Real Coffee with Scott Adams - May 04, 2020


Episode 954 Scott Adams： Let's Talk About All the Good News, Because Others Talk About the Bad Stuff


Episode Stats

Length

57 minutes

Words per Minute

150.58789

Word Count

8,709

Sentence Count

658

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In this episode of Coffee with Scott Adams, host Scott Adams asks the question, "How many good ideas have been suppressed on social media because of a lack of ideas?" and the answer may surprise you... well, maybe not.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody! Come on in! Come on in! Wake up, wake up sleepyheads!
00:00:15.000 It's time for Coffee with Scott Adams.
00:00:19.000 Well, you all know what is the worst thing in the world. It's called the coronavirus.
00:00:24.000 Worst thing in the world. But what's the best thing in the world?
00:00:29.000 You're there. It's the best thing in the world. It's called the simultaneous sip.
00:00:35.000 Doesn't take much to participate. Not really. Not much. 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.
00:00:47.000 Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee.
00:00:51.000 And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better, including the damn pandemic.
00:00:59.000 It's called the simultaneous sip and it happens now. Go!
00:01:05.000 I feel those hospitalization rates falling even as we sip. Yes, indeed.
00:01:17.000 So, I asked a provocative question on Twitter and I'm watching the answers come in.
00:01:25.000 And this is sort of a head-scratcher, sort of a thinker.
00:01:29.000 You have to think about this one for a while, because your first instinct will be different than what you arrive at.
00:01:35.000 And it goes like this. We all know and take it as a given, as do I, that conservative voices are somewhat throttled or suppressed on social media.
00:01:50.000 You all agree on that part, right? There's no disagreement on the premise of the question that conservative voices tend to be throttled and suppressed on social media.
00:02:01.000 I think we all, we're all on that page. But here's the question.
00:02:06.000 What would be an example of some good idea that got suppressed?
00:02:13.000 In other words, if we're, you know, the idea of free speech is that some of it is valuable.
00:02:20.000 Lots of it is not. You know, that's the nature of human beings.
00:02:25.000 A lot of what we say has no use or is wrong or is misleading or it's, you know, evil intentions.
00:02:32.000 But you don't want to ban speech because some of it is so important.
00:02:37.000 And yet on social media, we're all aware that conservatives get a little throttled or sometimes outright banned.
00:02:45.000 And the question is, what would be some idea or fact that we didn't get to hear because of that?
00:02:54.000 Now, your first, your first instinct will be, well, if they're banning people, obviously they're suppressing ideas because those ideas come with the people.
00:03:06.000 You know, it's the people who have the ideas. But what would be an example?
00:03:12.000 Because every time you come up with an example, the reason that you have the example is because you heard of it, right?
00:03:20.000 Somebody said, what about nuclear energy as being a good idea?
00:03:24.000 Well, you know it. How come you know it?
00:03:27.000 I know it. I know it. How do we know it? We all learned it on social media, probably.
00:03:33.000 You know, Mark Schneider, very active on social media. Nobody's suppressing him.
00:03:39.000 Or let me put it this way. I don't know if his tweets are as visible as anybody else's.
00:03:44.000 But do you know any conservative who is not aware that nuclear energy is a good solution?
00:03:53.000 I don't. I've never even heard of one. The efficacy of vaccines. Efficacy?
00:04:01.000 Well, you're talking about the danger of them, aren't you? Or are you really talking about efficacy?
00:04:06.000 Anyway, the point is, if you can list something that you think was suppressed, was it suppressed? Was it?
00:04:16.000 Right? Because if you know about it, if you know about it and other conservatives know about it, was it suppressed?
00:04:24.000 Here's the theory that I'm working on. That you can't suppress good ideas in the long run.
00:04:31.000 Now, I'm not saying that the situation as it stands is good. I would like to see it fixed, too.
00:04:38.000 Now, I see people mentioning specific people. But let me be very specific.
00:04:46.000 My question is not about people. It's not about people. I acknowledge that individuals are getting banned, and so those individuals have less options for free speech.
00:04:58.000 But if you were to take all of those individuals, what idea is it that they're promoting that you've not actually heard?
00:05:09.000 Now, of course, as someone pointed out, it's a trick question. Sort of a trick question.
00:05:15.000 Because if you've heard of it, well, how banned was it? It wasn't very banned if you've heard about it.
00:05:23.000 And if you haven't heard about it, how would you be able to list it?
00:05:27.000 So there might be something that you've never heard of that's been banned, but how would you know?
00:05:36.000 So if you think that I'm going for a specific outcome, I'm not really. It's just an interesting thing to think about.
00:05:45.000 And my starting hypothesis is that good ideas always do travel. Good ideas always travel. That's the Scott theory.
00:05:58.000 So if you think that social media could stop a good idea, I would say you're going to need some examples.
00:06:05.000 Because there may be things that got slowed down a little bit, but I don't think you can stop a good idea.
00:06:11.000 Think about all the ideas that I have suggested on social media.
00:06:18.000 A lot of them, right? If you've been watching me for a while, it's mostly what I do.
00:06:22.000 I talk about this new idea or that new idea. And much of it is, if not most, is in some way directly or indirectly good for President Trump.
00:06:33.000 So how throttled am I?
00:06:37.000 If I have an idea, can I get my idea to the people who I want to?
00:06:44.000 I think I can. I believe that all of my ideas can go wherever I want them.
00:06:50.000 Can you think of anything I've ever suggested that got throttled on social media?
00:06:58.000 Now, the best example that I saw in the comments was asking the questions is the fine people hoax.
00:07:06.000 Now, the fine people hoax is 100%. No, that's not true.
00:07:11.000 I'd say among conservatives, maybe, what would you say? I'd be looking for your opinion on this.
00:07:18.000 Maybe half of conservatives know that that's a hoax.
00:07:22.000 Because it was so widely reported as true that even Republicans probably didn't know it was a hoax until some of us started hammering on that.
00:07:34.000 So for the past, I don't know, three years, you've watched me, Steve Cortez, Joel Pollack, among others, debunking the fine people hoax.
00:07:45.000 The articles all get published.
00:07:48.000 When Steve Cortez does a PragerU video about it, I think he got six million views.
00:07:56.000 When, I don't know how many views Breitbart gets, but they're publishing the stories.
00:08:01.000 I'm tweeting them. You see my tweets.
00:08:04.000 I have, let's see, let me check my number of users.
00:08:09.000 I have 435,000 users, and this week the President retweeted me four times.
00:08:18.000 The President of the United States.
00:08:20.000 So how shadow banned am I if the President of the United States is retweeting me four times this week?
00:08:28.000 Not very much, right?
00:08:31.000 Now you could argue that some of my tweets were less visible, and that's probably true.
00:08:36.000 You know, the algorithm was biasing against me.
