Episode 575 Scott Adams - Invisible Problems With Trump, Immigration Reform, Cyber Attacks on Iran

mom hello Beth and Chris and everybody else coming in here Andrew and Thomas good to see you all all the regulars Jess nice guy Polly hey man good to see you and Erica and Bobo it's time for your favorite part of the day the part that gets it all going on the part of the guest your your body chemistry all psyched up the thing that makes everything better for the rest of the day I call it coffee with Scott Adams featuring the simultaneous up and all you need to enjoy it is a cup or a mug of glass a tankard a Steiner a chalice a thermos or a flask a vessel of any kind put your favorite liquid in there I like coffee and join me now for the unparallel pleasure that I call the simultaneous end oh shivers I tell you it's that good all right I'd like to start by talking about all of the problems with the Trump administration and with President Trump in particular now in the old days when you talked about a president who had problems you would often see a photograph of that problem for example if you had a president that started a war with Iraq let's say you might see pictures of burning buildings and cars and dead people now that's a problem problem is something you can take a picture of but this president seems to have a lot of problems they have one quality in particular have you noticed all of president Trump's flaws his problems his mistakes the horrible things he's done have one quality in common they're all indivisible let me give you an example number one there's Russian collusion which no matter how hard we look for it we can't seem to find it oh we know it's there but it's sort of invisible and by saying when I say we know it's there I mean his critics and then there's of course the obstruction of justice which is obstructing but maybe he didn't some stuff that probably didn't happen because we can't see it so take a picture of some obstruction what's it look like it's there's nothing on the photograph how about all of his inner thoughts that we know are racist and misogynist and awful well I can't get a picture of visit or thoughts I'd like to have a photograph of that but for some reason I can't get hard evidence that his inner thoughts are bad because when we ask him what he's thinking he keeps saying good things that we like it's only that we can imagine is it or thoughts that there's a problem there and you've got the the various many many financial crimes that he's committed as far as we know I mean we don't have any evidence there's nothing we can look at there's no document no photograph no witness but I'm sure if only we had his taxes yes yes that's it if only we had his taxes it would all come apart but for now it's all kind of invisible we can't see it then there are things there the next category of Trump flaws is all the stuff that he hasn't done yet but you know he's gonna do right he hasn't done these things but we know he's that kind of guy who might do things so you got things in the future and you can't really get a photograph of the future so that's unfortunate because all those bad things would you like to know about them in the future then they're looking at my list wait oh yes then there's the category of things that we imagined he said that he didn't say because we can't we can't get a video or an audio of those things so we don't have the physical evidence but we're sure we heard it for example we're sure we heard him call neo-nazis fine people but when we go to the video or the transcript it says the opposite if you read the whole transcript if you read only part of it it does look like that but if read the whole transcript it isn't there so you have this other category of things that we're sure he said but we can't find the video of it can't find the transcript but here's my favorite one so all of those things I think you would agree that all those things you can't hold in your hand you can't take a photograph of it can't find a document but man there must be a lot of stuff it's just all invisible but here's my new favorite thing he's changing the environmental restrictions on I guess a variety of different ways and that will create invisible pollutants that will kill people that we can't identify by name now let me say first of all it might be entirely true and if it is maybe we should you know maybe we should do something different but is it a coincidence that all of the problems that this president is being accused of they all have the same quality that they're invisible sure there might be more people dying in a statistical sense but why is it that you can never get it you can't get a name for the person who died who wouldn't have died otherwise it's a statistical thing I can't get a picture of it I can't I can't you show me the driver's license of somebody who died because of it you can't now I'm now saying that co2 and the pollutants that may be increased to be because of various relaxation of rules I can't say that it's good to relax those rules how the heck would I know but I thirst thing I just think it's interesting that all of the president's flaws are invisible including the ones that science supports even science says trust us we can see this stuff because we're scientists yeah we got models and we got statistics and we got microscopes and we've got we've got machines and and ways to measure things we got chemistry you can't see it sure you can't see it but trust us there are other people who can totally see the problem but again I don't mean to make light of any if if there are problems with the environment I would say if it turned out there were real problems with the environment and real people who know how to measure this stuff say that you know there's there's more bad than good in it well I'll listen to that argument but at the moment it's hard to trust anybody so the the press this next thing is just as funny so the President as you know famously was planning an attack on Iran in retaliation for the drone being taken out and then he changed his mind before the attack was executed and then people said well you know it's good thing you did that because we didn't want to do something disproportionate and now there are reports that the president authorized cyberattacks against the Iranian spy group that was associated with the taking down the drone now what's funny about that have you seen a picture of our cyberattack nope you can't get a picture of a cyberattack have you seen scene interviews with the Iranians who were saying darn they attacked our stuff our computers aren't working no I haven't seen that have you seen the documents that demonstrate there was a cyber attack no so was there a cyber attack was there really a cyber attack maybe but we've got we've reached I'm not saying there wasn't I'm just saying then now instead of all these invisible problems that the president has there's this new category of invisible solutions and one of these invisible solutions that apparently we may have done something like a cyber attack against a group that may or may not actually exist and that cyber attack may or may not have actually changed something or done something or made an impact maybe but I haven't haven't seen a photograph of any of this I haven't seen a witness I'm not so sure that there's a cyber attack now my god so there could be no better indication there were in or approaching or in some kind of golden age then I think historians will look back at with more clarity because they won't have all the personalities to worry about you know time will go by but if we're arguing about invisible flaws where the president who may be attacking another country in an invisible way that shows no no no no no evidence that we can actually observe there later indirectly we're in a pretty good place all our problems and even our solutions are invisible lately here's a I want to run an idea past you I want you to hold in your mind a picture of Eric's wall well I get make a mental picture of Eric's wall well okay got it now next to the mental picture of Eric's wahwah just hold it in your mind Eric's wall well there is now make another mental picture side by side of Amy Klobuchar is it my imagination or does Eric swallow well look like Amy Klobuchar with a different haircut I'm just gonna put that out there doesn't mean anything all right there so Pelosi speaker Pelosi tweeted that she wants to get going on comprehensive immigration reform because the president has delayed apparently by two weeks the rounding up of people who fall into some special category of being in the country illegally I think it's people who skipped court appearances and stuff and so she's saying yeah let's get going with comprehensive immigration reform to which I say I'm glad we got two weeks to get that done how long should it take one week one week right because we know all the parts it's not it's not like there's a big mystery of what do people want to do what are the potential solutions we sort of know what all that looks like we either we just want to do it or not do it and it seems to me that I'm speculating now because I think it's too early to say but what it looks like is that if you go back in time not too far President Trump was saying hey I want to round up people and deport them you know in various times and various different plans and various statements and it was generally thought that that was way over the line in other words most of the country said don't do that don't do that dude don't do that that that would be too cruel to people who had been you know illegal immigrants but had become good citizens and live good lives otherwise that that was too far and it did seem like that but is it my imagination or has all of the ugliness with the