rue721

Really? I would feel threatened as fuck. This is an adult male stranger under house arrest, sitting there with nothing to do and no place to go while every day draws him closer to being hauled into court on an airtight case that will get him a very long prison sentence. He has nothing to lose and is in a desperate situation -- and desperate people do desperate things. On top of that, the dude is an incorrigible sex offender and all-around-predator. And when Mrs. Reber asked for help before and said she was anxious about having him in her home, nobody listened -- so there's nobody who's going to help her if things turn bad. She is at his mercy. Personally, I would move the fuck out. But she can't, because she has no outside source of income and it would probably destroy her marriage and financial security (or worse). I feel bad for her.

Last night, I had another nightmare about the Rod kids needing help and not being able to get it. I'm reading a book called Quincunx by Charles Palliser (really good novel by the way) and it's very Dickensian. The narrator mentions rickets and other Industrial Revolution-era London problems, and it called the Rod kids to mind, I think. I really wish that Jill and David would take proper care of their kids, if only for our peace of mind lol

Yeah, I'm genuinely scared that Ivy and Henry are going to get crushed by that collapsing bed one of these days. Jessa seems to be working out her issues by living EXACTLY as her parents did, or at least how they claimed to. It wouldn't surprise me if she were pushing for Ben to run for office, just like her father did.

She did tell him that she wasn't comfortable, her daughter wasn't comfortable... And that's what she told the judge in open court, in private she probably went even further begging her husband not to do this. I really lay it at her husband's feet. He wants to get in good with Boob or the Lort or whatever and his wife and daughter are the ones paying for it. If I were Mrs. Reber, my marriage probably wouldn't survive this bullshit. But she can't really move out at a moment's notice, she's a housewife and probably doesn't have access to sufficient money. So she's probably trying to make the best of it. And who knows if her marriage will ultimately survive this, either.

I'm sorry for your loss, @jcbrown Thinking of you and your dad. If you are up for telling us anything about him, I'm all ears

They have grown men living in the boy's "dorm," too, right? I forget the name of the family, I think it starts with an H and I think they're Indonesian originally (?), but last I heard at least one of the men in the family lives at the Big House. Boob and Michelle are basically cult leaders and Laura and the H-kidults are members of the cult, so they are welcome at the cult compound. Seriously my perspective on it.

I thought fried green tomatoes were for the end of the season, because you fry the green tomatoes that won’t have a chance to ripen before the first frost ruins them. Maybe they prefer friend green tomatoes to ripened tomatoes, that’s their prerogative, just seems unusual to me. Is it normal to eat green tomatoes all season and I’m the odd one? Jill’s Bible study… it makes me a bit uncomfortable for her to paint God as essentially “sky Daddy,” but I can see how that’s comforting and moving/powerful in a way… Not to psychoanalyze a stranger but I guess what makes me feel a bit uncomfortable about it (among other things) is that it makes me feel like she’s trying to fill a void where her relationship with her actual parents used to be with a “relationship” with God 🤷🏻‍♀️ Everybody experiences spirituality in a different way I guess. And to be fair, Jill’s life has always revolved completely around family, so I guess it should be no surprise that that’s what she would draw on in her understanding of God/the universe/and everything, too.

Yeah, in Jill and Derick's minds, when they put their family on display, they're being role models for good Christian living. When Jazz (or virtually anyone not identical to them in terms of culture, ethnicity, and/or worldview) is on display, they are tempting people toward hellfire. At bottom, these are religious zealots and I think that colors their perspective on everything.

Oh, I'm sure that Jeremy does literally nothing around the house. Cook, clean, run errands, take care of the kids? No way. That's Jinger's job. Jeremy "works" for MacArther. He doesn't work for Jing. I'm 99.9% certain that that's how he sees it. Their church is incredibly misogynistic so they're strongly encouraged to think that way, too.

