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How does one conduct political research? What are the sites and sources used to look up connections between politicians, their families, their corporations their charities?
The voices I hear ^ | Nlz

Posted on 11/03/2024 8:55:21 PM PST by NoLibZone

I'd like to learn how to conduct thorough research for political purposes. I'd like to be able to research say a council member or Congress person. Find out their family and what their families associations are to various businesses and charities.

Is there a course or something I could take to learn how to do such?

Are there any sites that you guys could point me to that would be used in doing such?

Thank you in advance.


TOPICS: Reference
KEYWORDS: inchat; politicalresearch; vanity
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1 posted on 11/03/2024 8:55:21 PM PST by NoLibZone
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To: NoLibZone
I use Ballotpedia.org and RealClearPolitics.com for my political research.

Ballotpedia.org pays to get four different ongoing lists of data from the Cook Political Report, Decision Deck HQ and The Hill, Inside Elections, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball and updates them every Tuesday for all House and Senate races.

I find that invaluable and it directs all my political giving to races.

I send money to the races that are “Toss Ups,” or “Leans,” from those analysts.

You can see what I'm describing, here:

https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congress_elections,_2024

2 posted on 11/03/2024 9:11:20 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: NoLibZone

There used to be one called “Explore the Networks” that documented a lot of connections between different ganglia of the Left Wing Hive.


3 posted on 11/03/2024 9:30:04 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: NoLibZone
Here is one to find links between corporations and who is connected to a corporation and what other ones they are connected to

Corporation Wiki

4 posted on 11/03/2024 9:35:29 PM PST by TheCipher ( RINO politicians in DC are the only reptiles in the world with no backbone)
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To: NoLibZone

The corporate wiki is not as good as it used to be. The older version you could look up someone like Bill Clinton and it would give you a graphic with clinton in the center and lines drawn from him to everything he was connected to and the interconnections between those. It seems the new one doesn’t do that anymore


5 posted on 11/03/2024 9:43:49 PM PST by TheCipher ( RINO politicians in DC are the only reptiles in the world with no backbone)
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To: NoLibZone
I'm no expert. I have never even looked at this but years ago I read that they big hitters in the nation rely on LexisNexis.

This is the political site and the service is costly as far as I know.

I believe it is a WebCrawler or archive or maybe both.   I think is might be worth investigating.   You might find someone with access that can let you use it or tell you if it is worthwhile.

“Bonne chance, mon ami”

6 posted on 11/03/2024 9:49:16 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: NoLibZone
It would help if I gave you the link:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/professional/research/politics.page?srsltid=AfmBOoqtrYt2n_Ssl4yJudF2_OHmO940ksx7aInbDuBxZjx7ce3ZxN9i

7 posted on 11/03/2024 9:50:47 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: NoLibZone
I did opposition research for the GOP on staff for many years and researched hundreds of political figures in that capacity and in various other campaigns and political and legal fights. I took down quite a few fish and ended some political careers.

There is no secret set of websites to use. Every target is different, with much depending on the state and community they are from, their career, and the office they are in.

Generally, you want to start by getting all of the target's personal financial disclosures and campaign finance filings, which are usually in local, state, and federal election offices. Online access is now the norm.

Also do comprehensive internet and newspaper searches in the target's name. Your local public library can probably give you free access to NewsBank and other newspaper databases, possibly even from your home computer.

Collect the news articles, disclosures, minutes, agendas, agenda packets, and other materials that document the target's career in office. This should all be done over the internet or otherwise as anonymously as possible.

Research the target's personal finances and business and professional history, not just through their disclosures but also by searches in the local property and court records.

Most states make their corporate and partnership filings available online. You should collect all your target's corporate affiliations and research them in those databases.

After the first hunt and gather effort, look for patterns and affiliations in the material you have collected. I usually print out the key documents and analyze them, again and again, looking for hits, leads, and additional places to search. You may end up with hundreds of pages of documents and analytical materials.

Think of it as if you are profiling your target for a newspaper article or as a foreign intelligence target. Your scrutiny and assumptions should be hostile but factual. As the old saying goes, few politicians escape unscathed from a good shake -- and its your job to shake them (methaphorically) until their teeth rattle.

You are looking for controversies and lapses that involve the target. Who are they? Who are their family and business associates? How does your target make a living? Do they get sued or run up traffic violations? Are they scrupulous or sloppy in their personal, professional, and political dealings? Are there any ethics violations, failures to disclose, or conflicts of interest?

Your instinct is correct that one way to research a target is to find connections between their personal, business, professional, and campaign finances. To do this comprehensively is difficult because it means researching all the corporate and partnership names you find and collecting the personal affiliations, while doing the same for the personal names of the target and those closely connected to him.

