Episode 954 Scott Adams: Let’s Talk About All the Good News, Because Others Talk About the Bad Stuff

Date: 2020-05-04 | Duration: 57:49

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Content: You can’t suppress ideas in the long run Jake Tapper promotes “Fine People Hoax Light” (Hoax Funnel) Withholding rent or mortgage payments Coronavirus death estimates jumping around Countries making hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus result Reliable test kits and an effective vaccine Weak antibodies and strong antibodies

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

[0:12]

hey everybody let's caught him but in wake up wake up sleepyheads it's time for coffee with Scott Adams well you all know what is the worst thing in the world it's called the corona virus worst thing in the world but what's the best thing in the world you're there it's the best thing Laurel that's called the simultaneous it doesn't take much to participate not really not much all you need there's a cover of mercury glass a tanker chelators dying to contain drug reflects vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine you know the day the thing that makes everything better including the damn pandemic it's called the simultaneous sip and it happens now go mmm I feel there was hospitalization

[1:12]

go mmm I feel there was hospitalization rates falling even as we sit yes indeed so I asked a provocative question on Twitter and I'm watching the the answers come in and this is sort of a head-scratcher sort of a thinker you have to think about this one for a while because your first instinct will be different than what you arrived at and it goes like this we all know and take it as a given as do I the conservative voices are somewhat throttled or suppressed on social media you all agree on that part right there's no disagreement on the premise of the question the conservative voices tend to be throttled and suppressed on social media I think we all were all on that page but here's the question what would be an example of some good idea that got suppressed

[2:13]

suppressed in other words if we're you know the idea of free speech is that some of it is valuable lots of it is not you know that's the nature of human beings a lot of what we say has no use or as wrong or it's misleading or it's you know evil intentions but you don't want to ban speech because supplement is so important edie on on social media we're all aware the Conservatives get a little throttled or sometimes outright banned and the question is what would be some idea or fact that we didn't get to hear because of that now your first your first instinct will be well if they're banning people obviously they're suppressing ideas because those ideas come with the people it's the people who have the ideas but what would be an example because every time you come up with an

[3:14]

because every time you come up with an example the reason that you have the example is because you heard it right somebody said what about nuclear energy as being a good idea well you know it how come you know it I know it how do we know it we all learned it on social media probably you know March night are very active on social media nobody's nobody's suppressing him or a load blame but this way I don't know if his tweets are as visible as anybody else's but do you know any conservative who is not aware that nuclear energy is is a good solution I don't I've never even heard one the efficacy of vaccines efficacy well you're talking about the danger of them are you or are you really talking about efficacy anyway the point is if you can list something that you think was suppressed was it suppressed was it

[4:15]

was suppressed was it suppressed was it right because if you know about it if you know about it and other conservatives know about it wasn't suppressed you is the theory that I'm working on that you can't suppress good ideas in the long run now I'm not saying that the situation as it stands is good I would like to see a fix to now now I see people mentioning specific people but B let me be very specific my question is not about people it's not about people I acknowledge that individuals are getting banned and so those individuals have less options for free speech but if you were to take all of those individuals what idea is it that they're promoting that you've not actually heard now of course it's as someone pointed out it's a trick question it's sort of a trick question because if you've heard of it well how

[5:19]

because if you've heard of it well how bad was it it wasn't very banned if you've heard about it and if you haven't heard about it how would you be able to list it so there might be something that you've never heard of that's been banned Wow how would you know it so here's if you think that I'm going for a specific outcome I'm not really it's just an interesting thing to think about and my my starting hypothesis is the good ideas always do travel good ideas always travel that's that's the Scott theory so if you think the social media could stop a good idea I would say you're gonna need some examples because there may be things that got slowed down a little bit but I don't think you can stop a good idea has you think about all the ideas that I have suggested on social media a lot of them right if you've been

[6:19]

lot of them right if you've been watching me for a while it's mostly what I do I talk about this new idea or that new idea and much of it is if not most is in some way directly or indirectly good for President Trump so how how throttled am I
I if I if I have an idea can I get my idea to the people who I want to I think I can
can I believe that my all of my ideas can go wherever I want them can you think of anything I've ever suggested they got throttled in social media now the best example that that I saw in the comments was the questions is the fine people hoax now the fine people hoax is a hundred percent no that's not true I'd say among conservatives maybe what would you say I'd be looking for your opinion on this maybe half of conservatives know that that's a hoax

