Little Anna (& Annette)
12/10/201011:26 a.m.
Today Anna got off school early cause there was a shooting in the cafeteria and they sent everyone home. She went straight to the library, and there was Annette, sitting at their computer with ear phones on. Her eyes were wide open and she was staring open-mouthed at the screen. When she saw Anna she jumped up. Anna couldn't remember a time she'd seen Annette jump like that. And her enormous breasts jumped up with her, bouncing up and down again like two huge fish, almost knocking her over. She waved Anna over excitedly, her thick black fingers flapping in the nonexistent library wind, and shouted like people do when they have earphones in, Get over here, child! Somebody's holding the Senate floor over this bill!
Bernie
11:35 a.m.
He wasn't pleading, or whining, or talking down to them necessarily. What he was going for was a mix of seriousness, somberness, and outrage. He wasn't sure what he was going to able to accomplish in the end, but it didn't matter. Either way he was going to stop business as usual and make sure all the facts got told, so he just kept talking. He had plenty to say.
"Millions of Americans remain unemployed," he told them, "they've lost their life savings, their homes, and their ability to send their kids to college . . ."
12:56 p.m.
He pointed to a pie chart with the words Top 1% Owns More Wealth than Bottom 90% written in thick block letters across the top, and then he screamed out in almost desperation, almost ferocity, almost old-Brooklyn-Jew-Who's-Still-Connected-With-The-Mob-After-All-These-Years, "HOW MUCH MORE DO THEY WANT!"
12:57 p.m.
"The highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world!"
His hands fluttered out to his sides and fell back to the podium with a bang.
"Is. This. America."
Little Anna
12:58 p.m.
When his hands banged against the podium Annette jumped out of her seat again, near pulling the one headphone she'd given Anna clean out of her ear. He's amazing, she told her, God Bless Bernie Sanders. That was when she decided she'd write to him, Bernie, instead of Mr. Obama from now on.
Elizabeth
1:36 p.m.
She stopped writing emails to Dennis and was sitting with her elbows on her knees, taking this man in. "Imagine," she was saying to her friend Charlene on the phone, who was sitting in Bristol right now, "a man who still acts like a man."
Bernie
2:22pm
"Losing six hundred thousand private sector jobs in eight years is not good." He paused, pulled his lips into his mouth, and pushed them back out again. "That's very very," paused for emphasis, "bad. That's an economic policy that's," pause, "failed. We don't need to look at that movie again. We saw it, it stunk, it was a bad movie . . ."
Rachel Maddow
10 p.m. PST
"In a super-human display of endurance and strength of conviction . . ."
Bernie
3:22 p.m.
Standing in front of a placard that read: Only a Tiny Portion of Estate's from Deaths in 2009 Owed any Estate Tax, he made a circle around it with the top of his hand, "the estate tax only effects a very small portion of Americans . . ."
3:24 p.m.
Then, in front of a placard that read: Wal-Mart Owners Don't Need a Tax Break, he paused, looked around, and spat out, "The Walton family, just one family, if the estate tax is repealed completely, will be saved from putting into the American revenue stream 32.7 billion dollars." His fingers wrapped even more tightly around the edges of the podium, and spit flew from his mouth, "this is patently insane!"
3:47 p.m.
"We're giving tax breaks to people who don't need ‘em."
Pause.
"This is totally absurd!"
Elizabeth
4 p.m.
Dennis was home. She stood up, went to him with her arms outstretched, kissed him passionately on the mouth, tucked herself into the side of his arm.
Bernie
5:03
We've got to start protecting the middle class of this country.
6:22 pm
"I think we can do better for job creation than business tax cuts!"
6:59
"And with that, Madam President, I yield the floor."
