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Left Out Loud is a progressive political podcast breaking down the biggest stories shaping our democracy. From up-to-the-minute political news and midterm election coverage to in-depth interviews with grassroots Democratic candidates, the show spotlights the voices and movements fighting for real change. Smart, informed, and unapologetically loud, Left Out Loud pairs sharp analysis with humor and plain-spoken commentary, cutting through the noise to focus on what actually matters. If you care about elections, organizing, and the future of the Democratic Party—and you like your politics with a little personality—this is the podcast for you.
Ally: Seth, look who's back's there buddy?
Old Tim.
Seth: Tim,
Ally: buddy.
It's our buddy, Tim.
Tim: Oh, it's awesome to be here.
I've been listening.
You guys have been crushing it.
Ally: Oh, thank you.
Appreciate that so much.
Well, you were what, our second
guest and uh, I think so we both.
Formed like this connection with you
and wanted you to stay connected to the
show and become a friend of the show and
been so generous in agreeing to do that.
So we are so excited to have you back
here, um, under difficult circumstances.
So in real time, we are recording
this about an hour and 15 minutes
away from the Iran deadline.
Um.
Shit is a little crazy right now.
So I thought we would take
some time while we're together.
We're actually all together to record
a bonus episode about redistricting.
You're gonna wanna see that conversation,
but this little standalone piece is just
like a gift to the audience and us, um,
to talk about everything that's happening
right now in Iran, which is crazy.
Seth: I, yeah.
And I, I'm, I'm, I'm just at a loss
because I really, like, I knew the
man was, was, was slowly losing it.
Right?
We, we've all seen it.
I'm not a doctor, I'm not gonna make a
diagnosis, but we've all seen him slow.
We've all seen him slowly, you know,
sundowning and the idea that, you know.
You could even talk about eliminating
an entire population of people.
Um, and, and like, and like,
what are you, are you trolling?
Are, are his followers gonna
say that he's trolling now?
Like, oh, he was kidding.
You know, they always
say like, he's kidding.
He was kidding.
I
Ally: mean, if he.
If he tacos out, that's
what they'll say, right?
If he tacos out, they'll say it
was bluster, he was trolling,
or it was all part of the
negotiation and the bigger deal.
But the thing is like, let's
just rewind the clock, right?
Today is Tuesday right now
to 6:48 PM this morning.
Trump put out on truth social
that he was going to wipe out.
The entire civilization
of Iran, basically.
Um, if he didn't get anything done
by 8:00 PM so obviously we're very
close to that deadline right now.
Um, throughout the course of the
day, other things have happened.
You know, local people in the UK have
actually filmed United States B 52
bombers loading up and taking off.
Um, obviously we can't confirm
what direction they're headed
in, but we can all assume that
they're heading towards Iran.
Um, Iran, the Iranian people have now
gone out into the streets and they're
forming human chains around their power
plants and their nuclear site and across
their bridges, and they have a doomsday
clock on their news channels like this is.
The, the closest we've been to
something so significant in terms
of potential nuclear attack.
I mean, that's what's kind of
being floated around in the ether.
And so I just wanted to take a
moment, a few moments, kind of
talk through how we're feeling.
Scenarios what we think
is gonna happen here.
Tim, why don't, why don't you weigh in?
What are your thoughts?
Tim: Uh, we, you know, I've worked in
politics for 17 years and when you are
in it for this long, you get to see
that there's multiple colors, uh, all
of them being true colors in so many
aspects of our society and the people
with power and the people without.
Um.
The true colors of the Republican
party right now is that they
don't have a fucking spine,
because if there was ever a time.
To stop bending the knee and
to stop kissing the ring.
It is right now if he's threatening
something of this level of carnage on
the precipice of genocide, for a country
that has not attacked us, an unprovoked
attack on them and the innocent people
that live there, where's the line?
There is no line.
And it's because they wanna preserve
their own ambition or their own status
or their own connection with him.
And if things go as bad as
we hope that they don't go.
Then they have themselves to blame.
The Democrats I have plenty of gripes
with, but they are the minority party.
This is not a moment to, I
can't blame this one on them.
Mm-hmm.
But I would also say that the true
colors of the American people,
I've always known to be good.
And I think that there's always better
people than there are worse people.
I've always think that people who are
good outnumber the people who are bad.
Those people just don't have powers.
And I've been traveling this district
and I've been to free health clinics.
I've been to places that impact.
You know, people in poverty that
wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Goodwill.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
Tim: And it's not just sad because those
people are forgot about by DC and both
parties have have just overlooked them.
But it's sad because these things wouldn't
exist if there wasn't so many good people.
And it just shows you the potential of
our country is to be something that is
greater than we've ever known we could be.
And it's the struggles
we've been able to overcome.