whatever you want to call them the detention centers all of the ugliness with the you know the the caravans the number of people coming over is it my imagination or has all of that ugliness which sort of made the president look right because he was trying to decrease incentives to come here but outside of his control the laws of this nation actually created great incentives to come here and as those incentives were causing more and more people to come here it seemed as if the president was being proven right it also seems that even though Democrats like to use the detention centers at the border as a club to beat the president I also think that everyone who uses that as a club against the president also understands that the reason these people are coming in the first place is that our laws are broken which is what the president has been saying the whole time so it feels to be like the president's latest threat to start rounding people up which I think was a more limited roundup to limited to those people who had who had gone through some processing and promised to come back but then you know skipped out on their record dates I guess I think that's the this situation or something similar to it it seems to me that the public has sort of felt a shift on this it seems to me that the public now understands that there isn't any way - just keep going the way we're going in other words it's obvious now that the current set of laws it's obvious is just gonna bring in so many people that whatever we build in terms of humane processing centers detention centers no matter what we throw at it it would just attract more people until its overwhelmed together so for example if you could snap your fingers and double the resources double the funding at the border how long would that last because people would find out look those bad detention centers or they didn't have you know didn't have a blanket for everybody the kids who are not taken care of and you know then there was no air conditioning they fixed all that now they got these great tents with air conditioning kids get free blankets and food it's better than the way we were living before I can't wait to get what to one of those detention centers so the one thing that Democrats consistently get wrong and it's weird because I don't see anybody calling them out for this specifically what Democrats consistently get wrong is incentive it seems like every single policy bad idea the Democrats have have the same problem it's not even a different problem everyone ignores the humans act like human beings the Democrats to their credit to their credit Democrats and people on the Left appear to exhibit more empathy at least exhibit I don't know if they feel more empathy you know I have no reason to believe their inner thoughts are different from anybody else's but at least outwardly they express more empathy for the people who who are in the worst situations I respect that I want to live in a world where people have great empathy for people who are in trouble that's that's the world you want to live in but the problem is that's a goal having having a good outcome for everybody is a goal but goals are not very effective compared to systems I talk about this all the time the best thing you can do sometimes is have the best system and then the outcome is whatever the outcome is but it's the best system you could come up with the the alternative doesn't work whereas you have a you have a goal and you say the goal is everybody is treated humanely but the moment you start that goal and even if you get success toward that goal the system is broken so the goal breaks the system as soon as you say the goal is to treat everybody who comes into the country illegally treat them really well you get more of them until you run into money or the system is overwhelmed Republicans consistently get the system right you know capitalism is better than socialism at least you know in in the extreme sense not in the specific individual cases of health care etc necessarily so look for that Democrats continuously have good goals but Republicans have systems that recognize people operate on incentives and I haven't seen correct me if I'm wrong have you seen any Republicans say what I just said as directly as I just said it has anybody ever told that message that way because whenever I say this I feel as though I don't get any pushback I don't get any pushback somebody says yesterday and Crenshaw said this Reagan did oh you know I'm not aware of that but Reagan might have if he did that was pretty smart somebody says Republicans say it all the time you know I don't think they say it as succinctly as I said it and it matters how you say it and how effectively you say it so if you were to say it and it's very effective to say that your opposition let's say you're Republican and your opposition is Democrats it's very effective to praise them for doing something that at least on the conceptual level is praiseworthy and then at the same time say but this this is an effective it's it's good that you think that way but it's not a good system it's very effective so I think a Republican who said you know Democrats have excellent goals their goals are so good that I share them I would like to see great outcomes for everybody I'd like to see poverty eliminated I'd like to see the best health care at the lowest cost I like every goal that Democrats have what they don't have is a system to get there we have systems we don't know we can get all the way to where these goals are but we know that the system is going to get the closest and if you don't account for human incentives you don't have a good system now if I ran for president and I said to what I just said I don't think I would lose I mean I think I could run for president today and say what I just said and people would just say oh crap that's that makes sense because people don't want to give people don't want to give up their goals and they don't want to be told they're wrong for having them because they know damn well they're right they know that this empathy this feeling for their you know their other human beings is is biologically right morally right ethically right they know they're right they just don't know how to get there and I think it's important to acknowledge their rightness because it's very right it's as right as you can get you know wanting to be good to other people this is the ultimate right nothing is more right than that so arguing against it in even indirectly without mentioning as specifically you know even indirectly arguing against that is weak all right I don't think there's much going on today am alright I think that I'm gonna have to take some questions because otherwise we would be done too early somebody says you're boring well lucky Philippe but lucky for you you got blocked and you don't have to listen to it anymore yay did you see the video I think I just tweeted it of Joe Biden confused about what stays in and then get all confused about some numbers I mean he seemed he seemed lost and old and like he doesn't have it any chance so I think I'm gonna take some questions in a minute if anybody wants to come in to ask me a question but let me review the Democrat challengers number one Joe Biden leading in the polls I say does not have a chance of getting the nomination so my prediction is Joe Biden no chance of getting nominated because it seems to me that even his own team can tell that he doesn't have the goods and I think that the more they see him the more that will be obvious there's not a chance he's gonna make it next Bernie I don't think Bernie has a support in the entire entire group I think Bernie will not be the nominee in part because even Democrats are saying he's too old that brings us to Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren is reasonably solid in terms of all the boring stuff she's a pretty good lawyer she's a pretty good academic she's a pretty good senator but she's not charismatic she does seem to be getting better though I would say that the last few Clips I've seen of her she seems to have found a way to get out of let's let's say her angry bookish mode I mean before I would say she seems a bookish you know academic bookish and sort of angry yeah well it's not really a good look she's sort of shifting her image to be a little bit more let's say substantive and you know I would say someone who's done her homework someone who was the adult in the room kind of thing and she's adding some she's adding a little energy to her presentation she better she better get her energy up but I just don't know if she has enough stuff she just doesn't have she just doesn't have the charisma I mean she's got seriously bad charisma so who's the sleeping horse you know when we saw that clip of a Buddha jej being totally schooled by the black lives matter crowd I think that ended any chance he had because if he were to become like the nominee all Trump would have to do is run that run that one little loop of that one video where he's acting weak in front of just regular citizens and you won't be able to imagine him as a president so I don't think he has a chance so that brings us to Kamala Kamala Harris is she's playing rope-a-dope it seems like correct me if I'm wrong it seems like the Kamala Harris the thing is that she's she's trying to run sort of a strong force doesn't it look like that she's trying to be the person who's left after Biden flames out Bernie doesn't look feasible and Elizabeth Warren doesn't look like she could win so I think it's gonna be Warren and Kamala Harris in the end and I think those two are going to be battling it out for the final position and then the Democrats are going to ask themselves take a step take a step who has a better chance of winning