Episode 872 Scott Adams: Ask Me Anything For the Simultaneous Swaddle

Date: 2020-03-26 | Duration: 53:27

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a #TrumpPills availability Italy conspiracy theory Tik Tok and Zoom security concerns Viewer questions

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

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## Transcript

[0:10]

hey everybody hey Dan come on in here I hope you have your soft blankets on it's time to swaddle simultaneous swaddle in effect well have there ever been more news Phil days than these my goodness my goodness let me tell you about some of the things that are happening somebody has invented a two-way valve that turns a ventilator into two ventilators all it is is a tea connection
modifying I assume they saw people modifying ventilators on their own and they said well we'll just make a part it's just this little t-connector you just stick it in and boom you've doubled your ventilator capacity pretty cool pretty cool so India the country of India which is either the biggest producer of hydroxychloroquine which I call the hashtag Trump fills because I

[1:12]

call the hashtag Trump fills because I don't like trying to figure out how to say the big words so the Trump pills are the hydroxychloroquine and the azithromycin and the zinc just call them Trump pills hashtag Trump pills so anyway the India is one of the biggest producers of the one that starts with H and they just announced a block on exports so one of if not the biggest country that makes the drug that everybody needs right now and appears to be in at least a little bit of shortage in places I don't know how much we don't have visibility on that but the biggest country just decided that they're not gonna give it to anybody else now is that because it doesn't work do you think that the country of India you've heard of India probably it's a country yeah you've heard that they have a lot of people there quite a few people you may have heard that there are smart people in

[2:14]

heard that there are smart people in India which is a great understatement there are really really smart people in India do you think that all the smartest people in India who again are really really really smart do you think that they blocked exports of this drug because it doesn't work maybe no no they do not well so the citizens of this country are ready to break the system I think that people are we've been lied to let's let's be honest but not Sara Lee an evil lie meaning that it's pretty obvious at this point that all of the countries see the Trump pills as a big part of the solution and they're doing everything they can to make sure they secure their sources now I assume that the United States is doing the same and I assume that our government quite

[3:15]

and I assume that our government quite responsibly I would say has lied to us but it's a responsible lie because if you if you're trying to protect a limited resource it's kind of the only way to do it so I'm gonna say that my moral I would say my moral line was not crossed by any that probably you had to be done but I would say the cats out of the bag at this point so what I'd like is some visibility on how much do we have much do we need you know we're in this country is there a shortage how do we make it do we even make it in this country I know there's at least one is it Novartis there's at least one company that makes it and it's an American company but I don't think they make it in America so would they have the same problem if if the company whatever country they make it in what if they say there's no exports yeah if it's an American company that has a

[4:16]

American company that has a manufacturing in another country can we get it out how does that work because it seems like just hypothetically if it were if it had been manufactured in India do you think India would let it leave the country just because it's owned by an American company I don't think so not in an emergency probably not so there's a big question in my mind about this I think it's increasingly clear that the difference between Trump's more optimistic view about getting back to work and dr. fowey is more reserved approach both of them productive I think I think that they they sort of mapped out the zone you know one a little bit to the cautious side one a little bit to the optimistic side and that gave you that gave you the zone I think we would have been underserved by having one without the other I think I think we would be underserved but this

[5:17]

think we would be underserved but this guy just gives me a size of the sense of the range that reasonable people can can think about and it's obvious now that part of the difference was that Trump had some early indication that the the meds would be productive and doctor foul she was probably cleverly and I can't read their minds but it's a reasonable speculation that he knew there would be shortage problems if he doubted it and so he was downplaying a little bit so I think that's where we are and I think now it's just sort of obvious now you don't need to go and tell all your friends this you know you you can simply Bank the advantage that you get to hear things that other people are not hearing on the regular news so don't necessarily tell your friends but just just know that you're a little bit ahead of the curve okay yes so there's to the best of my knowledge there's only one study that

