The protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown have put a spotlight on the legal doctrine of qualified immunity. While qualified immunity is not at issue in the prosecution of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and the three other former officers who face criminal charges stemming from Floyd’s death, it is one of many structural factors that make it difficult to hold police officers accountable for wrongdoing.

Some key questions have arisen in light of the current national conversation.

But before we address that, is there some kind of existing statute which prevents one from suing the police? Well, yes there is.

Recently, a music celebrity whom some of you may already be familiar with, Ted Nugent, otherwise known as the Motor City Madman, he hails from Michigan, hence the nickname, is the latest victim to post a video in which he announced that he was diagnosed and hospitalized with Covid-19. Besides that, Nugent is infamously known for pushing all sorts of negative propaganda in regards to Covid-19 and also the vaccines.

Nugent, when he is not on the road putting on concerts, is very active on social media promoting his views on the subject of the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is breaking news, it appears that New York prosecutors have initiated an investigation into the financial dealings of Donald Trump. Specifically, a financial probe will examine properties related to loans made by subsidiaries of New York City-based real estate investment trust Ladder Capital Corp owned by Trump.

All of the loans under this criminal probe emanated from subsidiaries of Ladder Capital Corp., a New York City-based real-estate investment trust, and were made directly to Trump. Since 2012, Ladder Capital has lent Trump more than $280 million for the four Manhattan buildings, according to property records.

Clearly, whatever financial relationships Trump established with the City of New York appear not to be in earnest.

There have been various hit pieces of poorly conceived efforts at journalism emanating from the right wing media – some were written to target President Joe Biden and others aimed specifically at Vice President Kamala Harris. Bear in mind that these efforts are anything but authentic pieces journalism and in fact have backfired rather embarrassingly.

At the moment, I say this because there are plenty of other right wing leaning media outlets that will no doubt publish some ill-conceived story that will target some Democrat any time now, there are two media outlets that have had to deal with the consequences of publishing stories without doing their due diligence.

If you recall, back in February, which wasn’t that long ago, when Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican from Wyoming, came very close to losing her leadership position after a tense meeting with fellow GOP leaders, she beat back a conservative-led push to oust her as conference chair for voting to impeach Donald Trump.

This effort by Trump loyalists to punish Cheney, the highest-ranking woman in GOP leadership, had been boiling for what seemed weeks and it eventually came to head during a very heated, closed-door meeting that went on for more than four hours as several dozen members either defended or condemned her. But in the end, the overwhelming majority of House Republicans voted on a secret ballot to keep Cheney in power: 145 Republicans voted against the resolution calling on her to step down, while just 61 voted for it. After the meeting, the top three GOP leaders held a brief news conference and put on a united front.

The Republican Party’s nationwide efforts to significantly reduce states’ vote-by-mail processes has just made its legislative debut in the state of Florida. On March 10, Florida lawmakers had advanced the bill titled SB-90 under the auspices of the title “Election Administration,” they too decided to follow Georgia’s lead in chipping away at voting rights.

Of all the days that this bill could have been introduced by the Senators in the GOP-led chamber, they chose Monday, April the 26th, to pass S.B. 90 by a vote of 23-17, which is Confederate Memorial Day. The Florida House, which is also led by the GOP, is expected to pass a similar bill later this week, despite concerns from Democrats and voting rights activists that the legislation is part of a nationwide Republican effort to restrict the constitutional right to vote.

Accused insurrectionist Sen. Josh Hawley is all in on the minimum wage scheme and introduces an alternative to the Democrats’ proposal that would use federal dollars to increase low-earning workers’ income.

Hawley is breaking with the mainstream GOP views in suggesting that he believes the federal minimum wage is too low, which is a first –to  my knowledge -coming from a Republican.

Overall, his proposal would amount to a three-year program that would increase worker wages in 2021, funded by the taxpayers rather than employers.

Mike Pompeo, just like his boss, Donald Trump, resorted to Tweets whenever it suited him but for the most part, most of his Tweets have been self-congratulatory, bordering on self-aggrandizement, perhaps an indication that he has Presidential aspirations in the future.

In this episode we gloss over Pompeo’s achievements or accomplishments when he served his term as Trump’s US Secretary of State & Chief Political Advisor. Sadly, Pompeo won’t be adding that much to his resume during his tenure with the Trump administration.

The death of George Floyd has galvanized much of America to move forward towards police reform. The idea of defunding police, once previously viewed as radical, is now a reality in some parts of the country while other places are following suit.

The murders of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and countless other Black and Brown people at the hands of police are not anomalies. They are evidence of a racist system that disproportionately targets people of color for violence, imprisonment, and death. Such high profile cases, coupled with statistics and polls, have solidified this movement.

Different from abolishing and starting a new, defunding police highlights fiscal responsibility, advocates for a market-driven approach to taxpayer money, and has some potential benefits that will reduce police violence and crime.

I want to talk about this exchange that occurred between Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Congressman from Ohio, Jim Jordan, regarding the present pandemic restrictions. It is disturbing for a variety of reasons of which I will expound on that.

This congressional hearing on the pandemic turned personal as you saw Rep. Jim Jordan loudly attacks Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease doctor, Jordan asks when will Americans be able to stop taking public health precautions like wearing masks and refrain from physical distancing.