sinema, messed up.

[elleng]

'Sinema has two siblings, an older brother and younger sister.[16][17] Her father was an attorney. Her parents divorced when she was a child and her mother, who had custody of the children, remarried. With her siblings, mother, and stepfather, Sinema moved to DeFuniak Springs, Florida, a small town in the Panhandle.[17] When her stepfather lost his job and the bank foreclosed on their home, the family lived for three years in an abandoned gas station.[18][19] Sinema has said that for two years they had no toilet or electricity while living there.[20] She later recalled, "My stepdad built a bunk bed for me and my sister. We separated our bunk bed from the kitchen with one of those big chalkboards on rollers. I knew that was weird. A chalkboard shouldn't be a wall. A kitchen should have running water."[20] Sinema was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[21] According to journalist Jonathan Martin in The New York Times, Sinema has given "contradictory answers about her early life", and Sinema's mother and stepfather had filed court documents saying they had made monthly payments for gas, electricity, and phone bills, even though Sinema had said they had been "without running water or electricity".[22] Asked whether she had embellished details from her childhood, Sinema said, "I've shared what I remember from my childhood. I know what I lived through."'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrsten_Sinema

[madashelltoo]

1. A lying cuckoo!

The truth never moves as fast as a lie, but it always gets there.

[Peregrine Took]

4. +1,000. n/t

[Ilsa]

2. I'm not going to judge her by her memories of childhood.

Children sometimes invent new realities when they cannot cope with real life.

[tenderfoot]

27. Kind of how Paul Ryan invented his impoverished childhood - having to work at McDonald's ...

and driving the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.

I don't want people that make shit up running for office.

[madaboutharry]

3. I don't get this need to rewrite personal history.

Why embellish one’s childhood to make it more miserable than it was? Is it to say “look at me and how far I’ve come?” It seems a weird way of building a political career. Not only that, there will always be someone who was there to offer a more precise version.

[bullwinkle428]

6. If I could have a dollar for every RWer I've encountered online, who has claimed

something along the lines of "I was born and raised in a housing project, didn't have a pot to piss in, and now I'm a huge success!", I could absolutely retire early!

[Peregrine Took]

7. I read that when she began working as a "social worker" she noticed

how sorry her co workers became when she described her hardscrabble childhood.

She got a lot of attention and sympathy and, obviously, decided to run with it.

[Irish_Dem]

8. A person might do it for sympathy, attention, wanting to claim victim status. Or revenge against

her family.

[Champp]

5. Something fishy going on...

[Irish_Dem]

9. Would the city or county allow a family w/ children to live in an abandoned gas station with no

running water or electricity? For an entire three year period?

[Caliman73]

10. It is quite possible.

It isn't a matter of "allowing", people squat in abandoned buildings all of the time. Depending on the level of activity in the area, neighbors, general patterns of criminal activity, patrol routes etc... they can certainly go under the radar for that long. My brother in law had a family squatting in a home he owned in Salinas for quite awhile. Can't say it was a year, but he hadn't gone to check on the property for several months given that he had just bought another house and was newly married. Took him some time to get the squatters out.

As for Sinema's story, given her recent behaviors I am going to go out on a limb and say she is probably lying...or crazy...or both.

[Irish_Dem]

12. I was in a mandated reporting profession and would have had to report this family.

Before retirement I worked in a mandated reporting profession for 40 years.

If I had heard about children living in an abandoned gas station, no electricity, no running water, etc., I would have been required to report the family to the local police and child protective services.

In certain towns, cities, counties it would not be permitted for children to live without electricity or indoor plumbing. A parent unable to provide these basics could lose custody or visitation rights.

(Also an abandoned gas station with deep gas tanks doesn't seem safe to me.)

But perhaps in some areas they might get away with it. In that case, I question that they got away with it for so long.

[Caliman73]

17. I currently work in a mandated reporting profession.

You are only "mandated" as a reporter in the performance of your duties. If I as a worker for adult protective services, get a call where children are identified as possibly at risk, I am mandated to report. If I as a worker for adult protective services have a neighbor who I think is neglecting themselves or being neglected, I have an ethical obligation, but no mandate to report.

It may depend on the jurisdiction as each state/county/parish/etc... has their own policies.


