IS BEING GAY GENETIC? Don’t hear much these days about the search for the definitive “gay gene,” but advocates on both sides of the issue ought to be careful about pronouncing that science “proves” this or science “disproves” that.

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH WAITING TO SEE THIS STORY IN THE MSM: Hunter Biden allegedly offered to use his access to official Washington in return for a $5 million investment in his business by China, according to The Washington Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman.

The technical term for this kind of thing is “influence peddling,” but the New York Times, Washington Post, et. al. have more important stories to report, like the former Pence aide who will vote for Joe Biden.

GOTTA ADMIRE THIS MAN’S SPUNK: Pastor John MacArthur says he will start a jail ministry if California authorities arrest him for holding indoor services at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County.

DOES TRUMP HAVE BIDEN ON THE ROPES? Bill Powell at Newsweek thinks so. Me, not so much, though a landslide could be lurking out there if pollsters are again missing the actual depth of Trump’s support as they did in 2016.

CALIFORNIA CHURCH CAVED OR CONQUERED? North Valley Baptist Church faced more than $50,000 in fines for holding indoor services in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsome’s draconian Covid restrictions.

Now the church is meeting outdoors in its parking lot and its senior pastor praises the health official who enforced the fines against his congregation. Some would say the church caved, others that it’s just being prudent. What do you think?

PLEASE, MR. PRESIDENT, DO NOT ‘GROW’ IN THE OFFICE: Two recent decisions by The Donald provide worrisome signs the Swamp may be sneaking up on the chief executive who has wracked up more conservative achievements than even Ronald Reagan.

NOW WE KNOW: If you wondered if there is a China link to BLM, wonder no more.

WHAT THE 60S RIOTS TELL US ABOUT TODAY’S VIOLENCE: Katharine Gorka remembers it well and she brings together the story of Gene Methvin, Ben Mandel and Steve Posony. This post is essential reading.

EXPECT MORE COVID RESTRICTIONS: If you think Covid restrictions like California’s ridiculously detailed anti-indoor church regs are going away any time soon, Dr. Anthony Fauci has some news for you. Hint: You ain’t gonna like it.

EXPECT MORE WILDFIRES: This guy predicted the present infernos.

CALIFORNIA’S ABSURDLY DETAILED CHURCH REGULATIONS ARE BUREAUCRATIC STRANGULATION BY REGULATION: Pastor John MacArthur lays out for all to see the absurdities California’s petty bureaucrats are using imposing.

MEET THE DARK MONEY KING AND QUEEN: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have long vociferously and regularly condemned Republican dark money in politics. That’s what they say but look what the Washington Free Beacon’s Joe Schoftstall found out about what Schumer and Pelosi do with dark money.

A READING LIST FOR AMERICANS ON THE CRISIS IN CIVIL RIGHTS: Here’s an invaluable resource — a continuously updated compilation of authoritative and highly accessible works by conservative and libertarian thinkers on race, police and the welfare state, courtesy of the Independent Institute.

“To advance the public dialogue, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Williamson M. Evers has created one of the most exhaustive annotated reading lists ever assembled on the issues of civil rights, police reform, race relations, and the welfare state.

“Suitable for use by students and educators seeking material for curricula in the social sciences, criminology, and ethnic studies, the list relies heavily on exemplary but lesser-known scholarship that draws on America’s heritage of individual rights, equality under the law, free markets, and freedom of opportunity. In addition, this resource is designed to be special value for civic and business leaders, policymakers, journalists, and the general public.”

HERE’S THE ROADMAP FOR THE POST-ELECTION CHAOS DEMOCRATS PLAN: Julie Kelly, writing at American Greatness, examines the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) done jointly by Democrats and Never-Trumpers. Check out this sample of what she found:

“’A rogue individual destroyed a large number of ballots believed to have supported Biden, leaving Trump a narrow electoral win,’ the group imagined. ‘The Governor of Michigan used this abnormality as justification to send a separate, pro-Biden set of electors to DC.’ Anyone who’s watched Gretchen Whitmer over the past six months knows she will happily defy the law and common decency for attention.”

And over at The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson provides an abundance of additional information on TIP, as well as a detailed look at related groups like the Fight Back Table and the parallels between the pre-election situation of 1860 with today. One piece of advice here: Secession didn’t work then and it won’t work now, either.

GIVING TRUMP THE PEACE PRIZE MIGHT RESTORE NOBEL’S CREDIBILITY: It’s no guarantee but Issues & Insights thinks doing so is the only hope for rescuing the once-revered award from the far-left fever swamp.

SHALL WE HAVE A KING? First posed by John Jay to George Washington, that now-eerily prescient question is repeated by R Street Governance Project Senior Fellow James Wallner in a thoughtful legbranch.org essay on separation of powers, the Covid pandemic and President Donald Trump’s recent directives.