And whatever happens tonight, it's the
people who believe in goodness, that
believe goodness can still prevail.
They're the ones who need to do something.
Now I'm trying to do it by running for
office and trying to find a spotlight on
people who don't have a lot but should
and who don't have any power but should.
Ally: Yeah.
Tim: Uh, this is our moment and
it's the kind of country we choose.
We wanna be.
Those are my thoughts.
Ally: And, and that's beautifully
said, and you're right.
Republicans unfortunately have not been.
Very outspoken today.
Um, a few have come outta the woodwork
and said, you know, this isn't a good
idea, or, I really hope that this is
bluster and it doesn't come to pass.
But they should be in,
they should be in DC right?
Yeah.
They should be in his ear.
They should be having
conversations on the floor.
There should be an emergency session.
No president in the history of America
has ever used language like this.
About another country.
Do presidents use strong
military coded language?
Sometimes when we are in conflicts
or about to get into a conflict?
Sure.
No American president in the history
of this country on our two, on
the year of our 250th anniversary
has ever said, we are going to
wipe out an entire civilization.
It's absolutely unprecedented
and completely, uh, it's a five
alarm fire, all hands on deck.
Congress is missing an action,
and it's really a shame.
Seth: Republicans are, you know, they,
they have fooled themselves so for so
long into thinking, he's just kidding.
He, that's not what he meant.
That's not what he said.
Like I said earlier, he's trolling
and it's lured them into this false
sense of security where if they really
believe that they're gonna have blood
on their hands because agreed, this guy
is unhinged, he's completely unhinged.
We were talking about bridge
and power plant day to.
Within 48 hours of that.
And that was crazy enough, right?
Open up the mm-hmm.
Street you crazy bastards
Ally: on Easter Sunday.
Right?
Seth: And we went from that in 48 hours
to we're decimating the population.
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Quite the jump there, Trump.
And so, um, this has become
a situation that is now, that
is now untenable because.
25th Amendment, you can throw that out
the window that would require Trump's
cabinet of lackey's to turn on him.
And that's not happening.
That's not happening.
Uh, and it just came out that, uh, that
kegs breath is out here telling Trump that
we're winning the war and we're doing so
great and we're decimating everything.
And so it's real.
Trump really believes that
that's happening on the ground.
Um, and it's luring him into
a false sense of security.
He thinks it's a game,
but as we know, it's not.
And Iran has been waiting
for this for quite some time.
And, uh, if we walk into this
trap, then man, and you know, the,
the, the people of Iran, when you
see them forming human shames.
Ally: Yeah.
Seth: Um, and having to do so
around power plants and bridges,
this is, uh, how did it get here?
How did we
Ally: get, and we don't, and we
don't know if they're doing that
voluntarily or if their government is
kind of pushing them into doing that.
Um, either way, they're human
beings and they're putting their
lives in danger, whether by forest,
survive, by their own fruition.
And it's, I, there's no words.
It's just.
It's heartbreaking to see that happening.
Tim: If it goes down in a couple
hours that we found out that we
bombed Iran, there is no question
that it'll be thousands of
innocent lives, tens of thousands.
Potentially be billions.
Thousands of people.
Yeah, could
Ally: be millions, Tim.
It just depends on what route they go
Tim: and there's so many options.
There's one we can, we can try to.
You know, talk about how the people
who are gonna be hurt the worst
by this are the people who have
the least amount of power in Rand.
And this is one of the reasons that
I have, I don't like to just own
the cons or whatever people do with
like when conservative voters, they
have been left behind and we haven't
been as a party to give them an off
ramp from the Republican party too.
But I do think that there is
people that we need to blame.
And it's not just Donald Trump.
It's every coward in his cabinet.
It's every single Republican
with a modicum of power who's
not saying anything, and it's
every fucking billionaire
who's ever funded his campaign.
And every single person who ever turned a
blind eye to things that were absolutely
a matters of injustice that this guy
has just normalized in our country.
They are the ones who can do it.
And if they have any semblance of
integrity, and I do not believe that
they do, this is the moment for them
to speak up because unfortunately,
we have a country where big
industry has a lot of influence.
Unfortunately, we have it.
Where if they say something, Republicans
on the side and Democrats will also start
saying, well, my donors are complaining,
so I might as well do something about it.
Whatever we have to do, I don't
care what it is anymore, you know?
When FDR was first elected and
he had his cabinet and his brain
trust, he said, just do something.
And if it doesn't work, do something
else, but just do something.
This is a moment when we have to
do something and I will blame and
I will not forgive anyone who has
ever enabled this administration
if they do even a fraction of what
they're threatening to do right now.
And I don't think any of us should.
I don't think any of us should.
I don't think any of us can.
Ally: I, I, I'm with you on that
and I wouldn't, I won't either.
