Real Coffee with Scott Adams - February 24, 2020


Episode 830 Scott Adams： Bloomberg as the T＊rd in the Punch Bowl, Bernie and Fidel, Healthcare


Episode Stats

Length

53 minutes

Words per Minute

152.23848

Word Count

8,219

Sentence Count

522

Misogynist Sentences

7

Hate Speech Sentences

18


Summary

A man in Oregon is crushed by a falling tree, and a new strain of coronavirus is spreading around the world, and an Iranian politician says there are more than 50 confirmed cases of the virus in one city, but the authorities say there are only 12.


Transcript

00:00:00.080 Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
00:00:08.000 Hey, everybody, It's good to see you this morning
00:00:13.020 And by that I mean even better than usual
00:00:16.440 And that's a pretty high bar
00:00:19.480 cause I'm always so happy to see you
00:00:21.480 and today, you're probably here to enjoy the simultaneous sip
00:00:24.540 I mean, why wouldn't you?
00:00:26.420 It doesn't cost anything
00:00:28.420 It's easy to prepare for. It makes your entire day better.
00:00:32.060 It would be really insane not to enjoy it.
00:00:36.780 Isn't that right, DJ Dr. Funk Juice? I think you would agree.
00:00:41.300 And so, let us prepare.
00:00:44.520 All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or a chalice or a stein, a canteen jug or a flask, a vessel of any kind.
00:00:50.380 Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee.
00:00:52.860 And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine at the end of the day, the thing that makes everything better.
00:01:00.440 It's called the simultaneous sip. Go.
00:01:07.540 Just as good as I imagined. If not better.
00:01:12.300 Well, let's see what's going on today.
00:01:15.560 In the news, there was a big windstorm up in Oregon.
00:01:19.380 Oregon, and an Oregon man who was sitting on his couch in his home was crushed by a falling tree.
00:01:28.720 This ginormous tree that was near his, it looked like apartments, fell over, went right through his roof, and crushed him as he sat there on his couch.
00:01:40.600 I think he survived. It looks like they got him out.
00:01:43.920 But he was in bad shape.
00:01:45.440 The moral of the story, of course, is, you might as well get off the couch, because if karma is going to come looking for you, it's going to find you on the couch.
00:01:56.940 You can't hide on the couch. No.
00:01:59.720 Karma's coming for you.
00:02:01.480 Now, I don't know that he did anything to deserve a tree falling on him, but let's assume he did not.
00:02:07.180 It was bad luck.
00:02:08.020 But still, get off the couch.
00:02:10.120 It's dangerous there.
00:02:11.020 Speaking of danger, the coronavirus is spreading to other countries, keeping us panicked, destroying the supply lines internationally, tanking the stock market.
00:02:23.760 Now, if I were a long-term investor, I would say to myself, this coronavirus is just what the doctor ordered.
00:02:35.080 Because there wasn't anything that was going to make the stock market go down just for ordinary business reasons, because the economy was doing well.
00:02:44.200 You needed some kind of an external shock to temporarily drive the prices down a little bit.
00:02:50.300 And then those of you who are thinking of getting in for the long term, it might be a good time.
00:02:55.880 So I'm kind of watching this, thinking to myself, now, this would be a good time to load up on some of those stocks I wish I had gotten earlier.
00:03:04.860 So we're watching that.
00:03:06.360 Now, I don't know how bad it would get.
00:03:08.500 If I had to guess, I would say that human ingenuity will work faster than the virus.
00:03:15.740 You can't guarantee that.
00:03:18.580 But I think human ingenuity and determination and cleverness will probably get ahead of this thing.
00:03:25.360 But we're not there yet.
00:03:26.900 There's a scary story coming out of Iran that...
00:03:31.740 So apparently an Iranian lawmaker who represents the city of, however you pronounce, Q-O-M...
00:03:39.740 Q-O-M?
00:03:42.180 Q-O-M?
00:03:43.740 Q-O-M?
00:03:45.620 Q-O-M?
00:03:46.600 I have no idea.
00:03:47.900 Q-O-M.
00:03:48.940 But there's a city with that name in Iran.
00:03:51.360 And the guy who represents it said that there had been at least 50 coronavirus deaths in the city.
00:03:59.680 And accused the country's health minister of lying about the outbreak.
00:04:04.040 Now, let me say this.
00:04:06.920 There's no such thing as credible information coming out of Iran.
00:04:13.480 Just in general.
00:04:15.680 You know, if it came out of Iran, you've automatically got to say, well, maybe, but probably not.
00:04:24.000 So, can we believe this mayor?
00:04:27.560 Because if we did believe him, and why would you lie about a thing like that?
00:04:31.580 What in the world would this guy have to gain by lying about it?
00:04:37.740 It's more like, if anything, he might be just wrong, perhaps.
00:04:42.060 Or heard the wrong information.
00:04:44.700 But what if he's right?
00:04:46.720 If it's true that 50 people died in that one city in just the last few weeks, we've got a real big problem on our hands.
00:04:58.380 Like, maybe bigger than we have any idea.
00:05:01.960 But Iran, the larger authorities, are rejecting that and saying there's been a total of only 66 coronavirus infections and 12 deaths.
00:05:15.640 Wait a minute.
00:05:16.760 12 out of 66?
00:05:21.180 Alexa, what is 12 divided by 66?
00:05:23.620 12 divided by 66 is 0.1818.
00:05:31.540 0.18.
00:05:32.980 So, let's say 18%.
00:05:34.740 So, the authorities in Iran are saying, correct me if I'm wrong, but they're saying, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:05:43.320 It's not as bad as you think.
00:05:45.820 Only 18% of the people who got it died in a few weeks.
00:05:51.360 What?
00:05:53.620 18% of them died?
00:05:58.980 Now, if either one of these two reports, which disagree with each other, is true, this is a way bigger problem than I was imagining.
00:06:09.580 And I was imagining it was pretty big.
00:06:12.400 So, can we believe either of those things?
00:06:15.120 That 18% of the people in Iran died from it?
00:06:18.740 I mean, if that's true, never leave the house again.
00:06:23.620 But I don't know if it's true.
00:06:25.260 I doubt it.
00:06:25.820 Recently, thanks to Chuck Schumer, and I will give him credit for this, the Transportation Security Administration, the TSA, has stopped allowing employees to use the app TikTok.
00:06:43.940 Now, if you don't have kids in your life, you might not know how big a deal the TikTok app is.
00:06:53.280 But if you have kids, you probably know it's just gigantic.
00:06:58.580 And the kids are just glued to it.
00:07:00.840 It's bigger than Snapchat.
00:07:02.000 I mean, it's a really big deal.
00:07:05.260 But you might not know about it if you don't have kids in your life of a certain age.
00:07:10.140 But a lot of adults are using it, too.
00:07:12.560 And here's the problem.
00:07:14.020 It's a Chinese company.
00:07:15.280 And here's the second problem.
00:07:19.020 Are you ready for this?
00:07:20.660 So, not only can China, the government, presumably, get all of your personal information because it's a Chinese company,
00:07:29.060 and you assume that the Chinese government can get whatever it wants from any Chinese company.
00:07:33.780 So, this TikTok app has got a real problem.
00:07:37.800 But here's the other issue.
00:07:39.960 When you sign up for a lot of apps, they will ask you for permission to control your social media accounts.
00:07:46.860 Now, the reason that you think that is is so you can more easily post your social media TikToks.
00:07:55.040 In other words, you can make a TikTok and then easily post it to Twitter with a few commands because you've set it up to take care of that for you.
00:08:03.780 But, let me combine two stories here and see what you think.
00:08:09.200 As you know, I had reported, and lots of other people reported, that on Twitter, people can follow you,
00:08:16.420 and then for reasons that are still a mystery, you can get unfollowed.
00:08:21.400 So, the person who thinks they followed you and succeeded, they can tell because time goes by,
00:08:27.000 and they see your tweets, and they know they're following you, and then suddenly they're just not.
00:08:32.120 They just stopped.
00:08:33.780 Now, I personally asked Jack Dorsey if there is an official explanation.
00:08:42.060 And it's been a few weeks.
00:08:43.980 I haven't heard back.
00:08:45.400 Here's my current hypothesis, and this ties into the TikTok thing.
00:08:52.960 Because I've communicated with Jack enough on this very topic,
00:08:57.680 unless I'm the worst judge of character in the world,
00:09:02.680 I don't think he has any idea what's happening.
00:09:05.160 And I'm really confident in that opinion.
00:09:10.680 Now, I know, I know what you're thinking.
