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Do you in any way whatsoever feel anything from the Schumer Shutdown? The government is so bloated and ineffective, you don't even 
notice when it's not working!

Inflation Cooled Again Last Month As Grocery And Gas Prices Fell, Few Signs Of Tariff Impact - MSN

Grocery prices:	down
Gas prices:		down
Clothing prices:	down
New Car prices:	steady


Inflation cooled for the third straight month in April even after some of President Donald Trump's tariffs took effect, though 
economists and many business owners expect inflation will climb in the coming months.

Grocery prices dipped 0.4%, pulled downward in part by a big 12.7% fall in the price of eggs. It was the BIGGEST DECLINE IN FOOD 
COSTS AT HOME since September 2020, the government said.

The report suggests the TARIFFS HAVEN'T YET IMPACTED THE PRICES of many items. Clothing costs fell 0.2% from March to April, while 
new car prices were unchanged.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices were also muted, rising 2.8% in April compared with a year ago, the 
same as in March. On a monthly basis, they increased a mild 0.2%. Economists watch core prices because they typically provide a 
better read on where prices are headed.

Only some early tariffs imposed by Trump were in effect in April, including 25% duties on steel and aluminum and 25% on some 
imports from Canada and Mexico. Trump's initial 20% import taxes on goods from China were also in place. The steel and aluminum 
duties will take time to affect consumer products, such as cars, and may not affect retail prices for months.

Trump announced a universal 10% tariff that took effect April 5. His huge 145% import taxes on Chinese goods were reduced to 30% in 
a deal announced Monday.

Still, economists say average tariffs are now at about 18%, roughly six times higher than before Trump took office and the highest 
in about 90 years.

Items that were already in transit when the tariffs were imposed won't have to pay the duties, while many companies have built a 
stockpile of goods and could hold off on price hikes in hopes that tariffs will ultimately be reduced.

Still, some companies have raised prices and others have said they plan to do so as a result of the duties. Mattel Inc., the maker 
of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, said earlier this month it would have to raise prices on some products to offset tariffs. The 
company makes 40% of its products in China.

Tool maker Stanley Black and Decker said it raised prices in April and plans to do so again in the July-September quarter because 
of higher tariffs. And executives at Procter and Gamble, the consumer products giant that makes household name brands such as Crest 
toothpaste, Tide detergent, and Charmin toilet paper said last month it will likely have to pass on higher prices to consumers as 
soon as July.

Consumer prices cooled noticeably in February and March, prompting Trump to claim repeatedly on social media that there is "NO 
INFLATION." Inflation has fallen to nearly the 2% target set by the Federal Reserve, the agency charged with fighting higher 
prices.

The smaller import taxes on Chinese goods will limit the damage to the U.S. economy, but combined with all the other tariffs, 
economists forecast they will still slow growth this year and worsen inflation.

The Yale Budget Lab, for example, estimates the tariffs will lift prices 1.7% and cost the average household about $2,800 this 
year.

And while Trump may tout his trade deals - such as the one with the United Kingdom reached last week - he has also said "tariffs is 
the most beautiful word" in the dictionary, and is counting on revenue from duties to narrow the budget deficit, suggesting tariffs 
will likely remain high.

The tariffs have also put the Federal Reserve in an exceedingly difficult spot, as Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged in a news 
conference last week. Powell said the duties have raised the risk of both higher inflation and higher unemployment, two challenges 
that rarely occur simultaneously. If unemployment rose, the Fed would typically cut rates to boost the economy, while if inflation 
worsened, the central bank would usually raise rates or leave them elevated.

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"Trump Derangement Syndrome" Is a Real Mental Condition

All you need to know about "Trump Derangement Syndrome," or TDS.

"Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a mental condition in which a person has been driven effectively insane due to their dislike 
of Donald Trump, to the point at which they will abandon all logic and reason."

Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times in 2016 that broke TDS down into 
three distinct phases or stages:

"In the first stage of the disease, victims lose all sense of proportion. The president-elect's every tweet provokes a firestorm, 
as if 140 characters were all it took to change the world."

"The mid-level stages of TDS have a profound effect on the victim's vocabulary: Sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting 
solely of hyperbole."

"As TDS progresses, the afflicted lose the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality."

The Point here is simple: TDS is, in the eyes of its adherents, the knee-jerk opposition from liberals to anything and everything 
Trump does. If Trump announced he was donating every dollar he's ever made, TDS sufferers would suggest he was up to something 
nefarious, according to the logic of TDS. There's nothing - not. one. thing. - that Trump could do or say that would be received 
positively by TDSers.

The history of Trump Derangement Syndrome actually goes back to the early 2000s - a time when the idea of Trump as president was a 
punch line for late-night comics and nothing more.

Wikipedia traces its roots to "Bush Derangement Syndrome" - a term first coined by the late conservative columnist Charles 
Krauthammer back in 2003. The condition, as Krauthammer defined it, was "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in 
reaction to the policies, the presidency - nay - the very existence of George W. Bush."