Episode 843 Scott Adams: Taking Questions on the News and Coronavirus

Date: 2020-03-07 | Duration: 57:30

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a President Trump’s CDC press conference Viewer questions

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## Transcript

[0:05]

[Music] um hey everybody come on in we might have fewer viewers today because I'm taking questions why does that make sense I don't know but it does good morning yeah it's time for coffee with Scott Adams and I am Scott Adams and you are so lucky because you are in the right place at the right time that's important too and all you need is a cup of Mugler glass tank your cello search time a canteen shucker flasks a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and get ready for the dopamine ahead of the day the thing that makes everything better it's called the simultaneous hip go
mm-hmm that's a good sip it right there so how many of you watched the press conference in which President Trump went to the CDC I think put on his make

[1:08]

to the CDC I think put on his make America great again hat in his windbreaker as presidents do when they go to situations like this and disasters and I don't want to say that the president did everything wrong in that press conference but I think it was the worst press conference I've ever seen from the president gotta say so if I'm being objective
I'm reading a comment here and I I want to read it but I'm not going to if I'm being objective that was the president's worst performance at a press conference I think I don't even know where to begin to say all the things that were not ideal about that I don't think it'll make any difference you know it's a political season so we yak about every every appearance of the candidates but

[2:08]

every appearance of the candidates but somebody says they loved it are you kidding how could you how could you have watched that and felt good about it again I don't think it's a big deal I just don't think he it is he didn't he didn't hit the notes and here's what I mean by that I think it was a C and CNN is calling it a muddled a muddled performance and it was guide a muddled there was a one point that I just I couldn't watch it anymore I had to turn it off because he was talking about the testing in South Korea and somebody in the audience said that there was testing in South Korea and he you know he cut them off and he said there's just sampling and and you could see the guys behind him the experts going oh don't say that no and the president insisted to the reporters no you just heard from the

[3:10]

reporters no you just heard from the experts I just heard them to they just say they're not testing in South Korea they're sampling on those roadside tests you can apparently you can just drive up and they'll take your sample but that's not what the experts said they just said that the roadside stuff was where they get the sample and then they send it to some Center where it's very rapidly tested so it is testing and the president said no I was here I heard it myself I'll tell you they're not testing they're sampling and that was just wrong and to watch his experts standing behind him and you could you could watch their faces just dying and they were like oh that's exactly what we said we said they're testing they're just sampling there that was less than ideal and then we talked about the cruise ship that I don't know if it's not loaded yet but as of yesterday I had Americans on it they

[4:10]

of yesterday I had Americans on it they were trying to decide whether to treat them on the ship or to take them on shore and the president starts talking about how he's he's going to let them make the decision the experts will make the decision what to do so that part's good but then then he says that he doesn't want it to affect his stats because the United States has a very low infection rate and if they get off the boat and get on to the you know onto Shore that by definition raises the infection rate because now they're now they're you know in the United States and I thought to myself well that's just the worst thing you could have possibly said I mean really you're talking about your stats there's infected Americans possibly at the risk of death floating just offshore of the United States and you're gonna tell us about your stats I'm really really trying hard not to curse I really

[5:13]

really trying hard not to curse I really tried hard because you know most of you know I'm I'm still on the prednisone stuff that makes you it causes you to maybe have a little more anger or flash angry more than you would and I am right on the edge which is exploding right now but because I could recognize it I can hold it back it's only because I know it's the drug if I thought this was an honest reaction if I thought the thing I were feeling and thinking right now we're actually a reflection of exactly how often think and feel when this drug wears off I'd be exploding right now I'd be on fire because my hair is on fire right now and other side just say it calmly because I want to swear the president was talking about his stats while American citizens were floating offshore possibly infected now I think the stats matter I'm not even gonna take that away from the stats

[6:15]

even gonna take that away from the stats matter it matters to how we think about it it matters to there might be some extra risk while there would be obviously if you bought if you brought them on to the mainland some of the doctors could be infected of course that's the risk so it wasn't it wasn't crazy to say that there's some reason that he would prefer it but he's gonna let the experts say it so he didn't actually say anything that was technically wrong or would cause the wrong actions so he didn't do anything that would cause the wrong action that's important but man that's just not the way to talk about it don't talk about your stats what was the other stuff he did the other thing he did was he started bragging about how he's a natural scientist because his uncle is but really the that was the time in the middle of a natural disaster to talk about your your uncle's a genius at MIT but maybe you inherited it genetically I