00:09:12.500 You're thinking, well, anybody can lie.
00:09:15.040 And certainly there would be an incentive if, you know, if there were something there that somebody wanted to cover up.
00:09:20.280 But I'm a pretty good judge of people.
00:09:26.060 I'm not perfect.
00:09:27.860 Clearly, I've made mistakes.
00:09:29.440 But if I'm wrong about this, I mean, I would just be amazed.
00:09:34.440 So here's what I know to be true.
00:09:36.700 I know that it's happening.
00:09:39.000 Lots of people reporting it's happening to them.
00:09:41.200 I can check it in real time.
00:09:43.240 I've seen myself be unfollowed.
00:09:45.460 You know, it's just clearly, it's widespread.
00:09:49.440 It's clear.
00:09:50.360 It's obvious.
00:09:50.960 There's no question, no question that it's happening.
00:09:55.000 Now, what are the possibilities behind it?
00:09:57.540 Well, one is that it's some kind of, you know, management of Twitter behind it.
00:10:01.880 I don't think so.
00:10:03.780 Honestly, they're not acting as if that's the case.
00:10:07.080 It just doesn't seem like that's, I mean,
00:10:09.980 I suppose it falls into the category of, you know, anything's possible.
00:10:15.000 But I'm going to rule it out.
00:10:16.640 I don't think so.
00:10:18.300 I'm seeing the comments.
00:10:19.500 Somebody says, Scott, you sold out.
00:10:21.720 Now, from your perspective, that's actually a pretty good hypothesis.
00:10:28.480 You know, the only source you have to know whether I'd been co-opted or bought by, you know,
00:10:36.160 powerful forces is what I tell you.
00:10:39.980 I can tell you that they don't have enough money to do that.
00:10:45.780 You know, I'm sure that the social media companies have a lot of money,
00:10:49.440 but they don't have enough money to buy me off like this.
00:10:54.240 You know, there's nothing they could offer me directly, indirectly, you know,
00:10:58.420 in any form that would make me go in public and say what I'm saying now.
00:11:04.640 There's no amount of money that could make that happen because I'm already rich, right?
00:11:09.080 So I just wouldn't do it.
00:11:10.760 It's way beyond my line.
00:11:12.300 So I think you should find yourself some comfort in knowing I'm not lying to you about this topic.
00:11:23.400 Yeah, I hope you can believe that.
00:11:25.420 In my opinion, Twitter is not lying to me about it,
00:11:29.900 meaning that I think they actually don't know what's going on.
00:11:32.460 And it's been a few weeks, and if they knew, they probably would have gotten back to me.
00:11:36.920 So here's my hypothesis.
00:11:38.980 It's a third-party actor.
00:11:41.840 And it could be, I'll just throw this out there, more than one third party.
00:11:46.100 It could be that anybody who has control of an app
00:11:49.480 that asks people to give them permission,
00:11:53.140 they might be taking advantage of that
00:11:55.280 and making a few changes in your social media accounts that you're not aware of.
00:11:59.400 could be politically motivated.
00:12:02.280 Maybe.
00:12:03.500 Why wouldn't they do that?
00:12:05.140 Let me ask you this.
00:12:06.420 If you were the nation of China,
00:12:08.780 and you knew that you could change social media quite a bit
00:12:13.300 by manipulating through TikTok
00:12:15.740 the accounts of people who don't really know necessarily that they gave you that permission,
00:12:21.520 and you could just sort of drop a follow here
00:12:23.580 and drop a retweet there, that sort of thing,
00:12:27.680 what would people think?
00:12:30.020 Well, any individual would say,
00:12:31.820 huh, looks like there's some irregularities in my account,
00:12:35.340 and then they would go trying to figure out why.
00:12:38.680 And what would they do?
00:12:40.260 They would hit a wall.
00:12:42.360 Imagine how much access I have compared to just the average Twitter user.
00:12:47.400 By being a public figure, it's not fair, but I have a lot more access.
00:12:53.280 What would you do if you were just an average Twitter user,
00:12:57.720 and you saw that you had been automatically unfollowed?
00:13:01.200 I mean, how would you even follow up on it?
00:13:03.640 What would you do?
00:13:04.880 Tweet about it?
00:13:06.020 I mean, there's nothing you could do.
00:13:07.120 That's the end of the line.
00:13:08.100 You would just sit there being frustrated.
00:13:10.720 You might complain about it, but that's it.
00:13:12.820 So if you were China,
00:13:15.400 and you could massively change, you know,
00:13:19.040 who's following who, who's seeing what,
00:13:21.480 through the apps that you control,
00:13:24.720 wouldn't you do it?
00:13:25.560 It's sort of the perfect crime.
00:13:29.100 I think you would.
00:13:30.560 Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that TikTok is doing it,
00:13:33.160 but there are lots of apps that ask for that permission.
00:13:35.960 And so my theory is that it's not Twitter management.
00:13:39.000 It's definitely happening, and that it's third-party actors.
00:13:43.000 Now, it could be intelligence agencies.
00:13:45.040 It could be campaigns.
00:13:46.260 It could be other countries.
00:13:48.040 But I think third parties are manipulating your Twitter account,
00:13:52.560 and you should go into your phone and look for your permissions
00:13:57.500 and get rid of any of those permissions
00:13:59.700 if you don't want to be part of that.
00:14:02.320 All right.
00:14:04.320 I've got a question for you.
00:14:06.820 Can influence be measured on social media?
00:14:12.360 And if so, how?
00:14:14.020 So, for example, there are people who have very large social media accounts,
00:14:18.640 and if they tweet something and it gets a lot of retweets,
00:14:23.280 would you say that, therefore, they are influential?
00:14:26.560 Well, maybe.
00:14:28.260 But it could be just, you know, a cute cat retweet.
00:14:31.300 It could be just a celebrity set it so people are interested.
00:14:34.780 So I wouldn't necessarily think that you could measure influence directly
00:14:40.080 by how many people watched it, saw it, or tweeted it.
00:14:43.360 I mean, certainly those are all factors, but not alone.
00:14:46.960 Well, I would think that it has something to do with who is connected to whom
00:14:53.120 and the actual path that your tweets follow.
00:14:58.040 So, for example, does anybody have a big enough view of the social media landscape
00:15:02.720 that they could say, you know, this person doesn't have that many followers,
00:15:07.740 but every time this person tweets something,
00:15:10.360 it gets picked up by all these blue-check influential people.
00:15:13.460 So could you, therefore, say, well, unrelated to the number of followers,
00:15:18.340 this is an influential person?
00:15:20.980 Probably, right?
00:15:25.360 Let's get rid of that troll.
00:15:28.700 Goodbye, troll.
00:15:32.000 But there are probably other ways to measure such things.
00:15:35.140 So, in other words, maybe you could measure the outcome of something.
00:15:39.480 Maybe there would be a way to measure poll results and opinions
00:15:44.420 before and after somebody's involvement.
00:15:47.160 So I don't know how it could be done, but I suspect it could be done.
00:15:51.940 Somebody says, LOL, are you referring to yourself?
00:15:54.760 Yes.
00:15:55.560 Yes, of course.
00:15:56.900 Now, if you're new to this periscope,
00:15:59.900 you're not aware that I'm a trained hypnotist.
00:16:03.260 I say it way too often.
00:16:05.440 And I write on the topic of persuasion.
00:16:08.780 So being a trained hypnotist and a professional communicator
00:16:12.800 who specializes in influence as a sort of a subspecialty,
00:16:19.280 wouldn't you expect me to be more persuasive than the average person?
00:16:23.340 Of course.
00:16:24.560 Because practice works.
00:16:26.720 If somebody plays the piano more than somebody else,
00:16:30.300 the person who practiced the most,
00:16:32.500 all of the things being roughly equal,
00:16:34.420 is going to be a better piano player.
00:16:36.280 So there are very few skills that are not influenced by practice.
00:16:41.320 So since I practice and study the field,
00:16:43.360 you would expect I'd be more influential.
00:16:45.560 So shutting me down, in theory,
00:16:48.580 if I had an opinion that you didn't want to spread,
00:16:51.640 in theory, shutting me down would be more important
00:16:55.720 than shutting someone else down who was more of a consumer.
00:16:59.540 Less of a creator and more of a consumer.
00:17:02.840 All right.
00:17:04.280 Somebody said there's a COVID tracker that will blow your mind.
00:17:08.620 At C-O-V-I-D tracker.
00:17:12.440 I can't speak to that,
00:17:14.660 but apparently somebody in comment says it will blow your mind.
00:17:18.780 Probably scare you.
00:17:19.840 All right.
00:17:21.180 So I'm glad that our government is after that TikTok app.
