In today's pour-over-the-top, Scott Adams talks about Microsoft's new quantum computing chip, the FBI nomination process, and Elon Musk's new AI app, Grok. Scott Adams is on a quest to find the greatest reframing you've ever seen.
00:06:14.600But this, of course, would be directly in conflict with President Trump's negotiating tactic,
00:06:21.760which is to put maximum pressure on both sides at the same time.
00:06:26.500Now, the maximum pressure on Russia isn't going to look the same as the maximum pressure on Ukraine.
00:06:33.780Because Zelensky is a different character than Putin,
00:06:37.180and, you know, we don't need to go into why that's true.
00:06:41.220Trump stomping on Zelensky's credibility and him as a leader and essentially basically treating him like he's not the one in charge probably is exactly the right approach for Zelensky and for Ukraine at the moment.
00:06:58.480Whereas if he did the same thing with Putin, it would make things worse.
00:07:03.400So Putin has real power and a real army and nobody's pulling his puppet strings.
00:07:09.980So with Putin, you've got to treat him like he's your peer.
00:07:15.200And at the same time, threaten him privately.
00:07:18.700So what you should expect, if Trump is doing everything right, and so far it looks like he does, he would privately threaten Putin, but also privately, you know, there'd be a carrot as well as a stick.
00:07:33.120The carrot would be, you know, if you decide to be more like our ally than our adversary, that would be a good world for both of us.
00:08:19.180But in some cases, you just have more in common in the long term than with some groups and others.
00:08:25.560And I think Russia is far more likely to be our adversary, far more likely to be on the same side with some of the big issues than on the other side.
00:08:36.160And it would be better for both of us.
00:08:38.140Just being at war, even if it's like the silent secret, you know, covert war with Russia is not buying us a lot.
00:08:47.540So I understand that we would we don't want them to be economically dominant or control energy in Europe or any of that.
00:08:57.060And I think we can make sure that doesn't happen.
00:09:00.520So I do expect lots of pressure on both Ukraine and Putin and Putin if Trump's doing his job right, which I expect.
00:09:12.840It's like he is working against that, because even if you think Ukraine does deserve some funding, you know, just to survive while we do the negotiating, it's not really super good that he's going public with it.
00:09:28.700And Zelensky is, you know, happy that he's getting money at the same time that Trump's trying to pressure everybody to make something happen.
00:09:36.260So I've got a lot of questions about Lindsey Graham's activity in this.
00:09:40.120It doesn't look like it was designed to help.
00:09:42.840I don't know what it was designed for.
00:09:46.380As you know, there is a suggestion given to Elon Musk and Doge that maybe some of that Doge savings should be returned to voters.
00:09:56.540Now, of course, that raises the question, isn't the whole point to reduce our debt if you start returning it to voters?
00:10:05.280Yeah, it might stimulate the economy and that might create some extra tax revenue.
00:10:11.340But that sort of thing typically doesn't create as much tax revenue as it costs.
00:10:18.160Does it ever make sense that Doge gives any money back to the public, given that paying off the debt would be the way to give money back to the public?
00:10:30.460You know, that would be the best thing for the public.
00:10:32.300And the answer is it kind of depends because these big things like Doge are not just technical things or math.
00:10:43.900It's also about how people feel about it.
00:10:45.940If people don't feel good about the Doge thing and maybe they don't understand it and they're reading the wrong news sources and stuff, then they might try to kill it.
00:10:55.420And maybe there's an administration after these four years that really needs to, you know, finish the job.
00:11:02.820And, you know, let's say it's J.D. Vance or anybody with that that leaning.
00:11:08.740You don't want the public to turn on the idea of making the government more efficient.
00:11:14.080So suppose you bribe the public and you said, look, public, I know you don't follow the news.
00:11:20.160I know you don't know exactly whether it's a good idea or a bad idea to do these aggressive cuts.
00:12:42.320But as a way to keep Doge popular so that it has the right amount of support and it's got the right, just the right framing,
00:12:52.620it just comes as a positive thing, it might make sense.
00:12:57.220So I'm going to say I'm solidly on the fence,
00:13:00.520meaning that I don't know if we can tell if getting more support for Doge is the most important thing worth 20% of all the money we might save.
00:13:12.080And the stimulus is always a good idea.
00:22:31.100Now, it's only, you know, just over 50%.
00:22:33.540But if you can get a brand new Republican or even a brand new Democrat president who can get a 56% on a brand new thing that's got a lot of energy and it's making a big difference,
00:22:47.380that's amazing support in our country.
00:22:53.560Well, let's see if the Trump effect is affecting anything else.
00:22:56.740I don't know if this is the Trump effect, but according to polls, Francis Macron, if he ran an election today, he would lose by a lot, by 18% margin to Le Pen.
00:23:10.600So I don't follow French politics too much, but it seems like that would be quite the earthquake.
00:23:18.200I know that Le Pen's been trying since about the same time that Trump's been trying the first time, 2016.
