Episode 846 Scott Adams: Which Presidential Candidate Might Survive to Election Day, Social Distance

Date: 2020-03-10 | Duration: 40:34

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Extreme social isolation works…and we are NOT doing it Bo Biden and Kamala Harris were very close Joe Biden’s cognitive decline Russia bankrupting American shale oil businesses Gavin Newsome’s coronavirus leadership Google demonetization of keyword “coronavirus”

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

[0:09]

[Music] hey everybody come on in it's time for a coffee with Scott Adams that's why you're here best part of the day yeah it is it really is you think those parts of the day where you're off having all kinds of a dull are the best parts but no no which it's right here this is the best part and all you need to participate is a cup or a mug or a class a tanker cello sur Stein a canteen jerger flask a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee enjoyed me now with the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine Yetta the day the thing that makes everything better it's called the simultaneous it go
mm-hmm no that's how to do some social distancing right am i right there's some social distancing right there let's talk

[1:11]

social distancing right there let's talk about all the stuff in the news so over in Italy I I saw a thread from I guess was a doctor in a hospital over in Italy where they're being hit hard with the coronavirus and apparently it's Night of the Living Dead bodies piling up whatever's the worst you could imagine that's happening in the Italian hospitals right now because of the corona virus meanwhile some as yet publicly unnamed individual was shaking hands at CPAC including with all kinds of senators and politicians and we have a president who's been shaking hands and apparently he's still going to have his rallies here's my opinion as of around today this is sort of a tipping point for me I think it's irresponsible to have political rallies

[2:12]

have political rallies because if you're looking at what's happening in the other countries and you really oughta because it's not good but if you look at Italy for example they're there in a world of hurt and it's because the medical resources were over up now there are people saying to me Scott's got sucked don't be so panicky because you know it just affects old people and you know most people are just gonna cold well yes except that in Italy there's no health care services anymore it's just for one purpose their entire health care system at least let the high-end stuff you know where you've got a hospital it just doesn't exist anymore so if you break your leg in three weeks do you know what your health care plan is in the United States limp right if you

[3:13]

the United States limp right if you break your leg in three weeks in the United States there's a good chance that your health care solution will be the limp because it won't be in health care it might last for a couple months now that's the situation in Italy and that's a situation if we don't keep it under control but will we keep it under the code control it turns out the South Korea is actually getting a handle on theirs and they're not doing extreme social distancing they must be doing a lot of it but it's less extreme than some other places so we do see some progress in South Korea China allegedly is getting a handle on it but we don't know what that really means Japan is doing better than Italy because they have way more a lot more hospital resources so Japan is not overrun yet they're doing better but they're they're having some issues there apparently I'm hearing also from people in Japan the

[4:14]

hearing also from people in Japan the social media is great because you could hear individuals telling tell you what their actual life is like and there's one person in Japan who says that there's plenty of goods in the stores and people are just just immediately went into extreme social isolation and it seems to have worked so here's what we know we know that extreme social isolation is absolutely effective and we know we're not doing it and we know that the President of the United States is modeling not doing it and the people he's competing against to be the next president are not doing it I don't know how much longer we can put up with that do you because let's let's put it this way you know on one level you know it's up to the president whether he has a rally you know it's up to Biden it's up to Bernie you know it's not up to us

[5:17]

up to Bernie you know it's not up to us is it no it's up to us it's not up to them it's not up to them don't let it be up to them we're sort of in this together right the president doesn't get this to decide to have a rally and then there's a rally we have to decide - all right everybody has to decide or else there's no rally if only one person decides there's a rally and then there's a rally of one person so I'm not sure we should continue to allow and it allow is the right word because we can stop it we can stop it today I don't think we should allow our our politicians to continue to do rallies given that we know exactly what works social isolation and we know exactly what doesn't continuing business as usual it's not a mystery anymore we know and we know that if we don't get it early it's going to get us so

[6:22]