00:17:25.720 I think that is exactly the right play.
00:17:27.460 They're studying it.
00:17:28.840 But the thing they should study is that it gives the government of China
00:17:32.140 the ability to change your Twitter account.
00:17:36.420 That should be all you need to know.
00:17:39.440 Would there be anything else you would need to know to ban TikTok?
00:17:43.880 Right?
00:17:45.420 Shouldn't that be enough?
00:17:46.440 If the only thing you know is that it's a Chinese company,
00:17:49.920 the Chinese government, of course,
00:17:52.900 can get any data it wants from a Chinese company.
00:17:55.620 I think we'd all agree that's just true.
00:17:58.880 And that they can change your Twitter account without telling you.
00:18:03.780 Those are all true, right?
00:18:05.640 Did I say anything that's not objectively, easily true?
00:18:09.560 I don't think so.
00:18:10.140 So if the government of China is controlling our most important asset
00:18:16.080 for election integrity, which is social media,
00:18:19.760 how do you let the TikTok app continue to be available in America?
00:18:26.120 Or any other app that does the same thing,
00:18:28.820 that also has a foreign government that can control it?
00:18:31.760 I think that's a no-brainer.
00:18:33.600 I think you have to shut down that app.
00:18:35.320 Sorry to all the people who like it,
00:18:37.720 but there's no way you can let the government of China
00:18:40.800 control your American Twitter accounts.
00:18:44.920 And that's exactly what's happening.
00:18:49.540 Trump is in India with one of his favorite leader buddies, Modi.
00:18:55.300 They get along really well.
00:18:56.740 And this is one of those cases where I say to myself,
00:19:00.840 the Trump haters, what do they say when they watch Trump go to India
00:19:06.840 and being treated as a celebrity, you know, a superstar?
00:19:11.500 They love him.
00:19:13.880 What do people say about that?
00:19:17.480 Because the complaints against Trump fall into this weird category
00:19:22.440 of things that are hard to measure.
00:19:24.280 So here's some of the things that you hear about from the anti-Trumpers.
00:19:28.560 Now, they're running out of complaints,
00:19:30.040 so they're getting wordy.
00:19:32.660 They're just using words put together to complain about something.
00:19:36.640 But if you looked at the actual real impact of it,
00:19:40.340 there's nothing there.
00:19:41.600 So here's an example.
00:19:43.940 They say that he's degrading the office of the presidency.
00:19:48.340 I don't know.
00:19:49.200 Is he?
00:19:49.820 Is he degrading the office of the presidency?
00:19:51.880 And if he did, how much money did that cost you?
00:19:55.520 Did your taxes go up?
00:19:58.240 Did you lose your job because the president had degraded the office of the presidency?
00:20:04.020 What actually is different?
00:20:06.940 I saw a lot of stuff that entertained me,
00:20:10.040 and I'm sure that both sides think that if the other side is in power,
00:20:13.380 they're degrading the office of the presidency.
00:20:14.880 It means absolutely nothing.
00:20:16.020 They also say that the president is costing the United States prestige and respect around the world.
00:20:26.680 Have you seen the film coming back from India?
00:20:30.080 Trump just talked to 110,000 people in a packed stadium cheering for him and their own leader.
00:20:35.600 And we're talking about trade deals and everything else.
00:20:41.380 What part of that looks like the United States losing respect?
00:20:46.820 And if we did, what's that costing us?
00:20:50.320 Did that hurt our trade deals?
00:20:52.540 No.
00:20:53.800 Did it make me less healthy?
00:20:57.640 No.
00:20:58.660 Did it do anything?
00:21:00.400 No.
00:21:01.600 Here's another one.
00:21:02.480 The president is dangerously expanding the powers of the presidency,
00:21:08.160 and he's destroying our norms and conventions.
00:21:12.100 Okay.
00:21:14.540 And because my norms and conventions got destroyed, that did what?
00:21:22.260 Cost me money?
00:21:23.820 I don't know how.
00:21:25.720 Made me unhappy?
00:21:27.740 Well, not if I see it clearly.
00:21:29.720 Obviously, it's making some people unhappy.
00:21:32.480 Did it make me late for dinner?
00:21:37.980 Nothing.
00:21:38.700 They're just words.
00:21:39.700 They're just words put together.
00:21:41.080 There's absolutely no meaning to their complaints at this point.
00:21:45.060 And one of the things that I think escaped much notice,
00:21:50.120 because it didn't get talked about,
00:21:51.280 but might have been really important for the people paying attention,
00:21:53.840 we watched Joe Biden,
00:21:56.720 who was not really the favored candidate by the anti-Trump left press.
00:22:03.020 We saw, and I forget who it was,
00:22:05.160 but somebody challenged Biden about the kids in cages.
00:22:08.660 And it was somebody on the left who said,
00:22:10.600 you know, Obama built those cages,
00:22:14.120 and he put some kids in it.
00:22:16.280 And then you had to watch Biden try to explain why his administration putting kids in cages
00:22:22.700 is so completely different than the Trump administration using the same cages
00:22:28.280 and the same set of laws and rules, essentially.
00:22:32.940 There just happened to be more traffic,
00:22:35.420 so there were more of them.
00:22:37.160 Now, I feel as though putting Biden in that position
00:22:42.200 and making it so visible for the first time
00:22:45.000 kind of made that kids in cages thing a little toothless, didn't it?
00:22:51.120 Because once it became news on the left
00:22:53.880 that they were Obama cages,
00:22:56.300 well, maybe they'll talk about something else
00:22:59.760 when they're complaining, right?
00:23:01.840 Because we have this problem of the news silos.
00:23:04.940 Everybody on the right,
00:23:06.240 who was consuming Fox News and Breitbart and those sources,
00:23:10.300 everybody who was watching that news
00:23:12.100 was fully aware that these cages were built and used by Obama,
00:23:16.980 and it wasn't Trump's fault that there's more people,
00:23:20.120 you know, caravans, etc.,
00:23:21.440 who tried to come across the border.
00:23:24.020 Trump did everything he could to discourage it.
00:23:26.760 In fact, no president tried harder to discourage kids
00:23:31.220 from coming here because what are we going to do?
00:23:34.120 We have to separate them from the adults
00:23:36.140 because we don't know who the real parent is.
00:23:38.800 Some of them, too many of them, are being trafficked.
00:23:41.740 What are you going to do?
00:23:43.280 So I think the Biden candidacy
00:23:46.220 had a weird effect of making Trump look better.
00:23:51.280 And I don't know that it's something
00:23:56.320 that people will recognize in their thinking.
00:23:58.880 I think it's just out there,
00:24:00.660 and now the left sees that probably
00:24:02.820 the single biggest complaint about Trump
00:24:05.660 that really had an emotional pull
00:24:07.240 was this kids in cages stuff,
00:24:09.260 and it just sort of fell apart
00:24:10.620 when they looked at the fact that Biden did the same thing.
00:24:13.880 All right.
00:24:18.480 Mark Twain has a quote I like.
00:24:20.920 I just saw it online.
00:24:22.180 Those who don't read the news are uninformed.
00:24:25.200 Those who read the news are misinformed.
00:24:28.200 So I guess it's always been true.
00:24:30.220 We think fake news is kind of a new thing,
00:24:33.480 but Mark Twain was on it early.
00:24:38.540 So I guess the administration
00:24:39.820 is going to push some new rules
00:24:43.300 that say if you have a green card,
00:24:45.460 you can't get welfare-like services in this country.
00:24:50.120 You have to be able to demonstrate
00:24:51.180 that you can support yourself.
00:24:53.600 Otherwise, I guess you'd lose your green card.
00:24:55.620 I think that's how it works.
00:24:58.500 But this is another example
00:24:59.580 which I tweeted about this morning,
00:25:01.940 which one of the ways
00:25:03.540 you could distinguish Democrats and Republicans
00:25:05.860 is that Republicans are big on incentives.
00:25:10.020 So they build systems
00:25:12.020 that rely on people having the right incentives,
00:25:15.700 often selfish incentives,
00:25:17.620 but incentives that are really
00:25:19.440 the energy behind the system.
00:25:22.600 So capitalism, of course,
00:25:23.840 is built on incentives, etc.
00:25:26.580 But Democrats seem to see incentives as cruel.
00:25:32.960 Meaning if you're forcing somebody
00:25:34.940 to do something they didn't want to do,
00:25:37.280 or you're giving a penalty
00:25:38.960 for doing something,
00:25:40.940 such as going to a country illegally,
00:25:44.360 that you're just being cruel.
00:25:46.900 But are those opposites?
00:25:48.960 I would say no.
00:25:50.340 I would say they could both be true.