00:08:39.000 Maybe I should have a million followers by now instead of 435,000.
00:08:45.000 But ask yourself this.
00:08:48.000 What good idea have I ever had that didn't get where it needed to go?
00:08:53.000 So I think we make the mistake of thinking that the person is the idea, and they're really not.
00:09:01.000 You know, there are lots of good arguments against banning people from social media.
00:09:08.000 And by the way, I think you're going to see some changes to that.
00:09:12.000 Let me give you a little prediction.
00:09:14.000 I think that you will see some kind of, in the future, a social media court that can listen to appeals and say, okay, you know, you probably got banned for a good reason.
00:09:27.000 You did break the law.
00:09:29.000 I mean, you broke the guidelines.
00:09:31.000 So they banned you for a good reason.
00:09:34.000 But, you know, five years is long enough, or whatever it's been.
00:09:38.000 Or let's try it again.
00:09:41.000 You know, you can go back, but we'll keep an eye on you.
00:09:44.000 So I think social media is going to have to develop some kind of an appeals process because I think they recognize that otherwise they get accused of being a monopoly.
00:09:57.000 We don't really mind monopolies when they do good things.
00:10:03.000 We don't mind monopolies when they're good.
00:10:06.000 It's just when they're abusive.
00:10:08.000 So we don't mind the social media giving us these great tools so long as if somebody gets badly treated, there's some recourse.
00:10:20.000 So I think the social media companies will have to build some kind of recourse to keep the pressure off them for being monopolies or virtual monopolies.
00:10:30.000 All right.
00:10:33.000 I saw somebody in the comments mentioning that Breitbart, I think it was Joel Pollack, wrote about how Jake Tapper was going to what Joel called the fine people hoax light, you know, the light version.
00:10:52.000 I referred to this as the hoax follow.
00:10:55.000 When you show somebody that their news about the fine people hoax is false, that the president was clearly showing the full transcript, it's obvious he was excluding the neo-Nazis from the fine people because he said it directly.
00:11:11.000 I'm not counting them.
00:11:12.000 They should be rebuked.
00:11:15.000 Disavowed totally, he said.
00:11:18.000 But when you debunk somebody and say, no, that didn't happen, he actually said the opposite of what you're saying.
00:11:24.000 He disavowed them directly at the same time.
00:11:28.000 You're just not showing that part.
00:11:30.000 Do they say, oh, wow, I guess I got all that wrong.
00:11:35.000 I better change my opinion and say I was wrong.
00:11:38.000 No.
00:11:39.000 No.
00:11:40.000 They go down the hoax funnel, I call it, to the next level.
00:11:43.000 And the next level is, yeah, sure, they were fine people, the president says, but why were they marching with Nazis?
00:11:52.000 What kind of fine people march with Nazis?
00:11:57.000 Can you explain that?
00:11:59.000 Right together?
00:12:00.000 Marching together?
00:12:01.000 Oh, but they're fine people.
00:12:02.000 But the Nazis aren't.
00:12:03.000 But they're marching together?
00:12:05.000 Explain that.
00:12:06.000 Okay, I will.
00:12:09.000 They weren't.
00:12:10.000 That's just a made up fact.
00:12:12.000 It's just fake news.
00:12:14.000 Nobody was marching with them.
00:12:16.000 The only people marching with the neo-Nazis were the neo-Nazis.
00:12:21.000 And if there was anybody there who didn't call themselves a neo-Nazi, if they were marching with them, they're neo-Nazis.
00:12:28.000 Okay?
00:12:29.000 Let's all agree on that.
00:12:30.000 But I've personally interviewed people who attended, and so I know from direct first-hand reports that there were lots of people there for their own purposes.
00:12:40.000 The people who were not the neo-Nazis never even got close to the neo-Nazis.
00:12:45.000 There was actually physical separation so that those people that Jake says were marching with the neo-Nazis, they couldn't.
00:12:53.000 They couldn't physically get there because the police were keeping them away.
00:12:57.000 The police actually were grabbing people on the way in and saying, uh, uh, uh, come over here.
00:13:03.000 You're not with those guys.
00:13:05.000 You're just here for your own purposes.
00:13:07.000 We're gonna keep you away from the trouble.
00:13:09.000 So I talked to people who, as soon as they got there, they weren't marching with anybody.
00:13:14.000 They didn't go there to see the Nazis.
00:13:16.000 They weren't there to support them.
00:13:18.000 Nothing about them.
00:13:19.000 They were just there for their own purposes.
00:13:22.000 The police separated them.
00:13:24.000 There were two days, and in both cases there were different people there on both days.
00:13:29.000 Um, but some of that does get confused about what day it is, et cetera.
00:13:33.000 Anyway, point being that the, the find people light version is the fake news that the so-called good people were marching with the bad people.
00:13:42.000 It just didn't happen.
00:13:43.000 Literally never happened.
00:13:45.000 Um, I made a prediction several weeks ago that the food supply would be fine.
00:13:51.000 I like to revisit my predictions, be they right or be they wrong, because that's how we learn if we're good at it.
00:13:59.000 So I told you that I have, you know, enough knowledge of the food distribution network.
00:14:06.000 I used to own a couple of restaurants, and I worked in that food services businesses for years.
00:14:12.000 And my sense of it was that you could easily, not easily, but reliably, nothing's easy, but reliably, you could keep that going.
00:14:23.000 You could lose specific parts of it, but it's so redundant and so strong, I said, we're not going to starve.
00:14:30.000 So far?
00:14:31.000 So far, so good, right?
00:14:33.000 I've not heard of anybody going hungry, like literally hungry.
00:14:37.000 Have you?
00:14:38.000 Have you?
00:14:39.000 And I don't know why.
00:14:41.000 Are we so good at, you know, we receive these long lines for food, but we also don't know how long you send those lines.
00:14:49.000 If there's a long line for food and the line moves pretty quickly, I don't know, is that a problem?
00:14:55.000 Or is that the system working well?
00:14:57.000 So we have a little bit of non-reporting about how many people are going literally hungry, and I kind of wonder.
00:15:05.000 I'm actually concerned that maybe it's under-reported.
00:15:09.000 Are you not concerned about that as well?
00:15:11.000 Why are we hearing nothing about actual hunger?
00:15:15.000 I guess it's because by the time you hear of it, you can just say to that person, are you hungry?
00:15:21.000 Yes.
00:15:22.000 And they say, and the reporter would say, can I buy you a sandwich?
00:15:25.000 And then they wouldn't be hungry anymore.
00:15:27.000 So I think the moment that anybody says they're hungry, in the United States, in May of 2020,
00:15:34.000 if your neighbor says, I'm hungry, how long does it take you to fix that problem?
00:15:40.000 One minute.
00:15:41.000 You're hungry.
00:15:42.000 Why didn't you tell me?
00:15:44.000 Here's some food.
