Mortons: A new year of Marryin', Birthin', and Writin'

[SolomonFundy]

It's definitely Kressant and Mike's old place, though it looks like they've made a lot of changes. This is what the house looked like about a year before Kressant and Mike moved to Paraguay (when Harold Fletcher was born):

Martha and Tayte have moved the wood burning stove that used to be in the kitchen over to the book wall, and they've done a lot of finishing work to the windows and stairs.

[ophelia]

Lise has been posting tons of pictures about a fancy house remodeling Cleve is doing for her and I have to say that it really looks amazing!

[nelliebelle1197]

Is Katie in the main house?

This Paraguay thing is just weird AF and does not get any less weird the longer they are there.

[JermajestyDuggar]

21 minutes ago, nelliebelle1197 said:

Is Katie in the main house?

This Paraguay thing is just weird AF and does not get any less weird the longer they are there.

From looking at Kressant’s Instagram, I’ve deduced that they’ve made friends there that they see as family. I think that’s probably part of why they stay. Plus she and Rachel no longer have a relationship with the Smiths so staying in Paraguay probably makes that even easier. 

[ophelia]

They seem to feel real comfortable in the Chaco area. There are so many other religious groups and probably less evil government that this must be heaven on earth for them. Seems like they have a lot of contact with german-speaking Mennonites and get in contact with another denomination which might even expand their narrow minds.

[nelliebelle1197]

11 minutes ago, ophelia said:

They seem to feel real comfortable in the Chaco area. There are so many other religious groups and probably less evil government that this must be heaven on earth for them. Seems like they have a lot of contact with german-speaking Mennonites and get in contact with another denomination which might even expand their narrow minds.

That just cracks me up

[lexiloumarie]

3 hours ago, nelliebelle1197 said:

Is Katie in the main house?

This Paraguay thing is just weird AF and does not get any less weird the longer they are there.

Yes - Addie posted about moving to a third floor bedroom that's pretty small. Her and Martha had a reasonably sized room that must have gone to Katie or the kids. 

[ophelia]

But Michael Morton sr. and Jeanine Morton are still on the GA compound, aren't they?

[nelliebelle1197]

1 hour ago, ophelia said:

But Michael Morton sr. and Jeanine Morton are still on the GA compound, aren't they?

That's right- they came back after the Alan stuff, right?

[lexiloumarie]

Yep, Michael Sr and Jeannine moved home. They, the three unmarried children, and Katie's family live in the big house. Next store in the barn is Sam, Alyssa, and children. across the yard is Martha and Tayte, zandry in Kress old house.  Across the property is Andrew, Kennedy and their kids. Somewhere on the property is likely Sam and Campbell but haven't seen where it is yet. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Campbell posted this picture of their home. I scratched out their house number because I personally think it’s stupid to post your house number on your public Instagram. 

[browngrl]

How do these people afford their lifestyle. Their public instagrams look like: concerts or dinners out and things like that. They all seem to have big homes. Do they rent? Do they live on credit? Is real estate cheap? Is it all photoshop?

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, browngrl said:

How do these people afford their lifestyle. Their public instagrams look like: concerts or dinners out and things like that. They all seem to have big homes. Do they rent? Do they live on credit? Is real estate cheap? Is it all photoshop?

 

They do all the construction work themselves. And I don’t think Alyssa goes out much tbh. She has three babies at home. But the others probably go out more since they have children who are more spaced out. 

[Lurky]

18 hours ago, browngrl said:

How do these people afford their lifestyle. Their public instagrams look like: concerts or dinners out and things like that. They all seem to have big homes. Do they rent? Do they live on credit? Is real estate cheap? Is it all photoshop?

The Morton land is pretty huge, and IIRC, Andrew's house was given to him - it was a wooden house that had been a neighbour's family home, so they gave it to Andrew who got it hauled away, and re-modeled it. And as Jermajesty said, they do their own construction, because the Mortons have a family business. 

They built a couple of apartments in the barn as starter homes for the young couples to live in, while they're building their homes. But it's not been all roses and clover - that book one of the Morton daughters wrote about their childhood showed them living in a tent encampment, and in building sites for years.  So I also wonder if they don't mind scrimping on some things, to spend on fun.  The Mortons have always seemed to have had a lot more fun than other families, but since the terrible revelations about Alan Smith, they seem to be moving to more worldy fun (while still keeping their old views on other things) - it's a long way from the family ball where everyone came dressed as a Christian hero, and people were only allowed to dance with spouses and direct family members...

[ophelia]

Although I wonder how they will keep on supporting their ever-growing families with only the construction business. The 6 on the compound remaining sons are employed in that business and all of them (except maybe Cleve) will end up with a huge number of kids to feed. This is rural Georgia, isn't it? How much houses do they need to build to really make a living and what happens when the market dries up? I know, the Lord will provide, but it seems to me as if they might need to branch out and start other businesses as well. Back in the days they also did some farming IIRC.

