Botkin 2: Geoff Tried to Advise Trump

[AnnaSofia]

I can't believe Geoff's name is in the mainstream news.

Dougie must be seething with envy.

Edited May 23, 2022 by AnnaSofia

[Columbia]

11 hours ago, AnnaSofia said:

I can't believe Geoff's name is in the mainstream news.

Dougie must be seething with envy.

In the mainstream news and not for a sex abuse scandal. What that all patriarchs could be that lucky. 

[Black Aliss]

On 5/15/2022 at 3:01 AM, CyborgKin said:

my dad is currently playing a Geoff video and he's talking about chicken farming (and infrastructure fragility) but I thought he was a duck biologist!

so, uhhhh, is your dad a Botkinite or does he just enjoy following fundies?

 

[CyborgKin]

On 5/24/2022 at 6:19 AM, Black Aliss said:

so, uhhhh, is your dad a Botkinite or does he just enjoy following fundies?

 

He has a lot of respect for Geoff. (gag!) I remember some years back he got my brothers and I to watch the 'Father to Son: Manly Conversations that can Change Culture'  video series.

It started out with 'Homeschool Dropouts' and the Botkin kids were so creepy in that that I looked up online what was up with that family and ended up as an FJ lurker.  So thanks Geoff for helping set me down this path

[CyborgKin]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:01 PM, CyborgKin said:

my dad is currently playing a Geoff video and he's talking about chicken farming (and infrastructure fragility) but I thought he was a duck biologist!

It's amazing how he can say so many words and sound like he has some impressive point but it's all pretty basic and obvious.

edit:

so uh this exists:

I'm not imagining that subtle dig about going into capitol buildings, am I?

yikes, the whole "let people between 18 and 21 buy guns to protect themselves from shooters" angle aged poorly

[Columbia]

Poor Victoria. 

[AnnaSofia]

I'm still wondering why Lucas and Kara seem to have basically eloped just weeks before the wedding date on their registry.  Lucas posted something about "we were hoping to have a big wedding this year, but it hasn't been possible due to the year's unique variables." For anyone else, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to say during a pandemic year, but we already know the Botkins had no issue at all with large, maskless company parties for T.Rex Arms.

Anyone else think that Geoff tried to pull the plug?

[JermajestyDuggar]

8 minutes ago, AnnaSofia said:

I'm still wondering why Lucas and Kara seem to have basically eloped just weeks before the wedding date on their registry.  Lucas posted something about "we were hoping to have a big wedding this year, but it hasn't been possible due to the year's unique variables." For anyone else, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to say during a pandemic year, but we already know the Botkins had no issue at all with large, maskless company parties for T.Rex Arms.

Anyone else think that Geoff tried to pull the plug?

I knew someone who decided to elope early to avoid family drama. Her parents and the groom’s parents were all divorced and some remarried. Multiple siblings with string personalities too. I can understand wanting to elope in order to avoid family drama ruining your special day. 

[Columbia]

31 minutes ago, AnnaSofia said:

Anyone else think that Geoff tried to pull the plug?

Or was way too controlling about the ceremony. 

[Howl]

10 hours ago, Columbia said:

Or was way too controlling about the ceremony.

Yup, Geoff would have assumed the ceremony was about him -- and he would have spent an hour bloviating, and I mean this literally.  Part or all of that rant would concern wifely submission, staying at home under the authority of the husband and having babies in front of a woman with a professional career as an engineer.  Anathema to Geoff.  And now Geoff has two daughters in law who are kryptonite to his rancid beliefs. 

And Kara replacing Geoff as the most important person in Lucas' life.  Unthinkable! 

I wonder if Lucas  quietly tolerates Geoff. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Howl

[Sarcastically spinster]

12 hours ago, AnnaSofia said:

I'm still wondering why Lucas and Kara seem to have basically eloped just weeks before the wedding date on their registry.  Lucas posted something about "we were hoping to have a big wedding this year, but it hasn't been possible due to the year's unique variables." For anyone else, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to say during a pandemic year, but we already know the Botkins had no issue at all with large, maskless company parties for T.Rex Arms.

They were married in 2020.  I'm not directly connected to them myself, but a friend of mine who knows them mentioned Lucas and his wife back then.  They apparently were planning to have a small private ceremony and not tell people they were married so that people didn't get their feelings hurt about not being invited, and have a bigger wedding after things opened back up, and that didn't materialize as expected so they finally just announced.  

[MamaJunebug]

14 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I knew someone who decided to elope early to avoid family drama. Her parents and the groom’s parents were all divorced and some remarried. Multiple siblings with string personalities too. I can understand wanting to elope in order to avoid family drama ruining your special day. 

Two Junior Junebugs eloped with their partners.  Neither considered it necessary to have a bug (typo and it stays) wedding and one couple seriously did not want one of the mothers involved in planning (Quietly proud to say that mother WASN’T me.)

Both had bashes a few months after the weddings and so far both marriages are quietly thriving and strong.   Yay, Lucas & Kara. 

[AnnaSofia]

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting there is ANYTHING wrong with eloping, no matter the reason (and ESPECIALLY if the alternative is Geoff Botkin rambling on for hours at the ceremony )

I just can't fathom that Geoff is totally cool with his violet haired, jeans wearing, college educated, chemical engineer daughter in law, and the more we hear from Audri, the more I'm convinced of it. Likewise Kara's investment ventures (look up kara.botkin on Instagram). No way he approves of a wife having that much influence on a couple's financial future, even if Lucas does.

If Geoff disliked Audri and Ben being close and trusting each other (and therefor potentially lessening Geoff's sway over his offspring) what can he possibly think of Kara and Lucas?

