Lionel Nation

24 AUG 2026.

And now I’ve heard it all.

An American Thinker column reports that a speaker before the Los Angeles City Council proposed a taxpayer-funded pilot program offering “sexual relief” facilities primarily for homeless people. According to the article, the speaker described the concept as providing hygienic spaces for masturbation and, where consensual and appropriate, sexual activity with a partner under professional oversight. The proposal was framed as an issue of equality and privacy for unhoused residents.

The column reacts with criticism, arguing that Los Angeles already spends heavily on services for homeless residents while struggling with homelessness and budget pressures. Writer Monica Showalter contends that additional accommodations risk enabling homelessness rather than addressing addiction, mental illness, employment and rehabilitation. She also speculates that nonprofit organizations could view such programs as another source of government funding.

One important distinction: the article documents an individual making this proposal before the City Council; it does not establish that the council adopted, funded or formally endorsed the idea. The controversy therefore concerns both the substance of the public proposal and the political question of how far municipal government should go in providing services to homeless populations. Critics see absurdity and misplaced priorities; supporters would presumably frame it as harm reduction. (americanthinker.com)

They already get free tents and teeth, why not a place to do the dirty, too?

Little River Band’s “My Lady and Me,” performed at Adelaide Festival Theatre in 1977, captures the group at an early peak: polished, melodic and unmistakably Australian. Written by Graeham Goble and first released in 1975, the song blends soft rock, harmony-rich vocals and a restless romantic lyric about love, travel and uncertainty. The live performance adds warmth and immediacy, with the band’s musicianship already fully formed. It is a beautiful snapshot of LRB before international superstardom arrived in full force.

‘My Lady And Me’ written by Graeham Goble, recorded on the 11th of May 1977 at the Adelaide Festival Theatre. #littleriverband #glennshorrock #graehamgoble #australianmusic #yachtrock

The post Nothing Feels Normal Anymore and Maybe That Is the Point appeared first on Lionel Nation.

23 AUG 2026.

There’s a fast-growing national protest movement against Flock Safety cameras, the automated license-plate readers used by police and some private communities to record vehicle movements.

The central complaint is privacy. Critics argue that Flock is creating a searchable record of where ordinary people drive, even when they are suspected of no crime. Recent reporting has also documented cases in which officers were accused of misusing the system to track spouses, girlfriends or ex-partners. Flock has responded by announcing tighter safeguards, including mandatory case numbers for searches, automated review for suspicious activity and shorter data-retention periods. (The Washington Post)

The protest movement has become surprisingly bipartisan. Civil-liberties groups, populists, conservatives, progressives and privacy activists have all objected to the idea of a privately operated nationwide surveillance network. Axios describes Flock cameras as a major new focus of anti-surveillance activism across the political spectrum. (Axios)

And these aren’t merely online complaints. On August 19, protesters demonstrated outside the Hamilton, Ohio city building while nearby Oxford voted 6–1 to terminate its Flock contract. (WVXU) In Houston, protests have accompanied an escalating backlash in which several cameras have also been vandalized or cut down. (Houston Chronicle)

That distinction matters: peaceful protest, petitions, city-council pressure and demands for warrants or tighter oversight are lawful political activity. Destroying or disabling cameras can be criminal vandalism.

The larger question being raised is simple: Should the government be able to create a detailed database of your movements merely because you drove on a public road? Police argue Flock cameras help locate stolen vehicles, missing persons and criminal suspects. Critics respond that a useful investigative tool can still become mass surveillance when virtually everyone is continuously recorded.

That debate is rapidly moving from the fringe into mainstream politics. More than 50 jurisdictions reportedly ended relationships with Flock during 2026, while protests and organized campaigns continue around the country. (The Guardian)

If you meant the specific Flock-camera protest happening now, tell me the city and I’ll identify exactly what happened, who organized it and what they’re demanding.

In dozens of states around the country, people are vandalizing, blocking and taking down Flock cameras. A surge in such activity underscores the growing resistance to this police surveillance technology.

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University of Colorado Boulder’s trumpet quintet delivers a spectacular performance of Jason Dovel’s Centrifuge, the flashy, technically demanding showpiece that earned the ensemble first place at the 2025 National Trumpet Competition. Written to evoke the spinning motion and precision of a centrifuge, the piece combines rapid-fire passages, razor-sharp ensemble playing, dramatic contrasts and a lyrical flugelhorn section. The result is exhilarating: five musicians operating almost as one instrument, balancing virtuosity, precision, musicality and sheer competitive fire.