so if you said to yourself okay there are only two Democrats in contention one one is Connell Harrison one is Elizabeth Warren which of those two which of the two seems like more electable well let's go down Lee let's go down the list both are women good both are young enough so that they they're not Bernie or Biden good that's a tie both of them are senators good still a tie both of them are lawyers still a tie both of them are smart still a tie both of them have policies probably Elizabeth Warren has more completed policies but what are what is the public going to care about well they're not going to care that much about the completeness of somebody's policies because they know anything that gets run through Congress turns into a different thing anyway so I don't think that Elizabeth Warren's complete and an admirable I would say command of the topics I don't think that's gonna count too much for voters so I'm gonna say that's a that's more of a nothing there won't be enough of a difference between Warren and Harris for somebody to say I'll take the one who has more complete policies because you figure khamel Harris is a serious person she's smart she says it has advisors she'll have complete policies to at one point you know somebody says Liz Elizabeth Warren is 70 but still young enough give him given our times and she looks good for if Elizabeth Warren is 70 she's she's in really good shape wouldn't you say I mean health-wise she looks younger than 74 sure I'll talk about and rehanging second let me just quickly say that I'm still trying to connect with Andrew Yang's staff to get him booked on the show and maybe after that we'll have a better idea but at the moment I think that Andrew yang is a little bit too idea focused his ideas are really interesting that's why I want to talk to him it's why you're gonna enjoy it what I do yeah but I don't know if he has the gravitas I don't know that Andrew yang has yet demonstrated the I don't know the the energy the power of the charisma the the seriousness that we just imagined when we see a president he seems he seems young and interesting smart you know he's got all kinds of great qualities but maybe they're 2024 qualities if you know what I mean you know it may not be 20/20 qualities time isn't quite right tell see I don't know if she'll make a run but right now she's not making much of a dent in the polls so anyway getting back to Harris versus Warren which I think it'll come down to when he a closer to the primary vote votes it looks to me like they're going to be essentially a tie except for one thing can somebody tell me what is the tiebreaker between Harris and Warren what will be the tiebreaker I will take a sip while I look at the comments and you tell me what would be the tiebreaker all right I'm looking on wait if there's a little delay in your comments yes race that is correct Camila has the person of color thing going for her whereas Warren has the I tried to be a Native American and it didn't work out thing going for so the tiebreaker is authenticity the tiebreaker is authenticity right I would say that Warren has everything except that because the the Native American thing is the smallest problem in the world I mean I personally and I think I've said this before but if anybody hasn't heard it I had exactly the same situation as Elizabeth Warren the kids in my family you know we three kids were told many times that we were descended from a Native American I knew her name her name was Elizabeth that was her server you know anglicized name I know what tribe she was with and I knew approximately when when this person was in our family tree and I grew up being told I was Native American I had a 23andme test turns out I am zero Native Americans zero so and then I found out that there are a lot of people who have had exactly the same situation so apparently when I grew up and when Elizabeth Warren was growing up I guess it was really popular I guess it was really popular to say that your family had some Native American blood I mean when I said it I was bragging well any time I ever said it I never thought I was you know admitting some bad thing in my past I always chose an advantage so I'd be bragging yeah I guess I got some American Indians how about you oh you don't have any oh I'm so sorry I don't know what happened to you you know there were a lot of great Native Americans here and your family didn't really nothing now once you slept with a Native American well you really ought to try it because they're top-shelf I don't know if that's true but I imagine it might be so back to Elizabeth Warren so I would say that Elizabeth Warren's you know error if you want to call it that about thinking she was Native American and claiming that as you know part of her heritage etc and then finding out it wasn't such a big deal it's slightly embarrassing totally unimportant totally not disqualifying from public life totally should be the most trivial thing we think of except she's running she would be running against this guy his name is Donald Trump under that condition only that little problem that tiny little problem of that Native American thing is probably disqualifying because what Trump will do with her is he will make her look like a race a fraud and I don't know if there's anything that looks worse than that on the I mean I'm sure there are worse things but it's pretty bad Carla Harris what's the worst thing that people say about her I won't even wait for the answer the worst thing that people say about Cobble Harris is that she once had an affair with Willie Brown it was a I guess married at the time or something I really don't even care here's how much I care about that knot and keep in mind she would be running against Trump if you're running against Trump the fact that you made some you know questionable decisions with your love life is not gonna look like a big problem if you know what I mean so remember your contrast if she were running against pence well maybe pence could make something out of that or maybe pen supporters could make something out of it because he's the most you know loyal guy you know he plays by the book he's very Bible ready and you know maybe then but if you're running against Trump nobody's gonna be able to take you out because of your love life it's just yeah somebody saying heels up Harris that is completely useless criticism it when you say stuff like that like oh she's heels up or if she only got her got where she is cuz Willie Brown just know when you're saying it it's just for you right because there's nobody laughing about it it's not really that funny it's not interesting doesn't mean anything it won't hurt her in the long run it doesn't have any value so if you want to say heels up Harris and you want to make fun of you know her love life from years ago go ahead but it's just for you it's just for you it doesn't make any impact on the world and should so here's my bottom line I think Bernie and and Biden will will disappear from the top two I think the Harris & Warren will become you know they're the ones that matter because Budaj edge sort of eliminated himself with that little video clip recently I think Andrew yang is interesting but doesn't quite have the gravitas yet check back you know if he maybe does something works on some cause maybe makes a difference some kind of social program or something then 2024 is gonna look really interesting for Andrew yang and I would take a look at him I would give him a serious look honestly just for being different and not being I think he's more you know he would pay more attention to the science and he would be a little more interesting than a regular president Beto has no chance here's why bado has no chance every time a male Democrat supported Beto he would be called a bento male a beta male and even though it's just a joke and it's undone play on words it's kind of gonna hit home a little bit too much yeah I saw Bill Maher so so here's my bottom line I'll talk about Bill Maher bottom line is that it's gonna be worn and Harris who will emerge and between the two Warren will probably have a distinct advantage until she doesn't all right because once the Biden and Bernie votes start getting allocated away from them they have to go somewhere and those votes probably are going to go between Warren and Harris eventually and Harris has the slight advantage on you have it having you know two groups in the bag you know women and people of color alright let's talk about I was watching Bill Maher from real time and I feel as if there's a subtle change happening it's too early to say and I'm not a mind reader so I don't want to try to read his mind but I saw Bill Maher trying to school Democrats on the fact that calling these detention centers concentration camps was go too far and that and that and that it's just it's gonna be a problem so in other words even even Bill Maher is saying this whole Hitler comparison Holocaust concentration camp thing you're just shooting yourselves in the foot it's not hurting Trump it's not rational you know we don't have nobody has a better idea about what to do there so in a way you saw a Bill Maher not directly certainly not directly but feeling himself pulled toward the trumpian way of thinking grudgingly and by that I mean the image the problem that the border is a real problem that nobody has a good real solution to and and I think he sees that right he must see that the Democrats all they have is calling a Hitler stuff but they're not offering anything better and that that's not a solution for success so watching Bill Maher talk about that and then looking at the things he has left to criticize Trump they start looking just personal you know I think they do have some personal history that wasn't good