The two biggest stories in America are the pandemic and the current fight for racial justice. But in some ways, they are the same story. "Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, according to the new data, which provides detailed characteristics of 640,000 infections detected in nearly 1,000 U.S. counties. And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people, the data shows." The NYT with The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus. The new federal data was "made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (Welcome to the era when you have to sue the CDC for information related to an ongoing pandemic.)

+ Meanwhile, Donald Trump is misreading both stories (at least he's reading). While some in his party wish he'd throttle the racism, the president continues to press the pedal to the me(n)tal. His latest targets: Bubba Wallace and NASCAR: "Has Bubba Wallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!" Trump is betting that troll position is the new poll position by throwing 110-octane leaded fuel on the fire. But he may need to tweet from a vroom with a view because he's going the wrong way on a one way track. As he states in his own Tweet, drivers and officials have already picked a side. They're not going to let Trump debase the oval track like he has the Oval Office. My wise friend Bob summed the up this latest twist in the Trump saga: "It's a murder/suicide. Trump's killing the country by actively dividing the population, dismantling govt, mangling relations with our allies, etc. And he's committing political suicide by choosing the wrong side in the culture war that he's fostering. It's crazy." Translation: It might be time for a pitstop. And P.S. NASCAR's ratings are up.

One of the first acts of the Trump administration was to delay the issuance of the Tubman twenty by a decade. When I posted a Tweet about that exactly one month ago, it went viral. Yes, the $20 dollar bill is only a symbol, but as we've seen during the past few months, symbols matter. So today, my wife Gina and I are launching the Change the Twenty Program. For every $20 shirt purchased, we will donate $20 to a Donors Choose K-12 program focused on Black history, literature, equality, and/or racial justice. You'll make a statement, support a good cause, and look great doing it. Get your shirt and spread the word.

WaPo on the race to develop RNA-based vaccine: "This promising — but unproven — new generation of vaccine technologies is based on deploying a tiny snip of genetic code called messenger RNA to trigger the immune system. It has never before been approved for use. But almost overnight, these cutting-edge RNA vaccine efforts have leaped forward as top candidates to fight covid-19. Some developers plan to have tens of millions of doses ready by the end of the year. Elegant in theory, efficacious in the laboratory but untested in the real world, the possible RNA vaccines are especially attractive because they might be cheaper, easier and faster to manufacture on a massive scale — at least one team boasts it could partner with producers in developing countries to provide millions of vials for as little as $5 a pop." (For that price, the first round's on me.)

+ And please, don't blame the messenger: Suspected case of bubonic plague in China's Inner Mongolia.

"'People were screaming at us to go back where we came from,' Anwen Darcy, who attended the demonstration with her mom and sister, recalled. 'But I was looking around, and I saw Mrs. Dennis, who'd been a teacher for 30 years. I saw my mom, who'd been on the PTA for years and served as the drama director. I saw the woman who ran all the prom fundraisers and a city councilman. The people yelling at us weren't from here, because if they were, they would've known we were home." Anne Helen Peterson captures so much of the BLM struggle in this Buzzfeed story: What Happened In Bethel, Ohio? "On one side of the street, they saw around 50 Bethel residents — teachers, city council members, hairdressers, retirees — who'd shown up for the BLM demonstration. On the other, there were hundreds of people, including representatives from four different biker gangs, who, at the invitation of a local construction worker, had come to 'protect' the town from looters and rioters and rumored antifa."

+ Armed militias flock to Gettysburg to foil 'flag-burning protest' that was all a hoax.

Harvard has announced its plans for the Fall. Freshmen will be invited to live on campus under heavy monitoring and restriction. But, "all course instruction (undergraduate and graduate) for the 2020-21 academic year will be delivered online." It's worth noting that Harvard often acts as a bellwether for other schools. And in comparison to many other states, Massachussetts is doing pretty well containing the virus. College on campus is looking increasingly unlikely this Fall. It's sad but not surprising news.

+ As Harvard Goes, So Goes College Sports?

+ 112 Fraternity Members at the University of Washington Have Tested Positive For COVID-19.

"Over the last few years, Trump, Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Narendra Modi in India, and others have carried out an experiment in the mass manufacture of alternative realities in a democratic society. Their success has forced a question: What reality, if any, will prove so terrible that it will expose their game? Americans have experienced a few false starts, including an impeachment trial, that have only proved that much of what transpires in political life does not reach people intimately enough to dispel the shadows. Nothing, however, is more intimate than the prospect of sickness and death." FP: The Pandemic Is the World's Long Overdue Reality Check. (Let's hope the check doesn't bounce...)

"The iconic score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: This is the sound of the American West, at least filtered through the ears of an Italian — specifically, composer Ennio Morricone. He was a giant in the world of film scores who wrote the music for more than 500 movies. Morricone died Monday in Rome at the age of 91." 500 movies. That's a hell of a life's work. And you'll recognize many of the tunes. You can warm up with a few of his top tracks and move on to this hourlong tribute to some of his best film scores. So good.

+ Charlie Daniels, a crossover country star best known for 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia,' and making the fiddle rock, has died at 83.

"Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump's own ethics policy." Ethics. Ha.

Bloomberg: A 28-Year-Old With No Degree Becomes a Must-Read on the Economy. "A newsletter he launched this year has followers at the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Department of the Treasury. He's also followed on Twitter by journalists, economic think-tankers, and Wall Street economists." (So now you're going to take the word of a newsletter writer? All is lost, my friends...)

"MrBeast ends Finger on the App competition by telling players to stop after 70 hours. "The rules were simple: be the last person to take your finger off a phone screen, and win $25,000." (I'm underpaid.)

+ "Using a deep learning algorithm to crunch through grading data from merchants, Tuna Scope has now evolved into a smartphone app. Clients can download and use it anywhere, creating 'a unified grading standard' for an industry that relies on local know-how." Sushi meets AI: Japanese inventor's app scopes out choice tuna cuts. (Interesting, even if the product is still a little raw.)

+ 24 Things You Might Not Have Known About Hamilton.