OH: Lawmakers Probe NIH Over Chinese Espionage Targeting U.S. Medical Research. “GOP members concerned NIH failing to hold spies accountable.”

It’s sad, but after so many decades hardly surprising, that the willingness to look into Communists infiltration is pretty much exclusive to one party.

PAUL RAHE: Michigan Republicans No Longer Supine? “In the last couple of weeks, however, the Republicans seem to have caught fire. The local chambers of commerce are perturbed. Small business, which is the only reliable Republican constituency in Michigan, is imperiled. These folks really hate Gretchen Whitmer – and, as I have tried to spell out in posts here and here, they have grounds for their fury. . . . Republicans in the legislature are threatening to create an oversight committee to investigate the lockdowns; to repeal the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act, which conferred on the state’s chief executive almost dictatorial powers after the governor declared an emergency; and to amend the 1976 Emergency Management Act, which gave the legislature the right to make such a declaration, to reduce the period covered from 28 to 14 days. Negotiations are taking place as I write these words. The Republicans point to the 1976 act and contend that, if the state legislature does not approve an extension of the governor’s emergency powers by Friday, 1 May, they will evaporate. Governor Whitmer points to the 1945 act and claims that she can act unilaterally under that.”

That will go well.

WHY IS THIS SUCH A MYSTERY TO THE ‘EXPERTS’ ON CORONAVIRUS? Washington, D.C. attorney Hans Bader offers this commonsense assessment on one of the least discussed effects of the lockdown:

“By banning elective surgery, states not only deprive suffering people of healthcare, but also cause layoffs of healthcare workers. Meanwhile, most hospitals have beds to spare and enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to handle coronavirus patients. Banning elective surgery doesn’t conserve PPE for coronavirus patients because the personal protective equipment used to treat coronavirus patients is not the same as the equipment used in elective surgery.”

I don’t know, maybe Hans just doesn’t drink the local water?

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: 5 Michigan businesses sue Gov. Whitmer over constitutional rights.

JOEL KOTKIN: Are the Clerisy and the Oligarchs trying to kill small business? “This is not merely a plea for the little guy, but also a warning about the future.”

PEEK AT 2024 GOP PREZ PRIMARY? Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley on the most basic point about the Flynn Frameup — “People need to pay for this.”

THE ROSE AND THISTLE JOINED: On this day in 1707, the Acts of Union, uniting England and Scotland, went into effect. The two kingdoms had been ruled by the same monarch since James VI of Scotland (son of Mary, Queen of Scots) became James I of England and Ireland in 1603. But the Acts of Union made it a true political union and not just two crowns sitting on the same head.

For the English, the union was a good deal because it ensured that when Queen Anne died with no surviving children, Scotland and England would continue to have the same monarch. If instead Scotland had elected to go its own way, it might have chosen to return to its “auld alliance” with France. Such a move, England believed, would jeopardize its security.

On the other hand, the less populous Scots wanted to ensure access to English markets. This was especially so after the disastrous Darien scheme to create a Scottish colony in Panama, which left much of the country in financial ruin.

For most of its history, the marriage has been a reasonably happy one (though every marriage has had its … rough patches). But in more recent years cracks have started appearing in the marriage. In 1979, an effort to establish (or re-establish) a separate Scottish legislature via referendum failed.   It did so, however, only because the Act authorizing the referendum required that at least 40% of the entire Scottish electorate vote in favor. While the referendum got more yes than no votes, turnout was poor. In 1997, another such referendum was held. This time it passed, a Scottish Parliament was established, and the process of “devolution” was begun.

In 2014, when an independence referendum was held, it came a lot closer to passing than union supporters would have preferred. Ultimately, Scottish voters went 55.3% to 44.7% in favor of sticking it out with England.

At the time, the European Union actively discouraged an independent Scotland and let it be known that Scotland would have a tough time petitioning for entry into the E.U. if it decided to strike out on its own. Too many E.U. members have sub-national entities yearning for independence. The E.U. could ill-afford to encourage such movements.

Of course, that was then and this is now. After Brexit (which most Scottish voters opposed), one could imagine a different attitude on the part of the E.U. Or maybe not.  It is hard to imagine countries like Spain with their own internal issues being keen on dealing with Scotland in this way. Scotland would have to secede from the U.K. and then petition for entry into the E.U.

Two things have happened since the Brexit vote in 2016 that make such a scenario less likely: First, contrary to predictions, leaving the EU didn’t cause the sky to fall in the U.K. Second, COVID-19 really has made free movement across international borders look less wonderful than it did just a few months ago. So maybe the rose and thistle will stay together … if nothing else than for the sake of the children.

COLLUSION: Lawmakers Probe NIH Over Chinese Espionage Targeting U.S. Medical Research.

Flashback: During all the Russia hacking hype, China is rising in influence: While Russia’s role in the 2016 election dominates the news, China’s spying and alarming influence within our borders is too little noticed.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE DEMOCRATS: Gen. Flynn Never Violated Logan Act, But John Kerry Violated It Often.

