Tag Archives: elections

Report: Russia Targeted Black Voters In 2016 Election Meddling, Favored Donald Trump

Americans Protest In Support Of Mueller's Trump-Russia Election Probe

Source: NurPhoto / Getty

A pair of reports enacted by the  U.S. Senate revealed that Russia’s meddling of the 2016 election was far more extensive than expected. The reports uncovered that Russians behind the disruption efforts targeted Black voters and preferred President Donald Trump to win over his Democratic Party opponent, Hillary Clinton.

NBC News reports:

Researchers combed through millions of posts from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube created by the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg-based firm run by a close ally of Vladimir Putin whose key executives have been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller on charges of defrauding the United States.

Two separate reports on the operation were prepared for senators, both of which were obtained by NBC News. Both sets of researchers found, as Mueller did, that the Internet Research Agency set out in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton, in part by inflaming right-wing conspiracy theories and seeking to engender distrust among — and suppress the vote of — left-leaning groups, including African-Americans.

The Russians set up 30 Facebook pages targeting the black community, the researchers found, and 10 YouTube channels that posted 571 videos related to police violence against African-Americans. YouTube, which is part of Alphabet, the holding company for Google, was not correct when it said in a statement last year that Russian content did not target a segment of U.S. society, the researchers concluded.

One of the reports provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee was developed by New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company based in Texas, and conducted alongside researchers from Columbia University and Canfield Research LLC.

As first reported by The Washington Post, Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm, conducted the second of the pair of reports.

Photo: Getty

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Will Weed Be the Deciding Factor in the 2018 Midterm Elections?

As the 2018 midterm elections draw closer to voting time, many people are taking a stand on what they’ll be basing their decisions on. While prison reform, immigration, support in urban communities and the latest dealings when it comes to “Agent Orange” are some of the key notes of focus, one surprising factor that will surely swing votes is the stance on one smokey subject: weed, both from a recreational use perspective and decriminalizing the use of it overall.

Here’s what’s Rolling Stone is saying about it in a detailed profile that speaks on marijuana’s effect on the coming midterm elections:

“Though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced his own marijuana bill to decriminalize and regulate at the federal level, he won’t commit to bringing it up for a vote if he becomes majority leader. It’s the same story in the House — when asked if she’d bring a marijuana bill up for a vote, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wavered. “I don’t know where the president is on any of this. So any decision about how we go forward would have to reflect where we can get the result,” she said. “You’ve heard me say it, over and over: Public sentiment is everything.”

With Democratic leaders refusing to commit to even voting on marijuana, their candidate’s positions on it are as much of a patchwork as the nation’s disparate marijuana laws — and it could affect some of the most contested races in the country.”

With the main agrument being a “medical vs. recreational” matter, those at the top of the hill are calling on Democrats to rally up in support of the “pro-pot” movement to oppose the other side. According to NCIA Media Relations Director Morgan Fox in the same article, she says, “Some Democrats are still leery of publicly supporting marijuana policy reform for fear of backlash from Republican opponents, but they shouldn’t be.” She goes on to add that, “Supporting marijuana policy reform pretty much guarantees a boost of several points in the polls for candidates of either party.”

Make sure you all get out there and vote, but head over to Rolling Stone right now to read this hard-hitting feature and let us know your opinions over on our Facebook and Twitter.

The post Will Weed Be the Deciding Factor in the 2018 Midterm Elections? appeared first on The Source.

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Last Call: TODAY Is The Last Day To Register To Vote In These States

Beautiful Young Black Girl Voting

Source: adamkaz / Getty

The midterm elections are less than one month away. But if you are a resident of these states, TODAY (Oct. 9) is the last day you’ll be able to register to vote. 

If you reside in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan,  Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee or Texas, what are you waiting on?

Head on over to Vote.gov to get your life in order. It’s often as easy as registering online. Then, make sure you vote on Nov. 6. Be sure to check which ID you can bring so you don’t get hit with the jig, too.

There’s a reason the GOP has no problem not keeping you aware.

Photo; Getty

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