Um, there is no.
There is no forgiveness for genocide.
And that's what this would be.
That's what this would amount to.
Um, and in if it does happen, I mean, we
have to face the facts that this would
result in an immediate, global economic,
um, disaster emergency, not to mention.
China and Russia.
They are, they have agreements, they have
working military agreements with Iran.
We're getting in the way of their
economics now and things are tenuous
globally and there's very much
a possibility for retaliation.
Um, you know, there's so many.
If we do this, the door to so many things
are now open and none of them good.
There is no good outcome here.
Seth: And, and I'm glad you
brought up China and uh, and
Russia, because here's the thing.
What did we do when
Russia invaded Ukraine?
We used Ukraine in a proxy war to
weaken the Russian forces, right?
Mm-hmm.
Well, this is the same thing
just a few years later, and
if we can involve with Iran.
Buried deep into it.
Absolutely.
China will take this opportunity and
Russia will take this opportunity
to try to weaken us militarily.
Ally: Yeah.
Seth: We're already using a bunch
of bombs, million dollar missiles
to knock down a $40,000 drone.
And they, and they love the math.
Mm-hmm.
They love the math on that.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, uh, we are opening up, you
know, the, the, the Pandora's box
as far as a, a worldwide proxy war.
Tim: And it's, it's, it's not a
matter of, uh, of like winners and
losers with the Rand in America.
I think that it's just
They're both losing.
They're both losing, yeah.
Yeah.
But there are people who can
benefit from this in China and
Russia who are supposed to be.
In terms of international
relations, they're not allies.
They're, they're adversaries to a
certain extent, they're competitors.
In the best case scenario, what Iran's
response has been to us being there
has been, um, from China, they say,
look, the Americans can't protect you.
Maybe you need to lie
yourself with us for Russia.
They, they export one thing and it's oil,
and we just took away the ability for
the rest of the world to access that oil.
So who's going to benefit?
If you were worried about what is
going on in Ukraine and Russia, you
need to worry about what is going on
in Iran because Russia's forces are
gonna be bolstered, their economy
is going to elevate at the same time
when ours is crumbling, you know?
It's, it's, we can talk about a recession
coming, but reality everyday people have
been in a recession for a very long time.
We only ever say it as a government
if Wall Street is hurting or the
halves start to have a little less.
Mm-hmm.
But we've been tightening our belts
for years at the price of everything
has gone up, but not our paychecks.
And we've been in a recession for
the longest time and we haven't
and had anyone representing us.
And now you're going to have opposing
governments being able to take
better care of their people and prove
that maybe democracy doesn't work.
Yeah, maybe democracy is never
gonna, is never going to be something
that is, that is long lived.
And that's why we're at such a
crossroads in this moment, in this
election, in this year, whereas we have
to prove that we're better than this.
We have to say that America can
still be, I hate to use this word,
but great, greater than it is now to
reach for a capacity we've never known
before, because we're in a moment
of modern history where we don't
know if it can get darker than this.
Ally: Yeah.
Tim: And it's gonna have to come from us.
If our leaders are gonna step up and
do something about it, they would have.
This is a moment for people to realize
that they have to be their own champions.
That there's no hero coming.
It's about us.
And that's gonna look like
getting in the streets.
That's gonna be look like making
sure we, you know, make sure that the
capitol hears our voices to be so loud
this time that they can't ignore us.
That is what this moment should be,
and I hope to God it doesn't end up.
This countdown clock ends up in
nothing and it's a taco moment.
But just the fact that we don't know if
it's going to happen or not is also this
craziness that we find ourselves where
we don't know what's going to happen.
And because this guy who has so much more
power than the rest of us can just do
whatever he wants without accountability.
Ally: Yeah.
Tim: And then the last thing, go ahead.
Go
Ally: ahead Melissa.
So, no, sorry.
I mean, I think that's a great point.
That no one is coming to save us.
We have to all collectively, um, as a
population, except that regardless of
who you voted for, at this point, we
have gotten ourselves into a situation,
um, that is potentially catastrophic no
matter what happens in the next hour.
And if this isn't a wake up
call, I don't know what it's
gonna take, but at some point.
We're all gonna have to end up in
Washington, DC No, Kings is great,
but when we're doing it locally
in in our own isolated bubbles,
it doesn't have quite the impact.
And I would encourage if things
get worse and they're not gonna get
better, regardless of what happens
tonight, we have got to be really
active and stop being passive.
And midterms are important, but we have
so much work to do between now and then.
Seth: It would be wonderful to get a one.
To get a a. No.
Kings in dc.
Ally: Yeah.
Seth: Where we all fucking descend.
Yeah.
On BC 10 15.
I think we have to get to
that playlist million strong.
