Overtime – Episode #619: Rep. Ro Khanna, Gov. Jared Polis, Robert Costa

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series, Real Time with Bill Ma.

Okay.

All right, here we are.

Welcome back, Governor.

A study released this week warns that the world has nine years to avert catastrophic climate warming.

Oh, and we were having such a good time.

What kind of climate policies are you focusing on implementing in Colorado?

First of all, we're too late.

The climate's already changing.

So, I mean, the nine years was probably nine years ago or 20 years ago.

Well, I suppose.

We can still avert some of the worst possible outcomes.

And we're going to be at 100% renewable energy by 2040 in Colorado, 80% in in just seven and a half years in 2030.

Renewable, meaning?

It's solar, wind, looking at

a little bit of hydro and geothermal.

I'm very excited about it, especially geothermal electricity.

Where are you in nuclear?

We're open to it if the economics work.

I mean, I think the big question is, how will the economics work?

I mean, right now, it just hasn't proven out yet.

So let's see where the technology goes over the next five or ten years.

The economics of nuclear hasn't worked out?

No, it hasn't.

I mean, you know.

We thought the big summing block was, I mean, obviously everyone is afraid of another Chernobyl Chernobyl or another Fukushima, which is valid, but you have to

make, what did Obama used to say, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.

So where a lot of the technology is driving is towards sort of smaller scale modular nuclear.

It doesn't quite cost out.

It always seems like one of these technologies that's like 10 years away, you know, but there's a lot of promising stuff on drawing boards, engineers working on it.

It wouldn't be these large plants that you have in the past.

The terra-nuclear is promising.

I mean,

that terra-nuclear, it's the

smaller nuclear reactors that recycle the waste.

Oh, I see.

And that's something we should be looking at.

Okay.

And I would say geothermal is really cool, too.

The heat beneath our feet, right?

Just tapping into this existing power source of the Earth for passive cooling and for electrics.

So that's also good.

And fusion, is that too pie in the sky?

Who knows?

I mean, you know, we have fusion.

It's called the sun.

Let's capture the reducer.

Right.

That's what Neil deGrasse Tyson always says.

We have a great nuclear reactor in the sky.

All right.

Roe, this is for you.

Do you think the massive tech layoffs announced this week, oh yeah, bloodbath in Silicon Valley, are an economic bellwether for other industries?

What's going on there?

I fear that it is of concern.

I mean, what you've had is advertising slow down because advertising isn't always the first thing people need.

And so you've had layoffs at Facebook, you've had layoffs at Twitter, you've had hiring freezes at some of the other companies.

But consumer spending is still good.

And since this is your area, what do you make of the Musk takeover of Twitter?

Is that something that alarms you?

Or do you welcome it?

Do you hate it?

You know what I said, and I said to him, I said, why in the world would you want to be running the day-to-day of Twitter?

Like, do you really want to make a decision of whether Bill Maher or Rokana's tweet should stay or not?

I couldn't think of a worse possible job.

Just

appoint some board independently to make that decision.

Well,

I think that's what he's doing.

Look, I think he had a terrible week, and I'm a big fan of his.

But retweeting the gay Pelosi story was stupid.

And then advising people to vote Republican because we need divided government at a time when the Republicans were standing for ending democracy was stupid.

But he's a genius.

Sometimes geniuses are stupid.

And I'm still on his team.

I think it'd be so good for the Democrats to unshackle themselves from woke Twitter.

This election just proved they do best when they have,

you know, the moderate guy who's not

beholden to woke Twitter.

Twitter does not vote.

Sure, Twitter doesn't vote, but I also don't think we need to be afraid of expressing our opinions on Twitter.

I had a question.

No, we should.

Exactly.

That's what he's standing up for.

We shouldn't be afraid.

I am afraid.

I got off Twitter because everything I wanted to say on Twitter, I couldn't say on Twitter.

Why?

Because it would just be a, it's such a minefield to get canceled.

You know that 99, 99%,

I'm sure you know this, 99% of the people who worked at Twitter, half of them don't now,

vote Democratic.

Now even if you're a Democrat, you shouldn't like that.

That's not healthy for any company or any country.

Well look,

I'm not for censoring people on Twitter.

I think that if you're going to incite, which you I don't think ever did, but if people are inciting violence or something, that's different.

Of course.

So clean that up.

Yes.

But allow a free exchange of ideas.

I have no problem with it.

I have have no problem with whoever Elon Musk wants to support politically.

I mean,

it saddens me that he's not supporting reason and the Democrats, but that's his First Amendment right.

My problem is that you don't want him making decisions over the media forum.

He should have an independence.

I just like to tweet pictures of my dog on Twitter.

Everything's like that.

Well, I wonder, with all of this, especially in Silicon Valley, when did Democrats say that what happens at Twitter or what happens on Facebook is like a utility.

It needs to be regulated like a utility.

Is that going to be part of the discussion in the coming years in any way?

Because it is confusing, even as a reporter, to track who's in control, who should be in control, where does the First Amendment end, if it ever ends.

What is the story?

Because a lot of people are arguing on Capitol Hill it should be like a telephone company.

But that's a terrible analogy because the telephone,

this is a free speech issue.

A utility is like gas and power and stuff like that.

But there are televisions regulated in a different way than social media.

Is that a utility television?

No, we're talking about FCC stuff.

The weird thing about the Twitter thing is, you know, Elon Musk has been a brilliant business person, right?

And I just don't understand paying $44 billion.

I think that a lot of that value is just going to evaporate.

I don't see how he turns this into a winner from the business.

Well, they said that about the electric car and reusable rockets.

So, I mean, you know, the guy is not exactly.

He's not exactly without a track record.

And he has plans to make Twitter into something much bigger than it is.

not just a place where you can say whatever, it's your picture of your dog.

He wants to have it like where you do your banking and like some of these other social activities.

And if he gets rid of the bots, that'll help.

And he's doing that, yes.

Okay.

Robert, Democratic strategist James Carville said Democrats would be better off looking harder at Mississippi than Florida following the overwhelming GOP success in the state.

I don't know whether that's sarcastic or...

Well, the question is.

Is Florida now out of reach for Democrats in 2024 is he serious about Mississippi that's it's more in reach than it's a challenge for the Democrats I think in the coming years having spent a lot of time in Georgia a lot of time in Mississippi in Alabama how are they going to win back the south in some respects the Clyburn argument that voting rights and redistricting needs to be put front and center has helped the Democrats make gains.

I mean, the thing that there are two Democratic senators from Georgia right now shows the Democrats have made some inroads.

But when you go to Mississippi, when you go to Alabama, and you say, I'm a reporter, a lot of people just turn away.

It's still Trump country there.

And the Democrats have struggled with the working class.

And that's why the Bernie Sanders campaign has often said, you've got to lead with the economy and class to win back working voters in places like Mississippi.

Yeah, you're not going to get Mississippi and Alabama.

Why worry?

Immediately.

Democrats, wouldn't you want to play in 50 states if you can?

No.

It's silly, and that's why they don't.

Because some places are just not in reach.

I mean, you know, either is South Dakota.

You know, it just, you can't win them all.

They're so small population-wise.

Exactly.

Why are there two Dakotas?

Why is there one?

We gotta go.

Thank you very much.

We'll see you next week for our last show of the season.

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