John Deere

MM#105   Big Green Tractor    Jason Aldean

Honestly, a song we sang from time to time, heard from time to time...

And, living in a rural county, we saw a lot of big green tractors.  (And international harvesters, too)

When I heard of the tragedy murder slaughter in Las Vegas, I checked the singer's list of songs...which song did this guy do...I know I know that name....

And honestly, I postponed this one several weeks after the slaughter in Sutherland Springs.  I'm setting this to post 11-27 regardless of future events.

I've already said everything I have to say about guns, mass shootings, violence...maranatha.

Big Green Tractor
Jason Aldean

She had a shiny little beamer with the rag top down
Sitting in the drive but she wouldn't get out
The dogs were all barking and a wagging around
I just laughed and said ya'll get in
She had on a new dress and she curled her hair
She was looking too good not to go somewhere
I said what you wanna do baby I don't care
We can go to the show or we can stay right here and

I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor
We can go slow or make it go faster
Down through the woods out to the pasture
Long as I'm with you it really don't matter
Climb up in my lap and drive if you want to
Girl, you know you got me to hold on to
We can go to town but baby if you'd rather
I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor

I said we can fire it up and I can show you around
Sit up on the hill and watch the sun go down
When the fire flies are dancing and the moon comes out
We can turn on the lights and head back to the house or

We can take another ride on my big green tractor
We can go slow or make it go faster
Down through the woods out to the pasture
Long as I'm with you it really don't matter
Climb up in my lap and drive if you want to
Girl, you know you got me to hold on to
We can go to town but baby if you'd rather
I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor

Mmmmm just let me dust off the seat
Mmmmm now put your pretty little arms around me

Climb up in my lap and drive if you want to
Girl, you know you've got me to hold on to
We can go to town but baby if you'd rather
I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor
We can go to town
Or we can go another round
On my big green tractor

Bah! Humbug.

I once complained about Christmas.  I had my reasons.

I still do.

I'm going to write this first, then compare to some old blogs later.

First, the deification of Santa Claus.  The assignment of godlike qualities to a mythological character.  The singing of so many songs.  The demand of faith to believe.  Augh!

Second, the definition of "the spirit of Christmas."  The nebulous ideal of goodwill, giving, agreeableness...all divorced from the very person of Jesus Christ.

Third, the commercialization of Christmas, including the epitome of it, Black Friday.  Christmas has become about buying things, and sometimes more for oneself than for others.  And I see so much of "It's Christmas, buy something!" 

Fourth, the extension of the "season".  Between working in a gift wrap factory and early Christmas music, I'm already tired of Christmas.  In November.

A holiday wrapped in fake smiles, overstimulated commerce...

I hate Christmas.

---------------------------------------------

2008

I love a few things about Christmas. The lights. The spending time with the family. The creativity in decorating the family room.

But...the holiday of December25 has taken a life of its own. I don't even know whether what this holiday has become is worthy of its name, or of the distinction 'holiday.'

the celebration of Immanuel (God with us),
wrapped up in consumption (from Black Friday to candy canes)
and smelling of tradition (from the Nativity traditions; to family coming together; to trees, stockings, and Santa Claus) [by the way, how do we know the names of the Wise Men?]

Nothing ruins a perfect Christmas like the pursuit of a perfect Christmas.

2009

"OK...why does Santa Claus...'sell', while no one cares $0.02 about the Easter Bunny?"
"Because...when people think Santa Claus...they have that image of a Father that they miss."

"If we didn't have kids...I wouldn't even celebrate the holidays."
"What?"

"Yeah...I'm sure that this is how Jesus wanted people to celebrate his birth - by a mad dash for presents the day after Thanksgiving"
"But presents are a picture of God's love for us"

"We spend so much on the presents for the kids, and all they do is play with the box."
"And you wonder why I feel about Christmas as I do.  You know, the box is actually in the Toy Hall of Fame."

"There's a few things I like about Christmas...the lights at Krug Park, the church service on Xmas Eve...and I might've just figured out why I like them so much...they're FREE!"

Still having discussions about the nature of Christmas in the US of A with my wife.  (Imagine Mrs. Claus and the Grinch locked in an elevator.)

Fourth Thursday in November

As we approach Thanksgiving in the United States, I felt it appropriate to include a hymn of Thanksgiving for Monday Melody #104

The Doxology
Thomas Ken

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
  AMEN.

Veterans

1. The City of Leavenworth is proud to host "The oldest Veterans Day observance in the nation and the largest parade west of the Mississippi.", later today.  LINK.

2.  Is the recent phenomenon of sports players kneeling during the playing of the national anthem disrespectful to veterans?