[6:18]

my knowledge there's only one study that said it didn't work and that came out of a Chinese University at the same time that everything coming out of China uses misinformation so I think you can really discount the Chinese study let me throw you here's a conspiracy theory for you the following cannot be proven and I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm sure it's true but let me propose it and then you tell you use your own judgment everything you know about the world and reach your reach your own conclusion is this reasonable and it goes like this one of the reasons that Italy is doing so poorly is because China is helping them so that's the conspiracy theory and the conspiracy theory to round it out is that the last thing China wants is for Italy to do really well why you might

[7:18]

Italy to do really well why you might ask is it because they don't like Italy No
No now it has nothing to do with Italy it has to do with how China will look if they're the only ones that have a big problem China needed some other country to be the disaster country so that when we talk about my god I hope it doesn't get as bad as Italy so very cleverly China is helping but does that help include giving the Italians large doses of the hydroxychloroquine I'm guessing no maybe because they told the Italians it doesn't work so well maybe because they wanted to keep it for themselves maybe they didn't want anybody to know how well it worked some doctors did report on it but I don't think China can control every doctors communication everywhere so the news got out but the only reason I can

[8:19]

news got out but the only reason I can think of the Italy would do so badly even even with the older population doesn't quite explain in my mind doesn't feel like that's the whole explanation it feels as though whatever is that Italy is doing is different from what other countries are doing who also have infections something different and only Italy is getting direct advice from China so I would at least put the suggestion out there that China's reputation the things that we do know about so this this speculation isn't something we have any hard evidence of but the things we do know about they're literally doing a disinformation campaign they steal our stuff they're they've got the we Gers in prison camp they're using the flown flume gone people for spare parts there they're killing them to take their organs and selling them and these are just a few of the things we know about right if all of those things are true and I'm pretty

[9:21]

those things are true and I'm pretty sure they are is it a stretch to say that China would throw Italy under the bus so that China would always look like they did a better job than than some other country would they be above that not at all in terms of ethically and morally they are they have demonstrated that they're not even a little bit above that so did China her to Italy's response more than it helped I think you have to put that in the possibility set you know we'll find out later if you find out later that China wasn't pushing the drugs that they know work then that's what it was and we'll probably know that you know some point we'll find out whether Italy was using that drug whether the Chinese were advising them or what but we're going to know that see nothing in our home from China for over

[10:21]

nothing in our home from China for over three years now somebody says you know I was shopping before the lockdown it was just a few days before we all had to stop doing that and I was just picking things off the shelf and just looking at where they were made it's kind of hard not to buy something from China I didn't realize how hard it was now you are the Apple was helping out with the n95 masks right and today they announced that they had sourced some ass so they were going to deliver a bunch and I said to myself wait a minute source them are you telling me that Apple computer doesn't know how to put up a manufacturing plant and make things and the answer is maybe not because I think everybody who everybody who says they're an American company and they're gonna make you some face masks the part they don't say is well not in this country because we don't know how to do anything in this country we don't add make stuff so every time I heard a story of an

[11:23]

so every time I heard a story of an American company that was gonna make some masks you have to ask the second question is where are you gonna make him oh we're all making them in China or we're making them in India or we're making them in Mexico I don't know if theme I don't know if any American company can manufacture anything I don't even know if it's the thing so when I see Apple stepping up to help and all they did is act a broker to find some masts that were somewhere else I mean baby they helped them get going on it or something but not exactly what I was expecting from American companies now I have not dug into the the relief legislation by the way did that get approved where's that I've been off the news for a little while but I have I'm starting to develop an opinion which is that it's a complete abomination it looks like the Republicans and the Democrats just completely failed us completely failed us when when the nation needed them most

[12:25]

us when when the nation needed them most they weren't even a little bit willing to do it right not even a little bit willing yeah so the my pillow company apparently is making some ass and you're right those probably are made in America so there is I guess there is one guy you know or one company anyway the my pillow company they I guess they do know how to make things in America because they make the pillows there if somebody says 3m makes the m95 in South Dakota oh okay so that's good so we do have a little bit of American manufacturing somebody says the issue is ventilators yeah I think the meds once they're available will make event leaders less necessary because people won't get hospitals and hospitalized in the first place all right let's talk about zoom did you know that zoom so it's a company that allows you very easily to do teleconferencing