so what's left seems like jokes and exaggerations and hyperbole but it doesn't look that on policy there's that much of a difference anymore still a difference but it's the difference went from it looked like Trump is a monster is going to destroy the world to something more narrow do not be surprised if Bill Maher actually ends up I'm not going to predict this so this is not a prediction but I'll say don't be surprised there's a nonzero chance the Bill Maher could support Trump in the election against whoever he's running against depends who he's running against of course but I can see it happening I would give it a a solid I'm gonna give it a 20% chance I'll give it a 20% chance the bill Mahr will say damn it I still believe everything I've said about this president I still believe all of this is suboptimal I still believe it has all these problems you know I'm not not ignoring them all I still want to do more with climate change I still have all these problems but he's still better than the alternative I could there's a 20% chance he's gonna say that and other people as well I think all right let's take a call just because I said I would let's go to the colors and I get a favor people who have some kind of a profile picture the blank ones hello caller hello do you have a question for me yeah I wanted to talk to you about the socialism versus capitalism thing and okay I think there's there's a reframing of that that will make it a lot more persuasive cuz I remember you saying that the socialism vers capitalism thing it's not persuasive the way that argument is not persuading anyone and I agree with you you have to I think you have to reframe it as monopolies versus decentralization and when he cuz cuz the left they're against monopolies but they don't see a government monopoly as bad and that's exactly what socialism is it's like a government in charge of monopoly so like if it's like yeah yeah I see your point that's pretty good because well people have been saying before is centralization versus decentralization and that has no persuasive power to conceptual but when you said you're why you added to this was monopoly versus some decentralized kind of thing and when you say monopoly I get that instantly I like Oh monopoly that's always bad and in this case you know it's a government monopoly that's pretty good I'm not sure it's enough but I like I like where you're going with that the thinking is is solid on that I would here let me take another run at it I think you should diversify human beings and let me say more about that capitalism diversifies the the natural evil of human beings because you could have a lot of evil people but as long as there are some good ones making some good companies and stuff that are honest the good stuff will rise so capitalism works pretty well that way but if you don't diversify your evil you could end up with a centralized situation in which a few evil people are in charge so in everything you should diversify if you're investing you should diversify because you can't tell which companies are going to be good I often say if you have the option usually try to diversify your bosses having one boss is the worst thing in the world having lots of customers who are effectively your boss let's say you work for yourself maybe this is an analogy what would you rather do have one boss who could turn out to be the worst boss you ever had that's what socialism looks like you know centralizing or lots of lots of customers and any one of those customers can have a bad day and be mad at you but doesn't really that much just it's just one customer so I like where you're going there I don't think my ideas is quite there but I think you moved it along so thank you for that you're welcome Thanks all right that was interesting let's go to Colleen Colleen can you hear me Colleen can you hear me I do you have a question um when you first brought up the whole shadow banning thing and about your followers I have to admit I was a little skeptical because I had never experienced that and I thought well people may just think that they were you know but when I experienced the other day a true shadow banning where you post a comment and on your page it's posted Twitter then it hides it and so in the upcoming election moving forward actual arguments on issues are now being hidden from the public where so when people see tweet not available it's a blocked person but now I I know that's not the case how can we draw more attention to this and get I mean 2020 could be toast if yeah if were manipulated this bad it was just so shocking to me when I saw well I think I think there are a few things that at least we have some hope Oh what number one is the Trump administration seems to be aware of the problem so that that's a big deal right they I believe that there are enough of them in the administration including Trump who understand the social media has at least the ability whether they executed it out they have the ability to determine the election and and thwart the will of the people and make the system less credible so but what do they do about it I would say that the minimum they should do about it between now and Election Day is it it seems like the most accessible thing would would be to have some kind of an algorithm court so some kind of a judge or judges who are the only ones who can see the algorithms but they they have enough technical wherewithal or they're working with people who do that they can look at the algorithm and say okay at least I the judge understands it I I get that I can't tell the public because it's the public notice the algorithm they can game the system so that's the problem but if the judge is the only one who knows that's compatible with our normal justice system you know judges and the legal system and your lawyer can know things that the public doesn't know that's we're used to that so that would probably solve the public's trust issue and it's something I think you could do relatively quickly you know if you decided tomorrow to form algorithm Court it'd probably take you six months to figure out how to do it right and get somebody in place and guess somebody who's at least starting to look at the algorithms and that would give you you know a good year before the election but if you don't do that here's the problem even if I don't I don't know how likely this is but even if all the social media companies said look we're not going to put our finger on the scale hey everybody you know don't do anything that would change this election we we don't want to take that risk too someday somebody's gonna know we did it that'll be terrible for us that's bad for the country don't do it even then people are gonna think they did it and that is terrible for the credibility of the system part of what makes America work not part of the biggest thing that makes America work is credibility because we don't trust other humans and we don't trust companies and we don't trust any politician necessarily but we trust that we live in a system that catches most of the bad behavior not all of it but we do a pretty good job of reining in the bad behavior and if you have a system where the voters can't tell if their vote made a difference or if they were influenced you know by social media that's no longer a stable system and I think we're at the the beginning of the point where the public will say it doesn't even matter if I vote because it's not up to me it's up to five people who determine the algorithms so I think it's some kind of a special judge special court would be the the quickest way to get somebody who we we have a little credibility in in place to at least get some visibility on this stuff I think that would be important all right thank you thank you I'm optimistic that something could happen there by the way all right let's talk to you mark mark you there you have a question for me mark Vermont I see them requiring any working person to get a w-2 or 1099 miscellaneous is there a contractor or something yet when government gives out money they don't give people a 1099 s gov and my view is that you know I have to file a 1099 miscellaneous on somebody if I give them $600 a year you know people are getting six hundred dollars a month and so if people saw and were reported with their 1099 - gov they would be able to determine what the median income is from the government which is something that's invisible right now because every every county every city every state every federal government program gives money to people and doesn't report it and as soon as that medium-level was reported if we had that as a as a basic tax deduction for every person of every age because they're giving it to families - right then we every time government decided to give more money away they would raise the amount of money in the pie that they could no longer tax but be like self-regulating hmm okay that's too complicated for me but looking at the comments it looks like people are loving this idea so I'm gonna say that's a sounds like a good idea to people but there's a little more complicated that I want to talk about today but thank you actually have a example of shadow being I explained it in a book which you cannot search for on Hamazon by the title but it is still there let's say Robin you might object whoa what what's the title of the book we Republicans okay all right thanks for that you're not a real senator are you know that I ran against I again I ran against that John Cornyn is a riding candidate but you know he had ten million dollars to fight me off and all I did was buy a new hat Spurs all right all right thank you mark all right I think that's enough for now I'm going to sign off now and you are going to have a terrific day and I'll talk to you tomorrow

