Grief, Outrage, Injustice On Wednesday, the most talked about topic on social media was also the most disturbing: video of the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man, after he was chased down by two white men. The heinous crime occurred in Georgia on February 23, and was captured by a witness with a cell phone. That video was posted online Tuesday, and overnight the disbelief boiled into anger. Prominent figures on social media reacted with grief and outrage, as well as calls for justice for the father and son who were as yet not charged in the slaying. However, charges are now being considered. When CNN correspondent Martin Savidge was filming a report in the Georgia neighborhood where the killing occurred, loud gunfire echoed in the area. “That is semi-automatic gunfire,” Savidge said after airing the footage on CNN. “Nobody was hit. Nobody was hurt. But there was a lot of it." "That was a message directed directly at us, telling us that we weren’t wanted in that community," he said. Coronavirus Task Force President Donald Trump was under fire Tuesday over news that the White House task force formed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic would be closing shop. It was reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci had been left in the dark. Then that a whole chunk of the task force was blindsided. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said that Trump is in "full-blown panic" over his political fortunes, and this was him trying to salvage his poll numbers. But this morning, Trump took to Twitter to announce: Nevermind. "The Task Force will continue on indefinitely," he said. Botched A new report says Jared Kushner recruited about a dozen volunteers to help the Trump administration procure personal protective equipment to help battle the coronavirus, but it turned into a bungled search for supplies with questionable results. A new report from the New York Times includes emails and documents showing that the volunteers were instructed to “prioritize tips from political allies and associates of President Trump," and made terrible deals, doled out favors to people like Fox's Jeanine Pirro, and generally just ...well, botched it. Reopening for some, hardship for others Dr. Richard Besser, a former Obama administration CDC director, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the President's plan to reopen the economy is rife with racial inequality. "We are saying if you have money and you’re white, you can do well here. If you’re not, good luck to you," he said of the national plan. “That is what it boils down to,” agreed Anderson Cooper. 'Freedom-obsessed' MSNBC contributor Anand Giridharadas said Wednesday that Americans have a “freedom obsession” and that the right's "war on government" is costing lives in the pandemic. “There’s a primordial American tradition going back to the founders of being freedom-obsessed, even though we’re a country founded on slavery and genocide," he said. Seriously? Twitter users had to remind Politico that residents of China are forbidden from using the platform after the publication published an absurd take, an article bragging that users of “Chinese Twitter” were “roasting” President Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Massively Negative Kevin Hassett, senior economic adviser to President Donald Trump, predicted to Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Wednesday that the United States GDP will shrink by a massive 40% in the second quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic. Good News West Craven High School principal Tabari Wallace, along with a group of teachers, visited each of the school’s 220 graduating seniors to personally congratulate them, as traditional graduation was postponed amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Wallace showed up in a cap and gown while carrying a sign that displayed each graduate’s senior class photo, making sure they all felt acknowledged despite social distancing. The video will brighten this bleak morning. 6.5.0 |