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On Monday afternoon, Steve Bannon confidently strolled out of a federal courthouse, in Washington, D.C., after surrendering to face charges of contempt of Congress. Released on his own recognizance, he was accompanied by an entourage that live-streamed his every move on Gettr, a social-media platform created by Donald Trumps supporters. Immediately surrounded by two dozen reporters and camera crews, Bannon declared himself a victim of the illegitimate Biden regime; called for the fall of the Chinese Communist Party; predicted that congressional investigators would fail, as Hillary Clinton had in 2016; and said that, in refusing to speak to the House select committee investigating the events of January 6th, he was fighting for free speech. Bannon also invoked a conspiracy theory that career civil servants in Washington secretly plot against him, Trump, and other Republican officials, saying, If the administrative state wants to take me on, bring it on. Were here to fight this. Were going to go on offense. Then, encircled by lawyers, bodyguards, and the press, he made his way under a canopy of orange autumn foliage to Constitution Avenue, where a black S.U.V. was parked. A handful of anti-Trump demonstrators shouted liar, scumbag, dirtbag walking, and, repeatedly, traitor. Before stepping into the car, Bannon thanked the journalists, saying, Really appreciate you guys coming out today. A few hundred yards away, a flag fluttered on top of the U.S. Capitol.

Bannons statements, his demeanor, and his social-media live streaming were no surprise. He was employing the same circus-like tactics that date back to his tenure as Trumps campaign chief, in 2016, and as White House strategist, in 2017. He appeared, above all, to be enjoying himself. Both before and after surrendering to the court, Bannon signalled that he planned to use the proceedings to cement his standing among Trump supporters. On Capitol Hill, some Democrats seemed satisfied, too. A staffer told me that Bannons defiance showed that the groups that tried to overturn the 2020 election are still active. The threat to democracy continues. It hasnt gone away, the staffer said. Were seeing it in real time.

The question, of course, is how the public will see the Bannon case. American democracy is entering a strange and perilous period. The U.S. Capitol has come under attack in the past. In 1814, when the building was still under construction, British forces set fire to it. In 1954, supporters of independence for Puerto Rico fired pistols onto the House floor from the public gallery, wounding five members of Congress. And, in 1971, the Weather Underground claimed responsibility for detonating a bomb, which heavily damaged the building, in an effort to force an end to the Vietnam War.

The January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol is different, because it was conducted by backers of a sitting U.S. President who refusedand continues to refuseto accept the results of the election that removed him from power. Last week, the ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl released audio of a March interview with Trump in which the former President defended his demands that Mike Pence reverse the results of the 2020 election. Asked if he ever feared for his Vice-Presidents safety, as rioters chanted Hang Mike Pence, Trump replied no, repeated his false claims that the election was stolen, and blamed Pence for the violence. Its common sense, Jon, Trump said. How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that? A second Democratic Hill staffer said that such statements show why it is vital for the select committee to aggressively investigate the events of January 6th. What choice is there? the staffer asked. They tried to kill the Vice-President of the United States.

Legal experts say that Bannons case presents a dilemma for CarlNichols, the federal judge hearing it. Bannon and other Trump allies who have declined to testify appear to be betting that Republicans will win control of the House in next years midterm elections. The House resolution that established the select committee expires when the current congressional term ends, on January 3, 2023. So there is a real sense of urgency, the first Democratic staffer said.

David Laufman, a former senior Justice Department official and federal prosecutor, told me that the length of federal criminal proceedings varies widely, but it would not be unusual for the Bannon case, from hearings to trial to possible sentencing, to take up to a year. Nichols, who is also overseeing the trials of accused January 6th rioters, can choose to accelerate the timetable of Bannons case if he decides that there is a substantial federal interest in doing so. At the same time, he must make it abundantly clear that Bannon will get a fair trial and be treated like any other American defendant; as Bannon demonstrated on Monday, he will eagerly seize upon anything to suggest that he is being prosecuted because of his political views.

One of Bannons first statements after he left the courthouse on Monday seemed to be directed to supporters watching his live stream. Dont ever let them take you off message, he said. As Bannons case plays out in the months ahead, Americans will have to decide whether his theatrics are a threat to democracy, performative branding, or a mix of both. Laufman, the former federal prosecutor, said that there is a substantial federal interest in Bannons case proceeding as quickly as possible. He asked, What can be of greater interest than an attack on the heart of democracy in the United States?

Read this article:
How Big a Threat Is Steve Bannon? - The New Yorker

The Washington, D.C.-based Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost all credibility as a disinterested investigatory agency. Now we learn from a whistleblower that the agency was allegedly investigating moms and dads worried about the teaching of critical race theory in their kids' schools.

