Episode 961 Scott Adams： Flynn, Freedom, Vitamin D, Biden's Brain and More
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
140.05925
Summary
In this episode, we discuss the latest in the Russia/Trump/Flynn scandal, and why we should be worried about it. Plus, we talk about China and trade with Russia, and how to deal with it.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Well, as the curtain closes on another day, here in California, and in the great nation
00:00:20.680
of the United States, the incredible planet Earth, freedom is breaking out everywhere.
00:00:35.620
Citizens, some of us anyway, freed from our confinement.
00:00:54.440
Well, today, we're going to solve this coronavirus situation.
00:00:59.840
I know you're thinking, what took you so long, Scott?
00:01:06.060
And you've just been dawdling and making your little periscopes.
00:01:15.300
So we'll be doing that today a little bit later.
00:01:22.240
But otherwise, let's talk about this other stuff.
00:01:25.500
This whole General Flynn thing, are you having the same experience I am, which is, it just
00:01:33.180
Well, it doesn't really feel like this could have happened.
00:01:42.580
Some of the things we learned today with the transcripts that came out.
00:01:46.380
Apparently, Obama did know that General Flynn was being wired out.
00:02:02.200
And remind me, what did Obama think of General Flynn?
00:02:09.320
He was the one person that Obama asked Trump not to trust and not to hire.
00:02:17.100
I've not yet heard, I've heard story after story that Obama didn't like Flynn, but I've
00:02:29.120
But it looks like there was, in fact, a genuine coup attempt.
00:02:34.420
I don't think you can, I don't think you can hide that anymore.
00:02:37.940
And watching the Democrats try to explain this away is beyond entertaining.
00:02:47.640
So I guess Schiff says, oh no, Russia collusion wasn't completely empty.
00:02:56.380
And so if you say it's not completely devoid of any findings that are derogatory to the
00:03:02.680
president, you probably would need to list some to make your point.
00:03:08.340
So one of the things that Schiff points to, to show that that whole Russia collusion thing
00:03:14.800
had some meat on the bones, was that Don Jr. went to that meeting once.
00:03:25.920
Schiff stood in front of the world and said, oh yeah, sure we crippled the government and
00:03:30.760
spent, I don't know, $40 million or whatever the hell it turned out in the end.
00:03:38.320
We've told the world that he attended a meeting that one time and wasn't interested and then
00:03:51.920
And then I saw Don of Brazil reminding us that those Russians did try to help Clinton,
00:04:02.160
And I'm thinking to myself, well, that's technically true if you're talking about the troll farm and
00:04:14.500
They looked like high school ads and they weren't even all pro-Trump.
00:04:20.720
If somebody mounted a secret pro-Trump troll campaign, and some of the trolls didn't hear
00:04:30.560
the instructions clearly, and they were writing anti-Trump stuff instead of anti-Hillary stuff,
00:04:38.360
should we be afraid of Russia if that was their best play?
00:04:42.840
There's something wrong with that whole troll story.
00:04:47.900
You know, I think the real story would just be pathetic and hilarious.
00:04:51.080
Because if you've seen the memes, they were not made by even adults, as far as I can tell.
00:04:57.420
So the president is sort of taking the opportunity of the Russia collusion thing falling apart.
00:05:07.200
And he noted that it made it hard to deal with Russia because this cloud was hanging over him.
00:05:12.600
And I guess he talked to Vladimir Putin on the 75th anniversary of, I don't know, winning the war or
00:05:19.740
And Trump said again, very clearly, you know, why can't we get along with Russia?
00:05:27.120
Either a strong power or we're a strong power, it just sort of makes sense.
00:05:34.500
As much trouble as we have with China, while China is pretending to be our friend,
00:05:41.860
but they're stealing our IP and they're giving us bad trade deals and, you know, God knows what else.
00:05:53.660
So if somebody knows the answer to that, let me know.
00:05:55.900
But my, let me start with this working assumption, which could be wrong.
00:06:02.380
My working assumption is if the whole point of China's alleged, you know, total war philosophy
00:06:10.360
of trying to get to the point where China dominates the world,
00:06:14.680
well, it's not just the United States they want to dominate, right?
00:06:20.360
Does China not think that, that, that, does Russia not think that China wants to boost its influence?