[7:18]

but maybe you inherited it genetically I mean I know that you know he's it's joking and so I per believe he doesn't literally mean he they inherited genius genes he was just trying to tell people that he understands the situation but really wasn't the way it wasn't the time somebody says you were working off a fake basis use your words use your words it's okay just tell me what your point is you don't have to just scream in capitals that there's something I'm missing I'm gonna take some calls case you have some opinions on stuff we'll talk about the corona virus we'll talk about all kinds of stuff and let's just yeah oh and he said he said that something was perfect like his ukraine phone call i mean it was it was interesting all right let's see

[8:18]

it was interesting all right let's see who wants to talk it's good a Matthew Matthew Matthew Matthew Matthew come to me Matthew right Matthew doesn't want to talk let's try somebody else sorry about the technology may or may not work well
guests can you hear me hello guests can you hear me can you hear me
no well Claire can hear me yes I can can you hear me do you have a question for me yeah I really appreciate the question period I've been dying to ask you what your prediction is for the Durham investigation will come out of that I'm sorry the witch investigation the Durham investigation yeah well you know the the

[9:19]

investigation yeah well you know the the legal stuff I don't follow as closely as a lot of other people so if you if you wanted guesses on that something like Dan bungee know would be would be a better place but I'll give you a very general one my general one is he's gonna say some people were naughty and nobody's going to jail what do you think
lon I'm thinking just the evidence it's out there Scott that there's going to be so there has to be some people indicted well I agree with you that there will be clear evidence of people doing bad things and here's my prediction that we the lay people will look at and say yep that's clearly clearly a bad thing I guess that person is gonna get indicted and then unless they're not famous you know some lesser famous people could always get indicted but I don't think any of the big names will get invited I just think we don't live in a world where the people in the news can indict it at least the you know the

[10:20]

can indict it at least the you know the the main ones now you know if you had something like a man afford that's just a different situation I mean it's a different level but I don't know that all of this gray area seems to go in favor of the players at least on the other side so we'll see but thanks for the question mm-hmm see what else we got here is expecting coronavirus questions we'll see if we get any Lin Lin Lin think we can you hear me I'm having a little trouble hearing you see if I got a volume control I do not what's your question okay here you unfortunately you're talking very

[11:20]

you unfortunately you're talking very slowly or the technology is not working so I apologize I couldn't hear the question and I if I had asked you to repeat it I wouldn't have been able here so let's see if I've got a better connection with somebody if if I put you arm speak loudly at the very least if you would Timothy Timothy let's see if we can get you out I'm sorry Lin I didn't mean to cut you off I just couldn't hear you okay that wasn't gonna work let's try Paul I probably should have a producer screening calls like important people do oh I think I actually added two of you you know is that can anybody hear me no all right so the technology is just not gonna work for us today so I guess I won't be taking questions after all but I'll take you questions on your comments you're saying there's something you could hear the the caller I just couldn't hear so it didn't work I would

[12:22]

couldn't hear so it didn't work I would have to hear it for it to work
she said the cruise ship people are not Americans I'm not totally sure that that makes a difference there had to be Americans on it I don't believe that you're saying that they're all not Americans so that doesn't make much difference Lynne said the crew members aren't US citizens doesn't matter you know in this in this situation we're gonna have to kinda we're gonna have to be a little flexible all the old rules are going on all right somebody says it takes about 30 seconds after I add them to hear them well that wouldn't be a very good user experience maybe that's just today favorite home brewed coffee I don't really have strong coffee preferences

[13:25]

amazon is jacking up the price on their giant dried beans maybe not it's probably not Amazon who's raising the price the way Amazon works is that people have control over posting their goods and the people who are posting on Amazon the people who had been pre-approved to post must be the one who are doing the gouging there's not really any chance that it's Amazon itself so don't think it's Amazon Amazon is as as far as I know has been acting very responsibly in this situation they've told their staff to stay home so I see the recommendation today is that people like me should no longer go out in public I've told you before how I live in the future accidentally here's another way I live in the future I was telling you before and that I'm the topic of facial recognition that I've already lived in a world in which there was facial recognition it's because I'm a little bit famous if you're a little bit famous