00:15:46.000 I don't think anybody's going to go hungry, because we're just not that kind of people.
00:15:50.000 And the problem isn't that deep, because people are still buying food.
00:15:55.000 So I think that so far, it's still early, but so far my prediction that the food supply would be secure seems solid.
00:16:06.000 Would you agree, by the way?
00:16:09.000 Big lineups of some food banks, yeah.
00:16:12.000 There are big lineups of food banks, but the good news is there are food banks.
00:16:16.000 And I have not heard that the food banks have literally run out of food.
00:16:21.000 I've heard them saying, you know, we'd better get more, and we could run out.
00:16:26.000 A shortage doesn't necessarily imply hunger, correct?
00:16:30.000 Every city has a food bank.
00:16:32.000 Yeah, it looks like, this does look like one of the success stories.
00:16:37.000 And when something doesn't break, you know, there's not as much a story about it.
00:16:42.000 But think about how remarkable that is.
00:16:45.000 Think about how remarkably...
00:16:47.000 It's easy to focus on all the stuff that went wrong, and I'll talk about some of that.
00:16:51.000 But think about the fact that this is this global problem, and, you know, society was smart enough to immediately say,
00:16:59.000 okay, okay, okay, these things are critical.
00:17:02.000 We're not going to let this break.
00:17:04.000 This is critical.
00:17:06.000 Our medical facilities, our food supply.
00:17:09.000 I think we did a good job on priorities.
00:17:11.000 I think we did a good job on ventilators, food, you know, keeping the hospital from getting crushed.
00:17:18.000 In my opinion, the United States just killed it.
00:17:25.000 I shouldn't say kill.
00:17:27.000 But I think they crushed it in a lot of ways, from setting priorities to make sure that they're taken care of.
00:17:35.000 In a lot of ways, the United States was very, very competent.
00:17:40.000 Not necessarily the government.
00:17:42.000 I'm not saying the government did all this.
00:17:44.000 I'm saying that people, just Americans, you know, are very competent about a lot of stuff.
00:17:51.000 It's impressive.
00:17:55.000 So Trump said on his town hall last night...
00:17:59.000 By the way, if you didn't watch the town hall, the Fox News town hall,
00:18:04.000 it was set in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which is an impressive background.
00:18:09.000 But then they had the issue of social distancing,
00:18:12.000 so that, you know, the president had to be far away from the hosts, etc.
00:18:18.000 And I just want to give a shout out to the producers at Fox News.
00:18:24.000 Because we always talk about the on-air talent.
00:18:27.000 But I've said this before, but man, it is just so, so striking that the producers at Fox News are just really good.
00:18:36.000 Have you noticed that?
00:18:38.000 Did you see just the visual of how that looked?
00:18:43.000 It was a very tough thing to light.
00:18:45.000 It was a very tough thing to get the look right because of the social distancing requirement.
00:18:53.000 And I think they nailed it.
00:18:55.000 I felt like...
00:18:57.000 Oh, somebody says they had a...
00:18:58.000 Oh, you know, you're right.
00:18:59.000 They had a terrible lighting on Trump's face.
00:19:01.000 But I feel like that was the natural light.
00:19:04.000 I feel like...
00:19:06.000 Was that...
00:19:07.000 Yeah, you're right.
00:19:08.000 Trump's face was not well lit.
00:19:11.000 He looked...
00:19:12.000 Yeah, there was a moment I noticed that.
00:19:14.000 But if you looked at the entire set, the entire event, really well done, I thought.
00:19:23.000 So I just want to give a shout out to the producers because they don't get that much credit.
00:19:27.000 But the Fox News producers are just so good.
00:19:33.000 Let's talk about people not paying rent or mortgage.
00:19:39.000 I said last night, and I'll say again, if you lost your job, don't pay your rent and don't pay your mortgage.
00:19:49.000 And I think you're going to be okay.
00:19:51.000 Now, you shouldn't take financial advice from cartoonists.
00:19:54.000 So let me tack that on the end of everything.
00:19:56.000 But it's generally true that if you were the only person who lost your job and you didn't pay your rent or you didn't pay your mortgage, you're in a lot of trouble.
00:20:05.000 You're in trouble because you lost your job, but you're in trouble with your landlord or your bank.
00:20:11.000 That's trouble.
00:20:12.000 But if 50 million people, or whatever it is, don't pay their rent and don't pay their mortgage, that's not their problem anymore.
00:20:22.000 That's the bank's problem and the landlord's problem.
00:20:26.000 Now, if the landlord owns the building outright and has no mortgage of their own, well, how much are they going to be hurt by losing a few months of rent?
00:20:36.000 Quite a bit.
00:20:37.000 In terms of cash, quite a bit.
00:20:39.000 But if they own the building and after three months people start paying rent again, probably be okay.
00:20:46.000 Probably.
00:20:47.000 Probably.
00:20:48.000 And how about the banks?
00:20:49.000 Let's say the landlord had a mortgage or people didn't pay their mortgage for the banks.
00:20:55.000 Could the banks survive?
00:20:56.000 Well, here's the interesting part.
00:20:59.000 They have to.
00:21:01.000 There's nothing that would allow us to let the big banks fail.
00:21:08.000 It would be too catastrophic.
00:21:10.000 So the government will, you know, backstop the banks.
00:21:14.000 And so you'd be pushing all of the problems of you not being able to pay your rent, you not being able to pay your mortgage, this guy, this guy.
00:21:22.000 Instead of all these individual problems, it gets summed up and shoved over to the banks.
00:21:28.000 And the banks are in the best position to absorb enormous problems because they have the government of the United States making sure that they can.
00:21:37.000 So that's probably just the most efficient way to handle the problem is to not pay your rent.
00:21:41.000 Don't pay your mortgage.
00:21:43.000 As long as 50 million people are doing it at the same time, I think you're going to be okay.
00:21:49.000 I would like to commit here in public that should there ever be a situation that comes up, I don't know how it would.
00:21:57.000 But if I'm ever checking anybody's credit, and it doesn't look so good, and they tell me, yeah, the reason my credit score doesn't look so good is that I didn't pay my rent or my mortgage for three months during the coronavirus, I'm going to say, cool, you're good with me.
00:22:15.000 You know, I don't care what your credit agency says about you.
00:22:18.000 That's their problem.
00:22:19.000 But if the reason you didn't pay is because the coronavirus doesn't count, your credit is good with me.
00:22:25.000 So that's all I can commit to.
00:22:27.000 I can commit that I will never hold you responsible for not paying your rent or your mortgage.
00:22:33.000 But use your judgment.
00:22:35.000 All right.
00:22:37.000 So Trump said the death count might be, you know, 100,000 or so.
00:22:43.000 And then there's some question whether the official death count ever was lower to that 50 or 60.
00:22:49.000 Or was it just Trump talking about it?
