Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, January 16, 2019

  • One reason I’ve been hesitant to leave DirecTV is that I have all the channel numbers memorized. So far, I’m happy I switched, but the adjustment is real first world problem.
  • A reader was kind enough to tell me he heard my hometown of Mineral Wells, Texas mentioned while watching an old western on TCM called Bad BascomWhile researching that I found out Mineral Wells is the setting for the fourth story of little known Marvel character Tex Morgan. The story includes the Ute Reservation, but if my hometown history memory serves me right, the only tribes in the area would have been Comanche or Wichita. However, per Wikipedia:
    • The name “Comanche” is from the Ute name for them, kɨmantsi (enemy), but known to the French as Padoucas, an adaption of their Sioux name, and among themselves as Nʉmʉnʉ (people).
  • A TAMU former student informed me of an Aggie effort to consider including personal pronouns in email signatures to help identify gender because of unisex or dual-gender names and names, as well as unfamiliar names from other countries. I’m not saying I’m for or against the idea (I know some of you are pulling your hair out thinking political correctness has run amok), but I experience this awkward issue a lot since so many people in my line of work are from other countries. With a romance language, most female names end in an “a” or vowel. But these Asians, I tell ya, they make everything complicated. At least I only make things half as complicated as they should be.
  • A funny bit of timing worked out the other day. While reading Barry’s blog he mentioned his heater needed to be repaired which reminded me I need to order a replacement filter for my HVAC unit. As soon as I finished reading that bullet point an email from my preferred filter store arrived in my Inbox with a discount code for twenty percent off. I have to order my filter since isn’t carried by any local stores, it’s an oddly shaped 16″ x 25″ x 1″ which only needs to be changed every six months.
  • Arizona to buy back its state Capitol
    • A decade ago, in the depths of the worst recession in modern U.S. history, Arizona lawmakers took perhaps the most extreme step of any state facing massive budget deficits: They sold their state Capitol building and the buildings that house the state House and Senate. Now, with coffers flush with revenue, the state wants to buy those buildings back. Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said Monday he would move to pay off debt and reclaim ownership of legislative buildings, the state fairgrounds and the building that houses the state Supreme Court.
  • Here’s my crazy political prediction you should bet the pigsty on. In other words, it’s a bunch of crap and slop so don’t even give it any real consideration unless it happens and I’ll take full credit for the stranger than fiction idea. One morning Americans will find out that Trump’s cabinet, in a surprise move, turned on him invoking the 25th Amendment. This will happen because of his refusal to budge on re-opening the government after some budging from the opposing party, not working with his own party, and another month of employees unable to pay bills and business owners’ bottom lines being affected, not to mention the “full faith and credit of the U.S. government” taking a huge hit. Republican strategists are already working on this thinking about how much easier it will be to rally behind Pence for 2020 and making all the Russian collusion and any moral shortcomings of Trump go away. For your Trump supporters, don’t get all sensitive on me, just allow me to dance in my delusions of grandeur for a bit.
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9 Responses to Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, January 16, 2019

  1. Alan says:

    If you’re only changing your filter every 6 mo. you’re wasting a fortune in electricity and and hoping a clogged filter is doing what it’s supposed to do! Once a month (especially in the summer, your interior fan most likely runs at a faster rpm when it’s on AC moving MORE CFM through the house than in the winter) plus you’ve got pets in the house, means fur not just dust etc.. I see online plenty of that filter size at local Home Depots, plus you’re paying for shipping. Yipes!

    • Geeding says:

      Thanks for your thoughts, Alan. I’d like to lean more on your HVAC knowledge. When I first got my AC, like seven years ago, I could never find them in stores, but now I see my local Home Depot does have one (literally) in stock. The MERV rating is 8, it’s $33, and the description states it lasts up to 12 months. On my HVAC unit, the manufacturer sticker on the outside of the filter panel states that the filter should be replaced every 6 months. The filter I buy online is a 2-pack ($66, $1.95 shipping, not including my 20% discount), Merv 11, and states it should be replaced every 6-12 months. With this added info, do you still suggest I replace the filter more often? This is for my downstairs unit. The upstairs unit has a different filter which I have to replace every three months and is a more common size and easily found at Wal-Mart. The sticker on that unit states to change it every three months. I’m just trying to get the most bang out of my buck, filter and electricity wise, so if I’m missing out on something please let me know. Thanks!

