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High fossil fuel prices caused by Donald Trump’s stupid war on Iran pushed inflation in April to the highest level in almost three years, according to the monthly Consumer Price Index report released by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning. The most important questions for the Trump administration are now who to fire at the Labor Department over the bad news, and how exactly to pin the inflation increase on Joe Biden and/or undocumented immigrants.
Inflation on a year-to-year basis rose to 3.8 percent, the highest it’s been since May 2023, when the rate was on its way down from a 2022 peak caused by post-pandemic supply chain disruptions. If inflation keeps rising this month, that’ll make next month’s inflation report headlines a lot easier to write since it’ll be a nice round three years. This small boon for headline writers is just one of the blessings of the Trump presidency for which the Great Leader may not even get proper credit.
Gasoline prices rose 5.4 percent in April, up by about 30 percent from last year. The BLS statement notes that energy prices overall rose by 3.8 percent, “accounting for over forty percent of the monthly all items increase.” The gasoline inflation rate would have been 11.1 percent in plain old at-the-pump price increases, but for statistical purposes was adjusted to the lower 5.4 percent to reflect the normal cost shift for “summer blend” gasoline. Electricity rates were up 2.1 percent, and fuel oil, which yikes, people still use, was up 5.8 percent.
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While oil prices have been the biggest direct driver of inflation in the months since Trump went to war against Iran without (probably) knowing there is any such place as the Strait of Hormuz, high fuel prices have only just started to drive up costs of nearly everything else, because the world’s economy remains over-dependent on fossil fuels. In a message to clients Monday, Citigroup predicted that “Energy costs likely would not start to feed through to core goods prices for at least a few more months.”
But the rise in fuel costs has already hit airfares, which are up 20 percent over last year, as well as apparel, especially your super-wasteful “fast fashion” that’s shipped directly from China and elsewhere. Jet fuel is up 60 percent since the start of the Stupid War, resulting not only in higher airfares but also new baggage fees. The jet fuel crisis that’s hitting Europe and Asia is only incrementally reflected in the US inflation rate, in the form of surcharges by some international carriers serving the USA.
Even the US Postal service introduced a “limited time price change” due to fuel costs in April; we’re sure that will be reduced once everything is back to normal, whenever that may be.
Grocery prices rose by the highest amount in four years, for a total rise of 0.7 percent. That was driven in large part by the increasing cost of beef, up 2.7 percent. As you’ll recall, higher beef prices are entirely the fault of “Biden vegans” who hate America and think climate change is real, although even administration mouthpieces acknowledge that persistent drought has played a large role. But darn it, those vegans wouldn’t allow overgrazing because they think it’s “bad” somehow.
In related beef news, we got yet another reminder Monday that nobody in the Great Dipshit’s administration knows what the fuck they’re doing from day to day. Trump was initially scheduled to sign an executive order to reduce his own tariffs on imported beef, but then the administration delayed that plan (Wall Street Journal gift link) because US beef producers and Republicans in Congress had a cow, for which they wanted as much money as possible. That fuckery was not reflected in the April inflation numbers, but as with the economic ripple effects of the Stupid War, just give it time.
Housing costs also blipped up in April by 0.6 percent; the Washington Post notes (gift link) that shelter prices “had been artificially suppressed by a data quirk tied to last fall’s government shutdown.” In defiance of Donald Trump logic, it turns out that not actually measuring the costs didn’t keep them from rising, a problem that could be solved by never reporting them again.
The higher cost of nearly everything also is gobbling up workers’ buying power, since for the first time since 2023, inflation is going up more rapidly than wages. Haha, remember how just last week Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was lying about that, claiming that wage growth only outpaced inflation since Trump came to office? Per NBC News,
The pace of wage gains has been slowing over the past two years. In November, wage growth continued to rise at a pace of almost 4%. April’s jobs report, which was released on Friday, showed that wage growth had slowed to 3.6%.
We’ll close with one more reminder that All Trump Fuckery Is Connected, even when it’s not related to the Stupid War: The New York Times reports that food prices have been impacted ever since Trump raised tariffs on imported steel. His goal was to boost US steel production, but of course there aren’t many US steel companies making “tin plate,” the thin steel that’s coated with tin to make food cans. Eighty percent of it has to be imported. For canned fruits or vegetables, the can itself accounts for about a third of the wholesale cost, so pricier imported tin plate equals more expensive food.
