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It’s an emergency! No, literally. The Washington Post reports that the Secret Service signed an “emergency order” on Monday to rent a fleet of golf carts from Capitol Golf Cars and Utility Vehicles, a West Virginia company.

For a mere $45,000, an unnamed “dignitary” will ride in style around Sterling, Virginia where Trump’s Potomac Falls club is located. His preferred courses in Florida and New Jersey are closed, but Governor Northam’s stay-at-home order allows golf courses to remain open in Virginia. We’re all supposed to wear masks to walk the dog, but golf is fine as long as players abide by social distancing, remaining six feet apart, and don’t share carts. Hence the need to reserve an entire fleet of vehicles for this “emergency” golf situation.

The Post reports that the Secret Service has already paid upwards of $420,000 for golf cart rentals, some of it to the Trump Organization directly. That works out to a mere $1,687 for each of the 249 days Trump spent at his clubs since becoming president. What a deal!

They Can’t Find Ventilators, But The White House Did Manage To Source Golf Carts For Trump’s Summer Tee Time

LiSA is a legend for quite some time already, but this first take is elite. Gurenge, Kimetsu no Yaiba.

These religious wackos want to keep on congregating.

Please! By all means! Pack the place up nice and tight, and be sure to close the doors. You'll be doing a great service, as long as we can keep you isolated from civil society. The solution would be to put up barricades around the building.

In other news, buy buy buy! And you'll have your cure forthwith! But you have to ask nicely!

Being part of essential services comes with benefits. One of them is access to N95 masks, along with nitrile surgical gloves (not those crappy latex POS) and lots of hand sanitizer.

The new reality is going to be with us for a long time, so it's time to re-assess what jobs are really needed and what are not in the upcoming "new economy."

Working from home -hot. Places like WeWork - not.

Frontline workers dealing with the public to ensure access to medication, such as Azuma Hazuki - hot. Cruise ship captains - not.

State governors - hot. Donald Trump - not.

Order pickers and packagers - hot. Amazon CEOs - not.

Cashiers, shelf stockers, warehouse workers - hot. Nail salons and Montessori teachers - not.

News reporters - hot. Celebrities and "influencers" - not.

E-books - hot. The Olympics - hahahahaha not, and never was hot.

Cooks, counter people - hot. Waiters and waitresses - not (sorry, friends, but this is a permanent change in the economy, same as no more budget cruise ships).

Cargo and logistics - hot. Travel agents - not. So not ...

International cargo jet crews - hot. International passenger jet crews -not.

Green energy - hot. Fossil fuels - so not - last year may have been "peak oil" instead of 2023.

N95 masks for everyone in public - hot. No PPE even for front-line health care workers - not. and not forgivable.

Doctors, nurses, patient attendants - hot. Talk and game show hosts - not. If I wanted to watch a frigging podcast from your home, I wouldn't be watching TV.

There are so many things that we used to consider "essential" to our way of life but they just aren't. And with the economic "adjustments" that are coming down the pike, many of which are going to be permanent (such as working from home - companies are finally going to see that it's a waste of money to pay for unneeded office space and unneeded managers to manage office workers), we're looking at a pared-down economic future.

As an example, the travel industry. All those gargantuan cruise ships with cabins without portals for fresh air - who is going to want those, even for free? Will they even be legal in the future?

Same with airliners with sardine-can seating. There's really no point in bailing out either the international passenger jet or cruise industries - they're not coming back.

Governments continue to be slow in responding. We know that 20% of people without visible symptoms can transmit covid-19, but we aren't telling everyone to wear a mask to protect everyone else.

Part of that is because we don't have sufficient supply. But with the CDC and various European governments re-thinking their policies, that's going to change.

And when people realize that their governments have lied to them for months about the need for the general population to wear masks "because they didn't think it would get as bad as China" ... nothing will change, because people are sheeple.

Yep, you really do get the government you deserve.

1200 gonna be enough?

Edit:
Wonder why there's no masks?

It's the market!

It would be uncouth to interfere with business

_{^{Public Service Announcement. April 1, 2020}}
During this frightening time of COVID-19 it is important to keep stocked up on essential supplies. Especially ammunition for your firearms. As part of your preparedness you should ensure that you have a minimum of two firearms for each member of your household. Discount multi-packs of firearms and ammunition are being made available during this time to make it easier for you be prepared. Various companies with manufacturing capability will be mobilized to increase our national manufacturing capacity to ensure sufficient firearms can be made available to everyone.