00:22:51.000 And I'll just go back to my general statements about this.
00:22:56.000 These are not really that accurate.
00:22:59.000 Yeah.
00:23:00.000 Yeah.
00:23:01.000 The point, the point of the models is the point of the models is not to predict.
00:23:08.000 They don't do that.
00:23:11.000 Who said, oh, good pathetic.
00:23:14.000 What is pathetic?
00:23:17.000 We're not going to find out because I hate that word.
00:23:21.000 So I'm going to block you just for making a general unpleasant comment.
00:23:25.000 So, yeah, if you're going to argue about the estimates moving from 40,000, or no, I'm sorry, from a million to 100,000 to 200,000, then 60,000, and maybe it's up to 100,000.
00:23:42.000 If you're saying to yourself, hey, it's almost like those projections are not reliable, then I think you should tell yourself, that's not what they're for.
00:23:57.000 They're just trying to tell you there's this giant range, and you could be closer to the bottom or closer to the top depending on what you do, but that's all they can tell you.
00:24:06.000 And in my world, 60,000 and 100,000 are basically the same number for model purposes.
00:24:14.000 They're in the same range.
00:24:15.000 They're basically the same.
00:24:17.000 So if it's 60 or it's 100,000, 98% of the country is going to say, well, you got it wrong, and I'm going to be the 2% that says, um, no, that's not how models work.
00:24:31.000 They got it right, because you said it could be anywhere in this range, and it was close to the range.
00:24:37.000 Good enough.
00:24:39.000 All right.
00:24:40.000 Do you know that we still don't know why other countries are doing better or worse than this?
00:24:47.000 Can you believe that somebody's asking, how do I know the person you blocked wasn't remarking on something else?
00:25:00.000 I don't.
00:25:01.000 I don't.
00:25:03.000 So how is, let's see, why don't we know how other countries are doing?
00:25:10.000 And, you know, I talked before about there's an account on Twitter that I don't know is credible.
00:25:16.000 I've got my questions about it.
00:25:19.000 I'm not sure I trust it.
00:25:21.000 But on the other hand, I don't have any reason not to, because I've sort of asked in public for anybody to debunk it, and I haven't seen it yet.
00:25:30.000 But the account simply tweets good news about hydroxychloroquine.
00:25:35.000 Now, I don't know, maybe it's somebody involved in the industry, somebody who just cares about it, I don't know.
00:25:41.000 But they purport to be tweeting other people's information, you know, other countries' results, etc.
00:25:50.000 I just don't know how accurate it is, so it bothers me.
00:25:54.000 But since it hasn't been debunked in a way I've seen yet, I'll point it out and ask you to, you know, be skeptical.
00:26:01.000 But here's one of the claims they make.
00:26:03.000 Apparently Israel is doing great.
00:26:05.000 So Israel, if you were to believe the numbers from this one account, please fact check me, that Israel is doing really, really well containing the virus.
00:26:17.000 And according to this account, they also give people hydroxychloroquine early on, as soon as they've got a suspicion that these people have coronavirus.
00:26:29.000 So, is that it?
00:26:33.000 Is the reason that Israel is having a good result because they have more generous hydroxychloroquine prescriptions?
00:26:42.000 Well, let me add this to the mix.
00:26:45.000 Do you know what the biggest company in Israel is?
00:26:48.000 Anybody? Anybody?
00:26:49.000 What's the biggest company in Israel?
00:26:52.000 I'm not positive, but I think it's Teva.
00:26:55.000 T-E-V-A.
00:26:57.000 Teva is, if it's not the biggest, it's one of the biggest.
00:27:01.000 I think it's the biggest.
00:27:03.000 And Teva makes, among other things, hydroxychloroquine.
00:27:11.000 Check me on that, right?
00:27:13.000 You need to fact check all this.
00:27:15.000 But I believe that Israel lives in a country where their biggest company in the entire country makes hydroxychloroquine.
00:27:23.000 Now that could be a coincidence, right?
00:27:27.000 What about Germany?
00:27:29.000 How's Germany's numbers?
00:27:31.000 Germany's done pretty well, right?
00:27:33.000 Germany's done pretty well.
00:27:35.000 What's a big company in Germany?
00:27:37.000 Bayer.
00:27:38.000 What does Bayer make?
00:27:40.000 Well, among other things, hydroxychloroquine.
00:27:44.000 How about India?
00:27:46.000 People are saying that, for some reason, India isn't getting hit that bad.
00:27:51.000 What is the country that makes the most hydroxychloroquine that we consume in the United States, anyway?
00:27:59.000 India.
00:28:00.000 India.
00:28:01.000 So, I don't know if there's a pattern here yet.
00:28:05.000 But the three countries that I know of, and I think maybe you could add China to that, right?
00:28:11.000 Because China probably has at least access to hydroxychloroquine if they don't make it.
00:28:15.000 They probably make it to someplace.
00:28:18.000 But I would like to see somebody comparing all the countries that are using hydroxychloroquine.
00:28:25.000 No, not even the countries that are using it.
00:28:28.000 I'll go even deeper into conspiracy land here.
00:28:31.000 I'd like to see a chart that shows the countries that own, in other words, they have a hydroxychloroquine factory manufacturing, let's call it, in their country.
00:28:45.000 I'll bet you that the countries that have their own major source of hydroxychloroquine have the best results.
00:28:54.000 Anybody want to take that bet?
00:28:57.000 Anybody want to take the bet that the countries that have their own, actually, manufacturing inside it that makes hydroxychloroquine, I'm going to bet that they have the best results.
00:29:10.000 Even without knowing how much they prescribe it.
00:29:14.000 Because here's my deep conspiracy theory.
00:29:18.000 Are you ready?
00:29:19.000 I'm labeling this as a conspiracy theory, just so you don't take it too seriously.
00:29:26.000 If you're a country that has hydroxychloroquine and you know you need it for your own population and you have your own company that makes it in your country, are you going to be bragging about it?
00:29:37.000 Are you going to be telling everybody else that's what you're doing?
00:29:40.000 Are you going to tell the world, hey, look at us.
00:29:44.000 We're making all these drugs and it's working for us.
00:29:46.000 It's too bad we don't make enough.
00:29:48.000 If we made more, maybe you could have some too, but we're all set here.
00:29:52.000 Somebody says France used it and failed.
00:29:55.000 That is fake news.
00:29:57.000 Fake news.
00:29:58.000 France used it on people who were already too sick.
00:30:03.000 So that doesn't count.
00:30:05.000 But I'd also like to know if France makes it.
00:30:08.000 Do they have a company that makes it?
00:30:10.000 I don't know how many companies make this because it's generic at this point.
00:30:15.000 Somebody says, I'll take the bet.
00:30:17.000 Better write below them.
00:30:18.000 I like this bet.
00:30:19.000 So can somebody do that?