But hey, huge good news for Trump! US Steel, the biggest tin plate manufacturer, announced it will restart a factory in Gary, Indiana, sometime in early 2027, creating about 225 permanent jobs. The plant was idled in 2022 because US Steel couldn’t compete with lower-priced imported tin plate. But now steel costs more (and is driving up grocery prices) so hooray, one factory is reopening and the economy is saved! Just one little teensy problem: even with the projected increase in domestic production, the Times points out, “American can makers are likely to import over two-thirds of their tin plate in the coming years, steel executives and analysts said.”
And because the Trump administration demanded that the US government get a “golden share” in US Steel before it could be sold to Japan’s Nippon Steel last year, the administration has a say in its US operations, so it’s not even clear whether the factory in Gary is being restarted because it makes good business sense, as the administration claims, or because it’ll give Trump a “victory” on tariffs.
Ultimately, that won’t matter anyway, because once Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden are jailed and all the traitors at BLS are fired, we will officially have the greatest economy with the most jobs and lowest inflation in human history, as reflected in numbers it will be illegal to question.
Also, before leaving for China today, where he’s almost certain to say something insane, Trump acknowledged that he really doesn’t care, do U? Asked whether the rough times for Americans play any role in his thinking — to put it charitably — about his Stupid War, Trump said nah, the only thing that matters is stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, which Barack Hussein Obama already did before Trump tore up that deal.
Acyn shoulda definitely added “…” to show that “Not even a little bit” was followed by Trump’s super tough talk about not letting Iran get nukes. For fairness.
But considering all the times Republicans have lied that Hillary Clinton promised to put coal miners out of job (and to get them training and new work) or that Nancy Pelosi believed Obamacare was a secret (not even remotely what she said), we won’t complain too much if Trump is permanently saddled with having said, “I don't think about Americans’ financial situation. I don't think about anybody.” Sure, we’ll add the footnote about nukes, too.
OPEN THREAD.
[Bureau of Labor Statistics / NBC News / WaPo (gift link) / WSJ (gift link) / NYT]
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the_shoshannadorinda!) Still, it was interesting to poke around and look at things, and Geoff enjoyed it more than I did, which was good because I was the one who really wanted to go and if he'd been really disappointed I'd probably have felt guilty.oursin(Mix and shake that metaphor and pour it over ice and serve it up with a wee paper umbrella!)
Somebody today on Another Site was mourning the Old Days on LJ which made me think of:
All the various Old Days in my life on and offline which were by their nature transient -
- but that transient didn't mean that they didn't have lasting effects/influence.
(I will spare dr rdrz accounts of various short-lived initiatives I encountered among the archives and in the course of Mi Researchez which nonetheless echoed down the years.)
Also that even had things not fallen out the way things did with LJ (hiss, boo, etc) by now it would almost certainly not be the same experience as it was in the 00s - people would have come, people would have gone, our interests and energies would have changed....
So we would probably be nostalgically regetting the glory days before [whenever].
askamanager_feedA reader writes:
I just started working for an all-remote company who announced an in-person retreat not long after I was hired. (And after I specifically asked during the hiring process if any travel was required and was assured it was not, but anyway…) I am disabled (albeit not visibly), so travel is a struggle but usually doable, and the vibes I got from leadership were “you better have a really good reason for not attending.” I was still early in my probation period, wanted to make a good impression, so I sucked it up and agreed to attend.
The retreat is coming up, and leadership has been infuriatingly coy about details, but the more they share, the more I realize this is going to be a nightmare and I physically cannot do most if any of the “fun” team-building activities. In another situation, I would pull out at this point, but my plane ticket was nonrefundable and my reputation is still on the line. I am anxious, frustrated, and just generally upset about the whole thing.
I’m meeting with my manager this week to basically disclose my disability and explain I will be sitting a lot of stuff out.
Any advice you could provide, about this conversation with my manager, how to survive the trip, how to handle questions about why I am not participating, how to professionally communicate to leadership that accessibility extends far beyond just booking accessible hotel rooms, anything would be so helpful.
This sucks, I’m sorry.