And we're, and we're at the
fucking Lincoln building.
Ally: Yeah.
Seth: We're there.
We're there next to the pool like.
I don't think I, I, you know,
this, this protest has been growing
and that's been great to see.
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Seth: But I think I, I think if
it does come to what we hope won't
happen, that there is no choice.
We, we must descend on DC
Ally: Yeah.
Seth: In May, in June
Ally: next week.
Seth: We don't know.
By, by, by any means necessary.
Right.
Because well, shit isn't outta
control and we can't, we can't rely
on Congress to roll to rein it in.
We can't.
Tim: And I think it's also just important
to note that, you know, I'm part of the,
Seth and I are part of the generation,
well, I guess we're all part of the
generation where, like was the first
time we sent a, a whole bunch of people
our age to go to the Middle East to die.
You know, I, I didn't serve
a lot of friends who did.
Some of them didn't come back, or
I knew a lot of people who did, uh,
some of them didn't come back, some
of them didn't come back the same.
And every time I drive to work,
uh, in Richmond, I see a guy in
the median holding a sign that
says, homeless Vet, please help.
And that's a choice that our country
has made to turn its back on the
people who are willing to sacrifice
everything for us, but we just
don't, you know, return the favor.
Uh.
We could look it down
the barrel of that again.
Yeah.
Because there's no way that if we
can cross this much destruction,
this much carnage in the region
and do what Trump wants us to do
without putting boots on the ground.
And this isn't about my election,
this conversation, uh, I'm moving
this to, to just really make
sure that the point is heard.
It's that where I'm running,
it's the second most amount
of veterans in Virginia.
Um, and you know, when you meet vets, they
tend to have children in the military.
I remember the day, the day
after we invaded her in.
I went to AL'S party in
Williamsburg, Virginia.
It's a very lovely place.
A lot of veterans live there.
And then two people came and
just said, I just wanna let
you know I saw you speak once.
I really like you.
I can't stay.
'cause we have a call with our son,
he's in the Middle East and it was
the father who started to tear up
when he was telling me about it.
Then we were having this conversation
about this and trying to, you know,
just, you have to understand these
things deeper than talking points.
These are things that affect
people, people's lives.
And someone said, I was in the military
and, uh, my son wanted to follow in
my footsteps, and they said it's okay.
And he has a daughter.
And I just want, I'm not afraid to go
down, but if I go down, I just want my
daughter to know what I was fighting for.
Ally: Mm-hmm.
Tim: We can't answer that question
of what we're fighting for, and we're
not trying to exhaust every diplomatic
action and the reckless, haphazard way
of putting our people in armed forces,
in harm's way like this President has.
Not only is that just disqualifying as a
leader, it's disqualifying on all of us.
So if we have takes marching on DC we
need to do it because that's what the
real family, that's what real families
have to experience in this moment.
And I think it's very, it's easy
to get caught up in, in all of the
things, but I like try to look at
things in the microscopic level too.
I don't, I want to be a
country better than this.
That's why I don't want this to happen.
I don't want this war to continue.
I don't want this president
to have any more power ever.
And I want him to have some
accountability if he has to stay there.
But the second thing is, if we don't.
It is those families that I'm gonna think
about and I think about 'em already.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
Tim: And the people we gotta
remember is that this is
something that is going to change.
I was on a, I was on all veterans
panel and someone said, the military
doesn't just take something from you.
It takes everything from you live or die.
Mm-hmm.
We have an obligation to
take care of these people.
And then sometimes that means that despite
the fact that they can fight with so
much valor, and I will put our military
up against anyone else every day of the
week because of their valor, because
of their competence, because of their
ability to do it, that doesn't mean that
we can just send them off recklessly.
That means that we should be
safeguarding them every chance weekend.
And there should be only when
we've exhausted every option
do we do something like this.
Ally: Agreed.
Tim: But if we do what we're gonna do
there, we'll be boots on the grounds.
Ally: Yeah.
Uh, yeah, it has to be.
Tim: Yeah.
Ally: Alright, so obviously we
don't know what's gonna happen,
little less than an hour to go
until that eight o'clock deadline.
Um, we just wanted to, before we
get into our next conversation,
our bonus episode conversation, uh.
Wanted to do kind of a quick emergency
episode just to reach out to the audience
and, you know, talk about what we're
all thinking about and talking about.
And, um, we're all here
just hoping for the best.
If Trump's ever gonna
taco, let it be tonight.
Um, yeah, exactly.
Fingers crossed.
So thanks for, thanks for
joining in on that conversa.
Joining in on that conversation.
Tim, we're not gonna edit
this 'cause it's just
Tim: Yeah.
Talking.
Thanks for being part of it.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
It's therapeutic.
Ally: Absolutely
Tim: nothing else.