Sen. Katie Britt has gotten a lot of grief for her melodramatic response to the State of the Union address, but it turns out she was also recklessly misleading about a woman she met on a visit to Del Rio, Texas, last year:
That’s where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.... This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.
As journalist Jonathan Katz discovered, Britt didn't have to work very hard to find this woman. She's famous. Her name is Karla Jacinto Romero and she testified before Congress in 2015 about her sex trafficking, which happened entirely in Mexico during the Bush administration. She is now an activist who fights human trafficking.
Britt chose her language extremely carefully on Thursday night, plainly insinuating that Joe Biden was somehow responsible for Jacinto's plight without ever quite saying so. In fact, none of it has the slightest thing to do with Biden or his immigration policies.
Britt's bio says, "A Christian, wife, and mother, faith and family are at the heart of Katie’s life." Haven't any of these Christians ever heard of the Ninth Commandment?
Typical shameless Republican exploitation of tragedy for political gain.
Feh.
Agree. Same ol' same ol.' None of the R loyalists are going to hear any of this; certainly not of Faux News.
Commandments don't apply to non-believers...
If someone tells me they're a Christian, I now automatically assume they are lying about whatever they are claiming to believe. Good job fundies!
Well, she's Saved, so she's Forgiven. Hallelujah!
You mean "Christians".
Christianists. All form and no substance.
Nationalist Christians.
You can call them Nat-Cs for short.
Actually, some Christians seem to believe more in their priests, ministers, & pastors than in the New Testament - although some of the deranged ones may take on faith that the writing of John of Patmos (perhaps. the likes of Greene) and believe that it has a legitimate place in the canon .
People who rely on imparted wisdom from their religious leaders also seem more likely to want to rely on similar political leaders, I believe. Questioning, research, & thinking for oneself aren't highly valued.
I no longer expect all of the more conservative congregation members to include a lot of red-letter Christians.
I also no longer expect to hear any of them reminding anyone that "Justice is mine, sayeth the Lord."
Britt's bio says, "A Christian, wife, and mother, faith and family are at the heart of Katie’s life." Haven't any of these Christians ever heard of the Ninth Commandment?
Or the rule forbidding dangling participles?
"Haven't any of these Christians ever heard of the Ninth Commandment?"
Now Kevin, who among us never falls short in the sight of God? They're striving.
Seriously, though, Romero's ordeal took place in Mexico. Britt and the GOP want to slam the door to prevent victims of trafficking from escaping their abusers.
Apparently Ms Romero continues to live in Mexico and has made no attempt to come to the US. The only way to interpret this is Britt is saying the Cartels are awful and no wonder people want to flee them so we had better make the border secure to prevent them from trying to come here. Actually, I think that’s the Republican position in a nutshell.
Britt said she met her in Texas. Should I have questioned that part of the story as well?
No, it's documented. It was a press conference put on by Republicans.
In this context, “come” as in seek asylum/immigrate not visit.
SuperPACs can flip this issue of immigration on its head, thanks to Britt.
Explain how, if Britt and Republicans had their way and the border shut, people like Romero wouldn't have escaped her sex traffickers into the safety of America.
End with a rhetorical question, "What kind of America do we want -- one where we protect people like Karla Jacinto Romero, or one where we stop her from escaping her rapists and sex traffickers?"
👍👍👍👍
That’s exactly what I thought at the time while listening to Britt. Even without knowing that these atrocities happened before Biden was VICE President, let alone President, I knew that this story did nothing to support Trump or Britt’s get-tough-on-immigrants stance. She sounds like a perfect candidate for the asylum that Trump and Britt want to end.
Lying for Jesus, both of them (the one that was purportedly crucified about 2000 years ago and the Orange one, trying to burn this country to the ground).
She brought this up to put sort of weight on the other side of the scale because Trump's s steamy Stormy trial is about to begin.