[14:26]

bit famous if you're a little bit famous and you go out in public people recognize your face it's like facial recognition but only for me I walk outside and I go to the store I go to Safeway and people say hey simultaneous at Dilbert a so I've lived in the future where people know who I am and even what my job is and a lot about my biography just by looking at my face the rest of you are going to discover that world so someday maybe when you go to stores or parties or whatever everybody will recognize you by your face because they've got an app likewise similarly analogously I'm I'll be 63 in June which means I'm in the the over-sixty group that are at risk but I wouldn't be a risk being perfectly healthy and on the yunkish side of the old people unless I had a respiratory problem but I have a respiratory problem so I do

[15:27]

but I have a respiratory problem so I do have a history of asthma and my sinuses of course are a war zone so the recommendation from the CDC for me is I'll never go outside into crowds again think about that because that's your probably your future except I don't think it'll last in your case so I'm in the future I actually can't go to public places where there are a lot of people if I want to follow the government's advice and I am going to follow the government's advice for two reasons if it were only my self-interest I'm not kidding about this I kind of want to get it over with I'm definitely a pull the band-aid off kind of guy all the way I mean to my core i'ma pull the band-aid off guy if you've got some bad news for me I want it right now if it's gonna hurt I want to right now if it's gonna kill me maybe let's just get it over with let's do it so selfishly

[16:30]

let's do it so selfishly I actually kind of want to get the car out of coronavirus and that's not even the joke now I don't want to go in fact myself I'm not going to be an idiot but if it's gonna happen anyway and I had a choice I'd rather sooner than later I'd rather to get to the other side of it whether I'm dead or alive let's just get it over for it and that's just a personality thing I'm not just not saying that you should adopt that but there's a second and far far bigger consideration if I end up in an ICU somebody else isn't and we're good answer shortages so keeping myself healthy is 100% in my case just you know speaking personally in my case it's really close to 100% about protecting the country because if the country crashes because the health care system crashes from from quantity I wouldn't be part of that so I'm gonna do what I can do to follow the CDC's directions you

[17:34]

do to follow the CDC's directions you know maybe I get infected maybe I don't but I'm gonna follow the directions and lower my and I'm gonna do it for patriotic reasons because if it were just for me honestly I would get the flu I would I would just let's say let's do it let's let's dance so I'm not expecting to die I'm not expecting any of you to die but I'm telling you that we're in the new world for me has started today so for me today is the first day that I will restrict my outdoor ected my external activities severely somebody says don't be fatalistic you might not get it well I think that's true I might not get it but the only way people like me might not get it is if everybody else guess it by everybody else I don't mean everybody I mean a big possibly majority section of the country has to have it so that they can't get it again if they can't get it again then I

[18:36]

again if they can't get it again then I can be around them and without with a low risk so the only way the old people will be safe in the future is when most or a lot of the young people actually get it don't have symptoms because young people don't have as much of a problem with it and reduce the number of ways it can get to me later that's the only way to kill the thing so I've said before that I'm reasonably sure based on observation of what we're seeing here that the government's plan is not to prevent it and and I don't think you should go through life thinking that is the plan because these things don't really have that quality of being preventable they get come they get compared to you know the other things like what were the other things the SARS and and other stuff but they don't really act to say this one might be the kind that just spreads faster those other ones didn't spread that fast they didn't have that quality but this one spreads fast and it seems to kill people

[19:37]

spreads fast and it seems to kill people now there is a question like that I would like to put forward to you you ready for this I'm gonna give you the biggest mind mind word I'm not going to I imagine I was saying two words instead of one the first one starts with mind the second one starts with F and it's coming at you right now
here it is we can't tell the difference between a virus that's extra deadly and one that's extra safe
do you believe that can do you believe that we can tell the difference even even at this stage with all the testing and everything we've done do you think that we can tell the difference between a virus that's extra deadly and one that's extra safe well in order to know the difference here's what we would need to do and then you can ask yourself do we know it we would need to know how

[20:38]

we know it we would need to know how many people are infected that don't have much in the way of symptoms do we know that we don't do we said correct me if I'm wrong but aren't we finding it in 80 countries do you think it it spread in the last few weeks to all those eighty countries and that we caught it in 80 countries I'll think so why is it that here's another mystery that might be related Africa doesn't seem to have much of a problem with it and people aren't sure why it's a mystery so Africa doesn't have a problem that's a pretty big deal so there are two things here that would give you at least possibility for optimism but I do not encourage optimism if that sounds weird I don't encourage you to be optimistic I'm simply giving you the the lay of the land I'm just telling you the odds and right now if I had to guess I would