[7:21]

conservatives know that that's a hoax because it was so brought widely reported as true that even Republicans probably didn't know it was a hoax until some of us started hearing on that so for the past I don't know three years you've watched me Steve Cortese Joe Pollak among others debunking the fine people Oakes the articles all get published when Steve Cortes does a Prager you video about it I think you got six million views when I don't know how many views Breitbart guests but they're publishing the stories I'm tweeting them you see my tweets I have so you know we checked by a number of users I have four hundred and thirty-five thousand users and this week the president retweeted me four times the president of United States I had so how how shadow band am i if the

[8:24]

how how shadow band am i if the President of the United States is retweeting me four times this week not very much right now you could argue that some of my tweets were less visible and that's probably true you know the algorithm was biasing against me maybe I shall have a million followers by now instead of four hundred and thirty five thousand what asked by ask yourself this what good idea if I ever had that didn't get where it needed to go so I think we we make the mistake of thinking that the the person is the idea and they're really not you know you you there are lots of good arguments against banning people from social media and by the way I think you're gonna see some changes to that let me give you a little prediction I think that you will see some kind of in the future if social media court that can listen to appeals and say okay you know you've probably

[9:25]

and say okay you know you've probably got banned for a good reason you you did break the law I mean you broke the guidelines so they banned you for a good reason but you know five years is long enough or whatever it's bent or let's try it again you know you can go back but we'll keep an eye on you so I think social media is going to have to develop some kind of an appeals process because I think they recognize that otherwise they get accused of being monopolies we don't really mind monopolies when they do good things we don't mind monopoly monopoly is when they're good it's just when they're abusive so we don't mind the the social media giving us these great tools so long as if somebody gets badly treated there's some recourse so I think the social media companies will have to build some kind of recourse to keep the

[10:26]

build some kind of recourse to keep the pressure off them for be monopolies or virtual monopolies alright I saw somebody in the comments mentioning that Breitbart and I think it was Joel who wrote about how Jake Tapper was going to what what Joel called the fine people hoax light you know the light version I refer to this as the hoax it follow when you show somebody that their that their news about the fine people hoax is false that the president was clearly shown the full transcript it's obvious he was excluding the neo-nazis from the fight people because he said it directly I'm not counting them they should be rebuked disavowed totally said but when you debunk somebody you say no that didn't happen he actually said the opposite of what you're saying he disavowed them directly

[11:27]

you're saying he disavowed them directly at the same time you just not showing that part do they say oh wow I guess I got all that wrong I'd better changed my opinion and and say I was wrong now no they they go down the hoax funneled I call it to the next level and the next level is yeah sure they were fine people the president says but why were they marching with Nazis what kind of fine people marched with Nazis can you explain that right together marching together oh but they're fine people but the Nazis aren't but they're marching together explain that okay I will they weren't that that's just a made-up fact it's just fake news nobody was marching with them the only people marching with the neo-nazis were the neo-nazis and if there was anybody there who didn't call themself a neo-nazi if they were marching with them they're neo-nazis

[12:27]

marching with them they're neo-nazis okay what's all agreed on that but I have personally interviewed people who attended and so I know from direct first-hand reports that there were lots of people there for their own purposes the people who were not the neo-nazis never even got close to the neo-nazis there was actually physical separation so that those people that Jake says were marching with the neo-nazis they couldn't they couldn't physically get there because the police were keeping them away the police actually were grabbing people on the way in and saying uh uh come over here you're not with those guys you're just here for your own purposes we're gonna keep you away from the trouble so I to people who as soon as they got there they weren't marching with anybody they didn't there to see the Nazis they weren't there to support them nothing about them they were just there for their own purposes the the police separated them there were two days and in both cases there were different people there on both days but some of that does get

[13:30]

both days but some of that does get confused about what day it is etc anyway point being that the the find people light version is the faint news that the so-called good people were marching with the bad people it just didn't happen literally never happened I made a prediction in several weeks ago that the food supply would be fine I like to revisit my predictions be they right or be they wrong because that's how we learn if we're good at it so I told you that I have you know enough knowledge of the food distribution network you stolen a couple of restaurants and I worked in that food services businesses for years and my sense of it was that you could easily not easily but reliably nothing's easy but reliably you could keep that going you can lose specific parts of it but there it's so redundant and so strong I said we're not going to starve so far so far so good right I've not