I think it's completely irresponsible and I would go so far as to say if we have another week of rallies you know maybe this week sort of an edge case but if next week we're still doing rallies we don't have anybody running for president who's qualified to leave us at least in this situation I let me say that is directly as I can if President Trump next week you know this week again it's on the edge but by next week if they're still doing rallies and things are still worsening in the coronavirus global situation none of them none of them are qualified to be President unfortunately that's my opinion so let's talk about some other stuff the dumbest thing that I hear in politics lately is coming from Bernie Sanders and and people who say the same thing and they say that President Trump doesn't believe in science now I don't think there's

[7:23]

in science now I don't think there's anybody who doesn't believe in science what does that even mean there's nobody who doesn't believe in science now of course they'll point to climate change but that's because the the critics can't tell the difference between economics and science what President Trump called a hoax he wasn't saying I'm a scientist I've looked at the science blah blah he was talking about the Paris agreement and the the economic implications which clearly were pretty sketchy now was that I / believe who knows but you know we can't read his mind but the point is there there's no point at which the president didn't believe in science that's different than not believing the scientists and it's different from believing that scientists might have a control of the science but no control of the economic implications which are the part you actually do something about you know beyond inventing stuff so so it's

[8:28]

know beyond inventing stuff so so it's it is so dishonest to call anybody anti science it just bugs me more than other stuff you know it's different than other lies because you could say this person did X maybe it's a lie maybe they did not do X that's just a plain lie that's bad enough but to blame somebody for doing something that isn't a thing is sort of like a double lie it's a lie on the stupid it's something like blaming your opponent for dematerializing and traveling to another planet by his thoughts and throwing the revolution on the other planet and returning by beaming himself back to the planet okay that was a terrible example but the point is it didn't happen and it is a couldn't happen so blaming something for something that doesn't even exist is just the the height of political stupidity and people are buying it all right let's talk about Joe Biden because

[9:36]

right let's talk about Joe Biden because I think we have to as the New York Times put it I read this somewhere and I think I'm Fox News site quote provident Democrats began publicly began publicly insisting that the ticket the Joe Biden ticket included include a woman preferably a black woman all right so now it's being widely reported that the important Democrat people want a black woman on the ticket with Joe Biden well who's that gonna be now some people say no it can never become Harris because she attacked them at the debate well it turns out there's a back story turns out and I was just learning this in its depth today I was aware of this story that I'm gonna tell you but I didn't know the depth of it it's the depth of it that makes the difference turns out the Carmel Harris and Joe Biden's now deceased son Beau Biden were really close and not just professionally

[10:38]

really close and not just professionally they were they were close they talked to each other all the time they were both attorney generals at different places and and so she was sort of close to Joe Biden because of that and apparently they've rekindled whatever that was and they got past whatever happened that's a debate so does anybody doubt that she's the first choice now are we at the point where you know Stacy it's not gonna be Stacy Abrams if it's Stacy Abrams I don't know anything about anything
because I've watched her act and so weak I can't believe that the the people in charge you know the Democratic leadership would allow that and I don't think that's the winning formula anyway so he says okay you were right in the comments that's all I wanted to hear I would like to remind you that I made the most ridiculous prediction you've ever heard the first ridiculous prediction

[11:41]

heard the first ridiculous prediction was that I could pick the the candidate back in 2018 when there were lots and lots of people running and I peered into the crowd and I said I think it's gonna be Connell Harris and then when she what she's suspended her campaign this is the fun part I said I still predict it will be Kabul Harris what would be a weirder prediction than predicting the person who dropped out of the race was going to get the nomination was that the most unpredictable prediction you've ever heard in your life well let's see if it happens I think everybody would agree at this point if whoever the vice president pick is is going to be the shadow president so I'm technically wrong and you know my predicted bet I lost money because they're they're very specific what it means to be the you know the presidential candidate obviously but in

[12:43]

presidential candidate obviously but in effect I can't I got this right I think it's looking that way now if she doesn't get nominated I'm wrong just flat-out wrong but if she does it would be my best prediction of all time I'm pretty sure here are some things that are saying about Joe Biden dr. Jill Stein you know her for ruining Hillary's chances because she was working with the Russians no not really that's what people are saying and she is so she ran in 2016 and got some votes and people say it's safe and them away from Hillary probably did and so Jill Stein is out was saying directly that Joe Biden has you know mental decline in public did I mention it's dr. Jill Stein medical doctor Jill Stein harvard-trained medical doctor Jill Stein is saying in public okay now it's just obvious I'm paraphrasing but

