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BLODGET & PLOTZ Five thoughts on the tragedy of Minneapolis 
The killing of George Floyd is a tragedy that is now compounding into other tragedies. It's almost impossible to see clearly at a time of such confusion, but here are five thoughts on what's happening in Minneapolis and across the nation. - There's desperation across America, but it's most acute in urban black America, which has been hit hardest by our twin catastrophes. COVID-19 infection and death rates are highest there; so are job losses.
- The apparent inability of police to treat black and white protestors the same is a genuine problem. It's great that police handled the provocative, heavily armed anti-lockdown protestors a few weeks ago with such restraint. Nothing escalated, and no one was hurt. Those protestors were almost all white, and the cops they encountered were, too. The Minneapolis protests, meanwhile, included lots of black protestors —and lots of young black men — and were met by mostly white cops. These protests began peacefully, but quickly got out of control. Now there's looting and a police station on fire. The protestors' violence is inexcusable, but a calmer police response aimed at defusing the situation might have worked. It's worth asking why cops seem to have a harder time soothing tense situations with black crowds.
- Crowds make people into their worst, dumbest selves. The looting, arson, and violence are tragically stupid: They help no one and improve nothing. But the mania of crowds can bring out the ugliest in us.
- Urban rioting in America is often set off by the clumsy and often slow legal response to police violence. It's not necessarily the violence itself. It's the inability of the legal system to address the violence in a way that feels fair to communities. Minneapolis fired the four cops involved in the death of George Floyd immediately, which was a swift and direct response. The violent protests occurred when prosecutors took their time in deciding whether to charge the officers. Even though videos of this appalling incident made a criminal charge seem warranted, the prosecutors' caution and care was understandable. The stakes are high: Charge cops too hastily or recklessly and risk breakdown between police and prosecutors. Never charge bad cops and sacrifice justice and lose the public trust.
- It's a tragedy that we have a president who doesn't know how to calm a situation like this, and in fact wants to inflame it. — DP
Two maps show why coronavirus measures have become a political issue A few days ago, we wrote about how the coronavirus pandemic has become a "blue state" vs "red state" issue, and how dangerous this situation is. The reason for this polarization is simple. The coronavirus is hitting "blue" America far harder than "red" America, at least for now. In areas in which COVID cases and deaths are prevalent, public health seems like the biggest priority, because health and the economy are inextricably linked: People won't start shopping, eating out, traveling, and attending big events until they're confident they won't get sick while they do it. But in areas with few cases and deaths, preventative measures seem pointless and tyrannical. Sometimes, pictures tell a story better than words. And these two charts from Jim Bianco at Bianco Research hammer home why Americans view this crisis differently. In the first chart, half of the country's COVID cases are in the blue counties and half are in the red. In the second, half of COVID deaths are in the green counties and half are in the yellow. 
—HB Trump's incompetence is a choice. The Trump administration has now botched the initial distribution of remdesivir, the most promising treatment for COVID-19. The Washington Post reveals that, because of federal mistakes, much of the first batch of the drug has gone "to the wrong hospitals, to hospitals with no intensive care units and therefore no eligible patients, and to facilities without the needed refrigeration to store it, meaning some had to be returned to the government." This is just the latest example of how the Trump administration has mangled our pandemic response. The CDC's errors snarled testing for weeks in the first, critical days. An inexperienced team led by Jared Kushner bungled the acquisition of personal protective equipment, while sucking up to Trump donors and cronies. After three long years of the Trump presidency, we've become numb to this ineptitude. We're starting to act like government screw-ups or abdication of responsibility are a necessary condition of American life. But it's critical that we remember that incompetence is a choice. Doing things well is hard work. It requires persistent interest, hard-won experience, expertise, effort, follow-up. It requires hiring people who have done the job before and know how to do it. It requires being honest about mistakes so that you don't make them again. It doesn't take genius to do this, but it takes discipline and will. But from the top of this administration, we have yawning indifference — if not hostility — to all of that. With few exceptions, President Trump hasn't hired the right people and has