Episode 332 Scott Adams - Wondering Why Wall Funding Can’t be Negotiated in Public
President Trump has a strong motivation to call it a wall. Dems have a strong motivation to prevent Trump accomplishments Both sides are in complete agreement, only what to call it is disputed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I fund my Periscopes and podcasts via audience micro-donations on Patreon. I prefer this method over accepting advertisements or working for a "boss" somewhere because it keeps my voice independent. No one owns me, and that is rare. I'm trying in my own way to make the world a better place, and your contributions help me stay inspired to do that. See all of my Periscope videos here… https://www.pscp.tv/ScottAdamsSays/1nAKERDOwylGL Find my WhenHub Interface app here… https://interface.whenhub.com
Hey everybody, get in here. This is breaking news. The news is breaking hard. I hope you're all watching over on C-SPAN. They've got the Google hearings and the CEO of Google is doing these hearings. And behind the Google CEO is an activist. Just as activism goes, the Monopoly Man guy has got some r…
View segment →But let's talk about wall funding. The president just had a press conference with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in which they started sort of negotiating in public in front of the press. And Nancy or Schumer said, you know, let's not negotiate in front of the press, blah blah blah. Now if you're n…
View segment →And here's the question I ask myself: Why can't they negotiate in public? I can see lots of topics that you would not want to negotiate in public. For example, trade negotiations, you definitely don't want to do that in public. Decisions on national defense, you do not want to do that in public. Dis…
View segment →And the other thing that was hilarious about this is I saw that the press, whatever you call it, talking to Pelosi and Schumer afterwards. And then Schumer were arguing these technical budget things. You know, it sounded like, well we've offered a CR like last year but the continuing resolutions, th…
View segment →And here's the thing. I'm not even sure I have a bias. I don't think I have necessarily a bias on this topic because to me it's a technical question. It's not a political question. It's just what works. You have both sides agreeing that they want something that works for border security. So the crit…
View segment →All right, first time watching me live? Well it just gets better and better, doesn't it? Trump promised Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Well that wasn't really the important part of the wall, was it? So apparently money is no longer the problem because the Democrats have promised money. All r…
View segment →Hey everybody, get in here. This is breaking news. The news is breaking hard. I hope you're all watching over on C-SPAN. They've got the Google hearings and the CEO of Google is doing these hearings. And behind the Google CEO is an activist. Just as activism goes, the Monopoly Man guy has got some real good activism. So look for the Monopoly Man behind the CEO of Google at the hearings today.
But let's talk about wall funding. The president just had a press conference with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in which they started sort of negotiating in public in front of the press. And Nancy or Schumer said, you know, let's not negotiate in front of the press, blah blah blah.
Now if you're not up to date on what the problem is with the wall funding, I would like to explain it to you in a two-person skit in which I will play President Trump and the part of everybody else. Nancy and Chuck Schumer will be played by Dale. And it goes like this: We need strong border security. I will shut down the government. I also want strong border security. Well I want strong border security. I want strong border security and I'll give you money for it. Well I want money for strong border security. Oh yeah, I'm shutting down the government for that. You're not gonna get money for strong border security. Instead what we've offered you is money for strong border security. If you don't, I'm gonna shut down the government. Or something like that.
Now of course this substantive conversation about border security has really turned into an argument about whether they can or cannot use the words "wall." I suppose if you call it a defense everybody would be happy. But the Democrats can't allow the president to have a political victory.
And here's the question I ask myself: Why can't they negotiate in public? I can see lots of topics that you would not want to negotiate in public. For example, trade negotiations, you definitely don't want to do that in public. Decisions on national defense, you do not want to do that in public. Discussions about how to change a law, you know, that's brainstorming. You don't want any of that stuff in public because people will just be throwing in ideas. It's too early. There are lots of things I would not want to see negotiated in public.
But this one thing, the question of the wall and border security, I really want that negotiated in public. Why not? You could make a good argument there are lots of things not to negotiate in public and the public is better served by that. But this is not one of those. This is a situation that the public is perfectly capable of understanding and all the brainstorming has been done. We basically understand the entire topic, thanks to talking about it for three years. So as a citizen I request of my government that this absolutely should be negotiated in public. Period.
The border security should be negotiated in public. And I want to see how they get around the choice of words, whether it's a wall or a fence. I want to see the President of the United States ask Chuck and Nancy in public, do you think that a solid wall and a fence are equally good protection? I want to see him say, suppose we have different solutions for different places, but for the important parts where there's the biggest problem, is it okay if we use the best technology?
