As we've noticed and hopefully many more people discover each weekend, the only source of actual news not governed by the both-siderist MSM seems to be AM Joy on MSNBC. Refreshingly, Joy Reid is a journalist who, unlike most Sunday hosts, doesn't entertain the falsehoods purported by Republican apologists for Trump-Pence. She calls them out and destroys their lack of truthfulness.
John Fugelsang (Sirius XM 121 Tell Me Everything and Stephanie Miller Show pundit) and Lizz Winstead (Co-creator of the Daily Show) are quick-witted political comedians who see Mike Pence as the dangerous fundamentalist, misogynist fraud that he really is. Winstead explains his TRAP Laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) in Indiana and bemoans his abhorrent record as both a Congressman and a Governor.
WINSTEAD: My complete activism and the reason that I started Lady Parts Justice was because I was sitting in my pajamas watching Mike Pence when that whole Tea Party Congress took over, and the first thing they did after we had a financial crisis, we were on the brink of ruin, the first thing he did in HR1 was to defund Planned Parenthood. I was like, what's happening? That's insane? It didn't happen but it was from that moment on when he was in Congress that we saw 27 pieces of legislation known as TRAP laws go into all these different state legislatures and this is when this assault started happening. So then he got to be governor and then it became crazy. He proposed women should have two transvaginal ultrasounds. And from there it just snowballed....(TRAP Laws) are designed to close down clinics, not help women get access to health care, and so that's what they do.
JOY REID: And you know John (Fugelsang), you've got Pence who is author of the Pence Amendment, people forget he was in Congress from 2011, the U.S. House votes down Pence Amendment intended to defund Planned Parenthood. He's the guy who was behind that. You go to the next thing, conversion therapy. This is a PolitiFact headline that it is true Mike Pence advocated for conversion therapy for people who were gay saying he could put them off to a camp somewhere I suppose and change their orientation. He is extremely socially conservative.
FUGELSANG: Extremely thus, and he bases it on a Christianity that bears no resemblance to the actual teaching of Jesus in the gospels. Look no further than the religious freedom laws he signed in Indiana, essentially making discrimination legal. 50 years after the Civil Rights movement saying no, no, you can tell some people they can't be served at your lunch counter. The religious freedom law in his case meant the freedom to believe Christ hates the same people as you. You know homophobia is incompatible with the teachings of the New Testament. So I wouldn't mind him being Christian if he were actually Christian in his policies. Keep in mind also this is a man who said cigarettes do not cause Cancer. And these issues have not been raised yet because his nominee sucks all the air out of the room.
WINSTEAD: And if I could add one more thing to that, while Mike Pence was doing that RFRA thing, he failed in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood but he defunded the Planned Parenthood in Indiana and while that RFRA thing was happening, a little known thing that did happen was there was a county in Indiana that suffered 87 cases of an HIV outbreak and the reason that it did was because those Planned Parenthoods closed and there was no nobody to diagnose or treat them and they had to open up pop-up clinics to treat them.
Fellow panelist, Jonathan Capehart called Pence 'Dick Cheney on steroids,' which sounds about right. Joy turned again to the well-informed expert on religious dogma, or as many listeners know him, "Stephanie Miller's Personal Comedy Jesus."
REID: And you know John, I have been fascinated by this notion that White Evangelical Christians, you know, we shouldn't lump all Evangelicals together, because there are Black Evangelicals who are not down with this.
FUGELSANG: And nice White Evangelicals, too.
REID: And there are a lot of nice Evangelicals who are liberal Evangelical Christians. But this notion of being able to say that, you know, you are for -- you are Evangelical Christian, you're a Bible-believing Christian but that somebody who is not only thrice married, but also quite vulgar, right? And then you also have Mike Pence with him, and who's ideas involve torture and right to life.
FUGELSANG: And also they boast of Christianity while telling fleeing Middle Eastern immigrants there's no room at the Inn-diana, alright? Am I right? And I think that it's a very good point to remember that half of Mike Pence's top donors have bailed on him for reelection. His job is in trouble. He's the highest-ranking Republican who would say yes to Donald Trump. Condoleezza Rice wouldn't take his call and as you so astutely pointed out, the biggest story here to me is they made the offer to Kasich and more or less said "You'll be the Chief Executive. Trump is planning on being a ceremonial ruler." So when you vote for Trump you're voting for this guy to run the White House.
REID: He'd essentially be Prime Minister. I mean, that's what they're talking about.
WINSTEAD: Just spit-balling here, you know, I think maybe we need Trump conversion therapy. I don't know. I think if we could get the religious communities together I think that maybe this might not be a horrible idea.
REID: I picture -- and you're not supposed to preach from the pulpit, but we know if you here in a church that's very politically active there's a very strong message that is sent, and it was sent during the Bush era. You'd better be with Bush if you're a Christian. I wonder how when you -- just this past week listening to the things that Donald Trump has just said about women and then you look at Mike Pence and this sort of deep intolerance, this sort of deep vein of intolerance that runs through Mike Pence, how does that sermon go down?
FUGELSANG: Well, we're warned throughout the New Testament about false prophets right? And the problem we have in this country. I have no problem with a government based on Christian Values. I'd love to see that, if it's actually values of Christ laid out in Matthew 25: (35-46) You want to follow me? You take care of the poor, you take care of the sick, be kind of those in prison. The problem with American Christianity today and the reason why it's becoming an atheist factory is because it's all about worshiping Jesus as a god and ignoring his inconveniently liberal teachings of social justice. Mike Pence is exhibit A.
REID: Yeah, turning over those money changers. He wasn't saying, you know, the Pharisees are the good guys.
WINSTEAD: He's a false prophet who claims false profits on his taxes.
FUGELSANG: The one time Christ got angry was because people were exploiting the poor.
The Christ-loving hypocrites of the GOP have been exploiting the poor for over half a century at the very least. Yes, Christ himself would be appalled by Republican 'Christians,' none more than Pence and his running-mate.