It's a feeble attempt at a BSDI to dismiss the import of the trial in Magastan.
Not only that, but "Stormy" a documentary about her drops on Peacock on the 18th!
It’s even worse than this. Do yourself a favor and google “fundie baby voice” and her name. It’s the way of life in the Patriarchy.
There’s also a TikTok video that contrasts her normal voice and her fundie baby voice.
It’s all a way of wearing a public mask of submission, and only being critical of others WITH permission. It’s monstrous.
Here is a link that has this stuff:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/03/09/before-and-after-2/
Digby, FTW!
no, just the gop
This is clearly a potential problem, but can we PLEASE stop this mindless use of "center" as a synonym for "focus on" or "emphasize". It's in several of the articles that are reached by Googling "fundie baby voice>
Ay-yi-yi! What a load of pretentious twaddle.
I read Jesse Parker's description of who these women are. You're right. It's monstrous.
"Haven't any of these Christians ever heard of the Ninth Commandment?"
Define Christian. Allow me. A person who does unto others as they would have others do unto them is good. A good person might be, but is not necessarily a Christian. A "do as I say and not what I do" person is bad. A bad person is not a Christian.
If Christian = bad ... or Christian = good ... and the word is otherwise undefined, then use of the word does more harm than good. Same goes for other words like progressive, and conservative.
For the record, authoritarians hate words with unambiguous definitions. George Orwell made that point in 1984.
I will disagree with you on one semantic point. A bad person can be a Christian; a bad Christian, but still a Christian. If you believe Jesus Christ was the only begotten son of God, you are a Christian. If you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, you are a good Christian.
I would agree with you if we distinguished between "good Christian" and "bad Christian," but we don't. For far too many people, the word Christian implies bad, and for far too many people, the word Christian implies good.
If Jesus Christ says, "Love one another as I have loved you," and I say, "Thanks for your advice, but no thanks ... I'll take if from here," and nobody challenges me when I call myself a Christian, the word has lost its meaning, and we'd be better off speaking Chimpanzee. At least then we wouldn't be fooling ourselves into thinking how sophisticated we are.
Same goes for "evangelical." If you're promoting the "look at my neighbor and see an enemy" idea, then you are not an evangelical. An evangelical promotes the "look at my enemy and see a neighbor" idea.
In a kind of surprise, Glenn Kessler, the Post "Fact Checker", did an expose of this in today's issue (3/9/24). Four Pinocchios! And he might have awarded more, it seemed, if that wasn't the highest level.
It was a nice followup to his nit picking of Biden's SoTU yesterday, in which Biden was dinged for saying his admin had created "more jobs in his first three years" than other admins had in their full terms. Kessler deemed it dishonest because Biden was comparing his three years against full terms.
(Just like he said he was. Duh!) And the rest of the critique similarly strained at gnats.
For an added treat, yesterday, Alexandra Petri did one of her matchless satires of Senator Britt's kitchen speech. Duplicating the "baby voice" in ascii, no less!
We wouldn't be ok with this lie even in a third world country.
The ninth commandment was over-ridden by the first amendment.
Note, it was the "Del Rio Sector", which almost certainly means Eagle Pass, not Del Rio, since Eagle Pass is in the Del Rio Sector and has been the hot spot for a while.
If she identifies first as a Christian, the first thing she should do is offer up her other cheek, throw off her worldly things, leave her family, and forgive all who have transgressed her. No? I thought not. They are never what they profess, never.
Faith is not certainty. Faith is the opposite of certainty.
Follow the Mary McCartney Method:
When you find yourself in times of trouble, let it be, and there will be an answer.
Translation: don't be so sure of yourself.
Ninth Commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor [except when necessary to appease the Anti-Christ in his efforts to suborn otherwise Christian nations]"
As a wise man once said, “Jesus, save me from these Christians.”
Billy West captures the vibe,
https://twitter.com/TheBillyWest/status/1766930698265309568