austingirl

From Texas Monthly and set in Groves: Would not surprise me a bit if it did come from City Hall. Lots of familiar surnames involved, for those of us who hail from the area.

He's getting used to it. Still pathetic, but less so. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This goober is in a cone for two weeks because he chewed on a spot on his tail so much it got infected. He's never been in a cone and I gotta tell you, it was one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen. He stayed like this for a long time, just staring at that toy, since he couldn't figure out at first how to get it with the cone on. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NBC News photo category made me laugh. As much as one can laugh at this whole debacle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is an excellent article, called My Rapist Apologized. Full text below (via The Atlantic).

Excuse me, sir, I'm a fucking lady.

You know, it's really fucking easy to be a hindsight life coach. If you are actually interested in learning some of the many reasons women did not report their assaults or waited a while to report them, I encourage you to go on Twitter and search for #WhyIWaited and #WhyIDidntReport. If you are actually interested in helping women and/or getting a better understanding of why we might wait or not report, begin by not starting sentences with "Why didn't you...". When you start sentences like this, you immediately, if not consciously, suggest that she did something wrong. (BTW, that's a reason why someone might wait or not report.) There are very few black-and-white issues in my world. One of them - and I will beat this drum till the day I die - is that someone gets raped for the SOLE REASON that someone else decided to rape them. I don't expect everyone to believe this and I don't expect people who haven't been in that situation (or any situation where you're receiving unwanted advances) to understand. And honestly, it took me a long time to believe it myself, and it's because this conversation ALWAYS comes back to "Why didn't you do/not do X." I think most of us grew up hearing this, and it's hard to tamp it down. The fact of the matter is, however, that while you can't know that fear and terror if you haven't lived it, you can still show empathy. You can at least show an ounce of compassion by acknowledging that while you don't exactly know it from experience, you respect that someone else has lived it. This is what I saw none of today from the GOP. Sure, they may have tossed out a token "I'm sure it was hard for you" before launching into a tirade about what a disgrace it is that someone had the audacity to accuse a SCOTUS nominee of assault and slow the hearing process by forcing everyone to endure listening to her account of what happened. All I saw today from the GOP was anger toward Dr. Ford, the other accusers, and the Democrats. After #MeToo, after Bill Cosby, after "grab her by the pussy" we are still here. It is really fucking exhausting.

It is really fucking amazing.

Yeah, these women pretty accurately represent how I felt watching this.

College students aren't much better, but you're right. Sorry about that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, high-schoolers aren't known for their excellent judgement.

FIFY

GOP tomorrow: "I am shocked, SHOCKED to find that gambling has been going on in this operation!"

They said the items are only for volunteers (shameless plug - sign up here). I've certainly never seen this design anywhere else but I like it.

Also, Beto's team is sending out some nice swag to volunteers. Got this today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haven't read all replies yet but when Cruz turned the "thoughts and prayers" comment into how HE will certainly pray for anyone, all I could think of was this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My disgust for Ted Cruz is well-documented here but I admit that I snickered at that. If you're in Austin, go by Circle Brewing - they've held a couple of events for him and always end up with extra signs. We listed our house in June and gave our sign away, but after we moved we were at Circle and they gave us a new sign for free because they had so many. There was one lone Ted Cruz sign in Milwood (amongst the sea of Beto ones) that I used to see driving to work, but this morning it was gone. Not sure if the owner changed their tune or what.

My beloved grandpa, god rest his soul, was a yellow-dog democrat. He was also terribly racist. In 2007 he told me that if his choices in the presidential election were a Republican and a black man, he just wouldn't vote. When I was a kid in Port Arthur my dad sat me down to talk to me about why black people and white people could be friends at school but nothing more than that. (A black friend of mind from school had walked by our house and stopped to talk to me from the other side of our chain-link fence.) He said it was like cats and dogs mixing. I should note that he has dramatically changed his ways since then, in a rare case of an old dog learning new tricks.

I took some time off between jobs and didn't work between April and July of this year. I was a Beto supporter early on and had half-heartedly looked for ways to support the DNC in general, but all I ever saw on their site was info about giving donations. However, for the first time in forever I actually had time to give, so I dug around on Beto's site and found a volunteer form with a bunch of ways I could use my time to help his campaign. I picked a few things I thought I could help with and filled out the form. The next day I hopped on a training call with a Beto staffer and the day after that I started sending texts for them. I think back to those early days and how SO many people I talked to had no idea who Beto was, and now he's neck and neck with Cruz. I haven't been able to do much since I went back to work, but I do think every little bit counts. My general advice is that if you don't just want to donate money, go poke around on a specific candidate's site and see if they have volunteer opportunities that make the most of the time you have to give. They will always push donations first, but usually in-kind opportunities are there, especially if it's a grassroots campaign.

This is the weirdest fucking story.

Tons of thunder and lighting in Milwood but not much rain. My 50-lb pup always turns into a lap dog when it's booming out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My parents came in from Crystal Beach this morning and said High Island got about 5 inches in a couple of hours. Water is over 87 in some parts. Pic below is from KBMT and I saw a video this morning of a bunch of flooded streets in Port Arthur. I really hope everyone who was able to rebuild after Harvey got flood insurance.

Does anyone know of a reputable organization that helps people get photo IDs so they can vote in Texas? Is there even such a thing? I'd like to volunteer for something like this in the months heading into the election. I don't have a ton of bandwidth right now and I feel like this is an area where my time would be most valuable. Or if anyone has better ideas I'd love to hear them (keeping in mind that I already volunteer with Beto's campaign). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you think Bernadette and Beatrice coordinated their outfits on purpose? Our house is on the market (in WilCo) so we reluctantly pulled our yard sign and gave it to our stager to temporarily use. We move next weekend back into Austin proper and I'm looking forward to displaying my sign again.

IBM. And the new stadium will be a stone's throw away from the Burnet office.