[14:34]

so far so far so good right I've not heard of anybody going hungry like literally hungry have you and I don't know why are we so good at you know we received these long lines for food but we also don't know how long you send those lines if there's a long line for food and the line moves pretty quickly I don't know is that a problem or is that the system working well so we have a little bit of non reporting about how many people are going literally hungry and I kind of wonder I'm actually concerned that maybe a sundry reported are you not concerned about that as well why are we hearing nothing about actual hunger I guess it's because if by the time you hear of it you can just say that person are you hungry yes and they say and the reporter would say can I buy you a sandwich and then they wouldn't be hungry anymore so I think the moment that everybody says they're hungry in the United States in May of 2020 if your neighbor says I'm

[15:36]

in May of 2020 if your neighbor says I'm hungry how long does it take you to fix that problem one minute you're hungry why didn't you tell me here's some food I don't think anybody's gonna go hungry because we're just not that kind of people and when the problem isn't that deep because people are still buying food so I would so I think that so far still early but so far my prediction that the food supply would be secure seem solid would you agree by the way big lineup says some food banks yeah there are big lineups of food banks but the good news is there are food banks and I have not heard that the food banks have literally run out of food I've heard them saying you know we'd better get more and we could run out a shortage doesn't necessarily imply hunger correct every city has a food bank yeah it looks like this this does look like one of the success stories and

[16:37]

look like one of the success stories and when something doesn't break you know there's not as much a story about it but think about how remarkable that is think about how remarkably it's easy to focus on all the stuff that went wrong I'll talk about some of that but think about the fact that this is this global problem and you know Society was smart enough to immediately say okay okay these things are critical we're not going to let this break this is critical our medical facilities are our food supply I think we did a good job on priorities I think we did a good job on ventilators food you know keeping the hospital from getting crushed in my opinion the United States just killed it I shouldn't say kill but I think they crushed it in a lot of ways from setting priorities to make sure that they were taken care of in a lot of ways the United States was very

[17:38]

United States was very very competent not necessarily the government I'm not saying the government did all this I'm saying that people just Americans you know are very competent about a lot of stuff it's impressive
so Trump said on his Town Hall last night by the way if you didn't watch the Town Hall the Fox News Town Hall it was set in front of the Lincoln Memorial which is an impressive background but then they had the issue of social distancing so they you know the President had to be far away from the host etc and I just want to give a shout out to the producers at Fox News because where is that we always talk about the on-air talent but I've said this before but man it is just so so we're striking that the producers at Fox News are just really good have you noticed that did

[18:38]

really good have you noticed that did you see that just the the visual of how that looked it was a very tough thing to light it was a very tough thing to get that to get the look right because of the social distancing requirement and I think they nailed it I felt like Oh somebody says they have it oh you know you're right they had a terrible lighting on Trump's face but I feel like that was the natural light I feel like was that yeah you're right Trump's face was not well lit he looked yeah there was a moment I notice that but if you look at the entire set the entire event really well done I thought so I just like to give a shout out to the producers because they don't get that much credit but the the Fox News producers are just so good let's talk about people not paying rent or mortgage

[19:39]

about people not paying rent or mortgage I said I said last night I'll say again if you lost your job don't pay your rent and don't pay your mortgage and I think you're going to be ok
ok now you shouldn't take financial advice from cartoonists so let me tack that on the end of everything but it's generally true that if you are the only person who lost your job and you didn't pay your rent or you didn't pay your mortgage you're in a lot of trouble you're in trouble because you lost your job but you're in trouble with your landlord or your bank that's trouble but if 50 million people or whatever it is don't pay their rent and don't pay their mortgage that's not their problem anymore that's the bank's problem and the landlord's problem now if the landlord owns the building outright and has no mortgage of their own well how much are they going to be hurt by losing a few months of rent quite a bit in terms of cash quite a bit but if they own the

[20:40]

cash quite a bit but if they own the building and after three months people start paying rent again probably be okay probably and how about the banks let's say the landlord owned had a mortgage or people didn't pay their mortgage for the banks could the banks survive well here's the interesting part they have to there's nothing that would prevent there's nothing that would allow us to let the big banks fail it would be too catastrophic so the government will you know backstop the banks and so you'd be pushing all of the problems of you not being able to pay your rent you not being able to pay your mortgage this guy this guy instead of all these individual problems it gets summed up and shoved over to the banks and the banks are in the best position to absorb enormous problems because they have the government of the United States making sure that they can so that's probably just the most efficient the way they handle the problem is to not pay your rent don't