**yeah, let's go there.**

• It is apparent that this practice is successful as far as getting attention to the players.  Not sure how effective it is to what they say their cause is (either racial injustice or perceived slights or resisting current POTUS)
• Short term, it's a relatively inexpensive way to protest.  Long term, it's risky, also see the career of Kapernick, C.
• Reminds me of when the Dixie Chicks exercised their 1st Amendment rights to diss President GW Bush...and country music stations exercised their rights to play other people's music.
• There is injustice (although not as bad as a century ago, still a problem) that needs to be addressed.  But I don't think the protests or the picket signs across from the police station are changing anything.
• I'm very curious as to the reaction if a Jehovah's Witness was playing in a major US sports league and refused to stand and salute the flag on religious grounds. Also see WV State BoE vs Barnette in 1943.
• If I was the NFL commissioner, I'd be more worried about concussions and head trauma.
• Way way too late for the commissioner to shut the door on this.  Any decision now would alienate millions of fans one way or the other. And team owners could've made league rules in 2017 offseason, but didn't.
• The actions of Kaepernick, Peters, etc. should be of far less concern to fans and owners than the actions of Carruth, Belcher, etc.
• President Trump's decision to double down on demanding respect to the flag and the anthem...it's starting to sound like Daniel 3.
• What belongs to Caesar, and what belongs to God?

Replacing Winner-Take-All

So, using Wikipedia's pages for the results for all the presidential elections since Dewey Defeats Truman (1948), I ran an experiment.

Experiment:  For each state and the District of Columbia,
Electoral Votes are assigned using Largest Remainder Method, () dividing total votes per candidate by electoral votes; then rounding up or down depending on the remainder.

If the resulting electoral votes don't reach a majority...
  Using 12th Amendment...
  Each state gets 1 vote, voted if the state doesn't have a deadlock where D's = R's.
  If there's a Southern Democrat that the state voted for, the Southern Democrat gets the vote.

Result Summary
1) Any candidate who got 50% of the PV won the Proportional-EV, but never received more than 334 EV.
2) John Kennedy got 49.72% of the PV, and won with 270 P-EV (269 needed to win in 1960)
3) Any candidate who got less than 49.6% of the PV failed to win the Proportional-EV, and it went to the Congress.

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Year	Winner	EV	PV	P-EV Leader	P-EV Score	House	Senate
1948	Truman	303	0.4955	Truman	258-226	Truman 22	Barkley 54
1952	Eisenhower	442	0.5518	Eisenhower	291-240
1956	Eisenhower	457	0.5737	Eisenhower	295-230
1960	Kennedy	303	0.4972	Kennedy	270-262
1964	Johnson	486	0.6105	Johnson	320-215
1968	Nixon	301	0.4342	Nixon	235-225	Humphrey 22	Muskie 57
1972	Nixon	520	0.6067	Nixon	334-203
1976	Carter	297	0.5008	Carter	273-263
1980	Reagan	489	0.5075	Reagan	276-224
1984	Reagan	525	0.5877	Reagan	320-218
1988	Bush	426	0.5377	Bush	290-248
1992	Clinton	370	0.4301	Clinton	236-197	Clinton 30	Gore 57
1996	Clinton	379	0.4923	Clinton	267-224	Dole 28	Kemp 55
2000	Bush	271	0.4787	Bush	264-261	Bush 28	50-50
2004	Bush	286	0.5073	Bush	280-258
2008	Obama	365	0.5293	Obama	289-248
2012	Obama	332	0.5106	Obama	276-260
2016	Trump	304	0.4598	Clinton	261-259	Trump 32	Pence 52

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1948 Truman, 8 PEV short, only wins 22 states in 1948.  If Truman is unable to get Thurmond to back him with his 3 states, then his VP Barkley becomes President with 54/96 Senate.  (Senate only gets to pick between 2)
    Possible VP for PREZ

1968 Nixon, 35 PEV short (thanks George Wallace, who goes from 46 EV to 78 PEV), only wins 18 states in 1968.  Even if Wallace's 6 states back Nixon, Nixon still only gets to 24.  If Wallace goes with Humphrey, who had 22 states, Humphrey gets the White House.  Otherwise, Muskie, Humphrey's VP candidate, becomes president with the backing of 57 Senators.
    Possible SWITCH, Possible SWITCH VP for PREZ

1992 Clinton, 34 PEV short (thanks Ross Perot, who goes from 0 EV to 105! PEV), wins in the House with 30 states.  VP Gore advances with 57 Senators.

1996 Clinton, 3 PEV short (thanks Ross Perot, who goes from 0 EV to 46 PEV) loses in the House - Dole and the Republican Revolution have 28 states and 55 Senators, giving Dole/Kemp the win.
    SWITCH

2000 Bush43, 6 PEV short (still close, Bush43 264 from 271; Gore 261 from 267; Nader! 13 PEV from 0), advances with 28 states in the House.  VP Cheney and Lieberman sit at an impasse at 50-50.  Unsure whether Gore would be able to cast tie-breaking vote; or whether Jeffords, who would later defect in mid 2001 would switch for Lieberman.
    Possible SWITCH VP

2016 Trump, 11 PEV short - and Clinton 9 PEV short.  Trump has 32 states, and Pence has 52 senators, putting the current administration in.

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