The University of Colorado Boulder trumpet ensemble performs Jason Dovel’s Centrifuge, earning 1st Place in THE ANDY LOTT BRASS COLLEGE SMALL ENSEMBLE DIVISION Performed on trumpets and flugelhorns, this chamber music performance showcases precise intonation, seamless instrument switching mid-performance, and the technical demands of contemporary trumpet music at the highest level of collegiate competition.

The post America Is Revolting Against the Flock Surveillance State appeared first on Lionel Nation.

22 AUG 2026.

The prosecution need not prove Lindsay Clancy was mentally healthy. Plainly she was not. Its burden is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that mental disease or defect did not deprive her of substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or conform her conduct to the law.

The evidence of treatment, paranoia, suicidal thoughts and alleged hallucinations establishes illness. It does not automatically establish legal insanity at the moment of the killings. Under McHoul the decisive inquiry concerns her capacity when she acted.

The Commonwealth will focus on contemporaneous behavior. Could she calculate how long Patrick would be away? Did she arrange dinner, discuss medication and communicate coherently? Did she create an opportunity to be alone and act only after an adult departed? If so the prosecution may argue that her conduct was organized, purposeful and concealed because she understood someone would intervene.

Her earlier warnings about harming the children cut both ways. They support psychiatric distress. Yet they may also demonstrate awareness that the contemplated conduct was dangerous and wrong. If she recognized the danger why did she not remove herself, demand hospitalization or ensure she was never left alone with them?

The jury must compare later reports of hallucinations with actions before, during and after the deaths. Those accounts may be genuine, exaggerated, misunderstood or incomplete. The legal question remains fixed: what capacity did she possess at the moment?

If the Commonwealth proves she understood her actions, appreciated their wrongfulness and could obey the law, the legal defense fails.

Follow The Post’s live coverage of the Lindsay Clancy murder trial Friday in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Clancy, 36, is charged with murder for strangling her three young kids while postpartum in 2023.

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“To the Runner,” the closing movement of Jon Anderson’s Olias of Sunhillow, feels like a radiant farewell after an otherworldly journey. Anderson’s layered vocals, acoustic textures and celestial harmonies give the piece a sense of spiritual release. It is less a conventional song than a benediction: hopeful, mystical and weightless, carrying the listener beyond the album’s strange, beautiful imagined world.

From Wikipedia: Olias of Sunhillow is a progressive rock concept album by Jon Anderson, the lead singer of the band Yes. Released in 1976, it was his first solo album and the most successful of Yes’ solo efforts, reaching #8 in the UK charts and breaking into the US Top 50.

The post Lindsay Clancy and the Insanity of the Insanity Plea appeared first on Lionel Nation.

21 AUG 2026.

The Lindsay Clancy case is not really about what happened. Virtually nobody disputes that Lindsay Clancy was responsible for the deaths of her three children. The legal battle concerns criminal responsibility.

On January 24, 2023, Clancy was living in Duxbury, Massachusetts with her husband Patrick and their three young children: Cora, Dawson and Callan.

Prosecutors say Lindsay deliberately created an opportunity to be alone with them. She checked the driving time to a restaurant, discussed medication, ordered dinner and sent Patrick out for food and medicine.

During the time Patrick was gone, prosecutors allege that Lindsay caused the deaths of all three children inside the family home.

Patrick returned and discovered an unimaginable scene. Lindsay had also seriously injured herself in an apparent attempt to end her own life. He then discovered the children and desperately attempted to save them.

The defense does not dispute Lindsay’s actions. Instead, it argues that she was suffering from profound mental illness, including postpartum psychosis, and therefore lacked criminal responsibility.

Her family described suicidal thoughts, paranoia, severe anxiety and fears that she might harm the children. She had sought psychiatric treatment and researched symptoms involving hallucinations, depression and postpartum psychosis.

The prosecution’s answer is planning.

They point to the phone calls, dinner arrangements, timing of Patrick’s absence and the circumstances surrounding the deaths as evidence that Lindsay understood what she was doing.

That brings us to Massachusetts’ McHoul standard, pronounced “mick-HOOL.”

Under McHoul, a defendant may be found not criminally responsible if mental disease or defect left that person without substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct or conform that conduct to the law.

The Commonwealth must prove criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt.

That is the case: not simply what Lindsay Clancy did, but whether Massachusetts law holds her criminally responsible for doing it. https://archive.is/JKPs5

Testimony continued Thursday morning in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, with jurors hearing from one witness before being dismissed for the day. Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Friday.