[21:42]

problem is to not pay your rent don't pay your mortgage as long as 50 million people are doing it at the same time I think you're gonna be okay I would like to commit here in public that should there ever be a situation that comes up I don't know how it would but if I'm ever checking anybody's credit and it doesn't look so good and they tell me yeah the reason my credit score doesn't look so good is that I didn't pay my rent or my mortgage for three months during the coronavirus I'm gonna say cool you're good with me you know I don't care what your credit agency says about you that's their problem but if the reason you didn't pay is because the coronavirus doesn't count your credit is good with me so that's that's all I can commit to I can commit that I will never hold you responsible for not paying your rent or your mortgage but use your judgment all right so Trump said the death count might be you know a hundred thousand or

[22:42]

might be you know a hundred thousand or so and then there's some question whether the official death count ever was lower to that fifty or sixty or was it just Trump talking about it and I'll just go back to my general statements about this these are not really that accurate yeah the point the point of the models is the point of the bottles is not to predict they don't do that who said I'll get pathetic or what is pathetic we're not gonna find out because I hate that word so I'm gonna block you just for making a general unpleasant comment so yeah if you're gonna argue about the the estimates moving from 40,000 or not sorry from from a million to a hundred thousand to two hundred thousand and sixty thousand and maybe it's up to hundred thousand if you're saying to yourself hey it's

[23:45]

you're saying to yourself hey it's almost like those projections are not reliable then that out of thing then I think you should tell yourself that's not what they're for they're they're just trying to tell you there's this giant range you could be closer to the bottom or closer to the top depending on what you do but that's all I can tell you and in my world 60,000 and a hundred thousand are basically the same number for model purposes they're in the same range they're basically the same so if it's 60 or it's on thousand ninety-eight percent of the country is going to say well you got it wrong and I'm gonna be the 2% that says um no that's not how models work they got a right because you said it could be anywhere in this range it was close to the range good enough all right um do you know that we still don't know why other countries are doing better or

[24:45]

other countries are doing better or worse than us can you believe can you believe that somebody's asking it how do I know the person you blocked wasn't remarking remarking on something else I don't I don't so how is let's see why don't we know how other countries are doing and you know I talked before about there's a an account on Twitter that I don't know is credible I've got my a questions about it I'm not sure I trust it but at the other end I don't have any reason not to because I've sort of asked in public for anybody to debunk it and I haven't seen it yet but the account of simply tweets good news about hydroxychloroquine now I don't know maybe it's somebody involved in the industry somebody just cares bad I don't know but they're they purport to be tweeting other people's information you know

[25:47]

other people's information you know others other countries results etc I just don't know how accurate it is so it bothers me but but since it hasn't been debunked in a way I've seen yet I'll point it out and ask you to you know be skeptical but here's one of the claims they make apparently Israel is doing great so Israel if you were to believe the numbers from this one account please fact-check me that Israel is doing a really really well complete containing the virus and according to this account they also give people hydroxychloroquine early on as soon as they've got a suspicion that that these people have corona virus so is that it is that is the reason that Israel's having a good result because they have more generous hydroxychloroquine prescriptions well let me add this to the mix do you know what the biggest company in Israel is

[26:47]

what the biggest company in Israel is anybody anybody what's the biggest company in Israel I'm not positive but I think it's Tara te va Tara is if it's not the biggest is one of the biggest I think it's the biggest and tavaa makes among other things hydroxychloroquine check me on that right you need a fact check all this but I believe that Israel lives in the country where their biggest company in the entire country makes hydroxychloroquine now that could be a that could be a coincidence right what about Germany how is Germany's numbers Germany has done pretty well right Germany's done pretty well what's a big company in Germany bear what does bear make well among other things hydroxychloroquine how about India people are saying that for some

[27:47]

India people are saying that for some reason India isn't getting hit that bad what is the what is the country that makes it the most hydroxychloroquine that we consume in the United States anyway India India so I don't know if there's a pattern here yet but the three countries that I know of and I think maybe you could add China to that right because China probably has at least access to hydroxychloroquine if they don't make it they probably make it to someplace but I would like to see somebody comparing all the countries that are using hydroxido not even the countries that are using it I'll go even deeper into conspiracy land here I'd like to see I'd like to see a chart that shows the countries that own in other words they have a they have a hydroxyl chloroquine Factory Manufacturing let's call it in their country I'll bet you that the countries that have their own major source of

