Ohio, WTF?
Maybe Jeff Gill can shed more light on the most recent horrific child abuse case to be revealed in rural, or semi-rural Ohio. This one is in Licking County, where he lives. Once again, the mugshots do not disappoint:
And the details are ghastly. Nine kids and two adults, perhaps three adults, living in “horrific conditions” in a single-wide trailer:
The juveniles, between ages 1 and 13, were removed from the home and two adults were arrested. A twelfth person — a 64-year-old — was reportedly also in the home, according to the sheriff’s office.
According to the sheriff’s office, the living conditions were “horrific” and the initial complaint originated from the Licking County school district, which alerted child services.
At least four of the kids lived in a shed adjacent to the home, the sheriff’s office said.
Jonathan Parr, who is reportedly the father to seven of the nine children, was charged with child endangerment and subjected two nonbiological children to physical abuse, court records state. He also has prior felony convictions out of Wisconsin and multiple weapons charges, records state.
We are living in “Idiocracy,” but it’s a horror movie. So many of the smart young people I know are putting off children, or ruling it out entirely, either because they feel they can’t afford it, or because they’re so pessimistic about the state of the world that they don’t want to subject their own flesh and blood to a burning planet already barreling headlong into World War III. I know there are arguments to be made against this, but when you’re the one facing two decades of child-rearing, it’s hard to sell optimism.
And meanwhile, Mr. Parr here has seven kids, now scarred for life.
Sorry to start you off with a bummer. JD Vance is in Michigan as I write this, and truth be told, it’s kinda comical:
JD Vance: "I want to give a few shoutouts. First of all, your next governor, the great Congressman John James. He's not with us this afternoon."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 15, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Box office poison, JD!
Boy, watching that circus clown augur in after the fall of MAGA is going to be so delicious. A phonier phony never did phony. I had “JD/Usha split” on my 2026 Bingo card, but I didn’t know at the time she had a bun in the oven. I’m carrying it over to 2027, because I believe sooner or later she’s going to realize her husband has spent the last two years cozying up to people who call her a jeet behind her back, and she’ll either grow a spine or simply whistle for a lifeboat off the sinking ship.
And weren’t we just talking about the NYT and their both-sidesing? Getta loada this:
Here was the “suggestion,” by the way:
During a visit to Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, JD Vance opened a rally in support of the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, by addressing a man in the crowd who expressed his admiration. “I love you too sir,” Mr. Vance said. “In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”
He paused for effect, smiling as he waited for applause.
A common view of Mr. Vance is that he is a chameleon, capable of quickly toggling from sharp-edged attacks to common-sense statesmanship at a moment’s notice, depending on what he needs. His claim about the sexuality of Mr. Talarico, who Democrats believe represents their best hope of winning a Senate seat in Texas in decades, shows the kind of personal broadsides that Mr. Vance embraces in a tough campaign environment.
Ha ha, such a funny guy. I used to cringe a little when people kept making the Vance-fucks-couches crack, but now I hope it hangs over his stupid head until he dies.
The latest useful-journalism story going around is about the GOP congressman who yelled at a reporter — a student reporter, no less — asking him tough questions, telling her she “didn’t have permission” to record him. This in a gaggle of reporters, all of who were recording. “This is a two-party state,” he said, meaning that both parties must consent to being recorded, “and I don’t consent.” A high-school student could explain that such issues pertain only to private conversations, in person or over the phone. A person in public has no expectation of privacy, and a press gaggle is certainly a public event. Lots of TV stations are dragging a lawyer or two in to explain this to the idiots in single-wide trailers who might have believed the congressman had a right to say, “You, turn your recorder off. Everyone else, carry on. Next question.”
OK, then. Into the weekend we slide. Less than three weeks until the elections.
Brandon said on October 16, 2026 at 1:54 am
That congressman is as thin-skinned as an onion.
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Alan Stamm said on October 16, 2026 at 7:52 am
Into the weekend — and abyss, it increasingly seems — we slide, indeed.
Apt word choice in the sense of skid, slip, drop, sink, fall, descend, decline, lower, fall, slump . . .
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alex said on October 16, 2026 at 9:11 am
Peter Thiel’s butt boy casting such aspersions. I’d be surprised if Usha doesn’t have him sleeping on a couch already.
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Little Bird said on October 16, 2026 at 9:34 am
Alex, I’ve heard it said that he prefers couches anyway….
