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The premium cable network has signed a deal with the hosts of the popular Pod Save America podcast to broadcast a series of hourlong TV specials later this year.

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Pod Save America, a podcast hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor, all veterans of the Obama White House, has become a sort of refuge to liberal Americans during the beginning of the Trump era.

During the 2016 campaign, the hosts produced a podcast for Bill Simmonss website, The Ringer, called Keepin It 1600, which was supposed to end once the election was over. But given the popularity of it, the three began a new production. In keeping with how Donald J. Trumps victory has upended much of the media world Stephen Colbert is the most-watched host in late night, MSNBC has seen a huge ratings surge Pod Save America averages around 1.5 million listeners a show. HBO made the deal with Crooked Media, the media company founded by Mr. Favreau, Mr. Lovett and Mr. Vietor.

The hosts are supposed to do shows on the campaign trail leading up to the 2018 mid-terms.

This sounds pretty exciting, for those who subscribe to HBO. OR (thanks to poster "enough", if you use a podcast app - I do. I use Stitcher, free version, and this podcast is there! For free!) Ronan Farrow has also been signed to do an investigative series.

Link:
"Pod Save America" --Obama staffers work for the mid-terms on ...

byDCWhispers

Since his departure from the White House the Establishment Media has been heralding Barack Obamas scandal free presidency. Its an absurd declaration of course given the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse that ran amok for all of the eight Obama years that included pay for play schemes, the use of the IRS as a political weapon, Benghazi, the creation of ISIS, and many-many more.

And now comes the Nunes memo which reveals some of what was a widespread and stunningly abusive overreach of federal surveillance by the Obama administration.

ViaThe City Journal:

Landmines left behind by the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign might soon start detonatingon Democrats.

The publication by the House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of chairman Devin Nunes, of a four-page summary memo regarding FBI surveillance of a Trump campaign advisor in 2016 is the long-awaited opening act of an extended drama about the Obama administrations abuse of powerwhich, when all is revealed, might yet outdo that of the Nixon administration.

Obama concealed his sharp-edged, Chicago-style machine politics under the rhetorical cover of progressivism. He was protected by a press corps that first enlisted in his administration and then fought to stop Donald Trump. But now that Obama is out of office, his ability to intimidate is much diminished. This past week, a 2005 picture of a beaming Obama next to a bright-eyed Louis Farrakhan surfaced, after having been held back for more than a decade at the behest of a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who had been tried for corruption by Obamas Justice Department after he refused to toe the party line about the peace-loving mullahs of Iran, has now seen the charges against him dropped. Z Street, a hawkish nonprofit supporter of Benjamin Netanyahus government in Israel, had been tied up with IRS matters since 2009; it has just been released from its legal chains. Democrats are holding to the line that the prophet of hope and change ran a pure administration, virtually free of scandal.But the memo is probably just the beginning; were likely to see many more revelations come out.

Obama isnt directly mentioned in the memo. But hes nonetheless implicated through his appointees apparent efforts to clear Hillary Clinton in her State Department email scandal while undermining her opponent, Trump, through the veneer of legality provided by FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Security Act) warrants, justified solely by the so-called Steele Dossier. The dossier was paid for by Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee; it was created by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, who despised Trump, and the research firm Fusion GPS. The FISA Court, supervised by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, was never told about the unverified dossiers origins.

As for matters of Russian collusion: Fusion GPS was tied to Vladimir Putins associates in the Kremlin, who wanted to undermine the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that sanctions Russian officials believed to be connected with the murder of anti-Kremlin lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The journalists at CNN made much of Donald Trump Jr.s 20-minute meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in 2016, while ignoring her meeting, before and after that one, with Fusions cofounder, former Wall Street Journal reporter Glen Simpson, who was working to overturn the Magnitsky Act. Simpson slimed Hermitage Capitals Willian Browder, who had helped pass the Magnitsky legislation and authored the important book Red Notice.

Wonder of wonders, the liberal press, long opposed to prior restraint when it comes to publishing material on American intelligence, is howling about the release of the Intelligence Committee memo. Theyre suddenly concerned, were supposed to believe, about damage to national security and the institutional well-being of the FBI. Democrats and their media allies, notes Roger Simon, have pushed themselves into a corner. They cant decide whether the best approach is to insist that the memo is a nothing-burger or a mortal danger to the country.

