Oldernowiser

Anna’s very, very good at denial. Besides, “Josh is being framed” is a much better fundraising story than, “Josh has unusual hobbies.” I just read this morning that a huge CP ring has just been busted in Germany that had 400,000 customers around the world. I wonder if there’s a connection…probably not, but I’d sleep better if I could think there was only one group of these sick individuals. All of those little kids living in that warehouse with no windows scares the crap out of me. If that place caught fire…

Hunh. We used to call that “way overdue for a root touch up,” but times change... I guess.

Is it possible, though, that JB didn’t know why they came a-knocking? Given the financial shenanigans I have zero doubt JB has been up to, maybe they’re actually relieved that this is what the result is? It’s not like Josh being a twisted sexpest is exactly new.

So Jinger isn’t blonde anymore?

He’s 33 years old and the father of 6-ish. He’s going to have tough sledding to claim his parents are somehow responsible for his actions, especially as JB is going to be footing the attorneys’ fees. I suspect they’ll go with, “it’s all a political setup to persecute a good Christian family.” Of course, anyone can argue anything. I was on jury duty once for a DUI case and the expert witness argued that yes, the defendant had consumed 8 shots of vodka and then had driven away from the bar, but he had drunk them so quickly, you see, that he couldn’t have metabolized them fast enough to be legally impaired when he was pulled over. The guy had refused a breathalyzer. I rolled my eyes so hard my face hurt for days.

I just keep thinking about how Josh might want to stay in jail because it’s safer than what 18 siblings and their spouses might have in mind for him. They have every right to DESPISE him. He’s always been their parents’ blatant favorite and in return he’s done nothing except bring scandal on the family, molest his sisters, risk killing off the TLC money, try to cheat on his wife on public website, and now he’s going to eat up a huge chunk of the family money for his defense for what is a really repugnant alleged criminal activity. Not to mention that he’s been semi-banned from the show for years, yet you know that he and his family have been getting more than their fair share of the proceeds from JB. It’s not like Josh could or would work hard enough to support a wife and 6.5 kids on his own. I can see them all fantasizing about a Murder on the Orient Express scenario and honestly, I wouldn’t blame them.

May I just say that I am dealing with the side effects of my second vaccine and this luminous phrase is the only thing that made me happy today? Bravissimo!

FIFY

Thank you for being willing and able to do this work when it’s so damned difficult and traumatic. If it weren’t for people like you, these terrible acts would continue without consequence, so it’s so necessary. Thank you, thank you.

Holy shit, this is a defense a parent would be okay with? Marcus is what, seven? That is a seriously disgusting tactic. Wow.

Thanks for this post. It’s nice to hear that justice may be served here…Josh just looked so damned cocky in that mug shot that my cynical mind immediately leaped to, “he thinks JB is going to pull the strings again.”

Not going to happen. Too many of these Duggar offspring owe their livelihoods to JimBob and TLC. Derrick would probably be happy to blow the whole thing up, but Ben is owned by JimBob, Austin wouldn’t want to make the heathens happy, and Jeremy is in deep with yet another super-Christian cult and is in no position to make waves. I agree that the victims shouldn’t have to once again be trotted out to relive their abuse publicly. I remain convinced that they were forced to last time just to save the TLC contract. And with the possible exception of Jill, who has gotten therapeutic help, none of the others is equipped to discuss this intellectually, emotionally or spiritually. It’s a nice idea that there could be some kind of generational solidarity in repudiating their upbringing and brainwashing, but I don’t see it happening. They’re too dependent on the brand and on their parents.

You’re much kinder than I am. I’m more inclined to believe that Anna’s at the TTH, yes, but she’s in the middle of a screaming match between JB and Michelle about how this could ruin everything and how it just might be Anna’s fault for not monitoring Josh more closely and not being joyfully available enough. J’chelle don’t really give much of a damn for anyone or anything other than themselves and their money and status in the Fundie community. This has threatened both, so it’s hard for me to picture them comforting Anna unless it’s a tactic to get her to cooperate with whatever damage control they can come up with.

