Episode 847 Scott Adams: Bernie’s Great Week (He Doesn’t Know it Yet), Coronavirus Loserthink

Date: 2020-03-11 | Duration: 27:40

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Biden is racing cognitive decline to the DNC convention President Trump’s coronavirus leadership Bill Mitchell’s coronavirus tweets

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## Transcript

[0:12]

hey everybody come on in here it's time for coffee with Scott Adams and because this is a special day or Wednesday I wore my finest sweatshirt yeah I don't put this on every day not for everybody but it did it for you and if you would like to enjoy the simultaneous it all you need you know you need probably you need a cup or a mug or a glass a tanker chelators tying the canteen jug or flask of vessel of any kind filling with your favorite liquid I like coffee enjoyed me now for the unparalleled pleasure of the dopamine hit of the day the thing that makes absolutely everything including coronavirus better it's a simultaneous set go hmm good morning from Seattle sanctuary Seattle sounds like you're locked in if you go out in the streets anti foul will beat

[1:12]

out in the streets anti foul will beat you up and you'll get the corona virus so so stay down hunker down let's talk about some corona virus stuff and some politic stuff etc I've come to a conclusion that president Trump's toolset is best used against people in other words if you say any Donald Trump President Trump I've got a person that you need to defeat or you need to negotiate with them or you need to win them over and then the president says a person I know how to deal with people and then he goes and he does it and he does it very well the president is really really really good at getting a result with people well I don't know that he's exactly the right person to have a battle with a virus because you can't really insult the virus

[2:13]

can't really insult the virus you can't you can't beat a virus with you know getting more attention on TV you can't reframe a virus pretty much the president's entire toolset is people oriented so he's struggling on this if we're if we're being honest I mean I wouldn't expect you to believe anything I say good about the president if I can't also say well in this area this area is not ideal and I don't think he's nailing it on the corona virus but as I've said I don't think it'll make any difference because it's a weird kind of crisis in which the president's involvement is the least important part I mean if you think about it the president always has to be the the one in charge and takes the blame and gets the credit but how much is the president actually doing really the only thing the president is doing is he aside the right

[3:15]

president is doing is he aside the right people he's done he closed the airports early pretty good you know there's no question about that closing the airports early good move by the president but once he's got pence on board you know I'm sure he gets briefed a lot but mostly his job is just talking to the public and this isn't his best topic anyway I was watching jeopardy last night and apparently I was I was one of the questions jeopardy has had me as or one of the answers or questions whichever it is so I can't tell you how weird my life is to turn on television and watch a Jeopardy question about myself but that was fun Van Jones is warning that because of the primary last night and it looks like Biden's got a commanding lead that if and when Bernie fails they're going to

[4:15]

and when Bernie fails they're going to be a lot of people who were really wound up who lost their champions and I like the way he put it there they're losing their champion meaning that they have an emotional connection to this thing and that's really unpredictable and as as he points out there there's a lot of energy there and there are emotions and you don't know where that's going to go so it's very dangerous for the Democrats somebody is reminding me in the comments I was saying yesterday that whoever canceled well I was saying yesterday that the big rallies should be canceled now apparently the president doesn't have any scheduled so the president didn't have anything to cancel he was just obviously smart enough not to schedule anything well whereas Bernie had to actually cancel something and then I think Biden followed on and canceled some other thing and I thought to myself oh man the president missed this too he's so good at picking up free money you know that I say this all the

[5:18]

money you know that I say this all the time if the president walks by a table and there's some money laying there and he looks around and it doesn't seem to belong to anybody he's usually the smartest one and he says does anybody have this money this belong to anybody no nobody well I guess I'll pick up this free money and he does it in lots of different situations and he had free money sitting on the table for this situation of canceling big events because whoever went first looks like the leader and whoever goes second looks like a follower so the free money is if you know you're gonna cancel your events anyway you might as well announce it go first and be a leader if forces everybody else to be a me-too player who doesn't get as much attention and when they do it's for being the follower so the president should have very early said I'm canceling all my events even if he didn't have any scheduled he should