00:25:52.680 Incentives are cruel.
00:25:54.380 If you're not a person
00:25:55.620 who can easily get a job
00:25:57.380 and work in a capitalist society,
00:25:59.960 well, your life might not turn out so well.
00:26:02.360 It's very cruel.
00:26:04.100 But it's also the only system
00:26:05.920 we know that works as well as it does.
00:26:09.520 So it could be cruel
00:26:12.020 and kind at the same time
00:26:14.220 because it could be cruel
00:26:15.240 to individuals in certain situations
00:26:17.160 while still being the best solution
00:26:19.560 for the greater good in the long term.
00:26:22.500 And another way to look at this
00:26:23.720 is the child view versus the adult view.
00:26:26.400 The child view is,
00:26:27.720 I want candy.
00:26:29.380 Well, you know,
00:26:30.420 the adult says,
00:26:31.220 you should have your dinner,
00:26:33.260 there's a nutrition,
00:26:34.240 blah, blah, blah.
00:26:35.080 Don't eat candy.
00:26:36.140 And then the child will hear
00:26:37.240 all those good reasons and say,
00:26:39.280 but I want candy.
00:26:41.760 I want candy.
00:26:43.380 So that's sort of the view
00:26:45.140 that incentives are cruel.
00:26:46.940 You know,
00:26:47.140 making people do things
00:26:48.520 or denying them services,
00:26:50.180 et cetera,
00:26:50.940 is definitely cruel.
00:26:52.960 If that's all you looked at
00:26:54.560 is the impact on the individual.
00:26:55.920 But if you look at the system,
00:26:58.140 it's the kindest system
00:27:00.100 to the most people,
00:27:01.380 even though individually
00:27:02.300 it could be quite cruel.
00:27:04.260 So it's an adult view
00:27:05.760 versus a child view.
00:27:09.140 I'm getting increasingly frustrated
00:27:11.240 with Bernie
00:27:14.420 and the people
00:27:15.560 who want to fix health care
00:27:16.740 at being terrible
00:27:18.240 at making their own argument.
00:27:21.260 In fact,
00:27:22.120 they are so bad
00:27:23.100 that I wasn't entirely sure
00:27:24.980 what the argument was
00:27:25.980 until today.
00:27:27.900 Let me see if you knew this.
00:27:31.380 And by the way,
00:27:32.800 at least half of you
00:27:34.860 are going to say,
00:27:35.880 Scott,
00:27:37.320 you idiot,
00:27:38.860 we knew that.
00:27:40.720 And anybody who doesn't know that,
00:27:42.960 you're not paying attention
00:27:43.980 or you're not too bright.
00:27:45.500 But let me confess,
00:27:46.780 I didn't know this.
00:27:48.160 So this is part of Bernie's plan.
00:27:50.660 Did you know that in Bernie's plan,
00:27:52.440 where there would be
00:27:53.380 universal health care,
00:27:55.920 and all you'd have to do
00:27:57.380 is go to whatever doctor
00:27:58.480 you wanted,
00:27:59.640 did you know that you wouldn't
00:28:01.200 lose anything
00:28:02.960 you already have?
00:28:05.180 In other words,
00:28:05.940 you would just go
00:28:06.680 to your same doctor
00:28:07.580 except instead of paying
00:28:08.880 with one insurance card,
00:28:11.240 you would just hand him
00:28:12.000 the government card.
00:28:13.360 But otherwise,
00:28:14.540 your life would be the same.
00:28:16.680 Now,
00:28:18.320 I'm looking at the comments.
00:28:20.040 Somebody says,
00:28:20.640 right,
00:28:20.960 they knew that.
00:28:21.660 And then the very next comment is,
00:28:23.200 I didn't know that.
00:28:24.940 Didn't you imagine,
00:28:26.140 if you're consuming
00:28:26.900 just the media from the right,
00:28:29.260 didn't you imagine
00:28:30.100 that Bernie was going
00:28:30.960 to blow everything up
00:28:32.020 and it was going to be
00:28:32.680 some kind of government program?
00:28:35.160 But indeed,
00:28:35.720 all it's doing
00:28:36.200 is getting rid
00:28:36.740 of some bureaucracy.
00:28:38.500 Instead of these
00:28:39.280 big private health
00:28:40.640 insurance companies,
00:28:42.060 just the insurance part,
00:28:43.320 not the health care part,
00:28:44.220 but just the insurance part,
00:28:46.020 Bernie's plan
00:28:46.640 would make that industry
00:28:47.680 just go away,
00:28:49.280 which is a big deal
00:28:50.580 if you're in that industry,
00:28:51.660 obviously,
00:28:52.340 or you have stock
00:28:53.200 in that industry.
00:28:54.340 But he'd just make it go away
00:28:55.720 and he would replace it
00:28:56.740 with a card
00:28:58.120 that you could just
00:28:58.720 take anywhere.
00:28:59.860 Go to any facility,
00:29:01.120 make an appointment,
00:29:02.240 here's my government card,
00:29:03.460 and get the same doctor
00:29:04.400 and the same services
00:29:05.300 you would have.
00:29:06.460 Now,
00:29:07.760 did I not just explain
00:29:09.160 that better
00:29:09.620 than Bernie ever has?
00:29:12.540 Somebody's saying,
00:29:13.400 that's BS,
00:29:14.060 we've heard you can
00:29:14.880 keep your doctors before.
00:29:16.740 No,
00:29:17.160 that was Obamacare.
00:29:19.520 Obamacare
00:29:19.880 was more restrictive.
00:29:23.260 Bernie is not
00:29:23.940 pushing Obamacare.
00:29:25.660 Bernie is saying,
00:29:26.500 let's get rid of
00:29:27.100 all this
00:29:27.520 unnecessary paperwork
00:29:29.440 and overhead
00:29:30.720 and profit
00:29:31.380 from the insurance companies,
00:29:32.980 and how about
00:29:33.720 you can just go
00:29:34.380 anywhere you want
00:29:35.220 and get any service
00:29:36.920 that's available,
00:29:37.640 you just have to
00:29:38.300 make an appointment
00:29:39.020 like everybody else.
00:29:40.980 Isn't that better
00:29:41.920 than the current system?
00:29:43.020 If you were just
00:29:43.920 a consumer
00:29:44.420 hearing it
00:29:44.960 for the first time.
00:29:46.020 Here's another one.
00:29:46.800 You have heard,
00:29:49.440 of course,
00:29:49.840 Bernie saying
00:29:50.440 that he would
00:29:51.060 pay for his
00:29:52.240 universal health care.
00:29:54.600 He would pay it
00:29:55.180 by raising taxes
00:29:56.680 on billionaires
00:29:58.160 and their financial
00:29:59.240 transactions.
00:30:01.020 Now,
00:30:01.220 that's pretty good,
00:30:02.080 right?
00:30:02.820 If all he's doing
00:30:03.860 is taking
00:30:05.160 a billionaire's
00:30:06.160 hundreds of millions
00:30:07.400 of dollars
00:30:07.860 financial transactions
00:30:09.140 and charging more,
00:30:11.200 well,
00:30:11.580 the billionaire
00:30:12.020 is making,
00:30:13.720 you know,
00:30:14.880 let's say
00:30:15.580 the billionaire
00:30:16.040 makes 12% return
00:30:17.900 instead of 18% return.
00:30:20.460 Doesn't even notice it,
00:30:21.640 right?
00:30:22.440 The billionaire
00:30:22.920 can't even tell
00:30:23.700 the difference.
00:30:24.680 Still a billionaire.
00:30:25.980 I made 12% this year
00:30:27.500 instead of 18%
00:30:29.180 because my taxes
00:30:30.260 were higher.
00:30:30.900 Whatever it is.
00:30:32.380 So,
00:30:32.920 that part of Bernie's plan,
00:30:34.220 I say to myself,
00:30:35.700 that's not bad.
00:30:37.140 Even if I were
00:30:37.880 a billionaire,
00:30:38.480 I don't know
00:30:38.800 if I would complain
00:30:39.480 about it that much
00:30:40.220 because I wouldn't
00:30:40.760 know the difference.
00:30:41.840 Literally,
00:30:42.320 I wouldn't be able
00:30:42.980 to tell.
00:30:43.280 But then there's
00:30:45.600 this other part
00:30:46.280 that Bernie
00:30:46.840 completely screws
00:30:48.600 the pooch on
00:30:49.260 and watching him
00:30:50.300 do this wrong
00:30:51.220 time after time
00:30:52.300 again
00:30:52.660 just makes me
00:30:54.020 lose confidence
00:30:54.740 in him.
00:30:55.640 And I've said
00:30:56.000 this before,
00:30:57.220 I say it way too much
00:30:58.360 because my book
00:30:59.020 Loser Think
00:30:59.700 is entirely about this,
00:31:01.220 that if you don't
00:31:01.780 have experience
00:31:02.460 in different domains,
00:31:04.020 you've got some
00:31:04.940 real gaps
00:31:05.700 in your ability
00:31:06.600 to understand the world
00:31:07.740 but also
00:31:08.940 in your ability
00:31:09.720 to explain it
00:31:10.740 to other people.
00:31:11.380 I'm going to
00:31:12.720 explain Bernie's
00:31:13.880 health care plan
00:31:15.580 better than Bernie
00:31:16.540 has ever explained it.
00:31:18.420 And I'm a little
00:31:18.980 afraid to do this
00:31:20.060 because I'm going
00:31:21.340 to change your mind.
00:31:23.740 Now that doesn't
00:31:24.660 mean I'll change you
00:31:25.400 from not wanting
00:31:26.920 Bernie's health care
00:31:27.720 plan to wanting it.
00:31:29.360 But I'm definitely
00:31:30.500 going to change
00:31:31.100 a lot of your minds
00:31:32.020 from that is crazy
00:31:33.660 to oh,
00:31:35.220 I didn't know that.
00:31:37.300 Watch this.
00:31:38.900 So part of the
00:31:39.860 complaint about
00:31:40.580 Bernie's plan
00:31:41.160 is it will raise
00:31:41.900 taxes on the
00:31:42.700 middle class.
00:31:44.300 And even Bernie
00:31:45.320 accepts that's true.
00:31:47.320 But he waves
00:31:48.180 his hand and says,