Like I said, I have significant doubts, based on what Sinema has shown, especially recently, that she is relaying information in good faith. If her parents can produce documentation of where they were living and paying utilities on a regular basis, then her story would fall apart regardless of how she "remembers" it.

[Irish_Dem]

23. Yes of course. However, anonymous reporting can be done if you see a child in danger.

Or living in unsafe conditions. Her description meets the criteria in my state.

This reporting can be done by any member of the public.

But yes, I meant in the practice of my duties.
One doesn't generally go around randomly reporting the general public.

Teachers would have to have reported this, and we know the kids went to school. My point is that how does a family live this way for three years and no one reported them to the child protective services. No indoor toilet, no running water, no electricity. Three yeas is a long time for this to fly under the radar.

I agree, if the parents indeed provided receipts for paying utilities on a regular basis, this story falls apart quickly.

[FakeNoose]

15. Well the Mormon church would certainly have helped the family

Say what you will about the Mormons, they do good missionary work and outreach to the needy. Kristen says she grew up as a member of their church, and if that's true, the Mormons would have been charitable towards her family. Possibly giving them food, clothing, jobs, and a home.

Whether the city government would have done the same, I can't say.

[Irish_Dem]

19. Good point, yes the church would likely have helped this family.

I think every county has a child protective services agency which removes children from unsafe living conditions.
In many states, no power or running water is considered unsuitable for young children.

[betsuni]

33. According to comments I've seen, the gas station was owned by the step-father's

parents who lived in a farmhouse nearby. Either the step-father's or mother's parents, can't remember.

[Sogo]

11. If these are her memories,

she should be more sympathetic to the plight of millions of disadvantaged people in the US and be eager to vote for the Build Back Better bill.

[Irish_Dem]

14. Exactly, she of all people knows what is at stake here.

[Bluethroughu]

21. Yep. If she really lived this way, it would enrage her that anyone

Would be standing in the way of this bill or any bill that helps the working class people of this country.

She is a lying grifter at this point, as far as I'm concerned unless she gets it together and gets on board with the change we need done at the Legislative level.

[crickets]

35. 👆👆

[Irish_Dem]

13. Where was the attorney father? He could have gone to court and obtained custody of the children.

In many states if a parent cannot provide adequate living conditions for minor children, they can lose rights to custody or visitation.
An attorney father would know this.

[BeckyDem]

16. Interesting, thank you.

K&R

[tinrobot]

18. It might explain her ability to be bought by lobbyists.

People who grow up poor tend to do things like save every scrap of food and allow nothing to go to waste. They also have a much different relationship with money. They grew up spending every penny they had, so there's less innate ability to save and be patient.

If this description is true, then perhaps she's taking the money while it is offered because, who knows, she may be poor again.

Still, it doesn't mean she needs to be a Senator.

[Irish_Dem]

20. Exactly. She could be terrified of being poor again. Living impoverished.

Given her history she could be making trauma based decisions, not rational ones.

[joetheman]

22. Right. Some people want to give, some want to take. After being poor she has become a taker. nt

[UTUSN]

24. One might imagine her experiences might move her towards humane public policies.

[tinrobot]

26. That would require compassion.

She seems to be rather narcissistic.

[BlueLucy]

25. Can she be recalled? nt

[Hortensis]

29. No, unfortunately. Once we elect senators and congressmen, we cannot remove

them before the end of their terms, when we can refuse to reelect them.

[Hortensis]

28. Not having the usual home doesn't traumatize kids as long as

they have even halfway caring and nonabusive parents. The parents lie awake worrying about electricity; the children play. And Sinema herself makes it clear that she's not exactly the kind of timid person anxious to conform who'd somehow be warped for life by living in an ex- gas station.

[Phoenix61]

30. Describing DeFuniak Springs as a small town

is to make it larger than it is. It had a population of about 5,000 in 2010. If a family were living in an abandoned gas station with no running water or electricity everyone in town would have known.

[Irish_Dem]

34. Right, the story doesn't make sense.

[BeckyDem]

31. Calling Sinema an "obstructionist" rather than a centrist, Garrick McFadden,

a former vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, said it’s “not just the hippies and the 20-, 30-year-old” Democrats who are fed up with her, but more moderate and institutional-minded Democrats, as well.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/05/sinema-arizona-democrats-congress-515108

[lame54]

32. IOKIYNEW...

It's ok if you're not Elizabeth Warren