[13:26]

you very easily to do teleconferencing with lots of different configurations you know one too many several and all that it is a really good product I gotta say so I've used zoom quite a bit and every time I use it I'm frankly impressed it's just really well-designed it's it's pretty bulletproof for these kinds of things you know the telecommunications is always gonna have glitches but it's really bulletproof really easy interface just everything about it is quality so they deserve to be doing well and everybody's using them for business now but there's one little problem it's an American company but much or most of their engineering and even one of their data centers is in China so if you are a big American company and you're talking about top-secret things on zoom' your conversation is going to China into a Chinese data center server and then you

[14:28]

Chinese data center server and then you know sent over to the other side now hypothetically could the government of China listen in on every business conversation that happens on zoom' well in theory no because it's an American company and they must have some control over their technology even in China but in reality of course some number of the employees there are just Chinese spies now do I know that no but do I know that yes let me say that again do I know that there are Chinese spy is working for zoom no I have no information about that whatsoever do I know that Chinese spies are working a zoom yes yes I do 100% because why wouldn't they are you crazy why wouldn't they of course they are now yeah and if they weren't they will and if they if they haven't yet they could

[15:30]

if they if they haven't yet they could and they will so it doesn't even matter if they haven't done it yet it's almost a trivial point the point is it is such an enormous security conflict for a country who is most famous for stealing intellectual property and our most important companies are having their their highly confidential conversations because when you when you're talking it doesn't feel like it's a security problem right we're used to the telephone so you don't want to put something on text somebody can find it but I'll make a phone call because nobody is recording my phone call right well how hard would it be for some technology to just check the language and look for keywords and then record anything that had some interesting keywords pretty easy pretty easy so that is a big problem now also the app tick-tock is owned by China and that app knows a lot about you and it

[16:31]

that app knows a lot about you and it might even have asked for you permission to post things on social media if you did the government of China gets do gets to follow and unfollow people on your behalf and you never know the difference now is that happening my theory is that Twitter management is not intentionally rigging anything but that something's getting rigged there's something clearly getting rigged and so it's got to be some third party so we see their hackers or apps or there's some internal you know internal person who's working for the wrong government or something but yeah Twitter is clearly compromised in terms of some kind of influence but I don't think it's sweater and I don't think that they have a way necessarily even find out what's going on but we know what's going on I mean that that part's confirmed it's easy to tell that it's going home all right

[17:32]

tell that it's going home all right where is our zoom exactly where is the American company that's knocking that off or actually better yet you know since zoom is an American company ideally they would just bring their servers back here which which I think should be a law actually I think there should be a legislation that if you're a telecommunication product it just can't go through China you know we have precedent for that of course so is anybody yeah want to ask some questions I've got my headset on that looks like some people are coming in that's ad carpe carpe Noctem are you there hey good hear from you you have a question for me I wonder great I mean relatively I didn't stuff like that so you know I'm not a conspiracy guy but yeah I was

[18:32]

not a conspiracy guy but yeah I was hoping that that you could provide some imagination that maybe I laughs okay but no Mike my question is that we're hearing lots of things out of New York City about lots of people in there on ventilators and big lines and we're hearing about Reese most recently there was something about a guy dying in the waiting room waiting for a bed right and my question is in the world of selfies and people who are possibly going alive and people who are constantly recording video and uploading it why are we not seeing viral videos of packed emergency rooms and hospitals full of ventilators good question I will give you a possible answer I would say that within the within the hospital they probably don't want to touch phones because phones are just like germ machines so they might not have phones in any of the places

[19:34]

not have phones in any of the places where you would also have ventilators that's possible and probable I would say secondly if you're in the waiting room there are big signs that say you know don't use your cell phone now that I think they're talking about phone calls but I think most people would realize if they took their phone out in a medical facility it's just such a grotesque violation of privacy it could be that just people don't do it or it could be that they've done it and they keep it to themselves because they don't want to be accused of violating somebody's privacy because it's an immense violation right I understand I don't understand all that in the HIPAA violations and privacy and everything but I guess the heart of my question is that you know nobody nobody abides by those things in any other situation yes so it's just very strange to me that that we're not seeing at least one or two live streams coming from well I'll tell you I have been to my health care providers waiting room not not recently because the crisis and