00:31:48.960 you know,
00:31:49.120 you'll save some
00:31:49.760 money in other
00:31:50.580 ways.
00:31:52.260 Is that good
00:31:53.000 persuasion?
00:31:53.920 Yeah,
00:31:54.360 your taxes will
00:31:55.100 go up,
00:31:55.540 but,
00:31:55.780 you know,
00:31:55.980 I'll save you
00:31:56.540 money because
00:31:57.220 your health care
00:31:57.880 is free.
00:31:58.940 Is that good?
00:32:00.180 Well,
00:32:00.600 it's true.
00:32:01.880 It's true,
00:32:02.720 meaning that is
00:32:03.480 the plan he
00:32:04.140 promotes.
00:32:05.460 Let me give you
00:32:06.100 some numbers on
00:32:06.840 it.
00:32:08.180 I just heard
00:32:08.940 these today for
00:32:09.580 the first time.
00:32:10.060 So he wants
00:32:10.980 to add
00:32:12.540 an extra
00:32:12.940 4% tax,
00:32:14.500 let's say you're
00:32:15.060 a middle class
00:32:15.620 person,
00:32:16.660 on what you
00:32:17.580 make over
00:32:18.100 $29,000.
00:32:19.380 So the first
00:32:19.780 $29,000,
00:32:21.100 no tax,
00:32:22.440 no extra tax
00:32:23.340 on that.
00:32:24.420 And so let's
00:32:25.300 say you've got
00:32:25.980 a middle class
00:32:26.500 family that makes
00:32:27.300 a combined
00:32:27.840 $100,000 of
00:32:29.260 income.
00:32:30.440 Only the
00:32:31.340 $70,000 of that
00:32:32.460 would be taxed
00:32:33.180 to 4%.
00:32:33.920 So let's
00:32:35.220 just say it
00:32:35.860 would cost
00:32:36.260 them $2,800
00:32:37.060 extra in
00:32:38.060 taxes.
00:32:39.600 But they
00:32:40.260 wouldn't have
00:32:40.600 to pay their
00:32:41.060 own health
00:32:41.480 care anymore.
00:32:42.560 How much
00:32:43.240 were they
00:32:43.540 paying?
00:32:44.640 Well,
00:32:44.960 it depends.
00:32:46.440 If it's
00:32:46.880 me,
00:32:47.880 I'm paying
00:32:48.680 something like
00:32:49.980 $18,000 a
00:32:51.660 year less.
00:32:53.000 Right?
00:32:53.840 Because I'm a
00:32:54.860 small business
00:32:55.460 and I pay my
00:32:56.080 own health
00:32:56.480 care.
00:32:57.200 If I didn't
00:32:57.820 have to,
00:32:58.680 I would save
00:32:59.240 $18,000.
00:33:00.960 Now,
00:33:01.520 let's say I
00:33:02.400 had a small
00:33:02.840 business and I
00:33:03.520 was only making
00:33:04.240 $100,000 a
00:33:05.320 year.
00:33:06.000 I would save
00:33:06.880 $18,000,
00:33:08.140 but I'd have
00:33:08.580 to pay $2,800.
00:33:10.840 Now,
00:33:11.700 because every
00:33:12.360 situation is
00:33:13.600 different,
00:33:14.700 you can't
00:33:15.220 really take an
00:33:15.800 average for that,
00:33:16.680 can you?
00:33:17.580 Because there are
00:33:18.280 no two people
00:33:18.940 who have the
00:33:19.340 same write-offs
00:33:21.540 and income
00:33:22.100 and all that
00:33:22.580 stuff.
00:33:23.200 But he should
00:33:23.840 do it anyway.
00:33:25.660 Bernie should
00:33:27.100 just pick a
00:33:28.540 number and do
00:33:29.560 it anyway.
00:33:30.060 and say
00:33:30.400 something like,
00:33:31.720 yeah,
00:33:31.920 you're going
00:33:32.180 to pay $2,800
00:33:32.960 extra in
00:33:33.960 taxes,
00:33:34.760 but I'm
00:33:35.260 going to
00:33:35.460 save you
00:33:35.800 $18,000 a
00:33:37.100 year if
00:33:37.580 you're a
00:33:37.840 small company.
00:33:39.740 Now,
00:33:40.420 is that true
00:33:41.420 for your
00:33:41.860 case?
00:33:42.360 Probably not,
00:33:43.220 because there
00:33:43.540 are no two
00:33:43.980 cases the
00:33:44.480 same.
00:33:45.100 But how
00:33:45.900 much more
00:33:46.360 persuasive is
00:33:47.180 it to say,
00:33:48.520 yeah,
00:33:48.720 I'll tax you
00:33:49.340 $2,800 a
00:33:50.440 year more if
00:33:52.080 you make $100,000
00:33:53.040 from a small
00:33:53.840 business,
00:33:54.460 but you'll
00:33:55.080 save $18,000.
00:33:58.000 Are you in?
00:33:58.860 But what
00:34:01.400 about your
00:34:01.720 health care?
00:34:02.240 And then
00:34:02.480 Bernie would
00:34:02.860 say,
00:34:03.200 exactly the
00:34:04.040 same,
00:34:04.860 except less
00:34:05.480 paperwork.
00:34:06.720 So here is
00:34:07.620 me selling
00:34:08.300 Bernie's plan.
00:34:10.080 You have
00:34:10.720 exactly the
00:34:11.400 same health
00:34:11.820 care services
00:34:12.440 you have
00:34:12.880 now.
00:34:13.920 You get rid
00:34:14.720 of a whole
00:34:15.040 bunch of
00:34:15.400 paperwork.
00:34:15.780 paperwork.
00:34:16.520 You might
00:34:17.260 get dental
00:34:17.880 and vision
00:34:19.240 on top of
00:34:19.860 it.
00:34:20.860 And you're
00:34:22.400 going to
00:34:22.560 save something
00:34:23.140 like six
00:34:23.880 to one.
00:34:24.940 Now,
00:34:26.060 is that
00:34:26.880 better?
00:34:27.580 Did I do
00:34:28.180 a better job
00:34:28.780 of selling
00:34:29.220 his plan
00:34:29.720 than he
00:34:30.020 did?
00:34:30.660 Yeah.
00:34:31.320 Now,
00:34:31.540 the problem,
00:34:32.080 of course,
00:34:32.900 is if you're
00:34:33.480 a wage
00:34:33.880 earner who
00:34:34.400 has a
00:34:34.780 private
00:34:35.160 insurance
00:34:35.720 plan
00:34:36.060 through
00:34:36.320 your
00:34:36.520 employer,
00:34:37.480 your employer
00:34:38.380 gets to
00:34:38.940 pocket all
00:34:40.340 of those
00:34:40.680 savings because
00:34:41.360 your employer
00:34:41.780 no longer
00:34:42.300 needs to
00:34:43.020 offer
00:34:43.740 health care.
00:34:44.840 It's
00:34:45.080 optional.
00:34:45.640 They could
00:34:45.880 just stop
00:34:46.260 doing it.
00:34:47.600 Actually,
00:34:48.040 I think under
00:34:48.480 his plan,
00:34:48.940 they couldn't
00:34:49.300 do it,
00:34:49.620 so they
00:34:49.860 would stop
00:34:50.240 doing it.
00:34:51.040 So your
00:34:51.640 employer could
00:34:52.580 be saving
00:34:53.040 millions of
00:34:53.660 dollars,
00:34:54.620 and you're
00:34:55.640 just paying
00:34:56.060 $2,800
00:34:56.540 more in
00:34:57.420 taxes.
00:34:58.880 Do you
00:34:59.400 think your
00:34:59.760 employer could
00:35:00.360 get away
00:35:00.680 with that?
00:35:01.800 If you
00:35:02.340 worked for
00:35:02.720 a small
00:35:03.060 company,
00:35:03.480 and you
00:35:03.880 knew that
00:35:04.200 they had
00:35:04.480 just saved
00:35:04.900 millions of
00:35:05.460 dollars because
00:35:06.400 they no
00:35:06.700 longer have
00:35:07.120 to pay
00:35:07.340 health care,
00:35:08.040 and they
00:35:08.560 didn't give
00:35:09.100 you a raise,
00:35:10.860 you okay
00:35:11.620 with that?
00:35:12.820 I don't
00:35:13.380 think you
00:35:13.700 are okay
00:35:14.160 with that.
00:35:15.080 I think
00:35:15.420 they're going
00:35:15.680 to give
00:35:15.920 you a 4%
00:35:16.560 raise right
00:35:18.040 away because
00:35:19.420 if they just
00:35:20.740 kept the
00:35:21.300 money, you're
00:35:22.500 going to go
00:35:22.740 to another
00:35:23.120 company and
00:35:24.480 get the 4%
00:35:25.300 raise from
00:35:25.780 the other
00:35:26.040 company.
00:35:26.840 I think
00:35:27.760 that the
00:35:28.860 free market
00:35:29.400 would force
00:35:30.300 companies to
00:35:31.960 give immediate
00:35:32.900 raises to
00:35:33.560 their employees
00:35:34.240 so that they
00:35:35.900 can pay for
00:35:36.480 the government's
00:35:37.380 extra taxes
00:35:38.180 because the
00:35:39.060 company just
00:35:39.800 saved that
00:35:40.820 money.
00:35:41.060 now they
00:35:41.440 wouldn't
00:35:41.640 all do
00:35:41.980 it, but
00:35:43.520 you can
00:35:43.960 leave, right?
00:35:45.620 It's not
00:35:46.060 easy to
00:35:46.520 leave a
00:35:46.780 company, but
00:35:47.200 you could
00:35:47.480 do it.
00:35:50.000 And I
00:35:50.580 also asked
00:35:51.360 myself, what
00:35:51.960 would this
00:35:52.300 do to
00:35:52.640 competition if
00:35:54.060 you could
00:35:54.380 more easily
00:35:55.020 go to a
00:35:55.540 different
00:35:55.760 doctor?
00:35:57.560 Does it
00:35:58.100 make competition
00:35:58.760 worse?
00:36:00.660 I don't
00:36:01.280 know.
00:36:02.420 I'd have to
00:36:03.100 see an
00:36:03.380 argument on
00:36:03.900 that.
00:36:04.520 Because
00:36:04.680 imagine if
00:36:05.260 you will,
00:36:05.840 okay, the
00:36:06.640 current situation
00:36:07.380 is, let's
00:36:07.840 say I've got
00:36:08.380 health care
00:36:09.040 through Kaiser.
00:36:11.260 So it's
00:36:11.700 an HMO.
00:36:12.540 That's the
00:36:12.980 health care
00:36:13.360 that I
00:36:13.680 use.
00:36:14.600 Right now, if
00:36:15.460 I wanted to
00:36:15.940 get a second
00:36:16.460 opinion from
00:36:17.900 somebody outside
00:36:18.840 of my HMO,
00:36:20.520 it's kind of
00:36:21.360 a big pain.
00:36:22.680 I wouldn't
00:36:23.180 know where
00:36:23.500 to go, who
00:36:24.160 to talk to,
00:36:25.780 how does
00:36:26.400 that work, do
00:36:27.020 I have to
00:36:27.320 pay it out of
00:36:27.800 pocket?
00:36:28.320 I guess I
00:36:28.740 do.
00:36:29.440 So I
00:36:29.700 just don't
00:36:30.040 do it.
00:36:31.000 Imagine if
00:36:31.580 I had free
00:36:32.060 health care and
00:36:32.620 I could go to