[albireo]

20 minutes ago, ophelia said:

I know, the Lord will provide, but it seems to me as if they might need to branch out and start other businesses as well. Back in the days they also did some farming IIRC.

I think they still do. There have been pictures of Katie's kids in the fields, and Cleve and Lise have taken pictures of cattle which I assume belong to the compound.

[NachosFlandersStyle]

On 3/5/2019 at 8:33 AM, ophelia said:

So apparently it is not only Martha who started the whole Plexus nightmare, but Kennedy as well.

And now Katie too.

[Lurky]

I can understand how a fundy quiverful woman can do quite well on the MLM side, IF she's the first one in her circle to take it up, because she has a ready-made pool of sisters and sisters-in-law to sign up underneath her, and we all know MLM is all about the sign ups - especially Plexus, where they have to commit to giving the company $100/month, whether by orders, or setting up an automatic "back order".   But I always wonder how those sign-ups are meant to make it work?  And wow, imagine being any sister/in-law who hasn't signed up yet - bet there's a huge competition to get Addie and Ma Morton in on it.

[albireo]

2 hours ago, Lurky said:

I can understand how a fundy quiverful woman can do quite well on the MLM side, IF she's the first one in her circle to take it up, because she has a ready-made pool of sisters and sisters-in-law to sign up underneath her, and we all know MLM is all about the sign ups - especially Plexus, where they have to commit to giving the company $100/month, whether by orders, or setting up an automatic "back order".   But I always wonder how those sign-ups are meant to make it work?  And wow, imagine being any sister/in-law who hasn't signed up yet - bet there's a huge competition to get Addie and Ma Morton in on it.

They all seem to be in Shoshanna Pearl Easling's downline (Lise posted a couple of weeks ago about visiting Shoshanna and hearing about Plexus, plus Shoshanna is all over the S'Mortons' FB posts), and I think Martha is in Katie's downline? Katie said something about Martha being on her team.

Regardless, there is no way to make an MLM work unless the entire world is your downline, and that involves constantly scamming people. This is a(nother) recipe for disaster.

Edited March 8, 2019 by albireo
spelling

[Lurky]

1 hour ago, albireo said:

They all seem to be in Shoshanna Pearl Easling's downline (Lise posted a couple of weeks ago about visiting Shoshanna and hearing about Plexus, plus Shoshanna is all over the S'Mortons' FB posts), and I think Martha is in Katie's downline? Katie said something about Martha being on her team.

I guess if they had to be doing this, I'm glad Katie is higher up the chain, so she's not losing more money, but imagine the pressure to sign up under her - she wouldn't have to guilt anyone, but just her asking would remind them that Katie is without an income, 8 kids to feed etc etc.  And that's just making me angrier at MLMs, because of course in that situation it would seem like a godsend.

I can only hope that getting involved in MLMs is the thin end of another wedge for the Mortons, that eventually leads to the third generation daughters being able get jobs in the future, if they want them.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, albireo said:

They all seem to be in Shoshanna Pearl Easling's downline

Not surprising. Shoshanna and her husband James are fairly high up in the Plexus organization, definitely jewel Ambassador, maybe at the Sapphire or Diamond level. That's a lot of downline folks & they have to come from somewhere.

Shoshanna posted a video on her FB page 2-3 weeks ago in which she purports to explain what the "pink drink" is and how wonderful it is. I have NEVER heard such a mishmash of nonsense in my life. It is 7 minutes or so of nonstop, pseudo-scientific gabbling, just an endless stream of bullshit. I couldn't watch more than 2-3 minutes of it. Hard to believe anyone could fall for such drivel but it seems they do.

Also, looks like Kennedy Morton is now pushing Plexus. The only S'Morton who deserves to succeed at this shite, IMO, is Katie, but the odds of her making more than a few thousand a year, if that, aren't good.

 

 

[DutchMommy]

Talking about MLM video's...

Spoiler

I hope I'm doing this right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Who wants to face swap these two? I’m guessing they could beat out Pris and Pecan for the fundie couple twin award.

[NachosFlandersStyle]

I'm sure we'll be hearing about their engagement soon. Followed by a tasteful, romantic, anti-abortion themed wedding.

[DangerNoodle]

I've gotten into the Reddit and Facebook anti-MLM communities.

Without a doubt the products are crap. I think it qualifies for the label "scam" based on that alone. (Calling them a pyramid scheme is tricky because the defenders will point out it doesn't meet the legal definition of a pyramid scheme.)

I made a meme comparing ItWorks! greens to Walmart greens. The cheapest greens from Walmart are better several times over. I put the meme up on Instagram and the freaking ItWorks official page gave it a like lol