All Episodes
Previous Next
June 18, 2018 - Real Coffe - Scott Adams
10:49
Episode 108 - What the Pundits Get Wrong About North Korea Pre-Deal
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Yes, it's me again.
Because? I'll tell you why.
Because you can't get enough of me.
And because I have another topic.
But I've already had my coffee for today.
So I'm moving on to something I like to call the tears of my critics.
You might call it water.
Looks and tastes like water, but it's not.
It's the tears of my critics.
Good tears.
So I've been watching with puzzlement.
The reporting about North Korea and where we're at with them.
Today's news is that the president has made it official that we're going to at least temporarily discontinue the, quote, war games on the border of North Korea.
And his critics are saying, my God, you're giving them everything and we're getting nothing.
The president, of course, is saying, what do you mean I'm giving them everything?
All I'm doing is showing good faith and saving some money on these war games.
It's exactly what I should be doing.
And his critics say, but you've got nothing in return.
We have no validation, etc.
What is missing...
in the pundits and the news coverage there's something that president trump did in singapore that's the only thing that matters and is also the only thing that's not being reported all right so that here's your your challenge i'll tell you in a moment but i want to see your answers what's the only thing that mattered the only thing he had to do In Singapore,
which he did. He accomplished it.
The only thing that mattered and the only thing that isn't being reported.
So you're saying trust, dialogue, close.
Mutual respect, close.
You're in the ballpark. Yeah, somebody got it there.
Let me put a word to it.
He took away North Korea's reason.
He took away the reason.
The reason that they had nuclear weapons was to do things like get world respect done.
They have it. They just had a good meeting.
They had nuclear weapons to protect themselves from the United States.
Does that matter anymore?
No. That reason was taken away.
Now, is it important that we get to the stage of validating that they're doing what we want, etc.?
Yes. It's still important.
But can you get there unless you've first done the most important thing, which is you've taken away their reason?
They no longer have a reason for nuclear weapons because they have all the things they want.
No risk of us attacking because the president, I believe, has successfully sold that reality.
And it is reality.
We don't have any reason.
It is genuinely true.
The last thing we want is to attack North Korea.
It's the last thing we want.
And I think for the first time, North Korea believes that's true.
We took away, not we, the president, took away the reason.
It's the biggest story.
In a hundred years?
Well, maybe not.
But it's a big story.
Have you ever seen this happen before?
Where somebody goes into a gigantic, you know, potentially nuclear problem and simply, quietly, while everybody was looking in the wrong place, took away the reason.
The reason's gone.
Now, part of the problem that people are missing the most important point That the reason is gone is that we tend to equate every problem with every other problem.
You know, all problems conflate in our head as the same thing.
So if we were to do something similar with, let's say, Iran, Iran has, we believe, some ambitions about destroying Israel and maybe growing Islam or whatever.
I'm not entirely sure they really believe any of that stuff, but let's say that's our current thinking.
If we were to reach some kind of a similar pre-deal with Iran, in which someday they'll do something to give up all of their nuclear potential and to stop messing in the area, etc., in that case, you couldn't take away their reason.
In that case, you would absolutely have to have ironclad inspection rights, etc., because the reason...
That Iran was a problem hasn't changed.
All you've done is put enough pressure on them that maybe or maybe not they'll let you inspect to the point where you can be confident they don't have those weapons.
But the reason that they might want those things to destroy Israel, etc., it's not changing.
North Korea Had very specific reasons that were not based on a religious doctrine or anything like that.
And the President of the United States, by accepting the deal, went in and changed the most important part.
He took away the reason.
Now, if North Korea still wants to have nuclear weapons without having a reason, It's going to cost them everything they thought they got.
So 100% of the things that they've allegedly given to us, you know, blowing up some things, etc., are things they can take back.
And 100% of the things that we've offered them are things we could take back.
So at this stage, basically, nobody's given anybody anything.
The one exception is that A meeting happened.
But that meeting in which Kim Jong-un becomes more credible in the world and gets some prestige, that didn't hurt us.
What did that cost us?
Nothing. That was just something we did to get what we wanted, which was to take away the reason The reason is gone.
It's the biggest story.
Why is nobody talking about that?
That North Korea just doesn't have a reason anymore for these things.
Now, of course, a million things could happen for this to go wrong.
I'm not saying that there will be no hiccups.
I'm not saying that North Korea might get hinky, whatever.
But, man, if you're missing the biggest part of the story, by far, by far, the biggest part of the story is that President Trump went to Singapore and took away their reason for Everything else will follow from that.
It might be that it takes them a long time to do what we need them to do in terms of verification, etc.
But during that time, we'll have our sanctions on them that just don't need to be there.
Those sanctions don't need to be there.
We don't want them. We don't have any reason to keep sanctions on them should they do what they say they want to do, which is denuclearize.
We've completely eliminated the reasons for being enemies.
If good things happen after that, I think that shouldn't be a surprise.
That's what happens when you get rid of the reasons.
And oddly, I don't see Fox News reporting that.
I don't see CNN reporting that.
And it's the big story.
Anyway. Yeah, so we're getting some remains back from soldiers, etc.
And what does CNN report about the remains coming back?
Oh, he said parents want their children back and the math doesn't work out because those parents would be dead by now.
Okay.
I guess that's important.
Explosive kites.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I wanted to come on and really just say that one thing, because it's driving me crazy.
I have said this before on Periscope, but I wanted to make a singular Periscope about it, because maybe that'll be a little more effective.
All right, that's all I had to say on this topic.
And you said, isn't Kim still worried about U.S. or Russia having nukes and not him?
Well, do you think Russia is going to take over North Korea right on the doorstep of China?
I don't see that happening.
I don't see South Korea letting it happen, China letting it happen.
I don't see the US letting it happen.
And by the way, why the hell would Russia want to own North Korea?
You know why I'm not worried about it?
Because they don't have a reason.
Russia has no reason.
To own North Korea. No reason.
That's all. Alright.
That's all I wanted to say.
▲
Export Selection