Episode 319 · Post-Ben
Donbas | The Tim Dillon Show #319
Oct 16, 2022 · 1:00:48 · 448,000 views · 14 segments, 88 moments indexed
Tim breaks down the biggest stories of the week: impending nuclear doom thanks to Russia/Ukraine, new suicide laws in Canada, updates from the Parkland trial, whether or not the U.S. military is too "woke," etc. Very fun stuff!
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- 3 min
Back from a Romanian Birthday Party Gig
#Tim recounts performing at a wealthy man's birthday party in Romania, describing the mentalist, fireworks, and musical acts, then contrasts how safe and orderly Romania felt compared to Los Angeles and New York, referencing Eli Roth's Hostel and mocking American fears about Eastern Europe.
7moments
- Tim just returned from performing at a wealthy Romanian's birthday party, where the audience didn't speak English and was heavily intoxicated.
- The event featured a mentalist and fireworks before Tim took the stage for a substantial fee while guests got in free.
- Romania is safer than Los Angeles or New York despite its reputation as a dangerous Eastern European country.
- No tent cities, no visible homelessness beyond one charming old panhandler—the opposite of what he sees in American cities.
- Cab drivers offer easy access to sex work, which feels more openly transactional than the hidden version in the US.
- Tim expected Gypsy beggars and street danger, the kind of scenes he associates with Eli Roth's horror film Hostel—all fears that don't match reality.
- Everyone smokes and people genuinely seem to like each other, contrary to the lawless dystopia Tim imagined beforehand.
- 10 min
Russia, Ukraine, and the Path to Nuclear War
#Tim lays out his view that Putin has been specific about wanting the Donbas region and no NATO expansion while the US/Ukraine response is vague appeals to freedom and democracy, arguing this mismatch is pushing toward nuclear escalation; he also mocks Zelensky's rhetoric calling Putin a leader with no future.
10moments
- Tim outlines how U.S. media claims Russia is losing the war, which has emboldened Ukraine and offended Putin.
- He notes that some American commentators have downplayed the risks of nuclear war and suggested it might have benefits.
- Putin's stated goals are specific—control of Donbas regions and preventing NATO expansion—while the U.S. response is vague appeals to freedom.
- Tim acknowledges Putin is a bad guy who kills critics and opposition figures, but that doesn't negate his tactical objectives.
- Zelenskyy declared he won't negotiate with Putin, calling him a leader with no future—a dangerous statement about a nuclear power's head of state.
- Tim walks through the logical consequence: if Putin loses, he'll be killed by his own elites, forcing a succession crisis.
- The potential replacements for Putin are hardline intelligence and military figures, not liberals—people with no interest in Western values.
- Sergey Naryshkin, head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, is another candidate and was also accused of involvement in Navalny's poisoning.
- Sergey Shoygu, defense minister and one of Putin's closest allies, played key roles in the Crimea annexation and Syria operations.
- The succession candidates are all hardened military and intelligence officials who would likely take an even more aggressive stance than Putin.
Vladimir PutinUkraineAlexander BortnikovSergey ShoyguVolodymyr ZelenskyyRussiaNATOIgor Sechin+5 more
- 1 min
Tim runs through a list of potential Kremlin successors to Putin including Bortnikov, Naryshkin, Chemezov, Sechin, and Shoigu, joking that none of them watch RuPaul's Drag Race.
1moment
- Tim introduces the episode's sponsor
- 2 min
Tim reads a sponsored segment for True Classic, describing their fitted t-shirts designed for regular body types, offering a 25% discount code, and telling a personal story about not being able to find clothes that fit at a store.
4moments
- Tim describes the problem with finding well-fitting t-shirts: either too tight with bacon neck or plain big and boxy.
- Tim recalls going to a store and being unable to fit into any clothes, which made him angry and sad.
- A friend told Tim about True Classic's full menswear line beyond just t-shirts, including pants and workout shirts.
- Tim notes that looking good doesn't always make you feel good, then pivots to discussing Russian hardliners.
True Classic
- 9 min
Nuking Over Donbas and Giving Putin What He Wants
#Tim continues arguing the US should just let Russia have the Donbas and Crimea to avoid nuclear war, riffing on photos of the region looking like Austin, Texas, and proposing the darkly comic idea of handing Zelensky over to Putin to cut a deal.
11moments
- Russia took out 40% of Ukraine's electrical grid, and the strategy is to bomb infrastructure since their ground forces struggle.
- Russian hardliners want Putin to escalate further, and he responded to the Crimean Bridge explosion by hitting Ukrainian infrastructure.
- Tim argues it's time for a deal—Zelensky should negotiate with Putin instead of marching toward nuclear war over Donbas.