[20:36]

not not recently because the crisis and I was the only person using I think yeah it was like nobody took their phone out but I did you know just texting and stuff so so I get what you're saying so the the implication is if things were as bad as the reports we would surely have visual evidence of that and that's actually a good observation but within the the medical domain you would expect a little less video then and why domain and I want to I want to reiterate that I'm not suggesting anything like I'm not suggesting that this is a giant hoax or anything like that I'm just asking a simple question that that I feel like should have an answer but yeah and I'm getting a lot of pushback from don't ask that seems like a pretty that's a pretty fair question but the other thing might be that I think the the bad spots are spots so if he got to the point where every hospital in New York was you know

[21:37]

every hospital in New York was you know was a death Center then the other odds of a video are pretty high but if most of them are kind of okay but you had you know a couple of bad days that one where something died that the waiting room I don't know that people would take out their phone yeah so so we're sort of in the gray area where I could see why it wouldn't happen but the longer it goes and the worse it gets reportedly the longer we go and don't see if any of them that's perfectly valid questions thanks for that all right yeah see it all right take care that was a good question oh look at all these people want to talk to me let's do Jason Jason are you there Jason can you hear me do you have a question saying is the epicenter and it seems to me you know just being here that that's not the

[22:38]

know just being here that that's not the case that is very much overblown and you know there are people obviously getting sick there is a lot of social distancing but it doesn't seem nearly as bad as they're saying and they have I've seen a lot of reports New York Times had one that there were people dying waiting for beds etc I just don't see that that bad how would you see that my understanding is is it New York City where they've ordered refrigerated trucks for all the bodies yeah we're the only place you would see it is right in the hospital so unless you're in the hospital you shouldn't be seeing anything so III happen to know personally a lot of doctors who you know family members in my social circle that right now working working at hospitals in Westchester in lower Manhattan and I haven't or anything like that I just I think I would have heard that it was a horror story like that so I just I think we should see we should really see what's going on it seems to me to be a little overblown well my understanding

[23:40]

little overblown well my understanding is if you're looking if you look at it as a snapshot in time then you're just looking at the wrong thing because everything is about the rate so they delivered 4,000 ventilators which if you're taking a snapshot would probably be you know 3,500 ventilators more than they need right away but since they think they might need 20,000 we're not talking about a snapshot of today we're talking about the direction it's gone and all the experts saying if you don't clamp it down it'll turn into a disaster so I feel like the experts are giving you the amount of warning that is appropriate to next week even more than appropriate at the moment and maybe that's why you're feeling that the alarm the alarm is sort of a next week alarm so you're not seeing it on the ground yet so that's my best guess but all right thanks like thanks for question all right see won't see what else we got here let's take Brian Brian you look

[24:44]

here let's take Brian Brian you look like you have a question Brian Brian Brian disappeared let's try Tracy Tracy talk to me Tracy you have a question
Manhattan and she's been quarantine herself because she's been ill with an inner ear problem and she was just telling me she went to the hospital today to see a rehab person to help her with this maneuver they have to do she has crystals in her ears that are out of whack and she said the hospital was not busy at all she doesn't know what I'm talking about when I talked to her about the coronavirus because she said she was the only patient that this we have well then so that's exactly what it should look like if it's really an emergency you get that right so the way it should

[25:44]

you get that right so the way it should look like is they've cancelled all the elective surgery and they've massively increased their capacity in anticipation of what next week and the week after look like so what you saw is exactly what it should look like in some hospitals they haven't been hit but they expect it so I think that's all you're saying now of course we could be wrong but thank you thanks for the question we you know anything could happen I'm curious what's gonna happen if we do a really good job of beating the virus and everybody's gonna say see I told you it wasn't real Omar are you there Omar Omar come on technology work it's cooking trying to get owe more on their but looks like that's not gonna work for some reason all right let's try somebody else let's try James James can you hear me if

[26:49]

let's try James James can you hear me if we have oh there you are James do you have a question hello do you have a question it's a bit one-sided but um so we talked about the corner bars coming from China could this I mean just saying this is the theory I'm saying they actually did it but could this be as a test in a way that you could realign like all the manufacturing wisdom general but in a way putting like medical supplies and everything to be more based in China well I think the the result of this will be less stuff based in China because we'll be pulling our supply lines at back so so China will be worse off so if you're trying to imagine that somebody intentionally let the virus out you'd have to say to yourself okay who could gain by such a thing now in my opinion nobody did it