I'm no expert either! I think you could definitely be right, but I think that with something like CSA images there is inevitably a network of people sharing and producing the images, so it's pretty likely that when one member of the network gets caught, that defendant has an opportunity to leverage his info on the larger network in order to get a better plea deal. And the prosecution can diminish that leverage by saying that if he doesn't provide the info, or decides not to plea at all, that he could get hit even harder with charges. I really don't know what is going to happen, I'm flying as totally blind as anyone -- those just seem like reasonable negotiation tactics, and we've seen them come into play with other public cases. ETA: The thing about additional charges in Josh's case is that the charges wouldn't necessarily be about things that happened at the same time as the charges that are already against him. They could be anything. They could even be financial or who knows. For the college admissions scandal, the charges were all about one event (getting X kid into a good college) but with Josh, you know he was doing all kinds of horrible shit at all kinds of random times, additional charges wouldn't necessarily be add-ons to what's already there. That said, I don't think that he WILL get more charges, I think he'll probably plead out and we will continue to hear very little about what's going on with him aside from the day he's thrown in prison.

Also very possible that Derick wants her to do it, because it's a good source of income for them. He seems pretty down to earth when it comes to money. Jill seems pretty extroverted, so I think she probably enjoys it as a social outlet... plus, it probably counts as a "ministry" in her mind and also brings in some money. I don't think there's some big end game to it, I think it's basically her part-time job rather than working in Amy's store or whatever.

That's a good point. I expect that ultimately, Josh will plead out, because a trial would be too humiliating and everyone knows that it won't go well. I think they're probably asking for the delay both because that's just an ordinary thing to ask for and because it gives them more time to work out a plea deal. It also wouldn't surprise me if Josh were to be hit even harder with charges if he ultimately refuses to plead. How I see it, the whole incentive of a plea deal (for the defendant) is to minimize how much punishment that they're going to get, so it wouldn't be too unusual for a deal to boil down to: if he cops to XYZ crimes then he will be allowed to skate on ABC other crimes that theoretically he could also be held accountable for... and if he refuses to cop to anything, then he's going to be held accountable for both XYZ and ABC, because fuck him.

I have literally never taken a picture with my head smooshed right up against someone else's head. Just looking at it makes me feel like my personal space is violated. Good on Jinger for being more laid back than I am, but jeez, how uncomfortable (and potentially clammy).

Fenna may also have needed to get heartworm or other anti-parasite treatment, and so they held off on the spay until that was over (the heartworm treatment takes many weeks, and my dog also had to have another anti-parasite treatment that lasted an additional ten. These treatments are serious business). Most rescue dogs in the South are heartworm positive and many also have other parasites because of the climate -- lots of mosquitos, etc. I went through all that with my dog, but I actually rushed to have her spayed before bringing her home because of regulations making it really difficult to license unspayed dogs where I live. It was a mistake, they botched the spay and she got a bad infection and took a long time to heal. It seems like the Dillards are doing things right... although maybe this is a total slap in the face of the Gothard/Duggar fertility cult! 😂

To be fair, a toddler sitting in the fridge pouring milk down her throat is totally a "don't just go about your business -- tell somebody!" kind of situation. Spurge is a young kid, if he's trying to seek praise from his mom or if he needs his mom's help when his younger siblings are out of control, that's totally normal. What is a problem is that the house is tense and chaotic, the kids are climbing into death traps or digging through the vegetable patch for food, and the 5 year old is the only one we ever see trying to reign it in.

In his softball uniform, Philip (?) looks so much like Anthony Perkins in Fear Strikes Out. Many of the kids are very good looking, aside from the Dickensian waif with rickets thing. I had horrible nightmares about the Rodriguez family last night. It isn't the first time. The nightmares are always about the kids needing to be rescued, and (of course) not being able to help them. It is so strange having nightmares about strangers like this, but I guess this family just really unsettles me.

This sounds like soreness from the workout rather than an injury, thank god! Stairs are probably hell right now, especially going downstairs, right? 😅 I went through this in the first week or two of every sports season in HS and every time my old lady self tries to take up running again. If it's soreness from the workout you got gardening, then stretching and exercising will help a lot! Once you're warmed up/loosened up, the soreness will be gone... until you sit/sleep, that is. It'll wear off over the next couple days anyhow. Muscle soreness from working out is safe, it's just the feeling of building muscle!