- The U.S. is conducting nuclear war drills over Donbas, a region Tim sees as worthless enough to surrender to avoid nuclear catastrophe.
- Russian officials threaten World War III and global destruction if NATO approves Ukraine's membership, which Tim sees as an impossible condition.
- Nobody is trying to calm down the conflict; everyone demonizes Putin as a psychopath, but cornering him with no exit leaves nuclear weapons as the only option.
- Tim suggests the U.S. should team up with Russia, deliver Zelensky to Putin, and cede Donbas and Crimea to end the standoff.
- Donbas looks like a forgettable meadow—possibly comparable to Lake Travis in Austin—making it absurd to risk nuclear war over this territory.
- Defense contractors will hide in private bunkers while ordinary people die in nuclear war, all so Ukraine can avoid concessions.
- Putin has been specific about his demands while the West remains vague; specificity wins arguments, so give him what he wants to prevent escalation.
- The West demands Russia be totally humiliated and isolated, which won't happen—setting up a scenario where nuclear war becomes the likely outcome.
Volodymyr ZelenskyyRussiaUkrainenuclear warNATOVladimir PutinRomaniaCrimea+2 more
- 10 min
Tim reads news about the US Army missing recruitment goals and Republicans like Tommy Tuberville blaming 'wokeness' rather than failed wars, questioning what specifically about the military is supposedly woke and finding little concrete evidence.
10moments
- Military recruitment is off because nobody believes what the government says anymore about anything.
- The military claims it's too woke, not that people have seen Afghanistan and Iraq.
- The Army missed its recruiting goal by 15,000 soldiers in 2022, falling 25% short.
- Delayed entry applicants include people the military doesn't want to take right away, like cops thrown out for shooting people.
- Military officials can't actually explain why propensity for military service is going down.
- Senator Tommy Tuberville blames the military's recruiting problems on wokeness instead of ideology shift.
- The Heritage Foundation claims wokeness is the chief worry of veterans, despite high suicide and drug abuse rates among them.
- Tim questions what wokeness actually means in the military, unable to find specific examples of it.
- Military training focuses minimally on diversity compared to hundreds of hours on operational and safety training.
- When asked to recommend military service, hundreds of veterans emailed that they would not, blaming wokeness instead of the failed wars themselves.
Tommy Tubervillemilitary recruitmentwokeness in militaryHeritage FoundationAfghanistan and IraqPeter Deas
- 3 min
Tim keeps digging into the 'woke military' narrative, joking about lowered fitness standards for women, discharging white extremists, and Tucker Carlson's comments about pregnant women in the military, concluding modern wars are fought with missiles anyway.
6moments
- Tim describes the military's senior officer as a clown auditioning for an HBO Max comedy special, obsessed with white rage.
- Military leadership is pursuing white extremists, discharging unvaccinated soldiers, and holding standdowns on white extremism instead of focusing on readiness.
- Lowering physical fitness standards to accommodate women in combat roles—women can kill, they don't need to match male strength standards.
- Tim objects to recruiting with social justice and diversity ads, arguing soldiers don't need racial and sexual division when they're all fighting together.
- Tucker Carlson claimed pregnant women are fighting wars, which Tim dismisses as a mockery.
- Modern ground wars don't work anymore—the real warfare now is missiles and button-pushing, as Russia and Ukraine have demonstrated.
New York Timesmilitary recruitmentwhite rageTucker CarlsonChina
- 5 min
Tim reacts to a news story about Canada's MAID euthanasia program approving a 23-year-old diabetic man with vision loss for assisted suicide, and his mother's frantic attempt to stop it after finding out through his Facebook and email.
5moments
- Canada's assisted suicide law allows people to sign up for Medical Assistance in Dying over relatively minor issues like a bad day.
- A 23-year-old diabetic named Kiano was approved for assisted suicide after losing sight in one eye and struggling with depression.
- Tim finds it insane that Canada would approve someone with diabetes and partial blindness to die at 23 rather than someone with late-stage cancer.
- When Kiano's mother called the doctor posing as a prospective patient with similar conditions, the physician seemed eager to accommodate her request.
- The approval process in Canada is so casual that calling with diabetes and describing yourself gets you scheduled for assisted suicide with minimal pushback.
CanadaMAIDKeanoExpressVPNMargaret MarcillaJoshua Terrer
- 1 min
Tim reads an ad for ExpressVPN, explaining how data brokers harvest IP addresses and how the VPN masks your identity online, offering a discount code for extra free months.
1moment
- Tim promotes ExpressVPN with a discount code
- 2 min
Tim returns to the Canadian assisted suicide story, focusing on the argument between the mother and son after she interfered with his plans, quoting the son's angry line about her Facebook friends ruining his clean exit.