So far, not one Democrat has broken ranks. They will surely find procedural problems with the House memo. They will continue to wage their fight, a la Hollywood congressman Adam Schiff, on behalf of the resistance. But a resistance is not an opposition. The numerous landmines Obama and Clinton left behind them, intending to waylay the initially awkward Trump administration, are starting to detonateon Democrats.

The vulgar Trump isnt constrained by convention. He wont go soft on politicians who saw no problem in issuing FISA warrants in the midst of a presidential campaign and then keeping them operational into his first term in office. As the information comes out,the Democrats FISA subterfuge will be seen by much of the country as a soft coup attempt.Theres no other way to put it.

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Obama/Clinton Landmines Are Now Detonating On Democrats ...

Just when you thought This Week in Media Bias History couldnt get any crazier, it does.Journalists hate Donald Trump. But they really LOVED Barack Obama. How far did the New York Times go to make that clear? In 2009, one of the papers bloggers wrote about sex dreams involving the Democratic president. Another Times whopper from our archives?Whining about the terse and old Constitution.Other examples this week include talking about impeaching Ronald Reagan and falling for Soviet propaganda.

Below are Rich Noyess collected tweets from the sixth week of This Day in Media Bias History. To get the latest daily examples, be sure and follow Noyes on Twitter. To see recaps of the first fiveweeks, go here.)

February 3:

February 4:

February 5:

February 6:

February 7:

February 8:

February 9:

The rest is here:
This Week in Media Bias History: Journalist Excited Over ...

Sen. Rand Paul is holding up a vote on the Senate budget deal, demanding more debate on the bill which will add $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline to pass the legislation. (Feb. 7) AP

Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul (center) poses for a picture with Republican Representative from Kentucky Thomas Massie (right) and Republican Representative from Michigan Justin Amash (left) as budget negotiations continue in the U.S. Capitol(Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA-EFE)

WASHINGTON Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative Kentucky Republican and one-time presidential contender, temporarily blockeda Senate vote ona sweeping bipartisan budget deal on Thursday a move that could force Congress to miss a midnight funding deadline and triggera partial government shutdown.

The bipartisan budget deal would lift strict budget caps and pave the way for lawmakers to spend an extra $300 billion over the next two years on defense and domestic programs. It seemed poised to easily clear the Senate until Thursday afternoon.

Thats when Paul objected and said he would only allow the budget bill to advance if GOP leaders gave him a vote on an amendment to restore the budget caps, set in 2011 to rein in deficit spending.If Paul got an amendment, then every senator would want one. And ifany amendment passed, it would blow up the budget agreement.

All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps, Pauls spokesman, Sergio Gor, said in an email Thursday. He is ready to proceed at any time.

By Thursday evening, the White House was preparing for alapse in appropriations. The federal Office of Management and Budget told federal agencies to plan for a "limited shutdown" of perhaps a few hours.

How could one senator potentially cause a government shutdown? Two reasons: the Senates arcane rules essentially invite such mischief-making;and congressional leaders waited until the very last minute to unveil their deal, leaving them vulnerable to legislative glitches.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed a motion to end debate on the budget deal late Wednesday night. Under Senate rules, lawmakers must wait an intervening day before they can vote to cut off debate, unless they get an agreement from all 100 senators to speed up the clock.

McConnell and Schumer figured theyd get that agreement. But they were wrong.

Pauls objection, if he sticks with it, wouldforceMcConnell to wait until 1 a.m. to vote to take up the budget bill and then another 30 hours fordebate before final passage. Federal funding for most government programs runs out at midnight.

"I can keep them here until threein the morning," Paul said on Fox News.

Paul said he wasn't pushing for a government shutdown. But he also wasn't interested in keeping the government open for a "reckless" spending deal that busts the budget caps.

"Nobody wants to have it pointed out what an eyesore this deal is and how obnoxious it is to conservatives," Paul told Fox.

Looking exasperated and irritated, McConnell begged his home-state colleague to stop his dilatory tactics and offered to let him make his point with a procedural vote.

"Funding for the government expires in just a few hours," McConnell noted. "I would argue that it's time to vote."

ButPaul rejected McConnell's offer and held the floor for what could be an hours-long speech. He noted that the bill is nearly 700 pages long, nobody in the Senate has read it, and it will add more than a trillion dollars to the deficit.

"I want peopleto feel uncomfortable" voting in favor of big deficits, Paul said.

If and when the budget bill does pass the Senate, it will go to the House where it faces an uncertain fate.