[28:51]

that have their own major source of hydroxychloroquine have the best results anybody anybody want to take that bet anybody want to take the bet that the countries that have their own actually manufacturing inside it that makes hydroxychloroquine I'm going to bet that they have the best results even even without knowing how much they prescribe it because here's my deep conspiracy theory are you ready I'm labeling this as a conspiracy theory just just so you know take it too seriously if you're a country that has hydroxychloroquine and you know you need it for your own population and you have your own company that makes it in your country are you gonna be bragging about it are you gonna be telling everybody else that's what you're doing are you going to tell the world hey look at us we're making all this drugs and it's working for us it's too bad if we don't make enough if we made more maybe you could have some too but we're all sent here

[29:52]

but we're all sent here somebody says France use didn't failed that is faint news faint news France used it on people who were already too sick so that doesn't count well I'd also like to know if France makes it do they have a company that makes it I don't know how many companies make this there's this generic at this point if somebody says I'll take the bet then arrivin all of them I like this bet so can someone can somebody do that tweeted at me will you I'm sure that that exists so remember the question is not whether they have a policy to use it the very specific question is do they have a manufacturer in their country because the theory is that they're keeping a secret so if you said well they're they don't have a policy about using it I might say to you don't they do they really not have a policy or you just no no because I think the countries they have it are using it and they may

[30:53]

they have it are using it and they may not be bragging about it this is what one thing so tweet that at me if you can figure it out I there I'll give you the bad news in the other good news okay as I've sent the President did it and the let's say the country and the government did a great job on making ventilators I give them an A+ on ventilators now it turns out maybe the ventilators are more bad than good some doctors are saying yeah maybe it's killing people instead of saving them but at the time that they needed to be made people assume they were vital and I think the country responded very good success story but I would say this about ventilators even though the product itself is complicated and hard to make it's very uh it's very easy to understand if one exists or it doesn't and that was really the question right do we have enough ventilators or do we not it was kind of binary do you

[31:55]

do we not it was kind of binary do you have enough or you don't so I think the government was capable of you know wading into that situation because it was simple can you make them yes do we have enough not yet why don't you make some very simple situation now imagine the government getting involved with test kits do you know how many test kits there are there are hundreds of companies that Bank hundreds of different kinds of test kits that don't use the same processes the same equipment the same anything now imagine the government trying to talk to corporations that know they could make immense amounts of money if the government sort of you know agrees that they're capable because the government would be giving them the money presumably for these test kits so the government goes in and let me let me do this in in a one-act play I will play the government and then I'll also play

[32:56]

the government and then I'll also play the role of the corporation and they're talking to you this says yes we can ramp up and make tests for you and it goes like this hey I'm the government company I hear you can make some test kits you know can mix and test kits and the company says yes we can yeah yeah we can totally make those test kits not probably a million a week uh-huh then the government says great so you have like all the supplies and everything you need to produce a million a week well no we don't have the supplies but but we could get them oh so you can't or you cannot make a million a week it sounds like you don't know up we can totally do it absolutely just give us a big check and we'll be making those test kits all right here's your check I'll check with you back in a week to see how you're doing

[33:56]

see how you're doing takes the check back in a week how do those test kits coming well we ran into a problem turns out we can't get the the certain supply but we're working at it well how long will it take you to get that supply Oh probably just a few days we'll have this taken care of I'll come back in a few days a few days later yeah it wasn't what we thought we got some but they're defective so we're trying again now imagine the government trying to deal with hundreds of corporations who are wait for it wait for it live they're all lying how could the government sort out all of these corporations and startups and everything with their test kits when it's all super complicated and they're all lying how do I know they're all line because I've worked for big corporations it was my job to lie I was a designated liar for my corporations they would say

[34:58]

liar for my corporations they would say here's our story make this look good and I'd say all right I'll give you a I'll give you a TweetDeck in or not a TweetDeck but a slide deck in a couple days and it's gonna tell your story but corporations don't tell the truth they tell you a truth that they hope they can make work somehow there they all over-promised so in the case of the ventilators the government can say can I see it on the test bench you know can I see your production facility if I can't see it it probably doesn't exist can I see a ventilator if I can't see it it's probably not real so with ventilators I think the government had a little bit of ability to manage the situation with corporations they were completely out of their league because the corporations are all liars and they're all too complicated and whoever the poor bastard was in the government who was in charge of figuring out how to help with the testing didn't have a chance because