In truth, since 2015, the FBI has been constantly in the news - and mostly in a negative and constitutionally disturbing light.

The fired former Director James Comey injected himself into the 2016 political race by constantly editorializing on his ongoing investigation of candidate Hillary Clinton's email leaks.

In a bizarre twist, the public learned later that Comey had allowed Hillary Clinton's own private computer contractor - CrowdStrike - to run the investigation of the hack. The private firm was allowed to keep possession of pertinent hard drives central to the investigation. How odd that CrowdStrike's point man was Shawn Henry, a former high-ranking FBI employee.

During the Robert Mueller special investigation, the FBI implausibly claimed it had no idea how requested information on FBI cell phones had mysteriously disappeared.

It was also under Comey's directorship that the FBI submitted inaccurate requests for warrants to a FISA court. Elements of one affidavit to surveil Trump supporter Carter Page were forged by FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who later pleaded guilty to a felony.

The FBI hired the disreputable ex-British spy Christopher Steele as a contractor, while he was peddling his fantasy - the Clinton-bought dossier - to Obama government officials and the media.

Former FBI general counsel James Baker was reportedly the subject of a federal investigation. He allegedly conducted prominent meetings both with media outlets that later leaked lurid tales from the Steele dossier. He also met repeatedly with the now-indicted Perkins Coe attorney Michael Sussman.

Comey himself, through third-party intermediaries, leaked to the media his own confidential memos detailing private meetings with President Trump. His assurances both to Congress and to Trump that the president was not the current subject of FBI investigations were either misleading or outright lies.

In sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, Comey on some 245 occasions claimed he could not remember or had no knowledge of key elements of his own "Russian Collusion" investigation.

Comey's replacement, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, was fired for leaking sensitive information to the media. He then lied on at least three occasions about his role to federal attorneys and his own FBI investigators.

McCabe is now a paid CNN consultant who often has offered misleading information on the Russian collusion hoax that he helped promulgate.

Former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller conducted a 22-month, $40 million wild goose chase after some mythical "Russian Collusion" plot. When called before Congress, Mueller claimed he had little or no knowledge about Fusion GPS or the Steele Dossier - the twin sources that birthed the entire collusion hoax.

FBI lawyer Lisa Page was removed from Mueller's investigation, along with her paramour FBI investigator Peter Strzok. Both misused FBI communications, revealing their pro-Clinton biases during their investigations of "Russian collusion," while hiding their own unprofessional relationship.

Mueller himself staggered their firings and delayed explanations about why they were let go from his investigation team.

When the FBI arrested pro-Trump activist Roger Stone, it did so with a huge quasi-swat team - to the tipped-off and lurking CNN reporters.

The FBI repeated such politicized performance art recently when they stormed the home of Project Veritas director James O'Keefe. The agency confiscated his electronic devices on the grounds that he had knowledge of the contents of the allegedly lurid missing diary of Joe Biden's daughter. The FBI - an apparent retrieval service of lost Biden family embarrassments - also did not disclose that it had possession of Hunter Biden's laptop at a time when the media was erroneously declaring the computer inauthentic.

O'Keefe was accosted in the pre-morning hours by a crowd of FBI agents, wielding a battering ram, who pushed him out of his home in his underwear.

The time and location of the FBI raid, as in the Stone case, were leaked to the media that cheered the raid shortly after it was conducted. A federal judge recently stopped the FBI's ongoing monitoring of O'Keefe's communications.

Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins recently detailed other FBI lapses such as downplaying evidence that former Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was a known and chronic molester of teenage gymnasts.

The agency also extended its witch hunt against the innocent researcher wrongly accused of involvement in the anthrax attacks of 2001.

One could add to such misadventures the mysterious leadership roles of at least 12 FBI informants in the harebrained kidnapping scheme of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

We can also cite the agency's inability to follow up on clear information about the dangers posed by criminals as diverse as the Tsarnaev brothers, the Boston Marathon bombers, and the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

For its own moral and practical survival, the FBI should be given one last chance at redemption by moving to the nation's heartland - perhaps Kansas - far away from the political and media tentacles that have so deeply squeezed and corrupted it.

(C)2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Case for Trump. You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.