[Music]

[Music]

mom hello Beth and Chris and everybody

else coming in here Andrew and Thomas

good to see you all all the regulars

Jess

nice guy Polly hey man good to see you

and Erica and Bobo it's time for your

favorite part of the day the part that

gets it all going on the part of the

guest your your body chemistry all

psyched up the thing that makes

everything better for the rest of the

day I call it coffee with Scott Adams

featuring the simultaneous up and all

you need to enjoy it is a cup or a mug

of glass a tankard a Steiner a chalice a

thermos or a flask a vessel of any kind

put your favorite liquid in there I like

coffee and join me now for the

unparallel pleasure that I call the

simultaneous end oh

shivers I tell you it's that good all

right I'd like to start by talking about

all of the problems with the Trump

administration and with President Trump

in particular now in the old days when

you talked about a president who had

problems you would often see a

photograph of that problem for example

if you had a president that started a

war with Iraq let's say you might see

pictures of burning buildings and cars

and dead people now that's a problem

problem is something you can take a

picture of

but this president seems to have a lot

of problems they have one quality in

particular have you noticed all of

president Trump's flaws his problems his

mistakes the horrible things he's done

have one quality in common they're all

indivisible let me give you an example

number one there's Russian collusion

which no matter how hard we look for it

we can't seem to find it

oh we know it's there but it's sort of

invisible and by saying when I say we

know it's there I mean his critics and

then there's of course the obstruction

of justice which is obstructing but

maybe he didn't some stuff that probably

didn't happen because we can't see it so

take a picture of some obstruction

what's it look like it's there's nothing

on the photograph how about all of his

inner thoughts that we know are racist

and misogynist and awful well I can't

get a picture of visit or thoughts I'd

like to have a photograph of that but

for some reason I can't get hard

evidence that his inner thoughts are bad

because when we ask him what he's

thinking he keeps saying good things

that we like it's only that we can

imagine is it or thoughts that there's a

problem there and you've got the the

various many many financial crimes that

he's committed as far as we know I mean

we don't have any evidence there's

nothing we can look at there's no

document no photograph no witness but

I'm sure if only we had his taxes yes

yes that's it if only we had his taxes

it would all come apart but for now it's

all kind of invisible we can't see it

then there are things there the next

category of Trump flaws is all the stuff

that he hasn't done yet

but you know he's gonna do right he

hasn't done these things but we know

he's that kind of guy who might do

things so you got things in the future

and you can't really get a photograph of

the future so that's unfortunate because

all those bad things would you like to

know about them in the future

then they're looking at my list wait

oh yes then there's the category of

things that we imagined he said that he

didn't say because we can't we can't get

a video or an audio of those things so

we don't have the physical evidence but

we're sure we heard it for example we're

sure we heard him call neo-nazis fine

people but when we go to the video or

the transcript it says the opposite if

you read the whole transcript if you

read only part of it it does look like

that but if read the whole transcript it

isn't there so you have this other

category of things that we're sure he

said but we can't find the video of it

can't find the transcript but here's my

favorite one so all of those things I

think you would agree that all those

things you can't hold in your hand you

can't take a photograph of it can't find

a document but man there must be a lot

of stuff it's just all invisible but

here's my new favorite thing he's

changing the environmental restrictions

on I guess a variety of different ways

and that will create invisible

pollutants that will kill people that we

can't identify by name now let me say

first of all it might be entirely true

and if it is maybe we should you know

maybe we should do something different

but is it a coincidence that all of the

problems that this president is being

accused of they all have the same

quality that they're invisible sure

there might be more people dying in a

statistical sense but why is it that you

can never get it you can't get a name

for the person who died who wouldn't

have died otherwise it's a statistical

thing I can't get a picture of it I

can't I can't you show me the driver's

license of somebody who died because of

it you can't now I'm now saying that co2

and the pollutants that may be increased

to be because of various relaxation of

rules I can't say that it's good to

relax those rules how the heck would I

know but I thirst thing I just think

it's interesting that all of the

president's flaws are invisible

including the ones that science supports

even science says trust us we can see

this stuff because we're scientists yeah

we got models and we got statistics and

we got microscopes and we've got we've

got machines and and ways to measure

things we got chemistry you can't see it

sure you can't see it but trust us there

are other people who can totally see the

problem but again I don't mean to make

light of any if if there are problems

with the environment I would say if it

turned out there were real problems with

the environment and real people who know

how to measure this stuff say that you

know there's there's more bad than good

in it well I'll listen to that argument

but at the moment it's hard to trust

anybody so the the press this next thing

is just as funny so the President as you

know famously was planning an attack on

Iran in retaliation for the drone being

taken out and then he changed his mind

before the attack was executed

and then people said well you know it's

good thing you did that because we

didn't want to do something

disproportionate and now there are

reports that the president authorized

cyberattacks against the Iranian spy

group that was associated with the

taking down the drone now what's funny

about that have you seen a picture of

our cyberattack nope you can't get a

picture of a cyberattack

have you seen scene interviews with the

Iranians who were saying darn they

attacked our stuff our computers aren't

working no I haven't seen that have you

seen the documents that demonstrate

there was a cyber attack no so was there

a cyber attack was there really a cyber

attack maybe but we've got we've reached

I'm not saying there wasn't I'm just

saying

then now instead of all these invisible

problems that the president has there's

this new category of invisible solutions

and one of these invisible solutions

that apparently we may have done

something like a cyber attack against a

group that may or may not actually exist

and that cyber attack may or may not

have actually changed something or done

something or made an impact maybe but I

haven't haven't seen a photograph of any

of this I haven't seen a witness I'm not

so sure that there's a cyber attack now

my god so there could be no better

indication there were in or approaching

or in some kind of golden age then I

think historians will look back at with

more clarity because they won't have all

the personalities to worry about you

know time will go by but if we're

arguing about invisible flaws where the

president who may be attacking another

country in an invisible way that shows

no no no no no evidence that we can

actually observe there

later indirectly we're in a pretty good

place all our problems and even our

solutions are invisible lately

here's a I want to run an idea past you

I want you to hold in your mind a

picture of Eric's wall well I get make a

mental picture of Eric's wall well okay

got it

now next to the mental picture of Eric's

wahwah just hold it in your mind

Eric's wall well there is now make

another mental picture side by side of

Amy Klobuchar is it my imagination or

does Eric swallow well look like Amy

Klobuchar with a different haircut I'm

just gonna put that out there doesn't

mean anything all right there so Pelosi

speaker Pelosi tweeted that she wants to

get going on comprehensive immigration

reform because the president has delayed

apparently by two weeks the rounding up

of people who fall into some special

category of being in the country

illegally I think it's people who

skipped court appearances and stuff and

so she's saying yeah let's get going

with comprehensive immigration reform to

which I say I'm glad we got two weeks to

get that done how long should it take