How about if the president simply said this, negotiating in public: Well Chuck and Nancy, neither you nor I are experts on construction of walls and fences and what to do. How about we make this deal: Give us X amount of money and our experts will decide where it needs to be a wall and where it needs to be something else. Why don't we not act like we're good at that because we're politicians, and why don't we let the experts decide where to put a wall?
I would love to see this negotiated in public. Trump is likely an expert? Well he's not. Trump knows construction but who is an expert on building barriers on the border? That's a pretty small expertise.
And the other thing that was hilarious about this is I saw that the press, whatever you call it, talking to Pelosi and Schumer afterwards. And then Schumer were arguing these technical budget things. You know, it sounded like, well we've offered a CR like last year but the continuing resolutions, the process. And I'm just listening to it going, I really don't know what you're saying. We don't care about these budget details. And then the president says we need a wall. It's like watching him club baby harp seals. It's just not a fair fight. Wall, good. Communicating, good. Persuasion, it's visual. Everybody knows what a wall is.
Chuck Schumer: Well we promised last time and why isn't this as good as last time when last time we did a CR and you all know what a CR is but sometimes you do these in packages and we had agreed last year so why isn't the stuff we agreed with last year all versus we did a wall? This is not a fair fight.
So let's negotiate this wall thing in public. And if the president doesn't want to do it with Nancy and Chuck, how about proxies? I would love to see somebody else who actually knows what they're talking about negotiate in public. How about just a Republican who knows what they're talking about and a Democrat who knows what they're talking about. Let's have them debate it.
Now the worst way to do that would be to put them on a two-minute segment on one of the news shows. They yell at each other, they interrupt, and then time runs out. I want a good hour show, could be on C-SPAN or something, in which somebody who actually knows what they're talking about, maybe they've got some backups with them, you know, somebody who can do some fact-checking in real time. And you've got a moderator and you say, all right, should we have a wall everywhere? What do you two say about that? And do you agree some walls are good in some places? Do you both agree with that?
In fact I'll do it. How about I do it? I will moderate the wall budget questions. I'm actually qualified for this. My corporate jobs for years, it was exactly this. It was negotiating budgets. So it was my job to talk to the department heads and negotiate how much their budget was and make it all work under the larger budget. So I could do that. I'll moderate.
And here's the thing. I'm not even sure I have a bias. I don't think I have necessarily a bias on this topic because to me it's a technical question. It's not a political question. It's just what works. You have both sides agreeing that they want something that works for border security. So the critical part of the disagreement is no disagreement at all. Everybody wants good border security. So I don't have any kind of political bias that would be relevant because everybody is on the same side to begin with. There are just some questions about how much would it cost, how long would it take, is a wall as good as a fence. Just technical stuff.
I could have this solved in 24 hours. Put me on camera with two experts who know what they're talking about. We'll have this all sorted out in 24 hours. The only people who can't have solved this are the people who have a political stake in it. So the president has such a strong political motivation about calling it a wall and the Democrats have such a strong political motivation to not call it a wall. That's actually the only remaining problem.
Do you get that? That our government is displaying a level of incompetence that I don't believe we've ever seen. This might be the new highest level of incompetence, at least one that we can understand as voters. We don't understand everything they do because you can't really tell if they've done something wrong if you don't know exactly what they're doing and what's the right thing to do. But in this wall situation we know that both sides agree. We know that the money is available. You have two people agreeing with each other as hard as they can. That's a very unusual situation. They just want to use different words for things.
If you have a situation in which people agreed on the fundamentals and the only thing they were arguing about is how you express it and what you talk about and how you persuade and what words you use, that's all it's down to, who would you call to help you solve that problem? Yeah, you'd call me.
I'm not qualified to do everything. You know, the list of things I'm not qualified for is infinite. The number of things I am qualified to do compared to all the things people can do, it's very small. My total collection of skills is very small compared to all the things one could be skilled at. But this is exactly what I do. This is what I do. I figured out how two people who are in complete agreement can present their case in a way that breaks the logjam.
All right, first time watching me live? Well it just gets better and better, doesn't it?