Originally posted here:
Can the FBI Be Salvaged? - RealClearPolitics

Midnight in WashingtonHow We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Couldby Adam SchiffRandom House, 510 pp., $30

Vilification is one of the primary weapons in Donald Trumps political arsenal. Over the four years of the Trump presidency, perhaps no one was subjected to more of it than Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee andmore pertinentlythe lead manager of the House impeachment team during Trumps first Senate trial. Indeed, Schiffs name was almost never mentioned by the former president without the accompaniment of some juvenile taunt: pencil neck, Shifty Schiff, Little Adam Schiff, crooked Adam Schiff, and even Adam Schitt.

Of course, such crude appellations tell us far more about the appalling character of Donald Trump than anything else. But Trump is not alone. Surprisingly, even some ostensible anti-Trumpers have been furiously dumping on the congressman. To Eli Lake, Schiff is a showman playing the role of statesman, and for leveling various allegations against Trump that he could never prove, hes the boy who cried collusion. To Jonah Goldberg, Schiff is a dishonorable and dishonest hack with a gift for flinging hyperpartisan innuendo while seeming to be a studious and serious legislator.

Is any of this right? Even if Schiff is not the villain of Trumps nightmares, does he nonetheless deserve some of the incoming that has landed on his head?

Podcast November 17 2021

The findings of the Mueller report have been overshadowed by the discrediting of the Steele dossier, but the Russia-Trum...

One place to begin looking for answers is Schiffs own new book, Midnight in Washington, a lengthyand quite engrossingpolitical memoir.

Schiff begins with his hybrid political lineage. His fathers family were devoted Democrats of the FDR school. His mothers family were ardent Republicans, in the mold of the Rockefellers and the Lodges. From this mixed marriage, Schiff emerged as a moderate Democrat.

As a sophomore in college, he had a formative experience: A trip through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin presented him with living proof of the dehumanization of Communism along with an abiding appreciation of his own country, where both political parties, at least back then, shared a commitment to the rights and dignity of the individual.

After Stanford, Harvard Law, a federal clerkship, and a short stint in private practice, Schiff became a prosecutor in the office of the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. After trying dozens upon dozens of garden-variety criminal casesbank robberies, drug deals, bribery, embezzlement, and so forthhe made a name for himself as the successful lead prosecutor in the third trial, after the first two had ended inconclusively, of Richard Miller, an FBI agent who had become a Soviet mole.

Frustrated with the limitations of his position, Schiff quit his prosecutors post after three years and settled in Los Angeles, where he gravitated to politics. He lost two races for the state assembly, a distinctly demoralizing experience, before getting his break: At age 36 he won a seat in the state senate, where he was soon to chair the judiciary committee, gaining a reputation for fairness and integrity by leading it in a bipartisan manner. In 1999, he got another break and was recruited to run for Congress, trouncing a Republican incumbent in what was then the most expensive race in House history.

The qualities that Schiff exhibited in the California Senate put him in demand in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2007, thanks to his prosecutorial skills, Schiff was invited to take a seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The work of the committee at that juncture was largely nonpartisan and Schiff closely and amicably collaborated with another California legislator, the Republican Devin Nunes.

Then came Benghazi, the September 11, 2012, incident in which militants overran a U.S. diplomatic mission, killing four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. After two years of wide-ranging inquiry, HPSCI issued a bipartisan report that debunked the myriad conspiracy theories that had cropped up, including especially those maintaining that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had reduced security around the facility and hampered a rescue effort.

But that finding was highly inconvenient to Republicans anxious to tar Clinton as she prepared for a 2016 presidential bid. Soon enough, comity and amity went out the door. Kevin McCarthy and right-wing members of the Republican caucus leaned on Speaker Boehner to form a new select committee to keep the issue alive. Reluctantly, Schiff agreed to serve on it. Most of the theater came from the majority Republican side, including calling Clinton herself for a grueling eleven hours of testimony. But Schiff nonetheless helped to produce some of the other more notable moments, as in his withering questioning in the deposition of the Republican star witness, General Michael Flynn, who had been the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Obama until he was fired for incompetence.

Although the investigation failed in its bad-faith objective of damaging Clinton for her role in the Benghazi affair, it succeeded nonetheless by incidentally bringing to light the fact that she had used a private email server for official business, which, as Schiff notes, would ultimately contribute to her undoing at the hands of Trump.

Initially, Schiff thought the Trump presidency an impossibility, giving the ugliest of American campaigns no chance of success. He writes that I will forever be humbled by that blithe miscalculation. But with Trump as president, the pivotal action for Schiff became investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 race.

Once again, the House intelligence committee was a central venue. Unsurprisingly, given the Benghazi precedent, what began as a purportedly bipartisan search for truth rapidly devolved into relentless Republican efforts to conceal Trumps misconduct, and, as Schiff writes, not just conceal it, but to construct a counternarrative that would devastate every truth in its path. In this, Devin Nunes, in partnership with team Trump and conducting his bizarre midnight run to the White House, led the way.