[21:41]

right now if I had to guess I would agree with the president who believes that the death rate for this virus might continue to get adjusted down and there's an obvious reason for that the obvious reason is we're not good at testing for it and as soon as we can test we're going to find a lot more people presumably who have it who didn't have much in the way of symptoms so it could be that this is already the biggest most widespread flu you know that we've seen if if it's extra mild so let me make my case about how you can't tell extra mild from extra bad if it's extra bad people are dropping like flies and you can tell you think you know because people are dying you'd be saying oh my goodness more people died from this than died from the other stuff so that would be a good good indication that's extra deadly more people are dying but what if it's also simultaneously more people got it that

[22:45]

simultaneously more people got it that part you don't know you know what if it's the most viral thing that's ever been in the history of humanity and it's spreading like him you know just crazy but nobody's testing for it and the symptoms are so mild that people aren't even noticing if that's true and we haven't ruled that out yet it would actually be one of the most mild flus in terms of percentage in other words if you get it your odds of dying or just as low as any other flu it's just the more people would have it now the more people having it plenty big problem plenty big problem but it might suggest that that there's a way for it to end because if so many people get it if it's super super viral many of you will get it and then that will prevent the people who would have the worst symptoms from being able to get it more easily because it would be stopped by all the people at immunity how will people get out the vote well given the people like me just

[23:48]

vote well given the people like me just got the word to stay indoors and given that this virus is likely experts think might subside a little during the warm or summer season but then it might come roaring back in November November is polling time so could we see fewer elderly people voting I would say there's a hundred percent chance you'll see fewer elderly people voting in November and I only thought of this just now now who does that benefit I actually don't know because if it's Biden against Trump which one of them gets the old vote do you know I don't know here's another factor there seems to be some kind of difference between liberals and conservatives in terms of their their gag factor or their their achiness factor now I've seen that I'm not sure I totally buy the science the other urban studies that say this that conservatives

[24:49]

studies that say this that conservatives would be gross down as stuff more easily than liberals is that true I don't know so but I'll just throw that out there as something that studies have shown to be true I'm a little skeptical of it but let's say it's true what does that say about election turnout if you're conservative are you more more freaked out by the coronavirus and therefore you're more likely to stay home maybe I don't know I don't think anybody has a handle on that so yeah in the comments you're saying the mail-in vote but here's the thing the the older citizens I'm guessing are also not the people who were mailing in votes well let me take that back of course there are lots of older people who are mailing in votes but I have to think it's not the majority and that's the group that's the hardest to change to turn into a new thing it might be easy for them to stay

[25:50]

thing it might be easy for them to stay home on Election Day but it might be hard for them to fill out forms and you figure out how to mail and stuff and you know do paperwork and stuff well I think there's probably gonna have to be a push for mail-in elections and as I'm thinking about this wouldn't it make sense to start now and have the government start pushing for mail-in votes wouldn't that make sense and would it maybe let me also ask this wouldn't it make sense maybe to move the election to October that possible could you move the election up because we know with fair amount of certainty that the virus is going to you know come down a little in the summer and then rage back in November why wait until November that might be the very worst time to have an election it might be now the one thing about an election that's different from other things as people aren't coming necessarily for man in town to do it

[26:50]

necessarily for man in town to do it so most of the people who vote will already be in that town so that doesn't make it so bad as it would if it were an international conference for example all right so having put that out there I don't think that we know at this point whether this is an extra mild to flu or an extra terrible one we just know that a lot of people are dying now if you took the cruise ship for example when you say to yourself Scott Scott Scott we do know this is the bad one because look at the cruise ship it's like a little laboratory and there were how many people have died on the cruise ship now give me it could be an updated number but the number who died in the cruise ship is obviously far worse than people the number who died on a cruise ship normally right number of people who would die on any given cruise ship is how many well let me ask you how many of you know the answer to this question how many old people died on a cruise ship in

[27:53]

many old people died on a cruise ship in ordinary circumstances how often does it happen do you know what the answer is that once a week that once a week an old person dies on I think each cruise ship I'm not even talking about all of the cruise ships in the world I think that each cruise ship you know you know one or two a week you know it's it's a big number actually and it's because obviously they don't have you know the high-end health facilities on the cruise ship and it's older people so let's see how everything ly everything that you need to kill people in one place so what would it mean if there were say 10 of them on one ship does that mean that that that that really was a bad situation well it depends how if they were not on the ship where they've gotten to health care more more quickly is it simply because they were in close quarters would a regular flu just the ordinary flu if that many