Trump promised Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Well that wasn't really the important part of the wall, was it? So apparently money is no longer the problem because the Democrats have promised money. All right, that's all I had to say about today and I will talk to you later.
bumbum bumbum bumbum hey everybody get in here is breaking news that news is breaking hard I hope you're all watching over on c-span they've got the Google hearings and the CEO of Google is doing these hearings and behind the Google CEO is an activist just as the the as the monopoly millionaire guy as activism goes got some real good activism so look for the monopoly man behind the CEO of Google at the hearings today but let's talk about wall funding so the president just have a press conference with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in which they started sort of negotiating in public in front of the press and Nancy Schumer said you know let's not negotiate in front of the press blah blah blah now if you're not up to date on what the problem is with the wall funding I would like to explain it to you in a two-person skit in which I will play President Trump and the part of everybody else Nancy and Chuck Schumer will be played by Dale and it goes like this we need strong border security I will shut down the government I also want strong border security well I was a strong border security I want strong border security and I'll give you money for it well I want money for strong border security oh yeah I'm shutting down the government for that you're not gonna get money for strong border security instead what we've offered you is money for strong border security if you don't I'm gonna shut down the government or something like that now of course this substituent substantive conversation about border security has really turned into an argument about whether they can or cannot use the words wall I suppose if you call the defense everybody to be happy but the Democrats can allow the president to have a political victory and here's the question I ask myself why can't they negotiate in public I can see lots of topics that you would not want to negotiate in public for example trade negotiations you definitely don't want to do that in public decisions on national defense you did not want to do that in public discussions about how to change a law you know that's in discussion that's to brainstorming you don't want any of that stuff in public because people will just be throwing in ideas it's too early there are lots of things I would not want to see negotiated in public but this one thing the question of the wall and border security I really want that negotiated in public why not you could make a good argument there are lots of things to not negotiate in public and the public is better served by that but this is not one of those this is a situation that the public is perfectly capable of understanding and all the brainstorming has been done we know what all the options are you know we know we basically understand the entire topic thanks to you know talking about it for three years so as a citizen I request of my government that this absolutely should be negotiated in public period the the border security should be negotiated in public and I want to see how they get around they'll the other choice of words whether it's a a wall or a fence I want to see the President of the United States ask Chuck and Nancy in public do you think that a solid wall and a fence are equally good protection I want to see him say suppose we have different solutions for different places but for the important parts where there's the biggest problem is it okay if we use the best technology how about if the president simply said this negotiating in public well Chuck and Nancy neither you nor I are experts on construction of walls and fences and and what to do how about we make this deal give us X amount of money and our experts will decide where it needs to be a wall and where it needs to be something else why don't we not act like we're good at that because we're politicians and why don't we let the experts decide where to put a wall I would love to see this negotiated in public Trump is likely an expert well he's not the Trump knows construction but who's it who is an expert on building you know barriers on the border that's a pretty pretty small expertise and the other thing that was hilarious about this is I saw that the press whatever you call it talking to Pelosi and Schumer afterwards imposing Schumer were arguing these technical budget things you know it sounded like well we've offered a CR like last year but the continuing resolutions of the process and I'm just listening to it going I really don't know what you're saying we don't care about these budget details and then the president says we need a wall it's like watching him you know club baby harp seals it's just not a fair fight wall good communicating good persuasion it's visual it's you know everybody knows what a wall is Chuck Schubert well we promised last time and why isn't this as good as last time when last time we did a CR and you all know what a CR is but sometimes you do these in packages and we had agreed last year so why isn't the stuff we agreed with last year all versus we did a wall this is not a fair fight so let's negotiate this wall thing in public and if the president doesn't want to do it with Nancy and Chuck how about proxies I would love to see somebody else who actually knows what they're talking about negotiated in public how about just a you know a Republican who knows what they're talking about and a Democrat who knows what they're talking about let's have them debate it now the worst way to do that would be to put them on a two-minute segment on one of the new shows they yell at each other they interrupt and then time runs out I want a good hour show could be on c-span or something in which somebody who actually knows what they're talking about maybe they've got some backups with them you know somebody who can do some fact-checking in real time and you've got a moderator and you say all right all right should we have a wall everywhere what do you two say about that and and do you agree this some walls are good in some places do you both agree with that right in