Headlines: Violence in Gaza/Liz Cheney's last stand/Federal relief for Restaurants

Hobbs's Hump Day Hot Topics!

Deaths in Gaza

Fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas intensified yesterday as Israel targeted Hamas controlled office buildings in Gaza, while Hamas fired rockets into Tel Aviv and Ashkelon. The resulting casualties were staggering; 35 Palestinians—including 10 children—dead, with 203 wounded. Five Israeli nationals were killed along with 100 wounded as of this morning. 

To be clear, I condemn the violence in the region in the strongest possible terms and call upon President Joe Biden to leverage his office's power to broker peace. I know it seems like a futile proposition when considering that Biden's recent predecessors Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all promised to broker deals with a two-state solution in hopes of an independent Palestine and Israel living among each other in peace in the Middle East—only to fail to deliver lasting peace. I also know that Biden's immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, was a staunch ally of embattled Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, a man whose actions time and again have proven his staunch opposition to a two-state solution or the sharing of what could become a joint capital city, Jerusalem.

But the simple truth is that with the body count rising each day, often with tiny coffins filled with toddlers, President Biden can no longer afford to stand back and focus his attention solely on China. Strong leadership is needed now to quell a lopsided affair in the Middle East, and to stop the killing of innocent men, women, and children!

*Be sure to check out my podcast later today that will chronicle how Old Palestine turned into Modern Israel—and the resulting violence since the end of the First World War!

Rep. Liz Cheney's last stand

By the end of today, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) will no longer be the third ranking Republican House leader after a vote that is all but certain to remove her from the position is held.

Suffice it to say that Cheney (above), the daughter of conservative icon and former Defense Secretary and Vice President Dick Cheney, is a life-long conservative who has been turned on by her quisling colleagues due to her condemnation of the January 6th MAGA riots—and due to her vocal conclusion that the 2020 presidential election was not stolen. A conclusion, mind you, that was also reached by Republican Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as well as over 160 courts of law, including a United States Supreme Court that is dominated by conservatives appointed by Donald Trump, one that almost unanimously surmised that there was no truth to the "widespread fraud" and "stop the steal" exhortations of the former president. 

But it is Cheney—not McConnell and certainly not the judiciary—who has drawn the most ire of Congressional Republicans who remain loyal to the former president. Could gender issues be at play here? Perhaps. But what I do know is that a defiant Cheney strode to the lectern yesterday and delivered a speech that shows that she will not cower to her attackers. The most notable passage included her warnings that, "President Donald J. Trump provoked a violent attack on his own Capitol in an effort to steal the election and continues to spread his election lies." Cheney added, “Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar; I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”

Ouch!

Ordinarily, the internecine battles of the GOP are not my concern as a Democrat other than being amused by the political carnage, but I do respect Rep. Cheney for stating her beliefs free from fear of the all but certain condemnation that will hail forth today from the "madding crowd."

Restaurant Relief

As the Biden administration continues its efforts to rebuild the American economy, the president's American Rescue Plan (ARP) will earmark billions in loans to help restarauters struggling from the effects of quarantines due to the Coronavirus. 

Yesterday, President Biden's Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman spoke with The Grio about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RFF), a prong of the ARP that will provide grants to restaurants seeking to rebuild. Said Guzman: "Restaurants and bars help to define our communities and neighborhoods, and truly are an economic engine for our Main Streets, often attracting citizens and we also know many of these businesses were the first to close [as a result of the pandemic] and usually the last to fully reopen. So because of that impact, they need relief and so from the American Rescue Plan, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund came and it does just that. Which is provide grants, not loans, with a total of $26.6 billion available for restaurants, food carts, catering businesses, wineries, breweries, and the full array of food and beverage businesses that are so critical to our economy."

Excellent! Few things have been sadder for me than to ride around town and see many of my favorite restaurants shuttered due to the pandemic, so my fervent prayer is that those in need of funding tap into it to help drive that industry back to profitability.

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