president that everyone knows is a one-term president that's that's the real trick everybody knows it how much work is that president going to get done in the fourth year of his one-term presidency and the answer is nothing because that's

[25:48]

and the answer is nothing because that's the lame duck year right you could argue that the whole four years is lame duck but certainly the last year Congress is going to say we'll wait for the election maybe we get a different president get another result so you lose that one year and that's 25 percent of the administration but what about the first year you saw what happened with Trump right and I I don't maybe it was the same with Clinton and Obama and others it takes about a year to get up to speed you get you know get new people in there they're getting up to speed so the first year is just getting up to speed the fourth year is lame-duck you're only getting half a president the others there's two years in the middle and now I'm not even sure that that's not a little bit lame ducky if you know what I mean so Democrats are proposing a what a potential one-term president no matter who it is the top top three vote getters right now how do we accept that as way

[26:50]

right now how do we accept that as way how do we ignore that to me to me the math of that is unavoidable yeah whether it's a Democrat or a Republican if you can get an eight an eight-year president then the percentage of set up and down time is small you know I want the least amount of time that I have a president who's ineffective on the job and a one-term president is just a bad bad deal all right what else we got going on here I asked this question on Twitter and of course it seems troll ish that I asked but it's actually a real question which of the remaining top candidates for a president could survive a corona virus infection in other words if Mike Bloomberg Bernie Sanders Joe Biden and President Trump all got the corona virus

[27:50]

President Trump all got the corona virus on the same day well would you expect of the outcomes well of course my non-scientific poll as I imagine Bernie got the most votes for most likely to not survive coronavirus and that's not funny so I guess so I was laughing at something else I I thought of a joke that's why I left not funny at all but and the point is anybody who says that's not a legitimate variable to consider I don't think they're serious I don't think they're serious at their ages and given that this coronavirus does look like it's going to get at least everybody who's in public and they're out there shaking hands and and beating lots of supporters and stuff like that I think they're all going to get it or I think all the Democrats are going to get coronavirus I do think that President Trump has a good chance of avoiding it

[28:50]

Trump has a good chance of avoiding it because the president can be protected yeah don't you know that there's somebody who goes in and you know bleaches off the Oval Office about every 10 minutes don't you know that the president has probably stopped shaking hands I don't know or maybe he's got some Purell in there every time he does but the point is that the president at least has the option of you know doing a far better job of staying away from the infected public and he'd have a lot of help doing that that you'd be surrounded by a cocoon of people trying to keep them away but not the candidates the ones who are running for office they kind of have to get out there and I think they will I don't think they'll stay home because of this so I think they're all going to have the Crone virus so if you tell me that a 78 year old candidate for president who has the corona virus you tell me that doesn't matter I'm sorry that matters a lot that's one of the top variables in this in this thing so I wonder how long the

[29:51]

thing so I wonder how long the traditional mainstream media will not talk about that because I think it's just so it's sort of a grotesque topic to talk about somebody's potential future health problems yeah we got into this with Hillary so I don't know if respectable people will ever even take this on as a topic but it would be a disservice to voters because it's a big variable and when I say it's a big variable I would say if you're looking at all the things that would make you decide to vote for one candidate or another coronavirus risk is that's a solid 5% wouldn't you say is that too high too low I think it's a 5% factor of who you should vote for president this time
here's a counterintuitive thought about coronavirus this comes from Peters times sent me this thought on LinkedIn so

[30:51]

sent me this thought on LinkedIn so Peter I'll credit you on this and it goes like this so we're doing a whole bunch of stuff to protect us from the corona virus almost all this stuff we're doing to protect ourselves also has this weird unintentional impact which is that it makes us safer from other things so you saw the probably also the satellite photos of how China's pollution just dropped practically nothing because everything's shut down for a while well that's one factor if pollution is less fewer people will die from pollution so there are some people who may have actually had a better day that day but that's not the big factors not the pollution the big factor is just staying home suppose let's just pick a number suppose 30 percent of office workers find a way to work from home that's probably high but let's just go with that number let's say thirty percent so