00:06:27.740
And as China's influence grows, does Russia think that's good for them?
00:06:36.580
It's possible that they don't care one way or the other.
00:06:38.900
Maybe they just don't have any, you know, interests that are in conflict and they're like, well, we don't care.
00:06:49.220
Isn't it far more likely that Russia and the United States have a common, I won't say enemy,
00:06:54.960
I think that's too strong, but a common concern, a common external threat?
00:07:03.780
But, and it does seem to me that the very best thing we could do while decoupling from China
00:07:10.380
at whatever rate makes sense, bringing our, bringing our production facilities home,
00:07:15.920
that maybe we should have some kind of an understanding with Russia,
00:07:20.900
assuming we can work at our problems with Russia.
00:07:23.880
But we should be able to get to the point where we can make the case
00:07:27.500
that Russia is better as an ally than an enemy.
00:07:36.240
What makes France our ally, Britain our ally, and we don't worry about it?
00:07:45.120
That Germany is our ally and we don't really worry about it.
00:07:48.560
I mean, except jokingly we do, but we don't really worry about Germany.
00:07:52.140
What is it about those countries that allows us to feel comfortable that they remain our allies?
00:07:57.840
Well, I would say that the strongest tie we have is military cooperation
00:08:03.660
and knowing that if one of us got in serious trouble, that the others would be there.
00:08:24.340
If one of you guys get in trouble, the rest of us will die.
00:08:31.820
You don't get more of a trust than that situation.
00:08:35.600
And right now, we have this absurd situation where we're treating Russia like a competitor.
00:08:42.140
And sure, sure, you can make a list of things they want that were in the way.
00:08:46.440
Maybe there's some things we want that they're in the way.
00:08:51.420
You know, aren't there things we wish, you know, the Great Britain or France would do differently
00:08:59.560
But we don't have any kind of a conflict with those other countries in any major way.
00:09:05.500
Couldn't we get to that place with Russia if we just realize and reframe the situation
00:09:15.480
And maybe at some point, we should have a common military alliance to protect us from a
00:09:21.620
gigantized China, which might be 20 years away.
00:09:25.980
But wouldn't it be good to get started beefing up the defenses?
00:09:32.700
Governor Abbott was quite impressive, if you saw his appearance with the president today.
00:09:40.280
So, and I was just shaking my head so hard when Abbott was talking, because he was explaining
00:09:47.820
the technique that they were using in Texas that has been unusually successful, or it seems
00:09:58.840
And I just sat there thinking, you're the only one who thought of this?
00:10:07.240
And his technique, apparently they have these sort of rapid response situations.
00:10:20.940
And, sorry, I just got a text that distracted me.
00:10:31.180
So, what Texas does is they say, if you're a nursing home, they put a wall around it,
00:10:37.160
basically, you know, a protective wall, if you know what I mean, figuratively speaking.
00:10:40.480
And if there's a hotspot, they have a hotspot emergency group that goes there and just surrounds
00:10:48.400
So, basically, what they're doing in Texas that's different is really concentrating resources
00:10:52.900
in the group that is more than half of the illnesses.
00:10:58.860
And if you can concentrate your effort where it matters most, you get the best result.
00:11:06.260
So, Texas is just doing the most logical thing, which is putting their resources in the places
00:11:13.840
And as he was describing it, I was just thinking, and the other states are doing what?
00:11:26.160
I mean, we know the story of Cuomo sending, not personally, I don't even know if he knew,
00:11:32.180
but in New York, people who were infected were sent back to nursing homes, and you know how
00:11:44.520
Did you know that both Texas and California are young states, meaning the average median, or the median,
00:11:56.120
let's say the median age, is fairly young in both California and Texas.
00:12:08.080
And, you know, not as many, well, I don't know.
00:12:10.480
Now, does Texas have as many skyscrapers collectively as New York?
00:12:32.020
Also, New York, I don't think necessarily New York City, but New York the state and New Jersey the state
00:12:54.780
So, there are two articles in the last 24 hours about Kamala Harris being the top pick, likely pick,
00:13:07.440
PJ Media wrote a big article about that, with Kamala being the obvious choice.
00:13:13.360
But here's the interesting one, because PJ Media is, you know, more of a right-leaning situation.