00:23:26.960And it didn't work then, but it looks like Macron has just disgraced himself to the point that Le Pen would be a shoe in.
00:23:35.060Now, I think that doesn't mean that Le Pen becomes the leader.
00:23:38.940France is a little more complicated than that.
00:23:41.320But in terms of popularity, there's no, it's not even close.
00:23:48.060See, I think anybody who doesn't act like Trump is going to look much less desirable going forward.
00:23:57.820Because every day that Trump has a good week, or every week he has a good week, is going to make any leader who's anti-Trump just look like a moron.
00:24:07.700And it's just going to get worse every day.
00:24:10.880So Macron will probably just go lower.
00:24:14.240You know, this is a pretty big difference in popularity, but I think he's heading even lower.
00:24:20.320Well, here, Jonathan Turley was posting about this and writing about it.
00:24:25.060The so-called Royal Society out of Great Britain is one of the most prominent scientific organizations.
00:24:32.840And they used to, you know, support, I don't know, they used to have such luminaries, according to Turley, as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
00:24:45.780So this is the most, maybe the most prestigious scientific organization in the world, at least the Western world.
00:24:52.380And, but the British scientists, they've decided that they want to expel Elon Musk.
00:25:00.020So they want to kick him out, Elon Musk, because they disagree with his political views.
00:25:05.480Yeah, they disagree with his political views.
00:25:07.680And so a whole bunch of scientists from this Royal Society got together and they signed a document saying that they'd like to kick Elon Musk out of their society.
00:25:18.380Now, I'd like to ask you a question, and this will be like a pop quiz.
00:26:24.700I feel like whenever the experts all sign a document, be it 51 intelligence experts or be it scientists who are backing climate models or be it this,
00:26:39.100whenever you see that the experts have to sign a document and they all got together, that's almost never true, in my opinion.
00:26:47.200Now, you could argue that, in your opinion, it is true, but I think that's a real good indication of lack of credibility.
00:27:00.380I saw Insurrection Barbie had some great posts today.
00:27:03.280I'm going to talk about a few of them.
00:27:04.540Insurrection Barbie on X, you should follow that account.
00:27:07.820So Insurrection Barbie says, once you realize that the entire resistance to Trump is made up of like 300 super connected Democrats and then a bunch of paid protesters,
00:27:21.220you realize why the last election, why they lost the election and why they keep leading voters.
00:30:49.000But when he does persuasion better than you've ever seen it, and then he keeps doing it, I'm going to be continued to be, I'll continue to be impressed.
00:33:12.860Would you agree that if you look at the, let's say, the theme or the strategy that he brings to politics,
00:33:20.280would you say that he's bringing humor, strength, energy, risk-taking, but risk-taking, that makes sense, unity, and potential for greatness.
00:40:25.140But Joy Reid, also MSNBC, said separately.
00:40:30.140She said, for years, it has been said by analysts and former intelligence officers that Donald Trump has, at best, a profound affinity for Russia, and at worst, is and has long been a Russian recruit.
00:53:19.760Now, in my opinion, so the funny thing here is that the Democrats seem to be completely unaware that Soros essentially was controlling the government by knowing exactly where the levers were.
00:53:35.020So, lever number one, you get all these local prosecutors, so you can control the Department of Justice and jail your enemies.
00:53:43.240And number two, you get these transition teams.
00:53:49.100They were literally just there to propagandize people and probably tell them, you know, you know, if you do it this way, things will be good for you.
00:53:58.180And if you do it this other way, things might not be so good for you.
00:54:01.940So, kind of brilliant how well Soros figured out how to control our government.
00:54:08.260And I would say, I'm not positive about this, but I'll just speculate because I can't read anybody's minds.
00:54:14.180I'm not going to speculate that Elon Musk would not be involved as heavily as he is with the government unless Soros did what Soros did.
00:54:26.080I think that part of what Elon, and again, I can't read any minds.
00:54:32.160So, I'm just really talking about my own feelings and then I'm projecting them onto somebody unfairly.
00:54:37.620But it seems to me that the Spider-Man curse drives Elon to some extent.
00:54:45.980Now, the Spider-Man curse is that great power comes with great responsibility.
00:54:53.220Elon Musk has assembled, just through success and money, great power.
00:54:59.180And also through Axie, he had a big platform.
00:55:01.920So, for a variety of reasons, he had great power.
00:55:04.680And then, imagine being a billionaire and looking at some other billionaire corrupting the country, in your opinion, such as Soros.
00:55:14.840And realizing that the government wasn't even strong enough to handle that one billionaire.
00:55:20.060There was nobody in the government who had the right skill, the right risk profile, maybe, the right level of intelligence to take on George Soros.
00:57:01.920So, to argue the other side of what I just argued, even without Soros, if he realized he might be the only person who could possibly save us from the escalating debt, well, that too would be the Spider-Man curse.
00:57:19.720You know, the person who has the ability has to do it.
00:57:22.300Now, I can only tell you from my own personal experience that every now and then, there seems like a problem that I'm uniquely suited to attack.