[6:18]

he didn't have any scheduled he should have just said you know I'm not gonna have any more rallies I'll go first it would have immediately forced Sanders and Biden to do the same but it was going to happen anyway didn't everybody know that the rallies were eventually giving it canceled if it's gonna happen anyway take the free money go for again the the the president missed this opportunity I think but Bertie took it
now I've said provocatively that Bernie is having one of his best weeks now you say to yourself oh god Scott Scott why do you say that when he just got hammered in this latest series of primaries so Biden took the lead he's got a commanding lead it looks like the states that are upcoming or her favorable to Biden and all the smart people are saying Biden is just gonna lock it down

[7:18]

saying Biden is just gonna lock it down but but here's the thing there's sort of a contest going on there's a race within the race there's one race that's the candidate candidates against the other candidates that's the one we talk about but there's another race that's happening right under our eyes as we all see it but we haven't talked about it this way and it's the race to get Biden nominated before his mental decline becomes so obvious that it can't happen and if you've been watching the clips lately of Biden it's looking like he's fading fast and that's confirmed by the fact that his campaign is keeping him away from the stage you don't put your candidate on the stage for only seven minutes yeah if you think he is he's got the goods right nobody would do that so it's obvious that the campaign knows he's failing and failing fast and it's

[8:19]

he's failing and failing fast and it's probably to me - my eyes - my non-medical eyes and you know I'll put the caution on that everybody should put on this which is we're not doctors we can't diagnose things by looking at people on TV unless it's so obvious that even a non doctor could see it and I think we're at that point I think we're well beyond the point where you would have to have a medical degree - look at Joe Biden and say there's something wrong now I don't know specifically what's wrong I don't know how to treat it
it I mean I'm not a doctor but I'm not blind I have highs I have a brain I can see what's happening you know anybody anybody can see and if it were your relative you could see it easily so here's here's the real contest the real contest is that Biden's support is growing while his mental acuity is declining if that crossover happens before the convention and it looks like

[9:22]

before the convention and it looks like there's a good chance that could happen there's a good chance that could happen because there's nobody who doesn't see it at this point anybody who says they don't his sort of lie I think it was was it from fr um I forget his first name David me who tweeted that you know people pretending they can see Biden's mental problems or you know are killing themselves but that's sort of a desperate you know last move it's pretty clear that the Democrats can see it at this point so if if Biden crashes and burns before the convention just because of his own you know declined do you look at birdie what if Bernie is still in the race still has the most votes without being Biden and Biden's mental faculties declined to the point where the Democrats say okay okay we've got to stop this it's it's gonna be really

[10:22]

stop this it's it's gonna be really close isn't it am I wrong that so what day is the convention exactly but it looks like it's gonna be close he might completely fall apart before he actually gets on the convention stage now if he gets to the convention I think he'll get nominated and that is all about the vice president so we'll see all right president Trump keeps being asked whether he's going to be tested for the virus because he shook hands at CPAC or something and his answer is it's just the worst answer I mean he's just he's just not orbing at his usual level for this this crisis and Trump answers that he feels fine yeah and I just cringed I was like oh that's not why you get tested you don't get tested just because you're not

[11:23]

don't get tested just because you're not feeling fine you get tested because you're the commander in chief and you've been exposed and it's just a test do you think somebody in the country could maybe give up a test so the president you get tested I think that would be a worthy trade off we do put resources into protecting our leader greater than the resources we put into protecting any individual and most of us think that's a good idea because the leader influences all of us so here's what the president should say instead of that terrible terrible answer that he feels good oh my god that's just so bad here's what he should say you should say I delegate that decision to my doctor you know the White House physician if he wants me to get tested I will but I'm not the experts so I'm not a doctor I'm gonna let the expert tell me when to be tested he hasn't told me to do that now

[12:24]

tested he hasn't told me to do that now if he said that wouldn't you feel a little bit more comfortable but when he comes out says I'm not getting tested because and and I feel great that makes you feel like he doesn't understand the problem because there are a lot of people without symptoms and that's really the biggest part of the problem if the only people who could spread it were people who showed symptoms we'd be in good shape because we just say symptoms stay away from that one so I don't know I don't think the president could have done much worse in answering that question but he should just defer to his physician next time let's see what else is going on uh I feel as if people don't quite understand this strategy for dealing with the coronavirus and here's the main thing you need to know that if we can slow it down enough it won't overwhelm