[28:56]

flu just the ordinary flu if that many people had it and that money in that closed spaces would it have been the same I don't know so yeah I'm seeing all kinds of numbers six twenty six forty five thousand single guys were weird numbers in the in the comments so I don't know what it is but the point is you could have you could have another explanation for why there were a bunch of people dead on one ship that also had a lot of coronavirus so that you can't completely rule out that there's something about that that was unusual
but it certainly is a gigantic red flag so that's that you should certainly treat this like it's a deadly disease you should all you should all take completely seriously the CDC's warnings you should do what they say but there is some possibility that this will will be far less of a problem at the end and then we thought and in fact that's if I

[29:58]

then we thought and in fact that's if I had to bet on it bet on it now I'm betting that it's gonna be less of a problem than we think not because the virus itself being a less of a problem what I think is that when you focus the entire world on a problem let me back up I'm gonna take a second simultaneous sip because I just woke up and I really need it please join me that one without the introduction so I want to give you the good news and it's of course awkward to give good news in the heart of a crisis but there is something good happening and it has to do with where the world's at in 2020 compared to let's say the Spanish flu Spanish flu happened when the world was not that connected we didn't have internet and our medical facilities were primitive etc and we're seeing something really

[30:59]

etc and we're seeing something really different happening here and here's the way I would describe it have you noticed that because we're all connected and talking about this coronavirus that I believe this is the first time we've ever had a planetary threat that everybody agreed was a planetary threat and it's here right now can anybody fact check me on that now you're gonna say Oh world war two was a planetary threat well not really I mean infected I don't know half the world or whatever directly and all of it indirectly but it was it's a kind of a different situation right but we did see the world pull together to defeat Nazi Germany and and the Japanese ambitions at the time but we've never seen it like this we've never seen where the citizens are all connected I'm connected to you right now

[32:00]

connected I'm connected to you right now so that my thoughts are going into you you see you can watch in real time as your thoughts are merging into me and I've said this about Twitter and social media in general we have formed a god brain because the the brains of the United States are no longer what they were in 1918 during the Spanish flu in 1918 it was a whole bunch of individual brains here's a scientist doing what a scientist does maybe he can talk to some other scientists by the telegraph I don't did they have the telephone in 1918 I don't know in my history well enough when it was it when did everybody have commonly have telephones was in 1918 right so what were they doing Telegraph write a letter to the other scientists to coordinate so what we have now is wholly completely entirely different than anything we've ever seen before we've never been this connected and we've never had a global threat that was

[33:02]

we've never had a global threat that was immediate like this one and you're just watching the entire civilization 15 billion years of evolution coming together where as one the the citizens of Earth have decided that on this question we're on the same side never happens before even global warming is just a controversy but there's not really a controversy about this thing we're all on the same side we have a mortal threat we'll probably lose millions you know worldwide it's going to change civilization we don't know how yet but it's coming and you and I are completely connected right now I am NOT separate from you we are mentally psychologically absolutely connected that's not happening before and one of the things that that is it allows the what I call the God

[34:04]

is it allows the what I call the God brave to be activated and you're seeing it right now you're seeing a new form of intelligence emerging while you watch maybe there's never been anything more impressive in all of human history than what's happening now that you don't even notice because it's so natural you you simply have evolved into it your brain is now tapped into the collective now you might have to be on Twitter or watching television or on the phone or something for that to be active at the moment but we're all connected right now and we have focused not a bunch of little individual people with individual brains but we're forming a god brain now I'm not saying we're gonna be a religion or competing with your actual God if you prefer I'm saying that in effect we have now summed up we are for the first time a cumulative brain focused on one

[35:04]

a cumulative brain focused on one problem one global or problem at the moment we are not one yet we're not but we're forming it fast anything that we learn about the coronavirus in Tennessee is going to be in wuhan in 60 seconds well you know as soon as it takes somebody to type it the smartest people in the world are no longer on the sidelines in 1918 do you think the very smartest very best people were all working on something to do with the flu no first of all they didn't have any tools it was more of a primitive time and secondly you couldn't even find the smartest people you couldn't find them I earned on Twitter and I see a message from you know Balaji Srinivasan now if you don't know Balaji just think one of the smartest people in the entire frickin planet Earth literally and then