00:36:33.040 any doctor I
00:36:33.700 wanted.
00:36:34.080 Would I get
00:36:34.480 a second
00:36:34.840 opinion from
00:36:35.640 some unrelated
00:36:36.820 entity?
00:36:38.060 Of course I
00:36:38.580 would.
00:36:39.040 It's free.
00:36:40.380 Why wouldn't
00:36:40.820 I?
00:36:41.540 Yeah, I'd
00:36:41.920 get a second
00:36:42.300 opinion.
00:36:43.260 So as long
00:36:43.920 as you're
00:36:44.140 getting second
00:36:44.660 opinions and
00:36:45.260 you're shopping,
00:36:46.620 wouldn't
00:36:47.140 Bernie's plan
00:36:48.080 actually improve
00:36:50.320 competitiveness?
00:36:51.480 Because doctors
00:36:52.340 would have to
00:36:52.940 perform to get
00:36:54.360 their share of
00:36:55.200 the customers
00:36:56.380 that the
00:36:56.960 government would
00:36:57.660 then pay for.
00:36:59.540 I don't know.
00:37:00.740 Maybe it makes
00:37:01.380 competition worse,
00:37:02.560 maybe better.
00:37:03.240 I'm not really
00:37:03.700 so sure.
00:37:04.140 So my
00:37:05.300 point is that
00:37:06.000 Bernie is
00:37:06.880 just absolutely
00:37:08.460 blowing,
00:37:10.200 just as bad
00:37:11.360 as you could
00:37:11.840 blow it,
00:37:13.100 his argument.
00:37:14.760 And he
00:37:15.040 actually has a
00:37:15.660 pretty good
00:37:16.080 argument.
00:37:17.200 It's a pretty
00:37:17.720 good argument.
00:37:19.120 He's just not
00:37:20.840 doing it right.
00:37:21.760 But if he does,
00:37:23.560 I've got to
00:37:24.140 tell you,
00:37:24.620 if Bernie
00:37:25.120 ever gets his
00:37:25.800 health care
00:37:26.260 argument right,
00:37:27.820 he's going to
00:37:28.560 say the
00:37:29.120 billionaires are
00:37:29.960 going to benefit
00:37:30.560 the most from
00:37:31.880 keeping everybody
00:37:32.640 healthy,
00:37:33.740 because that's
00:37:34.300 the workers
00:37:35.040 that they
00:37:35.440 employ,
00:37:35.860 et cetera.
00:37:36.500 So for the
00:37:37.060 rich,
00:37:37.440 it's more
00:37:37.740 like,
00:37:38.660 that's almost
00:37:39.200 like an
00:37:39.580 investment.
00:37:41.000 They're better
00:37:41.660 off if the
00:37:42.660 citizens have
00:37:43.760 health care.
00:37:45.260 And then you'd
00:37:45.780 say the middle
00:37:46.500 class,
00:37:47.000 you're going to
00:37:47.320 save more than
00:37:47.940 you're going to
00:37:48.300 spend.
00:37:48.780 Boom,
00:37:49.080 that's it.
00:37:49.620 That's it.
00:37:50.040 You're going to
00:37:50.300 save more than
00:37:50.820 you spend.
00:37:51.680 And if your
00:37:52.140 company doesn't
00:37:52.880 give you back
00:37:53.520 a rebate for
00:37:54.240 all the money
00:37:54.640 they spend,
00:37:55.820 well,
00:37:56.100 they should.
00:37:57.100 And then what
00:37:57.760 about the
00:37:58.280 stimulation?
00:38:00.960 The
00:38:01.220 stimulating
00:38:01.880 effect.
00:38:03.400 Bernie should
00:38:04.000 be saying
00:38:04.620 that if I
00:38:05.800 can make
00:38:06.180 all of these
00:38:06.780 companies out
00:38:07.700 there get rid
00:38:09.440 of their
00:38:09.660 health care
00:38:10.100 costs,
00:38:10.840 it's like a
00:38:11.720 gigantic tax
00:38:12.880 cut.
00:38:14.500 So in
00:38:15.360 terms of
00:38:15.920 the companies
00:38:16.880 that are
00:38:17.200 already paying
00:38:17.760 for health
00:38:18.320 insurance and
00:38:18.920 wouldn't need
00:38:19.360 to,
00:38:19.900 it would be
00:38:20.420 an enormous
00:38:21.020 tax cut.
00:38:22.780 Why doesn't
00:38:23.340 Bernie say
00:38:23.760 that?
00:38:24.820 It would be
00:38:25.500 an enormous
00:38:25.980 tax cut to
00:38:26.860 companies that
00:38:27.940 they would
00:38:28.260 probably pass
00:38:29.060 along to
00:38:29.600 their employees
00:38:30.360 because the
00:38:30.760 employees would
00:38:31.320 demand it.
00:38:32.060 It wouldn't
00:38:32.340 take long for
00:38:32.920 them to
00:38:33.240 demand it.
00:38:33.740 The union
00:38:34.100 certainly would
00:38:34.740 right away.
00:38:37.100 Why doesn't
00:38:37.880 Bernie sell it
00:38:38.480 as an economic
00:38:40.460 stimulant?
00:38:41.280 Anyway, my
00:38:41.800 point is that
00:38:42.900 everything he
00:38:43.500 does about
00:38:43.960 this is bad
00:38:45.180 persuasion,
00:38:46.140 and he's still
00:38:46.880 doing great.
00:38:47.800 Imagine if he
00:38:48.400 started persuading
00:38:49.760 correctly, he
00:38:51.800 could probably
00:38:52.180 take it all
00:38:52.600 the way.
00:38:52.880 there's a
00:38:55.620 story about
00:38:56.120 the anti-Trump
00:38:58.100 press saying
00:38:58.780 that Trump
00:39:00.120 is creating
00:39:00.740 lists of
00:39:01.760 unloyal,
00:39:02.580 disloyal people
00:39:03.440 so he can
00:39:04.860 fire them.
00:39:06.340 And I'm
00:39:06.760 thinking to
00:39:07.140 myself,
00:39:08.620 why is that
00:39:09.380 a story?
00:39:12.180 You know,
00:39:13.080 I think Trump
00:39:14.100 was forced
00:39:15.000 to take a lot
00:39:16.400 of disloyal
00:39:17.060 people on his
00:39:17.680 staff because
00:39:18.760 he didn't come
00:39:19.480 to government
00:39:20.000 with tons of
00:39:20.980 connections and
00:39:21.960 network that he
00:39:22.860 could just move
00:39:23.420 in there and
00:39:24.000 they're ready to
00:39:24.800 go.
00:39:25.500 I think he
00:39:26.160 made a conscious
00:39:26.800 decision to
00:39:28.300 keep a lot of
00:39:29.120 never-Trumpers
00:39:30.060 just because they
00:39:30.740 knew how to do
00:39:31.220 the work.
00:39:32.800 And now he's
00:39:35.000 got some time
00:39:36.420 to correct that,
00:39:37.720 and so if he
00:39:38.240 does, how can
00:39:39.720 we complain about
00:39:40.400 that?
00:39:41.940 Every president
00:39:42.820 has that right.
00:39:46.520 Let's see what
00:39:47.260 else we've got
00:39:47.700 going on here.
00:39:51.960 Now, did you
00:39:53.300 know that the
00:39:54.020 Obamacare, the
00:39:55.040 ACA, reached
00:39:57.040 its highest
00:39:57.660 favorability?
00:39:59.520 This is funny.
00:40:00.340 It's up to 55%
00:40:01.660 favorable.
00:40:05.080 Now, that's, of
00:40:05.920 course, with the
00:40:06.500 mandate gone,
00:40:07.420 right?
00:40:08.100 I'm right about
00:40:08.720 that, right?
00:40:09.080 The part that
00:40:10.540 people hated the
00:40:11.340 most was the
00:40:12.280 mandate.
00:40:13.520 And I thought
00:40:14.240 that when the
00:40:14.680 mandate was
00:40:15.700 taken away,
00:40:16.600 that it was all
00:40:17.100 supposed to fall
00:40:17.800 apart because it
00:40:18.780 required the mandate
00:40:19.660 to work.
00:40:20.120 But somehow
00:40:21.440 it's still
00:40:21.880 working.
00:40:22.840 I don't quite
00:40:23.520 understand why
00:40:25.480 it's not ready
00:40:26.220 to collapse, but
00:40:27.660 I guess it's
00:40:28.060 not.
00:40:29.200 And here I
00:40:30.440 would like to
00:40:30.880 give another
00:40:32.420 periodic shout
00:40:33.540 out and
00:40:34.780 compliment to
00:40:35.980 President Obama.
00:40:39.440 President Obama,
00:40:40.680 who I've often
00:40:41.360 said is a
00:40:42.520 gifted persuader
00:40:43.640 himself, he
00:40:46.360 said out loud
00:40:47.440 and in public
00:40:48.360 that when
00:40:49.120 Obamacare was
00:40:50.020 being passed,
00:40:51.760 he actually
00:40:52.280 said it's a
00:40:52.920 bad plan, but
00:40:54.660 the real plan
00:40:55.520 is to get the
00:40:56.620 country a little
00:40:57.240 bit pregnant,
00:40:58.140 meaning that
00:40:58.600 once we had
00:40:59.400 better health
00:41:01.360 care, we
00:41:01.820 would never
00:41:02.180 move backwards.
00:41:03.120 We would
00:41:03.340 have to fix
00:41:03.980 it if it
00:41:05.200 had flaws.
00:41:06.520 He said
00:41:07.160 that directly.
00:41:08.680 He actually
00:41:09.560 said in
00:41:10.420 public, I'm
00:41:11.560 going to give
00:41:11.940 you a bad
00:41:12.620 plan because
00:41:13.940 then your
00:41:14.280 only choice
00:41:14.820 will be to
00:41:15.280 fix it.
00:41:16.620 And it was
00:41:17.280 the only way
00:41:17.780 to get there.
00:41:18.360 it was the
00:41:20.100 only way to
00:41:20.480 get there.
00:41:21.860 And I
00:41:22.500 thought to
00:41:22.840 myself, that's
00:41:24.040 actually really
00:41:24.980 smart.
00:41:26.920 It's actually
00:41:27.520 one of the
00:41:28.120 best persuasion
00:41:29.480 plays.
00:41:30.320 Maybe you
00:41:31.880 could argue
00:41:32.340 it's in the
00:41:32.880 top three of
00:41:34.400 all time.
00:41:36.420 I mean, it is
00:41:37.260 so brilliant, it's
00:41:38.200 invisible.
00:41:39.640 If I didn't
00:41:40.360 mention it, would
00:41:41.880 you have ever
00:41:42.380 heard that
00:41:42.960 filter on it?
00:41:44.560 If I hadn't
00:41:46.180 said to you, he
00:41:47.520 intentionally and
00:41:48.520 publicly said, I'm
00:41:49.500 going to do
00:41:49.860 this poorly, now
00:41:51.460 you bastards are
00:41:52.240 going to have to
00:41:52.620 fix it.
00:41:53.820 He said that, not
00:41:55.400 in those words, but
00:41:56.140 he said it as
