'Cedar Fever' survival guide: the next best thing to eradication

One possible solution.

Mold allergies have been bad enough to us during this unusual El Niño year.

But Cedar gets the prize for 2016. Cedar pollen (actually, and to be fair to true Cedar trees, Ashe Juniper pollen -- that's Juniperus ashei) hit the second-highest level on record today -- 21,952 grains per cubic meter.

Because Austin exists in a geographic "bowl," the pollen tends to linger around longer than it does elsewhere. And the humidity makes it stick. That bestows upon us a badge of honor as one of the Allergy Capitals of the United States.

The cedar pollen intensity this time of year affects even those who normally do not suffer from allergies. Workplaces report higher numbers of call-outs for cold-like symptoms.

False alarms are raised when "smoke" is seen coming from areas dense with cedar trees -- only for the firefighters to discover it's only the brownish dust from pollen entering the air on a dry, windy day otherwise prone to brush fires.

The trees, as beautiful and beloved as they are around Christmastime, are more than just a health hazard according to some. Even Rep. Paul Workman (R-Austin) authored a bill to loosen tree ordinances on certain species that present themselves as fire hazards, such as the Ashe Juniper. Here's how to get rid of them yourself if you're so inclined.

To fight our annual bout of "Cedar Fever" this writer would like to offer his advice as a lifelong allergy sufferer. See if you benefit from these tips, and if you have your own remedies please feel free to add them to the comments below.

Texas Electoral College puts Trump/Pence over the top

This is why we have an Electoral College.

Though Ron Paul, John Kasich, and Carly Fiorina all reportedly made appearances on the 36 Electoral College ballots cast today in the Texas House of Representatives chamber, it was not enough to stop Texas from putting Donald Trump over the top for President.

As a matter of fact (and without counting liberal bastions California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the District of Columbia), Trump expands his electoral lead over Hillary Clinton by two. This is particularly ironic, because one Texas elector announced he would switch his vote to Clinton/Kaine and another simply quit.

Our friend and local broadcaster Leland Freeman led a small band of conservatives in support of electors keeping their pledges. A modest crowd of liberals clamored for last-minute denial of pledges.

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Image credit: Alex Egoshin www.vividmaps.com

Austinite scores national political podcast, column with Washington Times

Matt on Fox 7 doing his thing.

In addition to his popular Must Read Texas service regarding Lone Star State politics, Travis GOP Executive Vice Chairman Matt Mackowiak is venturing out into the national media scene.

See below about the inaugural edition of "Mack on Politics" featuring some guests you may recognize. 

In the inaugural episode of “Mack on Politics,” host Matt Mackowiak interviews longtime GOP consultant, NBC News political analyst, and former Jeb Bush Super PAC mastermind Mike Murphy. They discussed how Trump improbably punched through the so-called “Blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, how Hillary wasted her national convention, if he had any regrets about strategic decisions made for Jeb’s Super PAC and whether he has any hope for Trump. 

Then Mackowiak talked to Erick Erickson, former editor-in-chief of RedState.com, radio host for WSB in Atlanta, Fox News contributor, author, and founder of TheResurgent.com about how Trump won, whether the GOP primary was winnable for anyone else, and what Erickson thinks is the state of the conservative movement in the Age of Trump. They also discussed religious liberty and his own foray into conservative talk radio and migration away from Red State to create his own successful conservative site. 

Listen here -- http://m.washingtontimes.com/staff/matt-mackowiak

Troxclair: 'Everyone wins' when SXSW waivers are denied

City Council member Ellen Troxclair will soon become the last conservative standing on the Austin City Council. But that doesn't mean she's ready to back down and start cutting deals on leftist policies. Troxclair remains a voice calling for greater affordability and fairness in terms of how local government levies taxes and fees.

Case in point: Troxclair pointed out in an Austin American-Statesman column today that the City of Austin waives $1.5 million in fees for the SXSW festival -- costs a cash-cow of an event could easily afford.

It is unfair to ask Austinites to put up with these inconveniences [traffic, crowding, etc.] year in and year out — and then be forced to pay for it, too. Our already property tax-burdened residents should not foot the bill for the ever-increasing public safety costs associated with these special events. ...

... According to the city’s calculations, the property tax burden for the median-value home has risen 29.2 percent since 2012. Over that same time period, the median-family income has only risen 3.7 percent. This proportion is wildly unsustainable.

Read more, including a possible alternative, at:
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/opinion/troxclair-taxpayers-shouldn-foot-the-bill-for-sxsw/cQIu0yYPecDWyEBO9jsgkK

Troxclair, the representative of Southwest Austin (District 8), will become the only conservative on the Austin City Council in 2017, with the defeat of incumbents Don Zimmerman (District 6, Northwest Austin) on Nov. 8 and Sheri Gallo (District 10, Far West, etc.) on Tuesday.

An Obama organizer, a Planned Parenthood volunteer, and a radical enviro are on your Dec. 13 ballot; how will you vote?

Stop us if you've heard this one.

A Nevada field director for Obama's re-election campaign, a Planned Parenthood volunteer still in college, and an environmentalist who opposes Austin's growth walk into your ballot booth.

We wish it were a joke. It's a serious possibility that these candidates could win any or all of three influential local elections Tuesday.

The Travis GOP has not endorsed a candidate in the Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, runoff election, and some local conservative voters may feel at a disadvantage when determining for whom to cast a ballot (or whether to show up at all). The Tracker urges its readers to vote anyway, but not without some intel -- and we provide some here in the form of some reverse psychology.

Fortunately, there's a method to determine who conservatives should support that almost never fails. Assuming there's no blue moon forecast tonight, our friends at the Austin Chronicle have released their opinions on who the most liberal and union-backed candidates are. We'll review the highlights for you.

Two Congressional races hang in the balance: Texans to the rescue!

Austin has become an extension of the last major battleground of the 2016 election year.

Three federal runoff races remain -- all to be decided by our neighbors over in Louisiana this Saturday, Dec. 10.

Here's what happened:

Ballot integrity: no longer 'just right wing paranoia'

Clearly, the reasons differ. And greatly. But it's downright refreshing to finally see the integrity of our electoral process gain favor of political parties other than the GOP.

For years, and aside from a few courageous individuals and organizations on the left, the Republican Party has been the vanguard of election integrity. Alas, everything from Voter ID laws to calling for paper trails for electronic voting has been placed by the mainstream press into the same category as black helicopter theories and chupacabra sightings. Liberal detractors would point to the handful of actual, final voter fraud convictions in court as "proof" it wasn't a problem (it's hard to prosecute when you have little to no evidence on which to go on). Attempts to tighten down security at the polling place has been labeled racist, sexist, "class warfare," and even age-ist.

Coverage of allegations of mass fraud would go un-covered for weeks. In one instance, an account of tens of thousands of forged and faked voter applications in Harris County uncovered by the King Street Patriots did not warrant coverage for weeks aside from conservative blogs -- and when it finally caught the attention of the mainstream media ... well, read what happened and make your own judgments.