[36:06]

frickin planet Earth literally and then I go down there's a you know some messages about the corona virus some advice from an evolved Rafa Conte again I literally speak of all as the smartest person I've ever met true and he got enlist and you're watching all the smartest people in the world jump in and they didn't use to be able to do that because if you were the smartest person in the world here I'm just speaking hyperbolically but if you were super smart and you could be super useful in 1918 what could you do you could do nothing you couldn't do a single thing but now you can and if people are jumping in people are volunteering people are going into the fight we're not when people aren't running away people are going right at this thing and a lot of and people are doing what you see me doing essentially I mean what I did you you watched it in real time you saw me look at this feel part of it

[37:09]

you saw me look at this feel part of it yeah I'm threatened personally but all of you are as well and you can watch as I try to figure out how to be productive now I think the best way that I can be productive is to be part of the god brain and to bring you voices like navall to retweet useful things threads and such to inform you to to keep your spirits up I've actually thought that one of the most useful things that I could do if all went to your high school I'll bet you've got some good stories I'd like to hear those so one of the things that I think I can do is simply help people to know what to do if there wasn't anything you knew to do now most people have already gotten a gotten the hint that they should bring in some supplies etc I really think you're not going to need them I don't think anybody's gonna go hungry I don't think the power is gonna go off I don't think the electricity is gonna go off

[38:09]

think the electricity is gonna go off I think that that all that stuff would be fine and it has to do with the fact that 80 percent of us will always be healthy and at anytime and 80 percent of us can do on two percent of the work if you've ever seen any big company 20 percent of the people could stay home on any given day and it doesn't make any difference 80 percent and we'll always have 80% so things will keep running the economy will just take a hit for a while so you'll be fine but what I recommend is that you take advantage of this disaster you've heard the saying never let a good disaster or a good crisis go to waste this is one of those times so yesterday I was taking my long walk in the Sun which I recommend to all of you I believe that all of you should be doing the small things you can do to stay as healthy and to keep your immune system just you know as good as it can get so one of those is light exercise as opposed to heavy exercise at the moment light exercise should be your goal not

[39:11]

light exercise should be your goal not building muscles you want light exercise to stay at maximum fitness in case in case your body is attacked we need you you are all soldiers in this war against this this invader and by the way if all says that's the the you know if you were to take bets on the coronavirus think about the odds would you ever bet against human beings in a war against any other living object on earth well probably not because human beings have essentially conquered a hundred percent of the species except for this one and we're going hard at this one too so if you were gonna bet against humans in in the field of battle of Earth well don't bet against humans we're pretty pretty good at this stuff and secondly you'd also have to bet against the United States who is everyone money betting against the United States well it's a

[40:13]

against the United States well it's a tough bet I suppose anything can happen but if you think there's gonna be a meltdown of society you know in the kind that really could get to you know we're pretty good at this stuff so anyway my point is stay healthy take a walk and I felt yesterday healthier than I've felt in a long time because I'm really serious about getting enough sleep getting light exercise eating right doing everything I can to lower my stress which I'm hopefully I can be part of that for you so there you go what about alien life-forms well maybe these may be viruses are from another planet did you know viruses are not alive that isn't that doesn't that just blow your mind that a virus is correct me if I'm wrong I think I'm right on that right I don't think a virus is a living thing you just can't stop it from spreading

[41:21]

curiosity is making it harder to sleep that's interesting how do you grade our government's response thus far very good question and I'll give you an answer that number one and certainly the most important thing you should keep in mind it's not your government doing stuff for you you're in on this you're not an observer so it's like you know I feel as if somebody in the stadium said hey you know I'm watching this football game how's the team doing and I'm the referee and I'm looking at you in the audience and I'm saying dumbass you're on the field get out of the stands so if you're asking yourself is your government doing a good job it's a fair question but let me ask you this what the hell did you do today what did you do and I mean that seriously you the person who asked that question whoever asked is the government doing its job I asked the same question to you did you do your job did you did

[42:23]

to you did you do your job did you did you exercise did you wash your hands every day did you tell somebody to wash your hands did you help an old person what'd you do cuz I did stuff I'll do stuff every day but here's the thing you really can't tell if the government's doing a good job or not and part of the reason is that were shielded from the people doing the work by the people doing the talking so if Mike Pence or President Trump gives a press conference that I don't think is an A+ press conference what does that tell us about the people doing actual work nothing nothing at all it doesn't I do think that I'm putting pence in charge was a good move from the outside now again you have to be really close to these situations to know what really is a good idea and what's not to know what worked and what didn't what makes a difference what's the big difference was the small difference we're all way too far away from it you and I cannot tell if the experts that