[27:50]

in my opinion nobody did it intentionally I think that's very very unlikely but if you want to go through the mental exercise you'd say who could possibly win by a virus that is not selective I mean it's a little selective by age but not not by country so if you couldn't control it by ethnicity or a country nobody would let that out I mean nobody who knew what they had would let it down so that that would leave the possibility that they thought it would act some other way but even that sounds impossible so I reject all of the intentional theories but that doesn't mean that it didn't get an of a some kind of a research lab because they could have had it for research that doesn't mean that they meant it to get out or that it was a weapon all right thank you for the questions all right so you saw me but let me go back to that you saw me block somebody here because they said look how

[28:53]

somebody here because they said look how you panicked Scott now I don't know how many times I need to tell you this they're in in the early part of the you know just knowing that the pandemic was coming the experts said if we don't do anything you know it will turn into X and you know million a million people die so I quoting the experts also said if we don't do anything that will happen that's still true but we are doing things so those of you who have come to mock me because I said it could be this bad unless we do something you you just don't belong here you just can't be here you're not smart enough if you don't know the difference between what it looks like if you don't do anything and what it looks like if you try really hard to stop it you just you just can't be here you have to find

[29:53]

you just can't be here you have to find some other form of entertainment you don't you don't understand the basics
right I said to prepare begin which is smart and anybody who prepared is probably pretty happy about it because you have toilet paper so certainly mic sir that was the the superstar of the early and correct predictions on this no but nobody comes close to what he was saying and how early but yeah I saw an article that was saying that the the people who also saw Trump coming early tended to be the same people who saw the coronavirus early and I thought that was a good observation because it's kind of true you know Bannen me Mike sort of itch yeah several others but we were the the people who saw a Trump early saw this as well is that a coincidence might not be so alright um let me take another

[30:55]

not be so alright um let me take another question here since I got a lot of people waiting let's see what spin is up to spend coming to you because I like your name can you hear me spend do you have a question yes again go ahead
after all this is over how do you want to see kind of the United States change socially governmentally well you know some of it will be changes that we didn't realize we're changes you know there'll be massive changes just about how we do things to keep viruses from spreading they'll be massive you know financial changes in dislocation so they'll be all kinds of fairly predictable ones but the fun ones are the ones that you don't really feel and see you just sort of noticed that after the fact and one of them is what I keep talking about is that our government is no longer really the

[31:58]

government is no longer really the government making decisions there they're kind of taking their cue from the public and from social media as it as it represents the public and so this idea of the of the public being almost an equal partner with the government and and informing them and working with them and you know pushing and pulling that that's a big deal because it's a wholly investment it's a whole new form of government this simply didn't exist until social media made it so now the other thing that we're getting out of this is that a whole bunch of people met each other who would not have otherwise met and by that I mean the scientists and the the benefit of you know cross fertilizing a bunch of scientists this could be tremendous it could be tremendous the amount of sharing they're probably permanently connected at some point so the next the next pandemic can be that much better but one of the other one of the other sort of unexpected big elements of this is that for how many

[33:00]

elements of this is that for how many years have the green New Deal people been telling us that we should do you know this this big massive society changing expensive trillion dollar thing to address this one problem now without arguing whether or not we should or whether or not you know the science is right or anything like that forget about that for now just the fact of how do you manage your risks and I've been saying from the beginning if you put all of your money and this climate change thing you've missed other gigantic risks that you would be broke for example and I always said pandemic so that was on my short list I would always say pandemic you know media or climate change you can't spend all of your money on any one of them so you have to figure out the right mix and I think that that lesson went from just sort of academic and people here at and immediately forget it - oh my god we can't spend all of our money on the green New Deal and I think

