Episode 769 Scott Adams - All the Good Things to Expect in 2020, and the Simultaneous Sip

hey everybody come on in it's time for a coffee with Scott Adams hey and I'm Scott Adamson you're coming in for coffee or possibly your favorite beverage it doesn't matter what beverage we'll talk about that at the moment it's all good news this week no bad news happening no bad thoughts no negativity mm-hmm what a wonderful wonderful weakness and you know what makes it better I think you do because that's why you're here you're here for this simultaneous lip and all you need is a cup or a mug or glass a tankard Callister style a canteen junker flask a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure though dopamine's you know the day the thing makes everything better the sun'll team you set go yeah just as good as I thought never disappoints so let me start off by saying uh I don't know how your week is going but I've had one of the best weeks my whole life honestly one of the best weeks of my whole life number one it's the end of the year and a lot of people are just sending nice messages so I'm hearing from people who've just enjoyed interacting during the year but hearing from a lot of people who say that something I said in my periscope or something that I read one of my books had changed their lives so all week I'm listening to people say thanks to you I lost weight I got a job I got a raise I started a new career and I'm just being sort of bathed in good feelings at the same time I've noticed that all of what I would call the bad trolls on Twitter I'm not talking about people would disagree with you get into an exchange I'm talking about the ones were just you know the the f you would leave kind they all left for vacation and I thought to myself there they have you notices by the way if you look online the quality of the interactions are far less because people are on vacation but it looks like a hundred percent of the good people stayed around and they're just tweeting a little bit less but all of the people who look like I always suspected they were paid trolls you know actually working on the clock they're all gone so what does it tell you that all of the patrons the ones I suspected were paid they're all gone there's there's none of them on the internet right now but the good people are still here so it kind of tells you how not real a lot of the the trolling was because they still have computers they still have Wi-Fi they still have plenty of time on their hands nothing changed for the trolls unless they're getting paid and they're not getting paid this week coincidence I know it could be could be some other explanation but I can't see one but even more fun I got engaged this week so christina is now officially my fiancee and I gotta say I didn't know how different it would feel until after I asked and she said yes it feels completely different it just feels completely different I have to say so I may tell you more about that at some point I know that you're gonna want to ask you think you're gonna wonder how I asked her and the answer is I put the ring in a in a box of C's chocolate so that she discovered it and a good time was had by all so um I've never felt better I don't think that's probably the best week ever read my life or one of them so thank you for thank you for being a big part of that because your all your all your actually a huge part of that every one of you because you know this this interaction that I do with you in the extended interaction on the intranet and Twitter and stuff I don't really do it for the money it's not about the money there's there's definitely a deeper meaning deeper purpose and I'm glad you're all part of it so let's talk about some more good news I tweeted about this but I just want to mention it again because it's I just throw it in the list with my good news in 2006 ish I lost my voice most of you know this story to something called his spasmodic dysphonia which meant that I could make noise and in my mouth but I couldn't form proper consonants and sentences without my vocal cords clenching and making it incomprehensible so I was told that that was a permanent problem and that there was no cure and therefore the rest of my life I would not be able to have a conversation in a normal way wouldn't be able to talk on the phone for the rest of my life so that was what the diagnosis was I however do not like being told that I can't do something and so as has been my lifelong habit I started something called affirmations which is when you repeat to yourself or you write down 15 times a day something in particular some some goal that you want now I also warned against goals so I like to keep the the goals either general if it's something like money so you can make as much as you want you don't want to be too specific about that but if it's something as specific as you've got a specific health problem well then be specific you want your specific health problem to be specifically fixed so for three years every time I drove my car by myself which was a lot you know I'd be driving around locally going to the gym or whatever I would repeat aloud even though I couldn't form actual clear sentences I would repeat aloud i scott adams will speak perfectly now what's interesting about this affirmation is that I never spoke perfectly before I had the medical problem I had that approximate you know kind of a bad nasally voice and obviously still not perfect but I repeated that for years and eventually I did find a rare surgical fairly new procedure that fixed it and then it took years to rehab it after after it was surgically fixed it took years of practice to get it up to actual usable strength where I'm going with this is that yesterday my audio book the audiobook version of loser think the book my latest book is sitting at number one in this category and it's the audiobook that I produced so not only did I get my voice back from an incurable problem but I've also helped a lot of other people get cured of the same problem because I'm part of the outreach you know I I make sure that I use the spasmodic dysphonia words in my tweets every now and then so people can find me find how I solved it and then they can find their way to the same solution so I've probably I don't know I may have cured personally just by connecting people to the very very hard to find solution I may have cured I don't know 50 people a hundred I don't know but I do hear from a lot of people who heard about it from me and I've gone through with some kind of surgery so I just want to say there are very few things that feel better than knowing that years ago you were you were chanting a specific literally impossible seeming goal in your car all alone it's the loneliest process in the world and I don't think there was one point that I thought I wasn't going to do this I don't think there was ever a point I thought I would fail to get my voice back even though there was no way to do it so here we are I've got a periscope that three point three thousand people are watching probably a hundred thousand people watch this and replay eventually and I'm doing all of this when I started with not being able to talk but I am one stubborn mofo is it if there's one thing you could take away from me you know one thing that you in my own this is my own opinion of myself the the one thing that defines me is I don't like to lose and I don't like to be told I can't do something and it's motivating as all hell and even when it's like really really bad stuff like the voice problem was I just get more motivated so that's just me anyway here's what to look for in the coming year as if you've been watching these periscopes and watching me for a while you probably know that I can be influential I write about influence I'm a trained hypnotist etc and many of you have noticed this some of the things I talk about seep into the common consciousness maybe directly maybe it's coincidence maybe it's confirmation bias it's always hard to tell but we're going to continue our ongoing process of influencing the world yeah in positive ways so I want to tell you what influence I'm going to focus on for 2020 so that you can watch how things look today you know just take a mental snapshot and then do it again at the end of 2020 and ask yourself if the things that I tried to influence look like they're different now that doesn't mean I'm the one who influenced them but it's fun so so you can follow along so here are the things I would like to accomplish in a perfect world I would like to see Democrats and Republicans agree on this that a hundred percent health care coverage whether let's call that insurance or just health care is a goal and I think that the the Republicans fail big-time in their persuasion on health care they really fail big by not saying it is also our goal to cover on percent of the people we want to do it a different way now explain what that is because I don't think the case has been made and if you're not going to make the case Republicans that you do want to cover a hundred percent of the people in this country you just can't take a moral high position you just can't you're just going to have to admit that the democrats are better at this more more morally bounded more biblically bounded in every way they have an advantage and if you want to give them the advantage go ahead but it's gonna cost right it's gonna cost in congress it's gonna cost those to the presidency so what i'd like to see is a republican full-throated statement that you want to get to a hundred percent coverage maybe maybe you say it at the same time you say you don't know how to do it because here's the second part the second part is i would love to see the commitment to get there followed by here's the good part you ready the good part is a public debate about how to get there not a political debate not a debate of pundit against pundit lobbyists against politician politician against politician don't care none of that is gonna fix anything we've done that to death here's what we need in my perfect world president Trump would say something like this a Democrats there's one place we agree on everybody needs health care we don't know how to get there you've got several plans just within the Democrat side Republicans have lots of ideas too let's have a national debate a national debate where you know actual experts and individuals could propose ideas and debate it out in some very transparent way without the politicians like just let's just let the experts battle it out make it a show turn it into entertainment turn it into a website turn it into a contest turned it into something that makes more attention and then if you can give some kind of a national consensus on the best approach and you probably can't maybe you can get it down to the top three but you should let the public do what the government apparently cannot do and the reason the government cannot do this is that as soon as the politicians get involved you have no first problem they don't know enough politicians are not the experts on health care and you really need smart people to know enough about that area it's just not it's just not a realm for politicians they wouldn't know how to handle it and then you add on top of that the political pressures on them and then you you know the lobbyists and the money and and you have a mechanism a system if you will they can't work so remember I talked about the Golden Age which we're entering being a time when we don't have shortages of anything we have systems that aren't perfect and as we fix our systems then everybody's going to get enough of everything so the system that's broken with healthcare is not here's the trick it's not the health care system that's broken although that's also broken what's broken is our decision-making process and because health care is so complicated and so much money involved it breaks our government our government was not designed to handle this kind of question it's too big and there are too many people with too much money trying to influence it the government's the wrong tool so you need a new tool and as it happens we don't have to invent it so much we just have to use the tools we have a new system if you will and that system is to get the government now I'm sorry to get the public directly involved and educated enough so that they can form some preferences based on what the experts put together maybe let's say three good packages and and each of them subject to further tweaking but I think we should have a system where both the Congress and the United States wait for the good part here it comes in which the Congress and the United States commit in advance to two things having a full year of public public public debate on health care public public public meaning the public not the politicians behind closed doors not the lobbyists the public that's the important part regular people just experts citizens people who care and try to get them over the next year to come up with their three best plans it could be two Democrat plans One Republic it doesn't it doesn't matter but just this very best and then commit in advance the Congress and the president to be let's say you don't want to over commit because you could get three bad plans but that they would commit to trying to get the top one whatever is the top most popular one legislated so once the public decides then we hand it over to the government and say check it for two things one to make sure it's you know all legal you know you've you've just done the little work the legal work to make sure that you've you've got something you can execute and it's practical and all that but also to make sure that the majority did not steamroll the minority right that's one of the main purposes of government is to make sure that just because something got the most votes it's now some discriminatory horrible things so you need a you need a a a parental check if you will on whatever the public does but I'd love to see the government commit to letting the public work it out and then the government being a supporting role instead of the leading role because they can't be the leading role that just won't work alright so the first thing I'd like to see in 2020 is a revised decision-making process all right it might not look exactly like I described it but look in 2020 for something that's a smarter way to decide and let the public get involved that's the health care goal in a perfect world we'd see somebody suggesting various tests where they could test different things let's talk about the homeless situation as you know the probably the most productive voice on the homeless situation right now is dr.