[43:24]

and I cannot tell if the experts that the CDC are doing their job we can't tell do I think that they probably are doing it yes do I think that they'll make some mistakes of course do you think do I think that ultimately there their game will improve and rapidly yes that's that's everything everything is about not what happened already everything that matters is what we get too quickly and how quickly we get to it if they can take it from where we are to a better place and get there fast and nobody could really predict rates and changes and what's going to happen and the surprises that are coming but but the real the real left the real play here is how quickly they get better smarter and more effective it's not what they've done so far it's how quickly they can improve it we don't know that because they're still ramping if I had to guess again going back to the god brain hypothesis that we are sort of

[44:26]

brain hypothesis that we are sort of forming into an entity in which the best ideas anywhere will reach the place they need to go and we've never had that so if you have a situation where a hundred percent of the planet is in the fight and if you're not you should be even in your own way you need to be in the fight times join
our capability as a civilization it's unparalleled I mean it's like nothing nothing that anything has ever existed and if you try to ask yourself how good could we be you know once we're ramped up we're not there yet but how good will we be by summer at this stuff and the answer is you're gonna be probably amazed you will probably be amazed at the capability of humans so go humans we're pretty darn good at this and remember it's not you you know it's it's not you and B we're not the ones who're making these big scientist

[45:27]

ones who're making these big scientist decisions and stuff but you can be pretty sure that the smartest people in the world are joining the fight everybody is off the sidelines now the people who have capability are jumping in because they know they need to so this is the fight of our lives it's the first in my opinion the first planetary risk it has incredible implications for the future maybe in some good ways bad ways too but there are going to be some good things that come out of this and I even think that there are some analogy issues that are coming out of this one of one is that the virus is going to affect immigration not just directly because people want to close their borders to reduce the risk of the virus obviously it'll have that effect but secondarily the way we think about hard to identify risks and it's just gonna limb fluids everything from

[46:28]

gonna limb fluids everything from climate change to immigration so I think the world will be a different place once we get on the other side of this which we will and
so somebody says somebody survived meningitis well you're tough you can come live with me whoever survived meningitis I like tough people all right will this virus effect Trump's reelection yes yes it will it's the biggest story so the biggest story is always going to affect the election it's hard to say whether it's good or bad yet
somebody in the comments is saying musk says this is all dumb what he said was I saw his tweet he got over a hundred thousand retweets on it so Elon Musk said yesterday on Twitter that the all of the coronavirus have panic is dumb so

[47:28]

of the coronavirus have panic is dumb so he said the panicked was dumb and we don't know exactly what he meant by that so I'm not gonna comment on that because if you don't know what he meant it's hard to agree or disagree I've seen other people in the comments who survived meningitis well we got a tough crowd here look at that somebody says I survived Ebola I don't think that's true but it's funny well a lot of people survived meningitis what do I have some kind of a audience that is all meningitis survivors or something yeah you know I've said this before and I'll say it again that when you try to judge whether your president is doing a good job it doesn't matter if it's this president or another president

[48:31]

well I'm not gonna finish that thought oh I will so whether if you're trying to judge a president one of the things you should do is oh my god I just forgot my thought again I'm watching your comments and trying to do trying to multitask but my point is you need the right president for the right situation there's no such thing as a good president they're definitely such things as bad presidents but within the good presidents category you need the right president at the right time and sometimes a president is well suited for one task but not another no president is more suited for negotiating with China then Trump in my opinion we've never seen anybody who was more perfectly suited for that job because he can treat them nice and treat them tough at the same time it's kind of tough very few people could do that and he had the will to do it and you know the the risk profile to do it so Trump is the ideal president for

[49:34]

so Trump is the ideal president for dealing with trade and China but you see also the ideal president to deal with a virus outbreak my guess is no if I'm gonna be honest I'd rather have Obama as the president right now for that for this I know I probably just lost half of my half of my audience by saying that all I'm saying is you can't say that a president is is good or bad it would be more accurate to say that a particular president is well matched or not well matched to a particular challenge this isn't it's obvious I think at this point that this is not president Trump's strongest suit but I don't know it matters because he did what he needed to do he put pence in charge and he's not holding back any authority meaning that there's nothing there's nothing that's a problem because the president hasn't made a decision and there's nothing a problem because the president made the

