Month: January 2018

Historic Number Of Women In US Senate Tomorrow When Tina Smith Of Minnesota Replaces Al Franken

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Tomorrow, January 3, 2018, will mark an all time record of the number of women who have served in the US Senate.

When Tina Smith is sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, she will be the 51st woman to serve in the US Senate, and the 22nd presently to serve in that august body.

Tina Smith will replace Al Franken from Minnesota in the Senate, and this will be the first time that four states have had two women Senators representing them at the same time—California, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Washington, with all eight women being Democrats.

17 of the 22 Senators on January 3 are Democrats, and 5 are Republicans.

17 of the total of 51 will have been Republicans, and 34 will have been Democrats.

18 states are presently represented by women Senators, and 29 have had women Senators historically.

North Carolina and New Hampshire have had a woman Senator succeeded by a woman of the other party, and had both parties represented by their women Senators concurrently in the case of New Hampshire.

The following 5 states have had 3 women Senators in history—California, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, and New Hampshire.

The following 11 states have had 2 women Senators in history—Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington.

The following 13 states have had 1 woman in the Senate—Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

11 of the total of 51 have served by appointment or had brief terms, with Tina Smith having the upper hand to keep the Minnesota seat since she was Lieutenant Governor when chosen to hold the seat for a year, facing an election in 2018.

The likelihood is that we will see more women in the Senate in the next few years, with several women competing for Senate seats in a number of states, and with Democrats still greatly outweighing Republicans in the Senate by a ratio of more than 3-1.

Additionally, we are likely to have four women Senators, all Democrats, seek the Presidential nomination in 2020, an all time record if that occurs. This would include Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Kamala Harris of California, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The Growing Danger Of 2018 And 2020 Elections Being Hacked By Russians And Others With Technological Expertise

Ronald 11 Comments

It is now clear as the New Year of 2018 begins that America is endangered by the strong likelihood that the midterm Congressional Elections of 2018 and the Presidential Election of 2020 could be subjected to the kind of illegal activities clearly engaged in by Russians, who helped to fix the election results in many states in 2016.

It seems, based on public opinion polls, that the Democrats are heavily favored to gain control of the House of Representatives in 2018, and have a good chance to gain the two seats needed to have control of the US Senate as well.

Also, in many states, the Democrats, at this point, are favored to gain control of Governorships and state legislatures in 2018, an important step toward having an edge in reapportionment of seats in the state legislatures, and in the House of Representatives, after the National Census is conducted in April 2020, affecting the political balance in the entire upcoming decade.

It is not even just Russians, but in theory, with technological expertise, hackers from many unfriendly nations, including China, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and others, could manipulate and undermine our American democracy.

Our best technological experts have a massive job ahead of them, and it is clear that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are not actively involved in insuring fair elections for either 2018 or 2020, and that Trump will do anything to regain power for another four years, if somehow, he is able to overcome the charges mounting against him.

Trump has no ethics, morals, or scruples, and his party has been willing to go along with him, with only a few rare exceptions of members in both houses of Congress willing to defy him in his lust for absolute power, and the breakdown of the whole American democratic system.