Americas intelligence agencies had unanimously agreed that the Russians, under Vladimir Putins direction, preferred Trump to Clinton and had taken a variety of steps to advance that preference. There was no way to know, writes Schiff,

whether the Russian operation had changed the outcome of the race that would ultimately be decided by just seventy thousand votes scattered among a few key states. Nor could we know whether the Russians had engaged in this unprecedented attack on our democracy on their own or had had the help of Americans, but I was determined to find out.

Finding out would consume Schiffs next four years, as the multiple strands of the Russia investigation unfolded, with Robert Muellers criminal inquiry and the Houses own. Muellers findings, released in April 2019, should have been devastating to Trump but the potential explosiveness was defused by the machinations of Attorney General Bill Barr, who, serving as the presidents Roy Cohn, skillfully misled the public about what Mueller had found.

If the wind went out of the sails of any move for impeachment, a gale blew in with Trumps perfect July 25, 2019 phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he attempted to extort a political favorthe smearing of Joe Bidenin exchange for U.S. military aid. Schiff reprises the entire affair in close detail and also recounts his own central role as the leader of the House team that presented the impeachment case to the Senate. Though the events are familiar to anyone who paid attention to the drama, Schiff supplies the gripping inside story, including his conflicts with fellow Democrat House Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler, who comes across as highly knowledgeable about the fine points of impeachment but also as a thin-skinned hothead. As a first draft of recent history by a pivotal inside player, Midnight in Washington is a source that will stand the test of time.

The abuse hurled at Schiff by Eli Lake and Jonah Goldbergin unseemly synchrony with Donald Trumprests in part on the proposition that there was no collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia despite Schiffs repeated claims to the contrary. This is rubbish.

As Robert Mueller stated in his report, unlike conspiracy, the term collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. Mueller did not find a conspiracy. Nor did he find coordinationanother term that does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law but that Muellers team took to mean something more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the others actions or interests (emphasis added). But of such informed and responsive interplay between Russia and the Trump campaign there was plenty, as Muellers report makes clear.

Far from being the boy who cried collusion, Schiff documents chapter and verse of the nefarious behavior, taking the reader through one sketchy episode after another. There was, to begin with, in April 2016, the Russian approach, through an intermediary, to one of Trumps foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, in which they told him that they were in possession of dirt about Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, presumably hacked, with the implication that they could aid the campaign by releasing them at strategic moments.

In June 2016, a Russian lawyer approached Donald Trump Jr., using a business contact as an intermediary. The intermediary asserted that the Russians had official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and be very useful to your father, adding that this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. A few minutes later, Donald Jr. responded, If its what you say I love it. The secret meeting that followed in Trump Tower in late June was deemed of sufficient importance that Donald Jr. was joined by both Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman. The Russian lawyer ultimately provided nothing meaningful at the meetingindeed, all the intrigue in advance and the meeting itself might seem to have been a shambling waste of timebut the Trump campaign made its eagerness to collude with Moscow unequivocally clear, and of equal or even greater importance, Moscow learned of that eagerness.

Then, in late July 2016, Trump directly implored Moscow to intervene in the race: Russia, if youre listening, he said to a roomful of reporters, I hope youre able to find the thirty thousand [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. As Schiff notes, the Russians were in fact listening, and they attempted to hack a private server belonging to Clintons personal office only hours later.

One could go on much further listing the material Schiff provides, recounting the ties of campaign chairman Paul Manafort to a Russian intelligence operative or Trumps extensive business dealings with Moscow, which he lied about over the course of his campaign, giving the Russians ready-made kompromat with which to blackmail him if the need arose.

In the final analysis, the evidence of collusion (or for that matter coordination or conspiracy), as strong as it was, remains incomplete. As the Mueller report makes evident, albeit in oblique language, Trump and his team obstructed justice on numerous occasions, making it impossible for the full truth about Trumps criminality to emerge.

It must also be acknowledged that Schiff has made mistakes in the course of his investigations. As Eli Lake pointed out in a February 2020 article in Commentary, Schiff repeated elements of the now-discredited Steele dossier in a congressional hearing, leveling charges against the Trump aide Carter Page that did not pan out and for which Schiff never apologized. Schiff and his staff defended the continued issuance of FISA warrants against Page, warrants known now to be defective for relying on the Steele dossier, when there was reason for skepticism.