Drew and one of the big questions it really focuses on this question I think the question of involuntarily taking people off the streets if they need drug or mental health some kind of counseling or support now the problem is that people are free well and if they say I do not want to go into your support program they don't have to and then they die on the streets and they make things worse for other people as well so the the big decision that needs to be made is how if at all can authorities be helpful in sort of forcing people to do what's good for those people so that conversation is going to get really loud in 2020 so I'm gonna help help push that one and you won't know here's what we mostly need to fix the homeless problem you ready I'm going to tell you something you've never heard so as men as long as you've been hearing about the homeless problem and now you're a little bit smarter because you know it's not about homes it's not even about the cost of the homes for the homeless it's about their drug problems and their addictions I'm sorry their addictions and their mental problems primarily so here's another thing that you've never heard all right the the reason we can't solve it is that we don't have project managers that's the thing that's missing here's what I mean do we have enough billionaires and/or government funding to test some different solutions for the so-called homeless problem that really is a really a people problem and the answer is we do we do have we have billionaires who are literally saying I got billions of dollars if you can give me one good idea I'll give you some money to test it that's easy believe it or not the money part and remember that's that's the mark of the Golden Age we don't have a resource George what we have is a system problem and the system is lacking a project manager I'm using a project manager very loose for somebody who can who can put together a plan maybe it's a plan informed by dr.