I would start with this: “As more info has been shared about activities at the retreat, I’m realizing I won’t be able to participate in most of it, and possibly none of it, because of a disability. Having to field lots of questions about why I’m not able to participate obviously isn’t a comfortable situation to be in. Would it make sense for me to skip this one and attend in the future if they’re more accessible?”
Or if you’d prefer to attend at this point, despite the situation they’ve created: “As more info has been shared about activities at the retreat, I’m realizing I won’t be able to participate in most of it, and possibly none of it, because of a disability. Can we talk about what the logistics will be since I won’t be able to do X, Y, and Z?” They may be caught off-guard and not have a good answer on the spot, so if there’s a way you’d prefer to handle it, offer that up (like “I’d be happy to attend the potato sack race and cheer from the sidelines, but for the afternoon of zip-lining, I think it would make sense for me to stay back at the hotel” or whatever you’d ideally want to do).
If you go and get questions from coworkers about why you’re not participating, it depends on how much you’re comfortable sharing. Anything like the following would work:
* “Bad back, can’t!”
* “Medical stuff, I hope you have fun though!”
* “My doctor would kill me.”
* “Medical restrictions, but it looks fun!”
If you’re breezy and matter-of-fact about it, most other people will be too. But if you encounter anyone who’s determined to “fix” the problem and find a way for you to participate (which can be well-intentioned or can just be someone who’s a busybody), you can shut that down: “Oh, I appreciate it, but this is the safest option for me so no thank you.” … “I don’t want to get into medical stuff at work, but there isn’t actually a way to make it safe for me. Go have fun, I’m fine!” … and if necessary: “Truly, no.”
I’d also recommend talking with HR to explain the situation and ask that they ensure accessibility is given more consideration in the future. It sounds like this possibility wasn’t on anyone’s radar at all, and it needs to be. Sometimes that happens when a company has never done a retreat before, or with a new and growing company that is brand new to having to consider the diverse health needs of a workforce. If they’re large and have been around a long time and have done in-person retreats before, this is a lot more startling. But either way, they need to get it on their radar now, and I’m sorry you have to be the messenger.
The post I’m too disabled for my company’s retreat appeared first on Ask a Manager.
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America’s uterus-havers have once again been granted a reprieve! For the next three days, at least, it will continue to be legal for doctors to prescribe mifepristone over the internet and have it mailed to their patients, as per an order from Justice Samuel Alito. The extension will allow the court time to consider an emergency request from two manufacturers of mifepristone to halt a ruling from the Fifth Circuit in the case of Louisiana v. FDA, which would once again require in-person prescribing and distribution of the medication.
The in-person requirement was lifted during the COVID pandemic, largely because there is no real medical reason for it beyond “some people don’t like abortions and would prefer others not be allowed to have them.” Louisiana says the rule undermines its state law that bans abortions in all cases. However, it is not the FDA’s job to enforce individual state laws, it is to create rules based on what is safe for consumers. And whether Louisiana likes it or not, it is perfectly safe to prescribe mifepristone without an in-person visit and to distribute it through the mail.
One of the key plaintiffs in the case is Rosalie Markezich, who says her boyfriend bought the pills online from a doctor in California, and then coerced her into taking them, claiming he would not have been able to to do that if doctors were required to only prescribe and distribute the pill in person (because of how all abortion is illegal in Louisiana). It’s practically a dream scenario for anti-abortion rights advocates, who like to pretend that a significant portion of those who have abortions were pressured into them, either by a partner or a family member, or by nefarious feminists who just want to kill all of the fetuses for some reason.
But here’s the thing: it’s already illegal, in every state, to force someone to take an abortion pill against their will. Louisiana, in fact, has specifically made it a felony punishable by five to 20 years in prison to coerce someone by "force, control, or intimidation" into having an abortion.
The fact that a substance can be used for harm or in an illegal way by an abusive person or in an illegal manner isn’t a good enough reason to restrict its usage for everyone else who is not using it that way. Somebody could order antifreeze on the internet and then murder someone with it. It doesn’t mean we ban antifreeze for its common and correct purposes!
Ironically, the US Postal Service is currently “mulling over” a proposed rule from the Trump administration that would allow people to send guns to one another through the mail. Since 1927, only licensed firearm dealers have been able to mail certain kinds of guns, but the Trump administration considers that to be “unconstitutional.” So I guess that means that they’d have less of a problem with Rosalie Markezich’s boyfriend shooting her than with him coercing her into having an abortion.
