Human cost

[Kevin]

I watched the news and the Jan 6 hearings yesterday and what struck me most, beyond the sheer outrageousness of some recent events, was the human cost.

1) Rusty Bowers - this guy articulated precisely the way I felt about my service to my country as a federal employee. He and his family suffered for it. He was deeply angered, you could tell, by the way the Trump horde harassed him, his wife, his gravely ill daughter. No one gave a ****, though, not even people he called his friends. People with guns scaring his neighbors, for God's sake. Because he wouldn't knuckle under.

2) Brad Raffensberger - he got the same treatment. Did you notice how careful he was when answering Schiff? Schiff asked a question that relied on Raffensberger knowing what was in Trump's mind and Raffensberger very carefully stuck to what he was qualified to speak about - the disposition of the votes. He and his family became targets of the mob - thousands of text messages, phone messages, pornography sent. Hell, the President even helped by posting Raffensberger's personal phone number. What a ****-heel we had for President. And still I see the Trump 2024 flags in my town.

3) Gabe Sterling - for a Georgia boy, he had no discernible accent. He saw how the lies were whipping people up to violence and called out the President of the United States in a very public way and got the same treatment as the other two.

4) Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman. This made me very upset. These women were specifically targeted by the President of the United States of America and the mob set loose on them. Freeman had the straight of it - she said that the President was supposed to protect Americans, all Americans. Trump pointed the mob at her instead. Just to stay in power. Disgusting.

5) Uvalde. The head of the Texas Public Safety Dept. was visibly emotional when discussing the unfathomable dereliction of duty by Arredondo. All those children, dead because Arredondo was seemingly occupying a job where he could collect a paycheck instead of protect people. I don't know how Arredondo can continue in any capacity in that town. All those parents, demanding answers for their dead children. I cannot imagine the pit of horror they are in and it keeps getting deeper every day as more and more is known. Like someone being tortured and the torture never ends.

Yesterday was a very sad day if you look at the people suffering.

[Truckman]

Uvalde. The head of the Texas Public Safety Dept. was visibly emotional when discussing the unfathomable dereliction of duty by Arredondo. All those children, dead because Arredondo was seemingly occupying a job where he could collect a paycheck instead of protect people. I don't know how Arredondo can continue in any capacity in that town. All those parents, demanding answers for their dead children. I cannot imagine the pit of horror they are in and it keeps getting deeper every day as more and more is known. Like someone being tortured and the torture never ends.

Chief Arrendondo was recently sworn in as a member of the Uvalde City Council in May...He just requested a leave of absence from that position which was unanimously denied...

A motion was unanimously denied to grant a leave of absence to the newly elected council member, who was not present Tuesday night. Per city council rules, there is a $2 fine for missing council meetings, and after three missed meetings, the other council members can vote to have a member removed from their post.

Not a popular human being (I almost called him a man, then thought better of it) at all in any crowd......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

You captured well Kevin the proceedings of yesterday's committee meeting----but failed to carry the absolute emotional impact of the testimony. To be fair, I don't expect that even as crafty a wordsmith as you, that emotion could be fully described. I wish everyone would take the time to listen to these proceedings, I regard it as a civil duty.

[Kevin]

I found myself so angry yesterday about both these events. The fact that the President of the United States would focus a mob on another American citizen was so infuriating. The people that Rusty Bowers knew and worked with for years and whom he considered his friends, betraying him by either keeping silent or helping put pressure on him for a corrupt President. A man has to wonder how he so misjudged people when that happens. And the people in these mobs, chanting outside election officials houses, forcing their way past cancer-ridden family members of these officials to enter houses forcibly, sending pornography and death threats because one corrupt man appealed to their worst instincts - how do these people come to be? A woman who cannot go out in public, who has suffered health problems because of this corrupt man, hiding lest someone recognize her or say her name and she might be set upon. A mother whose name was dirtied and who was called a crack user, in the cause of one corrupt man trying to cling to power against the will of the people.

And police officers willing to let children die rather than face danger themselves. Police lying about her craven actions, trying to avoid blame. Children dead because the police were too frightened to do their jobs.

I have to stop. I'm making myself angry again and I don't want to be.

Maybe what it is all about is the sworn oath and how important that is to making our country work. Bowers refused to break his oath. Raffensperger refused, Sterling refused. Moss and Freeman stood by their oaths. They all held firm and righteous. The police in Uvalde did not. I guess I can take some comfort in seeing what happens when oaths sworn mean something and learn a lesson from seeing what happens when those oaths mean nothing.

[TriGuy]

I have come to the point where I absolutely ( and this is being polite) detest Trump, his enablers and the mob that follows him. Even when I have vehemently disagreed with policies and results of previous administrations and votes it never would have occurred to me to verbally or physically assault other Americans. Topping it off is the open willful subverting of the rule of law and the US Constitution. Tossing them in jail and throwing away the key for their actions would be just fine with me.