00:30:23.000 Tweet it at me, will you?
00:30:25.000 I'm sure that that exists.
00:30:27.000 So remember, the question is not whether they have a policy to use it.
00:30:32.000 The very specific question is, do they have a manufacturer in their country?
00:30:37.000 Because the theory is that they're keeping a secret.
00:30:40.000 So if you said, well, they don't have a policy about using it.
00:30:43.000 I might say to you, don't they?
00:30:46.000 Do they really not have a policy or you just don't know it?
00:30:49.000 Because I think the countries that have it are using it and they may not be bragging about it, is what I'm saying.
00:30:56.000 So tweet that at me if you can figure it out.
00:31:02.000 I'll give you the bad news and then the good news, okay?
00:31:08.000 As I've said, the president and the country and the government did a great job on making ventilators.
00:31:16.000 I give them an A-plus on ventilators.
00:31:19.000 Now it turns out maybe the ventilators are more bad than good, some doctors are saying.
00:31:23.000 Maybe it's killing people instead of saving them.
00:31:26.000 But at the time that they needed to be made, people assumed they were vital and I think the country responded.
00:31:32.000 Very good success story.
00:31:34.000 But I would say this about ventilators.
00:31:37.000 Even though the product itself is complicated and hard to make,
00:31:41.000 it's very easy to understand if one exists or it doesn't.
00:31:48.000 And that was really the question, right?
00:31:50.000 Do we have enough ventilators or do we not?
00:31:53.000 It was kind of binary.
00:31:55.000 You have enough or you don't.
00:31:57.000 So I think the government was capable of wading into that situation because it was simple.
00:32:03.000 Can you make them?
00:32:05.000 Yes.
00:32:06.000 Do we have enough?
00:32:07.000 Not yet.
00:32:08.000 Why don't you make some?
00:32:10.000 Very simple situation.
00:32:12.000 Now imagine the government getting involved with test kits.
00:32:16.000 Do you know how many test kits there are?
00:32:19.000 There are hundreds of companies that make hundreds of different kinds of test kits
00:32:25.000 that don't use the same processes, the same equipment, the same anything.
00:32:30.000 Now imagine the government trying to talk to corporations that know they can make immense amounts of money
00:32:37.000 if the government sort of agrees that they're capable.
00:32:42.000 Because the government would be giving them the money presumably for these test kits.
00:32:46.000 So the government goes in and let me do this in a one-act play.
00:32:52.000 I will play the government and then I'll also play the role of the corporation they're talking to
00:32:59.000 that says, yes, we can ramp up and make tests for you.
00:33:02.000 And it goes like this.
00:33:05.000 Hey, I'm the government company.
00:33:08.000 Can you, I hear you can make some test kits.
00:33:11.000 You know, can you make some test kits?
00:33:13.000 And the company says, yes, we can.
00:33:15.000 Yeah, yeah, we can totally make those test kits.
00:33:19.000 Probably a million a week.
00:33:22.000 And then the government says, great, so you have like all the supplies
00:33:27.000 and everything you need to produce a million a week?
00:33:30.000 Well, no, we don't have the supplies, but we can get them.
00:33:37.000 Uh-huh.
00:33:38.000 So you can or you cannot make a million a week.
00:33:43.000 It sounds like you don't know.
00:33:45.000 Oh, we can totally do it.
00:33:47.000 Absolutely.
00:33:48.000 Just give us a big check and we'll be making those test kits.
00:33:52.000 All right, here's your check.
00:33:54.000 I'll check with you back in the week to see how you're doing.
00:33:57.000 Takes the check back in the week.
00:33:59.000 How are those test kits coming?
00:34:01.000 Well, we ran into a problem.
00:34:03.000 Turns out we can't get the certain supply.
00:34:06.000 But we're working on it.
00:34:07.000 Well, how long will it take you to get that supply?
00:34:09.000 Oh, probably just a few days.
00:34:11.000 We'll have this taken care of.
00:34:13.000 I'll come back in a few days.
00:34:14.000 A few days later?
00:34:16.000 Yeah, it wasn't what we thought.
00:34:18.000 We got some, but they're defective.
00:34:20.000 So we're trying again.
00:34:22.000 Now imagine the government trying to deal with hundreds of corporations
00:34:27.000 who are, wait for it, wait for it, lying.
00:34:34.000 They're all lying.
00:34:37.000 How could the government sort out all of these corporations and startups and everything with
00:34:42.000 their test kits when it's all super complicated and they're all lying?
00:34:48.000 How do I know they're all lying?
00:34:50.000 Because I've worked for big corporations.
00:34:52.000 It was my job to lie.
00:34:54.000 I was a designated liar for my corporations.
00:34:58.000 They would say, here's our story.
00:35:00.000 Make this look good.
00:35:01.000 And I'd say, all right, I'll give you a, I'll give you a tweet deck or not a tweet deck,
00:35:06.000 but a slide deck in a couple of days.
00:35:09.000 And it's going to tell your story.
00:35:11.000 But corporations don't tell the truth.
00:35:15.000 They tell you a truth that they hope they can make work somehow.
00:35:21.000 They all over promised.
00:35:23.000 So in the case of the ventilators, the government can say, can I see it on the test bench?
00:35:29.000 You know, can I see your production facility?
00:35:32.000 If I can't see it, it probably doesn't exist.
00:35:34.000 Can I see a ventilator?
00:35:35.000 If I can't see it, it's probably not real.
00:35:38.000 So with ventilators, I think the government had a little bit of ability to manage the situation.
00:35:44.000 With corporations, they were completely out of their league because the corporations are all
00:35:50.000 liars, and they're all too complicated, and whoever the poor bastard was in the government
00:35:55.000 who was in charge of figuring out how to help with the testing didn't have a chance
00:36:00.000 because everything that person heard was a lie.
00:36:04.000 You know, I kept saying, why can't the task force report to us how we're doing on all these things?
00:36:11.000 Why are they giving us raw numbers?
00:36:13.000 They're useless.
00:36:15.000 I don't need a raw number.
00:36:17.000 We need to know, is that half of what we need?
00:36:20.000 Will we have all of what we need in a week?
00:36:23.000 That would be useful.
00:36:24.000 That would be context.
00:36:25.000 But yeah, we did 100,000 tests this week.
00:36:29.000 What kind?
00:36:30.000 For whom?
00:36:31.000 On what priority?
00:36:32.000 How long does it take to get the results?
00:36:34.000 You know, who has access to the test?
00:36:36.000 It's just useless.
00:36:38.000 And I've come to the opinion that it wasn't so much because the task force was incompetent,
00:36:44.000 but rather the only people who had the information about the tests anyway were all liars.
00:36:50.000 They're just all liars.
00:36:52.000 So how could the government know how many tests we had, how many we need,
00:36:57.000 what we should put money into, what we should push, what we should de-emphasize?
