monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

DENVER — As President Donald Trump talked this week about banning "bump stocks" and curbing young people's access to guns, the gun owners and advocates who helped propel his political rise talked about desertion and betrayal.

Trump's flirtation with a set of modest gun control measures drew swift condemnation from gun groups, hunters and sportsmen who banked on the president to be a stalwart opponent to any new gun restrictions. In his pledge to make schools safer and curb gun violence after the massacre at a Florida high school, gun advocates see a weakening resolve from the man they voted for in droves and spent millions to elect.

"Out in the firearms community there is a great feeling of betrayal and abandonment, because of the support he was given in his campaign for president," Tony Fabian, president of the Colorado Sports Shooting Association, said Friday.

The comments highlight how little room the president and his party have to maneuver without angering and activating the politically powerful gun rights community. Trump has not yet formally proposed any legislative plan and he spent much of the week endorsing the notion of arming teachers and school officials — a plan the gun lobby supports. Still, just floating proposals that defy the National Rifle Association and other groups drew threats of political retribution and legal action.

The confrontation is set to test whether Trump, a figure deeply popular with his party's base, is willing to risk his political capital to take on a constituency few Republicans have challenged.

"The president has a unique ability right now to maybe really do something about these school shootings," said Rep. Tom Rooney, a Republican from Florida. "Nobody is more popular in my district — and I know in a lot of other people's districts — than Donald Trump. He's more popular than the NRA. ... So it's up to him whether or not anything happens with guns."

WASHINGTON — On the offensive about his record and the defensive about the Russia investigation, President Donald Trump sought in a week's worth of rhetoric to show that he is outdoing his predecessor, if not all of history. This made for inflated claims.

His speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday marked his spirited return to a big stage after days of dealing with the national trauma of the Parkland, Florida, school massacre.

In his remarks, Trump mischaracterized the Paris climate accord and his record on several fronts. This, after he exhibited defiance during the week about the special counsel's investigation of Russian activities in the U.S. election, stating on thin evidence that he's been tougher on Moscow for its meddling than President Barack Obama ever was.

A look at some of his statements to conservatives and the Twitter world:

TRUMP on the Obama-era mandate to buy health insurance or pay a fine: "That's gone." — CPAC speech.

THE FACTS: It's not gone. People still risk fines this year if they go without health insurance. Under a law that has been enacted, the fines will disappear in 2019.

TRUMP on coal: "And West Virginia, now, is doing great. You look at what's happening in West Virginia, you look at what's happening in Pennsylvania, you look at what's happening in Ohio and you look at what's happening in Wyoming — you look at what's happening all over — it's like a — it's like a different world." — CPAC speech

THE FACTS: Coal has not come roaring back and West Virginia's economy, in particular, still struggles.

Nationwide, coal mining has added just 1,100 jobs in Trump's first year and the industry now employs 51,800. That reverses five years of declines, but back in 2013 coal mining employed 78,400. Abundant natural gas has become a cheaper alternative to coal for many power plants and is a key reason for the coal industry's long-term struggle.

West Virginia's unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in December, the latest data available, compared with 4.5 percent in May and little changed from when Trump took office in January 2017.

The national unemployment rate has fallen since May and was 4.1 percent in December. West Virginia has added just 1,500 jobs since Trump's inauguration, a 0.2 percent gain. That's below the nationwide increase of 1.3 percent.

Wyoming hasn't gained any jobs since January 2017. Its unemployment rate has fallen from 4.8 percent to 4.2 percent, partly because fewer people are looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed.

Pennsylvania has added jobs and its unemployment rate has fallen in the past year. But coal doesn't appear to have much to do with it. The biggest job gains were in professional and business services, which include engineering, accountants and architects, and a separate category mostly made up of hotel and restaurant jobs.

Ohio has also improved overall: Its unemployment rate has fallen to 4.7 percent in December from 5 percent when Trump took office. The state added 35,000 jobs, a 0.6 percent gain, also below the national average. Its job gains were mostly in education and health care, hotels and restaurants, and manufacturing.

TRUMP: "We passed the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country." — CPAC speech.

THE FACTS: Trump's tax cuts are not the largest in history, despite his frequent claims that they are.

In comparisons using 2012 inflation-adjusted dollars, his cuts average about $130 billion a year, compared with $208 billion a year for President Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut package, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget of the Senate proposal that shaped the final overhaul. Obama cut taxes by a larger average than Trump, in 2010 and 2013, when he made permanent the temporary cuts enacted by President George W. Bush.

Analyses of earlier versions of Trump's tax cut proposals, when they were considerably larger than they eventually became, found that his package lagged Reagan's, post-World War II tax cuts and at least several others when measured as a percentage of the gross domestic product. That's another common yardstick used by economists for historical comparisons.

As for SSRI users, do you realize that something close to 13% of Americans take them? Do you think they are all ticking time bombs? Do you know anyone who takes them? This is a ridiculous idea and only further stigmatizes people with mental health issues.

They pay a lot of money to prevent even basic legal changes that would reduce the murder of innocent people. They actively fight any improvement in our disastrous murder rate.

Since they pin that A on lawmakers who oppose even the slightest change, a low grade from them should be a badge of honor.

The NRA does not enable any murder

oralloy says:

Quote:

The NRA does not enable any murder

Sure it does. Nikolas Cruz , for one.

But these days they are just well-paid lobbyists for weapons manufacturers. They care very little about your "rights".

Christian Broadcasting Network, a media outlet that also seems to double as a propaganda arm of the Trump administration,

United and Delta join growing list of companies that will no longer offer discounts to NRA members.