Oh no! Did you injure it or are you just incredibly sore? Stretching/yoga might feel good, but maybe that's dangerous if there's an injury

Does the church have a women's softball team? Seems weird that she wouldn't just say, "the church softball team, Joy's Boys." Maybe it's some stupid Jender Role$ nonsense that I'm better off not thinking about. This port folio bullshit makes me so mad, because if Jill is acting like it's such a chore to spend a few hours working with the kids to finish their "port folios" then what are the odds that she ever bothers to spend a few hours actually teaching them? It's like a big flashing neon sign that Jill doesn't want to spend ANY time on the kids' education. That's on top of the "port folios" themselves probably being total lies, considering she didn't even bother looking up the requirements for this year and they've gotten in trouble before for cheating. These kids deserve so much better. Really troubling.

It is TERRIFYING that Ivy would open the fridge and climb inside. Jessa and Ben need to childproof that fridge ASAP!! Cannot believe that she would stand there taking a picture, not worried for her daughter at all. It also bothers me that this child is so fucking hungry. It's Henry all over again. I assume the kids do manage to scrounge up food somehow because they don't look especially waifish, but WTF. That she thinks this is cute, normal 2-year-old behavior is really worrying. She is about to have another baby in the house, so I can't see this getting better anytime soon.

I think it's weird to give a dog your own breast milk.... I mean, I know dogs are the new babies, but come on! 🤣 That said, when I was volunteering at the SPCA years ago, a woman did call in saying she had tons of breast milk that she wanted to donate to the kittens and puppies. The supervisor said no, that babies should drink their own species' breast milk. So Jill isn't the first person to wonder about this! I don't think it's unsafe for Fenna to drink Jill's old frozen breast milk... just weird and awkward as hell 🤣 It seems like a very intimate thing to do with your dog!

Wow, they really didn’t know each other at all before the wedding! She didn’t even think he was interested in her, but he was already praying and talking to her dad about her — and then out of the blue, he asks her to be in a relationship? The whole thing sounds strange to me. I’m really glad that I didn’t get married to the first guy who had a crush on me. I can’t imagine going into a marriage like this, although I’m sure that the men and women who go this route are too inexperienced in life to really understand why this is foolhardy or even how this is different from a love match or regular mainstream relationship/marriage. That’s actually why I hate the parents for encouraging this. Their naive children think that as long as it’s a reasonable match they’ll grow into a happy relationship. Because they don’t know enough about relationships or even themselves to know better. The parents know more about life and know what a loveless, lonely lifelong trap they are likely leading their children into.

I can’t get over how few books are in that library 😂 And the few that are there are arranged like props! What a bunch of wannabes.

For all we know, Tyler’s mother would love for Tyler to live with her, but he prefers to stay with the Duggars. For all their faults, they gave him stability when he needed it, and maybe he still needs it. It is so wrong for Pickles to stick her nose into such a sensitive topic. That’s just so hurtful, and she’s not part of the situation so she has no idea what’s even going on. Taking Tyler in and treating him as one of their own is maybe the most compassionate thing the Duggars have ever done. Not that it’s such a big deal to take care of your own relative (who you presumably love), but they really are so selfish otherwise. So while I think it’s horrible for him to be raised in the cult, welcoming him into their home is literally the one decision I can’t fault them for. I’m surprised that they’ve shown some compassion and humanity, to be honest. I didn’t think they had it in them.

Yup! My first mortgage payment in Aug 1, and orientation is in mid-August. So I'm planning to take my time, but be fully moved in by Aug 1 (meaning have moved all my things to the house, not necessarily unpacked and everything). The truth is that I would love to just get a truck and get everything over there immediately! But I need to be slow and steady and stick to my planned timeline, to keep from things getting totally nuts with pets and commuting. Plus, my boyfriend is dealing with getting his parents into assisted living, and it's consuming 99% of his bandwidth right now...we've talked about it and he wants to get them moved into their new place before moving himself, so Aug 1 is the date we agreed on for us BOTH being moved into the house. Things get so scary when adults can't take care of their own basic physical needs anymore. As much as you want to pick up the slack so they can still live as normally and independently as possible, it's impossible to ever do enough. Just so horrible to watch and I can't imagine what it is to live through. Everyone here who is dealing with grief (including over loved ones whose health is deteriorating), you're in my thoughts.