In 2022, Kansans voted by an incredible 59-41 margin landslide to keep the right to abortion in their state constitution. Since then, abortion rights foes have been trying to find a sneaky way to make abortion illegal, despite the wishes of Kansas voters.
That’s why this year, they’re pushing for an amendment that would appoint judges to the state Supreme Court based on elections rather than on merit — believing that Kansans would elect justices who would issue conservative rulings on abortion and school funding — and also allow Supreme Court justices to engage in political activity.
The Marion County Record in December reported that [Ty] Masterson, the Senate president from Andover who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, told a Patriots for Liberty group that electing justices would reverse Supreme Court decisions on abortion rights.
“But you can’t go out there and say it because they’ll say that if you elect your Supreme Court, you won’t have any right to abortion anymore,” Masterson said.
He added: “If we elect our Supreme Court, they won’t force you to spend money on schools.”
Yes, because they want to force people to have kids against their will, but they don’t want to fund the schools that those kids will go to. Nice people!
Abortion rights advocates, however, are working hard to make it very clear that “if you elect your Supreme Court, you won’t have any right to abortion anymore.”
“I know that Kansans will rise to the occasion, and they will understand that this is about overturning abortion protections,” Sandy Brown of the Kansas Abortion Fund told the Kansas Reflector. “This is about electing Supreme Court justices where big money will be thrown in. And we all know what that what that’s going to look like. It’s going to get ugly.”
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On Mother’s Day, the Trump administration debuted its very creepy and pronatalist Moms.gov website, geared towards pushing women into having babies, whether they want them or not. In addition to general nutritional advice — drinking raw milk and mainlining ivermectin? Just guessing — the site includes a directory of so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” the organizations that lure in women looking to terminate their pregnancies by pretending to be abortion clinics, only to try to talk them out of having one.
You know, the ones that almost never have an actual medical professional on staff (one study found that only 16 percent of CPCs had a physician and only 26 percent had a registered nurse) and are, rather, usually staffed by volunteers whose only actual qualifications include hollering at people outside of Planned Parenthood?
Yeah, those.
It also includes information about how to get Trump accounts for your kids and TrumpRx pharmaceuticals for yourself, because why miss a branding opportunity?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
May. 12th, 2026 06:06 pmaskamanager_feedA reader writes:
I work in a healthcare-adjacent job with a pretty generous leave policy. When folks are going to take a sick day, it’s our practice to drop a note into Teams and say, “Not feeling well, taking a sick day, contact X about Y if it’s urgent, see you tomorrow I hope.” Sometimes folks will add a bit more info — saying they have a migraine or they caught the flu going around, etc. — but there’s nothing along the lines of needing to justify it to your manager or your team. If you’re sick, you’re sick and you take your leave.
What I’m wondering about: quite often younger employees will specifically note that they are taking a mental health day when they call (or rather, message) in sick. Is that advisable? I’ve spoken with peers about this and they were also taken aback by the (mostly) Zoomers who often do this and felt that it’s an overshare.
On one hand, I appreciate that they are taking care of themselves and I suppose it’s nice to normalize self-care around mental health, especially since we work in an adjacent field. On the other hand, it seems like an overshare to me. I’ve had my struggles with mental health and totally support people using PTO however they want. But it seems … weird to share this info. Does “mental health day” mean you are dealing with suicidal ideation (or similar) or it’s just been a rough month? If you took a mental health day on Monday, do I need to treat you with kid gloves on Tuesday? What if there’s a tough conversation that needs to be had, or a ton of work that needs to be done quickly? I would hold back on doing that if it was a person’s first day back from something like bereavement leave. But if it was after a physical sick day, I’d assume that the person is back in the office and prepared to carry on as usual.
Do managers owe it to employees, especially more junior ones, to say, “Hey, you never owe an explanation about PTO, and sometimes saying ‘mental health day’ can read a little unprofessional, even if it shouldn’t”?
You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it.
The post should you tell your boss you’re taking a mental health day? appeared first on Ask a Manager.