00:37:01.000 How could they possibly know?
00:37:03.000 Everybody they talked to was lying.
00:37:06.000 I guarantee it.
00:37:08.000 They were all lying.
00:37:10.000 And by lying, I mean they were, let's say, over-promising.
00:37:13.000 So yeah, we could get you 100,000 test kits by Tuesday.
00:37:18.000 I think we could do that.
00:37:20.000 And the game, of course, is that you get the government a little bit pregnant.
00:37:25.000 Tuesday comes and goes, and the government's like, how about by the weekend?
00:37:31.000 And then the company says, yeah, yeah, by the weekend.
00:37:35.000 Definitely have it by the weekend.
00:37:37.000 And the weekend comes and goes, right?
00:37:40.000 So here's my advice for the country.
00:37:46.000 We should make our decisions based on the assumption that we will not have tests and not have vaccines.
00:37:54.000 That's my advice to the country.
00:37:56.000 I think it's a sucker's bet to wait until you have one or both of us to get back to work, specifically the get back to work part.
00:38:06.000 So I think we are making a bad, bad strategic mistake if we're saying that our decisions will depend on tests,
00:38:15.000 because we would wait forever, and vaccines, because there's no strong, I don't have a strong opinion that they're coming.
00:38:25.000 Certainly I don't have a strong opinion that they'll be here by the end of the year.
00:38:28.000 Maybe we'll have one someday, two years, five years, I don't know.
00:38:33.000 Who knows?
00:38:35.000 As has been pointed out by others, I think half of the deaths in this country were from nursing homes.
00:38:41.000 Can somebody check that?
00:38:42.000 I don't know if it's half, but it's some big number.
00:38:45.000 How hard would it be to take whatever tests we have and just use them all in the nursing homes?
00:38:51.000 What if we just say, nursing homes, you can't even walk in until you have an instant test?
00:38:56.000 Because we do have some tests that are like the five-minute types.
00:39:00.000 Tell me why we don't already have a situation where every employee, every visitor gets a test, or they just can't come in.
00:39:08.000 I mean, we should be able to lock down the nursing homes 100%.
00:39:13.000 If we can't lock them down, because they're so contained.
00:39:16.000 It's not like the residents are leaving, only the employees are.
00:39:20.000 How hard would it be to test them every day?
00:39:22.000 I don't know.
00:39:23.000 For a while, anyway.
00:39:25.000 Because I know we have enough tests to do that.
00:39:28.000 We just don't have as much as we need.
00:39:30.000 So if you could cut the deaths in half just by taking care of the nursing homes,
00:39:35.000 apparently we're learning a lot about intubation and ventilators.
00:39:40.000 You know, there's a nasal cannula, it's called, and it's better than ventilators to keep you alive.
00:39:46.000 And, you know, maybe some of the meds will keep you alive.
00:39:49.000 I think we just have to make the decision without testing and without vaccines in the decision-making.
00:39:54.000 That's me.
00:39:55.000 All right.
00:39:56.000 Here's some good news.
00:39:57.000 Want some good news?
00:39:58.000 How about some good news?
00:40:00.000 That's why you come here.
00:40:01.000 For the good news.
00:40:03.000 So I didn't notice until this morning that apparently Ivanka Trump had retweeted one of my tweets from two weeks ago,
00:40:10.000 in which I had said that the coming two weeks, which we're sort of at the end of it now,
00:40:17.000 that there would be immense breakthroughs and creative inventions and entrepreneurial breakthroughs,
00:40:25.000 and it would be breathtaking.
00:40:28.000 Did that happen?
00:40:29.000 Do we have breathtaking news of new advancements?
00:40:33.000 I would say yes.
00:40:34.000 We don't know which ones will actually move the needle, but man, there's a lot of advancements.
00:40:39.000 Here's some fun ones.
00:40:41.000 Apparently, antibodies are not created equal, according to Dr. Sanjay Gupta,
00:40:46.000 that you might have weak antibodies or you might have strong antibodies.
00:40:51.000 It could vary by person.
00:40:53.000 But if you find somebody who had really good antibodies, somebody who just, you know,
00:40:57.000 whacked the coronavirus with their own body without any help,
00:41:01.000 you can find the good ones and you can take them out and you can put them in the test tube
00:41:06.000 and you can see how quickly it kills the viruses.
00:41:09.000 So you can test very specifically whether your antibodies or mine are the good ones.
00:41:15.000 Now you take the good ones, and then there's this process called the monoclonal antibodies,
00:41:20.000 where they can clone the best antibodies.
00:41:24.000 So you find who has the strong ones, you clone them.
00:41:27.000 What's the problem with that?
00:41:29.000 The problem is that it's expensive.
00:41:36.000 But how much would rich people pay to get super antibodies?
00:41:43.000 A lot.
00:41:45.000 So usually the way you solve things that are too expensive is you sell it to rich people first,
00:41:51.000 overcharge them because they're willing to pay.
00:41:54.000 We used to call this the dumb rich, the stupid rich category because they'll overpay for stuff.
00:42:00.000 In business we call them the dumb rich.
00:42:02.000 And the dumb rich will buy it and then it can drive down the price for people who follow.
00:42:08.000 I would buy, I would overpay for monoclonal antibodies.
00:42:12.000 So if you could give me some really, really good antibodies tomorrow, I'd pay a lot for that.
00:42:18.000 And if I have to overpay, because I can afford it at the moment,
00:42:22.000 if that brings down the price for other people,
00:42:25.000 suppose you told me I have to pay twice as much so I could fund somebody else to get it too.
00:42:30.000 I might do that.
00:42:32.000 Well, I definitely would do that.
00:42:34.000 So there may be a way that this monoclonal antibodies could be like the magic bullet,
00:42:39.000 but there could be some issue with scaling it up.
00:42:43.000 I don't know what that is.
00:42:45.000 But it sounds like an engineering problem, doesn't it?
00:42:48.000 Here's a little advice for you.
00:42:50.000 If you're trying to predict the future and you've got scientists saying,
00:42:55.000 hey, I think we can do this, versus an engineer saying, hey, I think we can do this,
00:43:01.000 which one is reliable?
00:43:04.000 The scientists who say, yeah, I got a good feeling this will work,
00:43:07.000 or the engineer who just has to build something with known technology?
00:43:12.000 Always bet on the engineer.
00:43:14.000 So if it turns out that these monoclonal antibodies are a big deal,
00:43:18.000 probably the problem is making enough of it inexpensively.
00:43:23.000 That feels like an engineering problem, not a science problem, right?
00:43:29.000 If it's an engineering problem, you could be amazed how quickly and efficiently that gets solved.
00:43:37.000 Because I don't think anybody has been really working on it up until now,
00:43:40.000 because there hasn't been a big need for it.