Drew's ideas maybe it's a plan informed by in locally here there's a Delancey Street Delancey Street project Delancey Street anyway it's a rehab facility that works really well maybe somebody could say hey that one works really well I'll be your project manager I need a billionaire or a government fund to fund it and then that will be my job to try to implement this in a new state and it will be a test and I'll make sure that we're measuring everything so we know if it worked and then there are a few other project managers getting other money from other billionaires and they they do their separate project they say hey we'll take these blocks in LA we might need some help from the government suspending some you know regulations or something because we're just going to test give us a year and we'll tell you what happened now until you see something like a project manager profession form around trying these social goods and until you hear the names of people and see them on TV saying hey yes I'm running something let me tell you about it you know I already have the money from a couple of billionaires so that's what you can see with the so called homeless problem that's not a homeless problem you can see people stepping up and saying I will be your project manager you know and I've got this experience who can fund me and then the funding will happen I can almost guarantee the funding even people that I know personally I probably personally know enough people to fund some studies on on fixing the homeless problem that's not really a homeless problem let's talk about nuclear as I said before I think that we've made tremendous progress we meaning all of you watching and the internet mark Schneider especially Michael Shellenberger also especially the people who were sort of our experts helping us spread the word that nuclear technology is not the old nuclear technology that was relatively unsafe compared to what anything that we have today and that the even newer the newer generations the generation four will eat nuclear nuclear waste and they're far safer and could be less expensive and all that so I would like to see that here's the goal for 2020 for 2020 I want it to be embarrassing for any public person to say that nuclear is not part of the solution it should be it should be something that they know not to say out loud anymore we're almost there because I think something like half of the Democrats that are running for president are pro nuclear or at least open to the conversation which is the same as being Pro if you're a Democrat and you're saying in public well I'm open to listening about nuclear energy that's as that says yes that means you've looked into it and you know it's part of the solution because some people aren't gonna want to go strong on that because of their party affiliation but I think 2020 will be the year that when you talk about climate change you have to talk about nuclear power let's agree on that 2020 is the year that any public conversation about climate change and its risks has to include that the solutions include nuclear it'll also include solar and other green energies but I think this 2020 blue the year that everybody just understands that that's part of it and that's a big big big deal let's talk about North Korea North Korea is a funny little situation because we're we're having well here's the problem we're taking what I would call a military filter and putting it on North Korea and that's the problem there was a time in our history when North Korea was a military problem and the right filter to put on it was a military filter hey they look dangerous we've to put our our military forces on there to counter them military military but much has happened you know decades the past president Trump is come into office there's a whole different understanding with North Korea in terms of what we want out of them what they want out of us today our reasons to be to have a military filter with North Korea are largely gone because it's turned into a psychology problem that we're using a military filter on you can't solve a psychology brought well sometimes you can solve a psychology problem with the military but not this time you can definitely change people's thinking by attacking them but in this case you have a psychology problem and the psychology problem is we don't trust the other and that's a hard place to fix right if you don't trust the other then who can go first and that's been the problem you've observed right so North Korea is saying we don't trust you United States but if you go first and of course we say we don't trust you North Korea but if you went first so and that apparently has no chance of working because there's not enough trust you have a psychology problem so how do you deal with something that's a psychology problem that we're dealing with with a defense filter well the first thing you have to do is get out of that filter you can't you know you can't get rid of your military but you can certainly talk about it differently you frame it differently approach it differently and here's the way I would do it now this is just brainstorming all right I would say to North Korea directly or indirectly privately or not privately you know the reasons that the United States and North Korea were ever military adversaries just doesn't exist anymore that's that's the high ground you just say to North Korea we are a military you know let's say military flooding with each other and it used to make sense but would you agree Kim jong-un that it doesn't anymore the the base reason for us to have any military conflict with them whatsoever completely gone is there any chance that we want to attack North Korea none there's no chance we want to attack North Korea not any chance at all is there any chance that North Korea really wants or thinks that they're gonna take over South Korea now none there's not a chance in the world that they think that would be a good idea to try that but what is a genuine risk for Kim jong-un because I don't think the United States is any more I mean we don't want to be in there for we're not China maybe Russia but China don't you think that North Korea has more long-term risk Hong Kong more long-term risk being on the front steps of China doesn't China want to control everything that touches their border of course they do of course they do don't you think China if they had an opening would try to get more control of North Korea of course they would I think that we could make a deal with India and North Korea and the and the fun part would be to throw it into the same deal so you're look at the diversion I'm using notice I just threw India in there India what's India got to do with North Korea nothing except there a nuclear power who also doesn't trust China right think about this think about the productive combination of India an advanced nuclear power and North Korea also advanced nuclear power in their own way suppose you said to India and North Korea you know India and North Korea and we basically do say this daily I would I would think in essence you know in the coming years and decades wouldn't you rather be on our side North Korea if you had a chance a choice of being our friend and actually being somewhat protected by us and here's the offer we can make we could say North Korea not only should we not be pointing our weapons at each other because the reasons have all gone away but maybe we can help you be a little safer from China and here's how you could do it you could say we will protect you maybe not directly militarily because we wouldn't want to I don't know that we'd want to have a military to agreement that we protect the territory of North Korea with our military against China that might be too much but we could say there will protect you economically will protect you politically and if you can maybe work with India to have India make sure that your weapons are either safe or pointing in the right direction that would make us feel a lot more comfortable because you know North Korea United States maybe you don't feel too comfortable with us yet but maybe maybe India could come over and if India if India tells us that they've looked into it you're nukes are secure and they're not pointed at us we've got something to work with we'll help your economy you know just don't counterfeit our money and stuff like that so that would be a reframe in which we would reframe North Korea all the way from being a military enemy that just doesn't even make sense to a hybrid kind of a special military ally without being full military ally in other words just somebody that we commit to protecting the way they are and just say look we'd rather protect you it's cheaper fighting you is expensive protecting you from any potential future Chinese you know impropriety is kind of cheap let's do the cheap one and indeed if we can invest over there well maybe we make money also in 2020 I think that you're going to see more people using the word decoupling and strategic decoupling in particular I believe that there is a small but grow voice of which I'm part of to encourage American companies not to do business with China because in the long run it's just to our detriment and even in the short run now I don't think that there will be a massive sudden unwinding of existing business and we'll probably need some tariff agreements on the little stuff over time agricultural especially but I think that in 2020 it will be a common opinion in the United States right now it's a sort of a niche opinion but it'll be common opinion that we should be decoupling with China at the same time we're being nice to them yeah and pushing hard and the things we have to push hard on but as long as they're using the salon room for body parts which they are killing them for body parts as long as they've got concentration camps they're suppressing hong kong and sending fentanyl to us by the by the boatload we can't we can't further our relationship with them we can only decrease it and I think that'll be happening and I think I'm expecting some kind of more aggressive action against the Mexican cartels now the other thing I'd like to see I'd really like to see let's push for this in 2020 I'd like to see a test of someplace in the United States where it makes sense fully legalizing drugs for maybe a year or a few years whatever it takes to test it how many of you would agree on a test not the entire country but just some county or municipality saying look we have two tests and things that we wouldn't normally be able to test we have to temporarily just give us a full suspension of all drug crime laws for this municipality and let's just run it for a year might be worse might be better maybe we learn something but here's the thing I'm starting to lose patience with talking about it are you are you all having the same the same impression talking about the big drug problem and all this stuff coming for China the gusta Mexico that comes here that kills all our people by tens of thousands I'm kind of tired of talking about it if we're not testing it our government is broken now maybe those tests need to be primarily private enterprise things but you still need the government to suspend the laws and so maybe what we need is not just a drug czar but a drug czar whose specific job is to temporarily suspend the laws in places where you can test some stuff now another place you might need to temporarily suspend the laws is about what I was talking about the the dr.