[34:00]

money on the green New Deal and I think that the green new deal probably lost a lot of support in terms of at least the energy behind it people that the same people who supported it will continue to support it but I don't know if it's the same heat anymore because now it's kind of obvious that we would have been in a lot of trouble if we had started three years ago to become a socialist you know socialist world and we'd we just you know put our whole budget into the green new deal we would kind of wish we have that economic strength now so what's that we would have been pretty screwed and I yes yeah yeah so the the Trump doctrine of making sure that you're as strong as possible because that gives you the most flexibility against the most different threats I think it's proven and and so thanks and thanks for the question I think all right we're gonna take another caller let's take Alex who got here early and you should be rewarded for this if

[35:02]

you should be rewarded for this if you're still there Alex Alex we have a question about Robert shall be me yes and do you think that he is gun-shy since he pushed the whole something dark issue in the last election well I can't read his mind I I heard or read that he wasn't going to be involved in politics again you know he's I think he's in his early 70s and I think he was maybe thinking that was a younger man's game or something but I'd be surprised if he hasn't been asked to consult for somebody yeah Bernie or somebody else and I'd be surprised if he had been asked that he didn't give at least a little bit of advice so I don't know and I can't get in his head or what he was thinking but it would be surprising if somebody of that skillset had not been consulted because remember he did work

[36:05]

consulted because remember he did work on the Obama election so we know that and you probably worked on Hillary Clinton's because you can see his fingerprints on it why wouldn't he I mean it seems like they would ask him yeah I just think he would be a little embarrassed if he had two losses on his on his crib sheet well you know nobody nobody counts it that way it just looks that way to you and he'd probably say you know well must've been some voter suppression or something I don't know yeah I don't I I don't want to put words in his head so I have no idea what he's thinking but just the general point that people have reasons just because they don't look obvious to you doesn't mean they don't have reasons all right all right Scott thanks for the question senator mark is here hello senator
Steve Steve went away I think people get shy or maybe they're not really signed up here Gabriel I want to talk to

[37:07]

signed up here Gabriel I want to talk to you Gabriel Gabriel can you hear me do you have a question I was reading a recent document stating that I guess the UK government downgraded coronavirus to you know I guess whatever a lower tier there is aside from like hantavirus and yeah you know some of the more scarier things out there right but I was curious you know I I don't want to I don't want to like ask people to place a wager on this and this is leading to something else but what are the odds you think that we can get those out oh yeah here's what I think is gonna happen I think that the the final death count will be shockingly low and way lower than seasonal flu but only because it's a

[38:09]

seasonal flu but only because it's a full-court press I mean we close down the economy I mean we're just doing you know Herculean efforts so between the fact that the Med the meds seem to really be effective and once those come online this looks like a completely different problem once you have enough test cats test kits once you have enough ventilators once you have enough meds and protective equipment once you have enough supplies and that's guaranteed to happen I think this becomes more trivial but but but until we're armed were somewhat unarmed and we've been on you know defensive retreat but we're just starting to turn the corner and weapons are gonna go hot in the next week or so and then then we're going on offense offense will be a lot more fun go ahead Ashley I work as a pharmacist and one thing I would say is that perhaps this will help us actually better approach the flu and upcoming

[39:11]

better approach the flu and upcoming seasons because yeah some of these practices would definitely prevent some of the thousands of thousands who know deaths that happen you know most years right yeah I would think I would think that the one of the unintended consequences is that regular flu is either more treatable maybe they find something that works on it or at the very least our practices getting so much better that there's just less of it so yeah I'm optimistic about that as well all right thank you for the question shady all right Gabriel's one of the people I see on Twitter making the smart comments so I was happy to talk to him
caller went away caller does not want to talk to me let's try it Omar again Omar don't run away this time Omar how are you okay good good do you have a question for me I do but first of all I just want to thank you for all

[40:14]

all I just want to thank you for all your hard work every day you're getting on twice a day just to make everybody feel better put on the right filters for us your your national treasure Scott and I just want to thank you very much for that well so I think I think everybody all over the country are jumping in and doing what they can do so you know that's that's the fun part there's people just say what can I do you know what am I good at and then they're just doing it so it's it's pretty it's pretty sensational did you have a question yes I do I do so I'm not gonna read your mind but I'm assuming that you were just as pissed off as I was about the stimulus bill today as it seems like it's corporate socialism where big corporations are getting helped out and the average man is getting over so my question to you is that since it's not necessarily that individuals should be bailed out on their needs you know these corporations are being