It’s ironic that the Duggar brand is likely to suffer more damage than Josh will.

My mother was a prosecuting attorney for a county in Michigan and she had some stories. My concern is that Josh is going to plea out to a much lesser charge (especially since officially this is a first offense) and some uber-Christian judge is going to decide that since Anna has six kids and a seventh on the way, the husband/father needs to be dealt with lightly because he’s needed to support the family (ha). So they’ll slap his wrist, tell him to pray more, and dole out some bullshit community service sentence that JB will magically figure out a way for Josh to serve while working for him. Then Josh’s official address will be some house JB owns but he’ll be back home with Anna on day two. The Good Old Boys’ network will come through again, just like the last time. I would be shocked if Josh serves time for this. My sad guess is his life will resume as normal in, oh, four or five months, if it takes that long.

No wonder Jinger looked so miserable. They would have been caught between Jeremy’s relentless fame-thirst (and Felicity was a huge part of their content/brand) and the concern that putting their daughters out on social was endangering them. Begrudgingly, I give them points for making the right decision for their children. Jinger didn’t learn THAT at home.

That’s Jessa, right? So…the distancing begins? “Their family”? Pretty sure he’s one of your brothers, Jess.

I don’t believe Anna will divorce Josh and I don’t believe he won’t be living in their house, either, once he’s out of jail. Those orders are only as good as their enforcement, and it’s not like anyone in the family is going to call the cops when Josh is back in the family fold and around kids all day long. I have a neighbor whose adult sons got in an enormous fist fight and it ended with one of them shooting toward his brother’s girlfriend whose brilliant idea to break up the fight was to try to smash out the windows of the other brother’s car. Excellent thinking, all around. So younger brother, who was actually the good kid, ends up in jail with a felony firearms charge and a domestic violence protection order against him. He wasn’t supposed to go anywhere near the girlfriend or his brother. So…six months later older brother and his girlfriend, who by now have a toddler and a baby, somehow run afoul of the law for child neglect by being messed up on some drug or another. Grandma gets temporary custody of the kiddies….and now they’re all living together. Note the drug addict parents of these children are not supposed to see them without a non-relative third party supervisor present. Note the younger brother still has a PO against him. Point is, unless the authorities in Arkansas are going to check and check regularly, Josh is back in that house with Anna and the kids and it’ll all be shoved back under the rug before he’s out of jail for a month. I hope I’m wrong.

Does make me wonder if JB wasn’t concerned about what Josh might get up to with no supervision...

This is a good question. I can’t imagine MacArthur wanting to look like they’re even slightly defending child porn but it’s also possible it won’t even come up. It may depend on how Jer’s stock is doing these days in MacArthur Park. If they’re pretty much over him and have figured out that he’s just an empty designer suit, this may be the perfect excuse.

Somebody saw this coming, no matter what they’re saying now:

Josh has hit the big time... CNN

Money.

Maybe the best thing for his children is just to have Josh stay in jail until the trial. That way they can stay in their home and continue to be with their primary parent, fucked up as she is. The single greatest argument against leaving them with Anna is that she has consistently, publicly, and recently posted about how wonderful Josh is. It’s possible she actually believes that…denial is an amazing thing. She’s a poster child for Stockholm syndrome, if true. If he’s out on bail, that denial is definitely strong enough that she’ll ignore the mandate that he not be around minor children, because she would refuse to believe anything bad could happen. Hey, I’ve seen it before, and in my own family. Leave him in custody, Duggars. Besides, you’ll probably lose your bail money anyway.

So…that’s probably how they’re going to play this, publicly. Disavow Josh and carry on as usual. 🤮 The question then becomes what they do about JB and Michelle, who were slithering back onto the show on the regular. They definitely have JB by the throat now as far as any contract negotiations go. It would be karma if the Duggar Counting siblings hired Derrick as their agent and he got them paid directly and bypassed IronThumb JB.