[13:45]

just obvious I'm paraphrasing but basically she's saying she's kind of implying that you don't need to be a medical doctor to see this I tweeted another medical doctor and I've been reading some other folks weighing in who are actual experts at working with dementia patients and Alzheimer's people or at least they say they're on Twitter you can never be hundred percent sure if anybody is who they say they are but people who are professionals are saying in public unabashedly that it's obvious there's a problem now do you remember when people are saying this about Trump and do you remember the there was just a tremendous blowback from medical professionals as they should to say whoa you know medical ethics medical ethics we do not diagnose people who are not our patients you don't diagnose people you haven't met haven't examined never there's no ever period you do not

[14:50]

there's no ever period you do not diagnose from a distance well do you let me give you an example suppose you were a doctor somebody showed you a picture of automobile accident and there was a headless body over here and then a very clear picture the no doubt or what what you're seeing the actual head which has been severed ten feet from the body the doctor sees this picture and the person on the scene says what should we do doctor should we give them CPR and the doctor looks at the picture and says no I'm not there but I think it would be unnecessary to give CPR because you see the head is not actually attached to the body probably dead no certainly death because head is not attached to the body now would that

[15:52]

not attached to the body now would that be an ethical failure because the doctors not there the doctor has not examined the patient the doctor is simply just looking at a picture would that be unethical no because the head is missing it's obvious you don't have to be a doctor a person with that the head is dead and we haven't reached that point with Joe Biden where he's a headless corpse but we have reached the point where medical professionals are willing to say in public okay just look am i right we've crossed that line where it's no longer medically unethical for a working professional a medical professional to say in public yeah just look at that that's obvious that's a big deal because the medical profession did not cross that line with Trump am i right and when

[16:52]

that line with Trump am i right and when somebody did the other medical professionals poured in and said whoa too far you know and people walked it back a little bit and tried to try to tap-dance well you know I'm not saying for sure that sort of thing but we're not seeing that this time it's differently all right did you see the video of the Biden rally you know wish there were some protesters I forget what they were protesting but they held a big sign up and Joe got a little flustered did you see how he handled it if you want to see who is not going to be your next president you have to watch that video watch Joe Biden try to not be Trump because Trump would have said hey get those bums out of here and the security would take him out and and and Trump would tell jokes and the the crowd would love it it would be part of the show that's the way Trump handles it how did it Joe bad Biden and late' well he needed to be different so he had to handle it in some way that's not Trump

[17:54]

handle it in some way that's not Trump like so he starts saying that's all right let him go he'll leave him there and as you say that the security guards are coming in and grabbing the guy and then Joe Biden taking control of the room it's like okay just let him go he says this is in the Trump rally we don't need to do that just let him stay let him stay and here's the funny part the security guards absolutely ignored him it was like he wasn't there and these big beefy security guards just grab these guys and lock them up and just start dragging them out of the room you know on their feet but they're they're pulling him out and you watch him and Joe is even as that being taken out by DISA it's alright yeah just just leave him there and I thought I was seeing in my mind like like one of those expired what he called it a dandelion when it's just the little white stuff that blows away in the wind in the old day of the line it looked like an old dead line up there

[18:55]

it looked like an old dead line up there and the other died the dais just there was nothing there there was no leadership there was no power there was no control it didn't look like he was in control of himself much less the room he did not control the room and Wow is it obvious it is so obvious that there's no leadership skill there whatsoever then you could I don't know how you could watch that and then vote for him it that'd be hard all right
see what else we got here well looks like Russia is trying to attack the United States with oil prices so I'm learning a little bit more about this situation so if you're not up on it it goes like this so every country that produces oil produces it at a different cost partly because the technology they use and partly because of how they're getting the oil so it's expensive to get it in a shale it's less expensive some