(To word in that plausible deniability way)
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Suzanne said on October 16, 2026 at 10:50 am
The GOP is pretty obviously populated with men who don’t want to come out of the closet or don’t even want to admit that they have a closet, even while they are in it. Vance is the epitome of so many conservative men that I personally know who say things to get a laugh but seem unaware that laugh inducing statements are supposed to be funny.
Wasn’t there another family recently in Ohio who had a bunch of kids living in squalor? It’s awful. I do worry about what kind of world my new grandbaby will encounter as she grows up.
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Deborah said on October 16, 2026 at 11:28 am
I think Vance is a product of his upbringing, being raised by an addicted mother with lots of marginal boyfriends and husbands in his vicinity growing up, plus his messed up grandparents. In the Hillbilly Elegy movie they tried to depict “Mammaw” as having some redeeming qualities, she refused to leave an abusive husband which was somehow portrayed as a positive. She was an asshole and no wonder Vance is as well. He’s a mean creep with no charisma what so ever. Not to mention that he’s owned lock stock and barrel by Peter Thiel, the guy who gets routine blood transfusions from younger men for some crazy reason. And have you read any of Thiel’s antichrist beliefs? Whoo boy. Poor Usha, but she’s probably as bad, unfortunately. They’re all weird.
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Julie Robinson said on October 16, 2026 at 12:15 pm
And another batch of families sent their loved ones off to school in Bend, Oregon yesterday, but not everyone came home. How long, oh Lord, how long?
Bonus points if you get the musical theater reference.
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Icarus said on October 16, 2026 at 12:44 pm
I was going to post this on the previous thread about the comment about grandparenting these days and weird rules. I understand the need for some rules being strictly followed — do I wish I had been more firm with my mom about my kids — but taking someone to task “when the morning nap happened at 11 a.m. instead of 10” is just being an ungrateful bitch.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/grandmas-tired-america-experiencing-depleted-110018392.html
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David C said on October 16, 2026 at 1:10 pm
There would be a ton of bitching about ‘muh rights, but every newly born child needs a visit from someone to make sure they’re are in a decent environment. Most countries have something like District Nurses in the UK who visit people’s homes soon after a birth to assess that everything is OK. Waiting until some of the kids are in their teens and probably permanently broken obviously isn’t working.
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Dorothy said on October 16, 2026 at 4:09 pm
Jeff appears to be on a wonderful trip out west, so perhaps he’s not seen the latest headlines. I have not heard about this (I live in central Ohio), but then again I have not seen the latest news for a few days. My stomach churns just thinking about how it must have been surviving in a shed with several other young siblings. How do you fix that? Is there any way at all for them to rid themselves of memories of that vile and disgusting treatment?!
And here’s me, having spent the day shopping and eating and laughing with my granddaughter who had a fall break day today. I bought her a pretty fluffy, white faux fur jacket and she danced in the shopping center’s parking lot, she was so happy to have it on! The temperatures were dropping almost as if the universe knew she needed to feel chilled to justify wearing a coat usually not brought out until December.
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Deborah said on October 16, 2026 at 5:29 pm
Wonder where Jeff G is going out west? Utah? NM? The aspen are in full color these days, should be fabulous.
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Little Bird said on October 16, 2026 at 6:25 pm
Well, it looks like Katie is out. Five days, I’m pretty sure that’s a record.
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Heather said on October 16, 2026 at 6:43 pm
Nancy, did you see this video of a former Tribune reporter calling out an editor at the New York Times for its namby-pamby language as we careen toward authoritarianism? It seemed to me that the editor really wasn’t interested in reconsidering his position. I can’t seem to give a gift link but here it is: https://www.nytimes.com/video/insider/100000011213260/a-reader-on-what-he-thinks-we-get-wrong-about-trump.html?smid=url-share
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Jeff Gill said on October 16, 2026 at 9:00 pm
Ah, Spindlewood. I am in Moab at the moment. It is a surreal experience, but we’re doing as much hiking as our knees & ankles can take… more later.
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alex said on October 16, 2026 at 10:31 pm
If Trump were to shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, the Times would soften and sanewash it as Trump just being Trump, perhaps “demonstrating some of his gangster flair” or “making no attempt to conceal his pique.”
I totally agree with Mark Jacob. The NYT editor is essentially cribbing the old Fox News slogan “We report, you decide,” completely sidestepping the matter of how and what they’re reporting, and why they’re failing to capture the urgency of the moment. What a fucking weaselly wuss.
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