00:13:19.340
But CNN's Chris Silliza, who I would say, as much as anybody on CNN, Chris Silliza, I think you would say,
00:13:31.340
has his finger on the pulse of what CNN's theme and approach is going to be.
00:13:40.480
Those of you who have watched CNN, I know it's not all of you.
00:13:42.920
But I think Chris Silliza would really represent, almost always, the most mainstream opinion that will be CNN's larger opinion.
00:13:59.360
And it was showing all the top candidates for vice president.
00:14:03.460
And he also ranked Kamala, Kamala, Kamala as number one, the second week in a row, I guess, or the second time they've done it.
00:14:11.260
So, even CNN, Chris Silliza, anyway, is saying that Kamala is the most likely choice.
00:14:21.220
He didn't endorse her, you know, with the word endorse, but when he described her, it was quite positive.
00:14:32.980
So, CNN is not only predicting it, but they're sort of subtly pushing it.
00:14:39.720
Because there wasn't any negative that he mentioned.
00:14:43.800
And he seemed to have a very positive thought about her as vice president.
00:14:46.920
And explained why it made sense on a number of levels.
00:14:50.060
Now, it seems to me that if you've got CNN on board, they're the best indicator of what the Democratic, let's say, machine wants.
00:15:05.060
Because you think MSNBC might be a little more Bernie-oriented.
00:15:10.160
CNN is right in the mainstream of the power center of the Democratic Party, wouldn't you say?
00:15:15.500
So, if Chris Silliza feels comfortable talking up Kamala Harris as the number one likely pick, but also best pick.
00:15:28.160
He didn't say best, but he indicated she'd be a strong pick.
00:15:31.440
If CNN is talking her up, has the decision been made?
00:15:40.320
And if the decision is made, will not everyone say that the vice president is really the candidate you're voting for?
00:15:47.320
And will I not have achieved the greatest prediction of all time?
00:15:53.420
Well, I will be, it's too early to say that's true.
00:16:03.580
Even if it doesn't happen, look how close they got.
00:16:08.460
You know, to make a prediction that that is as wild as the one I made, which is that, first of all, that she'd be the candidate.
00:16:17.780
But that even after she suspended her campaign, I said repeatedly and publicly, no, she's still going to be the candidate because Biden's going to fail.
00:16:32.140
I may be eating crow, eating my words in a week or so if Biden picks a vice president.
00:16:38.320
I think vice presidents are especially hard to predict.
00:16:46.060
I'm trying to decide what are the biggest stories of the Trump administration so far.
00:17:01.300
And I would say the biggest stories of the, you know, the three and a half years so far is, first of all, the fake Russia collusion story.
00:17:12.040
So that was maybe the biggest story, and it was fake.
00:17:16.320
It was the biggest story, and it wasn't even real.
00:17:19.400
But on another level, you could argue that the fine people hoax was one of the biggest ones because not only was the story itself massive, but it stayed with us.
00:17:32.300
It became like the background anger for every other story because you'd see people bring it up for years since 2017.
00:17:46.080
But, of course, like the Russia collusion hoax, the fine people story, maybe the second biggest story of his entire administration, was also not true.
00:18:00.100
You all know the story, but none of the people on the left know it because it's just not reported.
00:18:09.900
And the truth is, of course, he didn't say that.
00:18:11.800
He said specifically the neo-Nazis and the racists, the white nationalists, I guess, should be condemned totally.
00:18:20.780
That's what he actually said, should be condemned totally, but because it was muddled and taken out of context, it turned into, he called them fine people, which is literally the opposite of what happened.
00:18:34.880
So, the two biggest stories of the administration were both hoaxes.
00:18:44.460
Well, the third biggest story is really the coronavirus, of course, but in terms of politics, what's the biggest story around the coronavirus?
00:18:54.160
Well, I think the biggest story around the coronavirus is that the president wondered aloud about drinking bleach and ingesting disinfectants to fight the coronavirus, which, of course, would kill you.
00:19:11.760
But that was a giant story, and it really became the story that people used to, I would say, park all of their biases about the president not being up to the job.
00:19:23.560
Because they wanted to think that the job of handling this coronavirus required a certain amount of, let's say, controlled leadership and deference to scientific authority, which would be the opposite of wondering aloud about drinking bleach.