one week one week right because we know

all the parts it's not it's not like

there's a big mystery of what do people

want to do what are the potential

solutions we sort of know what all that

looks like we either we just want to do

it or not do it and it seems to me that

I'm speculating now because I think it's

too early to say but what it looks like

is that if you go back in time not too

far President Trump was saying hey I

want to round up people and deport them

you know in various times and various

different

plans and various statements and it was

generally thought that that was way over

the line in other words most of the

country said don't do that don't do that

dude don't do that that that would be

too cruel to people who had been you

know illegal immigrants but had become

good citizens and live good lives

otherwise that that was too far and it

did seem like that but is it my

imagination or has all of the ugliness

with the whatever you want to call them

the detention centers all of the

ugliness with the you know the the

caravans the number of people coming

over is it my imagination or has all of

that ugliness which sort of made the

president look right because he was

trying to decrease incentives to come

here but outside of his control the laws

of this nation actually created great

incentives to come here and as those

incentives were causing more and more

people to come here it seemed as if the

president was being proven right it also

seems that even though Democrats like to

use the detention centers at the border

as a club to beat the president I also

think that everyone who uses that as a

club against the president also

understands that the reason these people

are coming in the first place is that

our laws are broken which is what the

president has been saying the whole time

so it feels to be like the president's

latest threat to start rounding people

up which I think was a more limited

roundup to limited to those people who

had who had gone through some processing

and promised to come back but then you

know skipped out on their record dates I

guess I think that's the this situation

or something similar to it it seems to

me that the public has sort of felt a

shift on this it seems to me that the

public now understands that there isn't

any way

- just keep going the way we're going in

other words it's obvious now that the

current set of laws it's obvious is just

gonna bring in so many people that

whatever we build in terms of humane

processing centers detention centers no

matter what we throw at it it would just

attract more people until its

overwhelmed together so for example if

you could snap your fingers and double

the resources double the funding at the

border how long would that last because

people would find out look those bad

detention centers or they didn't have

you know didn't have a blanket for

everybody the kids who are not taken

care of and you know then there was no

air conditioning they fixed all that now

they got these great tents with air

conditioning kids get free blankets and

food it's better than the way we were

living before I can't wait to get what

to one of those detention centers so the

one thing that Democrats consistently

get wrong and it's weird because I don't

see anybody calling them out for this

specifically what Democrats consistently

get wrong is incentive it seems like

every single policy bad idea the

Democrats have have the same problem

it's not even a different problem

everyone ignores the humans act like

human beings the Democrats to their

credit to their credit Democrats and

people on the Left appear to exhibit

more empathy at least exhibit I don't

know if they feel more empathy you know

I have no reason to believe their inner

thoughts are different from anybody

else's but at least outwardly they

express more empathy for the people who

who are in the worst situations I

respect that I want to live in a world

where people have great empathy for

people who are in trouble that's that's

the world you want to live in but the

problem is that's a goal having having a

good outcome for everybody is a goal but

goals are not very effective compared to

systems I talk about this all the time

the best thing you can do sometimes is

have the best system and then the

outcome is whatever the outcome is but

it's the best system you could come up

with the the alternative doesn't work

whereas you have a you have a goal and

you say the goal is everybody is treated

humanely but the moment you start that

goal and even if you get success toward

that goal the system is broken so the

goal breaks the system as soon as you

say the goal is to treat everybody who

comes into the country illegally treat

them really well you get more of them

until you run into money or the system

is overwhelmed

Republicans consistently get the system

right you know capitalism is better than

socialism at least you know in in the

extreme sense not in the specific

individual cases of health care etc

necessarily so look for that Democrats

continuously have good goals but

Republicans have systems that recognize

people operate on incentives and I

haven't seen correct me if I'm wrong

have you seen any Republicans say what I

just said as directly as I just said it

has anybody ever told that message that

way because whenever I say this I feel

as though I don't get any pushback I

don't get any pushback somebody says

yesterday and Crenshaw said this Reagan

did oh you know I'm not aware of that

but Reagan might have if he did that was

pretty smart

somebody says Republicans say it all the

time you know I don't think they say it

as succinctly as I said it and it

matters how you say it and how

effectively you say it so if you were to

say it and it's very effective to say

that your opposition let's say you're

Republican and your opposition is

Democrats it's very effective to praise

them for doing something that

at least on the conceptual level is

praiseworthy and then at the same time

say but this this is an effective it's

it's good that you think that way but

it's not a good system it's very

effective so I think a Republican who

said you know Democrats have excellent

goals their goals are so good that I

share them I would like to see great

outcomes for everybody I'd like to see

poverty eliminated I'd like to see the

best health care at the lowest cost I

like every goal that Democrats have what

they don't have is a system to get there

we have systems we don't know we can get

all the way to where these goals are but

we know that the system is going to get

the closest and if you don't account for

human incentives you don't have a good

system now if I ran for president and I

said to what I just said I don't think I

would lose I mean I think I could run

for president today and say what I just

said and people would just say oh crap

that's that makes sense

because people don't want to give people

don't want to give up their goals and

they don't want to be told they're wrong

for having them because they know damn

well they're right they know that this

empathy this feeling for their you know

their other human beings is is

biologically right morally right

ethically right they know they're right

they just don't know how to get there

and I think it's important to

acknowledge their rightness

because it's very right it's as right as

you can get you know wanting to be good

to other people this is the ultimate

right nothing is more right than that

so arguing against it in even indirectly

without mentioning as specifically you

know even indirectly arguing against

that is weak all right

I don't think there's much going on

today am alright I think that I'm gonna

have to take some questions because

otherwise we would be done too early

somebody says you're boring well lucky

Philippe but lucky for you you got

blocked and you don't have to listen to

it anymore

yay did you see the video I think I just

tweeted it of Joe Biden confused about

what stays in and then get all confused

about some numbers I mean he seemed he

seemed lost and old and like he doesn't

have it any chance so I think I'm gonna

take some questions in a minute if

anybody wants to come in to ask me a

question but let me review the Democrat

challengers number one Joe Biden leading

in the polls I say does not have a

chance of getting the nomination so my

prediction is Joe Biden no chance of

getting nominated because it seems to me

that even his own team can tell that he

doesn't have the goods and I think that

the more they see him the more that will

be obvious there's not a chance he's

gonna make it

next Bernie I don't think Bernie has a

support in the entire entire group I

think Bernie will not be the nominee in

part because even Democrats are saying

he's too old

that brings us to Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is reasonably solid in