drew approach which is as in the in the worst cases people need to be involuntarily let's say taken care of and that would require a changes in the laws so perhaps we need some kind of a federal czar who can at the let's say the request of the local governments because they'd have to be in on it can suspend all the laws just for the purpose of testing and just temporarily so that's what I'd like to see in 2020 couldn't make a gigantic difference somebody says the entire country would be Skid Row well we have examples in Portugal for example in the comments you see a lot of people mentioning so Portugal tried making drugs legal and it all the reporting is that it helped a lot not even just a little apparently helped a lot so if you want things to look like skid row keep doing it the way you're going if you want it not to look like skid row then try something that's worked before see if you can figure out what it was about that that worked and then duplicate it but if you're not doing that if you're not testing you're not doing anything right if if the government if our government can't tell us oh we've got three trials going on and we're testing various variables and seeing what works and what doesn't if they're not telling you that then what they are telling you is we're not doing anything and we're not capable of doing anything because they're how hard would it be to test right it shouldn't be there all right prohibition is the cause of this problem well that's why we were test so you can certainly take out the cartels by taking their money away but I suppose they would just turn to other forms of crime its portugal what could go wrong somebody says oh somebody wants me to do a how to smoke weed episodes I'm actually I've got a lot of planning in that I have thought about doing a periscope on the topic of how to smoke marijuana if your doctor says that you should now as you know I'm a big proponent of marijuana under certain circumstances one of them and the most important one is that you're an adult marijuana and children bad combination bad combination want to want to avoid that marijuana and some people who are adults bad combination the thing with marijuana I'll give you a little preview of it now the thing with marijuana is that there are lots of different types and they affect you in lots of different ways and then there are also lots of different people with different personalities and different bodies and stuff and they all have a different reaction so it would be the height of let's say irresponsibility for anybody to say that you should smoke marijuana that would be the most irresponsible thing anybody could ever say because I don't know you're completely different than me and if you do it wrong and my tongue might not turn out well for you now in my case I have an actual legitimate believe it or not medical benefit and it's extreme in my case the benefit is fairly extreme so luckiest is an easy easy peasy thing and I don't do it as a party drug I've never enjoyed it as something to do with friends you know except in college but it's not a party drug it's something that's has to do with you know your larger health situation that said I will do I think I should commit to this in 2020 I'll do a a demo of how to do the basics so if your doctor says you know maybe this would work for whatever condition you have that you'll have a place to start that your doctor isn't gonna tell you because your doctor won't tell you how to do it your doctor will probably just say do it or don't I will give you this one piece of advice don't use edibles don't use edibles every bad story I've ever heard about marijuana was from edibles edibles you can't control how much you're getting or you can't know and so that's the dangerous part but if you're smoking it's almost impossible to smoke too much because you just feel it as it happens and you say well that's enough now somebody says if Trump has a super persuasion why did he lose the popular vote yeah that's a good question and let me answer it so the question is if Trump is the best persuader in the history of the world which I claim how can he lose the popular vote it means he didn't he did not persuade most people and that's to do with the context so the question you're asking is if the best baseball player could hit a homerun and it would go along as a homerun 100 yards I have no idea why isn't why can't some people hit a ball 5 miles and the answer is nobody can't hit a ball 5 miles so when you say why doesn't Trump convinced you know the half of the country that is already sort of aligned with Republican stuff you know can he also persuade the people who were vehemently against all of that stuff the answer is no the best persuader in the world cannot persuade people who are that entrenched that's not a thing so you shouldn't ask why he can't do it because it's not a doable thing right it's not within the it's not even on the sporting field it's it's outside it's a hundred miles down the road somewhere so the summary of that is that the only persuasion that matters these days is persuading your own base to get up and do something and to think and act the way you want so everybody's only persuading their persuadable that's what the game is there's no such thing as persuading the other team there's this thin slice of people who call themselves independents usually but even they are not real independence if you looked at their voting patterns there's some segments of them this they say oh I'm independent I would vote for anybody but they always vote Republican and they will again and same you know some that say yeah I'm totally independent but I always vote Democrat and I'm gonna do it again so there really are not many people who even you know in play to be persuaded but if you've got a president who has a 95 percent support within his own party and you can see that he's changed every part of the political process think about how many things we think about differently and act differently because of this president from North Korea to China to trade to the economy to Isis to everything I mean immigration there's no topic that he hasn't changed or moved the needle on everything he's just changed everything he's changed how we see the media he's changed well just everything so sometimes his influence is directed such as getting Republicans on the on the same page other times it's just his effect he's a walking box shaker so everything around him is all getting shaken up even if he's now focusing on it because he just has that effect so your question is actually an excellent one but it is not in play to persuade all the people on the other team best you can do is your own team and if and if there's a strategic element to that meaning winning certain States in the electoral process Trump did it better you won the ones that mattered and keep in mind that when you talk about losing the popular vote you're really talking about losing California and he didn't really try for California California has such a big population as does New York state that as long as those are solid blue Republicans have to win by getting fewer votes and just winning in the electoral process all right those are the things that I thought I want to somebody says Scott's has made Dilbert toxic well thank you for coming all the way over here to scream that in all capital letters so we'll delete you so you don't have to ever experience it again it's funny that's exactly the kind of troll that know that actually that's role look like a sincere person who's just probably elderly and yells and all caps but the ones who just come in with the insult and leave I think they're gone that one actually looked like a real person who was just a Democrat who didn't like Trump I think that's all I was yeah all right do I favor eliminating the electoral college you know I always talk about fairness and how fairness is an illusion meaning that it's completely subjective what is fair to you is not fair to me the thing with the electoral college is that there's no place to get to fair fair doesn't exist you could get to this solution or this solution but half of the people would say it's not fair because the people who thought it worked against them whatever the change was would say well that's not fair and other people would say well what's more fair than a popular vote and then other people would say well there's a reason there's a electoral college so there is no there is no objective standard by which to say fair and so therefore it's more of a power play so when you're talking about the electoral college versus the popular vote where that ends up will be wherever the power pushes it it won't be because it's fair writer simpler it won't be any of those things and right now the you know the weight of power is that it's hard to change things you know I think you need a two-thirds majority or something to change the Constitution or two thirds of the states whatever the process is it's hard so that's why you don't get a lot of constitutional changes so I don't think you'll see one because it's too hard and half the country likes it just the way it is because they went that way yeah the founders wanted a balance of the states versus federal yeah the reasons are all good but I don't know that anybody cares about the reasons it's just whether it's good for their team I'm just looking at some of your comments somebody says that must watch the thousand of your periscopes well you know if they're it's given this the end of the year and I enjoy a lot if there's anybody else it was gotten anything meaningful in terms of helping their life and in my books or periscopes please tweet at me and let me know because that determines what I do in the future for example my decision to write another book or now write another book would be greatly influenced by what people think of the last one that's the way it always goes somebody asked me in the comments can I dump wherever it says fine for dumping can you dump that's the way I plant if I see a sign that says fine for dumping I think well good I wouldn't want to dump it anywhere where it wasn't fine to do it somebody says Lincoln only got 42 percent of the vote well you know Lincoln needed the electoral college like he needed all in had somebody saying that the idea of deciding to get something versus merely wanting it was big for some of you I would say that was one of my biggest biggest changes in my life is always just making a distinction between things I wanted and things that I was just deciding to do I told you the story early on about getting my voice back that was a decision that wasn't just something I wanted I you know I was deciding that whatever that took I was gonna do it all right um no wedding date set no we'll worry about that I didn't want to talk about that the first week of being engaged because that sounds like work all right I think we've said enough and I will talk to you all tomorrow maybe we'll get some real news next week there's like no news happening now talk to you later