[31:51]

that number let's say thirty percent so they stop commuting and they just work from home how much traffic does that reduce a lot tens and millions and millions and millions of miles of traffic how many of that people who stayed home would have died in a traffic accident probably quite a few that's quite a few so you have this and and you also have people who are washing their hands more there probably people will exercise more you better there's a whole bunch of stuff that people are going to be doing that could have the weird unintended effect of protecting them from unrelated risks so you might actually have this weird situation where the corona virus kills X number of people with the corona virus but simultaneously protects X number of people who didn't know that they have any risk but they would have been in a car accident that day it's just a food for thought that we're really bad at counting counting up this stuff so

[32:56]

counting counting up this stuff so yesterday I asked this provocative question and I thought I'd have an answer by now and I'll tell you what I know it's really interesting which is and I asked this question why does any virus ever stop before it infects basically everybody in other words why would the normal and you will virus just an ordinary one why does it stop in the summer and the reason I asked is because if I knew the answer to that wouldn't that tell me how to prevent the corona virus assuming that you know viruses is a virus is a virus for the most part and I thought that was some well-known thing and let me tell you all of the confident answers I got that are different so when I tell you these are confident answers and they're different what I'm telling you is that apparently we don't know or let me say this more clearly I don't know so the end so I don't believe and and

[33:56]

so the end so I don't believe and and dr. drew kind of backed me up on this week we talked offline that there are studies that suggest different factors are the reason that a flu dies off but we don't know can you believe that now I know some of you are going crazy right now because you're saying to yourself Scott we do know we do know and you see and you see it's coming out in the end the answers people say Scott we know it's see humidity humidity because we know that there's something about the droplets in the air that suppresses the the transmission of the virus so we do know nope no we don't all of you said humidity is the answer you're wrong well let me let me not say you're wrong let me just say science does not agree with you in other words science is not confirmed that that's the reason a virus stops no way you're saying yes it has oh

[34:57]

stops no way you're saying yes it has oh yes it has we've seen the studies see the humidity absolutely suppresses the transmission of viruses you're right
sony says did anyone check the Sun clever bastard yes I'm going to talk about the Sun but I understand that joke so here's what we do know apparently humidity does suppress the virus but it doesn't eliminate it doesn't eliminate it and here's the thing half of the planet has different different humidity so if if one place goes from a good place for a virus to a bad place for a virus because the humidity changed seasonally someplace else on the earth it just went the opposite from a bad place for a virus to a really good place for a virus and we're traveling all the time there should be no effect whatsoever of

[35:57]

there should be no effect whatsoever of your town suddenly having the right kind of humidity to suppress the virus because the people with the virus have already traveled to the other town where it's a perfect place for a virus so the humidity question does answer the question of maybe why there's less of it it does not answer the question why it just stops you did that make sense that the humidity is absolutely a factor science agrees but it's not anywhere near enough of a factor that it would explain why the virus just stops all right here's some other suggestions people have given me that are equally confident but it doesn't mean they're right one is that the some people say the Sun you know the Rays of the Sun killed the virus to which I say how much of the virus is spread outdoors I'm no scientist but I have to think that the

[36:58]

scientist but I have to think that the virus is not spreading in the woods if you take out if do you take a walk in the park are you going to catch the virus I don't think so I think it's using the bathroom and interacting with your co-workers and being indoors so even if the Sun the sun's rays we'll talk about vitamin D in a minute but even if the sun's rays are killing virus in my mind that shouldn't make any difference at all because it's mostly transmitted indoors other people said that vitamin D is a big factor in protecting yourself so if if it's a sunnier season we're getting more vitamin D we're in the Sun and it's not that the virus is different it's just that we're more immune to it because we have all that vitamin D do you think that makes sense I don't because here's what's missing wouldn't the CDC be telling us to get out of the Sun I mean really if that worked wouldn't the CDC no it wouldn't