terms of all the boring stuff she's a

pretty good lawyer she's a pretty good

academic she's a pretty good senator

but she's not charismatic she does seem

to be getting better though I would say

that the last few Clips I've seen of her

she seems to have found a way to get out

of let's let's say her angry bookish

mode I mean before I would say she seems

a bookish you know academic bookish and

sort of angry yeah well it's not really

a good look she's sort of shifting her

image to be a little bit more let's say

substantive and you know I would say

someone who's done her homework someone

who was the adult in the room kind of

thing

and she's adding some she's adding a

little energy to her presentation she

better she better get her energy up but

I just don't know if she has enough

stuff she just doesn't have she just

doesn't have the charisma I mean she's

got seriously bad charisma so who's the

sleeping horse you know when we saw that

clip of a Buddha jej being totally

schooled by the black lives matter crowd

I think that ended any chance he had

because if he were to become like the

nominee all Trump would have to do is

run that run that one little loop of

that one video where he's acting weak in

front of just regular citizens and you

won't be able to imagine him as a

president so I don't think he has a

chance so that brings us to Kamala

Kamala Harris is she's playing

rope-a-dope it seems like correct me if

I'm wrong it seems like the Kamala

Harris the thing is that she's she's

trying to run sort of a strong force

doesn't it look like that she's trying

to be the person who's left after Biden

flames out Bernie doesn't look feasible

and Elizabeth Warren doesn't look like

she could win so I think it's gonna be

Warren and Kamala Harris in the end and

I think those two are going to be

battling it out for the final position

and then the Democrats are going to ask

themselves take a step

take a step who has a better chance of

winning so if you said to yourself okay

there are only two Democrats in

contention one one is Connell Harrison

one is Elizabeth Warren which of those

two which of the two seems like more

electable well let's go down Lee let's

go down the list both are women good

both are young enough so that they

they're not Bernie or Biden good that's

a tie both of them are senators good

still a tie both of them are lawyers

still a tie both of them are smart still

a tie

both of them have policies probably

Elizabeth Warren has more completed

policies but what are what is the public

going to care about well they're not

going to care that much about the

completeness of somebody's policies

because they know anything that gets run

through Congress turns into a different

thing anyway so I don't think that

Elizabeth Warren's

complete and an admirable I would say

command of the topics I don't think

that's gonna count too much for voters

so I'm gonna say that's a that's more of

a nothing there won't be enough of a

difference between Warren and Harris for

somebody to say I'll take the one who

has more complete policies because you

figure khamel Harris is a serious person

she's smart she says it has advisors

she'll have complete policies to

at one point you know somebody says Liz

Elizabeth Warren is 70 but still young

enough give him

given our times and she looks good for

if Elizabeth Warren is 70 she's she's in

really good shape wouldn't you say

I mean health-wise she looks younger

than 74 sure I'll talk about and

rehanging second let me just quickly say

that I'm still trying to connect with

Andrew Yang's staff to get him booked on

the show and maybe after that we'll have

a better idea but at the moment I think

that Andrew yang is a little bit too

idea focused his ideas are really

interesting that's why I want to talk to

him it's why you're gonna enjoy it what

I do yeah but I don't know if he has the

gravitas I don't know that Andrew yang

has yet demonstrated the I don't know

the the energy the power of the charisma

the the seriousness that we just

imagined when we see a president he

seems he seems young and interesting

smart you know he's got all kinds of

great qualities but maybe they're 2024

qualities if you know what I mean

you know it may not be 20/20 qualities

time isn't quite right tell see I don't

know if she'll make a run but right now

she's not making much of a dent in the

polls so anyway getting back to Harris

versus Warren which I think it'll come

down to when he a closer to the primary

vote votes it looks to me like they're

going to be essentially a tie except for

one thing

can somebody tell me what is the

tiebreaker between Harris and Warren

what will be the tiebreaker I will take

a sip while I look at the comments and

you tell me what would be the tiebreaker

all right I'm looking on wait if there's

a little delay in your comments yes race

that is correct

Camila has the person of color thing

going for her whereas Warren has the I

tried to be a Native American and it

didn't work out thing going for so the

tiebreaker is authenticity the

tiebreaker is authenticity right I would

say that Warren has everything except

that because the the Native American

thing is the smallest problem in the

world I mean I personally and I think

I've said this before but if anybody

hasn't heard it I had exactly the same

situation as Elizabeth Warren the kids

in my family you know we three kids were

told many times that we were descended

from a Native American I knew her name

her name was Elizabeth that was her

server

you know anglicized name I know what

tribe she was with and I knew

approximately when when this person was

in our family tree and I grew up being

told I was Native American

I had a 23andme test turns out I am zero

Native Americans zero so and then I

found out that there are a lot of people

who have had exactly the same situation

so apparently when I grew up and when

Elizabeth Warren was growing up I guess

it was really popular I guess it was

really popular to say that your family

had some Native American blood I mean

when I said it I was bragging well any

time I ever said it I never thought I

was you know admitting some bad thing in

my past I always chose an advantage so

I'd be bragging yeah I guess I got some

American Indians how about you oh you

don't have any oh I'm so sorry

I don't know what happened to you you

know there were a lot of great Native

Americans here and your family didn't

really nothing now once you slept with a

Native American well you really ought to

try it because they're top-shelf I don't

know if that's true but I imagine it

might be so back to Elizabeth Warren so

I would say that Elizabeth Warren's you

know error if you want to call it that

about thinking she was Native American

and claiming that as you know part of

her heritage etc and then finding out it

wasn't such a big deal

it's slightly embarrassing totally

unimportant totally not disqualifying

from public life totally should be the

most trivial thing we think of except

she's running she would be running

against this guy his name is Donald

Trump under that condition only that

little problem that tiny little problem

of that Native American thing is

probably disqualifying because what

Trump will do with her is he will make

her look like a race a fraud and I don't

know if there's anything that looks

worse than that on the

I mean I'm sure there are worse things

but it's pretty bad

Carla Harris what's the worst thing that

people say about her

I won't even wait for the answer the

worst thing that people say about Cobble

Harris is that she once had an affair

with Willie Brown it was a I guess

married at the time or something I

really don't even care

here's how much I care about that knot

and keep in mind she would be running

against Trump if you're running against

Trump the fact that you made some you

know questionable decisions with your

love life is not gonna look like a big

problem if you know what I mean so

remember your contrast if she were

running against pence

well maybe pence could make something

out of that

or maybe pen supporters could make

something out of it because he's the

most you know loyal guy you know he

plays by the book he's very Bible ready

and you know maybe then but if you're

running against Trump nobody's gonna be

able to take you out because of your

love life it's just yeah somebody saying

heels up Harris that is completely

useless criticism it when you say stuff

like that like oh she's heels up or if

she only got her got where she is cuz

Willie Brown just know when you're

saying it it's just for you right

because there's nobody laughing about it

it's not really that funny it's not

interesting

doesn't mean anything it won't hurt her

in the long run it doesn't have any

value so if you want to say heels up

Harris and you want to make fun of you

know her love life from years ago go

ahead but it's just for you

it's just for you it doesn't make any

impact on the world and should so here's

my bottom line I think Bernie and and

Biden will will disappear from the top

two I think the Harris & Warren will

become you know they're the ones that

matter because Budaj edge sort of

eliminated himself with that little

video clip recently

I think Andrew yang is interesting but

doesn't quite have the gravitas yet

check back you know if he maybe does

something works on some cause maybe

makes a difference some kind of social

program or something then 2024 is gonna

look really interesting for Andrew yang

and I would take a look at him I would

give him a serious look honestly just

for being different and not being I

think he's more you know he would pay

more attention to the science and he

would be a little more interesting than

a regular president Beto has no chance

here's why bado has no chance every time

a male Democrat supported Beto he would

be called a bento male a beta male and

even though it's just a joke and it's

undone play on words it's kind of gonna

hit home a little bit too much

yeah I saw Bill Maher so so here's my

bottom line I'll talk about Bill Maher

bottom line is that it's gonna be worn

and Harris who will emerge and between

the two Warren will probably have a

distinct advantage until she doesn't all

right because once the Biden and Bernie

votes start getting allocated away from

them they have to go somewhere and those

votes probably are going to go between

Warren and Harris eventually and Harris

has the slight advantage on you have it

having you know two groups in the bag

you know women and people of color

alright let's talk about I was watching

Bill Maher from real time and I feel as

if there's a subtle change happening

it's too early to say and I'm not a mind

reader so I don't want to try to read

his mind but I saw Bill Maher trying to

school Democrats on the fact that

calling these detention centers

concentration camps was go