hey everybody come on in it's time for a

coffee with Scott Adams hey and I'm

Scott Adamson you're coming in for

coffee or possibly your favorite

beverage it doesn't matter what beverage

we'll talk about that at the moment it's

all good news this week no bad news

happening no bad thoughts no negativity

mm-hmm

what a wonderful wonderful weakness and

you know what makes it better I think

you do

because that's why you're here you're

here for this simultaneous lip and all

you need is a cup or a mug or glass a

tankard Callister style a canteen junker

flask a vessel of any kind fill it with

your favorite liquid I like coffee and

join me now for the unparalleled

pleasure though dopamine's you know the

day the thing makes everything better

the sun'll team you set go yeah just as

good as I thought never disappoints so

let me start off by saying uh I don't

know how your week is going but I've had

one of the best weeks my whole life

honestly one of the best weeks of my

whole life

number one it's the end of the year and

a lot of people are just sending nice

messages so I'm hearing from people

who've just enjoyed interacting during

the year but hearing from a lot of

people who say that something I said in

my periscope or something that I read

one of my books had changed their lives

so all week I'm listening to people say

thanks to you I lost weight I got a job

I got a raise I started a new career and

I'm just being sort of bathed in good

feelings at the same time I've noticed

that all of what I would call the bad

trolls on Twitter I'm not talking about

people would disagree with you get into

an exchange I'm talking about the ones

were just

you know the the f you would leave kind

they all left for vacation and I thought

to myself there they have you notices by

the way if you look online the quality

of the interactions are far less because

people are on vacation but it looks like

a hundred percent of the good people

stayed around and they're just tweeting

a little bit less but all of the people

who look like I always suspected they

were paid trolls

you know actually working on the clock

they're all gone so what does it tell

you that all of the patrons the ones I

suspected were paid they're all gone

there's there's none of them on the

internet right now but the good people

are still here so it kind of tells you

how not real a lot of the the trolling

was because they still have computers

they still have Wi-Fi they still have

plenty of time on their hands nothing

changed for the trolls unless they're

getting paid and they're not getting

paid this week coincidence I know it

could be could be some other explanation

but I can't see one but even more fun I

got engaged this week so christina is

now officially my fiancee and I gotta

say I didn't know how different it would

feel until after I asked and she said

yes it feels completely different it

just feels completely different I have

to say so I may tell you more about that

at some point I know that you're gonna

want to ask you think you're gonna

wonder how I asked her and the answer is

I put the ring in a in a box of C's

chocolate so that she discovered it and

a good time was had by all

so um I've never felt better I don't

think that's probably the best week ever

read my life or one of them so thank you

for thank you for being a big part of

that because your all your all your

actually a huge part of that every one

of you because you know this this

interaction that I do

with you in the extended interaction on

the intranet and Twitter and stuff I

don't really do it for the money it's

not about the money there's there's

definitely a deeper meaning deeper

purpose and I'm glad you're all part of

it so let's talk about some more good

news I tweeted about this but I just

want to mention it again because it's I

just throw it in the list with my good

news in 2006

ish I lost my voice most of you know

this story to something called his

spasmodic dysphonia which meant that I

could make noise and in my mouth but I

couldn't form proper consonants and

sentences without my vocal cords

clenching and making it incomprehensible

so I was told that that was a permanent

problem and that there was no cure and

therefore the rest of my life I would

not be able to have a conversation in a

normal way wouldn't be able to talk on

the phone for the rest of my life so

that was what the diagnosis was I

however do not like being told that I

can't do something and so as has been my

lifelong habit I started something

called affirmations which is when you

repeat to yourself or you write down 15

times a day something in particular some

some goal that you want now I also

warned against goals so I like to keep

the the goals either general if it's

something like money so you can make as

much as you want you don't want to be

too specific about that but if it's

something as specific as you've got a

specific health problem well then be

specific you want your specific health

problem to be specifically fixed so for

three years every time I drove my car by

myself which was a lot you know I'd be

driving around locally going to the gym

or whatever I would repeat aloud even

though I couldn't form actual clear

sentences I would repeat aloud i scott

adams will speak perfectly now what's

interesting about this affirmation is

that I never spoke perfectly before I

had the medical problem I had that

approximate you know kind of a bad

nasally voice and obviously still not

perfect but I repeated that for years

and eventually I did find a rare

surgical fairly new procedure that fixed

it and then it took years to rehab it

after after it was surgically fixed it

took years of practice to get it up to

actual usable strength where I'm going

with this is that yesterday my audio

book the audiobook version of loser

think the book my latest book is sitting

at number one in this category and it's

the audiobook that I produced so not

only did I get my voice back from an

incurable problem but I've also helped a

lot of other people get cured of the

same problem because I'm part of the

outreach you know I I make sure that I

use the spasmodic dysphonia words in my

tweets every now and then so people can

find me find how I solved it and then

they can find their way to the same

solution so I've probably I don't know I

may have cured personally just by

connecting people to the very very hard

to find solution

I may have cured I don't know 50 people

a hundred I don't know but I do hear

from a lot of people who heard about it

from me and I've gone through with some

kind of surgery so I just want to say

there are very few things that feel

better than knowing that years ago you

were you were chanting a specific

literally impossible seeming goal in

your car all alone it's the loneliest

process in the world and I don't think

there was one point that I thought I

wasn't going to do this I don't think

there was ever a point I thought I would

fail to get my voice back even though

there was no way to do it so here we are

I've got a periscope that three point

three thousand people are watching

probably a hundred thousand people watch

this and replay eventually and I'm doing

all of this when I started with

not being able to talk but I am one

stubborn mofo is it if there's one thing

you could take away from me you know one

thing that you in my own this is my own

opinion of myself the the one thing that

defines me

is I don't like to lose and I don't like

to be told I can't do something and it's

motivating as all hell and even when

it's like really really bad stuff like

the voice problem was I just get more

motivated so that's just me anyway

here's what to look for in the coming

year

as if you've been watching these

periscopes and watching me for a while

you probably know that I can be

influential I write about influence I'm

a trained hypnotist etc and many of you

have noticed this some of the things I

talk about seep into the common

consciousness maybe directly maybe it's

coincidence maybe it's confirmation bias

it's always hard to tell but we're going

to continue our ongoing process of

influencing the world yeah in positive

ways so I want to tell you what

influence I'm going to focus on for 2020

so that you can watch how things look

today you know just take a mental

snapshot and then do it again at the end

of 2020 and ask yourself if the things

that I tried to influence look like

they're different now that doesn't mean

I'm the one who influenced them but it's

fun so so you can follow along so here

are the things I would like to

accomplish in a perfect world I would

like to see Democrats and Republicans

agree on this that a hundred percent

health care coverage whether let's call

that insurance or just health care is a

goal and I think that the the

Republicans fail big-time in their

persuasion on health care they really

fail big by not saying it is also our

goal to cover on

percent of the people we want to do it a

different way now explain what that is

because I don't think the case has been

made and if you're not going to make the

case Republicans that you do want to

cover a hundred percent of the people in

this country you just can't take a moral

high position

you just can't you're just going to have

to admit that the democrats are better

at this more more morally bounded more

biblically bounded in every way they

have an advantage and if you want to

give them the advantage go ahead but

it's gonna cost right it's gonna cost in