00:19:43.460
But, similar to the Russia collusion hoax and the fine people hoax, the drinking bleach and or ingesting disinfectant hoax actually didn't happen.
00:19:59.360
He was talking about using light as a disinfectant, inserting it into the lungs, which is actually a real thing.
00:20:07.840
And it was the context he was talking about, because he had just talked about light as a disinfectant.
00:20:15.200
So, the biggest, correct me if I'm wrong, the three biggest stories of the year were all made up.
00:20:27.280
Then the hydroxychloroquine, the idea that the hydroxychloroquine was actually dangerous because it's just dangerous as a drug.
00:20:38.260
We know that's not true, because it's been, you know, it's been prescribed for forever all over the world, 75 years or something, in some form or other.
00:20:52.860
I mean, that's nobody's admitted to yet, but obviously that was a complete hoax.
00:21:00.420
Remdesivir, I just saw an article in CNN, I think it was.
00:21:03.200
So, remdesivir is the one that made no statistical difference that we've identified in changing mortality rates.
00:21:17.440
Now, can you be a breakthrough drug without affecting mortality rates?
00:21:24.200
Now, there does seem to be strong evidence that it reduces the virus, but don't have evidence that it reduces the mortality rate.
00:21:37.120
Now, we also don't have evidence that it doesn't.
00:21:42.620
But why are we talking about this as a breakthrough without the one piece of evidence you'd really want to see, which is mortality rates?
00:21:51.440
Sounds to me like you shouldn't get your news from, wait for it, wait for it, you shouldn't get your news from somebody who's funded mostly by pharmaceutical companies, like most of the news.
00:22:10.540
Most of the news is a pharmaceutical, I mean, you can almost think of the news as a pharmaceutical product.
00:22:21.440
I feel I need to say it again in case anybody missed it.
00:22:25.280
I'll just act like I didn't say it the first time.
00:22:27.700
You act like you didn't hear it the first time.
00:22:30.260
But listen to this and act like it was profound.
00:22:35.620
It's almost as if the news is just a pharmaceutical product.
00:22:45.520
Because the news is designed to change your mental state.
00:22:50.760
It's designed to rewire your personality, to change your mood.
00:22:55.040
It's designed to influence the chemistry of your body, literally.
00:22:59.800
Your oxytocin, your dopamine, your serotonin, all the chemicals that could make you happy or sad.
00:23:13.820
Who is the main sponsor slash advertiser of news?
00:23:22.200
So, if you tell me that the news is one business, and the pharmaceutical business is a separate business,
00:24:03.420
When the coronavirus crisis first started, I advised, as you remember, that you should do everything to keep your immune system strong.
00:24:13.100
I said, make sure you get sleep and mild exercise.
00:24:16.480
And I told you to take a walk because it would be the best mild exercise because it has the double benefit of getting you in the sun a little bit.
00:24:32.940
So, and by the way, I'm pretty sure I was the first person to say that, to say that the way you should deal with the coronavirus is to take walks.
00:24:42.280
I didn't hear anybody else say it before I said it.
00:24:48.240
Anyway, so, and we've also seen, you've all seen stories that maybe vitamin D would be a treatment for people who are already infected.
00:25:03.380
I saw some information today that maybe there's an optimal vitamin D level and it's U-shaped, meaning that you could have too much vitamin D, but you could also have too little.
00:25:19.280
There might be some situation where you could get too much, but I don't think you could get too much without supplements.
00:25:25.880
So, here's what I'm going to add to the conversation.
00:25:31.360
And what I'm adding is just pattern recognition.
00:25:35.060
So, we already know vitamin D is good for your immune system.
00:25:42.420
Think of all the factors that make you more likely to die from coronavirus.
00:25:50.820
It turns out that maybe every one of these factors is really just a signal that you don't have vitamin D.
00:26:05.000
Every one of the things that I'm going to list is highly correlated with low vitamin D levels, right?
00:26:11.880
Being old, if you're old, your vitamin D is really low.
00:26:15.840
Well, old people have it worse with the coronavirus.
00:26:23.920
If you're black, your vitamin D, or even if you have a darker melanin, you know, darker skin tones,
00:26:31.520
you're less likely to be picking up enough vitamin D.