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Kent Nishimura does not merely cover Peg. He reconstructs its entire architecture on acoustic guitar. Bass, rhythm, melody and Michael McDonald’s unmistakable backing harmonies seem to emerge from one pair of hands. His three-guitar arrangement preserves the polished precision of Steely Dan while adding warmth, intimacy and astonishing physical control. It is less a performance than a beautifully engineered musical illusion that rewards repeated listening from beginning to end magnificently.

東京コットンクラブ公演、チケット販売中！ 2026 8.31 mon.

The post POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS OR PREMEDITATION? The Clancy Case Explained appeared first on Lionel Nation.

19 AUG 2026.

Source: Futurism, Victor Tangermann, “It Seems Like Bill Gates’ Daughter May Be in Serious Legal Trouble,” published August 12, 2026. The article reports that Phoebe Gates’ startup Phia allegedly claimed affiliate commissions through “cookie stuffing,” including by dropping tracking cookies without genuine user clicks.

Futurism bases much of its account on Bloomberg reporting and internal Slack messages. It reports that Gates asked whether an automatic cookie-drop feature was operating across qualifying sites, while cofounder Sophia Kianni allegedly encouraged keeping cookies dropping after an engineer raised compliance concerns.

The article also reports that after Phia disabled the feature, average daily revenue fell from roughly $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000. Bloomberg reportedly estimated that approximately 51 percent of the June sales Phia claimed credit for were tied to cookie stuffing.

Importantly, Futurism does not report that Phoebe Gates has been criminally charged. It says potential legal exposure remains speculative. The article cites attorney Ariel Givner’s view that this type of conduct can potentially constitute federal wire fraud and carry serious penalties, but whether prosecutors or civil litigants will actually pursue the matter remains unresolved.

It sure seems like Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe Gates, may have just committed federal wire fraud, an attorney says.

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João Gilberto in Germany in 1967 is almost a master class in understatement. Nothing is forced. Nothing is wasted. His guitar supplies the pulse while that famously restrained voice seems to float just behind the beat, turning Dorival Caymmi’s “Samba da Minha Terra” into something intimate and hypnotic. The performance came during a German television appearance that year, capturing bossa nova at its international height. It is elegant, deceptively simple and unmistakably Brazilian, with rhythm doing nearly all the talking.

de Dorival Caymmi. Participação de Pierre Le Marchand no chimbal. Trecho do programa “Monsieur 100.000 Volt” de Gilbert Bécaud exibido em novembro de 1967.

The post Name One Thing That’s Improving Anent Government: Just One appeared first on Lionel Nation.

18 AUG 2026.

For decades American politics was organized around a simple horizontal axis. Left versus right. Liberal versus conservative. Democrat versus Republican. That model is collapsing because it no longer adequately describes the alliances, arguments or suspicions shaping modern political life.

Increasingly the more useful divide is establishment versus anti-establishment. Institutionalists versus skeptics. People who instinctively trust government, intelligence agencies, corporate media, universities and credentialed experts versus those who increasingly ask whether those institutions have earned that trust.

This is why strange political coalitions now appear everywhere. Antiwar conservatives find themselves agreeing with old-school liberals. Civil libertarians from the left suddenly share concerns with populists on the right about censorship, surveillance and government secrecy. Working-class voters who once belonged automatically to the Democratic coalition increasingly sound culturally conservative while traditional Republicans sometimes defend corporations and institutions they once distrusted.

The old labels are becoming inadequate.

Consider free speech. Once treated primarily as a liberal cause, it has become central to much of the populist right. Consider war. Once associated with hawkish Republicans, skepticism of foreign intervention now crosses ideological lines. Even distrust of pharmaceutical companies, intelligence agencies, federal law enforcement and concentrated corporate power can unite people who disagree profoundly on almost everything else.

None of this means left and right have disappeared. Abortion, taxes, guns, immigration and cultural questions still create genuine ideological divisions. But something larger is happening underneath them.

People are reorganizing politically around trust.

Who do you believe? Who deserves scrutiny? Who controls information? Who benefits from the accepted narrative? Who is permitted to question it?

That emerging fault line may ultimately prove more consequential than the old partisan one.

The political future may belong not to left versus right but to those who defend institutions versus those demanding that institutions prove themselves worthy of being defended.

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I’m With Her takes John Hiatt’s “Crossing Muddy Waters” and turns it into something almost weightless. Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz let the song breathe through immaculate three-part harmony, acoustic restraint and that rare musical discipline where nobody fights for attention. Their Grey Fox 2025 performance feels less like a cover than a communal remembrance, preserving Hiatt’s melancholy while adding luminous warmth. It is roots music stripped of vanity, three extraordinary musicians serving the song rather than themselves.

