Albanyguy

As long as it doesn't interfere with his naptime.

I suspect that Jill hired an Amish-run construction company to do the job and they showed up at the agreed-upon time. But she's trying to spin it as if her dear Amish friends and neighbors just showed up to help build her a living room...like a good old traditional Amish barn-raising. And I'll bet the company she hired is going to bitterly regret taking the job, especially when it comes time for the bill to be paid.

I think this last one has really destroyed her. In the past, she and Jim Bob had a measure of control over the situation and could deal with Josh privately; by having a friendly cop give him an informal taking-to, by sending him off to work construction or shipping him off to Jesus Jail. But now, Josh is in the hands of the criminal justice system and, while I'm sure that Jim Bob is assuring her that everything is going to be okay, all the denial in the world isn't going help. She must be terrified at the thought of what will happen to Josh in prison. I'd feel sorry for her if she wasn't such a poor excuse for a human being.

Fleur always reminds me of Fleur Forsyte in "The Forsyte Saga". Not a girl the Duggars would consider a good role model.

And I'm sure Mama comes barging in constantly to make sure he's not doing anything he shouldn't (which would be pretty much anything).

I notice he didn’t list his stint with the FRC, the only actual paying job he ever had. And who the hell puts his wedding picture on a professional resume!

Yeah, Jessa’s always having twins until it turns out she isn’t.

It's not just selfishness and laziness (although that's a big part of it) that keeps them from giving. The warped religion taught by "leaders" like Gothard and MacArthur actively prohibits it. If you give of your time and money to the community at large, how do you know that your help isn't being given to the wrong kind of people: atheists, Catholics, homosexuals and other undeserving sinners? And if you see a stranger suffering, how do you know that they don't deserve their fate? Maybe they're being punished for their sins and by helping them, you'd be interfering with God's plan. To these "Christians", the only approved form of outreach is missionary work: handing out Bibles and tracts and preaching about Jesus. But, unlike Jill Rod (who loves to accost strangers in parking lots and public spaces), the Duggars don't really go in for that sort of thing, preferring easier, safer efforts like their nail polish-and-lollipop "missioncations".

I have no doubt that Josh is thoroughly enjoying his "vacation" at the Rebers. He doesn't have to go through the motions of working at the car lot and his children aren't constantly underfoot. He can do as he pleases, knowing that the Rebers aren't going to tattle on him. I'm sure that poor Mrs. Reber is waiting on him hand and foot, making his bed and picking his wet towels up off the bathroom floor. When Anna visits, I'm sure she comes bearing shopping bags loaded with candy bars, potato chips and ice cream. And I strongly suspect that he's managed to get his hands on Internet access. Of course, anyone with half a gnat's brain would be living in a state of abject terror right now, dreading the certain prospect of conviction and prison. But I think that Josh is living in a state of complete denial, convincing himself that he'll be acquitted or at least let off with a slap on the wrist.

Except that I think Jim Bob and Michelle would hotly deny (even to themselves) that Jill, or any of the older girls, raised the younger ones. Michelle, who I think actually believes her own lies as soon as they come out of her mouth, would probably claim that the Buddy System means that the girls just helped her as she raised her brood (and she would probably minimize the "help" the girls provided as much as she could).

And yet in every birthday tribute to one of their grown sons, their favorite phrase is "You are a strong man of God". Well, if your sons are so strong in their faith, why can't they be trusted to leave the house on their own?

“Now [that] TLC has axed the show, most of the family are desperate to get out of the contracts,” the insider suggested. “They think it’s unfair they can’t move on yet and sign any other deals. ….” Yeah, and they're just being deluged with big-buck offers.

Ooh, thanks, I’ll have to check out “Side Hugs”. Sounds like fun i’m not sure how COVID could have delayed Jeremy’s studies, though, since MacArthur spent the past year and a half claiming it was all a hoax and demanding that his flock pretend it wasn’t happening.

Isn't that why you keep on having new ones to take their place?