[41:16]

you know these corporations are being bailed out based on our need for them so that makes them a utility so shouldn't the government put some kind of parameters as to how they're able to use the bailout money so they don't just give each other promotions and stock buybacks yeah and I haven't dug into the details but I know the president wanted that basically everybody wanted it so if everybody was talking in public wanted it and it didn't happen then there must been some lobbyist effect there but I would have to say that Congress failed miserably just just failed right in front of us in a way that is somewhat spectacular because they you know they may or may not sign something it sounded like the president was gonna be pretty flexible and he wasn't he wasn't gonna he wasn't gonna go to war about you know 25 million for this 25 million for that as long as I had a reason you know he may not prefer it but at least you know get the country back on the road and I don't I don't think the president's wrong about that I think that he is actually playing as smart he's being

[42:18]

playing as smart he's being complementary to everybody in Congress even though you shouldn't be you know based on their performance he should be castigating them but I think he's playing it correctly he's smartly saying you know Congress is Congress if they can't do better than that I'm gonna take what I can get but I need this I need something not nothing so something is better than nothing but if Congress is credibility could get any lower I just don't know how I mean this I'm not really the guy who wants to criticize Congress all the time because it's just so easy and obvious and you know perpetual but wow this feels like a whole new level of incompetence can you sort of imagined that when it was a national emergency they would they would let the little stuff go and just focus but they did not they didn't even a little bit they failed us completely and everybody involved with that should be removed from office in my opinion yeah there's one thing I wanted to mention something

[43:19]

one thing I wanted to mention something interesting I learned from a friend of mine who's a Chinese national but you know Alibaba is actually fully functioning and they function very well during the quarantine or during these the cogut crisis and i didn't know why but something that I didn't know was back in the early 2000s I believe when SARS happened Ali Baba had to go through this whole pandemic themselves and they had to self quarantine the entire company so they were actually really well prepared to handle this and I'm wondering if because the US companies all went to this themselves that in the next ten or twenty or thirty years if this were to happen again we would essentially be anti fragile in our in our economy do you think so yeah I think it would depend whether it happens if we wait 20 years and we don't have a pandemic in that time we'll probably go soft budgets will get caught and we'll get you know we'll get complacent but I would say if a pandemic comes back in three years we're really gonna be ready you know it'll be fresh you won't have to tell people what to do you know we'll just go

[44:21]

people what to do you know we'll just go into our routine so it kind of depends when's but yes I think that's one of the big benefits is we're gonna come out ahead preparation wise it will be a much hardened society when we're done that's my hope last last thing and I'll let you go Scott again thank you for the time I know that you know you you're on Instagram now and love your pics but I'm gonna suggest something you should try and tell me what you end up seeing like a few tik-tok Instagram videos and you'll get retargeted by a variety of these very impressive app companies for photos they are you know votes video editing all of which not only are coming out of China but they also happen to be coming out of Wuhan and I just thought it was very very strange I kept seeing this so try that your NCC what you end up finding huh okay oh I'll look for that all right thank you for that all right take care

[45:25]

all right let's talk to Alec see if Alec has a question Alec do you have a question Alec I can sounds like it's raining I'll get into a quieter place in one second my question is what do you think what's your prediction on what's going to happen once this blows over or once we get a handle of it in places like Iran and Hong Kong do you believe the protests will return in full force or is it a little bit too foggy to tell too foggy to tell because the even the protesters are not going to want to gather so at the moment the more more virus there isn't Iran you know maybe the regime is even safer because people just don't want to get in the same place but let's say we get past the virus and people are no longer afraid to gather public Iran has a lot to explain you know they need to explain the shooting down to Ukraine they're lying the bad economy they need to explain why their

[46:27]

economy they need to explain why their pariah they need to explain why their economy is the worst they need to explain why the the virus was so bad there and less bad in other places so it's gonna hurt but on the other hand so just if you just look at all the psychology that goes into that there is something about a national emergency that does make people also pull together and put a little more trust in the regime even if they hated him yesterday so it could work either way so I we're squarely in the fog of war situation good question thank you thank you all right take care let's do let's do Eric Eric Eric Eric Eric can you hear me do you have a question
practive why didn't the president set the pace more on the goodies in the bill like you know the payments directly to