00:41:56.700 directly as that.
00:41:59.900 You can hate
00:42:01.040 your health care,
00:42:01.780 you can hate
00:42:02.180 Obama, you can
00:42:02.980 hate whatever you
00:42:04.240 need to hate in
00:42:04.840 this story, but
00:42:06.640 that worked.
00:42:07.880 It was
00:42:08.400 intentional, it
00:42:09.920 was brilliant, and
00:42:12.120 it worked.
00:42:12.840 And now we're
00:42:13.240 talking about the
00:42:13.860 Bernie plan, I
00:42:15.120 don't think we
00:42:15.540 would have if
00:42:16.380 that hadn't
00:42:18.400 happened.
00:42:19.760 Now, Bernie is
00:42:20.280 getting a lot of
00:42:20.980 heat from the
00:42:22.500 media on the
00:42:24.400 right because he
00:42:25.520 said things that
00:42:26.620 sounded like a
00:42:27.500 partial defense of
00:42:28.600 Fidel Castro
00:42:29.440 and his Cuban
00:42:31.580 revolution.
00:42:33.040 Now, I just
00:42:35.460 hate these
00:42:36.180 stories.
00:42:37.480 Here's what
00:42:37.960 basically Bernie
00:42:39.060 said, sure,
00:42:40.780 Fidel Castro
00:42:41.540 murdered people,
00:42:42.900 and we
00:42:43.500 condemn him for
00:42:44.180 all of his
00:42:44.580 bad stuff.
00:42:45.540 So Bernie's
00:42:46.080 not ignoring the
00:42:46.940 bad stuff.
00:42:47.540 He said, yeah, we
00:42:48.140 condemn him for
00:42:48.700 all that.
00:42:49.780 But it's also
00:42:50.680 true, says
00:42:52.760 Bernie, that he
00:42:54.360 had a massive
00:42:55.000 literacy program,
00:42:56.760 and that that
00:42:58.020 actually was good.
00:42:59.960 So Bernie's
00:43:00.760 saying, yeah,
00:43:01.420 yeah, yeah, there
00:43:01.860 was some murder
00:43:02.460 and abuse and all
00:43:04.220 that stuff, that's
00:43:04.980 real, but there
00:43:05.840 was also some
00:43:06.420 good stuff, and
00:43:07.000 why would you
00:43:07.500 ignore the good
00:43:09.540 stuff?
00:43:10.840 Now, on one
00:43:13.940 hand, I say to
00:43:15.180 myself, anybody
00:43:17.800 should be able to
00:43:18.900 talk that way.
00:43:20.600 Anybody should be
00:43:21.940 able to say, well,
00:43:23.640 this person is bad
00:43:24.740 for this, but you
00:43:25.660 know, hey, good on
00:43:27.140 this.
00:43:27.820 We should all be
00:43:28.660 able to talk like
00:43:29.400 that without this
00:43:30.340 happening, without
00:43:32.480 somebody making it
00:43:33.640 look like you're in
00:43:34.300 favor of the bad
00:43:35.000 parts.
00:43:35.360 So, I would say
00:43:38.040 it's despicable
00:43:39.420 fake news coverage
00:43:42.320 to blame Bernie
00:43:44.180 for the, you
00:43:46.360 know, acting as
00:43:47.840 though he's
00:43:48.360 praising a
00:43:49.100 dictator when he
00:43:50.360 says in direct
00:43:51.100 words, I'm not.
00:43:52.720 If he says in
00:43:53.920 direct words, I'm
00:43:55.140 not praising the
00:43:56.040 dictator, why
00:43:58.180 don't we believe
00:43:58.780 that?
00:43:59.660 Can't we believe
00:44:00.440 that?
00:44:01.320 I mean, this
00:44:01.740 certainly sounds
00:44:02.600 true, but why
00:44:03.720 wouldn't it be?
00:44:05.360 All right.
00:44:08.560 I tweeted about
00:44:09.760 Bloomberg today, the
00:44:12.120 company as well as
00:44:13.380 the person.
00:44:14.980 Back in 2017, some
00:44:17.440 of you saw it, but
00:44:18.440 Bloomberg, the
00:44:19.480 publication, sent a
00:44:21.060 report out to
00:44:21.940 follow me around
00:44:22.860 because, of course,
00:44:23.700 I'd been saying
00:44:25.660 good things about
00:44:26.280 Trump, and it was
00:44:27.760 just a hit piece.
00:44:29.500 So, it was
00:44:31.160 clearly a designed
00:44:32.800 hit piece.
00:44:33.720 Now, the worst
00:44:36.480 part about it, and
00:44:37.360 I put this picture
00:44:38.500 on Twitter, is
00:44:39.620 that the photo
00:44:40.340 they ran, it was
00:44:41.440 a big article, you
00:44:42.380 know, a major
00:44:42.840 piece, and so
00:44:44.840 the photo, the
00:44:46.000 big photo that
00:44:47.060 was, I don't
00:44:47.560 know, half a
00:44:48.680 page or a quarter
00:44:49.380 of a page, showed
00:44:51.120 me exiting my
00:44:52.320 garage in my
00:44:53.340 house, and a
00:44:55.140 hat on the wall,
00:44:56.140 on a hook, that
00:44:57.500 the way it was
00:44:58.220 photographed made
00:44:59.480 it look like a
00:45:00.140 MAGA hat.
00:45:00.760 It wasn't.
00:45:03.800 But that was the
00:45:04.720 story they wanted
00:45:05.360 to tell.
00:45:05.880 They wanted to
00:45:06.700 paint me as a
00:45:07.860 MAGA hat-wearing
00:45:08.960 guy.
00:45:09.900 Now, I've never
00:45:10.360 owned one, and
00:45:12.000 if I had one, I
00:45:13.320 wouldn't wear it, and
00:45:14.240 I would probably
00:45:14.780 throw it away as
00:45:15.600 soon as I got
00:45:16.060 it.
00:45:16.640 I have no
00:45:17.420 complaints with
00:45:18.120 you wearing the
00:45:18.760 hat.
00:45:19.620 For me, I would
00:45:21.200 just consider it
00:45:21.860 stupid, because I
00:45:23.280 would be inviting
00:45:23.980 risk that I
00:45:24.980 didn't need.
00:45:26.380 And if people
00:45:27.400 are offended by
00:45:28.100 the hat, it's a
00:45:30.280 hat, I don't
00:45:30.880 care.
00:45:31.540 Now, if you
00:45:32.240 want to wear it
00:45:33.660 to make a point
00:45:34.320 about free
00:45:34.800 speech, I have
00:45:36.620 no complaints.
00:45:37.620 If you want to
00:45:38.420 take that risk,
00:45:40.200 well, I'm not
00:45:41.000 sure it's a wise
00:45:42.000 choice, but that's
00:45:42.820 your choice to
00:45:43.940 make.
00:45:44.480 So I'm certainly
00:45:45.060 not suggesting
00:45:46.140 that you need to
00:45:47.280 do anything
00:45:47.680 differently.
00:45:48.860 Wear your
00:45:49.360 MAGA hats, do
00:45:50.120 whatever you
00:45:50.480 want.
00:45:50.800 It's a free
00:45:51.220 country, and if
00:45:52.000 you want to
00:45:53.500 assert your
00:45:54.140 rights, I'm
00:45:55.320 with you,
00:45:56.100 totally.
00:45:56.900 I'm just
00:45:57.380 telling you my
00:45:57.900 personal risk-reward
00:45:59.580 decision is, I'm
00:46:01.300 just not going to
00:46:01.880 bring a risk that
00:46:03.160 has no reward.
00:46:05.760 The hat looks
00:46:07.280 like one of
00:46:07.900 those hats, because
00:46:08.680 it's a take-off
00:46:09.620 on that.
00:46:10.180 I forget what it
00:46:10.780 actually said, but
00:46:11.980 instead of make
00:46:12.740 America great, it
00:46:13.700 was some profession.
00:46:15.540 It might have
00:46:15.920 been like security
00:46:16.960 or data security
00:46:18.200 or something like
00:46:18.820 that.
00:46:19.300 It was like make
00:46:19.840 data security great
00:46:20.780 again.
00:46:21.720 And somebody
00:46:22.080 sent it to me, I
00:46:23.180 didn't buy it, and
00:46:24.400 I thought, I don't
00:46:25.240 want to throw away a
00:46:26.220 hat, so I put it on
00:46:27.820 that hook by my
00:46:28.900 door in case I
00:46:30.520 needed to go to my
00:46:31.580 backyard and didn't
00:46:32.460 have a hat.
00:46:33.600 I thought, well, just
00:46:34.400 my emergency backup
00:46:35.360 hat.
00:46:36.280 But look how much
00:46:37.660 of a lie that
00:46:39.620 photo told.
00:46:41.160 And of course, the
00:46:41.940 rest of the story
00:46:42.540 was just a hit
00:46:43.240 piece.
00:46:43.940 But that photo, we
00:46:46.600 used to say that
00:46:47.540 photos don't lie,
00:46:49.060 you know, pictures
00:46:49.580 don't lie, but I
00:46:51.200 think it's more
00:46:51.800 accurate to say that
00:46:52.760 they always lie.
00:46:53.660 Because a photo is
00:46:56.100 an opinion by the
00:46:58.720 photographer, and in
00:47:00.300 this case, an editor
00:47:01.240 deciding which
00:47:01.960 pictures to run.
00:47:03.360 So really, that photo
00:47:04.680 was an opinion that
00:47:06.120 you probably took as a
00:47:07.560 fact, and you
00:47:08.360 probably took it
00:47:08.980 wrong, because you
00:47:09.880 said to yourself, if
00:47:11.020 you didn't read the
00:47:11.600 article, you'd say,
00:47:12.300 oh, there's that
00:47:13.140 Adams guy, he's a
00:47:15.080 MAGA hat-wearing
00:47:15.900 guy.
00:47:16.760 And that would put
00:47:17.380 me in a certain
00:47:18.360 class of people that
00:47:20.980 I don't, I would
00:47:24.100 not put myself in.
00:47:25.660 I certainly would
00:47:26.420 put myself as a
00:47:27.480 Trump supporter, but
00:47:29.340 wearing the hat,
00:47:31.160 that's a different
00:47:32.660 lifestyle.
00:47:34.260 All right.
00:47:35.080 So here's my
00:47:35.920 point.
00:47:37.720 Back in 2017, I
00:47:39.460 don't believe that
00:47:40.760 Bloomberg, the
00:47:41.460 company, did a
00:47:42.800 hit piece on
00:47:43.560 somebody in the
00:47:44.280 political realm,
00:47:45.700 unless the boss was
00:47:47.220 okay with it.
00:47:48.460 Either directly
00:47:49.320 ordering it, or at
00:47:50.640 least being okay
00:47:51.300 with it as a
00:47:51.920 concept.
00:47:53.020 So Bloomberg,
00:47:53.720 the candidate, has
00:47:55.940 to take responsibility
00:47:57.160 for his company