The damage to Page should not be understated. But these are minor transgressions when measured against the entirety of Schiffs record. It is both perverse and a calumnya case of anti-anti-Trump derangement syndrome perhaps?to chime in with the scurrilous Donald Trump and call Schiff a liar, as does the title of Eli Lakes most recent Commentary piece, or dishonorable and dishonest, as does Jonah Goldberg. Indeed, Adam Schiff is one of the few genuine heroes of the Trump era. Throughout the past five years, in the face of unremitting abuse and even death threats, he has worked with cool and measured eloquence to expose Trumps demagoguery and criminal conduct, seeking to protect the nation from further depredations by the most dangerous and depraved president in our history.

Read more:
Adam Schiffs Insider Account of the Fight to Save Our Democracy - The Bulwark

YOUTUBER Shadman has been involved in several controversies over the years before being charged with assault with a deadly weapon in Los Angeles.

Shadman is known online for his pornographic art and webcomics, some of which include political figures like Hillary Clinton.

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Court documents appear to show Swiss-bornShadman, real name Shaddai Prejean, was booked on October 26 in the California city.

Details of the case filed against Shadman in the Los Angeles County Superior Courts at Glendale Courthousehave been posted onUniCourt.

It reveals the 31-year-old has reportedly been booked under section 245 (A)1 which, under the California Penal Code, carries charges for assault with a deadly weapon.

Details about the alleged attack have not yet been disclosed by the police or official records.

Not much is known about Shadman, but he has been embroiled in controversy since he first began posting his work online.

He is said to be have been born in Switzerland and, according to a profile onIMBd, was kicked out of art school and dubbed a threat to society before moving to the US.

The controversial figure has always been photographed online wearing a mask or face covering and has built up a reputation for his illustrations of loli and characters like Elastigirl.

Loli is a form of Japanese manga or anime that is sexually explicit and uses cartoon characters who are underage.

Shadman launched his website Shadbase in 2009 and started his YouTube channel the following year.

But in 2019 he announced he was going to stop drawing loli and pornographic art due to the controversy it was receiving.

According to Sports Keeda, one website alleged that Shadman had drawn some of his artwork based on real underage girls.

It was also alleged that he made 34 pieces of art based on his mother.

The website also reported that he drew a 12-year-old actress in an inappropriate manner four years ago.

During the 2016 election, Shadman was widely slammed again after it was reported that he was asked to draw YouTuber Keemstar's underage daughter in an inappropriate piece of art with former President Donald Trump.

Keemstar threatened to call the police at the time, according to the outlet.

Shadman is reportedly due in court on November 19.

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See the original post:
Inside Shadmans controversies after YouTubers deadly weapon arrest as perverted Hillary Clinton pics ar... - The US Sun

This is the Los Angeles Times newsletter about all things TV and streaming movies. This week, we ask where the women of Impeachment are now, endorse Season 2 of an L.A.-set gentrification comedy and recount The Games nine lives. Scroll down!

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone whos wondering what MSNBC will look like this time next year.

As our own Stephen Battaglio reported on Tuesday, anchor Brian Williams is leaving NBC News after 28 years and leaving MSNBC with yet another significant hole to fill in its rotation. Another, you ask? Thats because Rachel Maddow, host of the cable channels progressive flagship, is expected to depart her show next year to take on other assignments at NBC News.

As programming headaches go, losing half your prime-time lineup in such a short span is pretty high up there. Despite reports that former John McCain advisor Nicolle Wallace is the favorite to replace Maddow, for example, its unclear whether the popular Deadline: White House host, who has a school-age son, would want to sacrifice her evenings to the news. And there have been few signs thus far that wonky, bespectacled All In host Chris Hayes a tonal match for Maddow, who joined the network in 2008 as the coolheaded counterpart to firebrand Keith Olbermann is seen as her heir apparent.

Solving the Williams conundrum may be no easier. The former NBC Nightly News anchor, who came to MSNBC under a cloud in 2015 and proceeded to turn his late-night posting, The 11th Hour, into a folksy, often wryly funny news digest of the Trump years, will not be an easy act to follow. (In truth, he was better suited to the patter of the panel show than the stentorian delivery of the nightly report.) Managing to keep the conversation light yet dignified in an era of very bad news is a task for professionals only.

Wherever MSNBC lands, it will almost surely mean shining a larger spotlight than ever on its supporting cast or an as-yet-unknown star. Will Joy Reid follow Williams lead and overcome past controversy to move into a later slot? Will onetime Trump target Ali Velshi parlay the openings into a move off the weekends? And how will the network utilize reporters such as Katy Tur and 2020 chartthrob Steve Kornacki, who are familiar faces associated not with opinion but news?

