{"id":4112,"date":"2024-04-05T08:28:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T12:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=4112"},"modified":"2024-04-05T08:28:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T12:28:30","slug":"like-nagasaki-and-hiroshima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=4112","title":{"rendered":"Like Nagasaki and Hiroshima"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Like<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With such a deep saturation of bonkers-level behavior by elected officials and the blink-and-you-missed-it news cycle, you may not be aware of Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) recently saying in a town hall that Gaza should be dealt with “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All right. Let’s be fair. Let’s explore what he said around that quote. (Spoiler: It makes it worse.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This from the Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) was answering a question from a constituent during a town hall in Dundee, Mich., on Monday, about the United States\u2019 plan to build a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy are we spending our money to build a port for them?\u201d someone asks in the video.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walberg, who is not seen in the video, responds by saying that the United States \u201cshouldn\u2019t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid\u201d and then references the two Japanese cities where the United States dropped atomic bombs during World War II.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,\u201d Walberg said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walberg’s office responded saying he “clearly uses a metaphor to support Israel\u2019s swift elimination of Hamas, which is the best chance to save lives long-term and the only hope at achieving a permanent peace in the region.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uh-huh. Metaphor. Okay. Sure. But what a terrible, tone-deaf, dangerous metaphor. And let’s not look past the whole “not a dime of humanitarian aid” bit. My God. But it gets worse. Again, from the Washington Post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…after the congressman said \u201cGet it over quick,\u201d he added, \u201cThe same should be in Ukraine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefeat [Russian President Vladimir] Putin quick,\u201d Walberg continued. \u201cInstead [of] 80 percent in Ukraine being used for humanitarian purposes, it should be 80 to 100 percent to wipe out Russia \u2014 if that\u2019s what we want to do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walberg seems to be seriously channeling General Buck Turgidson, the George C. Scott character in Dr. Stangelove. That was political satire. It’s not so funny when it’s real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note: John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Public, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With such a deep saturation of bonkers-level behavior by elected officials and the blink-and-you-missed-it news cycle, you may not be aware of Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) recently saying in a town hall that Gaza should be dealt with “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima.” All right. Let’s be fair. Let’s explore what he said around that quote. (Spoiler: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4114,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions\/4114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}