00:26:34.860
And, of course, the black population is getting it the worse.
00:26:38.980
But they also have the other comorbidities, which are also related to vitamin D.
00:26:49.920
I guessed it was true and looked it up, and it's true.
00:27:12.640
When people went back, you know, when they were finally released,
00:27:22.660
But maybe they had a little more vitamin D than they did when things were the worst.
00:27:27.260
I don't know if short-term exposure makes that much difference.
00:27:42.520
Now, prisoners mostly didn't have as many medical problems, but they're younger.
00:27:47.740
So prisons have a higher African-American population,
00:27:51.480
population, so that speaks to lower vitamin D as well as not being outdoors.
00:28:02.760
Do you think there's a correlation with vitamin D and being a Chinese urban dweller?
00:28:11.260
There was a study of Chinese residents of Beijing,
00:28:17.480
Now, I didn't see a study of Wuhan, but why would it be different?
00:28:21.760
So apparently if you're Chinese and you live in an urban environment,
00:28:35.240
The Iranians, correct me if I'm wrong, but how many of them expose their arms?
00:28:42.040
If you're in Iran, do you ever expose your arms or even, let's say,
00:28:45.880
the back of your neck, depending on if you're a man or a woman, what you're wearing?
00:28:50.340
And also Tehran is one of the most polluted cities.
00:28:54.260
So you've got your smog, which would affect the air.
00:28:57.740
Maybe they're a little more covered because of the modesty of the traditional dress.
00:29:07.960
How about, well, so those are the main categories.
00:29:15.140
Do people that we know have good vitamin D, do they have the least problems?
00:29:19.640
Well, you know, little babies sometimes can be short on vitamin D.
00:29:25.440
But don't, isn't it true that every kid gets more sun than adults?
00:29:36.100
I don't know any kid who doesn't get more sun than adults.
00:29:39.280
And when they do go outside, good luck getting some sunscreen on them.
00:29:43.120
I mean, you can if you're going swimming or something.
00:29:45.100
But if they're just running around or going to school or, you know, they're out in recess during school and they're out for lunch, they're outside sometimes, at least in California.
00:29:55.980
So kids, at least where I live, kids are outdoors way more than adults.
00:30:02.340
But they might also not have as much vitamin D problems.
00:30:06.280
And there may be other issues for that as well, right?
00:30:10.200
So here's what I'd like to add to the conversation.
00:30:16.300
Somebody says, please study Chelsea, Massachusetts.
00:30:24.520
Well, here's the next thing I was going to say.
00:30:30.700
And then somebody says, my God, you solved this damn thing.
00:30:50.300
And that, you know, we came up with it right here.
00:31:04.720
By the way, Christina, my lovely, beautiful and talented fiancee,
00:31:10.340
was helping me with this theory, who may, in fact, be watching.
00:31:16.820
If you are, I'm going to see you soon with a record player.
00:31:28.800
and we started putting together this series of coincidences.
00:31:32.840
And the ones that were weird is, I would say, for example,
00:31:37.720
all right, one of the risk groups is diabetics.
00:31:45.780
that it will say they have a vitamin D deficiency?
00:32:00.780
And everything I could think of, every time I could think of it,
00:32:05.600
I'm seeing somebody say that Dr. Shiva has been on this for two months.
00:32:12.840
I'm not suggesting that I've seen evidence that it works as a treatment.
00:32:24.940
would it help you not get into as much trouble?
00:32:27.680
In other words, would it be an early intervention
00:32:34.600
that if you administer it when somebody is already in bad shape,
00:32:44.540
I think Dr. Shiva is talking about using it as a treatment.
00:32:55.500
If you miss this, you're missing the whole magic.
00:32:58.760
The magic is not that it might be a good treatment.
00:33:11.440
Or is every single situation where it's a problem
00:33:27.140
One of the most freaky things about New York City,
00:33:31.980
I go to New York City, spend some time there for business.
00:33:34.380
And often I'll have some downtime to walk someplace.
00:33:45.040
You can't, you can't leave the house on a winter day,
00:33:50.960
on any daytime in California without sunglasses,
00:34:23.100
but when you find the places that are the exceptions,
00:34:33.940
there's usually also a reason for the exception.
00:35:34.880
it's the right question to ask for the exceptions,