If you want a horse race worthy of Succession, listen to Maddow: Watch this space.

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A scene from Season 2 of Netflixs Boyle Heights-set comedy Gentefied.

(Kevin Estrada / Netflix)

Boyle Heights remains the backdrop for Season 2 of Netflixs sharp and thoroughly Angeleno half-hour comedy Gentefied, despite rapid gentrification i.e. the annoying proliferation of ramen shops and electric scooters. The Morales family is still fighting to keep their taco shop, Mama Finas, afloat, but a greedy landlord and skyrocketing property values are making it more difficult by the day. Plus, they now have a bigger problem on their hands: Pop (Joaqun Coso) is facing deportation after being detained by ICE during a routine traffic stop in Season 1. Series creators Marvin Lemus and Linda Yvette Chvez pit realism against humor, ratcheting up the tension and the comedy over eight episodes as Erik (Joseph Julian Soria), Ana (Karrie Martin) and Chris (Carlos Santos) struggle to keep their familial bonds intact ... and their own dreams alive. Crisis can tear a community and family apart or bind them together tighter than ever. Which one will it be for the folks of Gentefied? Lorraine Ali

When The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (Bravo) premiered late last year, it needed only three words (smells like hospital) to become an overnight sensation. So its quite the blessing, for those of us still in withdrawal from an eventful season of Beverly Hills, that the newest addition to the reality TV juggernaut continues to raise the Rocky Mountain-high bar in its sophomore run. All eyes, of course, are on cast member Jen Shah, who was arrested during filming on charges of fraud and money laundering. But Salt Lake Citys pleasures run deeper than the usual schadenfreude. Its flaring tempers and petty disagreements are inflected by multilayered differences of faith and race/ethnicity, and as a result its exploration of power and privilege taps richer veins than sports cars, glam squads and square footage (though theres plenty of that, too). Whether its gourmet queen Heather Gay extricating herself from Mormonism, rumors of bad behavior by Pentecostal church leader Mary Cosby, or Meredith Marks televised shabbat, the series embrace of belief might even be called a kind of profundity: At the risk of sounding too in thrall to its highbrow/lowbrow charms, it might be the most illuminating portrayal of the American religious marketplace currently on television. Matt Brennan

Everything you need to know about the film or TV series everyones talking about

Wendy Raquel Robinson and Hosea Chanchez return to The Game after a six-year hiatus.

(Fernando Decillis / Paramount+ )

More than six years after ending its nine-season run, The Game (Paramount+), a comedy about the players on a fictional pro football team and their significant others, is kicking off again.

The series, which began in 2006 as a spinoff of the CW comedy Girlfriends, has already been through its share of upheaval, with two networks, a cancellation and several cast changes including the departure of its two original leads under its belt.

Created by Mara Brock Akil, the original Game starred Tia Mowry-Hardrict as Melanie Barnett, an aspiring doctor who put her plans for medical school on hold to support her boyfriend, Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall), a star receiver for the San Diego Sabers. The show had a loyal following but struggled in the ratings during its initial seasons. Although Akil reportedly offered to revamp the show to make it more compatible with the networks youth-oriented programming, the network pulled the plug in 2009.

Less than two years later, the series was revived by BET, which was seeking quality scripted shows for its audience. With the original cast intact, the show premiered in 2011 to record viewership, only to be disrupted when Mowry-Hardrict and Hall left to pursue other projects. Akil brought on two new cast members Insecures Jay Ellis as a cocky No. 1 draft pick and Lauren London as a former child star but the series lasted just two more years, ending in 2015.

The Games latest iteration, which premiered Thursday, features a mostly new cast and a different setting, moving from San Diego to Las Vegas. Returning are Wendy Raquel Robinson as savvy sports agent Tasha Mack and Hosea Chanchez as her son, star quarterback Malik Wright. In the reboot, Mack has become successful enough to travel by private jet, while Wright eyes an ownership stake in his new team, the Las Vegas Fighting Fury which plays in ViacomCBS Stadium, a blunt (and indelicate) plug for Paramount+'s parent company. New cast member Adriyan Rae stars as Brittany Pitts, a daughter of two former Game characters retired football player Jason Pitts (Coby Bell) and his wife, Kelly (Brittany Daniel) who shuttles between the Vegas nightlife scene and the world of pro football.

