President Trump has looked at changing libel laws so that the First Amendment will be weakened

Reince Priebus states that President Donald Trump has looked at changing libel laws.  These are laws that safeguard free speech. Libel laws are not Federal laws.  They are individual state laws.  It would take a constitutional amendment to weaken press freedom.  It is scary that President Donald Trump would even consider this. How very Hitler and Putin of him. Freedom was not allowed in Hitler's time.  Putin cracks down in a back alley way.  Research  LGBTQ in Chechnya.

Libel is defined by Merriam Webster as the act of publishing a false statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone. The key word here is false. There is action for a false statement.

No one likes to be wrong. It reminds a person that there are things they have not learned. Some people go into the subject and learn what they did not know. There is unfortunately some people that learning appears not to be desirable to them. They claim that what they were wrong about is fake and made up. They deny anything they said even if it is on video tape.  I mentally hear a whine followed by "Nobody like me. They lie on me."

I tell all who do this one thing. If you did or said something wrong that has come back to haunt you, own it. Tell everyone, "Yep-I did it. I had a mild case of jackass behavior. Won't let that happen again. If I do, counting on you to let me know." There can't be a fire if there is no fuel.

Change it a little if you feel that you are right. Tell the the people who brought it to your attention that from their viewpoint you can see why they are angry.  Tell the people why you said what you did or where the momentum for your action came from.  Remember that a living breathing organism changes as it grows and adapts. If you were wrong, own it and share plans for change. If you are right, agree to disagree. Make plans to work together.

I watched news feeds and read information from the following links.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/libel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_website

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Donald_Trump

http://fortune.com/2017/04/30/reince-priebus-libel-laws-trump/

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/30/media/reince-priebus-libel-laws/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reince_Priebus

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-official-weve-looked-libel-laws-restrict/story?id=47114566

https://trofire.com/2017/05/01/reince-priebus-says-trump-considering-abolishing-1st-amendment/

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-threatens-to-weaken-first-amendment-protections-for-reporters/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/01/priebus-says-trump-administration-considered-changes-to-libel-laws.html

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/331299-trump-chief-of-staff-weve-looked-at-changing-libel-laws

North Carolina fails to repeal House Bill 2

Transgender people have been using bathrooms that they identify with for longer than I can remember.  I went on line and found instances of men attacking women  and girls in bathrooms. These were not transgender people. They were perverts,pedophiles, and criminals who when caught cited the transgender law allowing them to be in the bathroom. They did not identify with female gender but wanted to assault someone or look at females using the facilities. There are laws to prosecute those crimes.

A person who is transgender uses the bathroom and leaves. You never know who they are unless you peak into the stall. Are they planning on bathroom police?  People to have everyone lift their skirts or drop their pants before they use the facility. That would be a lawsuit smorgasbord.

Charlotte, N.C. passed a nondiscrimination ordinance to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender, and queer people. The North Carolina government convinced Charlotte to repeal its ordinance. They said they would repeal House Bill 2 then. Charlotte repealed the ordnance.

I watched news feeds today. Specifically I watched the faces of North Carolina House members. The smirks said it all. There was also the numerous stalls.  It was no surprise that North Carolina failed to repeal House Bill 2.

To make it worse, they imposed a so called "cooling off" for six months. Localities can not change their ordinances . This affects hiring, pay raises, and other matters of city government also.

This situation is wrong and just plain sad. The Governor who was in charge when this bill went into effect will be replaced this coming year. Seems like its time for the people in North Carolina to use the power of the vote again and replace people in the government at election time


I watched news feeds and read information from the following links before blogging.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/north-carolina-bathroom-bill-hb2/index.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hb2-stays-north-carolina-lawmakers-decline-repeal-controversial-anti-lgbtq-n698696

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/north-carolina-hb2-repeal_us_585a8f9be4b0d9a5945692e8

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-north-carolina-hb2-story.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/nc-lawmakers-poised-reconsider-hb2-bathroom-bill-special/story?id=44323180

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/12/21/NC-Dems-angry-at-GOP-for-failed-HB2-repeal-It-looks-like-we-sanction-discrimination/6201482368905/

http://www.businessinsider.com/north-carolina-hb2-repeal-2016-12

Regarding recent rash of shootings

I know that what I am going to say will make a lot of people angry.  As a nation some of us have forgotten our self,  Instead of focusing on unity, the focus has been shifted to strife. A man in California has been arrested for beating to death and burning to death homeless men.  The death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore hurts the heart.  A man from Louisiana and a man from St. Paul were killed by law enforcement. I watched the reports on TV and my heart was heavy as I cried. Each could have been my son.

I fell to my knees and cried out to God. After prayer and reflection, I remembered verses from the Bible that calmed the rage in my heart during times I was about to forget myself


Galations 3:28 -
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Collossians 3:11-15 - 
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering;

13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

I watched news feeds and read information from the following links before blogging.

http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Galatians-Chapter-3/

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3&version=KJV

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Freddie_Gray

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/05/us/san-diego-homeless-deaths/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/09/us/dallas-police-shooting.html?_r=0