I’m With Her, featuring Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, and Sarah Jarosz performs John Hiatt’s “Crossing Muddy Waters” at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival 2025. Brought to you by Less Than Face Productions. Audio by Bill K.

The post The Disintegration of the Left/Right Paradigm appeared first on Lionel Nation.

17 AUG 2026.

Imagine watching that debate and somehow walking away convinced that Candace Owens lost. Whatever one thinks of her larger claims, theories or conclusions, that judgment requires ignoring what actually happened in the room. Andrew Wilson’s job was not merely to disagree with Candace. His job was to dismantle her arguments, expose fatal weaknesses in her evidence and demonstrate why her conclusions could not withstand serious scrutiny. He simply did not do that.

Instead, Wilson looked surprisingly underprepared for a confrontation he had aggressively promoted. He repeatedly allowed Candace to dictate the direction of the discussion, surrendered the initiative at critical moments and too often appeared to be reacting rather than prosecuting a coherent case of his own. A skilled debater can dislike every proposition advanced by an opponent and still recognize when that opponent controls the battlefield. Candace controlled it.

That does not mean every claim she has ever made was proved beyond dispute. That was never the standard. A debate is not a criminal trial, nor is victory determined by whether the audience agrees with every underlying proposition. The question is who defended a position more effectively, who answered challenges, who demonstrated command of the material and who forced the other side onto defense.

By those measures, Wilson had a very difficult outing.

What makes the post-debate revisionism especially fascinating is that some critics appear unable to separate their opinion of Candace Owens from their assessment of her performance. They dislike her, therefore she must have lost. That is not analysis. It is preference masquerading as scoring.

You can despise Candace Owens. You can reject her conclusions. You can believe she is wrong about virtually everything.

But pretending Andrew Wilson dismantled her in that debate requires a very creative definition of victory.

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Joni Mitchell’s “Coyote” in the Shadows and Light performance is an extraordinary collision of poetry, jazz and restless motion. Mitchell seems completely liberated, singing conversationally while her guitar pushes the song forward. Behind her is an absurdly gifted band, including Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny, turning an already sophisticated song into something alive, dangerous and unpredictable. This is Mitchell at her peak, refusing categories and making musical complexity sound effortless.

© Copyright Notice: For any questions regarding copyright issues related to video materials, please contact me via email at [email protected] Recorded & filmed live at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, California, USA on September 9, 1979.

The post CANDACE OWENS JUST CHANGED POLITICAL DEBATES — The Old Rules Are DEAD appeared first on Lionel Nation.

16 AUG 2026.

As of August 13, 2026, the CNN situation has taken a very interesting turn: David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is now openly acknowledging that CNN could be sold off to get the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition through the antitrust fight. But CNN has not actually been sold, and there is no announced buyer or signed divestiture agreement. Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim said yesterday that all options, including a possible CNN sale, are “on the table.” (Reuters)

Here’s where things stand:

There’s another wrinkle today. The Wall Street Journal reports Paramount has discussed creating an independent editorial board or similar safeguards for CNN, discussions that reportedly began even before the states filed suit. (The Wall Street Journal) Britain has already cleared the overall transaction after Ellison provided legally binding commitments concerning editorial independence and programming there. (Reuters)

So the important distinction is this: Ellison has not decided to sell CNN. Paramount is signaling that it could sacrifice CNN if that is the price of saving the much larger Warner transaction. That is a dramatically different proposition.

And strategically, that makes sense. If you are paying roughly $81 billion for Warner and facing a prolonged antitrust trial plus enormous delay costs, CNN is an asset you can put on the negotiating table without abandoning HBO, Warner Bros., DC, the film library and the rest of the prize. (AP News)

This is moving quickly. I can keep watch specifically for a CNN buyer, a divestiture proposal or a settlement in the antitrust case.

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Molly Tuttle’s Peak Summer Session is a masterclass in modern bluegrass, blending extraordinary flatpicking, effortless vocals and an unmistakable sense of musical adventure. Her technique is astonishing, but what really stands out is how naturally everything flows. Nothing feels forced or merely showy. Tuttle combines tradition with freshness, precision with soul and virtuosity with genuine warmth. This full performance captures an artist completely in command of her instrument and her own musical identity.

Molly Tuttle – Peak Summer Session (Full Performance) Recorded on 7/20/25 at Rye Town Park in Rye, NY for 107.1 The Peak. Listen online at 1071ThePeak.com

The post CNN on the CHOPPING BLOCK as Paramount Faces Antitrust Showdown appeared first on Lionel Nation.

