ROGER KIMBALL: Barack Obama’s endorsement of Joe Biden is comedy gold.

Anyone who doubts that Barack Obama has a sense of humor should take a look of his endorsement of Joe Biden to be president of the United States. Really, it’s a masterly performance, and delivered, mirabile dictu, with a straight face. Try it yourself. Grab a mirror. Assume your best ‘I’m-being-serious-and-sincere’ expression. Then say out loud that Joe Biden would bring ‘leadership guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility, empathy and grace’ to the Capital.

How’d you do? Crack a smile? Of course you did. Because when Obama said ‘knowledge and experience’ you thought about Biden’s painful struggle to get through the opening of the Declaration of Independence (‘You know, the thing’). When he mentioned ‘honesty’, you thought about his plagiarism and all the ways he and his family have enriched themselves through shady dealings, often with ideological opponents like China. When he mentioned ‘humility’, you thought about Biden’s habit of bragging about everything from getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his son fired to taking credit for writing the PATRIOT Act. And then there are the qualities of ’empathy and grace.’ What can we say? Take a look at this compilation of graceful moments, or this, or this.

If the economy wasn’t being tanked by the CCP Virus and the efforts to fight it, the 2020 election would have been comedy gold – and hopefully we’ll get back to enjoying the Donald and Joe Show in a few weeks. Because, as the Babylon Bee quipped on Friday: Search For The Two Best Possible Candidates For President Concludes.

PROGRESS: Ford, 3M to Begin Making Respirators in Michigan This Week.

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NEWS FROM MY NECK OF THE WOODS: Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs outlines 6-week reopening plan from coronavirus shutdown. “The news comes as the Knox County Health Department released its active coronavirus cases count at 35 on Tuesday, down from 36 on Monday. Jacobs cited the stabilizing numbers in his announcement.” This sounds sensible to me. It’s contingent on numbers remaining good, as it should be.

UPDATE: From the comments: “This is the first actual plan I’ve seen, rather than just a plan to announce a plan sometime soon. And it’s not a bad one either.”

NICK GILLESPIE: While Trump Rants, It’s Governors Who Have Gone Full Captain Queeg: Don’t let states and cities get away with onerous rules that in no way help to contain COVID-19.

UGH: Virginia pastor who defiantly held church service dies of coronavirus.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Japan approves use of high-proof liquor for COVID-19.

TIM BLAIR: Chinese Commies Censored.

Read the whole ██████ thing.

IT CERTAINLY OUGHT TO: Biden’s Weakness on China Could Prove to Be His Downfall. “Biden has downplayed the economic threat from China for years. Not understanding the hazard the repressive Communist Party regime has for the world is a dereliction of duty, especially for a seasoned candidate who held a top position in the White House for two terms. Biden is either hopelessly outclassed or playing politics in a generational crisis. Both are certainly unacceptable in the world that we live in today.”

FLASHBACK: 6 facts about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China.

In December 2013, Hunter landed in Beijing aboard Air Force Two, accompanying his father on an official visit to China. Less than two weeks later, Hunter’s company, Rosemont Seneca, became a partner in a new investment company backed by the state-owned Bank of China.

Christening the new firm Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), the partners set out to raise $1 billion for the new fund.

Representatives of the Biden family have denied any connection between the vice president’s visit and Hunter’s business. However, a BHR representative told The New Yorker earlier this year that Hunter used the opportunity to introduce his father to Chinese private equity executive Jonathan Li, who became CEO of BHR after the deal’s conclusion.

It isn’t so much that Biden is weak on China than it is that he and his sole surviving son are inextricably intertwined with Beijing.

ANOTHER REASON WHY GREENS SHOULD BE BACKING NUCLEAR POWER AND FRACKING: Offshore oil and gas platforms release more methane than previously estimated.

CHANGE: Some Americans Are Starting To ‘Give Up’ On Toilet Paper. Literally. “Bathroom product companies and review websites have been seeing increased interest in bidets, and some companies have reported a dramatic increase in sales.”

TEXAS GOVERNOR WANTS TO ‘SLOWLY’ REOPEN BUSINESS. TRUMP SAYS THAT’S THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S DECISION.

Related: Ed Morrissey wonders why Trump is bigfooting the decisions of individual governors: “For that very reason, though, it’s completely mystifying as to why Trump would want to assume that mantle. Governors have not all complied with his administration’s federal guidance; some have gone farther, some less far, although many have more or less adopted the guidance as their own strategy. That, however, puts the political risk on their shoulders, not Trump’s. If Trump wants to recommend a grand re-opening and the governors don’t go along with it, then they will assume even greater political risk. If they follow the guidance but don’t take care to follow any steps in limiting transmission within it, then that’s their risk too. Regardless of what made Trump offer this argument this morning, it’s flat-out wrong. The sooner he realizes that mistake, the better off he’ll be, unless he wants to assume responsibility for every error made by governors around the country for not having exercised this supposed authority from Day 1.”