Its a mixture of nods to the original and fresh material that the streamer is hoping will (re)capture the magic and score, in The Games 10th season, with old fans and new viewers alike. Greg Braxton

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what theyre working on and what theyre watching

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important bulletin: The Envelope podcast is back! Which means a whole new season of intimate stories and delicious behind-the-scenes details from the team that brought you news-making hits such as Kate Winslet talks about the mythical place that is Wawa and Josh OConnor slams proposed disclaimer on The Crown. Before their interviews with the A-list actors, directors and showrunners behind your favorite films and TV shows return on Nov. 30, hosts Mark Olsen and Yvonne Villarreal graciously agreed to give us a sneak peek at the new season. Listen to the trailer today, and follow wherever you get your podcasts. Matt Brennan

First things first. You have to answer the most important question of all, at least in the world of Screen Gab: What have you watched lately that you cant stop talking about?

Olsen: That would be Bergman Island (VOD), the English-language debut of French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Lve. The story of a couple, both filmmakers, on a writing retreat to Fr, the Swedish island where Ingmar Bergman lived and worked, the film is a subtly enchanting examination of how working lives and personal relationships inform identity and sense of self. Also, for anyone who was a fan of Vicky Krieps in Phantom Thread, this is the biggest dose of that sweet Krieps energy since then. Vulnerable and incisive, it is definitely one of my favorite films of the year.

Villarreal: My favorite part about Sundays is my Insecure text thread with friends. Im still in denial that this is the final season, but the journey has been a satisfying one so far even when it holds the mirror too close to the fumbles of adulthood.

Tell us one podcast guest youre excited about and why.

Olsen: For as long as Kirsten Dunst has been in the public eye, there is still something very enigmatic and unknowable about her, a hiding-in-plain-sight quality that I find extremely compelling. Her performance in Jane Campions new film The Power of the Dog (streaming on Netflix on Dec. 1) really captures everything I like about Dunst as a performer. As a woman who becomes increasingly isolated on her new husbands ranch in 1920s Montana, it stands tall alongside some of my other favorite roles of hers, in Sofia Coppolas Marie Antoinette and Lars von Triers Melancholia.

Villarreal: Im in the middle of prepping for my conversation with Jennifer Coolidge, who rightfully garnered much critical attention for her role in HBOs The White Lotus. She delivered a poignant and wounded comic performance particularly while sharing scenes with Insecures Natasha Rothwell as a fragile, wealthy woman struggling to cope with her mothers recent death. What I want to know is who makes her laugh. And I learned while reading up on Jennifer that some of the interiors in Sofia Coppolas The Beguiled were filmed at her New Orleans home, which now has me longing for an HGTV series about her space so I hope I can persuade her to give it some thought.

Youve both been podcasting from home since the start of the pandemic. Are there any funny behind-the-scenes stories or memorable disasters youre ready to talk about?

Olsen: Fairly early in the pandemic I was thinking wed do a session as audio-only and wasnt particularly presentable, and so of course everyone else on the virtual call wanted to do cameras-on. My colleague Jen Yamato said its the only time she has ever seen me without a collared shirt. So I quickly learned a lesson: Always be camera-ready.

Villarreal: Ive had more than a few oh-my-God moments in my short career as a podcast host. During my conversation with Anya Taylor-Joy for The Queens Gambit, which took place early one morning, I lost my train of thought while asking a question because my upstairs neighbors were getting ... quite amorous. I was sure Anya could hear it through the Zoom, though she swore she couldnt. But the story I most cherish is the time I spoke with Brian F off Cox from Succession. Noisy helicopters in my neighborhood disrupted our talk, and I apologized to Brian. And he responded with something like: Oh, thats quite all right, I was worried it was my stomach doing that.

Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment love it, hate it or somewhere in between

Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, left, and Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky in Impeachment: American Crime Story.

(Tina Thorpe / FX )

Throughout this season of American Crime Story (FX), which concluded Tuesday, weve brought you deep dives into the women swept up in the saga of Bill Clintons impeachment. Heres our guide to where the key figures are now, when youve finished bingeing the episodes piled up on your DVR.

Hillary Clinton: Ran for president in 2016 as the first female presidential nominee for a major political party. Despite receiving more votes overall, Clinton lost narrowly in the electoral college to a reality-TV star named Donald Trump. She now hosts a podcast.

Linda Tripp: Tripp remarried in 2004 and, with her husband Dieter, opened a German-themed Christmas store called the Christmas Sleigh in Middleburg, Va. Until the end of her life, she maintained that she was a whistleblower who had been unfairly vilified for her role in the impeachment, which she described as a real high-tech lynching in a rare public appearance in 2018. Tripp died in April 2020 of pancreatic cancer. A tell-all book called A Basket of Deplorables: What I Saw Inside the Clinton White House was published posthumously last year.

