White House moves to shield Trump from oversight of his coronavirus response

The White House is barring members of the coronavirus task force from testifying before Congress without special permission, claiming that they’re too busy.

Of course, the two most important members, Fauci and Birx, haven’t been too busy to spend 2-3 hours a day, 7 days a week, as props for Trump.

But there’s a little wrinkle in the process. Seems permission is granted for appearances at Senate hearings, not House hearings. I wonder why?

Also, in this Around the Block, how Trump used the claim of “core government function” to televise his campaign “town hall” from the Lincoln Memorial.

Trump calls protesters who carried guns into the Michigan Capitol ‘very good people’

I was watching the videos of gun-toting demonstrators protesting Michigan’s coronavirus lockdown as they stormed the state capitol building. The images were horrific!

I read that the President of United States said that Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer should “negotiate with them…make a deal,” because “they are very good people.” It was a stunning, but not totally surprising, statement from this man.

Trump Hits Biden Over Observing Virus Restrictions

I promised myself that I’d take a break from Around the Block today and instead go back to writing a few more chapters of my book, “Bashert,” (Look for it on Amazon in a few years).

But then I saw this on “Morning Joe” (actually courtesy of Trevor Noah and “The Daily Show”) and couldn’t help myself.

Pence flouts Mayo Clinic policy on masks — which is to wear one

As you all probably know by now, Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. During his visit, and in an earlier meeting with Minnesota governor, Tim Walz (D), Pence was the only person in the room not wearing a mask.

This despite instructions on the Mayo Clinic website requesting that all patients, visitors and personnel bring and wear a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Forget Denmark – “Something is rotten in the United States!”

I’ve written two letters to my Congresswoman, Lois Frankel, over the last two days. I won’t bore you with the entire letters, but I thought you’d be interested in the subject: PPP.

The first letter described how the PPP is affecting someone I know, someone very close to me, an independent contractor, a “gig worker” in today’s parlance, and the trials and tribulations of her attempts to receive the PPP loan she deserved.