OH FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: You Might Go to Prison for Singing in a Livestream Church Service in This California County. “Banning music sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare, but in a northern California county, singing or playing wind instruments — even a harmonica — during a livestream video event can get citizens fined or thrown in prison.”

These petty local tyrants are the very definition of non-essential.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: We may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time. Does it come with a bearded Spock?

THIS IS NO TIME TO GO WOBBLY: Hand sanitizer makers ask Trump for China tariff relief amid shortages.

FASTER, PLEASE: The race to find a covid-19 drug in the blood of survivors.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Porn is helping people cope with the pandemic.

CHINA IS ASSHOLE: ‘China Not Truthful’: Ex-FDA Chief Explains How Beijing Misled World on Coronavirus.

NEVER LET A PANDEMIC GO TO WASTE: Virginia Gov. Northam Sneaks in Raft of Lefty Bills on Voting, Guns, Abortion, Climate, LGBT — Under Cover of Easter Weekend.

SO THE CLAIM THAT THE WUHAN CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC MAY COME FROM A CHINESE LAB HAS GONE FROM CRAZY RIGHT-WING THEORY TO WAPO STANDARD IN RECORD TIME: U.S. Diplomats Warned about Safety Risks in Wuhan Labs Studying Bats Two Years before Coronavirus Outbreak.

U.S. officials warned in January 2018 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s work on “SARS-like coronaviruses in bats,” combined with “a serious shortage” of proper safety procedures, could result in human transmission and the possibility of a “future emerging coronavirus outbreak.”

In a series of diplomatic cables, one of which was obtained by The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin, U.S. Embassy officials warned their superiors that the lab, which they had visited several times, posed a serious health risk that warranted U.S. intervention. The officials were concerned enough about their findings to categorize the communications as “Sensitive But Unclassified,” in order to keep them out of the public eye.

“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” the cable reads.

“The cable was a warning shot,” one U.S. official told Rogin. “They were begging people to pay attention to what was going on.”

While China has stated the virus emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan, U.S. officials are skeptical of the claim, with National Review detailing how the Wuhan Institute of Virology posted jobs in November and December of last year to show how they had been working on “long-term research on the pathogenic biology of bats carrying important viruses,” which had “confirmed the origin of bats of major new human and livestock infectious diseases” in December.

“The idea that is was just a totally natural occurrence is circumstantial. The evidence it leaked from the lab is circumstantial. Right now, the ledger on the side of it leaking from the lab is packed with bullet points and there’s almost nothing on the other side,” a U.S. official told Rogin.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is China’s first laboratory to achieve the highest level of international bioresearch safety, known as BSL-4. But its work on bats — led by Shi Zhengli, the Chinese virologist nicknamed “Bat Woman” for her work with that species — is conducted at the lower protection level of BSL-2.

The 2018 cable confirms that Shi — whose team published research in November 2017 revealing that horseshoe bats they had collected from a cave in Yunnan province were very likely from the same bat population that spawned the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 — was then working on “SARS-like coronaviruses.” Shi’s team was also the first to reveal in February that the new outbreak was a bat-derived coronavirus.

A smart friend of mine is convinced that there’s a connection to the arrest of Harvard chemist Charles Lieber for undisclosed ties to China. I remain skeptical: Lieber’s work — which is on nanotechnology and virus detection — seems a far cry from bat viruses, but who knows at this point? Stay tuned.

NO, BUT IT MIGHT BE THE GATEWAY TO IT: Crisis schooling not the same as normal homeschooling.

Previously, I couldn’t get my 14-year-old to even consider homeschooling. Mostly because his middle school is half-populated by available teenage girls, and our house isn’t. But after a couple weeks of e-schooling, he’s starting to see some advantages, such as a shorter school day and not having to get up at oh-dark-thirty to accommodate a ridiculously early start.

PROGRESS: Coronavirus Testing Is Coming Closer to Your Doctor’s Office: The FDA still hasn’t approved at-home tests. But faster, more distributed tech is on the way to clinics and ERs—and is just what the doctor ordered.

DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: NO biggie, just Bloomberg News killing investigation into Chinese Ruling elites, firing the reporter, and trying to silence his wife.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: Cupid in Quarantine. Couples will either grow together or grow apart. Make your choice.