I think that, like many of their rules, this would be seen as applying to non-believers rather than to themselves. The idea that an adopted child would carry the "sins" of their father probably means that the father might be someone who was never "saved", like an atheist or (gasp!) a Catholic or someone who freely indulged in the temptations of the flesh and never repented. Of course, very few non-believers have been as depraved and filthy as Josh, but that doesn't matter to the Duggars because all Josh has to do is say the magic words "I'm sorry, Jesus" and his sins will be immediately wiped away, just like last time and the time before that. Dietrich Bonhoffer called it "cheap grace", i.e. the preaching of forgiveness without requiring true repentance.

Most of the grown kids have continued posting staged photos of their daily lives (not to the extent that the Vuolos have, but that's always been the case). I don't think it's really sunk in for any of them that the show is kaput. Perhaps Jim Bob is pacifying his brood by stringing them along with talk about another network picking them up (and I'll bet he's already been putting out feelers). If he is, why wouldn't they believe him? They've been raised to believe that Daddy can fix anything. Or perhaps the Vuolos (who are just a shade more worldly than the others) know that "Counting On" is over, but are angling like mad for their own show with TLC or anyone else who will give them the time of day.

I nearly died laughing at the phrase “their cretinous jizzwad son, Josh Duggar”! The most perfect description ever! And the comments, especially the ones about Jill Rod, are priceless.

Amy’s really milking this NDA thing for all the attention she can get. Publicly asking Derick and now asking her “fans” if it’s still legally binding. If she really wanted to know that, she’d make an appointment and consult an attorney. My guess is that she’s already been told that the NDA is still in effect, but she’s teasing us with the possibility that she MIGHT be about to spill some juicy insider details.

Nathan better keep that wallet of his open. That's his only value to Jill now that bragging that Nurie married ANNA DUGGAR'S BROTHER has lost some of it's allure.

I also suspect that if Michelle goes first, Jim Bob won't even wait a year before he gets married again to a girl young enough to enable him to start begetting a new quiverfull. The rationale will be that, even though Michelle was the love of his life and he will always mourn her, the Lord laid it on his heart to continue his mission of providing the world with an army of little Duggars.

Jessa can't be bothered to clean up her own house, why would she worry about cleaning up a campsite?

I'll bet the first draft of the book was all sunshine-and-roses, "From the moment I saw this handsome, perfectly-dressed man, I knew the Lord had chosen us for each other". Then their editor said "Look guys, we have to have at least one moment of dramatic tension on the way to the happy ending. Please come up with something." And Jinger, who was raised in a family of sanctimonious liars, was happy to oblige.

I'm a little fuzzy about this (and don't feel like researching it), but IIRC, Nurie and one of the other girls were in a SEVERE car crash. They were unhurt, but the car was totaled and Jill started grifting. At first she started a GoFundMe, which didn't bring in much, but then some anonymous donor gave them a car. A few moths later, Tim's car bit the dust and, emboldened by her previous success. she tried grifting for a new one for him.

Some of them get very obsessed with their Jewish roots and see Judaism as a direct ancestor of their own beliefs (bypassing all that evil Catholicism stuff). "Messianic Judaism" is a modern Christian religious movement that incorporates some elements of Judaism and Jewish tradition with Evangelical Christianity. For people like the Duggars (whose religious beliefs seem more emotional than intellectual), I think they simply prefer the angry, vengeful God of the Old Testament to the peaceful, loving Jesus of the New Testament. They LOVE the idea of God destroying cities with fire and turning people into pillars of salt. The rigid rules of the Ten Commandments and the Book of Leviticus are far more appealing than the moral responsibility to others embodied in the Sermon on the Mount.

I have a feeling that he's going to become more demanding and difficult as her star rises and his career goes nowhere. He'll keep reminding her that the Lord expects her to be a submissive wife and she'll spend most of time placating him and stroking his ego. With every award she wins or hit record she records, he'll find some way to "punish" her emotionally. Eventually, he'll announce that he's putting his singing career "on hold" to become her official manager, so that he can make career decisions for her and control her finances. Hopefully, at some point he'll push her too far and she'll walk out on him.