[38:01]

worked wouldn't the CDC no it wouldn't the CDC be telling you to do more than wash your hands wouldn't they be telling you to get a humidifier wouldn't they be telling you to get more Sun take vitamin D would they be telling you that so I don't believe that the vitamin D explanation gets it right here's another theory that the virus mutates so whatever it got it into humans in the first place was some kind of a mutation that went through animals presumably and the thought is every time somebody passes it to someone else it gets a little bit mutated until eventually it mutates to the point where it's not dangerous is that real I have no idea again let me let me say for if anybody is tuning in late everything I mentioned as a reason that virus is any kind of virus eventually stops infecting people none of them seem solid there's also there's something wrong with all of

[39:02]

also there's something wrong with all of these explanations and I'm gonna go with dr. Drew's overall summary which is it's a little unclear we just don't know why they stopped we know what can influence them but we don't know why it stops that's a whole different question but here's the most provocative thing I saw and I want to say as clearly as possible what I'm gonna say next is unlikely to be true please hear that because I'm going to give you a little conspiracy theory thing that is interesting I think it's worth putting out there but don't assume that this is true it sits in the category of things that if you had to bet on it if you'd bet against it but it's interesting it goes like this
apparently and again you'd have to fact-check me on this this is just maybe this is true I don't know that the antivirals are not having much effect on this corona virus all right so I'm just going to give you some data points so

[40:03]

going to give you some data points so why would it be a virus the antivirals are not working well maybe they're just not targeted for that virus that makes sense but here's the part that's confusing apparently there has been suggested by otics-rio dan antibiotic help you with a virus it wouldn't but it is see where I'm going here all right so there's some suggestion that it's not a virus and the specific will say hypothesis is that it's a form of tuberculosis and here's the interesting part and so was the Spanish flu so you know we keep comparing this to the Spanish flu because it seems to have some qualities like that but apparently there is some scientific question about whether the Spanish flu was a flu

[41:05]

whether the Spanish flu was a flu because apparently there's a form of tuberculosis that can mimic the flu and then give you the the lung infections and here's the other interesting part apparently and again if you had to bet you should bet that nothing I'm saying right now is true I'm just telling you it's interesting and I'm reading it on the Internet it's really interesting there's a weird aspect of this weird tuberculosis which is that kids don't tend to get it do kids tend to get the regular flu they do but kids do not seem to get coronavirus do you know what else kids did not get Spanish flu again I don't know if that's true it's just something I read today so and then apparently the tuberculosis can somehow be paired with a with a virus such that

[42:09]

be paired with a with a virus such that every time you look for the virus you would find it because it came paired with the tuberculosis but it's not the virus that's actually the problem yet the problem is the underlying tuberculosis which in this hypothesis would not be identified here's another thing didn't you always think that if you got the flu you had an immunity and then you couldn't get it again right that isn't that the whole point of vaccination the vaccination is sort of like the the flu and so it's enough to give you antibodies and then you can't get the flu again now nothing's 100% but we're hearing stuff about the this corona virus maybe you could get reinfected like maybe that's a thing not confirmed yet but there seem to be some reports that you can get reinfected do you know what other flu had that quality because it's different than the flu as we see every year there was one other

[43:10]

we see every year there was one other flu that had that quality that you could get reinfected Spanish flu so Spanish flu and this corona virus have these qualities well this was before the antivirals so this particular one allegedly responds to antibiotics which would make it more of a bacteria or some other tuberculosis II thing kids don't get it doesn't make sense for a regular flu you can get reinfected fairly easily maybe not true but there's some suggestion to that that would say not a flu so I would say that the the thing I'm looking for to find out if this is completely BS I think it is I think it's completely BS the thing I'm looking forward to see if any of the vaccines work because if somebody comes up with a vaccine it works well then it's a it's a flu it's a virus because you don't make a

[44:12]

it's a virus because you don't make a virus vaccine that works on a bacteria so so we'll now but it's an interesting thought China has a corona virus app I don't know how it works but apparently you know it'll tell you what you can and cannot do it'll tell you whether to quarantine yourself etc and I was wondering how long it would take for an app to pop up because if an app can let's say identify people you've heard of the Clearview app right you can take a picture of somebody's face and it will tell you who they are well if I could tell you who they are they can also tell you where they've been in theory maybe not today but in theory there will be enough information about everybody in China certainly that they'll know where they've been they might even know if they've been near somebody who had it so it's a great