Liberal Democrats object to the deal because it does not include protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and whose Obama-era deportation protections will expire next month. House conservative have the same objections as Paul, arguing that it will pave the way for big spending and ballooning deficits.

Read more:

Nancy Pelosi's all-day marathon speech sets record as longest continuous speech since at least 1909

With shutdown looming, Senate poised to approve massive two-year budget deal, setting up fight in the House

As Paul Ryan turns to Democrats for votes, conservatives fume over budget deal

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2nOoG1n

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Government shutdown: How Rand Paul could trigger it himself

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Feb. 8 opposed a bipartisan budget deal and delayed a vote on the measure in the Senate, calling the GOP "complicit in the deficits." (U.S. Senate)

The latest politico pointing out just how much the Republican Party has changed under President Trump comes from the inside.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) delayed a Senate vote past midnight Thursday to mark his opposition to an estimated $320 billion addition to the federal budget deficit something he called Republicans out for supporting: If you were against President Obama's deficits, and now you're for the Republican deficits, isn't that the very definition of hypocrisy?

Paul, known for his libertarian leanings, said the budget deal breaks past Republican pledges to rein in federal spending.

After GOP leaders refused to allow Paul to offer an amendment, he chose to use a Senate rule that allows individual senators to slow down proceedings that require the consent of all.

I cant in all good honesty, in all good faith, just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits, he said on the Senate floor.

[The Daily 202: Rand Paul's short-lived shutdown is ending, but his warning about GOP deficit hypocrisy reverberates]

Paul ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential primary, drawing attention to the presidents multiple bankruptcies as proof of his lack of a commitmentto fiscal conservatism. When Trump pulled out of a January 2016 Fox News debate becausethe network declined his request to remove Megyn Kelly as moderator,Paul claimed that Trump might be backing away because the former Democrat isnt a conservative.

He told CNNs Alisyn Camerota: Maybe [he's] afraid of the fact that he's never voted in a Republican presidential primary. For 70 years, he's been a progressive Democrat. I was wondering if maybe he's going to show up for the Democrat primary debate next time.

I think he does want to avoid difficult questions. And I think he's used to getting his way, Paul added.

Paul has since been seen buddying up with Trump on the golf course. But his strongest words late into the night Thursday were for his fellow party members who attacked President Barack Obama for increased government spending but are now are rallying behind a similar idea just because it's championed by Republican lawmakers.

Paul said: I ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama's trillion-dollar deficits. Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can't in all honesty look the other way.

Congress ended a five-hour government shutdown early Friday morning after the House supported a massive bipartisan budget deal that adds hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending. The funds will go to the military, domestic programs and disaster relief.

Trump signed the bill into law Friday morning.

Under Trump, fiscally conservative lawmakers supported increased government spending.

Under Trump, the Republican National Committee backed a candidate in Alabama accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls while in his 30s.

Under Trump, Christian conservatives have defended a thrice-married man against allegations that his lawyer paid a six-figure settlement to a porn actress who reportedly had an affair with the president not long after his wife gave birth to their son.

Under Trump, multiple veterans have backed a candidate with multiple draft deferments who as president has invoked the military while attacking other Americans who took a knee during the national anthem to protest racism and police violence.

Under Trump, Republicans who criticized the influence of high-spending donors in politics have gone silent as the billionaire president's private club hosts political fundraisers with tickets starting at $100,000.

Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman told the New York Times that people like her who boarded the Trump train called themselves Trumpublicans due to his unorthodox and unconventional approach to politics that seemed to have no place in the Democratic Party or the GOP.

But more than a year after Trumps inauguration, it is clear that his politics have found a home in the GOP. The majority of Republicans continue to give him high approval ratings despite scandals dominating headlines nearly every week. They point to the decisions that reflect a relatively traditional Republican presidency as reasons for their high support.

But a sizable group of Never Trump Republicans remains vocal and critical of his presidency. And it is not clear where these conservatives can go, given that Trumpism is becoming more of the dominant worldview of the GOP.

Paul is likely to continue to draw attention to what he sees as hypocrisies in the Republican Party, but the likelihood of conservative lawmakers pivoting away to the traditional vision of conservatism is low. The truth is conservative voters had a chance to choose between Paul and Trumps visions for America during the GOP primaries. The GOP chose Trump.

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Rand Paul calls out hypocrisy of GOP in the Trump era - The ...