[13:25]

slow it down enough it won't overwhelm our systems and that we're not exactly trying to save lives compared to other flus or other problems and we're doing that too you would of course try to save lives but that's not the strategy saving lives is just sort of what you do you always try to save lives but the strategy is to spread out the impact so we're trying to you know do our social distancing and hand-washing and closing events and stuff that's not supposed to stop it well we don't have a problem we can stop we do have a problem that we with great confidence we know we can flatten out the problem and if we flatten it out and spread it down enough then the hospitals will not be overrun the businesses could potentially stay open and we can we can get through it with a you know some predictable amount of pain so it's all about the flattening of it and you know I didn't I didn't want to do what I'm gonna do now but on

[14:26]

want to do what I'm gonna do now but on but I feel like it's a public service so I'm gonna do it I've been watching Bill Mitchell tweeting all week at various various different ways he's saying some form of the that the panic is overdone on this virus and that really the panic is indicative of a political process not scientific or medical so here's one of his tweets today so this is Bill Mitchell he says h1n1 I guess I was was that the swine flu it's fancy name in 2009 infected 61 million Americans 61 freaking million Cove in 19 he goes on has infected a thousand
has received 10,000 times the media coverage they h1n1 received and then Bill Mitchell concludes he says yes folks it's all political

[15:27]

folks it's all political now I ignored the first few times he did this because I liked him you know I bet on his show and stuff and but at this point it's sort of a public service that I stopped this right now don't you agree because the problem here and I think most of you can tell is that he's comparing an apple to an orange during an emergency and if you compare an apple to an orange during an emergency what are the odds you're going to make the right decisions none right it's just a faulty comparison and the reason that you can't compare this coronavirus to any prior flu is that the experts have told you unambiguously it doesn't act like those other ones so there's other ones were plenty scary and and it was with great effort that we got them under control but the experts Bill Mitchell do not say this one is like those other ones except a name you know

[16:28]

those other ones except a name you know they're viruses I guess but otherwise the curve and what it does to you is different for example the other ones of affected children this one affects children far less this one is far more deadly to old people and maybe more viral as well well I think some of the differences are like if you're looking at a bola for example people died pretty quickly so they couldn't spread it so these are just completely different problems so when Bill Mitchell compares corona virus which with all of the effort of the United States has been so far in the earliest stages held to a thousand people he's comparing a full national effort in the very beginning of a problem to amateur problem that's a different problem that happened some other time that's not a good comparison all right it's just not a good comparison and if you try to draw a conclusion from that comparison that therefore it's all political

[17:29]

therefore it's all political you are really damaging country in my opinion because the country needs to know that this isn't like the other ones because knowing that is what causes you to modify your behavior if you don't modify your behavior this is going to be like Italy so I use the example of Italy and ramp because they're already there hospitals are already overrun so we've got some social media reports from doctors in Italian hospitals to say that they're already you know canceling optional surgeries and if it gets continues to get worse that are going to be canceling mandatory surgeries because they only have so much resources and they're and they're filled up so we don't have to wonder if this virus has the potential to to overwhelm our healthcare system because we can watch it we watch it happen in other countries who are not doing as good a job now the fact that we're doing a better job than say maybe Italy was in the United States might

[18:32]

Italy was in the United States might have to do with the fact that we got you know an earlier start maybe maybe they got infected before they knew as much as we did you know there are a lot of differences they have older people maybe there's more smoking there could be lots of things that are different but when you're watching that the one thing you do know is that it can kill enough people to overwhelm your medical resources that that's not in question anymore we don't have to question whether this virus if we let it would kill more people that our health care system can handle we don't have to wonder that's an answered question because Italy has already demonstrated that I think Iran - but we have less information so Bill Mitchell please stop comparing this to any other flu because while we don't want to panic we do want people to know that if they don't modify their behavior this one is not going to be as kind as the other ones that's that's a known fact

[19:40]

and I don't I don't really see this politically being a I just don't see it a political thing all right what else we got going on here I think I'm gonna recant and take back everything I said about Russia and oil prices and Saudi Arabia so you all know the story that Russia lowered prices and Saudi Arabia lower prices and there's a oil price war that could drive our American shale business into bankruptcy because shale cost more to produce than both Saudi Arabia and Russia can produce so if they pump more oil nobody buys our shale oil because there's plenty of cheaper oil to buy instead so what I said was that Russia was attacking basically Saudi Arabia and the United States to take out on our shale business but I read another opinion from somebody who seemed pretty smart who decided that's backwards it's actually Saudi