[45:14]

near somebody who had it so it's a great idea I think an app to keep you away from people who have the virus might be a great idea Apple is paying a half a billion dollars to settle a lawsuit for intentionally slowing down their old iPhones so you would buy a new one they did software updates that would make your iPhone so slow that you'd say I can't live with this I gotta buy an upgrade now I remember when that happened and my iPhone slowed down and I thought damn it I think this is intentional and that I was sort of beating myself up itself up for it because I would beat myself up and say no it's not intentional you know technology just slows down it's got too much software in there now but it was intentional the the company that you respect the most well maybe you don't but if you think about an apple there's probably one of the most respected companies in the whole country

[46:16]

companies in the whole country and they intentionally slowed down their product to make you think it was dying so you'd buy a doing that's like one of the worst things that's just horrible but apparently they got caught doing that it's amazing you really can't trust anybody are you following the story about Elliott management looking to oust Jack Dorsey from Twitter and install I guess some of their own board members and maybe a friendlier CEO or or a CEO that they prefer now here's what's interesting about that so Elliott management is run by this billionaire named Paul singer you should google him to find out how biggest story this is now in my opinion I've called Twitter the brain of the the planet you know Facebook is sort of like the heart you know it's where you see your family and you know things you you feel emotionally about that you care about I would say

[47:18]

about that you care about I would say the Instagram is sort of like your eyes and maybe your your sex drive it's sort of about the visual but Twitter is your brain and you know collectively we've become this sort of global brain forming sort of a god-like entity which in my opinion runs the government so I've said I've said this before that we used to be a republic where we you know elect people and they go off and make laws for us but today the system is that social media says what they can and cannot do and then they respond to it because if you know if everyone if everyone on Twitter said no no no don't do this policy it probably wouldn't happen I think social media is now you know the the dog that's wagging the tail so this is why this is important I would say that you know Jack Dorsey gets a lot of heat for people who say he's Lee aleene's left and therefore there's some bias and the company I think he's

[48:18]

bias and the company I think he's admitted that the employees lean left and that you know bias is sort of part of life so I don't think there's any secret or dispute that Twitter a lot of left-leaning employees and probably has some impact on how they do business but Paul singer famous for being a sort of an anti-trump or republican his job if you think of it that way he is interfering with politics it's actually what he does so the thing that Paul singer is most famous for is directly and monetarily interacting with politicians and the political process to get a result that he wants how in the world do you let that guy control the board at Twitter I mean can you think of a worst idea for the Republic I can't I can't because Twitter is sort of the in a way I think Twitter protects the

[49:21]

a way I think Twitter protects the Republic because it's the freest speech in the most in the purest most efficient sense and I think Twitter drives politics so if somebody whose intention is to influence politics somebody says in the comments some of these says is it true he hired at fusion GPS I believe it's been demonstrated that he paid for it so the guy who paid for the most famous fake news that's ever been produced wants to have more control over Twitter the primary entity that gives us information and opinion etc can you think of a worse idea for the Republic it's it's hard to imagine what would be a worse combination anyway well we'll watch this story who knows if he'll have any success let me give you an idea about what bernie is doing wrong selling his plan I watched him fall into this trap that a

[50:25]

I watched him fall into this trap that a poor Bernie the I've said this before my book loser think is about this Bernie is spectacular at doing his rallies and getting people to be excited and you know that so there's there's a part of Bernie that is just spectacular he's really talented and he can't take that away from him but one thing he doesn't know is economics and he's terrible at explaining it which is a problem because he's primarily proposing economic changes and if he can't explain him I don't know how he can be Trump and here's the problem here's a here's a trap that Bernie keeps falling into and can't climb out of his critics keep taking the cost of his proposals and multiplying them by ten and he lets them do it and I mean that literally so when I was just watching Tucker Carlson talking about Bernie's plans and using Bernie's own numbers from Bernie's own website if you're add up all of his