[36:00]

testing didn't have a chance because everything that person heard was a lie you know I kept saying why can't the task force report to us how we're doing and all these things what why are they giving us wrong numbers they're useless I don't need a raw number I need to know is that half of what we need will we have all of what we need in a week that would be useful that would be context but oh yeah we did a hundred thousand tests this week what kind for whom on what priority how long does it take to get the result you know who has access to that is just useless and I've come to the opinion that it wasn't so much because the task force was incompetent but rather the only people who had the information about the tests anyway were all liars they're just all liars so how could the government know how many tests we had how many we need what we should put money into well we should push what we should do sighs how could they possibly

[37:02]

should do sighs how could they possibly know everybody they talked to was lying I guarantee it they were all lying and lying by lying I mean they were let's say over-promising so yeah yeah we could get you a hundred thousand test kits by Tuesday I think we could do that and the game of course is that you get the government a little bit pregnant Tuesday comes and goes and the government's like how about by the weekend and then the company says yeah yeah by the weekend definitely have a buy the weekend and the weekend comes and goes right so here's my advice for the country we should make our decisions based on the assumption that we will not have tests and not have vaccines that's my advice to the country I think it's a sucker's bet to wait until you have you know one or both of us to get back to work

[38:03]

both of us to get back to work specifically we get back to work mark so I think we are making a bad bad strategic mistake if we're saying that our decisions will depend on tests because we would wait forever and vaccines because there's no strong I know I don't have a strong opinion that they're coming certainly I don't have a strong opinion they'll be here by the end of the year maybe we'll have one someday two years five years I don't know who knows s has been pointed out by others I think half of the deaths in this country were from nursing homes can somebody check that I don't know if it's half but it's some big number how hard would it be to take whatever tests we have and just use them all in the nursing homes what if we just say nursing homes you can't even walk in until you have an instant test because we do have some tests that are like the five-minute types tell me why we don't already have a situation where every

[39:03]

already have a situation where every employee every visitor gets a test or they just can't come in I mean we should be able to lock down the nursing homes a hundred percent you know if we can't lock them down because they're so contained it's not like it's not like the residents are leaving only the employees are how hard would it be to test them everything I don't know for a while anyway because I know we have enough tests to do that we just don't have enough much as we need so if you could cut the deaths in half just by taking care of the nursing homes apparently we're learning a lot about intubation and ventilators and you know there's a nasal cannula it's called and it's been the ventilators to keep you alive and you know maybe some of the meds will keep you alive I think we just have to make the decision without testing and without vaccines in the decision-making that's me all right here's some good news well some good news how about some good news that's why you come here for the good news so I didn't notice until

[40:04]

the good news so I didn't notice until this morning that apparently Ivanka Trump had retweeted one of my tweets from two weeks ago in which I had said that the coming two weeks which is we're sort of at the end of it now that there would be immense breakthroughs and creative inventions and entrepreneurial breakthroughs and it would be breathtaking did that happen do it do we have breathtaking news of new advancements I would say yes we don't know which ones will actually move the needle but man there's a lot of advancements here's some fun ones apparently antibodies are not created equal according to dr. Sanjay Gupta that you might have weak antibodies or you might have strong antibodies it could vary by person but if you find somebody who had a really good antibodies somebody would just you know whack the coronavirus with their own body without any help you can you can find the good ones and you can take them out and you

[41:04]

ones and you can take them out and you can put them in the test tube and you can see how quickly it kills the viruses so you can test very specifically whether your antibodies or mine are the good ones now you take the good ones and then there's this process called monoclonal antibodies where they can clone the best antibodies so you find who has strong ones you clone them what's the problem with that the problem is the problem is that's expensive but how much would rich people pay to get super antibodies a lot so usually the way you solve things that are too expensive is you sell it to rich people first overcharge them because they're willing to pay we used to call this the dumb rich the stupid rich category cuz little over pay for stuff in business we told them the dumb rich and the dumb rich will buy it and then a dry can drive down the price

[42:05]

and then a dry can drive down the price for people who follow I would buy I would overpay for monoclonal antibodies so if you could give me some really really good antibodies tomorrow I'd pay a lot for that and if I have to overpay because I can afford it at the moment if that brings down the price for other people suppose you told me I had to pay twice as much so I could fund somebody else to get it too I might do that well I definitely would do that so there may be a way this monoclonal antibodies could be like the magic bullet but there could be some issue with scaling it up I don't know what that is but it sounds like an engineering problem doesn't it here's a little advice for you if you're trying to predict the future and you've got scientists saying hey I think we could do this versus an engineer saying hey I think we can do this which one is reliable the scientists are saying yeah I got a good feeling this