This requires doing many tedious and time-consuming one by one searches in databases and keeping track of the results. You can use index cards, a spreadsheet program like Excel, or a relational database program like Access or MySQL.

Happy hunting.

8 posted on 11/03/2024 11:18:16 PM PST by Rockingham
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To: Steely Tom

David Horowitz’s site ‘Discover the Networks’ lays it all out


9 posted on 11/04/2024 1:47:59 AM PST by nancyvideo (nancyvideo)
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To: Steely Tom

David Horowitz’s site ‘Discover the Networks’ lays it all out


10 posted on 11/04/2024 1:48:39 AM PST by nancyvideo (nancyvideo)
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To: Rockingham

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^this

Name + business + organizations + association names + the associations businesses and organizations. Anything that connects names with names and organizations with organizations and connects them all together. Believe it or not Forbes financial and wikipedia are great for chasing down connections between these criminals. The Bilderberg attendee list is another.

Sometimes you have to chase through names and organizations that you think would not have anything to do with what you are looking for until you come across the mother load five names or organizations removed. Then bingo there is the head of the snake that ties them all together.

I can tell you right now that they are ALL connected to BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, and Kissinger in some way or another through associations and organizations. They are all tied to the Bilderbergers, the Atlantic Council, and the WEF.

And it is bipartisan, so don’t stop digging if a Republican happens to be the connection between entities. Keep connecting the dots and take good notes. I use an old school note pad and assign a page to each entity to jot down all the connections with that entity in columns labelled as associates-businesses-organizations.

Then I tie the pages together and they always expose a large bipartisan network conspiracy that revolves around money. Follow the money and you will find the truth...


11 posted on 11/04/2024 2:10:15 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Openurmind

That works at the top end of the political food chain but rarely matters when you are researching a city commissioner, for example. Depending on state and local ethics laws though, a vote to help a business associate get a permit may be a violation that, when exposed, leads to a career ending defeat in an election. The problem of course is to find such a connection and others in the massive thicket of names, associations, and official actions that pile up in even a few years in office.


12 posted on 11/04/2024 2:53:32 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

I agree, that is true. If they do not have notoriety they will not be “out there” and documented on the net. And some on a global scale have made sure they have no connections or searchable information. There are some entities very globally important yet they don’t even have a wikipedia page. So you have to dig harder in places where they may have forgotten to cover their tracks. Places they are proud of like having their name on a college alumni list or community project donor list then work backwards. College alumni lists are great for them bragging about their bio background and who they worked for/with and such.


13 posted on 11/04/2024 3:11:09 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Openurmind

Trust me on this: a clear ethics violation or conflict of interest can be close to a silver bullet because it tends to cause defections and genuine angst, while tagging someone as a liberal is commonly less useful because it is already known to a target candidate’s core supporters.


14 posted on 11/04/2024 3:35:23 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: NoLibZone

Here is a practice search for you that will give you an idea about what can be found from just Wikipedia alone. Here is one that ties both Democrats and Republicans together into a joint bipartisan conspiracy headed by the NWO global financial corporations. A news release this morning had me digging into this entity and connections.

https://revolver.news/2024/11/imran-khan-populist-hero-on-verge-of-death-after-never-trump-biden-official-had-him-imprisoned/

Victoria Nuland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland

Now chase all those associations and organizations down layers deep from her page and the dots will connect for you.

You can do this on your own, just dedicate yourself and keep digging deeper into all the connections you find.


15 posted on 11/04/2024 3:42:27 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Rockingham

Absolutely, I agree...


16 posted on 11/04/2024 3:49:38 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Rockingham

What I have found over the years is that there is no “left or right” in the conspiracy. The bigger picture has no actual party affiliations that affect their operations. Joint operations and common end goals supersede party labels or loyalties.


17 posted on 11/04/2024 3:55:16 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Openurmind

There are so many conspiracies and conflicting motives and so much disloyalty that the small, quick, and venal tend to consume the large and lumbering. Careerism, ideology, personality, friendships, and tribal loyalties also have a large role. I have even seen politicians do the right thing for no other reason than it being the right thing.


18 posted on 11/04/2024 4:13:45 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: nancyvideo; NoLibZone

Thanks for the correction.


19 posted on 11/04/2024 4:19:53 AM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Rockingham

“I have even seen politicians do the right thing for no other reason than it being the right thing.”

I have too. Only to find out later there was a very personal reason why. And that if it had not been extremely personal they would not have. It is kind of like LE officers upholding the law until it is their own son or daughter... Then they will absolutely compromise their principles to protect clan.

There is ALWAYS something extremely selfish and personal behind it, always... It is human nature. And THAT is the envelope and wrapper behind it all that always holds true... Human Nature that cannot be changed. It is the ultimate and final Occam’s Razor factor that dictates everything.


20 posted on 11/04/2024 4:27:26 AM PST by Openurmind
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