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Someone said on the singles thread that Elizabeth Botkin married Reese Thompson in June. 

[AnnaSofia]

A Botkin daughter and a Maxwell daughter marrying the same summer?!?!?

The rapture is surely coming

[Howl]

Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on just a gosh darned minute!  Eleventy!  Elizabeth B married?  MARRIED?   What's next? AN ARNDT?  

Earth tilting on its axis.  Somebody spill the tea on the new husband STAT!

This popped up on a quick google search, but when I went to the 2019 Ten Talents Conference web site, Reese Thomson wasn't listed 

• Quote

  Schedule | 10 Talents Conference, https://10talents.co › schedule

  Marriage and the Kingdom ... Marriage - Choosing Your Life-Long Ministry Partner ... Geoffrey Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, Reese Thompson, Heidi Botkin ...

  I swear if an Arndt gets married, I'll just SWOON. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Howl

[hoipolloi]

 

55 minutes ago, AnnaSofia said:

I just can't fathom that Geoff is totally cool with his violet haired, jeans wearing, college educated, chemical engineer daughter in law, and the more we hear from Audri, the more I'm convinced of it. Likewise Kara's investment ventures (look up kara.botkin on Instagram). No way he approves of a wife having that much influence on a couple's financial future, even if Lucas does.

Agree totally. Recently, in an IG post, she said the following:

Quote

Learning about passive income was important to me because I realized I was already pretty occupied working 40+ hours a week while taking care of me and a dog. I was single. I wanted time to date. While I needed safe money (my job) I couldn’t expedite the process to becoming wealth[y] unless I found something that required less time -> investments (real estate and stocks). [Emphasis added]

That is NOT the kind of young woman that Geoff has extolled and bloviated about all these years! Would love to know how she and Lucas actually met. 

OTOH, I am also guessing that no matter how angry & controlling Geoff was, someone in that household must have recalled what side their bread is buttered on and just who pays for the bread & butter -- namely, T-Rex Arms. They donʻt appear to be getting significant money from the Western Conservatory crap, their scam conferences, or anything else.

[AnnaSofia]

2 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

OTOH, I am also guessing that no matter how angry & controlling Geoff was, someone in that household must have recalled what side their bread is buttered on and just who pays for the bread & butter -- namely, T-Rex Arms. They donʻt appear to be getting significant money from the Western Conservatory crap, their scam conferences, or anything else.

That's exactly it, Lucas has too much financial control to be entirely under Geoff's knee, and that's why we're seeing his choices deviate from the norm.

But I still wonder if they married quickly because they knew Geoff disapproved.

[AnnaSofia]

23 minutes ago, Howl said:

Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on just a gosh darned minute!  Eleventy!  Elizabeth B married?  MARRIED?   What's next? AN ARNDT?  

Earth tilting on its axis.  Somebody spill the tea on the new husband STAT!

This popped up on a quick google search, but when I went to the 2019 Ten Talents Conference web site, Reese Thomson wasn't listed 

• I swear if an Arndt gets married, I'll just SWOON. 

Apparently he works for T.Rex arms, though it looks like his main job is with something called "Biblical Blueprints" in Omaha.

 

Nothing under education, so I'm assuming homeschooled? All in all this one sounds like a Geoff-approved spouse.

[Columbia]

It’s so strange that after all these years, after each post on their blog celebrating their new sisters-in-law, no one’s mentioned her wedding, if she really did get married. I guess that explains why Geoff’s videos have been so sporadic as of late; he had a suitor to vet and a wedding to plan. 
 

I hope that he’s kind to her, and that she’s happy. 

[sleepygirl1]

Whoa I am shocked.

[AnnaSofia]

12 minutes ago, Columbia said:

It’s so strange that after all these years, after each post on their blog celebrating their new sisters-in-law, no one’s mentioned her wedding, if she really did get married. I guess that explains why Geoff’s videos have been so sporadic as of late; he had a suitor to vet and a wedding to plan. 
 

I hope that he’s kind to her, and that she’s happy. 

There was never any mention of Lucas and Kara either, except by Lucas himself. The BotkinSisters blog hasn't been updated since 2018 (and only rarely in the later years), so it's effectively dead.

[thoughtful]

So, she didn't marry this Reese Thompson?

Spoiler

https://www.nextmodels.ca/en/portfolios/reese-thompson

That would have made Geoff's head blow up real good!

Here's the picture from Reese's LinkedIn page:

Spoiler

 

[Sarcastically spinster]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

This popped up on a quick google search, but when I went to the 2019 Ten Talents Conference web site, Reese Thomson wasn't listed 

• Quote

  Schedule | 10 Talents Conference, https://10talents.co › schedule

  Marriage and the Kingdom ... Marriage - Choosing Your Life-Long Ministry Partner ... Geoffrey Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, Reese Thompson, Heidi Botkin ...

  I swear if an Arndt gets married, I'll just SWOON. 

He was part of the round table discussions, but they didn't have a speaker profile for him.  

31 minutes ago, Columbia said:

I guess that explains why Geoff’s videos have been so sporadic as of late; he had a suitor to vet and a wedding to plan. 

Reese has been inside Botkin circles (and possibly their church, though I'm unsure of that) for years.  I met him once in the context of those circles 4-5 years ago.  Geoff has known him long enough that I can't imagine much vetting was needed.  And do we really think *he* did the legwork of planning the wedding?  Veto power, probably, but there's no way he would do the legwork himself.  

Unlike Sarah Maxwell, this does not appear to be any kind of deviation from the expected path.  

[Sarcastically spinster]

Found it!

https://www.theknot.com/us/elizabeth-botkin-and-reese-thompson-jun-2022