00:43:42.000 But if we need these monoclonal antibodies,
00:43:44.000 and the only thing preventing us from having enough is engineering,
00:43:50.000 I tell you, engineers are the most underappreciated skill.
00:43:55.000 Somebody says, yay, us engineers.
00:43:57.000 Engineers are the superstars of civilization.
00:44:01.000 You know, scientists get all the credit, right?
00:44:03.000 Because they do the sexy discoveries.
00:44:06.000 You can have scientists who are famous.
00:44:08.000 You don't have as many famous engineers.
00:44:10.000 But engineers are the ones who build society.
00:44:15.000 They take the science stuff and make it work.
00:44:18.000 So if the only thing keeping us from solving this is engineering,
00:44:23.000 we're in good shape.
00:44:25.000 That's the problem you want.
00:44:27.000 The problem you want is the one where you've got all the money in the world to solve it,
00:44:33.000 because we would, you know, just open the wallet for anything that worked.
00:44:36.000 All the money in the world, all the attention, focus, priority in the world,
00:44:40.000 and the only thing you need is engineering.
00:44:44.000 That's good news.
00:44:48.000 That's the best news you'll ever hear.
00:44:50.000 Because if it's down to the engineers, you win.
00:44:55.000 Because the engineers know how to do engineering.
00:44:58.000 They know how to do this stuff.
00:44:59.000 All right.
00:45:00.000 All right.
00:45:01.000 So that's good news.
00:45:02.000 Here's some more good news.
00:45:03.000 I had told you, some of you might remember,
00:45:06.000 that after 9-11, the government challenged its laboratories to find a quick way to,
00:45:14.000 you know, quickly, inexpensively test biological agents in the field.
00:45:19.000 So the task was to create something portable, inexpensive, that you could make a lot of them,
00:45:25.000 and you could easily test if there was some suspicion of biological warfare or anthrax or something.
00:45:31.000 You could just quickly test people in the field.
00:45:34.000 Now, the technology that was developed to do that is licensable to private companies,
00:45:41.000 because when the government invents something, they make those licenses available,
00:45:46.000 so that they don't have a monopoly on it.
00:45:48.000 And I had seen a bunch of startups that were using that very technology,
00:45:52.000 and this was a few years ago.
00:45:54.000 So I can imagine how much better it is now.
00:45:57.000 So here's the news.
00:45:58.000 That DARPA, the U.S.'s most advanced military agency,
00:46:02.000 has designed a coronavirus test that can identify people before they become infectious.
00:46:10.000 And I think it's a quick test as well.
00:46:17.000 And it's described as a potential game-changer, of course.
00:46:20.000 We say that about everything that sounds good.
00:46:22.000 And it came from a project at the Defense Advanced Research Project, DARPA,
00:46:27.000 that was initially designed for diagnosing those who have become poisoned by germ or chemical warfare.
00:46:35.000 I think that's what I was talking about.
00:46:37.000 I think this is the technology that came out of the 9-11 and the anthrax worries, etc.
00:46:44.000 It's the one I was waiting for.
00:46:46.000 And I assume that some of the startups that are doing stuff were using that technology.
00:46:52.000 And it was repurposed for the coronavirus, blah, blah, blah.
00:46:56.000 So it may be able to detect the presence of the virus in as little as 24 hours after a person is infected.
00:47:03.000 Unbelievable.
00:47:05.000 Who makes these devices?
00:47:08.000 Engineers. Engineers.
00:47:11.000 Right?
00:47:12.000 We have a problem that is completely susceptible to engineering.
00:47:18.000 And it has now been reduced to an engineering problem.
00:47:23.000 If you're going to bet on humans and say,
00:47:27.000 OK, humans, you're having a war with this virus.
00:47:30.000 If the humans' best fighters are the scientists, you don't know.
00:47:35.000 Right?
00:47:36.000 Scientists might invent something in time.
00:47:38.000 They might not.
00:47:39.000 But once you've moved the fight over to the engineers, engineers versus virus, it's over.
00:47:48.000 It's over.
00:47:49.000 The engineers are going to crush the virus.
00:47:52.000 It might take a little time, but it's guaranteed.
00:47:55.000 Once the engineers are the main fighters, it's guaranteed.
00:47:58.000 All right.
00:47:59.000 Here's something else interesting.
00:48:00.000 A program at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine.
00:48:05.000 They're training dogs to sniff the virus.
00:48:10.000 And apparently there is reason to believe that that's doable.
00:48:13.000 So they don't know yet.
00:48:14.000 So they're testing.
00:48:15.000 They're testing various dogs.
00:48:17.000 But do you know how much of a big deal that would make?
00:48:21.000 Imagine if you could actually train dogs to sniff out the virus.
00:48:25.000 That lets you have big events again.
00:48:29.000 Suddenly big events are possible.
00:48:31.000 Because you just have the dog walk down the line, sniff everybody, pull the people out of line that are a problem.
00:48:38.000 You're good to go.
00:48:40.000 So you could easily imagine that dogs save the world.
00:48:46.000 Which would be, of all the potential solutions, we probably have ten different ways this could get solved.
00:48:54.000 And probably all of them will make a little bit of difference.
00:48:57.000 It won't be one magic bullet.
00:48:58.000 But wouldn't it be cool if the magic bullet was the dogs?
00:49:02.000 Wouldn't that be cool?
00:49:04.000 Dogs save humanity.
00:49:07.000 I mean, save us from this anyway.
00:49:09.000 And then, you know, suddenly bring your dog to work.
00:49:13.000 Makes a lot of sense.
00:49:15.000 So these are really exciting.
00:49:18.000 This new test that can find it before you're infectious.
00:49:21.000 Dogs that might be able to sniff it.
00:49:23.000 Monoclonal antibodies that, you know, give me a price.
00:49:28.000 If the only problem is that it's expensive, give me a price.
00:49:32.000 Might not be too expensive for me.
00:49:34.000 And if I can help drive down the price for the next guy, I'll do that.
00:49:38.000 I'm in.
00:49:39.000 So these are big, big things.
00:49:42.000 Now, you know, I think part of the reason that Ivanka retweeted me when I said that the next few weeks would have all these amazing things is I think she might see them before you do.
00:49:55.000 You know, she may have known because she's just closer to the source of information.
00:50:00.000 She may have known that this next two weeks were going to be for the ages.
00:50:05.000 I mean, just incredible.
00:50:07.000 And it started to look that way.
00:50:09.000 And I don't think it's going to stop.
00:50:10.000 The next month will be just ridiculous.
00:50:12.000 So that's the good news.
00:50:15.000 The good news is engineers will save the world, if not dogs.
00:50:21.000 Dogs and engineers.
00:50:23.000 I bet on them.
00:50:25.000 All right.
00:50:26.000 Is there any story that I've forgotten today?
00:50:31.000 An engineer with a dog.