congress it's gonna cost those to the

presidency so what i'd like to see is a

republican full-throated statement that

you want to get to a hundred percent

coverage maybe maybe you say it at the

same time you say you don't know how to

do it because here's the second part the

second part is i would love to see the

commitment to get there followed by

here's the good part

you ready the good part is a public

debate about how to get there not a

political debate not a debate of pundit

against pundit lobbyists against

politician politician against politician

don't care none of that is gonna fix

anything we've done that to death here's

what we need in my perfect world

president Trump would say something like

this a Democrats there's one place we

agree on everybody needs health care we

don't know how to get there you've got

several plans just within the Democrat

side Republicans have lots of ideas too

let's have a national debate a national

debate where you know actual experts and

individuals could propose ideas and

debate it out in some very transparent

way without the politicians like just

let's just let the experts battle it out

make it a show turn it into

entertainment turn it into a website

turn it into a contest turned it into

something that makes more attention and

then if you can give some kind of a

national consensus on the best approach

and you probably can't maybe you can get

it down to the top three

but you should let the public do what

the government apparently cannot do and

the reason the government cannot do this

is that as soon as the politicians get

involved you have no first problem they

don't know enough politicians are not

the experts on health care and you

really need smart people to know enough

about that area it's just not it's just

not a realm for politicians they

wouldn't know how to handle it and then

you add on top of that the political

pressures on them and then you you know

the lobbyists and the money and and you

have a mechanism a system if you will

they can't work so remember I talked

about the Golden Age which we're

entering being a time when we don't have

shortages of anything we have systems

that aren't perfect and as we fix our

systems then everybody's going to get

enough of everything so the system

that's broken with healthcare is not

here's the trick it's not the health

care system that's broken although

that's also broken what's broken is our

decision-making process and because

health care is so complicated and so

much money involved it breaks our

government our government was not

designed to handle this kind of question

it's too big and there are too many

people with too much money trying to

influence it the government's the wrong

tool so you need a new tool and as it

happens we don't have to invent it so

much we just have to use the tools we

have a new system if you will and that

system is to get the government now I'm

sorry to get the public directly

involved and educated enough so that

they can form some preferences based on

what the experts put together maybe

let's say three good packages and and

each of them subject to further tweaking

but I think we should have a system

where both the Congress and the United

States wait for the good part here it

comes in which the Congress and the

United States commit in advance to two

things having a full year of public

public public debate on health care

public public public meaning the public

not the politicians behind closed doors

not the lobbyists the public that's the

important part regular people just

experts citizens people who care and try

to get them over the next year to come

up with their three best plans it could

be two Democrat plans One Republic it

doesn't it doesn't matter but just this

very best and then commit in advance the

Congress and the president to be let's

say you don't want to over commit

because you could get three bad plans

but that they would commit to trying to

get the top one whatever is the top most

popular one legislated so once the

public decides then we hand it over to

the government and say check it for two

things one to make sure it's you know

all legal

you know you've you've just done the

little work the legal work to make sure

that you've you've got something you can

execute and it's practical and all that

but also to make sure that the majority

did not steamroll the minority right

that's one of the main purposes of

government is to make sure that just

because something got the most votes

it's now some discriminatory horrible

things so you need a you need a a a

parental check if you will on whatever

the public does but I'd love to see the

government commit to letting the public

work it out and then the government

being a supporting role instead of the

leading role because they can't be the

leading role that just won't work

alright so the first thing I'd like to

see in 2020 is a revised decision-making

process all right it might not look

exactly like I described it but look in

2020 for something that's a smarter way

to decide and let the public get

involved that's the health care goal in

a perfect world we'd see somebody

suggesting various tests where they

could test different things let's talk

about the homeless situation as you know

the probably the most productive voice

on the homeless situation right now is

dr. Drew and one of the big questions it

really focuses on

this question I think the question of

involuntarily taking people off the

streets

if they need drug or mental health some

kind of counseling or support now the

problem is that people are free well and

if they say I do not want to go into

your support program they don't have to

and then they die on the streets and

they make things worse for other people

as well so the the big decision that

needs to be made is how if at all can

authorities be helpful in sort of

forcing people to do what's good for

those people so that conversation is

going to get really loud in 2020 so I'm

gonna help help push that one and you

won't know here's what we mostly need to

fix the homeless problem you ready I'm

going to tell you something you've never

heard so as men as long as you've been

hearing about the homeless problem and

now you're a little bit smarter because

you know it's not about homes it's not

even about the cost of the homes for the

homeless it's about their drug problems

and their addictions

I'm sorry their addictions and their

mental problems primarily so here's

another thing that you've never heard

all right the the reason we can't solve

it is that we don't have project

managers that's the thing that's missing

here's what I mean do we have enough

billionaires and/or government funding

to test some different solutions for the

so-called homeless problem that really

is a really a people problem and the

answer is we do we do have we have

billionaires who are literally saying I

got billions of dollars if you can give

me one good idea I'll give you some

money to test it that's easy

believe it or not the money part and

remember that's that's the mark of the

Golden Age we don't have a resource

George what we have is a system problem

and the system is lacking a project

manager I'm using a project manager very

loose

for somebody who can who can put

together a plan maybe it's a plan

informed by dr. Drew's ideas maybe it's

a plan informed by in locally here

there's a Delancey Street Delancey

Street project Delancey Street anyway

it's a rehab facility that works really

well maybe somebody could say hey that

one works really well I'll be your

project manager I need a billionaire or

a government fund to fund it and then

that will be my job to try to implement

this in a new state and it will be a

test and I'll make sure that we're

measuring everything so we know if it

worked and then there are a few other

project managers getting other money

from other billionaires and they they do

their separate project they say hey

we'll take these blocks in LA we might

need some help from the government

suspending some you know regulations or

something because we're just going to

test give us a year and we'll tell you

what happened now until you see

something like a project manager

profession form around trying these

social goods and until you hear the

names of people and see them on TV

saying hey yes I'm running something let

me tell you about it you know I already

have the money from a couple of

billionaires so that's what you can see

with the so called homeless problem

that's not a homeless problem you can

see people stepping up and saying I will

be your project manager you know and

I've got this experience who can fund me

and then the funding will happen I can

almost guarantee the funding even people

that I know personally I probably

personally know enough people to fund

some studies on on fixing the homeless

problem that's not really a homeless

problem let's talk about nuclear as I

said before I think that we've made

tremendous progress we meaning all of

you watching and the internet mark

Schneider especially Michael

Shellenberger also especially the people

who were sort of our experts helping us

spread the word that nuclear technology

is not the old nuclear technology that

was relatively unsafe compared to what

anything that we have today and that the

even newer the newer generations the

generation four will eat nuclear nuclear

waste and they're far safer and could be

less expensive and all that so I would