00:57:32.980And the first thing I think is, damn it, am I really that uniquely suited to attack that thing?
00:57:38.780And then when I realize I might be, I just have to.
00:57:45.840You know, I've had enough good things happen to me that if there's a problem in the country that only I, you know, I won't say only I, but if I have some, you know, little extra gear about a specific problem, not problems in general, but there might be some specific things I could make a difference, I'm all in.
00:59:02.560But the federal government, well, I guess I knew this in general.
00:59:05.220The federal government controls D.C., but the federal government decided that it would delegate it to, you know, the local D.C. government.
00:59:15.780But it doesn't have to keep it that way.
00:59:18.280So, you know, maybe there'll be a Supreme Court case on this.
00:59:21.980But the argument is that if the federal government decided to take back control of D.C. because it got out of hand and it's too dangerous, that they would be able to do it.
01:00:41.240I'll bet you that Democrats will complain about something that hasn't happened, but could be a fictional future possibility based on somebody's bad character, because that's the movie they like.
01:00:55.900Well, in horrible news, I barely want to bring this up, except my audience won't be affected by it.
01:01:04.720A Tesla showroom in Oregon got shot up.
01:01:21.920Now, don't you think this is a direct effect of propaganda, calling Elon Musk, you know, some kind of Hitler helping, whatever, whatever they're saying about him today?
01:14:16.240There are people on both sides of everything.
01:14:18.840But there is no source to know what's true.
01:14:23.380That's what RFK Jr., that's what RFK Jr. wants some sources that are ideally, you know, the platinum quality study that's not funded by the people who have a stake in it.
01:14:38.980So, number one, can't be funded by somebody who has a stake in it, and no hidden stake.
01:14:43.660How do you know if something was, if a study was funded by the wrong people, even indirectly?
01:14:54.340What if the way the big pharma is bribing the study has nothing to do with the study?
01:14:59.540Maybe it's all about, once you've done the study, we have lots of people who would like to see it, so we'll pay you to give really expensive speeches.
01:15:08.340And if you write a book, we'll push it, because that's good for us.
01:15:12.280There are a million ways you can bribe the sponsor or the person who's running a study.
01:15:17.520I don't know how many ways that they actually use, but there's probably a million ways.
01:15:22.720So, if you're trusting any scientific study in 2025, and you're making an argument that you know which ones are the real ones, you're either a liar or a moron.
01:15:38.080But when Kennedy says that he will admit when he's wrong, if the studies go in that direction, that sounds honest.
01:15:50.440Because you want the person who says, I could totally be wrong.
01:15:53.600I'm only looking at the data, and I'm going to look at the same thing you are, and we're going to try to figure out together what looks like it's real and what doesn't.
01:16:06.160I want somebody who's honest enough to say, if you embarrass me in public by giving me data that shows I was wrong about something important, I'm going to say in public, I was wrong.
01:16:23.380So, I think Kennedy is also one of these great power, great responsibility situations.
01:16:29.080Over a lifetime, he acquired great power in the form of a specific expertise about the medical and the food community.
01:16:39.620But at the same time, being quite aware that he's a Kennedy, he had sort of this accidental power as well.
01:16:47.040So, imagine living in the United States, and you see that children are just being destroyed by, it looks like, we don't know, but some combination of food and maybe medical treatment.
01:17:01.480And you have the knowledge to make a difference, you have the grit, the energy, the intelligence, and even the money that you can survive an economic hit.
01:17:14.220And you're a Kennedy, it's the Spider-Man curse.
01:17:23.480Or it looked like if he put in everything, if he went all in and risked everything, including his marriage, including his marriage, if he went all in, he might be able to save children.
01:25:13.360Without getting into the details, again, there's a similarly alarming number of people.
01:25:20.820Now, it's a much bigger sample this time.
01:25:23.120Last time it was admittedly a small sample.
01:25:25.820But the larger sample has maybe an 8% margin of error, which wouldn't change the interpretation at all.
01:25:35.200So even if it's the worst case inaccurate, even the most inaccurate could be, would be about 8% statistically, would still make the same point.
01:25:46.660There is an alarming number of people who are black Americans who answered they either don't know that it's okay to be white, you don't know, or that they say it's not okay to be white.
01:25:59.520Now, it gets complicated because the first time this came up, I didn't know it.
01:26:04.640But other people said, well, that phrase, is it okay to be white, or it's okay to be white, is some white supremacist thing that they say.
01:26:13.540Now, I never heard of it, because I guess I don't hang around with white supremacists, but I'd never heard of it.
01:26:19.440And I couldn't imagine that the average person who took the poll had ever heard of that.
01:26:25.080So I reject that that had anything to do with the outcome of the poll.
01:26:29.440I just don't think that's a common thing that people have heard of.
01:26:33.440And even if they had heard of it, why would you say it's not okay to be white?
01:26:38.080Like, how would you ever answer that question?
01:26:39.980And then I ask myself, how would it be if the question were reversed?
01:26:46.180I don't know a single white person who would ever say that it's not okay to be black.