[20:42]

that's backwards it's actually Saudi Arabia who's taking out Russia and the US shale business and I think well yeah baby maybe both are true so whatever's happening there is a little bit opaque at least to me maybe somebody understands what's going on but I think the u.s. GL business is in a lot a lot of trouble
somebody says every flu you hear the same thing so apparently there's somebody who's still not convinced that this flu is different let me just take it down to one one element for you to check if you think this flu is not as scary as the media is telling you then you would have to understand you have to explain why Italy is having so much trouble now sure I get it the Italy has you know fewer hospital beds and you know they

[21:43]

fewer hospital beds and you know they don't have the facilities of a South Korea or even maybe China I don't know or the United States but Italy did not have their healthcare system crash with prior flus so you have to explain why it did if you can't explain that you have to stop saying it's the same as prior flus if you can't explain it please tell the rest of us because nobody else can explain it except that the flu is as a as a nastier nature for extra old people all right just an update on me because it ties into this Cove it's tough I've got some medical procedures up coming and I'm really concerned because I don't want to be into a situation where I've got a surgery scheduled and I don't know if our healthcare system is still working but today I'm gonna go get my head examined literally with an MRI see

[22:46]

head examined literally with an MRI see if my sinuses can be operated on and I don't know about scheduling the surgery now this seems like a dicey time to even have something scheduled yeah I suppose if I get through the surgery and and I get my pain pain meds I'll be okay because I just have to recover but it's just a terrible time to have some unrelated medical problems that you need the healthcare system to deal with because you just don't know if it'll be there in a month Oh at least be there and available to you it might be crashed by then we'll coronavirus kill the job market well the entire economy is getting depressed because anything that requires people to leave their house and spend money is is that risk so there are tons of people who are gonna lose a lot of income on this I don't know what's going to happen but it's a weird kind of

[23:46]

going to happen but it's a weird kind of it's a weird kind of crisis because there are a whole bunch of businesses that it will do better I mean it's certainly the grocery and the toilet paper business are just doing better right they're not doing worse so it's a it's a weird crisis and that some things will do better while some things will be completely whacked
somebody says have them test for TDs long they're looking in my head that's a good idea we'll see if there's a in their lever removed
yeah somebody says is it possible for you to wait or is it be better to get on with it I'll make that decision pretty soon but it's going to be close the last thing I want to do is walk into a medical facility because at some point there's going to be a crossover we're going to the medical facility to get something fixed that was you know dangerous so you got to get it fixed

[24:48]

dangerous so you got to get it fixed might be more dangerous than staying away from it might be more dangerous to go to a health care facility and be exposed to god-knows-what because it's it isn't yet I mean at the moment I wouldn't worry about it but we're getting close you know a month from now do you think you would go to a hospital for a regular problem maybe not maybe not all right
people who have cabin fever after this yeah I'm starting to get a little squirrely myself because I I keep forgetting that I'm not supposed to leave the house and I find that I'm keeping score I don't know if you're doing that yet but I'm keeping score of how many social contacts I have so if if in a normal world I would have you know ten social contacts I'm trying to cut that down to you know two or three

[25:50]

that down to you know two or three because I don't have to eliminate my social contact I just have to get it down to a number where the corona virus can spread as quickly as it would
so I've serious my count I've I have shaken one hand in total since the coronavirus started or two maybe two I'm going to go to zero both of those cases were I wasn't thinking but in other cases where people have offered to shake hands I've refused and even walking down the sidewalk I took a walk yesterday and somebody was just walking on the sidewalk in the other direction and we we did this like really wide passing so I would think I've got my social contacts down if I had to guess I think I've reduced my social interactions by

[26:51]

I've reduced my social interactions by 80% the personal ones somebody says they're FedEx guy has grown a virus well that's not good somebody says there's going to be a baby boom in nine months maybe all right all the bleach was caught at the market well my my supermarket my stores to have everything except cleaning supplies so all of the all of the Clorox wipes and stuff they all disappear pretty quickly but plenty of food I don't think we're gonna run out of food all right that's all I got for now I will go get my MRI and I'll tell you tomorrow if there's anything in my head