[19:56]

it in a shale it's less expensive some other ways Russia as it turns out both through investment and luck about the type of oil they have has maybe the lowest possibly the lowest production costs or it's right in that category somewhere and they've decided to start a price war because the US shale business in particular had been so good that it was taking market share from Russia and everybody else and we we replaced Russia as the biggest producer so Russia wants to find out how to get his money back when oil prices are low were already low so Russia was already in trouble because prices were low ish but they decided to go right at OPEC and Saudi Arabia by lowering them and starting a price war which Saudi Arabia immediately matched so we're in a price war and if the price war continues it will bankrupt the shale

[20:58]

war continues it will bankrupt the shale producing parts of our energy industry which is pretty big it's going to bankrupt them and this is really aggressive because the intention of Putin according to the people who know what they're talking about his intention is to bankrupt them it's actually a direct obvious you know nobody's hiding the plan but it's all legal because it's business right in business you're allowed to do whatever you want if it's legal it's legal and and lowering your prices is completely legal if Russia can do it they can do it so they're going to take out our shale business which is a continuation of this theme which you've seen under Trump which is that all wars that can the core let me say that again I would say that the trumpet doctrine which has never been named that I'm just going to name it that myself let's call it the Trump doctrine of war or the Trump war

[21:59]

Trump doctrine of war or the Trump war doctrine now of course I'm putting I would be putting words into his mouth so this this is not coming from the president or anything like it but by observation I would say that Trump believes that all wars economic war and that if you simply treat the economics as the war well it's the war so so Russia basically just declared war on the United States but I think we declared war on them first by taking over their primary business now here's the problem a lot of smart people think the price of oil may never go up high again because there's just so much of it and we're so good at getting it and you know the economy is slowing down this year anyway and you know then there's green energy energy we've got new developments in nuclear power etc coming online all the time but the problem is that Russia's income is selling weapons and oil pretty much you

[23:00]

selling weapons and oil pretty much you know Russia is sort of like a a criminal enterprise this sells oil and weapons and if they can't sell oil and weapons and make money the whole country's in trouble and guess what they can't do right now sell weapons and oil and make money so the only two things that they can do that because there's not a major war that most of the big war seem to be winding down now I don't know this for sure but it seems like that would be bad for the arms business the Russian arms business now it could be that they have a robust business even in peacetime as people are you know arming up I don't know the details there but I have to think that a peaceful world is bad for Russia because they sell arms and obviously the oil situation would just put them out of business if it stayed low so this is a really really big change coven and it gets it kind of

[24:03]

change coven and it gets it kind of speaks to this question which I've been asking for a long time which is why are we enemies with Russia you know I've been saving this forever why don't we just say hey Russia you know if we get along we're both we're both better off it's obvious so let's just get along you can see we do it with their other allies when we get along with them we all get rich when we don't get along we don't so let's just get along then I always wonder why wouldn't that work with Russia and I think we just got the answer the answer is they can't sell their oil if we're selling our oil to the same people in other words Russia can't really coexist with the United States being a gigantic oil producer because they need all of that money to stay alive so I'm not sure that they can be our economic partner because they have to compete with us so directly it's way more directly than other countries compete with us and on that important

[25:04]

compete with us and on that important industry the energy so maybe there's there's nothing we can do there where the Russia will just always be enemies until one of us gets out of the oil business I guess I think it comes down to that so I think Russia well let me say it directly based on the current trajectory of things the Russian state is doomed right because they can't survive low gasp oil prices and it doesn't look like anything is going to change the low oil prices so that doesn't mean that they were actually do because people are pretty good at scrambling and surviving and doing what they need to do but the trajectory for Russia is do just if nothing big changes and I don't see anything being this going to change so that's a big problem might become flexible but it might make them the opposite Gavin Newsom did

[26:05]

them the opposite Gavin Newsom did something that shocked and amazed me yesterday the governor of California much maligned much criticized governor and you know for context there are people like me you've been saying critical things that is the homeless situation and nuclear energy and some other things but with this coronavirus stuff he was giving a press conference Gavin Newsom was and he was asked whether President Trump and the administration are helping him and he gave an unabashedly positive response and essentially said everything that we've asked them for they everything they promised they did which is a big thing to say in politics it was very clearly supportive of the administration's efforts on coronavirus and and it wasn't a hedged you know it would be easy for a politician to say well you know for once they're doing