driven away the most capable people he did hire. The most important job of a leader is to surround him or herself with great people. President Trump is incapable of that. The quality he values most is loyalty. Competence and expertise intimidate him, so he runs the other way. We've been left with a government filled with "Acting" Thises and "Acting" Thats, stacked with lickspittles who make sure the President hears what he wants to hear. That's how you end up with most challenging White House assignments delegated to Jared Kushner, a dilettante real-estate heir whose only qualification is having married the President's daughter. Kushner may be intelligent and he may mean well, but experience and expertise matter. Like Trump, Kushner has little or none. And yet he is presiding over vast swathes of American government during the worst crisis in a generation. To say it again. It didn't have to be this way. Imagine how different things might be had President Trump appointed Bill Gates as pandemic czar back in March. Or read about Dave Clark, Amazon's SVP of worldwide operations, and wonder how we'd be doing if someone with Clark's ruthlessness, high standards, and intense focus were in charge. It didn't have to be this way. — DP The college reopening problem: Yes, students are young, but professors and administrators are old... Everyone wants colleges (and schools) to reopen in the fall — especially the colleges. But unless the country throttles the coronavirus this summer, it's hard to see how colleges will be able to return to business as usual so soon. One common argument about why colleges should just reopen and power through this is that the coronavirus is much more dangerous for older people than 18 to 22 year olds. But as Professor Natalie Dean, David States, and others note, even if students and parents are willing to accept the lower risks, college communities include more than students. As this chart from the College and University Professional Association shows, a lot of the faculty are in much riskier age groups: 
Most teaching and college activities, moreover, are among those most conducive to virus transmission: Prolonged exposure and talking in confined spaces indoors. Yes, everyone in seminar or lecture classes could wear masks, dining halls could do "take-out," and all parties, activities, and sports could be banned. But at that point, college would bear so little resemblance to college that most students and faculty would probably prefer Zoom. — HB Trump hates government regulations—unless he can use them to punish and bully his enemies. The Trump administration brags about how it's deregulating and slashing red tape. But a brilliant Catherine Rampell column in the Washington Post points out that the Trump administration is not pro-deregulation. It is pro-deregulation for its friends. And pro-regulation for its enemies. Trump's moves against social media platforms are regulation on a mass scale, putting federal employees to work policing Facebook and Twitter. Meanwhile Trump's officials make it harder for workers to renew visas, gin up excuses for rejecting immigrants, and create burdensome new paperwork that deters poor families from seeking federal assistance. — DP
OTHER NEWS China's CDC says Wuhan "wet market" was not the source of the coronavirus. The market was a superspreader event, but authorities say the disease probably started elsewhere. Some of the proof: No animals tested from the market had the virus, and 13 of 41 original cases had no link to the market.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY 
Consumer spending fell 13.6% in March, the biggest drop ever. Even though incomes rose more than 10 percent because of government stimulus, anxious consumers stopped spending. The surge in seven tech stocks could be masking the risk of a prolonged bear market. According to a study by Societe Generale, cyclical stocks generally need to recover for a bear market to end. In this market, 7 huge tech companies have soared anomalously, but cyclical stocks have been uneven. Google rescinded job offers to more than 2,000 temporary and contract workers. Even Google's been hit hard by the pandemic and the collapse of the advertising market.
LIFE 
Taylor Swift slams Trump for "stoking the fires of white supremacy." She was responding to his "looting" tweet, and vows to work to defeat him in November. It's pretty safe to swim in a pool during the pandemic. The chlorine helps. But avoid the locker room.
REVIEWS 30 fantastic, cheap Father's Day gifts. They're all under $25, and you have plenty of time to order them before June 21.
THE BIG 3* 
Surveillance video shows George Floyd did not resist arrest. Kylie Jenner sent forged tax documents to Forbes to exaggerate her net worth. The magazine says she claimed her cosmetic company's 2018 revenues were triple what they actually were. Forbes also says she's not a billionaire: She's only worth $900 million. "When the looting starts, the shooting starts": Trump's tweet tagged for "glorifying violence" was quoting a 1960s police chief whose policies sparked a race riot. *The most popular stories on Insider today.
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