like to see that here's the goal for

2020 for 2020 I want it to be

embarrassing for any public person to

say that nuclear is not part of the

solution it should be it should be

something that they know not to say out

loud anymore we're almost there because

I think something like half of the

Democrats that are running for president

are pro nuclear or at least open to the

conversation which is the same as being

Pro if you're a Democrat and you're

saying in public well I'm open to

listening about nuclear energy that's as

that says yes that means you've looked

into it and you know it's part of the

solution because some people aren't

gonna want to go strong on that because

of their party affiliation but I think

2020 will be the year that when you talk

about climate change you have to talk

about nuclear power let's agree on that

2020 is the year that any public

conversation about climate change and

its risks has to include that the

solutions include nuclear it'll also

include solar and other green energies

but I think this 2020 blue the year that

everybody just understands that that's

part of it and that's a big big big deal

let's talk about North Korea North Korea

is a funny little situation because

we're we're having well here's the

problem we're taking what I would call a

military filter and putting it on North

Korea and that's the problem

there was a time in our history when

North Korea was a military problem and

the right filter to put on it was a

military filter hey they look dangerous

we've

to put our our military forces on there

to counter them military military but

much has happened you know decades the

past president Trump is come into office

there's a whole different understanding

with North Korea in terms of what we

want out of them what they want out of

us today our reasons to be to have a

military filter with North Korea are

largely gone because it's turned into a

psychology problem that we're using a

military filter on you can't solve a

psychology brought well sometimes you

can solve a psychology problem with the

military but not this time

you can definitely change people's

thinking by attacking them but in this

case you have a psychology problem and

the psychology problem is we don't trust

the other and that's a hard place to fix

right if you don't trust the other then

who can go first

and that's been the problem you've

observed right so North Korea is saying

we don't trust you United States but if

you go first

and of course we say we don't trust you

North Korea but if you went first so and

that apparently has no chance of working

because there's not enough trust you

have a psychology problem so how do you

deal with something that's a psychology

problem that we're dealing with with a

defense filter well the first thing you

have to do is get out of that filter you

can't you know you can't get rid of your

military but you can certainly talk

about it differently you frame it

differently approach it differently and

here's the way I would do it now this is

just brainstorming all right I would say

to North Korea directly or indirectly

privately or not privately you know the

reasons that the United States and North

Korea were ever military adversaries

just doesn't exist anymore that's that's

the high ground you just say to North

Korea we are a military you know let's

say military flooding with each other

and it used to make sense but would you

agree Kim jong-un that it doesn't

anymore

the the base reason for us to have any

military conflict with them whatsoever

completely gone is there any chance that

we want to attack North Korea none

there's no chance we want to attack

North Korea not any chance at all is

there any chance that North Korea really

wants or thinks that they're gonna take

over South Korea now none there's not a

chance in the world that they think that

would be a good idea to try that but

what is a genuine risk for Kim jong-un

because I don't think the United States

is any more I mean we don't want to be

in there for we're not China maybe

Russia but China don't you think that

North Korea has more long-term risk Hong

Kong more long-term risk being on the

front steps of China doesn't China want

to control everything that touches their

border of course they do of course they

do

don't you think China if they had an

opening would try to get more control of

North Korea of course they would I think

that we could make a deal with India and

North Korea and the and the fun part

would be to throw it into the same deal

so you're look at the diversion I'm

using notice I just threw India in there

India what's India got to do with North

Korea

nothing except there a nuclear power who

also doesn't trust China right think

about this think about the productive

combination of India an advanced nuclear

power and North Korea also advanced

nuclear power in their own way suppose

you said to India and North Korea you

know India and North Korea and we

basically do say this daily I would I

would think in essence you know in the

coming years and decades wouldn't you

rather be on our side North Korea if you

had a chance a choice of being our

friend and actually being somewhat

protected by us and here's the offer we

can make

we could say North Korea not only should

we not be pointing our weapons at each

other because the reasons have all gone

away but maybe we can help you be a

little safer from China and here's how

you could do it you could say we will

protect you maybe not directly

militarily because we wouldn't want to I

don't know that we'd want to have a

military to agreement that we protect

the territory of North Korea with our

military against China that might be too

much but we could say there will protect

you

economically will protect you

politically and if you can maybe work

with India to have India make sure that

your weapons are either safe or pointing

in the right direction that would make

us feel a lot more comfortable because

you know North Korea United States maybe

you don't feel too comfortable with us

yet but maybe maybe India could come

over and if India if India tells us that

they've looked into it you're nukes are

secure and they're not pointed at us

we've got something to work with

we'll help your economy you know just

don't counterfeit our money and stuff

like that so that would be a reframe in

which we would reframe North Korea all

the way from being a military enemy that

just doesn't even make sense

to a hybrid kind of a special military

ally without being full military ally in

other words just somebody that we commit

to protecting the way they are and just

say look we'd rather protect you it's

cheaper fighting you is expensive

protecting you from any potential future

Chinese you know impropriety is kind of

cheap let's do the cheap one and indeed

if we can invest over there

well maybe we make money also in 2020 I

think that you're going to see more

people using the word decoupling and

strategic decoupling in particular I

believe that there is a small but grow

voice of which I'm part of to encourage

American companies not to do business

with China because in the long run it's

just to our detriment and even in the

short run now I don't think that there

will be a massive sudden unwinding of

existing business and we'll probably

need some tariff agreements on the

little stuff over time agricultural

especially but I think that in 2020 it

will be a common opinion in the United

States right now it's a sort of a niche

opinion but it'll be common opinion that

we should be decoupling with China at

the same time we're being nice to them

yeah and pushing hard and the things we

have to push hard on but as long as

they're using the salon room for body

parts which they are killing them for

body parts as long as they've got

concentration camps they're suppressing

hong kong and sending fentanyl to us by

the by the boatload we can't we can't

further our relationship with them we

can only decrease it and I think that'll

be happening and I think I'm expecting

some kind of more aggressive action

against the Mexican cartels now the

other thing I'd like to see I'd really

like to see let's push for this in 2020

I'd like to see a test of someplace in

the United States where it makes sense

fully legalizing drugs for maybe a year

or a few years whatever it takes to test

it how many of you would agree on a test

not the entire country but just some

county or municipality saying look we

have two tests and things that we

wouldn't normally be able to test we

have to temporarily just give us a full

suspension of all drug crime laws for

this municipality and let's just run it

for a year might be worse might be

better maybe we learn something but

here's the thing I'm starting to lose

patience with talking about it are you

are you all having the same the same

impression talking about the big drug

problem and all this stuff coming for

China the gusta Mexico that comes here

that kills all our people by tens of

thousands I'm kind of tired of talking

about it if we're not testing it our

government is broken now maybe those

tests need to be primarily private

enterprise things but you still need the

government to suspend the laws and so

maybe what we need is not just a drug

czar but a drug czar whose specific job

is to temporarily suspend the laws in

places where you can test some stuff now

another place you might need to

temporarily suspend the laws is about

what I was talking about the the dr.