fact I'll do it how about I do it I will moderate the wall budget questions I'm actually qualified for this my my corporate jobs for years it was exactly this it was negotiating budgets so it was my job to talk to the department heads and negotiate how much their budget was and make it all work under the larger budget so I could do that I'll moderate and and here's the thing I'm not even sure I have a bias I don't think I haven't necessarily a bias on this topic because to me it's a technical question it's not a political question it's just what works you have both sides agreeing that they want something that works for border security so the the critical part of the disagreement is no disagreement at all everybody wants good border security so I don't have any kind of political bias that would be relevant because everybody is on the same side to begin with there are just some questions about how much would it cost a long would it take is a wall as good as a fence just technical stuff I could have this solved in 24 hours put me on camera with two experts who can do know what they're talking about well how this all sorted out in 24 hours the only people who can't have solve this are the people who have a political stake in it so the president has such a strong you know political motivation about calling it a wall and the Democrats have such a strong political political motivation to not call it a wall that's actually the only remaining problem do you get that that our government is displaying a level of incompetence that I don't believe we've ever seen this might be the new highest level of incompetence at least one that we can understand as voters we don't understand everything they do is he can you can't really tell if they've done something wrong if you don't know exactly what there and what's the right thing to do but in this wall situation we know that both sides agree we know that the money is available you have two people agreeing with each other as hard as they can that's a very unusual situation they just want to use different words for things if you have a situation in which people agreed on the fundamentals and the only thing they were arguing about is how you express it and what you talk about and how you persuade and what words you use that's all it's down to who would you call to help you solve that problem yeah you'd call me I'm not qualified to do everything you know there the list of things I'm not qualified for it is infinite the number of things I am qualified to do compared to all the things that people can do it's very small right my total total you know a collection of skills is very small compared to all the things one could be skilled at but this this is exactly what I do this is what I do I figured out how to people who are in complete agreement can present their you know present their their case in a way the break in the coal there was a didn't coming call alright first time watching me live well just gets better and better doesn't it Trump promised Mexico was going to pay for the wall well that wasn't really the important part of the wall was it so apparently money isn't no longer than the problem because the Democrats have have pros they you know they promised money all right that's all I had to say about today and I will talk to you later
bumbum bumbum bumbum
hey everybody get in here is breaking
news that news is breaking hard I hope
you're all watching over on c-span
they've got the Google hearings and the
CEO of Google is doing these hearings
and behind the Google CEO is an activist
just as the the as the monopoly
millionaire guy as activism goes got
some real good activism so look for the
monopoly man behind the CEO of Google at
the hearings today but let's talk about
wall funding so the president just have
a press conference with Nancy Pelosi and
Chuck Schumer in which they started sort
of negotiating in public in front of the
press and Nancy Schumer said you know
let's not negotiate in front of the
press blah blah blah now if you're not
up to date on what the problem is with
the wall funding I would like to explain
it to you in a two-person skit in which
I will play President Trump and the part
of everybody else Nancy and Chuck
Schumer will be played by Dale and it
goes like this
we need strong border security I will
shut down the government I also want
strong border security well I was a
strong border security
I want strong border security and I'll
give you money for it
well I want money for strong border
security oh yeah I'm shutting down the
government for that you're not gonna get
money for strong border security instead
what we've offered you is money for
strong border security if you don't
I'm gonna shut down the government or
something like that now of course this
substituent substantive conversation
about border security has really turned
into an argument about whether they can
or cannot use the words wall I suppose
if you call the defense everybody to be
happy but the Democrats can allow the
president to have a political victory
and here's the question I ask myself why
can't they negotiate in public I can see
lots of topics that you would not want
to negotiate in public for example trade
negotiations you definitely don't want
to do that in public decisions on
national defense you did not want to do
that in public discussions about how to
change a law you know that's in
discussion that's to brainstorming you
don't want any of that stuff in public
because people will just be throwing in
ideas it's too early there are lots of
things I would not want to see
negotiated in public but this one thing
the question of the wall and border
security I really want that negotiated
in public why not you could make a good
argument there are lots of things to not
negotiate in public and the public is
better served by that but this is not
one of those this is a situation that
the public is perfectly capable of
understanding and all the brainstorming
has been done we know what all the
options are you know we know we
basically understand the entire topic
thanks to you know talking about it for
three years
so as a citizen I request of my
government that this absolutely should
be negotiated in public period
the the border security should be
negotiated in public and I want to see