“Jay summed up the straightforward solution to America’s problems to Washington: ‘Let Congress legislate, let others execute, let others judge.’ James Madison noted that the separation of powers was vital to securing freedom and liberty and that as long as the people’s elected representatives preserved it, ‘We have no danger to apprehend,’” Wallner writes.

“Notwithstanding its centrality to the success of the American regime, a recent altercation between President Trump and Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, highlights the extent to which support for the Constitution’s separation-of-powers framework has begun to wane.”

Wallner makes a compelling case in siding with Sasse, who described as “unconstitutional slop” Trump’s directives to defer payroll taxes, continue enhanced benefits for those out of work, offer certain forms of assistance to renters and homeowners, and provide a breather to millions of people with student loans.

My own view is that Congress has itself mainly to blame here, having for decades steadily ceded to executive branch bureaucrats power and authority that erodes legislative authority and energy.

But even today, Congress still has what political theorists Willmoore Kendall and George Carey described as the “ultimate weapons in any showdown with either of the other two branches.” That would be the power to fund or defund anything done by presidents and bureaucrats. But using those weapons requires a certain unity and spirit, which, sadly, hasn’t been seen around Capitol Hill for a long, long time.

HOME SCHOOLING UP 400 PERCENT IN TEXAS: More evidence that the education unions are utterly discrediting public schools with their reaction to Covid.

THE TAX CUT FOR THE RICH DEMS LOVE: Wait, how did this get in The New York Times? This is a crime against the Revolution! The comrade-editor responsible should be shipped to Siberia (or is it San Francisco these days?) for letting this revisionist piece of subversive analysis be published.

NO, SWEDEN DOES NOT PROVE COVID LOCKDOWNS WORK: Critics, including some in Sweden, contend the decision to remain mostly open during the Covid pandemic has unnecessarily cost thousands of Nordic lives.

But hold on there, buckaroos, because three guys at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) say Sweden has lots of other factors that are more explanatory of its  losses, not the least of which is the one it shares with New York.

COPLAND DISASSEMBLES AMERICA’S RULING CLASS: Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow James Copland’s new book, “The Unelected: How An Unaccountable Elite Is Governing America,” is getting and fully deserves outstanding reviews like this one by Law & Liberty’s Mark Pulliam.

My own view is that pretty much anything Copland pens about lawyers, class-action litigation, preservation of the Republic, contemporary politics and so forth is must-reading.

BLM RIOTING IS THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ATTACKING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: That arresting thought comes from the Discovery Institute’s David Klinghoffer, who further notes that proponents of Intelligent Design experienced cancel culture first.

‘THERE IS NO PANDEMIC:’ This is the spirit of liberty speaking truth to power. Pastor John MacArthur, now facing the fourth blatantly unconstitutional assault by Los Angeles officials, points to the crucial facts about Covid restrictions on the First Amendment.

You don’t have to agree with him that such attacks are satanic in order to recognize this guy is standing up for everybody’s freedom to worship or not worship as we individually choose. MacArthur’s church is represented by Jenna Ellis of the Thomas More Society.

UPDATED AND PROMOTED: “L.A. County is clearly trying to evict Grace Church from use of their parking lot for no other reason than because Pastor John [MacArthur] stood firm and is challenging their power,” Ellis said in a statement following announcement of the planned cancellation of a parking lot lease the congregation has had with Los Angeles County for 45 years.

“This is the essence of tyranny,” Ellis said, Indeed. Graham Piro of the Washington Free Beacon has additional details.

Tyranny facilitated by youtube, which has taken down the MacArthur video, an act that is otherwise known as “censorship.”

SEATTLE CLOSES PARK TO PREVENT OUTDOOR WORSHIP SERVICE: This notice sounds innocuous enough, just a legitimate public health measure. The reality is officials closed the park because it was the planned site for a worship time organized by a group of local churches, assisted by Sean Feucht. Feucht’s ministry organization has organized 19 services in 19 cities during July and August.

“This is the height of hypocrisy for the City of Seattle to turn a blind eye to riots, looting, and AntiFa, while refusing to let Christians gather in a public park to sing and worship,” Feucht said in a statement in response to the closure notice. “First the government shuts down churches. Now it’s shutting down parks to stop us from worshipping.  Time to stand up church!”

BANNON SHOWS ‘THE OTHER’ DONOR INTENT PROBLEM: Shock waves are still radiating out from the indictment of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three others for allegedly misusing funds contributed solely for the purpose of helping build the wall on the U.S./Mexico border. Michael Watson of the Capital Research Center (CRC) notes, a lot of liberals have a lot of explaining to do as well.

UPDATE: There is an alternative take on the Bannon case, as explained here by my friend Mark Fitzgibbons, for whom I have tremendous respect. There are important links to the sad case of former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) that are well worth pondering, too.

END OF ‘STARS & STRIPES”? It is if the Pentagon gets its way.