too far and that and that and that it's

just it's gonna be a problem so in other

words even even Bill Maher is saying

this whole Hitler comparison Holocaust

concentration camp thing you're just

shooting yourselves in the foot it's not

hurting Trump it's not rational you know

we don't have nobody has a better idea

about what to do there so in a way you

saw a Bill Maher not directly certainly

not directly but feeling himself pulled

toward the trumpian way of thinking

grudgingly and by that I mean the image

the problem that the border is a real

problem that nobody has a good real

solution to and and I think he sees that

right he must see that the Democrats all

they have is calling a Hitler stuff but

they're not offering anything better and

that that's not a solution for success

so watching Bill Maher talk about that

and then looking at the things he has

left to criticize Trump they start

looking just personal you know I think

they do have some personal history that

wasn't good so what's left

seems like jokes and exaggerations and

hyperbole but it doesn't look that on

policy there's that much of a difference

anymore still a difference but it's the

difference went from it looked like

Trump is a monster is going to destroy

the world to something more narrow do

not be surprised if Bill Maher actually

ends up I'm not going to predict this so

this is not a prediction but I'll say

don't be surprised there's a nonzero

chance the Bill Maher could support

Trump in the election against whoever

he's running against depends who he's

running against of course but I can see

it happening I would give it a

a solid I'm gonna give it a 20% chance

I'll give it a 20% chance the bill Mahr

will say damn it I still believe

everything I've said about this

president I still believe all of this is

suboptimal I still believe it has all

these problems you know I'm not not

ignoring them all I still want to do

more with climate change I still have

all these problems but he's still better

than the alternative

I could there's a 20% chance he's gonna

say that and other people as well I

think all right let's take a call just

because I said I would let's go to the

colors and I get a favor people who have

some kind of a profile picture the blank

ones hello caller hello do you have a

question for me yeah I wanted to talk to

you about the socialism versus

capitalism thing and okay I think

there's there's a reframing of that that

will make it a lot more persuasive cuz I

remember you saying that the socialism

vers capitalism thing it's not

persuasive the way that argument is not

persuading anyone and I agree with you

you have to I think you have to reframe

it as monopolies versus decentralization

and when he cuz cuz the left they're

against monopolies but they don't see a

government monopoly as bad and that's

exactly what socialism is it's like a

government in charge of monopoly so like

if it's like yeah yeah I see your point

that's pretty good because well people

have been saying before is

centralization versus decentralization

and that has no persuasive power to

conceptual but when you said you're why

you added to this was monopoly versus

some decentralized kind of thing and

when you say monopoly I get that

instantly I like Oh monopoly that's

always bad and in this case you know

it's a government monopoly

that's pretty good I'm not sure it's

enough but I like I like where you're

going with that the thinking is is solid

on that I would here let me take another

run at it I think you should diversify

human beings and let me say more about

that capitalism diversifies the the

natural evil of human beings because you

could have a lot of evil people but as

long as there are some good ones making

some good companies and stuff that are

honest the good stuff will rise so

capitalism works pretty well that way

but if you don't diversify your evil you

could end up with a centralized

situation in which a few evil people are

in charge so in everything you should

diversify if you're investing you should

diversify because you can't tell which

companies are going to be good I often

say if you have the option usually try

to diversify your bosses having one boss

is the worst thing in the world having

lots of customers who are effectively

your boss let's say you work for

yourself maybe this is an analogy what

would you rather do have one boss who

could turn out to be the worst boss you

ever had that's what socialism looks

like you know centralizing or lots of

lots of customers and any one of those

customers can have a bad day and be mad

at you

but doesn't really that much just it's

just one customer so I like where you're

going there I don't think my ideas is

quite there but I think you moved it

along so thank you for that you're

welcome Thanks all right

that was interesting let's go to Colleen

Colleen can you hear me Colleen can you

hear me

I do you have a question um when you

first brought up the whole shadow

banning thing and about your followers I

have to admit I was a little skeptical

because I had never experienced that and

I thought well people may just think

that they were you know but when I

experienced

the other day a true shadow banning

where you post a comment and on your

page it's posted Twitter then it hides

it and so in the upcoming election

moving forward actual arguments on

issues are now being hidden from the

public where so when people see tweet

not available it's a blocked person but

now I I know that's not the case how can

we draw more attention to this and get I

mean 2020 could be toast if yeah if were

manipulated this bad it was just so

shocking to me when I saw well I think I

think there are a few things that at

least we have some hope Oh what number

one is the Trump administration seems to

be aware of the problem so that that's a

big deal right they I believe that there

are enough of them in the administration

including Trump who understand the

social media has at least the ability

whether they executed it out they have

the ability to determine the election

and and thwart the will of the people

and make the system less credible so but

what do they do about it I would say

that the minimum they should do about it

between now and Election Day is it it

seems like the most accessible thing

would would be to have some kind of an

algorithm court so some kind of a judge

or judges who are the only ones who can

see the algorithms but they they have

enough technical wherewithal or they're

working with people who do that they can

look at the algorithm and say okay at

least I the judge understands it I I get

that I can't tell the public because

it's the public notice the algorithm

they can game the system so that's the

problem but if the judge is the only one

who knows that's compatible with our

normal justice system you know judges

and the legal system and your lawyer can

know things that the public doesn't know

that's we're used to that so that would

probably solve the public's trust issue

and it's something I think you could do

relatively quickly you know if you

decided tomorrow to form algorithm Court

it'd probably take you six months to

figure out how to do it right and get

somebody in place and guess somebody

who's at least starting to look at the

algorithms and that would give you you

know a good year before the election but

if you don't do that here's the problem

even if I don't I don't know how likely

this is but even if all the social media

companies said look we're not going to

put our finger on the scale hey

everybody you know don't do anything

that would change this election we we

don't want to take that risk too someday

somebody's gonna know we did it that'll

be terrible for us that's bad for the

country don't do it even then people are

gonna think they did it and that is

terrible for the credibility of the

system part of what makes America work

not part of the biggest thing that makes

America work is credibility because we

don't trust other humans and we don't

trust companies and we don't trust any

politician necessarily but we trust that

we live in a system that catches most of

the bad behavior not all of it but we do

a pretty good job of reining in the bad

behavior and if you have a system where

the voters can't tell if their vote made

a difference or if they were influenced

you know by social media that's no

longer a stable system and I think we're

at the the beginning of the point where

the public will say it doesn't even

matter if I vote because it's not up to

me it's up to five people who determine

the algorithms so I think it's some kind

of a special judge special court would

be the the quickest way to get somebody

who we we have a little credibility in

in place to at least get some visibility

on this stuff I think that would be

important all right thank you thank you

I'm optimistic that something could

happen there by the way all right let's

talk to you mark

mark you there you have a question for

me mark

Vermont I see them requiring any working

person to get a w-2 or 1099

miscellaneous is there a contractor or

something

yet when government gives out money they

don't give people a 1099 s gov and my

view is that you know I have to file a

1099 miscellaneous on somebody if I give

them $600 a year you know people are

getting six hundred dollars a month and

so if people saw and were reported with

their 1099 - gov they would be able to

determine what the median income is from

the government which is something that's

invisible right now because every every

county every city every state every

federal government program gives money

to people and doesn't report it and as

soon as that medium-level was reported

if we had that as a as a basic tax

deduction for every person of every age

because they're giving it to families -

right then we every time government

decided to give more money away they

would raise the amount of money in the

pie that they could no longer tax but be

like self-regulating hmm okay that's too

complicated for me but looking at the

comments it looks like people are loving

this idea so I'm gonna say that's a

sounds like a good idea to people but

there's a little more complicated that I

want to talk about today but thank you

actually have a example of shadow being

I explained it in a book which you

cannot search for on Hamazon by the

title but it is still there let's say

Robin you might object whoa what what's

the title of the book we Republicans

okay all right thanks for that you're

not a real senator are you know that I

ran against I again I ran against that

John Cornyn is a riding candidate but

you know he had ten million dollars to

fight me off and all I did was buy a new

hat Spurs all right all right thank you

mark all right I think that's enough for

now

I'm going to sign off now and you are

going to have a terrific day

and I'll talk to you tomorrow