BOEING: New report says SLS rocket managers concerned about fuel leaks. “Should leaks or other issues be discovered, the program will need time.”

Earlier this year, NASA moved the big rocket’s core stage to a test site at Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. Before the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily halted work, NASA and Boeing teams were working toward a critical summer exercise. During this “green run” test, the clamped-down rocket will ignite its engines and burn for about eight minutes to simulate an ascent into orbit.

“Program officials indicated that one of the top remaining technical risks to the green run test is that the core stage may develop leaks when it is filled with fuel,” the report states on page 82. “According to these officials, they have conducted extensive scaled testing of the gaskets and seals used in the core stage; however, it is difficult to precisely predict how this large volume of liquid hydrogen will affect the stage.”

Fingers crossed, I guess. But as Glenn concluded a while ago, we could make it back to the Moon on Trump’s schedule, but probably not on a Boeing rocket.

FROM MY COLLEAGUE BRADLEY AREHEART: The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data.

AUDIO: Marshall Miles Interviews Maurice Stucke and Ariel Ezrachi, “Competition Overdose.”

AT AMAZON, save in Men’s Grooming. Plus, at-home hair color.

THE OLIGARCHY NEVER LETS A CRISIS GO TO WASTE, IF ALLOWED: Matt Taibbi: The Inevitable Coronavirus Censorship Crisis is Here: As the Covid-19 crisis progresses, censorship programs advance, amid calls for China-style control of the Internet.

WHEN MODELS FAIL: Five weeks after social distancing began, Mass. coronavirus hospitalizations and cases remain high. Why so little improvement?

The disease models of late March suggested we would be well on our way down the backside of the pandemic by now, but given the depressing numbers, it is hard not to feel spirits dipping, while progress feels illusive.

“A lot of the models were a little bit misleading in terms of suggesting that there would be these nice, perfect bell curves,” said Thomas Tsai, a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “And what we are seeing is that, realistically, instead of a peak and then a rapid climb down the mountain, so to speak, there’s more of a plateau, especially when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths, because those are lagged behind development of new cases by a few weeks.”

The climb down from the coronavirus plateau is probably going to be a lot slower and more gradual than the climb up, and along the way we can expect some frustrating stops and starts.

Early disease models published in March had predicted that the peak of the outbreak in Massachusetts would be in mid-April; the real peak was probably closer to the week of April 20, Tsai said. “What is encouraging, though, is that if you think about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, the case counts were rapidly rising and the hospitalizations were rapidly rising,” he said. “It’s a silver lining in the sense that the curve does seem to have flattened and the hospitals in Boston and Massachusetts have been able to create the capacity to be able to take care of the surge of COVID-19 patients.”

That is: If the outbreak raced off in the beginning like a car with the accelerator stuck to the floor, we have managed to stop it from going any faster and hold at a roughly steady speed. Stopping the acceleration prevented the state’s hospital system from being overwhelmed.

The next step is “slowing down or decelerating because the idea is to bring that car to a stop,” Tsai said. “You want to be actively stepping on the brakes and seeing the speed come down every single day. I think that analogy is helpful for thinking about our case-positivity rate as well.”

The daily number of new confirmed coronavirus cases has dropped over the past week, though the lines of the “curve” are painfully jagged.

Neither the models nor the modelers have covered themselves with glory.

WHEN YOUR GENIUS PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY GETS YOUR CAPITAL MOBBED BY ARMED PROTESTERS, IT’S NOT A GENIUS PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY. Armed Protesters Flood Michigan Capitol as Whitmer Attempts to Override State Legislature.

To quote, well, myself: “Ultimately, this rising resentment is itself a failure of public health, and of public health administration. You can complain that people are irrational and resentful, that they don’t ‘believe in science,’ or whatever. But people are what they are, and their response to epidemics is surprisingly predictable. If your messaging — and your behavior — inspires resentment that causes people to resist and ignore public health messages, then you have failed at your job, whatever the amount of scientific knowledge you bring to bear.” Or claim to.

And no one has failed as utterly as Gretchen Whitmer.

HARSH, BUT FAIR.

The answer to her question, of course, is “a lifetime of practice.” I mean, he got thrown out of a commune for being too annoying a lefty.

GOOD. NOW GIVE THEM NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Taiwan Emerging From Pandemic With a Stronger Hand Against China. “Taiwan has led the world in its fight against the virus, with only about 400 infections and six deaths for a population of 23 million. By comparison, New York state — with slightly fewer people — had almost 300,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths.”

Well, to be fair, Taiwan wasn’t saddled with Andrew Cuomo or Bill De Blasio.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD: YouTube Removing All Videos That Don’t Begin With The Chinese National Anthem.

FLASHBACK: No big deal, just the former Obama National Security Council’s director of cybersecurity policy getting hired as a lobbyist for Huawei.

OPEN THREAD: This is no one night stand, it’s a real occasion.