[43:06]

saying yeah I got a good feeling this will work or the engineer who just has to build something with known technology always bet on the engineer so if it turns out that these monoclonal antibodies are a big deal probably the problem is making enough of it inexpensively that feels like an engineering problem not a science problem right if it's an engineering problem you could be amazed how quickly and efficiently that gets solved because I don't think anybody is really working on it up till now because it hasn't been a big need for it but if we need these monoclonal antibodies and the only thing preventing us from having enough is engineering I tell you engineers are the most underappreciated skill somebody says hey us engineers engineers are the superstars of civilization you know scientists can all the credit right the sexy discoveries and you could have scientists were famous you don't have as

[44:09]

scientists were famous you don't have as many famous engineers but engineers are the ones who build society they they take the science science stuff and make your work so if the only thing keeping us from solving this is engineering we're in good shape that that's the problem you want the problem you want is the one where you've got all the money in the world to solve it because we would you know just open the wallet for anything that worked all the money in the world all the attention focused priority in the world and the only thing you need is engineers that's good news that's the best news you'll ever hear because if it's down to the engineers you win because the engineers had to do engineering they know how to do this stuff all right so that's good news here's some more good news I had I had told you some of you may remember that after 9/11 the government challenged its

[45:10]

after 9/11 the government challenged its laboratories to find a quick way to you know quickly inexpensively test biological agents in the field so the task was create something portable inexpensive that you can make a lot of them and you could easily test if something if there was some suspicion of biological warfare or anthrax or something you could just quickly test people in the field now the technology that was developed to do that is licensable to private companies because when the government invents something they make those they make those licenses available so that there they don't have a monopoly on it and I had seen a bunch of startups that were using that very technology and this was a few years ago so I can imagine how much advance that much better it is now so here's the news that DARPA the u.s. is most advanced military agency has designed to coronavirus test that it can identify identify people before they become infectious before they become infectious

[46:15]

infectious before they become infectious and I think it's a quick test as well and it's described as a potential game-changer of course we say that but everything that sounds good and it came from a project that the Defense Advanced Research Project DARPA that was initially designed for diagnosing those who had become poisoned by germ or chemical warfare I think that's what I was talking about I think this is the technology that came out of that 911 and the anthrax worries etc it's the one hour's waiting for and I assumed that some of the startups that are doing stuff we're using that technology but and it was repurposed for the corona virus blah blah blah so it may be able to detect the presence of the virus as little as 24 hours after a person is infected unbelievable food who makes these devices engineers engineers right we have a problem that is completely

[47:16]

we have a problem that is completely susceptible to engineering and it has now been reduced to an engineering problem if you're gonna bat it along humans and say okay humans you're having a war with this virus if the humans best fighters are the scientists you don't know right scientists might invent something in time they might not but once you've moved the move the fight over to the engineers engineers at versus virus it's over it's over the engineers are gonna crush the virus might take a little time but it's guaranteed once the engineers are the main fighters it's guaranteed all right here's something else interesting a program at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine they're training dogs to sniff the virus and apparently there is reason to believe that that's doable so they don't know yet so they're testing they're testing various dogs but do you

[48:18]

they're testing various dogs but do you know how much of a big deal that would make imagine if you can actually train dogs to sniff out the virus that lets you have big events again suddenly big events are possible because you just have the dog walked down the line and sniff everybody pull the people outta line that are problem you're good to go so you could easily imagine that dogs save the world which would be of all the potential solutions we probably have ten different ways this could get solved and probably all of them will make a little bit of difference it won't be one magic bullet but wouldn't it be cool if the magic bullet was the dogs wouldn't that be cool dogs save humanity I mean save us from this anyway and then you know suddenly bring your dog to work makes a lot of sense so these are really exciting this new test that can find it before your infectious

[49:20]

that can find it before your infectious dogs that might be able to sniff it monoclonal antibodies that you know give me a price if the only problem is that it's expensive give me a price might not be too expensive for me and if I can help drive down the price for the next guy I'll do that I mean so these are big big things now you know but I think part of the reason that Ivanka retweeted me when I said that the next few weeks would have all these amazing things is I think she might see them before you do you know she may have known because she's just closer to the source of her information she may have known that this next two weeks were gonna be before the ages I mean just incredible and it started to look that way and I don't think it's gonna stop the next month will be just ridiculous so that's the good news the good news is engineers will save the world if not dogs dogs and engineers I'd bet