[Dave Grubb]

These hearings have exposed a level of unchecked corruption at the very top of our government that is being exposed as worse than even I thought it might be----and more blatant. trump in his unlimited arrogance running around EXPECTING people to break their oath, their ethics, and their principles for no reason other than he demanded it. Sadly---trump can't even begin to understand that----to him these people were just being "stupid". Ms Moss and her mother have more character in one finger than trump could even imagine.

One of the stronger feelings I have watching these proceedings is profound shame in what we have stooped to---what trump has dragged us down to. I had tears running down my face yesterday as Ms Moss and her mother spoke-----her Grandmother terrified inside her own house by the goons following trump. What the f*** are we doing?

I wish that the good people that have been sucked into the cult of this POS would watch these events, I am convinced that many of them would hang their heads in shame and they would see trump for the scum he is and turn their back on this devil

[Honda]

If the outcome of the hearings damages trumps ability to be reelected that would be a very desirable outcome.

[Mike]

I didn't see the hearing, I've decided it is a waste of my time because it is nothing but political grandstanding that will see no prosecutions, reprimands or censures.

And the people in these mobs, chanting outside election officials houses, forcing their way past cancer-ridden family members of these officials to enter houses forcibly

I don't know where, or even if this took place. However, forcible entry into ones home here is Texas is a shooting offense that requires immediate action.

[Dave Grubb]

Mike, I think you are wrong. The first one I agree was posturing----but they are past that and when it does pop up it is easy to see. These hearings have been dominated by Republicans (my kind of Republicans not rinos). They are telling a story that isn't easy to hear.

The women we are talking about in the last hearing---yes that was "drama"----but that does not mean it was untrue or contrived. These are "simple people" (no insult or judgement in that) and they became the unwitting targets of trump's mean spirited self centerness being stroked by the cult!

The man is evil and that evil needs to be exposed.

[Mike]

The man is evil and that evil needs to be exposed.

I won't disagree with that. I'd like to see that evil incarcerated in a supermax prison while it awaits execution for sedition.

[TriGuy]

I won't disagree with that. I'd like to see that evil incarcerated in a supermax prison while it awaits execution for sedition.

I'll drink to that

[Scooter]

I actually know Rusty Bowers, and the goodness of the man he is was not portrayed by his testimony. He was not coached in anyway, because, at a minimum, he truly is that good of a person. I am embarrassed that people could treat someone that is so good, and genuinely kind and honorable in such a horrific manner.
My son worked on the opposite side of the aisle from him in the state legislature and thinks so highly of him he donated to his campaign, just because he feels our state needs him in the legislature, even though they are political opposites. That says something to me.

[Scooter]

Chief Arrendondo was …Not a popular human being (I almost called him a man, then thought better of it) at all in any crowd......Ben

I think Human Being is a bit of an overstatement. Not sure I could properly define it, though

[Dave Grubb]

I won't disagree with that. I'd like to see that evil incarcerated in a supermax prison while it awaits execution for sedition.

I could work with that

[Kevin]

From the transcript of the hearing yesterday:

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER:

Well, after the — after the election, my email, my cell phone was docked. And so I was getting texts all over the country. And then eventually my wife started getting the text and hers typically came in a sexualized attacks which were disgusting. You have to understand that Trish and I, we met in high school.

We've married over 40 years now. And so they started going after her I think just to probably put pressure on me. Why don't you just quit walk away. And so that happened. And then some people broke into my daughter in law's home and my son has passed and she's widow and has two kids. And so we're very concerned about her safety also.

SHAYE MOSS:

I received a call from my grandmother. This woman is my everything. I've never even heard her or seen her cry ever in my life. And she called me screaming at the top of her lungs, like, "Shaye, Shaye, oh my gosh, Shaye." Just freaking me out saying that there are people at her home and they, you know,they knocked on the door and of course she opened it seeing who was there, who it was.

And they just started pushing their way through, claiming that they were coming in to make a citizen's arrest. They needed to find me and my mom. They knew we were there. And she was just, like,screaming and didn't know what to do. And I wasn't there. So, you know, I just felt so helpless and so horrible for her.

And she was just screaming. I told her to close the door. Don't open the door for — for anyone. And,you know, she's a 70 something I won't say year old woman. And she — she doesn't like having restrictions. She wants to answer the door. She likes to get her steps in walking around the neighborhood. And I had to tell her, like, you can't do that.

You — you have to be safe. You know, she would tell me that at night people would just continuously send pizzas over and over to her home. You know, and they was expecting her to pay for these large amounts of pizzas. And she went through a lot that she didn't have to. And once again it made me just feel so horrible.

These people were under oath while making these statements.

I think, Mike, you are missing something. Telling the story, publicly, with people publicly testifying as to who said and did what, is important even if no one ever goes to jail. We as a country need to know what happened in full, not just who broke the law. I recall Trump paying something like $750 in total taxes for a number of years. Perfectly legal. Is there nothing to talk about a gazillionaire paying only $750 in taxes as long as he obeyed the law? I think there is and part of that is first making people aware of the situation. How can you expect anyone to just "know" how awful January 6 was unless you tell them? And unless they know, they could likely vote for these bozos again.

The transcript can be found at https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/11058...ing-transcript