Monica Lewinsky: Lewinsky spent the first few years post-scandal trying to pay off legal bills and remake her public image. She sat for a blockbuster interview with Barbara Walters, sparking a craze for her Club Monaco lipstick, and became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, sold a line of handbags at Henry Bendel, hosted a short-lived dating show called Mr. Personality and appeared in an HBO documentary. She received a masters degree from the London School of Economics in 2006 and spent the next eight years out of the public eye. Since reemerging in 2014, she has worked as a Vanity Fair contributor, public speaker and activist. She also started a production company called Alt Ending, and has a first-look producing deal with 20th Television.

Paula Jones: In 1999, Clinton paid $850,000 to settle Jones sexual harassment lawsuit; Jones reportedly received just $200,000 of that money. In 2000, Jones defended her decision to pose in Penthouse as a divorced single mother with bills to pay: I thought it was the best thing to do for me and my children. Of course the money had something to do with it, she said. Like Lewinsky, Jones also wound up in a reality show, duking it out with disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in the notorious program Celebrity Boxing. In 2016, she endorsed Trump for president and was invited by the campaign to attend the second presidential debate along with other Bill Clinton accusers, including Juanita Broaddrick. Jones recently denounced her portrayal in Impeachment as inaccurate and cartoonish.

Juanita Broaddrick: Like Jones, Broaddrick reemerged in 2016 during Hillary Clintons run for the White House. I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me. I am now 73 it never goes away, she tweeted in a message that went viral. She attended the second presidential debate that year and defended Trump from criticism over his remarks on the Access Hollywood tape. In the wake of #MeToo, some liberals, including New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, have reconsidered Broaddricks claims against Bill Clinton and come out in support of her. Broaddrick is active on Twitter, where she shares right-wing memes about vaccines and supposed election fraud. She has also defended conservative men accused of sexual misconduct, including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Ann Coulter: Coulter leveraged her role in the Paula Jones lawsuit to become one of the most prominent and controversial conservative media pundits in the country. She has written more than a dozen books, many of them bestsellers, and is known for her particular animus toward immigrants, refugees and Muslims. Despite or perhaps because of her willingness to say utterly indefensible things, she remains a fixture on political talk shows, including Real Time With Bill Maher. Once a Trump fan, largely because of his hardline stance on immigration, she recently denounced him as abjectly stupid. Meredith Blake

The TV shows and streaming movies to keep an eye on in the coming week

Singer Adele, left, is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey for CBS Adele One Night Only special.

(Joe Pugliese / Harpo Productions / CBS)

Fri., Nov. 12

Mayor Pete (Amazon). Buttigieg, who else?

Red Notice (Netflix). Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds run and jump.

The Shrink Next Door (Apple TV+). Businessman Will Ferrell is in a toxic relationship with psychiatrist Paul Rudd for 30 years.

Sun., Nov. 14

Adele One Night Only (CBS). The broadcast network singing special lives on.

The Freak Brothers (Tubi). Weed-centric cartoon finds 1960s underground comics heroes Rip Van Winkled into the present day, losing Furry from their moniker in their process. With Woody Harrelson, Tiffany Haddish, John Goodman and Pete Davidson.

Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount+) Not to be confused with Mare of Easttown. (Or Mayor Pete.) Family drama set against for-profit prisons. Dianne Wiest is in it!

Yellowjackets (Showtime). Girls soccer team crashes in the wilderness, things get all Lord of the Flies. Twenty-five years later, they are Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress and others, still sorting it out.

Tues., Nov. 16

Simple as Water (HBO). Displaced Syrian families seek stability in Megan Mylans documentary.

Wed., Nov. 17

Marvels Hit-Monkey (Hulu) Japanese macaque out for revenge. Jason Sudeikis, Olivia Munn, George Takei. Animated, obviously.

Tiger King 2" (Netflix). You can mistreat animals, hire someone to commit murder, wind up in jail and someone will still put you in a docuseries.

Thurs., Nov. 18

The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max). They do have them. Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble mount a comedy true to its title.

Star Trek: Discovery (Paramount+). Fourth season. Sonequa Martin-Greens Michael Burnham is now your captain.Robert Lloyd

Want to know more about one of the filmmakers weve interviewed? Need a new show to binge now that your fave is done for the season? If you have a question about TV or streaming movies for the pop culture obsessives at The Times, send it to us at screengab@latimes.com and you may find the answer in next weeks edition.

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The women of 'Impeachment: American Crime Story': Where are they now? - Los Angeles Times