[47:30]

like you know the payments directly to workers directly to tryst free small business loans and then of course then when all the big corporate stuff has to happen to big bailouts well he blames that on Congress kind of seems like he's been sitting back and letting the bill just kind of happened rather than getting out in front taking credit for good yeah you know here's here's what I would have liked to have seen I would like to see the president say both parties have failed us here's your bill you know I need you to vote on this by tomorrow because I think the president could just say you know here's what you gave us with all this pork here's what the Republicans wanted that basically is a giveaway it's a big business according to people who looked at it more than I have I think the president could have said I know what it looks like when you're not doing either of those things so here it is vote on it by tomorrow it's an emergency I think he could have done it in any in any other circumstance of course yeah that wouldn't work but I think he could shine enough light on it

[48:31]

think he could shine enough light on it to just embarrass them now let me give you an example if the president has said look you've completely screwed the pooch on this it's too complicated it's too divisive it's it's just the wrong is wrong in every way here's what we're gonna do we're gonna give everybody $3,000 that's it and then the people who didn't deserve it you people like me who you know my income is at least some of it will be intact after this is over we'll probably be down about a third from newspapers to go on a business forever but people like me I just when I fill in on my taxes I just say yeah I got $3,000 but I didn't deserve it so give me give it back to you at tax time it's the easiest because you don't even have to worry about the clawback until later you don't have to worry that somebody got the got the money based on last year but this was a bad year you don't worry about any of that you just say boom here's your money corporations get nothing now should corporations get nothing and will they go into business and I think the answer

[49:32]

go into business and I think the answer is No if the government wants to help companies stay in business and it's just a generally it's a short cash fall problem well that's what banks do you know maybe maybe the government could guarantee in some cases or the government could take equity they don't like that but the government could why can't we make a profit on this why can't the government say yeah I'll help you out Boeing but I you know I own 10% of your company and when the stock goes back up I'm gonna sell because I'm not in the stock business I'm just helping you out so it feels to me that the government could have done lots of stuff to make sure that the big companies at least have funding but we would get paid back and it seems to me we could just directly give cash to people and if the wrong people got cash well they probably spend it anyway and that's good but they can claw back so I think the president had a high ground play now I don't know the politics of Washington you know maybe I'm being a little too little too idealistic about how easy things are but

[50:34]

idealistic about how easy things are but there are things you can do in a in emergency that you just couldn't do other times and I got a feeling that the that the public was so primed for leadership that the president could have said I'm putting it on one page vote on this tomorrow and I don't even want to see that stuff that you handed me it is so far off the American people should fire every one of you but here's my one page or give it to me tomorrow by tomorrow yep that would for him Serna has kind of talked about how Trump's kind of dropped some opportunities for himself to you know hit you know cetera but thanks take my call agree with all that take my class whatever all right thanks take care getting pretty good questions today all the smart people are here today that didn't work about that up sorry I

[51:40]

didn't work about that up sorry I knocked you off that was a fat finger my problem try somebody else Tony Tony can hear me I can do you have a question bring what's going on with New Orleans if you heard anything about there it seems like that's gonna blow up really soon after New York well um probably you know I would expect that all the metro areas are gonna get some more than others and if their vacation places and you know older places and people are more crowded you know all the usual factors so I don't have any special intel on that but I think that with Mardi Gras and late February there was a lot of seeds that got yeah but my understanding is that Bourbon Street just continued on until the police came in and said what the heck get out of here so I think they had to close down Bourbon Street the big crowded area there alright thanks for question

[52:48]

alright well I seem to be pressing the wrong buttons here and let's try that alright that's all for today I will be back with you at 10:00 Easter time in the morning Eastern not Easter and 7:00 a.m. California time for the simultaneous epigenomics do not miss it do not miss it I'm here to tell you that things are going to turn around is all about supplies now supplies the test supplies the meds supplies of protective equipment and then we've we go on offense very close very close I'll see you in the morning