Starter Guns will be available which are sized just right for the little ones. The NRA offers discounts to those who can show proof of mental impairment or illness.

Please use firearms responsibly both during and after drinking. Remember, there is nothing to fear. Keep a minimum of one handgun always within arms length and be ready to draw it and begin shooting. Social distancing makes it easier to aim. It is important to protect yourself from the insidious threat of COVID-19 during these dangerous times.

^{_<no-sarcasm>}
The Department of Homeland Security has deemed gun shops as essential businesses to remain open even though clothing for newborn babies is not essential.

New York and other authorities have deemed liquor stores to be essential services.
_{^{</no-sarcasm>}}

I see a lot of people using names like Coronavirus, "Wuhan Virus", and "COVID-19" for the virus, only creating confusion.

Please only refer to the virus that's currently shaking the world by its official name: EBOLAIDS.

Thank you.

Anyone who has held a cabinet level office, and so egregiously fucked it up, as has Betsy "Amway" DeVos, deserves impeachment, excommunication, drawing and quartering, and getting a D, for effort. Sorry, not link, nothing new, just had to vent, seeing the bitch in the audience where Garth Broken ripped off hits of the Hippies, when Country Music was stupid and brain damaged, as in Dueling Banjos, which was actually between a hillbilly banjo (well played, btw), and a liberal guitar. So now, we need to forgive for-profit universities for fucking over their students, their faculty and the United States and the Funching World???? I think not. Let intellectual vengeance roll down like the might waters of justice, and may the DeVoses, and that Mercenary scumbag brother of hers, Erik Prince, both face justice before the proper tribunal. Oh, shit. Will American ever live up to the principles of justice it stood up for in the aftermath of WWII? Can American ever be the Shining City on the hill, that attracts immigrants with values, with liberty, with freedom and equality? Or will it only be a gig job at a Trump resort from here on out? Rome fell with more dignity, and, to be clear, with more outright honest corruption and imoluments. Tax the rich, they already are agreeing to give money to the poors, which pains them greatly, so you know they are afraid. Tax them till it hurts. Tax their estates, tax their wealth, and tax their intellects! Wait, that last one will not bring in much money, but, oh, the satisfaction!! !

I remember when this happened with the court of Polycrates, he raised taxes, and destroyed his own rule, sent Pythagoras to exile in Italia. Trump is even more stupid than Polycrates, and less charismatic.

NEW!: This AI Makes "Audio Deepfakes" (5m37s)

Neural Voice Puppetry: Audio-driven Facial Reenactment

Everybody Can Make DeepFakes Now! (6m55s)

Hyperparameter Tuning As Easy As 1-2-3

First Order Motion Model for Image Animation

Older video: This AI Makes The Mona Lisa Speak…And More! (4m22s)
Older video: This AI Makes Amazing DeepFakes…and More (4m48s)

The audio synthesis part might be more difficult, or the code is being deliberately held back.

I forget what they call that, but you don't need a virus to prove it.

I read this guy's shit:

I would like to know if there is any factual dispute with the link.

Then, why not consider whether we are seeing an overreaction, or plain old sabotageee? Whatever the case, it cannot be disputed that the disaster is man made

Edit:
Since so many are bringing it up, freedom, as an issue, was not even remotely implied, in fact, it's offtopic. We are only trying to see who is telling the truth since the US federal government is completely whack.

The only real issue to deal with is mitigation, patient comfort and recovery, stopping bill collectors, and ensuring the flow of payroll. "Freedom" to roam the streets is bullshit. Shutting down Wall Street will prevent long term economic damage, well, it is a bit late, they already burned more trillions (and like coal mine fire, it is still burning) than what is in the trickle down "relief bill", but it will prevent further damage. But we already know that nobody cares, so why bother, right? This is part of the man made disaster. After it's over we will hear nothing but the need for cutbacks because of our debt to the stock market.

Edit 2:
So, Cuomo is becoming a standout. Can he replace Biden? If the democrats are interested in winning... Who is Tara Reade?

Edit 3:

On a scroll: ...comic relief package in American history -- twice as large as any...