3moments
- Canadian lawmakers plan to expand euthanasia eligibility to include mentally ill people and mature minors who can decide for themselves if a doctor deems them ready.
- Tim describes a fight between a euthanasia patient and his mother at the end of the article, where the son tells her his friends ruined his chance at a clean medical death.
- Tim expresses uncertainty about letting young kids kill themselves but notes the logical consistency if they're allowed to make other major life decisions.
- 3 min
Tim reacts to news that Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz was spared the death penalty despite killing 17 people, contrasting it with the ease of approving assisted suicide for the Canadian diabetic teen, and describing the courtroom reaction.
8moments
- Young people making persuasive cases for their own death and having courts find the arguments compelling is a strange policy.
- Tim discusses lethal injection pods and notes that allowing very young people to make their own death cases doesn't seem like a good way to run a society.
- Nicholas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter who killed 17 people, was spared the death penalty and will serve life in prison.
- Tim notes the contradiction: a diabetic 23-year-old with one eye was allowed to end his life, but Cruz won't face execution despite killing 17 people.
- Cruz pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and two adults during the three-month trial featuring graphic videos and massacre footage.
- Tim acknowledges the death penalty is a tough issue, but everyone knows Cruz is guilty and people want closure.
- You can't get angry at victims' families for wanting the shooter to die after what happened to their children.
- Tim wonders what the jury deliberation process was like and suspects religious jurors may have voted against execution.
Nicholas CruzParkland shootingAlex JonesPeter Wang
- 3 min
David Hogg Doesn't Tweet About Ukraine (Surprisingly)
#Tim jokes about checking David Hogg's Twitter to see if he's weighed in on Ukraine, comically praising him for staying in his lane on guns and climate instead of commenting on the war.
8moments
- Tim questions whether the Parkland school shooter wanted to die, noting he didn't kill himself like most mass shooters do.
- The shooter was treated gently by police, swaddled in a blanket, while Black people get shot for mundane reasons.
- Tim wonders if any of the Parkland kids, including David Hogg, publicly commented on the shooter's sentencing.
- Tim threatens to throw his microphone if David Hogg has tweeted about Ukraine, treating it as absurd.
- Checking Hogg's Twitter feed reveals no Ukraine content, surprising Tim pleasantly.
- Tim praises Hogg for staying focused on guns instead of jumping on the Ukraine bandwagon.
- David Hogg doesn't need to cover Ukraine because he has other priorities—the Alex Jones lawsuit, gun activism, climate.
- Tim expresses frustration with his own inability to understand why people are passionate about Ukraine.
- 10 min
We Might Be the Reason for Nuclear War
#Tim escalates his argument that the US has set up only one acceptable outcome in Ukraine (total Russian humiliation), reads a G7 statement demanding full Russian withdrawal, and argues for letting Putin have Donbas and Crimea to avoid a nuclear exchange, including a riff on young Ukrainian Nazis getting over their politics like American ones do.
10moments
- Tim argues against going to nuclear war over Ukraine and urges giving Putin what he wants.
- The U.S. may be the reason nuclear war happens if it continues refusing to negotiate with Russia.
- The only outcome America has set up is total Russian humiliation and Ukrainian victory, with no other pathway to peace.
- G7 demands Russia's complete and unconditional withdrawal from Ukraine, including Crimea.
- Tim lays out two options: Russia takes a humiliating loss or nuclear war happens.
- The U.S. sent arms to Ukraine, put Zelensky on magazine covers, and removed Nazi-related content from social media.
- People got angry when Tim had a Ukrainian comic on the show, but he was just saying war sucks.
- There's been zero interest in making deals or saving lives—just more weapons, more money for rich people, and more magazine covers for Zelensky.
- Tim argues it's time to negotiate specifics: Putin gets a couple regions and NATO expansion stops, period.
- An all-or-nothing attitude will probably lead to nuclear war unless Putin has a complete reversal in what he wants.
Vladimir PutinVolodymyr ZelenskyyUkraineRussiaNATOSergey Shoygu
- 2 min
Tim plugs an upcoming Patreon episode with Andrew Tate and his brother recorded in Romania, mentions a possible Nick Mullen and Lis Gomez Bastard Radio reunion episode, and closes by urging listeners to call their Congressmen to stop supporting Ukraine.
4moments
- Tim had Andrew Tate and his brother on the Patreon, discussed plans to either hunt bears in Transylvania or go to Dubai.
- Tim describes Tate as coming across reasonable on the show despite people not agreeing with everything he says.
- Nick Mullen and Lis Gomez reuniting for a Bastard Radio episode at Skankfest, hoping to release it as an episode later.
- Tim urges listeners to call their elected leaders and congressmen to stop supporting Ukraine and prevent nuclear war.