how they get around they'll the other
choice of words whether it's a a wall or
a fence I want to see the President of
the United States ask Chuck and Nancy in
public do you think that a solid wall
and a fence are equally good protection
I want to see him say suppose we have
different solutions for different places
but for the important parts where
there's the biggest problem is it okay
if we use the best technology how about
if the president simply said this
negotiating in public well Chuck and
Nancy neither you nor I are experts on
construction of walls and fences and and
what to do how about we make this deal
give us X amount of money and our
experts will decide where it needs to be
a wall and where it needs to be
something else why don't we not act like
we're good at that because we're
politicians and why don't we let the
experts decide where to put a wall I
would love to see this negotiated in
public Trump is likely an expert well
he's not the Trump knows construction
but who's it who is an expert on
building you know barriers on the border
that's a pretty pretty small expertise
and the other thing that was hilarious
about this is I saw that the press
whatever you call it talking to Pelosi
and Schumer afterwards imposing Schumer
were arguing these technical budget
things you know it sounded like well
we've offered a CR like last year but
the continuing resolutions of the
process and I'm just listening to it
going I really don't know what you're
saying we don't care about these budget
details and then the president says we
need a wall
it's like watching him you know club
baby harp seals it's just not a fair
fight wall good communicating good
persuasion it's visual it's you know
everybody knows what a wall is Chuck
Schubert well we promised last time and
why isn't this as good as last time when
last time we did a CR and you all know
what a CR is but sometimes you do these
in packages and we had agreed last year
so why isn't the stuff we agreed with
last year all versus we did a wall this
is not a fair fight so let's negotiate
this wall thing in public and if the
president doesn't want to do it with
Nancy and Chuck
how about proxies I would love to see
somebody else who actually knows what
they're talking about negotiated in
public how about just a you know a
Republican who knows what they're
talking about and a Democrat who knows
what they're talking about let's have
them debate it now the worst way to do
that would be to put them on a
two-minute segment on one of the new
shows they yell at each other they
interrupt and then time runs out I want
a good hour show could be on c-span or
something in which somebody who actually
knows what they're talking about maybe
they've got some backups with them you
know somebody who can do some
fact-checking in real time and you've
got a moderator and you say all right
all right should we have a wall
everywhere what do you two say about
that and and do you agree this some
walls are good in some places do you
both agree with that right in fact I'll
do it how about I do it I will moderate
the wall budget questions I'm actually
qualified for this
my my corporate jobs for years it was
exactly this it was negotiating budgets
so it was my job to talk to the
department heads and negotiate how much
their budget was and make it all work
under the larger budget so I could do
that I'll moderate and and here's the
thing I'm not even sure I have a bias I
don't think I haven't necessarily a bias
on this topic because to me it's a
technical question it's not a political
question
it's just what works you have both sides
agreeing that they want something that
works for border security so the the
critical part of the disagreement is no
disagreement at all
everybody wants good border security so
I don't have any kind of political bias
that would be relevant because everybody
is on the same side to begin with there
are just some questions about how much
would it cost a long would it take is a
wall as good as a fence just technical
stuff I could have this solved in 24
hours
put me on camera with two experts who
can do know what they're talking about
well how this all sorted out in 24 hours
the only people who can't have solve
this are the people who have a political
stake in it so the president has such a
strong you know political motivation
about calling it a wall and the
Democrats have such a strong political
political motivation to not call it a
wall that's actually the only remaining
problem do you get that that our
government is displaying a level of
incompetence that I don't believe we've
ever seen this might be the new highest
level of incompetence at least one that
we can understand as voters we don't
understand everything they do is he can
you can't really tell if they've done
something wrong if you don't know
exactly what there
and what's the right thing to do but in
this wall situation we know that both
sides agree we know that the money is
available you have two people agreeing
with each other as hard as they can
that's a very unusual situation they
just want to use different words for
things if you have a situation in which
people agreed on the fundamentals and
the only thing they were arguing about
is how you express it and what you talk
about and how you persuade and what
words you use that's all it's down to
who would you call to help you solve
that problem yeah you'd call me I'm not
qualified to do everything you know
there the list of things I'm not
qualified for it is infinite the number
of things I am qualified to do compared
to all the things that people can do
it's very small right my total total you
know a collection of skills is very
small compared to all the things one
could be skilled at but this this is
exactly what I do this is what I do I
figured out how to people who are in
complete agreement can present their you
know present their their case in a way
the break in the coal there was a didn't
coming call alright first time watching
me live well just gets better and better
doesn't it Trump promised Mexico was
going to pay for the wall well that
wasn't really the important part of the
wall was it so apparently money isn't no
longer than the problem because the
Democrats have have pros they you know
they promised money all right that's all
I had to say about today and I will talk
to you later