00:50:34.000 Bam.
00:50:35.000 COVID doesn't stand a chance.
00:50:37.000 You're right.
00:50:38.000 Somebody says temperature changes might be most reliable.
00:50:43.000 Oh, for detecting it?
00:50:45.000 Yeah.
00:50:46.000 Could be.
00:50:47.000 The other thing that's happening that could be a gigantic deal is in a number of places people are being tested for genetic susceptibility.
00:51:02.000 So imagine we could find all the people who have a genetic susceptibility on top of any comorbidities, just, you know, in addition to that.
00:51:11.000 If we could find the people who are most susceptible genetically, then suddenly the need for 300 million tests might go down to 10 million tests overnight.
00:51:23.000 Because if we find out, oh, it's easy to do a genetic test, we'll just genetically test anybody who wants it, and then you could easily tell which ones are the susceptible ones, and then you could easily prioritize your testing and your meds and your treatments and stuff for the people who matter.
00:51:41.000 Or they could self-isolate better, etc.
00:51:44.000 So I would think that widespread ability to test DNA, especially given that many of us, including me, have already had our DNA tested.
00:51:55.000 So it could be that all I have to do is download my 23andMe data, which apparently I can do.
00:52:00.000 I can just download it and use it for other stuff.
00:52:03.000 All I'd have to do is download it, upload it to some other site someday in the future.
00:52:08.000 That other site says, yeah, looks like you don't have that risk, or you do.
00:52:13.000 They act appropriately.
00:52:15.000 All right.
00:52:18.000 Can we all agree as a people to stipulate that we no longer need to say, we want to open up the economy, but safely?
00:52:27.000 Can we just say, but safely, after everything?
00:52:32.000 Just agree that we all know it has to be safe.
00:52:36.000 Somebody's asking me about my intruder yesterday.
00:52:39.000 Turned him out to be the cat.
00:52:42.000 My dogs sometimes see the cat off in the shadows and then will bark like it's an intruder.
00:52:48.000 So I cut my periscope short last night because the dog was doing her intruder bark, which is very distinct.
00:52:57.000 But it was the cat.
00:52:59.000 Is the stock market going to crash again?
00:53:02.000 Good.
00:53:03.000 I'm actually surprised the stock market is as high as it is.
00:53:07.000 If I had to guess, I would have guessed it would, you know, maybe not have gone up as much as it did.
00:53:13.000 It wouldn't surprise me if it drifts back down another 10%.
00:53:16.000 I don't think anything the stock market does in the next few months tells you anything.
00:53:22.000 It doesn't tell you what's happening.
00:53:24.000 But let me give you one piece of advice that's financial advice that I will put my credibility on.
00:53:36.000 That the stock market of the United States, a diversified portfolio of stocks from the United States, will perform well in the long run.
00:53:46.000 So if you're buying and selling in the short run, well, that's just gambling.
00:53:51.000 But if you decide to hold it for the long run, almost certainly.
00:53:55.000 Nothing's 100% in this world.
00:53:57.000 But as close as you can get to certainty, that would be your right move.
00:54:02.000 I, for one, when the stock market crashed, took every penny of cash that I had available and bought Amazon stock.
00:54:10.000 Because it was one of those few times in the world where it was obvious what to do.
00:54:14.000 Usually with investing, you're just guessing.
00:54:17.000 But when the stock market, when every stock crashes, and Amazon is one of them,
00:54:23.000 and Amazon is obviously the one that's going to make more money, not less,
00:54:27.000 you didn't really have to wonder if that was a good idea.
00:54:31.000 It was.
00:54:33.000 All right.
00:54:34.000 Even Warren Buffett is getting whacked, but he'll be back.
00:54:39.000 Elon says Tesla is too pricey.
00:54:45.000 I love it when he does that.
00:54:47.000 He's not wrong, by the way.
00:54:49.000 The thing that's funny about it is that it's true.
00:54:52.000 That, you know, when Tesla, when Elon Musk says these prices overstocked,
00:54:58.000 it's probably true.
00:55:01.000 Right?
00:55:02.000 Probably.
00:55:03.000 Somebody says Scott bought Amazon and is laughing.
00:55:11.000 Me?
00:55:12.000 Poor as fuck.
00:55:13.000 Well, if you'd like to feel better, my career is probably over in terms of cartooning.
00:55:20.000 I would expect that most, if not all of the local newspapers will be out of business by the end of the year,
00:55:26.000 because they depend on advertisement and their margins were shrinking and shrinking anyway.
00:55:30.000 So it was, you know, everybody knew that physical newspapers were going to go away.
00:55:36.000 But this accelerated trends, accelerated many trends.
00:55:40.000 So, like most of you, I will be looking for a new form of employment pretty soon.
00:55:47.000 I assume.
00:55:48.000 I mean, I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that.
00:55:53.000 Snapchat?
00:55:54.000 Yeah, I did buy Snapchat a while ago, too.
00:55:57.000 Did Snapchat go down today?
00:55:59.000 Snapchat's just going crazy.
00:56:02.000 It's like way up, way down.
00:56:04.000 Let's see what Snapchat did today.
00:56:07.000 Oh, Snapchat's up.
00:56:09.000 Okay.
00:56:10.000 Not bad.
00:56:11.000 Alright.
00:56:12.000 So, like most of you, I got, you know, whacked by the financial stuff, but not nearly as badly as people who had less.
00:56:23.000 So I'm not going to complain because I'm in better shape than 99% of the world.
00:56:28.000 But it is also true that my career is probably over and it wasn't my choice.
00:56:33.000 Dilbert the movie?
00:56:38.000 I don't think so.
00:56:39.000 I don't think I could make a Dilbert movie.
00:56:44.000 Somebody says James Woods is missing in action.
00:56:47.000 I don't know about that.
00:56:48.000 No, I don't think I could make a Dilbert movie because I'm too unliked by a certain large group in Hollywood and I doubt I could get that done.
00:56:59.000 Alright.
00:57:00.000 Alright.
00:57:01.000 Love to hear you compare this time to 1968 Hong Kong flu.
00:57:08.000 I don't know enough about it.
00:57:10.000 Just looking at your comments.
00:57:15.000 Alright.
00:57:16.000 Do you ever get speaking engagements anymore?
00:57:21.000 Well, I actually, believe it or not, I got some speaking engagement requests during the coronavirus that would have been digital.
00:57:31.000 I chose not to do them.
00:57:33.000 But I don't get many speaking engagements or I didn't prior to this.
00:57:39.000 Alright.
00:57:40.000 That's all I got for now.
00:57:42.000 And I will talk to you tonight.
00:57:44.000 Tonight.
00:57:45.000 You know where.
00:57:46.000 We'll see you then.
00:57:47.000 We'll see you then.
00:57:48.000 We'll see you then.
00:57:49.000 We'll see you then.