15 AUG 2026.

Nigel Farage has comfortably retained his parliamentary seat in Clacton, delivering Reform UK a decisive victory in a highly unusual by-election. Farage received 22,239 votes, representing 63.3 percent of ballots cast, and secured a majority of 12,784. His principal opponent was the satirical candidate Count Binface, who finished second with 9,455 votes, nearly 27 percent. The Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green parties declined to field candidates, leaving a crowded ballot of 34 largely independent and minor-party contenders.

Farage triggered the election by resigning his seat and seeking a renewed mandate amid controversy over financial gifts and parliamentary disclosure requirements. He portrayed the campaign as a direct confrontation between Clacton voters and a political establishment determined to remove or discredit him. The result increased his share from the 46.2 percent he received when first elected in 2024.

Farage did not attend the official count, saying security concerns prevented his appearance. Essex Police subsequently disputed suggestions that officers had advised him to stay away. He instead celebrated with supporters at a separate event.

The victory returns Farage immediately to Parliament, but it does not end the controversy surrounding him. The parliamentary standards commissioner has resumed an investigation into whether he failed to disclose a reported £5 million gift from cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne. Farage maintains that the payment was a personal gift and did not require registration. Critics argue the by-election was an unnecessary political maneuver designed to escape scrutiny. Whatever the investigation produces, Clacton voters have unmistakably returned him to Westminster with an overwhelming electoral mandate. Official result

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has retaken his seat in parliament after winning the Clacton by-election, which was boycotted by the UK’s establishment parties

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This remastered performance of “Coyote” captures Joni Mitchell at the height of her fearless jazz period. Her guitar drives the song with restless open-road momentum while her voice turns every line into sharply observed autobiography. Jaco Pastorius’s fretless bass moves like a second narrator, answering and provoking her. Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker and Don Alias create an extraordinary elastic backdrop. It’s sophisticated, sensual, funny and utterly alive, proving Mitchell belonged beside the greatest jazz musicians of her generation.

© Copyright Notice: For any questions regarding copyright issues related to video materials, please contact me via email at [email protected] Recorded & filmed live at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, California, USA on September 9, 1979.

The post Clacton ERUPTS: Farage Returns to Parliament With an Overwhelming Mandate appeared first on Lionel Nation.

13 AUG 2026.

Tucker Carlson has become something rarer than a television personality: a political force whose influence now extends far beyond any network, party or conventional ideological box. He operates less like a broadcaster than a latter-day revolutionary, challenging assumptions that once went unquestioned inside Washington, corporate media and the foreign-policy establishment.

His appeal is not merely that he dissents. Plenty of people dissent. Carlson’s power comes from asking questions that powerful institutions often prefer remain unasked, then forcing those questions into mainstream conversation. On war, intelligence agencies, censorship, immigration, trade and the growing distance between governing elites and ordinary citizens, he has helped redefine the boundaries of acceptable debate.

That makes him controversial by design. Admirers see intellectual courage and independence. Critics see provocation, selective skepticism and a willingness to entertain arguments they consider dangerous or irresponsible. But even his fiercest opponents increasingly have to respond to him, which is itself evidence of his reach.

Carlson also represents a broader political realignment. The old categories of Republican and Democrat, hawk and dove, establishment and outsider no longer explain the landscape very well. He speaks to an audience suspicious of institutional authority, foreign intervention and managed consensus.

Whether one agrees with every conclusion is almost beside the point. Tucker Carlson has become a leader of the political cognoscenti because he understands something fundamental about this moment: power increasingly belongs to those willing to question the premises everyone else was told to accept. And increasingly, millions are listening closely to him.

Tucker Carlson tells RT he is not afraid to be killed for speaking his mind as he criticizes US foreign wars and the influence of the “war lobby.”

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A dazzling meeting of two piano giants, Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehara, at Tokyo Jazz 2006. Corea brings his unmistakable rhythmic sophistication and playful harmonic imagination, while Hiromi answers with explosive technique, fearless energy and dazzling spontaneity. What makes this performance special is the conversation: two virtuosos listening, challenging, answering and clearly enjoying every unpredictable musical turn together onstage brilliantly.

Track list: – Summertime – All Blues Recorded live at Tokyo Jazz Festival, Tokyo International Forum, 2006-09-03 Evening Stage #ChickCorea (Armando Anthony Corea, June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions “Spain”, “500 Miles High”, “La Fiesta”, “Armando’s Rhumba” and “Windows” are widely considered jazz standards.

The post Meet Tucker Carlson: Latter Day Revolutionary and Leader of the Political Cognoscenti appeared first on Lionel Nation.