drew approach which is as in the in the

worst cases people need to be

involuntarily let's say taken care of

and that would require a changes in the

laws so perhaps we need some kind of a

federal czar who can at the let's say

the request of the local governments

because they'd have to be in on it

can suspend all the laws just for the

purpose of testing and just temporarily

so that's what I'd like to see in 2020

couldn't make a gigantic difference

somebody says the entire country would

be Skid Row well we have examples in

Portugal for example in the comments you

see a lot of people mentioning so

Portugal tried making drugs legal and it

all the reporting is that it helped a

lot not even just a little apparently

helped a lot so if you want things to

look like skid row keep doing it the way

you're going if you want it not to look

like skid row then try something that's

worked before see if you can figure out

what it was about that that worked and

then duplicate it but if you're not

doing that if you're not testing you're

not doing anything right if if the

government if our government can't tell

us oh we've got three trials going on

and we're testing various variables and

seeing what works and what doesn't if

they're not telling you that then what

they are telling you is we're not doing

anything and we're not capable of doing

anything because they're how hard would

it be to test

right it shouldn't be there all right

prohibition is the cause of this problem

well that's why we were test so you can

certainly take out the cartels by taking

their money away but I suppose they

would just turn to other forms of crime

its portugal what could go wrong

somebody says oh somebody wants me to do

a how to smoke weed episodes I'm

actually I've got a lot of planning in

that I have thought about doing a

periscope on the topic of how to smoke

marijuana if your doctor says that you

should now as you know I'm a big

proponent of marijuana under certain

circumstances one of them and the most

important one is that you're an adult

marijuana and children bad combination

bad combination want to want to avoid

that marijuana and some people who are

adults bad combination

the thing with marijuana I'll give you a

little preview of it now the thing with

marijuana is that there are lots of

different types and they affect you in

lots of different ways and then there

are also lots of different people with

different personalities and different

bodies and stuff and they all have a

different reaction so it would be the

height of let's say irresponsibility for

anybody to say that you should smoke

marijuana that would be the most

irresponsible thing anybody could ever

say because I don't know you're

completely different than me and if you

do it wrong and my tongue might not turn

out well for you now in my case I have

an actual legitimate believe it or not

medical benefit and it's extreme in my

case the benefit is fairly extreme so

luckiest is an easy easy peasy thing and

I don't do it as a party drug I've never

enjoyed it as something to do with

friends you know except in college but

it's not a party drug it's something

that's

has to do with you know your larger

health situation that said I will do I

think I should commit to this in 2020

I'll do a a demo of how to do the basics

so if your doctor says you know maybe

this would work for whatever condition

you have that you'll have a place to

start that your doctor isn't gonna tell

you because your doctor won't tell you

how to do it your doctor will probably

just say do it or don't I will give you

this one piece of advice don't use

edibles don't use edibles every bad

story I've ever heard about marijuana

was from edibles edibles you can't

control how much you're getting or you

can't know and so that's the dangerous

part but if you're smoking it's almost

impossible to smoke too much because you

just feel it as it happens and you say

well that's enough now somebody says if

Trump has a super persuasion why did he

lose the popular vote yeah that's a good

question and let me answer it so the

question is if Trump is the best

persuader in the history of the world

which I claim how can he lose the

popular vote it means he didn't he did

not persuade most people and that's to

do with the context so the question

you're asking is if the best baseball

player could hit a homerun and it would

go along as a homerun 100 yards

I have no idea why isn't why can't some

people hit a ball 5 miles and the answer

is nobody can't hit a ball 5 miles so

when you say why doesn't Trump convinced

you know the half of the country that is

already sort of aligned with Republican

stuff you know can he also persuade the

people who were vehemently against all

of that stuff the answer is no the best

persuader in the world cannot persuade

people who are that entrenched that's

not a thing so you shouldn't ask why he

can't do it because it's not a doable

thing right it's not within the it's not

even on the sporting

field it's it's outside it's a hundred

miles down the road somewhere so the

summary of that is that the only

persuasion that matters these days is

persuading your own base to get up and

do something and to think and act the

way you want

so everybody's only persuading their

persuadable that's what the game is

there's no such thing as persuading the

other team there's this thin slice of

people who call themselves independents

usually but even they are not real

independence if you looked at their

voting patterns there's some segments of

them this they say oh I'm independent I

would vote for anybody but they always

vote Republican and they will again and

same you know some that say yeah I'm

totally independent but I always vote

Democrat and I'm gonna do it again so

there really are not many people who

even you know in play to be persuaded

but if you've got a president who has a

95 percent support within his own party

and you can see that he's changed every

part of the political process think

about how many things we think about

differently and act differently because

of this president from North Korea to

China to trade to the economy to Isis to

everything I mean immigration there's no

topic that he hasn't changed or moved

the needle on everything he's just

changed everything he's changed how we

see the media he's changed well just

everything so sometimes his influence is

directed such as getting Republicans on

the on the same page other times it's

just his effect he's a walking box

shaker so everything around him is all

getting shaken up even if he's now

focusing on it because he just has that

effect so your question is actually an

excellent one but it is not in play to

persuade all the people on the other

team best you can do is your own team

and if and if there's a strategic

element to that meaning winning certain

States in the electoral process Trump

did it better you won the ones that

mattered and keep in mind that when you

talk about losing the popular vote

you're really talking about losing

California

and he didn't really try for California

California has such a big population as

does New York state that as long as

those are solid blue Republicans have to

win by getting fewer votes and just

winning in the electoral process all

right those are the things that I

thought I want to somebody says Scott's

has made Dilbert toxic well

thank you for coming all the way over

here to scream that in all capital

letters so we'll delete you so you don't

have to ever experience it again it's

funny that's exactly the kind of troll

that know that actually that's role look

like a sincere person who's just

probably elderly and yells and all caps

but the ones who just come in with the

insult and leave I think they're gone

that one actually looked like a real

person who was just a Democrat who

didn't like Trump I think that's all I

was yeah all right do I favor

eliminating the electoral college you

know I always talk about fairness and

how fairness is an illusion meaning that

it's completely subjective what is fair

to you is not fair to me the thing with

the electoral college is that there's no

place to get to fair fair doesn't exist

you could get to this solution or this

solution but half of the people would

say it's not fair because the people who

thought it worked against them whatever

the change was would say well that's not

fair and other people would say well

what's more fair than a popular vote and

then other people would say well there's

a reason there's a electoral college so

there is no there is no objective

standard by which to say fair and so

therefore it's more of a power play so

when you're talking about the electoral

college versus the popular vote where

that ends up will be wherever the power

pushes it it won't be because it's fair

writer

simpler it won't be any of those things

and right now the you know the weight of

power is that it's hard to change things

you know I think you need a two-thirds

majority or something to change the

Constitution or two thirds of the states

whatever the process is it's hard so

that's why you don't get a lot of

constitutional changes so I don't think

you'll see one because it's too hard and

half the country likes it just the way

it is because they went that way

yeah the founders wanted a balance of

the states versus federal yeah the

reasons are all good but I don't know

that anybody cares about the reasons

it's just whether it's good for their

team I'm just looking at some of your

comments somebody says that must watch

the thousand of your periscopes well you

know if they're it's given this the end

of the year and I enjoy a lot if there's

anybody else

it was gotten anything meaningful in

terms of helping their life and in my

books or periscopes please tweet at me

and let me know because that determines

what I do in the future for example my

decision to write another book or now

write another book would be greatly

influenced by what people think of the

last one that's the way it always goes

somebody asked me in the comments can I

dump wherever it says fine for dumping

can you dump that's the way I plant if I

see a sign that says fine for dumping I

think well good I wouldn't want to dump

it anywhere where it wasn't fine to do

it somebody says Lincoln only got 42

percent of the vote well you know

Lincoln needed the electoral college

like he needed all in had somebody

saying that the idea of deciding to get

something versus merely wanting it was

big for some of you I would say that was

one of my biggest biggest changes in my

life is always just making a distinction

between

things I wanted and things that I was

just deciding to do I told you the story

early on about getting my voice back

that was a decision that wasn't just

something I wanted I you know I was

deciding that whatever that took I was

gonna do it all right

um no wedding date set no we'll worry

about that I didn't want to talk about

that the first week of being engaged

because that sounds like work all right

I think we've said enough and I will

talk to you all tomorrow maybe we'll get

some real news next week there's like no

news happening now talk to you later