[27:05]

well you know for once they're doing something right you know to kind of hedge it or to say you know well we're not getting everything you know want to keep the pressure on but we're getting a lot that would have been easy to say but he didn't he didn't gavin newsom stood in front of the world and he said that the that the federal government is absolutely doing everything he needs everything he's asked for and i thought to myself that's some good leadership there okay I like to I like to play a fair you know because I've criticized this guy quite a bit I'm not sure he needs to be our mayor I'm sorry I'm not sure he needs to be our governor much longer but this was really strong leadership that was exactly what I wanted to see him say to make me feel the way I needed to feel and do the things I need to do he made me feel that the government is effective and I'm sure that there must be tons of little hiccups and problems and they don't you

[28:05]

hiccups and problems and they don't you think that the reality is that things never move as smoothly as the politicians say when they say things are good well but just for him to come out and give this little bit of positive reinforcement that the government's in the state is working well together was powerful it was useful it was right it was good for the common it was not political it was pure leadership and I appreciated it so thank you gavin newsom great job there's some a bunch of free technology platforms for people who are going to work at home so you've seen the and again this is this is beautiful and inspiring to watch that the country the United States the citizens are just sort of jumping in and saying what can I do and you're seeing the tech companies do this and I I tweeted around a list of technology platforms that are good for working at home like Dropbox and WebEx and those guides so if you're if you're in a

[29:07]

guides so if you're if you're in a company and you've been just been told to work at home and you don't know what all the good tools are for doing that you know how do you share files and how do you work remotely and stuff look at my Twitter feed for the list of Twitter platforms that are free they're free during the crisis so you got that going on all right so let me give you an update on D monetization and YouTube so I am yesterday that I'd learned from from Google so this what I'm going to say now is not my opinion or a guessing this is actually from my contact at Google who who is the right person for this not just an employee at Google but the person who does this job who is my contact and I've been assigned this contact because I was complaining about D monetization and they were d monetizing any reference to coronavirus

[30:08]

monetizing any reference to coronavirus and I believe they still are but they have now they've been they've stated publicly now that they recognize that that's an issue because most of the coronavirus coverage is people trying to be helpful all right I'm doing nothing talking about coronavirus except trying to be helpful so the d monetizing has two impacts but one of them is Louisville I'm a little uncertain of so my Google contact told me yesterday something that I believe I don't understand correctly or I disagree with or there's something going on that I need to figure out but anyway she said that deep monetizing doesn't change how many people see it but I'm almost positive that's not true so I'm gonna verify that and I think maybe we're talking about different things because here's here's what what I believe to be true I believe that their recommendation

[31:11]

true I believe that their recommendation engine favours monetized content because why wouldn't it right why wouldn't it favor its own monetized comments yeah if it's going to suggest things for people to see things which are monetized are by definition the things that are you know great for YouTube right somebody says there are thieves but I don't I don't think there's any evidence that ads are playing that people are not getting paid for I don't think that's going on I've I've not seen any evidence of that I think they either show ads or don't show ads they don't show the ads of them keep the money that's the opposite of it wouldn't make sense that the reason that Google do you monetize those things is on behalf of their advertisers if Google made all the decisions with nobody else giving input they would monetize everything why the heck wouldn't they if they're gonna allow the content on their platform at all of course they would

[32:12]

platform at all of course they would monetize it if they could so be careful about who's who's Google making a decision and who's the advertisers making a decision I have confirmed does the experience I'm having is identical to what David Pakman is experiencing on YouTube I just saw an update from him and his experience he's he's a anti-trump left leading guy and his D monetization experience is identical to mine so if you're thinking oh Scott Scott's got they're blaming the advertisers but really it's Google that's doing it mm-hmm there's no evidence of that the evidence that the Liberals and the Conservatives are both being demonetised because of the content if you mentioned politics or coronavirus is just automatic so we're trying to work through that but there appears to be no solution to that as far as I can tell somebody says it's both the advertisers in the Google bias that's the speculation that I don't see