[50:24]

if not dogs dogs and engineers I'd bet on all right is there any story that I've forgotten today an engineer with a dog BAM Kovac doesn't stand a chance you're right somebody says temperature changes might be most reliable Oh for detecting it yeah it could be we the other thing that's happening that could be a gigantic deal is there in a number of places people are being tested for genetic susceptibility so imagine we could find all the people who have a genetic susceptibility on top of any comorbidities just you know in addition to that if we could find the people who are most susceptible genetically then suddenly the the need for 300 million tests might go down to ten million tests overnight because if we find out oh it's

[51:26]

overnight because if we find out oh it's easy to do a genetic test we'll just genetically test anybody who wants it and then you could easily tell which ones are the susceptible ones and then you could easily prioritize your your testing and your your meds and new treatments and stuff for the people who matter or they can sell faisal a better etc so I would think that widespread ability to test DNA especially given that many of us including me have already had our DNA tested so it could be that all I have to do is download my 23andme data which apparently I could do I can just download it use it for other stuff all I have to do is download it upload it to some other sites someday in the future that other site says yeah looks like you don't have that risk where you do they act appropriately all right can we all agree as a people to stipulate that we no longer need to say we want to open up the economy but safely can we can we just say but safely

[52:29]

safely can we can we just say but safely after everything just agree that we all we all know it has to be safe somebody's asking me about my intruder yesterday turned out to be the cat my dog sometimes see the cat often the shadows and then will bark like it's an intruder so I cut my periscope short last night because the dog was doing her tuturro bark which is very distinct but it was the cap is the stock market going to crash again could I I'm actually surprised the stock market is as high as it is if I had to guess I would have guessed it would you know maybe not have gone up as much as a debt it wouldn't surprise me if it drifts back down another 10% I don't think anything the stock market does in the next few months tells you anything doesn't tell you what's happened but I here let me give you one piece of advice that's financial

[53:30]

you one piece of advice that's financial advice that I will I will put my credibility on that the stock market of the United States a diversified portfolio of stocks from the United States will perform well in the long run so if you're buying and selling in the short run well that's just gambling but if you decide to hold it for the long run almost certainly nothing's 100% in this world but as close as you can get to certainty that would be a right move I for one when the stock market crashed took every penny of cash that I had available and bought Amazon stock because it was one of those few times in the world where it was obvious what to do
do usually with investing you're just guessing but with the stock market when every stock crashes and Amazon is one of them and Amazon is obviously the one that's gonna make more money not less you didn't really have to wonder if that was a good idea it was alright even

[54:36]

was a good idea it was alright even Warren Buffett is getting whacked but he'll be back
Elon says Tesla is too pricey I love it when he does that he's not wrong by the way the the thing that's funny about it is they it's true that you know when Tesla when Elon Musk says these prices overstocked it's probably true all right probably
somebody says Scott boy it was odd it is laughing me port as well if you'd like to feel better my my career is probably over in terms of cartooning I would expect that most if not all of the local newspapers will be out of business by the end of the year cuz they depend on advertisement and their margins were shrinking and shrinking anyway so is you know everybody do the physical newspapers were gonna go away but this this accelerated trends as an

[55:38]

this accelerated trends as an accelerated many trends so I like most of you I will be looking for a new form of employment pretty soon I assume I mean I could be wrong but I'm assuming that snapchat yeah I did my snapchat a while ago - what - snapchat go down today snapchats just go just going crazy it's like way up way down let's see what snapchat did today Oh snapchats up ok not bad alright so like most of you I got you know whacked by the financial stuff but not nearly as badly as people who had less so I'm not going to complain because I've been better shape than 99% of the world but it also is also true that my career is probably over and it wasn't my choice

[56:39]

Dilbert the movie I don't think so I don't think I could make a Dilbert movie
so he says James Woods is missing in action I don't know about that no I don't think I could make a Dilbert movie because I'm too unliked by a certain large group in Hollywood and I doubt I can't get that done alright left here you compare that this time to 1968 Hong Kong flu I don't know enough about it
just looking at your comments all right do you ever get speaking engagements anymore well I actually I believe it or not I got some speaking engagement requests during the coronavirus that would have been digital I chose not to do them but I don't get many speaking engagements or I didn't prior to this all right

[57:39]

all right that's all I got for now and I'll talk to you tonight tonight you don't where will see you that