00:47:59.120 publishing a hit
00:48:00.820 piece on me,
00:48:02.240 wouldn't you say?
00:48:03.340 I would say that
00:48:04.160 that's the CEO's
00:48:05.020 responsibility,
00:48:06.060 because he sets
00:48:06.740 the tone, and it's
00:48:08.440 not like they
00:48:09.160 recanted the article
00:48:10.900 or anything.
00:48:11.620 It's still there.
00:48:14.180 So here's my
00:48:15.460 point.
00:48:17.400 Karma can be a
00:48:18.420 bitch.
00:48:18.720 Now, I don't
00:48:20.400 know if karma's
00:48:21.100 real, or it
00:48:21.900 just looks real
00:48:23.060 to us, but in
00:48:25.360 2017, when
00:48:26.960 Bloomberg, the
00:48:28.120 company, probably
00:48:29.780 with some at least
00:48:30.800 understanding from
00:48:31.920 the boss, decided
00:48:33.460 to screw me in
00:48:34.820 public, I wonder
00:48:36.880 if they ever
00:48:37.420 thought it would
00:48:37.900 come back and
00:48:39.320 cost them
00:48:39.980 anything.
00:48:42.200 Because it's
00:48:43.940 personal.
00:48:45.280 It's personal to
00:48:46.320 me.
00:48:46.860 I'm going to do
00:48:47.620 what I can to
00:48:48.500 make sure that
00:48:49.000 Bloomberg does
00:48:49.980 not get elected.
00:48:51.720 And it's because
00:48:52.920 it's personal.
00:48:53.860 I'm not even going
00:48:54.480 to pretend it has
00:48:56.160 anything to do
00:48:56.760 with the country.
00:48:57.780 I'm not going to
00:48:58.480 pretend it has
00:48:59.240 anything to do
00:48:59.800 with politics.
00:49:00.520 I mean, I'll talk
00:49:01.040 about all that
00:49:01.580 stuff, probably.
00:49:02.960 But it's personal.
00:49:04.900 And we might
00:49:07.760 find out how much
00:49:08.980 influence one
00:49:09.760 person can have.
00:49:10.740 because I've
00:49:11.720 already described
00:49:12.480 him, Bloomberg,
00:49:13.660 as a desiccated
00:49:15.280 turd floating in
00:49:16.460 your punch bowl
00:49:17.240 but wearing a
00:49:18.080 tiny little suit.
00:49:20.100 Yeah, you can see
00:49:20.920 it, can't you?
00:49:22.760 If I were somebody
00:49:23.900 in the political
00:49:24.560 realm, I wouldn't
00:49:25.400 want to piss off
00:49:26.100 me.
00:49:28.100 I might piss off
00:49:29.040 a lot of other
00:49:29.560 people, but I
00:49:30.740 wouldn't want to
00:49:31.180 piss off me.
00:49:32.540 There are a
00:49:33.020 handful of people
00:49:33.720 you don't want to
00:49:34.280 piss off in the
00:49:35.120 social media world.
00:49:37.640 I don't know if
00:49:38.200 I'm in that group,
00:49:39.500 but I'm pretty
00:49:39.960 close to it.
00:49:40.740 So, I hope
00:49:45.440 you enjoy the
00:49:46.180 show.
00:49:47.500 I'm going to
00:49:48.080 make sure I do
00:49:49.160 what I can to
00:49:50.600 destroy Bloomberg's
00:49:51.880 reputation, and
00:49:52.600 it's just payback.
00:49:53.920 It's just personal,
00:49:54.980 and it's just
00:49:55.380 payback.
00:49:56.080 And I won't even
00:49:57.100 pretend to make
00:49:58.660 you think it's any
00:49:59.860 kind of noble
00:50:00.520 cause or anything
00:50:01.260 like that, because
00:50:01.900 it's not, in my
00:50:03.440 case.
00:50:04.340 So, that's full
00:50:05.080 disclosure.
00:50:06.720 I was reading a
00:50:07.620 little bit more on
00:50:08.380 that fake news that
00:50:09.640 we heard the other
00:50:10.300 day that our
00:50:12.180 intel agencies are
00:50:13.320 saying that Russia
00:50:14.180 wants Trump to get
00:50:15.860 elected.
00:50:17.460 And, of course,
00:50:18.400 people in the
00:50:18.940 meeting were saying,
00:50:20.420 what exactly would
00:50:21.860 be the evidence that
00:50:23.000 you know what
00:50:23.920 Putin is thinking?
00:50:26.140 I mean, maybe we
00:50:27.340 can tell what they're
00:50:28.040 doing, but can we
00:50:29.860 tell what they're
00:50:30.460 thinking?
00:50:31.340 How do you know
00:50:31.820 they're thinking they
00:50:32.840 want Trump to get
00:50:34.940 elected?
00:50:36.280 And I was reading
00:50:37.280 the article, the New
00:50:38.200 York Times had an
00:50:38.880 article about this,
00:50:39.560 and they were
00:50:39.780 saying that those
00:50:42.260 assessments about what
00:50:43.560 leaders of other
00:50:44.480 countries are thinking
00:50:45.440 are more art than
00:50:47.640 science.
00:50:49.640 More art than
00:50:50.840 science.
00:50:51.700 In other words, it's
00:50:53.300 literally fiction.
00:50:55.360 It's art.
00:50:56.520 It's just not based on
00:50:57.740 fact.
00:50:58.620 It's based on
00:50:59.520 somebody's opinion,
00:51:01.380 somebody who just
00:51:02.220 happened to be in that
00:51:03.040 field, whose job it
00:51:04.140 was to look at this
00:51:04.940 stuff, somebody's
00:51:06.700 opinion that the
00:51:08.580 reason events are
00:51:10.140 going the way we're
00:51:10.900 seeing them is that
00:51:12.360 they know what the
00:51:13.180 leader of Russia,
00:51:14.280 that they never met,
00:51:16.060 they know what he's
00:51:16.700 thinking.
00:51:18.980 Now, I can't think
00:51:19.860 of, I mean, I
00:51:21.120 suppose you have to
00:51:21.960 do that because you
00:51:22.920 have to make
00:51:23.520 assumptions about
00:51:24.260 their intentions,
00:51:25.360 but how accurate are
00:51:26.920 they?
00:51:27.660 It can't be that much
00:51:28.860 better than guessing.
00:51:30.420 And one of the
00:51:32.160 biggest problems in
00:51:32.900 the world, and we
00:51:33.520 see it over and
00:51:34.100 over, is people
00:51:34.860 imagining that they
00:51:36.680 can know the inner
00:51:38.100 secret intentions of
00:51:39.540 strangers.
00:51:40.700 We're just not good
00:51:41.960 at that.
00:51:42.920 And I don't think our
00:51:43.780 intelligence agencies
00:51:44.800 are better.
00:51:46.320 I mean, you would
00:51:47.100 hope that they'd be
00:51:47.780 better, but there's
00:51:48.920 no evidence of that.
00:51:49.980 There's no evidence
00:51:50.860 that our intelligence
00:51:52.340 services understand the
00:51:53.920 motivations of
00:51:56.480 anybody.
00:51:57.440 None.
00:51:57.940 There's no evidence
00:51:58.720 of that.
00:51:59.100 And yet, we're
00:51:59.720 making major, you
00:52:01.600 know, global
00:52:02.160 decisions based on
00:52:04.160 somebody sitting in
00:52:05.280 a room saying,
00:52:05.940 you know, based on
00:52:07.560 this information, I
00:52:08.640 think that Putin, what
00:52:09.480 he's secretly thinking
00:52:11.040 is, man, we've got to
00:52:13.860 stop doing that.
00:52:15.100 Because we can tell
00:52:16.120 what people are doing,
00:52:17.480 can't really tell what
00:52:18.980 people are thinking.
00:52:21.060 And I'll say it again,
00:52:22.840 if the alleged plan that
00:52:26.220 Putin is pursuing, which
00:52:27.520 is to damage our
00:52:29.140 democracy and weaken
00:52:30.640 our country as much
00:52:31.480 as possible, if that
00:52:33.100 were a good idea or a
00:52:35.480 good strategy for
00:52:36.600 Russia, wouldn't
00:52:37.940 everybody be doing
00:52:38.720 it?
00:52:40.880 Right?
00:52:42.260 I mean, there's
00:52:42.920 something wrong with
00:52:43.660 the story.
00:52:44.620 Because whenever
00:52:45.460 there's something that
00:52:46.260 works and it's sort
00:52:48.600 of public, doesn't
00:52:50.520 everybody start copying
00:52:51.800 it?
00:52:52.560 I mean, if Russia can
00:52:53.560 destroy our democracy
00:52:55.060 with all these little
00:52:56.000 tricks and literally
00:52:57.280 nothing happens but
00:52:58.240 some sanctions they
00:52:59.080 don't care about,
00:53:01.460 wouldn't other
00:53:02.220 countries be doing
00:53:03.140 this like crazy?
00:53:04.400 Or are they?
00:53:06.060 Why are we only
00:53:06.760 talking about Russia?
00:53:07.980 Where's China in this
00:53:09.100 conversation?
00:53:09.740 Where's Cuba?
00:53:10.860 What about Cuba?
00:53:12.800 Wouldn't Cuba be
00:53:14.680 trying to interfere with
00:53:15.680 American elections?
00:53:16.980 Or are they?
00:53:18.320 I don't know.
00:53:19.200 Maybe they are.
00:53:20.740 But this focus on
00:53:22.480 Russia just leaves this
00:53:23.620 gigantic unanswered
00:53:24.940 question, which is,
00:53:25.840 does Putin have an
00:53:28.400 internal thought that
00:53:31.040 messing with the
00:53:31.860 United States works
00:53:32.800 for Russia in ways
00:53:35.020 that we don't
00:53:35.600 understand?
00:53:36.640 Because I don't see
00:53:37.440 how it could possibly
00:53:38.180 be a good idea in the
00:53:39.080 long run.
00:53:39.920 In the short run,
00:53:40.820 maybe.
00:53:41.240 But in the long run,
00:53:41.860 it just looks stupid.
00:53:44.100 Then why do other
00:53:45.100 countries copy this?
00:53:46.160 It's such a great idea.
00:53:48.000 Or are they?
00:53:48.900 We don't hear about
00:53:49.780 them.
00:53:50.740 All right.
00:53:51.620 I think that's all I
00:53:52.600 had for today, and
00:53:56.440 that's plenty, don't
00:53:57.460 you think?
00:53:58.260 I'll talk to you
00:53:59.000 tomorrow.