      • Damon says:

        My filters are MERV 11, and I order them online. Even though they are classified to be replaced in 6-12 months, I replace them every two months. If I lived in a state that does not get as hot like Texas, I may follow that guideline. My filter size is not unique like yours, but one thing that I do notice after replacing my filters every two months, is my electricity bill is less.

        • Bryan B. says:

          You may already be doing it, but I signed up for the filter subscription service through Amazon. You can pick the frequency and you get a better price with the repeat business. Filter Ease is another online service and I believe the pricing was similar to Amazon, but they had limits adjusting the frequency if I remember correctly.

      • Anonymous says:

        If you have maker documentation stating what MERV to use then use it. Of course the monthy timing is just their guess, your milage may vary. I’d contact the maker and ask if they don’t mention it. If you’ve waited until your filter is as dirty as the pic in this article, well you’ve waited too long. https://tinyurl.com/y9zufqj6 This development looks promising https://www.facebook.com/Filterwatch/

  2. Bryan B. says:

    Your 25th amendment post really got the hamster wheel in my brain spinning. There’s a number of things to consider in your scenario.

    If I’m reading and interpreting section 4 of the amendment correctly, there are 2 options in play: VP and cabinet majority or Congressional majority. Both require a lot of sway. The president selected a VP that has been exceptionally loyal and has appointed a cabinet that has remained loyal or has replaced those members that have not remained loyal. That makes the cabinet option unlikely in my estimation. The Congressional option may be slightly more likely. While the amendment simply states “majority”, I wouldn’t expect either option to happen without a unanimous decision or at least a 2/3 majority. In the case of Congress, at a 2/3 majority, they should be getting into veto override territory (assuming that applies with the budget) and that would allow them to reopen the government without resorting to the nuclear bomb option of section 4 of the 23rd amendment.

    All of that said, I would think a court challenge to either option would be inevitable. As crappy as this shutdown is, Trump is working within the bounds of his job by refusing to sign off on a budget. I think that proving that he’s unable to execute the duties and powers of his office would be a pretty tall hill to climb from a legal standpoint. That’s why I think a veto override would be the better option.

    I also think there are civil consequences to consider as well. In the waning months of the 2016 campaign, candidate Trump appeared to be laying the groundwork for questioning the legitimacy of the election should he have lost. Since he won, we’ll never know what might have been, but I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest that such claims could have led to massive civil unrest across the country, especially in areas where he had widespread support (I thought civil unrest was also likely if he won, but I missed the mark on that). Is it crazy to think that, if the 25th amendment were in play, claims of a coup d’etat could result in unrest? What happens if such an effort to invoke the 25th amendment were successful and President Trump refused to relinquish control or members of the government continued to follow his lead or refused to follow the direction of a new leader? I’m not saying that circumstances being difficult is any reason to avoid addressing a problem, but I believe such a scenario would take us into incredibly unstable territory that our country has largely managed to avoid since the Civil War.

  3. Former Neighbor Payne says:

    Ahhh, the 16x25x1 filter. I remember that filter very well. I used to be able to find it at Home Depot all of the time but was so frustrated when I went one time and they were sold out. So then every time they were in stock, I’d buy like 5 of them. Then We decided to sell and I didn’t have any use for them so I threw 4 of them away. Never crossed my mind that you’d use them too with the exact same house. My bad… 🙂

  4. Ben W. says:

    Ah, weird-sized air filters. When we bought our current house I went on a walk-through with the builder, and made sure to carefully note the filter size (20 x 25 x 4) since our filter is with the unit up in the attic, and thus is a pain to get to. So imagine my surprise when, 3 months later, I bought a filter at Wal-Mart and went up to install it, only to find it was too large! What the builder neglected to tell me is that, although my filter is “technically” a 20 x 25 x 4, it is a “slim fit” model. Which means it’s actually 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 3 3/4. Of course, no one carries that in stock, so it was off to Amazon.

    Good times.

  5. Nathan Hart says:

    Rather than using the 25th Amendment, if Republicans wanted Trump out of office, they could simply join with the Democrats who want him impeached. There appears to be enough impeachable actions on record so it could be a slam dunk case. However I don’t see the Republicans doing this any time soon. Too much pride to swallow, crow to eat… pick your metaphor.

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