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Your Idea Starts Here: 77 Mind-Expanding Ways to Unleash Your Creativity
by Carolyn Eckert
Storey Publishing
2016, 224 pages, 5.1 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
Art director Carolyn Eckert originally wrote Your Idea Starts Here for artists and designers who needed a creative boost, but soon realized that the book can actually help any inventive soul. This hardcover pocket-sized book pops with fun images along with 77 exercises to dislodge the blockages that are damming up your creative juices. For instance, Exercise 19 suggests changing up your routine (inspired by a Steve Jobs practice). Exercise 35 says to “Stop Whatever You’re Doing.” In other words, “If you were using blue, use orange. If it’s square, make it round…”
Interspersed between the idea-generating exercises are inspiring stories about inventions (such as the potato chip, Slinky, and windshield wipers) and what sparked them. More brainstorming tool than self-help book, Your Idea Starts Here is fun and simple yet super inspiring for anyone who looking for new ideas. – Carla Sinclair
GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human
by Thomas Thwaites
Princeton Architectural Press
2016, 208 pages, 5.9 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
Thomas Thwaites has a curious idea of what it means to take a vacation, at least if the just released GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human is any indication. What started off as a casual observation about how Queen Elizabeth’s dog, Noggin, probably worries a good deal less than his royal master evolved into a quixotic book full of ruminations on ruminants. Animals, Thwaites imagined, live in the moment, free from worry, at one with the land. How wonderful to be so unburdened, he thought. So, after briefly considering becoming an elephant, he decided to try his hand at being a goat.
Along the way, Thwaites learned a good deal about goats. Humans, Thwaites tells us, have been interacting with them since 9000 BCE – from the domestication of bezoar goats somewhere in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains to the mythical, sexual subjugation of goats by the goat-horned, Greek god Pan, as depicted in a rather graphic sculpture discovered under layers of ash deposited on the city of Herculaneum by Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. Much to our relief, Thwaites just wants to be a goat, not to “do” one.
Which is not to say the book is not occasionally disgusting. The section describing the R&D behind his goat suit includes the dissection of a goat named Venus, who died of natural causes and whose skinned limbs, palm-sized brain, and oozing guts are explored in gory detail. I’ll spare you. Suffice it to say that in the end, Thwaites gets his opportunity to clomp about on all fours on the steep hillsides of Switzerland, where he hangs out with a herd of Swiss goats and does what goats do – he grazes. For the record, the green-green grass, he reports, is sweeter than the blue-green stuff, which is bitter. Later, Thwaites makes a meal of the grass he’d been chewing and spitting into an artificial goat stomach, using decidedly non-goat cooking techniques to make it digestible for his human digestive system. The resulting “burnt grass stew,” he confesses, was the “most unappetising meal of my life.” Perhaps, though, if Thwaites had simply spent a few days hiking on two legs instead of four in this beautiful place, he would have had fewer goat concerns on his human mind. – Ben Marks
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
yourlibrarian posting in tv_talk
katiedid717 posting in agonyauntseekingferretsmbc_comics_feed
Hovertext:
The weird part is I'll get complaint emails about the 2037 Olympics not being possible, and not, like, the rest of this idea.
case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #7067 ]james_davis_nicoll - AI-generated profiles of TTRPG designers ignite fury across social mediaconuly in agonyaunt - (no subject)kaberett - ... terrible hobbieswonkette_feed - Biden And Obama Push Inflation To Highest Rate Since May 2023, Those Monstersshipperslist - !!!the_shoshanna - a somewhat less ambitious dayoursin - But the neiges d'antan melt and stir dull roots with spring raincorvidology - Sometimes the old ones are the best...askamanager_feed - I’m too disabled for my company’s retreatwonkette_feed - Samuel Alito: You Can Have Your Abortion Pills, But Only Until Thursdaycyberghostface in scans_daily - Absolute Batman #19tarlanx - PG SLASH: Pear Blossoms in Spring - Boya/Qingming, The Yin-yang Master: Dream of Eternityaskamanager_feed - should you tell your boss you’re taking a mental health day?cahn - Hugo novellas, part 1 (of presumably 2)cooltools_feed - Your Idea Starts Here / Goatmanyourlibrarian in tv_talk - TV Tuesday: Is That Who They're Supposed to Be?katiedid717 in agonyaunt - Social Q's: One Day, It May Be a Yesseekingferret - In which Ferret has sports feelingssmbc_comics_feed - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Sportzvi and 