COVID19 Update - Day 10

US Tests: 135,185
US Cases: 17,038
US Deaths: 219
Worldwide Cases: 272,351
Worldwide Deaths: 11,310

This is going to be a brief update today.

I finished my first full week working from home.  It was a bit of a challenge to remain focused on work.  On the other hand, I guess I should count myself lucky --- a lot of people are already losing their jobs as the economy shuts down.

There was some speculation today that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would issue a 'shelter in place' order, similar to the ones now in effect in New York and California.  Fortunately that hasn't happened yet; it would have complicated my planned trip out to Morris on Sunday to clean out my son's college dorm room.

I have a Meetup planned for tomorrow to go on a hike with people.  It sounds like that's still going to happen.  I'm looking forward to it, and it should be within the limits of social distancing --- it's outdoors, there will be relatively few of us, and I'm confident everyone will give everyone else plenty of space.

Meanwhile, there has been talk recently of having virtual meetups on Zoom.  It sounds like a nice alternative to isolation.  We'll see.

On a national scale, Republicans continue to find new ways to be some of the worst people on the planet:

• Trump threw a temper tantrum during a press conference.
• It appears that a couple of Republican Senators realized that the pandemic was serious enough to cash out of the stock market before it crashed, but didn't bother to wave the red flag for their constituents or prevail upon Trump to drop his happy talk.
• In more practical matters, Senate Republicans finally offered their alternative to the relied legislation passed by House Democrats more than a week ago, and because they're Republicans, they went out of their way to screw the poor.

It is truly remarkable --- like the Democrats' package, the Republican bill includes cash payments to many Americans, but the poorest Americans are left out because --- well, it's not really clear.

An early analysis showed the vast majority of middle class people would receive the cash payment, but the percentage doing so falls dramatically toward the bottom of the income distribution. About 22 million people earning under $40,000 a year would see no benefit under the GOP plan, according to an initial analysis by Ernie Tedeschi, a former Obama administration economist.

 It's times like these when it would be tremendously helpful to have some actual leadership in Washington.