[51:25]

website if you're add up all of his proposals and then you do it for ten years that's the multiplied by ten part it comes to a hundred trillion dollars now do you want to sign up for something that costs a hundred trillion dollars and then doctor does this he compares it to the GDP so the GDP like one year of the United States GDP is somewhere in the 20 trillion dollar range so our entire GDP is 20 trillion but Bernie wants to spend a hundred trillion did you see what I just did there I compared one year of GDP 20 trillion to ten years of Bernie's plans and made it a hundred trillion what I should have compared is ten trillion per year to our current GDP which is 20 trillion now you say to yourself well that's still way too much we can't take our that we can't take our budget from 22 or yeah it's still too

[52:26]

budget from 22 or yeah it's still too much right the the GDP and the budget are different things but it just seems like it's too much here's what Bernie should be doing what he should do is they say are you gonna raise my taxes to pay for health care he should say if you're if you're in the working class I'm going to give you five times more savings on health care costs than you will pay that should be his answer you're gonna save money because I'll save you five times more in health care then you'll pay extra in taxes done that should be the whole argument right there and he throws him limits and dollar amounts and if you're over 29,000 and this says and he just totally bachas it people's eyes glaze over just say this for every dollar you spend in extra taxes you'll save five healthcare that's pretty compelling isn't it if you can afford it I don't know if the plan works so the first thing Bernie should do is you should refuse to deal with ten-year

[53:27]

you should refuse to deal with ten-year estimates you should say let's let's do Apple samples one year in one year then the second thing you should do is express it in a percentage if he can now to do that there's one other thing he has to fix that he never gets right here's how it goes right now employers pay gigantic amounts of money to insure their employees if Bernie gets his way those employers suddenly save a hundred million dollars a year because they don't have to pay let's just say it's a it's a big company so they save a hundred million dollars a year on health care because the government is gonna pay it all now so where's that a hundred million dollars go the 100 billion they were spending for health care what happens do they bank it does that company just say yes profits just went up a hundred billion a year because we don't have to pay for health care well they could it would be completely legal to do that but what would happen what would actually happen

[54:27]

would happen what would actually happen let me tell you the employees of that company would say excuse me didn't you just take away a hundred million dollar benefit from the employees and the company would say well it's not us that's Bernie talk to Bernie and the employees would say excuse me excuse me the the company down the street took all of those savings and put it into raisins for their employees because it had been a benefit so they just changed it to a different kind of benefit and it was still the employees employee benefit so why don't you do that well we're not that other company that other company is doing that we're not going to do that so you leave as long as there's high high employment like now people can change jobs so companies would not be able to bank it and keep it all they've kind to be forced to share it with the employees and so what that means is when they say Bernie's plan cost the 30 trillion dollars extra which again I

[55:28]

trillion dollars extra which again I think is a ten-year number it's probably three trillion extra a year it's really not that because those employees probably would get that back from their employer and if they were paying it themselves they would get it back directly so Bernie is doing a terrible job of explaining his plan but it doesn't look like he's gonna be the nominee anyway all right I do not make financial recommendations but I will tell you because I think I think it's useful I think is useful I'm thinking about this as I'm talking I think it's useful for people to well let's say concerns when possible so if you're concerned about the stock market melting down I will tell you I don't recommend that you do anything I don't recommend that you get in or get out or stay no recommendations from me but I'll tell

[56:30]

recommendations from me but I'll tell you I put all of my cash into the market Monday morning so most of my money was already invested but all the cash that I had that was available I just throw it in the market and I put it in Amazon and the reason I put it in Amazon is that although obviously Amazon's business would suffer from any kind of global slowdown what are you going to do if you don't want to leave home suppose you don't want to go to the grocery store because of all that coronavirus what you going to do my guess is that the that there will be an enormous amount of people who either didn't use Amazon before and are starting because they want to avoid crowds and people and shopping and there'll be people who were using them who will double their use for the same reason to avoid going into public so I don't think there's a cleaner play than Amazon in the long run and again I

[57:32]

than Amazon in the long run and again I don't care what happens you have this week or next week or even this year it's a long run play anyway that's not a recommendation Amazon is like every other company if you buy individual stocks you are a bad investor you should be diversifying and that is the one and only advice I will give you diversify so if you went and bought Amazon because I just mentioned it you did the opposite of what I recommend it because I recommend diversify alright that's all for now talk to you later