[33:15]

that's the speculation that I don't see evidence of it but I neither could I disprove it can't prove a negative
somebody says Google has proven to be biased in search engines yes but this isn't search engine seized so I'm not saying they're not biased I'm just saying I don't have any evidence that would lead me to say that given that liberals and conservatives are both affected what's going on with your show with Christina we have a be tested that and rejected it so Christina and I were going to do do a separate you know the thing with the two of us and we we filmed a few and played it back to see if we liked what we saw and we just didn't enjoy doing it enough so I think if it had been bad but we loved doing it we probably would have done it until we could do it well but it was bad and we didn't love doing it a lot of it has to do with just two people trying to schedule the same thing at the same time

[34:16]

schedule the same thing at the same time and agree on it and it it just added the level of relationship complexity that we didn't need so we tried it said that's always my strategy my strategy is if you don't know give it a try worst thing that happens is you get embarrassed and you don't do it oh but separately Christina will be producing more piano solos so she's she's working on her working on her repertoire building up her number of songs so every day I go downstairs and she's practicing Chopin and she's working up two lists I guess he's our as one to play so yeah geez she's super gifted watch watching a christy to play Chopin which I've just learned is among the hardest of all pieces to play it's really remarkable I just look at it I go I don't know I don't know how anybody could do that it just seems impossible

[35:19]

could do that it just seems impossible somebody says Corona Beauty wedding well here's the thing we were you know we're engaged and we're talking about our wedding plans so we have not finalized anything but of course all of our plans were built around some kind of travel and one of the main places that were planning to travel this year or at least I was I was going to tell her about that later but was Italy and Italy of course is off the list as is travel basically so uh here's the good news here's the good news this Pronovias is bad for extroverts but it's not bad for everybody if you know what I mean introverts and people who didn't like crowds anyway are just saying are you serious I just got an excuse for being exactly the way I want to be anyway and the answer is yeah you did you just got an excuse for being

[36:20]

did you just got an excuse for being exactly the way you wanted to be any way which is stick to yourself keep your and keep your numbers low so we don't have a plan yet but you are right it probably will be a coronavirus wedding which means do you know that awkward part where you don't know to invite I think we might be able to avoid the awkward part where you don't know who to invite because that's coronavirus well if I will invite nobody or just a few people anyway we'll work that out
yeah introverts are kind of winning in this I have to admit that I'm I'm sort of a converted introvert I would say that I'm genetically inclined to introversion and I like lots of lots of a long time I need lots of a long time I need hours every day where I don't see other people or else I get a

[37:20]

don't see other people or else I get a little squirrely so I have a periscope wedding oh my god that's a good idea I don't think I could convince Christina but I'd do it if it were up to me I'd do it I don't think there's any chance she would agree to it but that is a damn good idea I'll bet you yeah I bet you good to see a bunch of video weddings right because nobody wants to go infect all their own relatives that's the worst thing in the world so like I said I'm gonna be enjoying my alone time I think I'm gonna have to really the experience in Italy which was really scary I think I'm gonna be doing a lot of social distancing I told you that it's helpful to have a project so if you two are going to be social distancing and I hope that you do you should have a project and the

[38:21]

you should have a project and the project is not something you're working on all the time but just something you have as a you know a fun thing that you want to improve a system you're working on and in my case I've decided to work on my arms it and again it doesn't matter what it is just something you always wanted to do that you wouldn't have had time to do before because in your busy life but now you're gonna be home a lot so by my oh my good my goal is I'm going to try to work on my muscles so you can look at it before and after so I'm telling you now that three months from now since I'll have so much time in my home gym I hope to make a muscle and it's bigger and then I'm going to say huh well I was locked up for three four three months but look at these guns now of course that's a vein and not very important objective you might want to learn language you might want to pick up a skill take it take it

[39:22]

want to pick up a skill take it take it online in class but take advantage of it because I'm not entirely sure we're worse off by by pulling back and maybe you know having a little alone time maybe learn to meditate I hear that's good for your your body all right
you could periscope and what so the the age Act program yeah I think I'll just be doing my own thing here working on yoga writing math and quilting very good very good so I think we'll you know I'm inch sized I don't know I'm just looking at just looking at your comments all

[40:27]

at just looking at your comments all right thanks for the comments and I will talk to you later