[50:35]

problem because the president made the wrong decision so the president is getting it done he's just not the perfect fit but I do think as far as I can tell he's getting it done I don't think there's a problem at all
all right somebody says he's a fast learner well okay I got a dump on him one more time for his press conference and I hope I hope that at least if you don't like that I hope that at least it builds my credibility for the future because he can't just you can't say everything's good sometimes there's a little bit mistake Trump said at the press conference yes that he found out four or five minutes ago meaning when he found out yesterday that he had just found out that the regular flu flu B or whatever it is just the regular flu might kill 18,000 to 45,000 over 77,000 globally in a year and he said he just found out yesterday

[51:35]

and he said he just found out yesterday that the regular flu could kill that many people and I thought to myself you need to get off the stage right now
because we all knew that I mean I think we all knew that if he just found out that the regular flute if he just found out yesterday that the regular flu kills tens of thousands of people a year if that does not inspire confidence now again I want to say this as clearly as possible I think all the things he's doing are good he closed the airports fast he put pets in charge he's he got more money than he asked for you know so I don't think he's watched anything I don't think there's anything in here that you have to worry about there's nothing that's being poorly managed from the at least from the executive level I don't see any signs of it but the way he talks about it he's just not the best person to be the spokesperson for this specific problem he's just not well suited for it

[52:36]

problem he's just not well suited for it and maybe pen says all right too bad pens is boring because he's going to be talking about this a lot
let's talk about Biden's brain what are the Democrats thinking what are they thinking and this hat that's not a rhetorical question I'm so curious about what's going on in their minds I talked to my most let's say most emotional Democrat Trump hater friends who I've tried to avoid for the last four years because it's difficult to be with people who hate Trump that much if you know because it's an emotional thing but I checked in with him to find out if he was backing Bernie or Sanders and the reason I checked it with him is because he's a really smart guy now what does a really smart guy I went to a you know Ivy League college pays attention very

[53:38]

Ivy League college pays attention very well-informed what does somebody who's well informed in a very smart say when their team has been reduced to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden I was really curious and what he said was he's gonna back Biden because you know he liked Peabody jej but you know he's not an option anymore so he's gonna back bite him and he said and I quote he would rather vote for a stack of old magazines than Trump and I thought to myself well I guess you are it looks like you are going to vote for a stack of old magazines where's Joe Biden if you were going to describe him in a humorous analogy stack of old magazines might be pretty pretty good as an analogy and he's gonna take that choice and I think to myself but that does mean you can tell right it does mean you can tell the Biden's brain is

[54:39]

mean you can tell the Biden's brain is not quite working and you're gonna vote for him anyway how interesting is that not a good way um so now here's the second part that I want to bring up it's one thing to look at your candidate say you know huh I'm a little worried but we'll be okay it's another thing to look at your candidate and then listen to Trump who has clearly signaled correct me if I'm wrong Trump has clearly signaled that if Biden is the nominee he's gonna go after his brain right he's headed now directly he said that he's talked about Joe being in the old folks home and you know and there's something not right
imagine Trump being freed to brand that mercilessly by the time Joe gets to the election booth he might not get any votes this would not be close dude do

[55:42]

votes this would not be close dude do the Democrats not understand that Biden is not gonna be close Trump hasn't even started on him and he's already got the entire country talking about his mental illness it's not gonna be close please did they not see this can you not give us a good good contest and I think Bernie of course had no it has no chance of winning because of his policies but Biden he's literally mentally incompetent and even his own team knows it it's not going to be close if Biden were running any kind of a conventional candidate maybe somebody would not have mentioned the obvious way he's losing it but Trump well there's nothing that's gonna stop Trump from absolutely grinding that into the dirt and the best part is the matchup because the one thing you you know that Trump has as a

[56:43]

thing you you know that Trump has as a not the one thing but one of the big things that people complain about is that he has a speaking style that makes people say oh you know he's not speaking like a like a sane person but you put Trump next to Biden on the stage and only one of them is gonna look sane it's not gonna look good alright that's about all I got for today it's always great to talk to you so go forward be part of the god brave you're all part of the fight against this planetary invader I'll be I'll be talking to you from my bunker where apparently I will be locked my bunker for the next I don't know year so I'm unlocked down and I will talk to you all later